filled the square, eagerly demanding by what blessed interposition they had been relieved from the fearful interdict,--while others thronged the doors and crowded the aisles of the long forsaken chapel. The candles on the altar were lighted; the choir struck up a solemn hymn for the church; and, then, advancing along the aisle in gorgeous procession, De la Serna and his priestly train took up their position in front of the tabernacle, where, crowned with his mitre, his crozier in one hand, and the holy sacrament in the other, this brave prelate awaited the forces which had been sent to seize him. It is difficult to say, if De la Serna designed by so imposing a spectacle to strike awe into the mind of the sacrilegious soldier, or whether he thought it his duty to be arrested, if arrested he must be, at that altar he had sworn to serve. It is probable, however, from his exalted character and courage, that the latter was the true motive of his act, and if so, he met his fate nobly in the cause of justice and religion. Tirol was not long in traversing the distance between Mexico and Guadalupe. As soon as he arrived, he entered the church accompanied by his officers and seemed appalled by the gorgeous and dramatic display round the shrine. Not a whisper was heard in the edifice as the crowd slowly parted to make way for the soldiers, who advanced along the aisle and humbly knelt, for a moment, at the altar in prayer. This done, Tirol approached De la Serna, and with "fair and courteous words" required him to lay down the sacrament, to quit the sanctuary, and to listen to the orders issued in the royal name. The archbishop abruptly refused to comply, and answered, that "As the viceroy was excommunicated he regarded him as beyond the pale of the church and in no way empowered to command in Mexico;" he, therefore, ordered the soldiers, as they valued the peace of their souls, to desist from infringing the privileges of the church by the exercise of secular power within its limits, and, he finally declared "that he would, on no account, depart from the altar unless torn from it with the sacrament." Upon this Tirol arose, and read the order for his arrest, describing him as a "traitor to the king, a disturber of the peace, and a mover of sedition in the commonwealth." De la Serna smiled contemptuously at the officer as he finished, and taunted him with the viceroy's miserable attempt to cast upon the church the odium of sedition, when his creature Mexia was, in fact, the shameless offender. He conjured Tirol "not to violate the sanctuary to which he had retreated, lest his hand should be withered like that of Jeroboam, who stretched forth an arm against the prophet of the Lord at the altar!"