"Ah! Morelos? he was a great soldier," replied the ex-captain of guerilleros. "In the single year of 1811, he fought no less than twenty-six battles with the Spaniards. Of these he won twenty-two; and though he lost the other four, each time he retreated with honour--" "Hum! I know all that already," said I, interrupting my fellow-traveller. "You are narrating history to me, while I want only chronicles. In other words, I want to hear those more private and particular details of Morelos' life which the historians have not given." "Ah! I understand you," said the captain, "and I am sorry that I cannot satisfy your desires: since, during the war I was mostly engaged in the northern provinces, and had no opportunity of knowing much of Morelos personally. But if my good friend, Don Cornelio Lantejas, is still living at Tepic, when we arrive there, I shall put you in communication with him. He can tell you more about Morelos than any other living man: since he was _aide-de-camp_ to the General through all his campaigns, and served him faithfully up to the hour of his death." Our conversation here ended, for we had arrived at the inn where we intended to pass the night--the _Venta de la Sierra Madre_. Early on the following morning, before any one had yet arisen, I left my chamber--in a corner of which, rolled in his ample _manga_, Captain Castanos was still soundly asleep. Without making any noise to disturb him, I converted my coverlet into a cloak--that is, I folded my serape around my shoulders, and walked forth from the inn. Other travellers, along with the people of the hostelry inside, with the domestics and muleteers out of doors, were still slumbering profoundly, and an imposing silence reigned over the mountain platform on which the venta stood. Nothing appeared awake around me save the voices of the _sierras_, that never sleep--with the sound of distant waterfalls, as they rushed through vast ravines, keeping up, as it were, an eternal dialogue between the highest summits of the mountains and the deepest gulfs that yawned around their bases.