Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England The Bandolero A Marriage among the Mountains By Captain Mayne Reid Published by Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, London. This edition dated 1866. The Bandolero, by Captain Mayne Reid. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ THE BANDOLERO, BY CAPTAIN MAYNE REID. CHAPTER ONE. A CITY OF ANGELS. La Puebla de los Angeles is peculiar, even among the cities of modern Mexico; peculiar in the fact, that two-thirds of its population are composed of priests, _pelados, poblanas_, pickpockets, and _incarones_ of a bolder type. Perhaps I have been too liberal in allowing a third to the "gente de bueno," or respectable people. There are travellers who have altogether denied their existence; but this may be an exaggeration on the other side. Trusting to my own souvenirs, I think I can remember having met with honest men--and women too--in the City of the Angels. But I shall not be positive about their proportion to the rest of the population. It may be less than a third--certainly it is not _more_! Equally certain is it: that every tenth man you meet in the streets of Puebla is either a priest, or in some way connected with the holy fraternity--and that every tenth woman is far from being an angel! _Curas_ in robes of black silk serge, stockings of the finest texture, and "coal-scuttle" hats, full three feet in length; friars of all orders and colours--black and white, blue, brown, and grey--with shaven crowns and sandalled feet, are encountered, not only at every corner, but almost at every step you take. If monks were immaculate, Puebla might deserve the sanctified appellation it has received--the _City of the Angels_. As it is, the _City of the Devils_ would be a more appropriate title for it! "The nearer the church, the farther from God." The adage is strikingly illustrated in Puebla, where the Church is not only present--in all its outward symbols--but paramount. It governs the place. It owns it. Almost every house in the city, as almost every acre of land in the vast plain that surrounds it, is the property of the Church, in fee simple, or by mortgage deed! As you pass through the streets you see painted over the door-heads-- three out of every four of them--the phrases, "Casa de San Augustin," "Casa de San Francisco," "Casa de Jesus," and the like. If a stranger inquire the object of this black lettering, he is told that the houses so designated are the property of the respective convents whose names appear above the doors. In short, you see the Church above, before, and around you, all-powerful over the bodies as well as the souls of the Poblanos; and you have not ceased to be a stranger, ere you discover its all-pervading villainy and corruptness.