And as an equal silence reigned, he said in a voice less abrupt: “Very well, let them come to sign.” Some started to the table in order to sign, but as others vacillated or remained near the door, Rojas spoke again: “No one can leave the hacienda, unless accompanied by one of my aides, after he has signed. That is the order I have given the guard which is watching the doors.” In fact, the _galeones_ were watching the door from the hall to the corridor, that of the street, and all the other exits; there seemed no possible means of escape without placing one’s signature to the shameful document. Nudgings with the arms, joggings with the feet, and words said so low that they seemed rather the buzzing of a fly, were the only protests which worthy and honorable leaders, there present, dared make. Rojas signed, and his secretary who was an insignificant Indian, signed; Herrera y Cairo followed, his secretary, Aristeo Moreno signing beside him; General Julio García was called and I felt a shiver run through me from head to foot, because I ought to follow him as his secretary, and, no less, the secretary of the republican government of Colima.... In that moment of supreme anxiety, I felt it the height of folly to publicly oppose the signing of that infernal abortion, which would be the same as to provoke an undesirable quarrel in which the probabilities were that we who were decent men, being few, would perish at the hands of the bandits, who were many. Fortunately three copies had to be signed; Don Julio wrote slowly and I had time to climb, unobserved, through a small window, which opened from the hall into the inner rooms of the hacienda, which served us as lodgings, where I arrived, greatly agitated, and, promptly undressing, went to bed. As a precaution, which served me well, I bound a white cloth around my head and surrounded myself with medicines. Scarcely had I done all this, when an adjutant entered my room and asked if I were there. “What is wanted?” I asked him. “The generals need you.” “Tell them to excuse me; my head aches terribly and you see that I am lying down.” “Are you not coming to sign?” he asked. “No,” I replied, rolling myself up in the bed. “Why?” “Because I do not wish to dishonor myself, even more in the eyes of my fellow-patriots than in those of the enemy.” “Then you believe we have done badly in signing it?” “Yes, sir; very badly.” “Then you will not sign it?” “No, sir.” “But, what shall I say to Rojas?” “That he may order me shot.” “Very well,” he said and withdrew, annoyed. Three copies were signed, one for each general, and when the act was concluded my room was filled with leaders and officers, who desired to know my opinion about that absurd agreement. I said to them all that it was unworthy and that I would not sign it.