"Hum! All the measures of you revolutionary gentlemen seem to be well taken; you want for nothing." "The reason is very simple; would you like to know it?" "I confess that I am curious in the matter." "It is because, up to the present, we have appealed to the hearts, rather than the purses of our confidants. The hatred of the Mexican Government renders every intelligent man a devoted partisan; the hope of liberty gives us all we want; that is our whole secret. You are aware, Colonel, that the spirit of opposition is innate in the heart of every man; insurrection or opposition, whichever you like to call it, is only that spirit organised." "That is true," said the Colonel, with a laugh. The two enemies, temporarily friends, mounted and set out side by side. "You have very singular ideas and opinions," the Colonel, whom the American's remarks amused, continued. "Oh dear no!" the latter replied, carelessly; "Those ideas and opinions are nothing but the fruit of lengthened experience. I do not ask of a man more than his organisation allows him to give, and enacting these I am certain of never making a mistake. Hence, suppose that the Mexicans are expelled the country, and the government of Texas established and working regularly----" "Good," the Colonel said, with a smile; "what will happen then." "This will inevitably happen," the American answered, imperturbably. "A hot-headed or ambitious man will emerge from the crowd and rebel against the Government. He will immediately have partisans, who will make a flag of truce, and the same men who today are ready to shed their blood for us with the most utter abnegation, will act in the same way for him; not because they have to complain of the Government they desire to overthrow, but merely on account of that spirit of opposition to which I have alluded." "Come, that is a little too strong," the Colonel exclaimed, as he burst into a laugh. "You do not believe me? Well, listen to this: I who am speaking to you once knew, no matter where, a man whose whole life was spent in conspiring. One day luck smiled on him, and chance enabled him, hardly knowing how or why, to occupy the highest post in the Republic--something like President. Do you know what he did, so soon as he obtained power?" "Canarios! He tried to hold his ground, of course." "You are quite out. On the contrary, he went on conspiring, and so famously that he overthrew himself and was condemned to perpetual imprisonment." "So that--?" "So that, if the man who succeeded to power had not amnestied him, he would, in all probability, have died in prison." The two men were still laughing at John Davis's last repartee, when the latter stopped, and made the Colonel a sign to follow his example. "Have we arrived?" he asked. "All but. Do you see that boat tossing about at the foot of the cliff?" "Of course I see it." "Well, it is the one which will convey us to Galveston." "But our horses?"