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'A SOLDIER
OFMEXICO.
Hi
A ROMANCE
BY
I PIP! P
iiSLEWlNM?LEISH
IplmII
Mexico has found her master at last."
Fn mtispiece. I See Page 59. 1
wiummi ■ iwii ■
ITURBIDE
A SOLDIER OF MEXICO
BY
JOHN LEWIN McLEISH, A.M., M.D.
THE
Bbbcy press
PUBLISHERS
114
FIFTH AVENUE
Xonfcon NEW YORK Montreal
Copyright, 1898,
by
JOHN LEWIN McLEISH.
95
TO
HIS EXCELLENCY
SENOR PORFIRIO DIAZ,
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO,
THE AUTHOR DEDICATES
" ITURBIDE "
AS A TOKEN OF APPRECIATION
OF THE MANY COURTESIES SHOWN HIS FATHER,
THE LATE DR. JOHN McLEISH
OF SABINAL, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO,
BY THE
MEXICAN GOVERNMENT
DURING THE YEARS 1S9O-1896.
J. L. McLEISH, M.D.
Cincinnati, O., January 1st, 1900.
MG79750
AUTHORITIES ON THE PERIOD.
{Consulted for " Iturbide")
Lorenzo de Zavala: " Ensayo Historico de las Revoluciones
de Mejico."
Pablo Mendivil : " Historia de Mejico."
Carlos Bustamente : " Cuadro Historico."
Agustino d'lturbide : " Ensayo o breves Memorias."
Madame Calderon de la Barca : " Life in Mexico."
Nicholas Mill, Esq. : " History of Mexico." (London, 1824.)
Philip Young :" Mexico." (1847.)
John Frost : " Pictorial Mexico."
William D. Robinson : " Memoirs of the Mexican Revolu-
tion."
Abbe Clavigero : " History of Mexico."
Blackwood's Magazine (1824): An Account of the Mexican
Revolution, Viator.
University Magazine, N. Y., Feb.-March, 1894 : Mexican In-
dependence, J. L. McLeish.
J. M. L. Mora: Mejico y sus Revoluciones. (Paris, 1836.)
Brantz Mayer : Mexico Aztec, Spanish and Republican.
A. R. Thummel : Mexico und die Mexicaner. (Erlangen,
1848.)
iv Authorities on the Period.
J. R. Foinsett, Esq. : Notes on Mexico.
St Basch, M. D. : Recuerdos de Mexico.
Manuel Fayno : El Libro Rojo. (Mexico, 1870.)
F. C. Gooch ; Face to Face with the Mexicans.
R. A. Wilson : Mexico and its Religion.
Dr. Lempriere: "Mexico."
W. E. Curtis : " The Capitols of Spanish America."
A. M. Gilliam ; Tablelands and Cordilleras of Mexico.
Col. G. S. Church : Historical and Political Review of
Mexico.
M. Chevalier: Mexico, Ancient and Modern.
William Butler, D.D. : Mexico in Transition from the
Power of Political Romanism to Civil and Religious
Liberty.
DRAMATIS PERSON/E
General Agustin de Iturbide, afterwards Emperor of Mexico.
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. A Gentleman of
Vera Cruz.
His Excellency Don Juan Apodaca, Viceroy of Mexico.
Captain la Garza, an Old-young Man.
Rafael Aristo, of the Society of Jesus.
Captain Berdejo, of the "Viceroy's Own."
His Eminence the Archbishop of Mexico.
An Innkeeper.
A Jailer.
Juana la Garza.
Dahalia Santa Anna.
Madame de Iturbide.
Mother Superior of the Convent of Santa Teresa.
Felicie.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Viceroy's Court.
Officers, Troopers, Priests, Nuns, etc
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. Mexico has found her master at last Frontispiece.
T. Lunt.
PAGE
2. Don Augustino de Iturbide T. Victor Hall. 18
3. She was accredited the most beautiful woman in Mex-
ico A. E. Krehbiel. 26
4. The lady Juana la Garza flung wide the door and
looked at the wretched man who stood there,
silent, grim and sorrowful T. Victor Hall. 62
5. A man and a woman lay, manacled to the floor 82
T. Victor Hall.
6. " Open the secret panel of the Viceroys," replied the
priest T. Victor Hall. 1 24
7. Slowly the soldiers of the Blues retreated before the
determined onset of Santa Anna. Etc 148
T. Victor Hall.
Cover design by T. Victor Hall.
AUTHOR'S NOTE.
One day in the early nineties, the author was wandering
through the stone paved, gloomy corridors of the Imperial
Palace of Iturbide, and in a moment was born the germ of
the story which has wrought itself out in " A Soldier of
Mexico." The setting was drawn from ever present, loved
memories of days and nights spent in the mountains of the
interior and picturesque camp life on the endless stretch of
chaparral covered desert. As these pages were penned, a
vivid mind picture of the old world city in the New — Tenoch-
titlan — with its massive palaces and crumbling convents, was
born again, a reminder of the days when fanatic priests,
haughty viceroys, beautiful women, ardent lovers and dashing
soldiers, played their parts upon the stage of Mexican history
with that dramatic intensity which has ever characterized the
children of the southland. The Latin races are essentially
neurastheniacs. Like the French and Spaniards, the Mexicans
are emotional to a degree that at times borders on the
hysterical. It is theirs to love and hate with a depth possible
only in so peculiarly constituted a people.
The author has endeavored to tell the story of " Iturbide "
as a Mexican would tell it, and a story so told necessitates,
perforce at times, a melodramatic rapidity of action and ultra
intensity of the element of passion, consistent with the people
and the setting.
J. L. M.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Historical Preface 15
I. For Love of a Woman 21
II. Juana la Garza 26
III. A Mason at Sight 36
IV. The Fete in Honor of the Viceroy 41
V. The Million-Dollar Convoy of the Viceroy 50
VI. The Bedchamber of Juana la Garza 61
VII. The Honor of Santa Anna 68
VIII. The Dungeons of San Juan de Uloa 80
IX. For the Good of the Church of Rome 95
X. The Conversion of a Woman-hater 105
XL The Compliments of General Santa Anna 117
XII. The Compliments of the Emperor Iturbide 135
Epilogue 155
HISTORICAL PREFACE.
(From the thesis, "The Rise and Fall of the First
Empire in Mexico," submitted by the author to the
trustees of Princeton University, for the degree of Master
of Arts, conferred in June 1S97.)
THERE are some chapters in Mexican history
as yet unwritten. While there exist, it is true,
many voluminous tomes, by such historians as
Zarate, Bustamente, Zavala and others dealing
with different epochs, in the story of the
Southern Republic, — they are unreliable on
account of prejudice and partiality. One
must discriminate and combine in order to
gain from their writings any concept approach-
ing the truth.
The story of the Mexican people is a
strangely pathetic one. It is the story of four
centuries of struggle and revolution — the
vacillating, fickle history of all Latin races.
The first three hundred years of Mexican
history can be read in the life stories of sixty-
two Spanish Viceroys.
During those years, when the power of
Spain was tottering to its downfall, — when the
breaking of the Catholic coalition dealt a ter-
rific blow to her old world resources, Spain
endeavored to recuperate her energy, by
*5
16 Historical Preface.
having recourse to the yet undeveloped riches
of the New Spain — Mexico.
The firm, iron hand of Spanish Viceroy
rule fell heavy on the Mexican people, and the
whole period of Spanish Viceroy administra-
tion is marked by revolution after revolution.
The time for Independence was not yet rife
however. A native historian writing of the
latter days of Viceroy rule says :
" The condition of the people was a species
of slavery, a necessary consequence of their
condition, — of the ignorance in which they
were maintained, of the terror which the
authorities inspired by their military forces, of
despotism and its attendant evils, and more
than all of the Inquisition, sustained by mili-
tary force and by the religious superstition of
the clergy and rabid fanatics without methods
of instruction. No useful truth, no principle,
no maxim capable of inspiring noble or gen-
erous sentiments, were heard in the Jesuit
schools. Three fourths of the population
were indigent, without property, with no kind
of occupation, without ever the hope of some
day acquiring one — peopling the haciendas,
ranches and mines of the wealthy proprietors."
