[The Lone Ranche by Captain Mayne Reid]@TWC D-Link bookThe Lone Ranche CHAPTER FIVE 5/6
There's been a mutiny at the cuartel--a _pronunciamento_.
The rebels have had it all their own way, and I am sorry to tell you that the colonel, your brother--" "What of him? Speak! Is he--" "Not killed, _nina_; only wounded, and a prisoner." Adela Miranda did not swoon nor faint.
She was not of the nervous kind. Nurtured amid dangers, most of her life accustomed to alarms from Indian incursions, as well as revolutionary risings, she remained calm. She dispatched messengers to the town, secretly, one after another; and, while awaiting their reports, knelt before an image of the Virgin, and prayed. Up till midnight her couriers went, and came.
Then one who was more than a messenger--her brother himself! As already reported to her, he was wounded, and came accompanied by the surgeon of the garrison, a friend.
They arrived at the house in hot haste, as if pursued. And they were so, as she soon after learnt. There was just time for Colonel Miranda to select the most cherished of his _penates_; pack them on a _recua_ of mules, then mount, and make away. They had scarce cleared the premises when the myrmidons of the new commandant, led by the man himself, rode up and took possession of the place. By this time, and by good luck, the ruffian was intoxicated--so drunk he could scarce comprehend what was passing around him.
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