I could now distinctly hear one of these robbers--for such they
were--inquire in Spanish of the mayoral as to the number of passengers:
if any were armed; whether there was any money in the diligence; and
then, as a conclusion to the interrogatory, demanding _La bolsa!_ in
a more angry tone. The poor fellow meekly obeyed: he raised himself
high enough to draw a large leathern purse from an inner pocket,
and stretching his hand upward to deliver it, said, _Toma usted,
caballero, pero no me quita usted la vida!_ "Take it, cavalier; but
do not take away my life!" The robber, however, was pitiless. Bringing
a stone from a large heap, collected for the repair of the road, he
fell to beating the mayoral upon the head with it. The unhappy man sent
forth the most piteous cries for _misericordia_ and _piedad_.
He might as well have asked pity of that stone that smote him, as of the
wretch who wielded it. In his agony he invoked _Jesu Christo, Santiago
Apostol y Martir, La Virgin del Pilar_, and all those sacred names
held in awful reverence by the people, and the most likely to arrest the
rage of his assassin.
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