As in Spain, where the whole power and
political policy was subject to Church dictation,
so in Mexico, — Mother Church ruled supreme.
As the power of the clergy began to wane in
the Old World, so gradually it endeavored to
Historical Preface. 17
regain its lost ascendancy in the New. Step
by step priestcraft extended its sway over
Mexico, and her Viceroys. To-day one can
find on every side, reminiscences of the In-
quisition and its despotic rule in Mexico.
It is with pleasure one turns from the period
of Viceroy rule to the new order of things
generated with the opening of the nineteenth
century. The sixteenth of September, 1810, is
a day as sacred to the Mexican heart as our
own Fourth of July to us. It marks the first
blow in behalf of Mexican Independence, — it
marks the rising of a suffering and oppressed
people against the grim, tyrannical power of
old Spain — it marks the inchoation of a series
of revolutions and uprisings which finally cul-
minated in giving Mexico freedom from priest-
craft and the old world Suzerainty of the
Spanish Bourbons.
The proto-martyrs of Mexican Independence
— Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama, Jimenez, Rayon,
and Matamoras, — fell fighting for the cause in
which they had taken up the sword.
For years and years the struggle went on,
conducted by such men as Santa Anna,
Guerrero, Guadalupe Victoria, and Bravo. For
the Spaniards found it a hopeless task to crush
the partisans of Liberty. Men had suddenly
been awakened and roused to action by the
intrepid warrior Hidalgo. They longed for
the glorious prize for which he had laid down
his life.
There now arose a central figure in the
1 8 Historical Preface.
struggle for Independence — a man endowed
with unbounded ambition and unquestioned
ability. His life history reads like a romance
and is full of interest and incident. His career
was as strange and brilliant as that of Napoleon
Bonaparte. Its ending was as pathetic. Says
the historian Zavala :
" Don Agustin de Iturbide, Colonel of a
battalion of provincial troops, a native of Valla-
dolid, was endowed with brilliant attainments
and amongst other qualities of valor and activity
out of the ordinary. Of average physique, he
possessed the fortitude and endurance neces-
sary for undergoing the greatest hardships of
campaigning, and ten years of this continued
exercise had strengthened his natural endur-
ance. He had an active and self-assertive
character and had observed that to remain in
favor with the authorities it was necessary to
be at a safe distance from those who could
command him. It is indisputable that Itur-
bide was possessed of a superior intellect and
that his ambition was founded on that high
resolve which depreciates dangers # and which
no obstacles can restrain. He had familiarized
himself with danger in battle. He had recog-
nized the power of the Spanish arms and he
was competent to measure* the* capacity of
chiefs of both parties. It must be admitted
that he did not deceive himself in the estimate
which he formed of them all. He possessed
the consciousness of his own superiority, and
with this assurance he did not hesitate to place
Don Augustino de Iturbide.
Page 1 8.
Historical Preface. 19
himself at the head of a National party wait-
ing only to gain the confidence of his fellow-
countrymen."
Such is Zavala's estimate of Iturbide —
the consummator of the great task begun by
Hidalgo.
Truly no ordinary man was Agustin de Itur-
bide. With no little interest he had watched
the movements of the insurgent chiefs —
Santa Anna and the rest. He began to reflect.
Spain was undeniably losing her hold upon
Mexico. A change was imminent. Iturbide
was a far-seeing man. He craved honor —
military emolument — distinction. Spain, torn
by internecine strife, trembling on the verge
of a precipice could not for long maintain
her foothold in Mexico. To satisfy his am-
bition, he must look elsewhere. For some
years Iturbide had been formulating a plan of
action which was to overthrow forever Spanish
rule in Mexico. Astute and clever he simply
bided his time — attaching to himself by a
series of intrigues, men of all parties — eccle-
siastical, military and political. When one
considers his colossal undertaking, admira-
tion gives way to surprise. His countrymen
longed for Independence, and he made that
the fundamental feature of his plan which he
denominated Las Tres Garantias. To express
his intentions he assumed the word Union. To
conciliate the all-powerful clergy, he added Re-
ligion. To gain the sympathy of the people at
20 Historical Preface.
large, he chose the appellation, Independence.
His idea was to overthrow forever Viceroy rule
in Mexico and to create a home dynasty.
One man more than any other in Mexico
could aid him in his design, General Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna, a wealthy young gentle-
man of Cruz Vera, and an intrepid soldier.
Iturbide met Santa Anna, and meeting him
found the man whose sword was to lead him
to a throne and whose voice was to be the first
to cry that grito which meant the downfall of
that New World Empire for which both had
battled against the picked forces of Spain.
And of that the story.
The Author.
ITURBIDE, A SOLDIER OF
MEXICO
CHAPTER I.
FOR LOVE OF A WOMAN.
It was a beautiful evening of February, 1821.
Through the shaded plaza of the City of Mexico,
near the grand Cathedral, a train of placid-
faced, peaceful looking burros laden with great
pulque-filled pigskins were trotting at a lei-
surely pace towards the southern barrier of the
Capitol.
Lounging in the few pidquerias of the plaza,
scarlet clad, dashing troopers and green-jacketed
chasseurs embraced and quaffed their wine with
many an oath as soldiers love to do.
In the great square, hibuscus, orchids and
dahlias peeped out from the cacti and yucca.
It was the hour of the Angelus. Troopers
and chasseurs stood immobile, with bared
heads and uplifted glasses. The old fruit-
woman, at the door of the Cathedral, fell upon
her knees beside her pomegranate stand and
crossed herself repeatedly, while her lips
21
22 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico. !
moved in prayer. But if the hands and lips
of the old fruit-woman were occupied with her
rosary, her eyes were not. She looked with
horror upon a tall and slender gentleman, of a
military bearing, despite the long black manto
completely enveloping his uniform — she looked
with horror upon this gentleman who walked
calmly down the plaza at the hour of the
Angelus, with his sombrero upon his head.
" An accursed heretic," she thought, and con-
tinued her prayer to the Blessed Virgin.
The stranger took his stand near one of the
great towers of the Cathedral and drawing his
manto the more closely around him, became
almost as immobile as one of the statues of
the Saints in the niches above him,
From the great doors of the Cathedral, the
throng of worshipers began to come out, singly
and in pairs. They were mostly women.
Those of the better classes had their faces
coquettishly hidden in their silk rebosas.
Among the last to issue forth was a slender,
graceful young woman, clad in black, her
features entirely concealed by a dainty silk
rebosa. In her hand she carried a prayer-book.
The man in the black manto took a forward
step, and with the graceful bow of a gallant,
swept the ground with his sombrero.
" Dahalia," he murmured softly.
The girl shrank back against one of the great
columns and turned upon him a white pitiful,
tear-stained face in which love and fear were
both expressed.
For Love of a Woman. 23
" Dios, how beautiful you are ! " murmured
the man passionately. And then more softly.
" Dahalia, can you forgive me for seeking you
despite my promise ? You are indispensable
to me — you have become a veriest part of my-
self — give me once more the assurance of your
love and I will aid your brother in his struggle
for Mexican liberty — yes, and here in the
shadow of the Cathedral, I swear to you that I
will take up my sword in the same cause. For
your love I will forget that I ever swore alle-
giance to the Royalist cause, forget that I
am Colonel of a regiment baptized with the
blood of your countrymen and mine ; for
the first time in my life will I forswear my-
self "
The girl shook her head and the man con-
tinued more earnestly : —
" Ah, do not turn from me, dear one. I have
periled my liberty, perhaps my life, in coming
here. And all for love of you, my darling, —
all for love of you. I fancy His Excellency
the Viceroy would not take it lightly that the
Colonel of a Royal Regiment conversed with
the sister of one of the proscribed "
" With the sister of Santa Anna, — a man who
is as much a patriot as you are a tyrant. Ah,
no, Colonel Iturbide, you do well to remind
me of the difference in our stations. And I
will no longer peril the precious life of the
butcher of my people. Draw not your sword
for our cause but keep it for the service of His
Excellency. Adios, senor Colonel Iturbide.
