d."

By these and similar arguments, did Torres finally prevail with Herrera
to abandon his project until after the approaching action. Even then,
and even should the victory be complete and in favour of the Christinos,
Mariano was doubtful whether it would be possible to attempt the
dangerous excursion proposed by Herrera; but in the interim his friend
would have time to reflect, and Torres hoped that he might be induced
entirely to give up the plan. He, himself a light-hearted devil-may-care
fellow, taking life as it came, and with a gentle spice of egotism in
his character, was unsusceptible of such an attachment as that of
Herrera for Rita, and, being unsusceptible, he could not understand it.
The soldier's maxim of letting a new love drive out the old one,
whenever a change of garrison or other cause renders it advisable, was
what he practised, and would have wished his friend also to adopt. He
was unable to comprehend Herrera's deeply-rooted and unselfish love,
which had grown up with him from boyhood, had borne up against so many
crosses and discouragements, and which time, although it might prove its
hopelessness, could never entirely obliterate.

"Time," thought Torres, as he returned to his room, after seeing Herrera
mount his horse and ride away, "is a great healer of Cupid's wounds,
particularly a busy time, like this. A fight one day and a carouse the
next, have cured many an honest fellow of the heartache. Herrera is
pretty sure of one half of the remedy, although it might be difficult to
induce him to try the other. Well, _qui vivra verra_--I have brought him
to his senses for the present, and there'd be small use in bothering
about the future, when, by this time to-morrow, half of us may be food
for ravens."

And with this philosophical reflection, the insouciant aide-de-camp
threw himself upon his bed, to sleep as soundly as if the next day's sun
had to shine upon a feast instead of a fray.

Midnight was approaching when Herrera reached the bivouac, which had now
assumed a character of repose very different from the bustle reigning
there when he had left it. The fires were blazing far less brightly, and
some, neglected by the soldiers who lay sleeping around them, had
dwindled into heaps of ashes, over which a puff of the night breeze
would every now and then bring a red glow, driving at the same time a
long train of sparks into the faces of the neighbouring sleepers. There
was no more chattering or