The bandit drew his dagger with such an air of resolution and menace, that the hag, cowed by the gesture, no longer offered opposition to his will. Shrinking to one side, she appeared to busy herself in looking after the keg of dollars. Meanwhile Don Cornelio and his two acolytes, not caring to remain in such company longer than was absolutely necessary, hastened from the room; and, mounting their restored steeds, rode off into the darkness of the night. CHAPTER SIXTY NINE. THE CATALAN LIEUTENANT. It is already known how Don Rafael Tres-Villas had fortified his hacienda of Del Valle, and how, when called elsewhere by his military duties, he had left its garrison of nearly a hundred men, under the command of a Catalonian officer, Lieutenant Veraegui. On the same day in which he had made a sortie from the hacienda, and succeeded in capturing ten of the besieging guerilleros, the Lieutenant received a despatch from the governor of the province, ordering him, without further delay, to attack the band of Arroyo, and annihilate it, if possible. Then, with his whole troop, to repair to Oajaca, which was now in danger of being besieged by Morelos. The despatch also conveyed to Veraegui the additional intelligence of the raising of the siege of Huajapam, and the total defeat of the besieging forces. The news was anything but agreeable to the Catalonian Lieutenant. In the _alcavala_--which he had for the past two years been accustomed to levy on all the traffic between Puebla and Oajaca--he had found excellent pay for his soldiers; and being a man not over scrupulous, though brave as a lion, he felt greatly disinclined to change his comfortable quarters. A fierce royalist, moreover, the news from Huajapam excited his fury against the insurgents to the highest pitch; and he blamed himself for the clemency he had displayed that very morning in hanging four of the guerilleros he had taken, up by the neck, instead of by the heels--as he had done with three of their comrades. About an hour after Don Cornelio Lantejas and his travelling companions had passed Del Valle--and only a few minutes from the time, when, thanks to the darkness of the night, two of Arroyo's followers had found an opportunity to carry off the heads of their three comrades--two men presented themselves in front of the fortified hacienda. They were Gaspar and Juan de Zapote, who had hidden themselves during the day, and awaited the friendly darkness, to enable them to make their way through the lines of the besieging force. "I see no one," muttered Zapote, as they glided into the avenue. "The place appears to be deserted! It's likely enough that my ex-comrades have abandoned the siege." "So much the better--let us keep on then!" rejoined Gaspar.