When, toward evening, we returned from San Estevan, tired but quite satisfied with the day’s work, we found a delegation of more than a dozen men waiting for us in the plaza.  We did not need so large a number to complete our work, and it was nearly dark; we would gladly have dismissed them and run our chances of securing others the next day.  But neither they nor the jefe politico were to be bluffed.  So we marched into the corridor, lighted candles and got to work.  When those lacking to make our full hundred had been measured, we proposed to let the others go, but they were not to be thus got rid of, and insisted on being measured as such were the orders of the governor.  We were not through until long after dark, and we were ravenously hungry.

This delegation was one of the most attractive, clean, and intelligent with whom we had dealt.  It was from Los Reyes, a little town at a distance of about half a league.  It was headed by the village juez.  After we had completed the measuring, they stood, shifting their sombreros from hand to hand and plainly wishing to say something further; finally, mustering courage, the juez and secretario advanced and stated that it was the town’s desire to have a picture taken of the church, with the saint and people of the village before the door.  Would it be possible for us to make the picture and on what conditions?  We replied that time was precious and that the trip, if it involved a loss of time, was quite impossible; but if they supplied carriers to take the instruments to and from their village, and had all ready before seven in the morning, we would make it.  Delighted, the officials then inquired what we would wish for breakfast; we answered French bread and red wine.  When we looked out of our window, a little before seven, we saw our party ready and waiting.  The juez, the secretario, and two others made the company.  A basket, carefully carried by one, was suspected to contain our breakfast.  The burdens were shouldered, and we started out in the cool, fresh morning air, for the village, where we arrived in about half an hour.  It is a town of less than one hundred people, situated upon a little mountain, hidden, to one looking from Tlaxcala, by intervening hills.  We were received in the town-house, which is a portion of the old church building; mass was in progress, and we told those who received us, that we had no wish to interfere with their religious duties; that those who wished, might go to service.  Most went, but two or three were left as a committee of entertainment.  They took us to a view-point from which there was a magnificent valley to be seen.  And, here, we found one of the finest echoes possible.  Rockets were exploded and the noise was echoed from hill to hill around the great amphitheatre; it was like a long reverberation of thunder, but it sank and swelled, sank and swelled, repeatedly, until it seemed that it would never stop.  Service over,