buildings were still in ruins, and half its population had either perished
or fled. Nearly every civilian whom I met in the streets was in mourning.
Even the Royalists (who were more numerous than I expected) looked
unhappy, for all had suffered either in person or in property, and none
knew what further woes the future might bring them.




CHAPTER VIII.

IN THE KING'S NAME.


I put up at the Posado de los Generales (recommended by the commandant),
and the day after my arrival I delivered the letters confided to me by
Señor Moreño. This done, I felt safe; for (as I thought) there was nothing
else in my possession by which I could possibly be compromised. I did not
deliver the letters separately. I gave the packet, just as I had received
it, to a certain Señor Carera, the secret chief of the patriot party in
Caracas. I also gave him a long verbal message from Moreño, and we
discussed at length the condition of the country and the prospects of the
insurrection. In the interior, he said, there raged a frightful guerilla
warfare, and Caracas was under a veritable reign of terror. Of the
half-dozen friends for whom I had brought letters, one had been garroted;
another was in prison, and would almost certainly meet the same fate. It
was only by posing as a loyalist and exercising the utmost circumspection
that he had so far succeeded in keeping a whole skin; and if he were not
convinced that he could do more for the cause where he was than elsewhere,
he would not remain in the city another hour. As for myself, he was quite