The Bandolero; Or, A Marriage among the Mountains

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER ELEVEN.

  THE RED HATS.

  For more than a month after the incidents related, were we of theinvading army compelled to endure a semi-seclusion, within _cuartels_neither very clean nor comfortable.

  We should have far preferred the _billet_; and there were scores ofgrand "casas" whose owners richly deserved it.

  But the thing was out of the question. To have scattered our smallforce would have been to court the rising we had reason to apprehend.

  Our division-general had the good sense to perceive this; and, againstthe grumbling of both officers and men, insisted upon his injunction--tostay within doors--being rigorously observed.

  To me the situation was irksome in the extreme. It gave too muchleisure to brood over my bitterness. An active life might have offeredsome chance of distraction; but inside a barrack--where one growsennuyed with always seeing the same faces, and tired of the everlastingsmall talk--even the ordinary routine is sufficiently afflicting. Whatwas it in the heart of a hostile city? What to me, suffering from thehumiliation I had experienced?

  Only for the sake of excitement did I desire to go out on the streets.The Calle del Obispo had lost its attractions for me; or, rather shouldI say, they were lost to me. As for visiting the Callecito de losPajaros, I am sorry to record: that my wounded _amour propre_ was morepowerful than my sense of gratitude. I felt more inclined to shun, thanseek it.

  A month, and there came a change. The streets of La Puebla were oncemore free to us--by night as by day.

  It was caused by the arrival of three or four fresh brigades of theAmerican army: now concentrating to advance upon the capital.

  The tables were turned, and the hostile Poblanos were reduced--if not toa state of friendship, at least to one of fear.

  They had cause. Along with our troops came a regiment of "TexasRangers"--the dread of all modern Mexicans--with scores of nondescriptcamp-followers, by our enemies equally to be dreaded.

  Still more to be feared, and shunned, by the citizens of Puebla, was aband of _regular robbers_, whom General Scott--for some sapient purposeof his own--had incorporated with the American army, under the title ofthe "Spy Company"--the name taken from the service they were intended toperform.

  They were the band of captain--usually styled "colonel"--Dominguez; anex-officer of Santa Anna's army, who for years had sustained himself inthe mountains around Perote, and the _mal pais_ of El Pinol--a terror toall travellers not rich enough to command a strong escort of Government"dragones."

  They were true highwaymen--_salteadores del camino grande_--each mountedon his own horse, and armed with carbine, pistol, lance, or long sword!

  They were dressed in various fashions; but generally in the picturesque_ranchero_ costume of _jaqueta, calzoneros_, and broad-brimmedhigh-crowned hats; booted, spurred, sashed, laced, and tassel led.

  On the shoulders of some might be seen the _serape_; while not a fewwere draped with the magnificent _manga_.

  On joining us they were a hundred and twenty strong, with recognisedofficers--a captain and a couple of "tenientes," with the usual numberof "sarjentes" and "cabos."

  So close was their resemblance to the _guerilleros_ of the enemy, that,to prevent our men from shooting them by mistake, they had beencompelled to adopt a distinguishing badge.

  It consisted of a strip of scarlet stuff, worn, bandlike, round theirsombreros--with the loose ends dangling down to the shoulder.

  The symbol naturally led to a name. They were known to our soldiers asthe "Red Hats"--the phrase not unfrequently coupled with a rudeadjunctive.

  Outlawed in their own land--now associated with its invaders--it isscarce necessary to say that the Red Hats were an object of terrorwherever they had a chance of showing their not very cheerful faces.

  And in no place more than La Puebla; that had given birth to at leastone-half of them, and to all of them, at one time or another, shelterwithin its gaols!

  Now returned to it under the _aegis_ of the American eagle, there was afine opportunity for the Red Hats to settle old scores with _alcaldes,reyidores_, and the like; and they were not backward in availingthemselves of it.

  The consequence was, that the Poblanos soon laid aside their bullyingtone; and were only too well pleased when allowed to pass tranquillythrough their own streets.

  I was one among many other officers of the American army who feltdisgust at this association with _salteadores_--solely an idea of oursuperannuated commander-in-chief, since celebrated as the "hero" ofBull's Run.

  Endowed with a wonderful conceit in his "strategical combinations," theemployment of the Spy company was one in which he felt no little pride;while we regarded it as a positive disgrace.

  The act might have been allowable under the pressure of a severenecessity. But none such existed. In the anarchical land invaded by uswe could have found spies enough--without appealing to its cut-throats.

  It is not to be denied that Dominguez and his robbers did us goodservice. Faithfulness to our cause was a necessity of their existence.Outlawed before--now doubly estranged by their treason--they were hatedby their countrymen with an intensity beyond bounds; and, wherevercaught straying beyond our lines, death was their certain doom.

  In several skirmishes, into which they were drawn with their ownguerilleros, they fought like very tigers--well knowing that, if taken,they had no mercy to expect.

  On their side the _lex talionis_ was practised with a loose hand; soloose that it soon became necessary to restrain it; and they were nolonger allowed to go scouting on their own account. Whenever theirservices were required, they had to be performed under the eye of anofficer of mounted rifles or dragoons, with a troop of these acting inconcert.

  But the terror originally inspired by them continued till the end of thecampaign; and the sight of a Red Hat coming along the street wassufficient to terrify the women, and send the children screaming withindoors.

  In no place were our red-handed allies held in greater detestation thanin the city of La Puebla--partly from the striking resemblance borne tothem by a large number of its population, and an antipathy on thisaccount; partly from old hostilities; and, perhaps, not a little fromthe fact of our having there, more than elsewhere, permitted them tocarry out their proclivities.

  There was a sort of tacit consent to their swaggering among thePoblanos; as a punishment to the latter for the trouble, which _their_swaggering had caused to us.

  It was only for a time, however; and, when things appeared to be goingtoo far, the good old Anglo-American morality--inculcated by the_township school_--resumed its sway over the minds of our soldiers; andthe Red Hats were coerced into better behaviour.