24 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
It is far, far better that we part, and far better
would it have been had we never met."
And she drew her rebosa more closely around
her, turning from him.
But he caught her slender wrist and said
hurriedly, passionately,
" Ah, Dahalia, — you are cruel — my nina.
When you came to the Court of the Viceroy
in the suite of the Lady La Garza, I saw you
and I loved you. You repulsed me."
" Si, seiior Colonel. Because a sister of the
rebel Santa Anna could only bring ruin upon
the favorite of the Viceroy. Had you not been
a persecutor of my people — of my Mexico —
then — perhaps — but no. It could not be. I
came to the Viceroy's court upon a secret mis-
sion, — a mission of death."
" Of death?" gasped the man in black.
" Ah si — to strike you down in the salon of
His Excellency and avenge, with one quick
stroke of the stiletto, my poor countrymen —
slaughtered by your troops — to avenge Hidal-
go and his little band of consecrated patriots —
to enable my dear brother to uprear the red,
white and green banner of the Mexicans, over
that accursed emblem — the banner of old Spain,
— the blood-reddened flag of the Bourbons.
But I was only a simple girl — a nina, seiior, —
and I — I could not help loving you, and "
" Ah, Dahalia, — my chiquita
And he would have caught her in his arms,
but she waved him back gently.
" Your promise ! " she murmured.
For Love of a Woman. 25
" Dahalia — when I promised to remain away
from your presence until you yourself should
tell me to return, I did not realize what I was
doing. Ah, chiquita — my love for you is greater
than my pride. It is killing me. To-night I
could bear the agony of separation no longer.
And even at the cost of the Viceroy's dis-
pleasure, I have come to you again."
" You were wrong, Colonel mine," murmured
the girl reproachfully. " When the lady Juana
La Garza denounced me before the Viceroy
as the sister of the rebel Santa Anna and forced
me to flee the Vice-regal Palace and hide a ref-
ugee in the purlieus of the Capitol, it was not
prudent for a man so well known as the trusted
officer of His Excellency to "
" But a trusted officer of His Excellency's
no longer," broke in her companion. " For love
of a woman, Iturbide perjures himself and be-
trays the trust of the Bourbons."
"And for love of a woman, Santa Anna
walks into the spider's web," broke in a calm,
half sneering voice.
The girl turned quickly with a half audible
cry.
" Ay de mi — my brother — and in the Capitol
— this is madness indeed."
Then fell fainting into the arms of the new-
comer.
26 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
CHAPTER II.
JUANA LA GARZA.
She was a wee little thing, with a wealth of
wavy, golden hair and great blue eyes, lips
cherry red and voluptuous, hands slender and
delicate, laden with costly jewels. From under
her rich, satin skirts peeped out a dainty
slipper, indicating an attractive little foot.
She was accredited the most beautiful
woman in Mexico, but there was a hardness
about her mouth — the satanic hardness of a
wiler of men — and at times from those pretty
blue eyes shot a steely glint that bespoke
either much passion or much wickedness.
Quien sabe ?
On this February evening the lady Juana la
Garza, reclined lazily upon a divan in her
richly furnished boudoir, at Casa Garza. A
sort of feline smile played upon her pretty
red lips and she presented a picture of delici-
ous abandon in her delicate evening dress.
From an adjoining apartment came the
sweet strains of the Palace band.
For the lady Juana la Garza entertained
this evening in honor of His Excellency, the
Viceroy of Mexico, Don Juan Apodaca, and
she waited only the first notes of the Hymno
She was accredited the most beautiful woman in Mexico.
Page 26.
Juana La Garza. 27
Nacional, which should apprise her of his
arrival to descend to the grand salon.
The furnishings of the boudoir, were just
such as to form the ideal setting for a pretty
woman. The floors were of glazed tiles, the
tapestries red, with the upholstering of the
furniture to match. A few rosewood settees,
a large centre table of pietra dura, an iron bed-
stead with a great canopy, a dainty Venetian
mirror, which reflected the beautiful image of
the lady Juana la Garza, more times than one,
during the day.
As the lady Juana la Garza dreamily watched
the curling ring that rose in a haze of blue,
from her cigarette, her face took on a gentler,
softer look, as of a woman who dreams of the
man she loves. Her lips half parted in a
smile of sweet content, her eyes staring into
the faraway of imagery, — it seemed as though
an angel from on high had descended for the
briefest space to earth, so beautiful was she.
Felicie the maid entered softly.
The lady half raised herself upon her arm.
"Ah — seflora — how shall I tell you ? How
shall I say it ? "
And the maid began to sob violently, rocking
her form to and fro. The lady Juana la Garza
sprang from the divan. Her brow contracted
into a frown, her eyes assumed a steely glint
of anger, her mouth hardened almost imper-
ceptibly. She seized the girl roughly by the
arm.
" Speak out, you fool, and stand not there
28 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
like one distraught. Come, tell me, what is it
that frightens you ? "
Still trembling, the affrighted maid muttered
between her sobs.
" Alas, senora, we arc lost, we are lost.
Rafael Aristo has secured from the Viceroy
your husband's pardon. He will be here to-
night."
11 To-night ? — My husband will be here to-
night? — Impossible," gasped the lady Juana
la Garza, sinking again upon the divan, her
face as colorless as marble, her form shaken
by the violence of her passion, her lips quiver-
ing with anger unrestrained.
" I swear it by the Virgin, — it is the truth,
senora. I had it from the priest, Rafael
Aristo, who has but just come from the Govern-
ment Palace," pursued the maid.
" Rafael Aristo — that devil," murmured the
lady Juana la Garza softly to herself, and her
eyes seemed to focus in a scintillating glitter
of hate. " So the Head of the Society of
Jesus betrays the Agent of the Society of
Jesus. And it is this man who came between
my husband and I, and broke up our home
for the good of the Church of Rome. It is
this man that transformed the innocent little
convent maid into the woman of the world,
that she might hold the Viceroy in the glamour
of her fascination and guide the destinies of
Mexico as the Church demanded. And now,
this Head of the Society of Jesus has no more
use for the woman whose life he ruined and
Juana La Garza. 29
takes this means of disposing of her, by setting
free the dishonored husband whose home-
coming means retribution." Then glancing at
Felicie, the lady said aloud : —
"And Rafael Aristo — the priest — you say
he is here ? "
" In the private passageway," responded the
girl.
" Bid him come to me at once," imperiously
continued her mistress ; and her face again
assumed a look of anguish she could not re-
strain. The maid quickly left the room. The
lady Juana la Garza buried her face in her
hands.
" I am lost indeed," she sobbed ; " lost, lost,
lost."
" Not lost, my daughter, not lost, for the
Holy Church will save you," broke in the deep,
musical voice of the Head of the Society of
Jesus.
She looked up. Before her stood Rafael
Aristo, a short, squat, smooth-shaven man, his
face, sombre, sallow, forbidding, — his stumpy
body inclined gently forward, and a great
horny finger raised in warning to his thick
lips while his great, glittering black, hypnotic
eyes, fat encircled, rested significantly upon
Felicie.
