"

Arroyo no longer combated the proposals of his _confrere_. To him they
now appeared moderate; and the result was, that the two _forbans_
collected all of Don Mariano's silver they could lay their hands upon,
with such other valuables as were portable--and, having made a
distribution among their followers, decamped that night from Las Palmas,
taking good care in their _Haegira_ to give the hacienda of Del Valle a
wide berth.

With regard to Don Mariano and his daughters, they were only too happy
that nothing worse than robbery had been attempted by the brigands.
They had dreaded outrage as well as spoliation; and they were rejoiced
at being left with their lives and honour uninjured.

Made aware, by this episode, of the danger of living any longer in a
house isolated as Las Palmas--which might be at the mercy any moment of
either royalists or insurgents--Don Mariano bethought him of retiring to
Oajaca. He would be safer there--even though the town was thoroughly
devoted to the cause of the king; for, as yet, his political opinions
had not been declared sufficiently to compromise him. For some days,
however, circumstances of one kind or another arose to hinder him from
putting this project into execution.

The hacienda of San Carlos, inhabited by the man who was about to become
his son-in-law--Don Fernando de Lacarra--was only a few leagues distant
from that of Las Palmas; and Marianita did not like the idea of leaving
the neighbourhood. Without stating the true one, she urged a thousand
objections to this departure. Gertrudis was also against it. The
souvenirs which Las Palmas called up were at once sweet and sad; and the
influence which sorrow has over love is well-known--especially within
the heart of woman.

In the hacienda Las Palmas sad memories were not wanting to Gertrudis.
How often, at sunset, did she sit in the window of her chamber, with her
eyes bent in dreamy melancholy over the distant plain--deserted as on
that evening when Don Rafael hastened to arrive, risking life that he
might see her but an hour sooner!

When Don Rafael, in the first burst of his grief and vengeance, indulged
in that wild pleasure which is often felt in breaking the heart of
another, while one's own is equally crushed--when he galloped off along
the road to Oajaca, after burying the _gage d'amour_ in the tomb of his
father--thus renouncing his love without telling of it--then, and for
some time after, the young girl wa