All remained listening and alarmed--Don Rafael, more than even the young girls: for too much happiness has the effect of weakening the heart. The most profound silence reigned throughout the building; for the firing, heard by the servants of the hacienda, had inspired one and all of them with the same mute alarm; just as pigeons asleep upon the tree aroused by the first scream of the kite, remain for some moments terrified and motionless in their places. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. A MEXICAN MAJOR-DOMO. Don Mariano, the dragoon officer, and the two sisters rushed up to the _azotea_, the hearts of all filled with a dread presentiment. From the roof, already crowded with servants, a view of the ridge could be obtained--its whole slope from top to bottom being visible at a single glance. A horrible spectacle came under the eyes of all at once. At the upper end of the path which led towards the Hacienda del Valle, a horse and horseman were seen lying upon the road close to one another. Both appeared to be wounded--the man struggling to regain his feet--the horse making only the slightest motion, as if in the last moments of life. "Haste!" cried Don Mariano to his domestics. "Haste! Procure a litter, and have the wounded horseman carried down here to the house." "If my eyes don't deceive me," said the young officer, casting uneasy glances to the hill, "yonder unfortunate man is poor old Rodriguez, the oldest of my father's servants." The head of the wounded horseman was in fact covered with grey hair, as could be seen from the _azotea_. "The name Antonio Valdez," continued Don Rafael, "now recalls to me some facts connected with that wretch. I remember something of a punishment inflicted upon him; and I have a dark presentiment--Oh, heavens! Senor Don Mariano, such happiness to be thus interrupted--" And without finishing his speech, the young officer hastily pressed the hand of his host, and rushed for the postern that opened towards the hills. In a few seconds after, he was seen climbing the ridge, followed by the domestics of Don Mariano, who carried a _litera_. On reaching the wounded man, Don Rafael had no longer any doubts about his being old Rodriguez; though having seen the latter only in his childhood, he remembered little more than the name. Rodriguez, enfeebled by the loss of blood, and by the efforts he had been making to get upon his feet, was fast losing consciousness. "Hold!" said Don Rafael to the domestic. "It is useless placing him on the _litera_. He will not be able to endure the motion. His blood has nearly all run out by this terrible wound." As the officer spoke he pointed to a large red spot upon the vest of the wounded man, beneath which the bloody orifice of a wound showed where the bullet had entered.