d yet my eyes filled up, and yet my lip
quivered, as I looked.

It was evident that the warriors of the tribe were absent on some
expedition. The few figures that moved about were either the very
old, the very young, or the squaws, who, in all the enjoyment of that
gossiping, as fashionable in the wild regions of the West as in the
gilded boudoirs of Paris, sat enjoying the cool luxury of the twilight.

Our party consisted of only four and myself; and standing, as we did,
in a grove of nut-trees, were perfectly concealed from view: no sense
of danger then interfered with our enjoyment of the prospect; we gazed
calmly on the scene on which we looked.

"Senhor Conde," whispered one of my party, a swarthy Spaniard from the
Basque, "what a foray we might make yonder! Their young men are absent;
they could make no defence. Caramba! it would be rare sport."

"Conde mio!" cried a Mexican, who had once been a horse-dealer, "I see
mustangs yonder worth five hundred dollars, if they are worth a cent;
let us have a dash forward and carry them off."

"There is gold in that village," muttered an old Ranchero, with a white
moustache; "I see sifting-sieves drying beside the stream."

And so, thought I to myself, these are the associates who, a moment
back, I dreamed were sharing my thoughts, and whose hearts, I fancied,
were overflowing with softest emotions. One, indeed, had not pronounced,
and to him I turned in hope. He was a dark-eyed, sharp-featured Breton.
"And you, Claude," said I, "what are your thoughts on this matter?"

"I leave all in the hands of my captain," said he, saluting in military
fashion; "but if there be a pillage, I claim the woman that is sitting
on the rock yonder, with a yellow girdle round her, as mine."

I turned away in utter disappointment. The robber-spirit was the only
one I had evoked, and I grew sick at heart to think of it. How is it
that, in certain moods of mind, the vices we are conversant with assume
a double coarseness, and that we feel repugnance to what daily habit had
seemed to have inured us?

"Is it to be, or not?" growled the Spaniard, who, having tightened his
girths and examined the lock of his rifle, now stood in somewhat patient
anxiety.

"Since when have we become banditti," said I, insultingly, "that we are
to attack and pillage helpless women and children? Are these the lessons
Halkett has taught us? Back to the camp. Let us have no more of such
counsels."

"We meet not