" Leave us, Felicie," said the lady Juana la
Garza. The maid cast a look of intense dis-
like upon the forbidding figure in gorgeous
robes and mitre, and slowly, reluctantly left
the room. The priest advanced nearer the
30 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
lady Juana la Garza and allowed his hypnotic
eyes to rest for a long time upon her face
until she trembled at the fiery intensity of the
gaze and became once more the submissive
daughter of the Church. Finally he spoke,
and his voice was very soft and low :
" Courage, my daughter, courage," he said,
" the Church guards its own. For the Church
you left the arms of a husband who loved you
to become the mistress of the Viceroy. The
Church protected you then, and this trusting,
accommodating husband was given over to the
Inquisitors of the Church as a rebel. You are
the only woman in Mexico who can sway these
intriguing diplomats and hardened soldiers in
the desperate game now playing. It is a life
struggle between Church and State, between
Royalist and Patriot, between the Society of
Jesus and the Brotherhood of Freemasons.
Three men have appeared upon the stage of
Mexican politics — His Excellency the Viceroy,
who to-day rules serenely over Mexico, by the
grace of God and the favor of the Bourbons,
the rebel General, Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna, who has at his back the Scottish Rite
and the York Rite, the most powerful of the
Masonic bodies in Mexico, and last our own
Agustin de Iturbide, a great soldier but a
young man of such boundless ambition that,
while he is to-day for us, may be to-morrow
against us. One of these three men must rule
supreme. Two must fall. No secrets are hid-
den from the Society of Jesus. Our agents
Juana La Garza. 31
are everywhere. I know that Santa Anna is in
hiding in the Capitol, that he ventured into
this spider's web, for two things : the assassina-
tion of his great rival, Colonel Agustin de Itur-
bide and a night of love with the woman who
is dearer to him than life itself, the lady Juana
la Garza.
" What more fitting than the opportune re-
turn of a loving husband, to find the wife from
whom he was rudely torn asunder, in the arms
of the rebel General ? Think you not, my lady,
his long months of imprisonment in the deepest
dungeon of the Acordade, will not nerve his
arm for vengeance ? Think you Santa Anna
will ever leave your apartments alive ? "
" Ah, monster ! you have betrayed me,"
gasped the lady, sinking back half fainting
upon the divan.
" I have saved you," calmly retorted the
priest. " When General Santa Anna has been
done to the death, I shall see to it that you are
freed from the hated caresses of the Viceroy.
Nay more, I will save you from your husband.
Only play your part well. You alone know
under what disguise the rebel General Santa
Anna will pass the guards of the Viceroy.
You alone can deliver to us this greatest
enemy of the Church of Rome. Give him but
one remotest word of warning that will en-
able him to escape us and I swear, as I am
a true Churchman, that you shall suffer a
fate worse than hell itself can give you. I
have spoken and I think you understand."
32 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
" But I love him — my God ! I love him ! "
sobbed the unhappy woman hoarsely. " And
you ask me to lure him to his death."
" Bah ! " retorted the priest with a vicious
sneer, " you love him as you have loved other
men — as once you loved your husband, the
gallant Captain la Garza — as you once loved
His Excellency — as you once loved Colonel
Iturbide. Such love is the love of a woman
who will pass into history as every man's wife."
" There spoke the Jesuit," sobbed the lady
la Garza. " Teaching me in your convent that
the end justified the means, deadening my
young conscience by your poisonous sophis-
tries, you have made a play of my beauty to
lure to destruction the men who stood in the
pathway of the Church of Rome. Oh, I am
awearied of it all — I am awearied of it all. But
I am not wholly bad nor as wicked as you
would make me, and I refuse to betray the one
man I have loved with a sincere affection — the
only honest passion of my life — even for the
Church of Rome, to which I gave all that any
woman can give when I sacrificed mine honor."
The priest, Rafael Aristo, fixed upon her a
stern, angry look and raised his arm impress-
ively. But his voice was calm and he was in
everything the priest — perfect in self-control.
" Listen, my lady, you do not know me yet.
I have an old mother down in the provinces of
the Southland — an old mother who lives for me
alone and whose love is the one little ray of
sunshine in all my life. And yet I tell you
Juana La Garza. 33
that if that dear old mother stood in the way
of the Church of Rome, I'd crush her withered
limbs upon the rack, and carry her broken
body into the plaza to be burned with the
heretics."
" Monster ! " gasped the lady, her eyes dil-
ated with an awful shuddering fear.
" I have raised you from a very little girl,
my daughter. I have loved you as mine own,
but I swear to you by the God above, that if
you do not deliver to us this night the foul
traitor who has fomented rebellion throughout
the land, I myself will take you to a fate that is
worse than any death of which you can dream."
The lady Juana la Garza looked long into
the eyes of the priest Rafael Aristo and in them
read the truth.
Rising with a beautiful resignation expressed
upon her pallid features she murmured sadly :
" Tell me what you wish, my father, and I
obey."
The priest raised his hand in benediction.
" There spoke the daughter of the Church,"
he said gently, with an oily, unctuous smile.
" The rebel General, Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna, attends the masque ball in honor of the
Viceroy this evening. It might be reasonable,
you may say, to seize his person in the grand
salon. But there will be friends in attendance
upon him and extreme measures would lead to
much bloodshed and precipitate a massacre,
— perhaps cause a rising of the people. For
Santa Anna is popular with the canaille. But
3
34 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
you can lure him here after the festivities and
then when your husband comes to take venge-
ance, the world will cry " Well done," and
the most dangerous enemy of the holy Church
will have been quietly removed. And with
Santa Anna and Iturbide dead, the Royalist
power in Mexico, is secure, since the Viceroys
are but puppets of the Church of Rome."
" I will this night give into your hands,
General Santa Anna, the man I love," gasped
the lady Juana la Garza and buried her face in
her hands sobbing violently.
° Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the
Lord.'' And the Head of the Society of Jesus
raised his hand in benediction over her head.
" And now, my daughter, the blessing of the
Church rest upon you, for you are about to
show yourself a true daughter of the Church.
To-night, a lover you lose, but greater than a
lover your gain, the protection of the Church,
the holy Church, the Church of Rome, more
enduring than the world, all-powerful, perpet-
ual, omnipresent, mighty Church. Love —
life — time itself — must one and all give way
before the onward march ot the Church of
Rome. I, Rafael Aristo, am the Church in
Mexico, and being the Church have made
you what you are, — to the world, a shameless
wanton, — to me an instrument to lure the
puppets of history to destruction for the good
of what I represent, and I glory in my handi-
work. Together we will rise up, you and I,
up and up and up, over the racked bodies of
Juana La Garza. 35
our enemies, until there remains only one per-
petual, all-existing thing — the Church — the
Church — the Church which in Mexico is I — I —
I — Rafael Aristo the priest, Rafael Aristo the
Jesuit, Rafael Aristo the future Richelieu of
the New World. Until, then, my daughter,
you are my very abject slave to work my will
upon these poor pitiable things that dare to
flaunt their mean ambitions in the face of the
will of the Holy Church. Until then, my
daughter, you are mine, mine, mine, all mine.
My will is your will. My ambition is your
ambition. Together we will rise up and up
and up, over the bleeding bodies of Santa
Anna and the rest, up perhaps even to a throne
— who knows? "
And Rafael Aristo, with the wild glare of
the fanatic in his lurid, gleaming, snake-like
eyes, looked sternly upon the little lady who,
crushed, fascinated, hypnotized, had risen and
stood trembling before him.
From the grand salon came the martial
notes of the Palace band sounding the overture
to the Hymno Nacional, and the priest ex-
tended his hand to the lady Juana la Garza.
" His Excellency has come at last/' he said
softly. " Come, my daughter, let us join the
merrymakers."
Still trembling she allowed him to lead her
down the grand stairway and into the presence
of His Excellency, Don Juan Apodaca, Vice-
roy of Mexico, by the grace of God and the
favor of the Bourbons.
36 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
CHAPTER III.
A MASON AT SIGHT.
At Dahalia's affrighted, anguished cry, Colo-
nel Iturbide turned quickly and saw a tall
slender gentleman, in ultra clerical black, with
a great sugar-loafed hat, beneath which were
features pale, handsome and regular, — eyes
large and dreamy, — and a brow lofty and intel-
lectual, albeit half hidden by a cluster of jet-
black curls.
