The cowardly genius at Pesqueira had planned a surprise.

He would not lead it, of course, but in Dom Miguel Barraca he found an eager substitute.

It was a coup of the Napoleonic order; an infantry attack along the entire front of the Liberationist position cloaked the launching against the center of a formidable body of cavalry.

The project was to thrust this lance into the rebel position, probe it thoroughly, as a surgeon explores a gunshot wound, and extract the offender in the guise of Dom Corria.
The scheme had proved eminently successful.

The Liberationists were crumpled up, and here was Dom Corria making his last stand.
He deserved better luck, for he was magnificent in failure.