nating a
Cuban leader and in getting them away. Then I passed through the
crowd outside, and, getting horses, I hurried the ladies off.
Eventually we all reached Havana in safety.

"I learned that an attack had been made on the plantation, that Senor
Garcia had been killed, and that as I came up the gang was plundering
the place and threatening to destroy the women.

"Gratitude had the effect of making this young girl Dolores most
devotedly attached to me. In the course of our journey she evinced
her affection in a thousand ways. She was very young, and very
beautiful, and I could not help loving her. I was also deeply moved
by her passionate love for me, and so I asked her to be my wife, and
she consented. After reaching Havana, Spanish manners did not allow
of our seeing much of one another. Shortly afterward I had to return
to the seat of war to finish my engagement, and bade her good-bye for
two or three months. I expected at the end of that time to return to
Havana and marry her.

"Well, I went away and heard nothing more from her. At the end of
that time I returned, when, to my amazement, I learned that she had
gone to Spain, and found a letter from her which gave me the whole
reason for her departure. I had told her before that I myself was
going to Spain in the course of another year, so she expressed a hope
of seeing me there. The place to which she was going was Pampeluna.
I've already tried to find her there, but in vain. The fact is,
things have been so disturbed about here that people have changed
their abodes, and can no longer be traced; and so I have never come
upon the track of Dolores. And I mention this to you, Talbot, so that
if you should ever, by any chance, happen to meet her, you may tell
her that you saw me, and that I had been hunting after her all
through Spain. I dare say it will soothe her, for she loved me most
passionately, and must often have wondered why I never came for her.
In fact, she was so gentle, so delicate, so sensitive, and yet so
intense in her feelings, that I have often feared that the idea of my
being false might have been too much for her loving heart, and may
have cut short her young life."

After the conclusion of this story Talbot asked many questions about
Dolores, and the conversation gradually changed, until at length it
came round to the cross-questioning of Lopez which Talbot had
undergone.

"I have never told you," said she, "about my own errand here in thi