" General Don Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna," he muttered in deep astonishment.
" Or for the present, Padre Ybanez, Lord
Bishop of Vera Cruz," replied the rebel Gen-
eral in a soft, musical voice.
And gently supporting Dahalia, who had
recovered from her momentary weakness, Santa
Anna continued :
" A few moments ago, I had it in my mind
to deprive the Viceroy of his most trusted
councillor and Spain of her most intrepid
commander."
And he displayed beneath a fold of his cas-
sock, a long, murderous-looking stiletto.
" 'Twould have been an easy matter, sefior
Colonel," he continued, with a short, rasping
laugh. " But curiosity stayed my hand and
A Mason at Sight. 37
saved a new leader for the National forces, at
present termed rebels. And so senor, first of
the Mexicans, I greet you as future Liberator
of our country."
And he made a graceful bow to which Itur-
bide responded with a warm embrace. For
Iturbide remembered that this man was the
brother of the woman he loved.
"You are mad, Antonio," gasped Dahalia,
her cheek paling at thought of her brother's
peril. " Know you not that there is a price
upon your head as one of the proscribed ?
That you can expect no mercy from the Vice-
roy, for His Excellency is cruel and heartless
and would gladly give you over to the tortures
of the Inquisitors. Ah, my God, my brother,
you have come voluntarily to your death "
" Not to my death, little sister, but to the
arms of the woman I love," replied Santa
Anna carelessly. " To the arms of the lady
Juana la Garza, who is even now awaiting me
in her salon."
"Juana la Garza — ah, Dios, — you love that
terrible woman ? " sobbed the girl. " You are
going to meet the creature whose heart is
blacker than the night about us, who has toyed
with the affections of good men and true, only
to betray them when she is awearied, or if she
permits them to escape her toils at last sends
them forth broken, ruined, dishonored gentle-
men. You are going to the woman who be-
trayed me to the Viceroy, and sent me out
into the streets alone and friendless because I
38 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
would not close my eyes to her wickedness, —
because I saved one man at least — the future
Liberator of our country — from her wiles and
fascinations? Ah, my brother, tell me you do
not love her — tell me you do not love her."
" I cannot/' murmured Santa Anna. " For
she is my all — my life, my Mexico, my world.
When we of the Southland love, my sister, it
is an all-consuming passion, and so with me,
my whole future is in the hands of this woman.
If my love for her should lead me to the very
gates of hell, cheerfully would I go on and on
and on. Of her past I know nothing and care
less. I only know that I love her and loving
her I would die for her. Patriot and all that I
am, I would betray my dear Mexico if need be
for the love of Juana la Garza, the fairest,
sweetest, dearest lady in all the land. So it is
useless to plead with me. I came here to-night
at the risk of my life to carry out the mission
unfulfilled and kill the man who has led the
victorious armies of old Spain over the bodies
of my countrymen. But a merciful Providence
intervened to save from assassination the most
intrepid soldier our country has produced.
And so, chiquita, — to-night for me will be a night
of love. To-morrow — the camp again, and bat-
tle and bloodshed. To-night a night of idle
dalliance with the sw r eetest lady in all the world
to me. To-morrow "
" To-morrow, Antonio, — ah, Santo Dios, I
shudder at thought of what the morrow may
have in store ! " sobbed Dahalia.
A Mason at Sight. 39
Santa Anna turned abruptly to Colonel Itur-
bide and grasped his hand warmly.
" Amigo mio, to-night I sought your life and
found your friendship. Until a short while ago
I feared you and, fearing you, came here to kill
you. Now, trusting you I confide to you the
honor of my little sister, Dahalia. She is all I
have, seilor, and if aught should befall her I
believe it would break my heart. It has been
said of you, Colonel Iturbide, that you are the
most gallant of all the gentlemen in Mexico,
and I know that you will guard the honor of
the sister of Santa Anna as you would guard
your own."
"As I would guard my own," said the Royal-
ist Colonel, raising his hand solemnly.
" I am a marked man, the country through,"
continued Santa Anna. " About to venture
my all for the sake of the woman I love, I look
to you, my new found friend and brother-in-
arms, to see that my sister has safe conduct
from the Capitol. Due west from the city,
some few leagues is a little wayside meson, the
Posada del Sabinal, where at present are the
most trusted of my officers. They await the
coming of a million-dollar convoy of the Vice-
roy."
" Dios — a million-dollar convoy ! " gasped
Iturbide, his pale face flushed with interest and
excitement. " The General who is able to in-
tercept that convoy will have Mexico at his
feet."
" And Mexico is the stake for which we are
40 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
playing," pursued Santa Anna calmly. " With
the convoy of the Viceroy in our hands, we can
levy troops sufficient to drive the Spanish
forces south to the sea. My duty told me to
stay and possess myself of the wealth that
would make me master of Mexico. My love
summoned me to the side of the lady Juana la
Garza. And so my friend, I turn over the
command of the National forces to you."
"And my warrant?" asked Iturbide, the
light of a great ambition shining in his eyes.
" The signet ring of Santa Anna," replied his
companion, passing a heavy seal to the Royal-
ist Colonel. " It is the sign of the thirty-third
degree. The wearer of that ring can move at
will the mysterious brotherhood of Mexican
Freemasons. With that seal you can rally to
your standard the forces of Guerrero, Guada-
lupe Victoria, and those other patriot chiefs
who have carried on the struggle begun by
Hidalgo long years ago. And first of the Mex-
icans, I make you a Mason at sight by virtue
of my power as head of the Scottish Rite.
You are one, for and with us, now and for all
time, in life and in eternity."
Reverently the Royalist Colonel kissed the
great seal of the rebel General Santa Anna, and
for a few moments the two conversed apart
from Dahalia. Then Santa Anna, embracing
his sister, turned and with a gentle " Adios,"
vanished into the darkness of the night.
The Fete in Honor of the Viceroy. 41
CHAPTER IV.
THE FETE IN HONOR OF THE VICEROY.
ALONG the whole length of the Calle de San
Francisco, there was a great crush of aristo-
cratic equipages with a rich blazoning of
armorial escutcheons and emblems of rank. At
the entrance of the Casa Garza, a company of
chasseurs, in full-dress uniforms, were drawn up
four deep.
In the grand salon of the Casa Garza, the
scene was one of ever-varying pageantry and
splendor. Pretty Poblana girls, in merino
dresses of bright hues, bespangled and gold be-
decked, — serious looking Contadinas in white,
— grave nuns and novices, elbowed with fierce-
looking soldiers of the time, serious-visaged
Jesuits, gloomy Trappists, Mestizos and rein-
carnated Viceroys.
There were La Vallieres, Nell Gwynns, and
Montespans. For each there was a Royal
Louis and a Charles.
From the richly garnished boxes with their
Chinese lanterns, the staid and portly lady
patronesses with their muchly bepowdered
faces, their lavish diamonds and great coiffures
looked down upon the merrymakers.
The select band of the " Viceroy's Own"
42 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
furnished the orchestral accompaniment to the
dancing.
Under one of the lamps, in a secluded por-
tion of the grand salon, a Padre in a violet
robe, scarlet cloak, and shovel hat, was con-
versing in a whisper with an Inquisitor in black.
The Padre was the General, Don Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna.
The Inquisitor was His Excellency, the
Viceroy of Mexico, by the Grace of God and
the favor of the Bourbons.
" And so, my Lord Bishop of Vera Cruz, you
will have it that this Santa Anna is not so bad
as he has been painted ? " laughed His Ex-
cellency, slapping his companion upon the back.
" In faith, Your Excellency," replied Santa
Anna in equally jocular vein responding to the
other's mood, " in faith, Your Excellency,
Santa Anna and I were boys together — buen
companeros, and in my opinion, no better fellow
lives than he who has, through the misinter-
pretation of his enemies, been maligned and
termed a bandit."
