oveted belonged to any of his own subjects. Aware of
this, warned also of Francia's partiality by frequent visits with which
the latter now deigned to honour him, Ludwig Halberger saw there was no
chance to escape domestic ruin, but by getting clear out of the country.
It was not that he doubted the fidelity of his wife; on the contrary,
he knew her to be true as she was beautiful. How could he doubt it,
since it was from her own lips he first learnt of the impending danger?

Away from Paraguay, then--away anywhere--was his first and
quickly-formed resolution, backed by the counsels of his loyal partner
in life. But the design was easier than its execution; the last not
only difficult, but to all appearance impossible. For it so chanced
that one of the laws of that exclusive land--an edict of the Dictator
himself--was to the point prohibitive; forbidding any foreigner who
married a native woman to take her out of the country, without having a
written permission from the Executive Head of the State. Ludwig
Halberger was a foreigner, his wife native born, and the Head of the
State Executive, as in every other sense, was Jose Gaspar Francia!

The case was conclusive. For the Prussian to have sought permission to
depart, taking his wife along with him, would have been more than
folly--madness--hastening the very danger he dreaded.

Flight, then? But whither, and in what direction? To flee into the
Paraguayan forests could not avail him, or only for a short respite.
These, traversed by the _cascarilleros_ and gatherers of yerba, all in
the Dictator's employ and pay, would be no safer than the streets of
Assuncion itself. A party of fugitives, such as the naturalist and his
family, could not long escape observation; and seen, they would as
surely be captured and carried back. The more surely from the fact that
the whole system of Paraguayan polity under Dr Francia's regime was one
of treachery and espionage, every individual in the land finding it to
his profit to do dirty service for "El Supremo"--as they styled their
despotic chief.

On the other side there was the river, but still more difficult would it
be to make escape in that direction. All along its bank, to the point
where it enters the Argentine territory, had Francia established his
military stations, styled _guardias_, where sentinels kept watch at all
hours, by night as in the day. For a boat to pass down, even the
smallest skiff, without being obs