The officer stepped back and ushered into the room a slight-built man of a clear yellowish complexion, with long black hair which flowed down over his shoulders. He wore a striped poncho, which covered him completely down to his knees, below which appeared his boots, each made of the skin from the hind leg of a colt, a boot which had no seam in it, and was waterproof except where the great toe projected for the purpose of holding the stirrup. He held his hat in his hand, and as he came forward his huge iron spurs clanked at each step he took. "I seek the Señor General Liniers," said he, looking round him with the greatest nonchalance, and tossing his poncho on to his shoulder to free his arm as he drew a letter from a pocket in the tirador which he wore round his waist. "I am he," said General Liniers. "A letter from the Señor Colonel Lopez." "You can retire," said Liniers, as he took the letter, "but remain at hand, I may want you." Liniers returned to his seat, and did not open the letter until the man had retired. "Señores, with your permission," said he, as soon as the door was closed; then breaking the seal he opened the letter. As he read it his face flushed with a proud joy, then rising to his feet he looked steadily at each of the watching faces before him. "Señores, they come," he said; then as no one answered, each waiting breathlessly for his next word, he continued, "and we, we are ready; I shall at once give orders that the alarm-guns be fired, and then each man to his post. Wait till I have given the order, and then I will read you the letter." In five minutes an aide-de-camp was walking rapidly across the Plaza Mayor with an order to the commandant of artillery stationed in the fort from the commander-in-chief, and Liniers, taking up the letter from Colonel Lopez, read as follows:-- "La Reduction de Quilmes, "1 de Julio 1807, "à las 7 de la mañana. "A su Excelencia, "El General Don Santiago Liniers, "Excelentissimo Señor,