" A fine fellow indeed," sneered the Viceroy,
" levying tribute on His Sovereign Majesty
the King, pillaging the clergy, burning villages
and planning raids upon our soldiery. 'Twas
only two months back, my Lord Bishop, that
we were told how Santa Anna and his band in-
vaded the sacred precincts of your Palace and
made Your Reverence and your suite to stand
upon your heads like a lot of mummers, while
they feasted at your table."
The Fete in Honor of the Viceroy. 43
" A merry jest in truth," replied his com-
panion. " A jest which I forgive Santa Anna,
because of our old comradeship."
" But a jest which we will not forgive nor
forget," replied the Viceroy. " Listen, Lord
Bishop of Vera Cruz. I have set a price upon
the rascal's head. If he be taken alive it will
be more to my liking."
" And why, Your Excellency? "asked Santa
Anna with one of those penetrating glances
which marked the man.
" That I may amuse myself," hissed the
Viceroy, a vindictive look of hate mantling his
bilious face. " We take not so many rebels,
even in these troublous times, that the Inquisi-
tion palls upon us. For myself, I can conceive
no happier moment than when the Inquisitor
puts the question to some poor devil of a
patriot self-styled. The groans and cries, the
blood-stained rack, the stoicism with which so
many meet the question are all music to mine
ears. I sometimes feel a touch of pity and
admiration when some poor fool yields up his
last gasp for the imaginary ideal he calls his
country. And I have heard so much of this
guerilla chieftain, that I am assured he would
afford a most amusing spectacle upon the rack."
" A spectacle I fear you will not soon see,
Excellency," replied Santa Anna tersely.
" Eh — what — and why — ? " asked the Viceroy
abruptly, casting a half suspicious glance upon
his companion.
" Quien sabe ? Excellency," replied Santa
44 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
Anna with a careless shrug of his shoulders.
" Only I have heard it said that Santa Anna
has sworn never to be taken alive. Too well
he knows the cruelty of our Viceroys, a matter
of history. 'Twas only a short time back, Ex-
cellency, when he saw a former Captain of the
Royal forces, noted for his great strength and
manly beauty, torn from his home and delivered
over to the Inquisitors. Once again he saw
that man — a broken reed, gray-haired at twenty-
five, weak and decrepit, yet sustained by one
great, all-consuming desire — vengeance. And
that man will return to his dishonored home
to-night."
The Viceroy started.
Then with a cruel, hard laugh.
" His name, seilor, tell me his name that I
may prepare a fit reception."
For the Viceroy had no thought of Captain
la Garza whose wife he delighted to honor.
" His name — his name " echoed Santa
Anna. Then suddenly :
" Ah pardon, Excellency — one moment — our
hostess does me the honor to invite me to her
box."
And with a gallant bow he hastened towards
the box of the lady Juana la Garza leaving the
astonished Viceroy staring after him.
As he knelt before the most beautiful woman
in Mexico, Santa Anna could only look and
look and look.
Such beauty as hers made him speechless.
With a graceful genuflexion, the lady Juana
The Fete in Honor of the Viceroy. 45
la Garza, inclined gently towards him, and in a
voice that trembled, in spite of her apparent
composure, whispered :
"Antonio, you must leave this house at
once — for its very atmosphere is death-exhal-
ing. In five minutes it will be too late — per-
haps is even now too late."
"But your promise?" whispered Santa
Anna. " Is this my reward for neglecting my
duty and periling my life, to once more en-
clasp you in my arms? Ah, Juana, — heart of
my heart — dear one, you no longer love me."
" It is because I love you that I bid you go,
Antonio," murmured the lady, trembling with
passion and the glow of the lovelight in her
eyes.
" The real Bishop of Vera Cruz, whose robes
you wear, has escaped from your lines and is
even now in the anteroom awaiting a private
audience with the Viceroy."
" Carramba ! This is indeed serious," mut-
tered Santa Anna. Then with a sudden reso-
lution :
" I will not go, I can outface the Bishop of
Vera Cruz and denounce him before the Vice-
roy as an impostor."
" It will not avail," said the lady la Garza.
" And even so, this danger passed, there is an-
other to be met. My husband returns to-night
— for vengeance — and for me."
"I knew it," said Santa Anna. "And I
came here to take you with me to the National
Camp. Ah, Juana, come with me to-night and
46 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
I will defend you in my hacienda of Mango de
Clavo, though all the picked forces of the Vice-
roy are sent against me. Come — my darling —
Juana."
" To-night — impossible ! " gasped the lady
la Garza. " This house is closely watched by
the Inquisitors of the Church of Rome, and if
I should attempt to leave the salon with you,
it would mean death — your death and mine."
" Ah Dios, my darling, let us die together
then, since we cannot live together," cried Santa
Anna recklessly.
" No, Antonio, we will live for the future,"
replied the lady. " Listen, my love. Do you
escape this nest of our enemies to-night and I
swear to you that on the morrow, I will join
you at Mango de Clavo."
" You swear that, Juana ? You swear that ? "
cried Santa Anna joyfully, and would have
seized her in a fond embrace, forgetting all else
save his love, had she not waved him gently
back.
" I swear it by my mother's memory." she
murmured.
" Then hast a la vista, my darling — till we
meet again," said Santa Anna and pressing his
lips gently upon her little hand, he mingled
with the crowd of merrymakers, passed to the
grand staircase and calmly brushed by the guard
at the portals of the Casa Garza.
When he had disappeared from view, the
lady Juana la Garza pressed her hand to her
side and sank upon the divan.
The Fete in Honor of the Viceroy. 47
" My lover is saved, but I — I am lost be-
yond hope," she gasped. " For that accursed
priest said that if I did not this night deliver
Santa Anna to his enemies, he himself would
take me to a fate far worse than any death of
which I could dream. Well, it is better so.
By this one word of warning, I make atone-
ment for my wretched past and save for Mex-
ico her great patriot leader. And when Gen-
eral Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna has marched
triumphant into the Capitol, driving his ene-
mies before him, when he has raised the red,
white and green banner of Independence over
the Palace of the Viceroys perhaps then he'll
think sometimes of the wretched woman to
whom he first recalled the sense of woman-
hood and her duty to her country, the woman
who to-night has betrayed the Society of Jesus
to the Brotherhood of Freemasons, because
she loves Santa Anna."
" Juana, you are not yourself, — you are sad
— you weep."
It was the effeminate lisp of His Excellency,
Don Juan Apodaca, Viceroy of Mexico.
The lady Juana la Garza looked at Don Juan
Apodaca as he stood under the glare of many
lights, bowing low and smiling with the self-
assurance of one of absolute power and her
face took on an expression of icy reserve that
was almost contempt. And this insignificant,
dissipated, aristocratic little Manling with his
smooth-shaven, pallid face, his scarlet and gold
uniform just showing under his cassock, this
48 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
man had come between husband and wife and
made her a wanton ?
Dios — how she hated the man.
" I have come to bid you farewell, Juana.
For I go to a private audience with the Cap-
tain of the City Guard and the Lord Bishop of
Vera Cruz," continued the Viceroy.
She started. The Lord Bishop of Vera
Cruz ! If the Viceroy should see him and learn
of Santa Anna's deception, he would set on
foot all the vast machinery of the soldiery,
and throw such a cordon of troops around the
city, that the rebel General must eventually
be captured. No, the Viceroy must not be
permitted to attend this audience.
The lady Juana la Garza became at once
the fascinating, beautiful woman of the
world.
With her most charming smile, she took the
Viceroy's hand, gently in her own.
" Your Excellency shows me but scant court-
esy," she murmured softly. " I have so looked
forward to the moment when you would spend
another night at Casa Garza and whisper in
my ears the old familiar story. But no — your
love for me is on the wane. You are like all
the rest, and I had learned to think your love,
at least, something more than the fleeting pas-
time of a moment."
" Valgame D;os — Juana — my darling — you
love me still, and I — poor wretched fool — I
thought you had long since wearied of your
Viceroy."
