of my diocese, for leave to have the body of the stranger buried in our family vault disinterred, and committed to the ground of the church-yard of our parish. This was granted without difficulty. The next step I took was, to get back the reward deposited in the bank of St. Carlos, and to distribute it, in two equal halves of two thousand pistoles, cash, to the surviving innocent man, and the widow.
The Corregidor, agreeable to my request, also issued a proclamation, tendering the reward I had promised for the discovery of the parties who contrived the scheme of the supposed murder, but I never obtained any elucidation respecting the matter, to this very hour.
A third day had already elapsed, and my faithful Alfonso, whom I had every reason to expect on the second, was not yet arrived. I resolved to set out, with two of my friends in quest of him, when early in the morning of my intended departure, I was awakened by my servants, and desired to walk down into the hall, where I found Alfonso in the
