de Monterey first met within church walls to
offer up to God their sacrifice of praise and prayer for the grace
shown to them in bringing them within so fair a land. On the other
side is the old convent, where long the good Franciscans dwelt, and
whence they went forth to save poor heathen souls. The convent is
deserted now, but holy memories live on in it, and sanctify its
silent, sunny cloister and its still, shady cells. And close beside
the convent grows a single stately palm, larger and more beautiful
than any other palm in all the country round. The old church is
shadowy within, and a faint smell of incense hangs always in the
dusky air. The floor is laid in panels of heavy wood, worn smooth by
the knees of the five generations which have worshiped there, and
beneath each panel is a grave. Reverently do the Mexicans believe that
thrice blessed is the rest in death of him who sleeps within the earth
made consecrate by bearing on its breast the house of God.

So it was to this old church, the church of her patron saint, whose
name she bore, that Pancha came to pray that Pepe might prosper in his
gallant adventure, and that the happiness in store for both of them
might not be wrecked by evil chance. To pass from the heat and glare
of the April sunshine into the cool, dark church was in itself a
refreshment and a rest. Save an old woman or two, slowly and wearily
moving from station to station and slowly and wearily at each station
repeating her form of prayer, the church was deserted; and in the
quiet corner near the chancel rail where Pancha knelt, far away from
the mumbling old women, there was a perfect quiet, a holy peace. Her
prayer was a little simple prayer: only that the good Saint Francis
would keep Pepe safe from all harm, and that the _contrabando_ might
not be captured, and that she and Pepe might be married as they had
planned to be, and might live on in happiness together to a good old
age. When she had made her prayer she knelt on for a long while,
dreamily thinking of the Saint's goodness and of his mighty power to
guard and save. And, as she knelt there, gradually faith and hope
came back again into her heart, and the conviction grew strong within
her that the blessed saint had heard her prayer and had sent to her
this comforting for assurance that it should be granted to the full.
So at last, heartened and quieted, she came out once more into the
April sunshine. Yet, even as she left the church ther