He found the _escapados_ had gone out by El Nino Perdido, the sergeant on guard there allowing them to go past. "See that he be put under arrest!" "He's under arrest now, your Excellency. I had that done as I was returning." "Proceed with your relation!" Which Santander did, telling how he had followed the fugitive party along the San Angel Road, and there met a troop of Lancers from Chapultepec. Some field-labourers had seen a carriage turn off towards Coyoacan; and taking that route he soon after came up with it. It was stopped on the roadside: empty, horses gone, the harness strewed over the ground hacked and cut; the _cochero_ strapped to one of the wheels, and gagged with the handle of his whip! When the man was released he could tell nothing more than that the four had mounted his horses, a pair upon each, and galloped off across the country, on a sort of bridle path, as if making for the San Antonio Road. Turning in that direction, Santander soon discovered that they had entered into a tract of _chapparal_; and while this was being searched for them, the unharnessed horses were observed rushing to and fro in frenzied gallop, riderless of course. When caught, it was seen why they were now excited, one of them having its ear slit, the blood still dropping from the wound. The _chapparal_ was quartered in every direction; but he soon came to the conclusion it was no use searching for them there. "_Carramba_!" interrupted his listener; "of course not I know the place well. And if you, Senor Colonel, were as well acquainted with that _chapparal_, and what lies alongside it, as one of those you were after, you'd have dropped the search sooner. You needn't tell me more; I can guess the finish; they got off into the Pedregal." "So it would seem, your Excellency." "Seem! So it is, _por cierto_. And looking for them there would be so much lost time. Around your native city, New Orleans, there are swamps where the runaway slave manages to hide himself. He'd have a better chance of concealment here, among rocks, in that same quarter you've just come from. It's a very labyrinth. But what did you afterwards? You may as well complete your narrative." "There is not much more to tell, Sire; for little more could we do. The darkness came on, as we discovered they had taken to the rocks." "You did discover that?" "Yes, your Excellency. We found the place where they had gone up over a sort of cliff. There were scratches made by their feet, with a branch broken off one of the cactus plants; some of the sewer mud, too, was on the rock. But there was no path, and I saw it would be useless carrying the pursuit any further till we should have the light of morning. I've taken every precaution, however, to prevent their getting out of the Pedregal." "What precautions?"