to Salamanca, and exert that
influence to bring back into the right path those who have been led
astray. Urge the just claims of Charles V., hold out the prospect of
military glory and distinction, and of the gratitude of an admiring
country. Let your efforts be chiefly directed to gain over young men
of wealthy and influential families, and to induce them to take up
arms for the king. Form them into a squadron, of which you shall have
the command, and the private soldiers of which shall rank as officers
in the army, and subsequently be transferred to other corps to act as
such. Appoint a place of rendezvous; and, when your men are assembled
there, march them to join the nearest division of the Royalist army. I
guarantee to you a captain's commission; and as soon as the king, with
whom I have some influence, arrives in Spain, I will strongly
recommend you to his favour. Our campaign, however brief, must afford
opportunities of distinction to brave men who seek them. With your
energy, and with the natural military talents which I am persuaded you
possess, high rank, honours, and riches may speedily be yours. And
when Charles V., firmly seated on the throne of Spain, points you out
to me as one of those to whom he owes his crown, and as a man whom he
delights to honour, I will no longer refuse to you my daughter's
hand."

However distant the perspective of happiness thus offered to his view,
and although the avenue leading to it was beset with dangers and
uncertainties, it promised to realize the ardent hopes which Luis
Herrera had once ventured to indulge. Sanguine and confident, he would
at once have caught at the count's proposal, but for one consideration
that flashed across his mind. He was himself wedded to no political
creed, and had as yet scarcely bestowed a thought upon the different
parties into which his countrymen were split. But his father, who had
so strenuously adhered to the Liberal side, who had poured out his
blood with Mina, fought side by side with Riego, sacrificed his
property, and endured a long and wearisome exile for conscience and
his opinions' sake--what would be his feelings if he saw his only son
range himself beneath the banner of absolutism? The struggle in the
mind of Luis, between love on the one hand and filial duty and
affection on the other, was too severe and too equally balanced to be
instantly decided. He remained silent, and the count, mistaking the
cause of his hesitation, resume