Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1894-01-27
THE CABECIILA.


when they brought him the prisoners.
1t was wild spot among the Arichule-
gui mountains. A fallen rock in which
fig tree had plunged its twisted trunk
formed sort of altar, covered in guise
of cloth with silver fringed Carlist
standard. Two cracked water coolers
took the place of vases, and when the
sacristan Miguel, who was assisting the
priest at the mass, arose in order to
change the position of the holy books,
the cartridges were heard jingling in his
cartridge box. All around the soldiers
of Carlos were silently ranged, their
guns slung across their backs and one
knee on the ground upon the white
beret.
The bright sun was concentrating its
dazzling heat in this burning and sonor-
GUS rocky hollow, where the flight of
blackbird alone, from time to time, dis
turbed the psalmody of the priest and
the servant. Higher up on the jagged
peak sentinels were standing, forming
motionless silhouettes against the sky
What singular sight it was-this
priestly commander officiating in the
midst of his soldiers! And how plainly
the double existence of the Cabecilla
showed itself upon his countenance-
the ecstatic air, the hard features,
further accumulated by the bronzed COM
plexion Of the soldier in the field, and
ascetism without pallor, in which was
lacking the shadow of the cloister; small
black, very brilliant eyes, the forehead
traversed by enormous veins which
seemed to bind the thought as with
ropes, to fix it in an inextricable obstin-
acy.
Every time he turned toward the spec
tators with open arms to read the
Dominus Vobiscum, one saw the uni
form beneath the stole, and the butt Of
pistol, the haft Of Catalonian knife up.
lifting the rumpled surplice. "What is
he going to do with us?" the prisoners
asked themselves in terror, and while
awaiting the end of the mass they re-
called all the acts of ferocity which had
been related of the Cabecilla and which
royalist army.
BY miracle that morning the father
was in clement mood. The mass in the
open air, his success of the previous day,
and also the cheerfulness of Easter, yet
felt by this strange priest, cast upon his
face ray Of joy and kindness. As soon
as the service was over, while the sa-
cristan cleared off the altar, fastening
up the sacred vases in huge box, which
was borne on the back Of a mule in the
rear of the expedition, the cure adj
vanced toward the prisoners. They were
. dozen of republican carbineers, ex-
hausted by a day Of battle and night
of anguish in the straw of the sheepfold,
where they had been penned up after the
action. Yellow with fear, wan with
hunger, thirst and fatigue, they clus-
tered together like a flock Of sheep in the
courtyard of an abattoir.
Their uniforms full of hay, their belts
in disorder, pushed up in the flight and
in sleep, the dust which wholly covered
them from the tufts of their caps to the
points of their yellow shoes, all con-
tributed well to give them that sinister
look of the vanquished in which moral
Encouragement is betrayed by physical
detection.
The Cabecilla glanced at them for an
instant with little laugh of triumph.
He was not sorry to see the soldiers Of
the republic humble, wan and ragged
amid well fed, well equipped Carlists,
Navarro and Basque mountaineers as
brown and hard as carob beans.
"Viva Dios! my childrenw said he to
them with good natured air. 1.-THE re-
public nourishes her defenders very ill.
Why, you are all as thin as the wolves
of the Pyrenees, when the mountains are
covered with snow and they come into
the plain to sniff the odor Of the table
by the lights which shine under the doors
Of the houses. One is treated otherwise
in the service of the good cause. Would
you like to make trial of it, hermanos!
Cast off those infamous caps and put on
the white beret. As truly as this is the
holy day Of Easter, to those who will
shout, Long live the king" ! will give
their lives and the same campaign food
give my other soldiersi"
Before the good father had finished all
the caps were in the air, and shouts Of
Long live King Carlos" Long live
the Cabecillav' resounded on the noun
tain. Poor devils! They had been in
such great fear of death, and so tempt
ing were all those good victuals which
they smellcd close to them, about to be
broiled in the shelter of rocks before the
bivouac fires, pink and faint in the bright
sunlight, l believe that never was the
pretender acclaimed with such good will.
Give them something to eat at once, y
said the cure, laughing. when wolves
yelp with that strength, it's because they
have sharp teethP
The carbineers went off. But one
among them, the youngest, remained
standing in front of the chief in proud
and resolved attitude, which contrasted
with his juvenile features and the fine
down, scarcely colored, enveloping his
cheeks with blond powder. Hiscapote,
which was too large for him, was wrin.