government.

Her husband and Antonia she would not see. Isabel she received in her
darkened room, with passionate weeping and many reproaches. The unhappy
husband had expected this trouble at the outset. It was one of those
domestic thorns which fester and hamper, but to which the very best
of men have to submit. He could only send pleasant and affectionate
messages by Rachela, knowing that Rachela would deliver them with her
own modifications of tone and manner.

"The Senor sends his great love to the Senora. Grace of Mary! If he
would do a little as the most wise and tender of spouses wishes him!
That would be for the good fortune of every one.

"Ah, Rachela, my heart is broken! Bring me my mantilla. I will go to
early mass, when one's husband and children forsake them, who, then, is
possible but the Holy Mother?

"My Senora, you will take cold; the morning is chill; besides, I have to
say the streets will be full of those insolent Americans."

"I shall be glad to take cold, perhaps even to die. And the Americans do
not offend women. Even the devil has his good points."

"Holy Virgin! Offend women! They do not even think us worth looking
at. But then it is an intolerable offence to see them standing in our
streets, as if they had made the whole land."

But this morning, early as it was, the streets were empty of Americans.
There had been hundreds of them there at the proclamation; there was not
one to be seen twelve hours afterwards. But at the principal rendezvous
of the city, and on the very walls of the Alamo, they had left this
characteristic notice:

"To SANTA ANNA:

"If you want our arms-take them.

"TEN THOUSAND AMERICAN TEXANS."

Robert Worth saw it with an irrepressible emotion of pride and
satisfaction. He had faithfully fulfilled his promise to his conscience,
and, with his rifle across his shoulder, and his revolvers and knife
in his belt, was taking the road to his office with a somewhat marked
deliberation. He was yet a remarkably handsome man; and what man is
there that a rifle does not give a kind of nobility to? With an up-head
carriage and the light of his soul in his face, he trod the narrow,
uneven street like a soldier full of enthusiasm at his own commission.

No one interfered with his solitary parade. He perceived, indeed,
a marked approval of it. The Zavalas, Navarros. Garcias, and other
prominent citizens, addressed him with but a slightly repressed
sympathy. The