The Fete in Honor of the Viceroy. 49
And His Excellency dropping upon his knees
seized her little hand rapturously.
Nor did she withdraw it.
" Your Excellency will ever be my foremost
thought in life," she said, smiling upon him.
" Since you and you alone awakened in my soul
first thought of love, I forgive your recent
neglect, but conditionally."
" Conditionally ? " echoed the Viceroy.
"Come with me to my boudoir and suffer
the tiresome old Bishop of Vera Cruz to cool
his heels in the anteroom until morning. It
will do him good."
" But the matter is of moment — there are
strange rumors " began the Viceroy.
"Ah, you hesitate between a prosaic old
priest and a night of love ? " broke in the lady
poutingly.
" Dios no ! " replied the Viceroy. " Else
would I not be a man ! so, lead on, sefiora, to
the boudoir."
"And to my husband, libertine," whispered
the lady as she smilingly took his arm.
50 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
CHAPTER V.
THE MILLION-DOLLAR CONVOY OF THE
VICEROY.
At every exit from the Capitol, a cordon of
the City Guard performed sentry duty, with
instructions to allow no one to pass their lines
without the password.
The password had been changed by the Vice-
roy at the hour of the Angelus.
A little band of scarlet troopers, the most
devoted and intrepid of Colonel Iturbide's
regiment — men who would have followed him
to the very gates of Hell — awaited only a word
from their beloved leader to make a dash for
liberty.
But Iturbide remembered that the woman he
loved rode at his side, and he would not
needlessly endanger her life by a sudden dash
through the Royalist lines.
" A hundred and twenty of us, amigos," he
said. " Now do you, Captain Lara, assume
command of this troop and I will see the officer
of the guard, and if possible persuade him to
pass my men. If not we must cut our way
through. This lady rides in the center of
the troop and I hold each one of you re-
The Million-Dollar Convoy. 51
sponsible for her safety. You understand, my
friends ? "
The troopers saluted, and Captain Lara
placed himself at the head of the column.
Iturbide approached the sentry, who, recog-
nizing his Colonel's insignia, in the glare of the
flambeaux, saluted. In a brusque voice the
Colonel cried :
" The Acapulco troop of Los Rojos — one
hundred and twenty strong."
The officer of the City Guard saluted.
" And the password, senor Colonel? "
" Is it necessary in my case, amigo ? " bland-
ly asked Iturbide.
" My orders, senor Colonel."
" And you cannot pass my troop upon my
recognizance?" pursued Iturbide.
" Impossible, senor Colonel. My orders
were most strict," said the man.
" Have you tablets with you ? " asked Itur-
bide.
The man nodded and handed them to his
interlocutor.
Iturbide hastily wrote upon them,
" Ultima ratio regum — Iturbide."
That is to say — War !
And handing them to the man added, " For
the Viceroy."
Then raising his saber above his head Itur-
bide cried :
" Attention— soldiers of the Reds ! "
The troopers straightened themselves in
their saddles.
52 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
" And the password, senor Colonel ? " per-
sisted the sentry, this time grasping the bridle
of Iturbide's horse.
" Is this," replied Iturbide, striking the fellow
between the eyes with the hilt of his sword.
The sentry fell to the ground moaning. There
was an instant commotion in the camp of the
City Guard, and a running to arms.
"Forward!" cried Iturbide waving his
sword.
And the scarlet-clad troop dashed through
the camp, riding down many a poor devil who
chanced to be in their path.
The pace was kept up for several leagues and
then lessened to an ordinary cavalry trot.
There seemed to be an unusually large crowd
of pilgrims, canonigos, and leperos traveling
the road towards the Capitol, and Captain Lara,
smiling, grimly said :
" We are safe from pursuit, Colonel mine."
" And I on the contrary think we will be
hard put to it," said Iturbide meditatively.
" Noticed you the pilgrims and leperos on
the road behind us, Colonel mine ? " asked Cap-
tain Lara.
" A somewhat out of-the-ordinary number
of wayfarers," was the reply.
" They are the outposts of the rebel forces,"
continued Captain Lara. " And, por Dios, the
whole cordon of the City Guard could not pass
them by in time to overtake us."
" Then press we on to the Posada del Sabi-
nal," said Iturbide. '■ If we overhaul the
The Million Dollar Convoy. 53
million-dollar convoy of the Viceroy, we sound
the death knell of Spanish rule in Mexico."
The night was well on. A gibbous moon
threw weird, ghastly shadows into the guest-
room of the Posada del Sabinal, where at a
long table, four priests and a stylishly dressed
woman in a rich riding habit of green and gold,
sat over their wine conversing in whispers.
A slatternly, wheezing old boniface, limped
around a little more rapidly than was his wont,
because the Blessed Virgin, did not usually
favor him with such a large patronage — and so
select — four priests and a lady. And the land-
lord of the Posada del Sabinal, in the intervals
of leisure offered him, wheezed out a few extra
prayers to the Blessed Virgin and told off a
few additional beads on his rosary. For the
landlord's heart was glad.
Presently, the lady left her companions, and
going to the open door shaded her eyes in the
most vain endeavor to discern if there might be
any wayfarers or soldiery approaching along
the endless, dry, alkali, dusty road.
Before her stretched a vast tableland, sparse
of vegetation, save for the great organ cacti,
sending their giant stalks in every direction,
and the less conspicuous chaparral and mes-
quit bushes through which the sinuous, wind-
ing road curled in and out, losing itself in the
distance. To the east not a sign of human
being or animal. To the west the road wound
abruptly off from the Posada del Sabinal, hid-
den by the abnormally large cacti, ever increas-
54 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
ing in size as they were nearer the bare moun-
tains and higher altitude.
About a mile above the inn, in the desert, a
road from the south intersected the main road.
This the young woman could not see from her
coigne of observation. But her sense of hear-
ing trained to a superfine acuteness, caught the
faintest rumble of the wheels in the distance.
" The convoy of the Viceroy," she cried,
turning quickly to her companions.
" Confusion to the Viceroy," said the priests
rising and clutching their glasses.
The young woman abruptly closed the door,
fastening the latch on the inside.
" Courage — companeros ! " she murmured,
resuming her place at the head of the table.
And now the heavy rumble of the conducta,
along the hard, dry road, was heard, broken by
the cracking of whips and the hoarse cries of
the escort.
There was the sound of horsemen without,
followed by a loud knocking and a few choice
oaths.
" Oiga — Santo Dios — open in the name of the
Viceroy ! " growled a harsh, rough voice.
" Coming — brave sefiores — coming," wheezed
the old boniface, limping to the door and loos-
ing the latch.
" Well— Mother of God— it is time—" quoth
the newcomer, very angrily, stalking into the
room.
Then seeing the lady he made an awkward
military bow, his helmet in his hand, saying :
The Million-Dollar Convoy. 55
"Your pardon, sefiora, and fathers all."
" Granted, Captain mine, right readily, if you
will join us at table," said the lady grac-
iously.
" That I may not do, senorita," returned the
stranger ; " but I will gladly join you in a copita
of wine. And then I must push on, by order
of His Excellency."
" And suppose I should give you His Excel-
lency's permission to tarry with us here ? " asked
the lady with a winning smile.
" And were it possible, I would too gladly
stay," rejoined the stranger, " for the night
promises to be a stormy one."
" Then, senor Capitan, know that I am the
Viceroy's niece, Senora Fernandez, sent here to
intercept your conducta," said the lady and
smiled upon him.
" To intercept the conducta — ? " faltered the
officer. " Then you know ? "
" I know, senor Capitan, that a million-dol-
lar convoy, with but one troop of cavalry, even
though they be of our ' Viceroy's Own,' can-
not with safety risk the roads these troublous
times. And so I asked my uncle to forward an
additional force for your protection."
" Most kind and considerate lady, I thank
you," responded the officer ; " but I think,
nevertheless, your fears are groundless. No
sign of human being have we met upon the road
this day."
