o sprang by a
bound into intimacy with me, and called me "brother"! Alas! if this were
so, what faith could be placed in woman?

In vain I sought information on these points from those around me. My
Spanish was not the very purest Castilian, it is true; but here, another
and greater obstacle to knowledge existed: no one cared anything for the
past, and very little for the future; the last event that held a place
in their memory was the day of their admission, the fell malady was the
centre round which all thoughts revolved, and I was regarded as a kind
of visionary, when asking about circumstances that occurred before I
entered the hospital. There were vague and shadowy rumors about me
and my adventure,--so much I could find out; but whatever these were,
scarcely two agreed on,--not one cared. Some said I had killed a priest;
others averred it was a negro; a few opined that I had done both; and
an old mulatto woman, with a face like a target, the bull's-eye being
represented by where the nose ought to be, related a more connected
narrative about my having stolen a horse, and being overtaken by a negro
slave of the owner, who rescued the animal and stabbed _me_.

All the stories tallied in one particular, which was in representing me
as a fellow of the most desperate character and determination, and who
cared as little for shedding blood as spilling water,--traits, I am
bound to acknowledge, which never appeared to lower me in general
esteem. Of course, all inquiries as to my horse, poor Charry, my
precious saddle-bags, my rifle, my bowie-knife, and my "Harper's-ferry,"
would have proved less than useless,--actually absurd. The patients
would have reckoned such questions as little vagaries of mental
wandering, and the servants of the house never replied to anything.

My next anxiety was, when I should be at liberty? The doctor, when I
asked him, gave a peculiar grin, and said, "We cannot spare you, amigo;
we shall want to look at your pericardium one of these days. _I_ say it
is perforated; Don Emanuel says not. Time will tell who 's right."

"You mean when I'm dead, Senhor, of course?" cried I, not fancying the
chance of resolving the difficulties by being carved alive.

"Of course I do," said he. "Yours is a very instructive case; and I
shall take care that your heart and a portion of the left lung be.
carefully injected, and preserved in the museum."

"May you live a thousand years!" said I, bowing my gratitude,