, though scorched and blackened and fearfully
changed, and by a ring he had worn, as well as by the watch in his
pocket.

Captain Laffan found me kneeling by the side of my dead friend, unable
to restrain my grief.

"It is the fortune of war, Duncan. A more gallant fellow never
breathed; and he died a noble death--in discharge of his duty," said my
late dominie. "Don't give way, my boy; he did not die in vain."

"But Dona Dolores!" I exclaimed; "her heart will break when she hears
of it."

"It's of sterner stuff than that, I've a notion. But come, we must see
at once about giving him a soldier's grave while there is yet time, for
we may soon have other work to do."

Taking my dead friend's sword, and his ring and watch, that I might give
them to Dona Dolores, I rose from the ground.

In a short time Captain Antonio came up with the advance-guard. On
counting the slain, we found that they numbered more than half the
garrison. The rest might possibly have cut their way out; if not, they
must have been taken prisoners, and, to a certainty, afterwards shot. A
still greater number of Spaniards had been destroyed. All that we could
suppose was, that Juan, when he found that successful resistance was
impossible, had blown up the tower, and perished with such of the
assailants as had made good their entrance.

A grave was dug for Juan beneath a wide-spreading tree, some little way
up the valley. We there laid him to rest; and a volley having been
fired over his remains, a heap of unhewn rocks was piled up above them
to serve as the young Patriot's tomb.

"When our cause is triumphant, and peace returns, I will erect a marble
monument to his memory," I said. And I kept my word.

Our men, in order to save themselves trouble, cast the remainder of the
bodies into the river,--caring very little for thus horribly polluting
the pure water. I had before thought war a terrible thing, but the
scenes I had lately witnessed impressed me still more forcibly with a
horror of its fearful results. What hundreds--what thousands, I might
say--of human beings had perished miserably within the last few months!
How many more, too, were doomed to die! Then I thought of the towns and
villages committed to the flames; the corn-fields, the orchards, and
gardens destroyed; and, more than all, of the widows and orphans who,
while bewailing the loss of those they loved, their protectors and
bread-winners, were doomed to struggle o