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Actions the most harmless, and questions purely personal, were matters for the contests of parties. The press was the organ of mutual accusations now against particular individuals, and now against parties in conjunction. The Escocés multiplied their attacks until they lost all influence in affairs.
I caught: "For that the said John Kemp, alias Nichols, alias Nikola el Escoces, alias el Demonio, alias el Diabletto, on the twelfth of May last, did feloniously and upon the high seas piratically seize a certain ship called the Victoria... um... um, the properties of Hyman Cohen and others... and did steal and take therefrom six hundred and thirty barrels of coffee of the value of... um... um... um... one hundred and one barrels of coffee of the value of... ninety-four half kegs... and divers others..."
Here, at about daylight on the morning of the 7th January, 1828, he was assailed by General Guerrero, the leader of the Yorkinos, and commander of the forces of government." After a slight skirmish, in which eight men were killed and six wounded, General Bravo and his party were made prisoners; and thus perished forever the party of the Escocés.
For the better insuring of success, the Escocés assumed the language of morality; and, confounding their own affair with that of their native country, clamored hypocritically against the pernicious influence which clandestine meetings exercised in public affairs. According to them the cry of the nation was against secret societies.
And, with his fine irony, it was delightful to him to think that I should die a felon's death in England. For those reasons he had identified me with Nikola el Escoces, intending to give up whichever suited him at the last moment. Now that was settled for him and for me.
I thought for a minute that, after all, there was a little fair play in the game that I had a decent, fair, blue-eyed man in front of me. He looked hard at me; I hard at him; it was as if we were going to wrestle for a belt. The young girl on the bench had her lips parted and leant forward, her head a little on one side. I said, "You won't swear I was the man... Nikola el Escoces?"
The Lugareño stammered, "Nikola... Nikola el Escoces, Señor Don Patricio." "You hear?" O'Brien asked the judge. "This villager identifies the man." "Undoubtedly undoubtedly," the Juez said. "We need no more evidence.... You, Señor, have seen this villain in Rio Medio, this villager identifies him by name." I said, "This is absurd. A hundred witnesses can say that I am John Kemp...."
"That may be true," the Juez said dryly, and then to his clerk: "Write here, 'John Kemp, of noble British family, called, on the scene of his crimes, Nikola el Escoces, otherwise El Demonio." I shrugged my shoulders. I did not, at the moment, realize to what this all tended. The judge said to the clerk, "Read the Act of Accusation.
Rival classes compose Scotch Lodges. The Yorkinos. Men desert from the Scotch to the York Lodges. Law to suppress Secret Societies. The Escocés, or Scotch Masons, take up arms. The Battle. Their total Defeat. As Jalapa is a pleasant resting-place in a journey to the interior, we will stop here to discuss national affairs for a little while.
The first political subject in order is the furious contest that for ten years was carried on between two political societies, known as the Escocés and Yorkinos or, as we should call them, Scotch Free-Masons and York Free-Masons whose secret organizations were employed for political purposes by two rival political parties.
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