I was in this mood, and ready for any enterprise, however desperate, when one morning a young woman who had been driving cattle to an upland pasture, came running to Fray Ignacio to say that she had seen a troop of horsemen coming down from the mountains.
"The _misterios_!" said the priest, turning pale.

"Are you still resolved, senor ?" "Certainly," I answered, trying to look grave, though really greatly delighted.

"Be good enough to send for the girls who are most in danger.
Gahra and I will take possession of the house, and do all that is needful." It was further arranged that Fray Ignacio should remain outside with his tame Indians, and tell the _misterios_ that all the good-looking _mestiza_, maidens were in his house, guarded by braves from over the seas, who would strike dead with lightning anybody who attempted to lay hands on them.
By the time our preparations were completed, and the frightened and weeping girls shut up in an inner room, the wild Indians were at the upper end of the big, straggling village, and presently entered a wide, open space between the ramshackle old church and Ignacio's house.

The party consisted of fifteen or sixteen warriors mounted on small horses.

All rode bare-back, were naked to the waist, and armed with bows and arrows and the longest spears I had yet seen.
The tame Indians looked stolidly on.