The stage coach brings two visitors to Los Angeles. Firstly there is Victoria's brother, colonial army Lieutenant Francisco Escalante, who concludes after a meal with Mendoza that the garrison is in no condition to resist a U.S. annexation attempt; the alcalde promises him a post- if he captures Zorro. Furthermore a woman claims to be the mother of Jose del Reynoso- Felipe?! Don Diego recalls how he adopted the boy after finding the orphan, probably mute from that very trauma, at the August revolution battlefield, under the cart where his real father lay dead;