same part of the country as himself. But the sergeant, after shrugging
his meagre shoulders once, paid no further attention to the deep
murmuring voice at his back. It was indeed strange that Gaspar Ruiz
should desert. His people were in too humble a station to feel much
the disadvantages of any form of government. There was no reason why
Gaspar Ruiz should wish to uphold in his own person the rule of the
King of Spain. Neither had he been anxious to exert himself for its
subversion. He had joined the side of Independence in an extremely
reasonable and natural manner. A band of patriots appeared one morning
early, surrounding his father's ranche, spearing the watch-dogs and
hamstringing a fat cow all in the twinkling of an eye, to the cries of
"Viva La Libertad!" Their officer discoursed of Liberty with
enthusiasm and eloquence after a long and refreshing sleep. When they
left in the evening, taking with them some of Ruiz, the father's, best
horses to replace their own lamed animals, Gaspar Ruiz went away with
them, having been invited pressingly to do so by the eloquent officer.

Shortly afterwards a detachment of Royalist troops, coming to pacify
the district, burnt the ranche, carried off the remaining horses and
cattle, and having thus deprived the old people of all their worldly
possessions, left them sitting under a bush in the enjoyment of the
inestimable boon of life.




II

GASPAR Ruiz, condemned to death as a deserter, was not thinking either
of his native place or of his parents, to whom he had been a good son