With regard to the sentiments of Gertrudis, they are already known to the reader. What would not Don Rafael have given to have been equally well acquainted with them! Ah! could he have known the secret pleasure with which his arrival was expected--the ardent prayers, and that sacrificial vow registered in his favour, at the moment when he was struggling with danger--could he have known all this, it would have at once put an end to his melancholy! At this time the insurrection was just beginning to make some stir at Oajaca. On throwing off the mask, Hidalgo had despatched secret agents to the different provinces of Mexico, in hopes that they might all join in the _grito_ already pronounced by him in Valladolid. The emissaries sent to Oajaca were two men named Lopez and Armenta; but both, having fallen into the hands of the government authorities, were beheaded on the instant, and their heads, raised upon poles, were exposed upon the great road of San Luis del Rey, as a warning to other insurgents. This rigorous measure had no effect in retarding the insurrection. Shortly after, a ranchero, named Antonio Valdez, raised the standard of independence, and, at the head of a small _guerilla_ of country-people, commenced a war of retaliation. Many Spaniards fell into his hands; and their blood was spilled without mercy: for in this sanguinary manner did the Mexican revolution commence; and in such fashion was it continued. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. THE HONEST MULETEER. On the same day in which the student of theology arrived at the Hacienda las Palmas, and about four o'clock in the afternoon--just after the hour of dinner--the different members of the family, along with their guests, were assembled in one of the apartments of the mansion. It was the grand _sala_ or reception room, opening by double glass doors upon a garden filled with flowering plants, and beautiful shade trees. Two individuals, already known to the reader, were absent from this reunion. One was the student himself, who, notwithstanding that he was now in perfect security, had so delivered himself up to the remembrance of the dangers he had encountered while reclining under his terrible dais of tigers and serpents, that he had been seized with a violent fever, and was now confined to his bed. The other absentee was Marianita, who, on pretext of taking a look at the great ocean of waters--but in reality to ascertain whether the bark of Don Fernando was not yet in sight--had gone up to the _azotea_. Don Mariano, with that tranquillity of mind, which the possession of wealth usually produces--assuring the rich proprietor against the future--was seated in a large leathern _fauteuil_, smoking his cigar, and occasionally balancing himself on the hind legs of the chair.