" And yet they say that Santa Anna and his
dare-devils are abroad," replied the lady.
56 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
" Bah — a mere boy," contemptuously replied
the officer.
" And Guerrero and his guerillas," added
the lady.
" An old man," replied the officer. " I would
despatch them both at short notice with their
canaille — for they could make no organized re-
sistance to the picked troops of the Viceroy's
Own. Still, to please the mood of one so fair,
I will wait the coming of the reinforcements."
And excusing himself, the Captain went out
to direct the corralling of the convoy.
The priests and the lady indulged in no little
merriment at the expense of the unsuspecting
officer.
The future of Mexico rests in the possession
of this convoy," muttered one of the priests,
looking thoughtfully into the carafe of spark-
ling wine before him.
" Dios — with a million in bullion — almost any
man might precipitate a revolution," added the
lady, then paused abruptly.
The strange officer had returned.
" Pardon the delay, lady," he said. " And
now to introduce myself — Captain Berdejo of
the Jalapa troop of the Viceroy's Own."
" And my father confessor, Fray Jimenez,
de profession Catolico, Apostolico y Romano,"
replied the lady indicating the tall priest at her
left with a graceful gesture.
The two men shook hands and embraced,
and then the tall priest introduced his compan-
ions.
The Million-Dollar Convoy. 57
The Captain of the Convoy took his seat at
the lady's right and gallantly accepted the
copita of wine which she offered him.
Then ensued a brilliant and spirited conver-
sation, interspersed with many a jest and story.
Two hours passed.
A terrific peal of thunder, followed by a
blinding flash of lightning, for a moment
silenced the party.
Outside the wind was howling with a fierce
and angry gusto, and such a downpour of
heavy rain was falling as falls in Mexico alone.
" Drink up, drink up, senor Captain, and
thank the good God that you have a friendly
shelter overhead on this night of all nights,''
laughed the lady, desirous of keeping the
officer's attention from without."
" I do indeed thank the good God," replied
Captain Berdejo crossing himself. " But I
could have sworn I heard the clash of sabers
and the shouting of voices in combat."
" Nonsense, amigo — the storm has unmanned
you," softly purred the lady with a merri-
ment she did not feel, for she, too, fancied she
heard the clash of steel upon steel.
A sonorous crash from the heavens above
almost drowned her voice, and the rain fell
with increasing vigor.
" My lady there is nothing terrifying to
Captain Berdejo, of the Viceroy's Own," said
the officer gravely. " And His Excellency
well knew that his convoy, entrusted to my
troop, was absolutely safe."
53 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
" Even from Santa Anna?" asked the lady.
" Aye, from Santa Anna — from Guerrero —
from Guadalupe Victoria "
The door opened and a great gust of wind
extinguished the flickering candles. A vivid
peal followed by another. Then a tense flash
of lightning showed the startled merrymakers
the figure of a man in the uniform of the
Blues, bleeding from many wounds and lean-
ing upon a reddened saber.
And then darkness.
But in a break of the storm, a faint, ever
weakening voice, the voice of a dying man,
growing ever fainter and fainter.
" Mother of God — we fought — Captain —
but the Reds — Iturbide — ah Dios "
The sound of a dull thud and the clang of
steel against the wall.
Then silence.
All were upon their feet, awed by this
apparition of the night. One of the priests
lit a candle.
Captain Berdejo was leaning back against
the wall like one distraught, whose faculties
had taken sudden leave.
" What — what — does the man mean ? " he
asked faintly.
" He means that you have been the guest of
Santa Anna's sister, sefior Captain," said the
young woman. " He means that the convoy
of His Excellency will never reach the Capitol."
" You — you — ah, she-devil ! " shrieked Cap-
tain Berdejo, frantically grasping his sword hilt.
The Million-Dollar Convoy. 59
But the lady pressed the point of a jeweled
stiletto to his throat and calmly looking into
his face said :
" Patience, my brave Captain. Your cause
is irrevocably lost."
And the Captain of the Convoy could only
look into that pretty, laughing face, for he
read death in the limpid black eyes.
By the flickering candlelight, he could see
the black, statue-like forms of the priests
standing immobile in their places — a silent
dead thing in a tattered, blood-bespattered
blue uniform, lying disordered in the doorway,
— the slim figure of a young girl in a riding
habit, calmly pressing her murderous stiletto
upon his throat.
Simultaneously the room was filled with a
crowd of blood-bespattered troopers, in scarlet
uniforms, with great shakos and encrimsoned
sabers.
One man separated himself from his fellows,
one man in the gold and scarlet uniform of a
Colonel of cavalry, and advanced towards the
tall priest with the light of battle still shining
in his eyes.
Troopers and priests fell upon their knees
with the exception of the tall man in black,
the sister of Santa Anna, and Captain Berdejo
who leaned weakly against the wall.
" The million-dollar convoy of the Viceroy
is ours and Mexico has found her master at
last," cried Iturbide triumphantly.
And Dahalia, as she looked upon him, stand-
60 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
ing there could not but compare him with the
inferior men of his suite.
He was more like a European or an Amer-
ican than a Mexican. Five feet nine in height,
of muscular build, possessing markedly oval
features, a complexion of a peculiar whitish
pallor, and brown hair and side whiskers, he
offered a striking contrast to the swarthy
faced men who surrounded him.
And as she looked, came into her eyes the
glow of the lovelight, and gently clasping his
hand she murmured :
" My hero — my Emperor — my love."
The Bedchamber of Juana La Garza. 61
CHAPTER VI.
THE BEDCHAMBER OF JUANA LA GARZA.
The faintest streak of dawn was just break-
ing over the Capitol. In the distance, through
the dim light of early morning, loomed up the
white-capped peaks of Popocatapetl and Iztac-
cihuatl. Beautiful indeed they looked in the
shimmer of the early dawn.
Across the courtyard of the Casa Garza, two
men moved noiselessly, — a priest in a black cas-
sock, and a soldier in a worn blue uniform,
wearing the insignia of a Captain of the " Vice-
roy's Own." In a darkened corner of the court-
yard, well hidden under the shadow of the
palace, a troop of helmeted hussars were drawn
up at attention, awaiting the order of their
officer.
The two men entered a private passage-way
and as noiselessly ascended to the salon above.
" You desire to meet this man alone ? " asked
the priest doubtfully.
" Alone ? Ah Dios, yes," rejoined the officer
in a subdued voice tremulous with passion.
" After all, your reverence, he is only a man
and I would be but a poor husband if I could
not defend mine honor. Wait you here
until I have returned and if I do not return
within ten minutes you may know that I have
62 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
fallen and sound the alarm to the troopers that
this foul libertine may never leave Casa Garza
alive."
And he left the priest a solitary, anxious
figure at the door.
The lady Juana la Garza, stole silently from
the great canopied bed, and moved gently to
the window, a sad-faced, pitiful looking, little
figure in white. Her beautiful, wavy hair, fell
in great curls, over her waxen shoulders. The
open folds of her robe de nuit, revealed a mag-
nificent bosom, that rose and fell in rapid
pulsations, in consonance with her breathing.
The Viceroy slept.
The lady la Garza lighted a candle from the
braziero.
Then paused, her lips half parted in a sort of
nameless terror, her eyes dilated with a sudden
fear.
For at the door opening into the salon, she
distinctly heard a low, steady knocking.
" Ah God — my husband "she murmured
faintly, " have I the courage to look him in the
face ? And after all that he has suffered be-
cause of his love for me ? It is my punishment
and I will make my atonement to the man whose
name I bear and whose name I have dishon-
ored."
With trembling hands the lady Juana la
Garza flung wide the door and looked at
the wretched man, who stood there, silent,
grim and sorrowful, in his tattered blue uniform,
still dank with the musty odors of a prison cell.
The Lady Juana la Garza flung wide the door and looked at the
wretched man who stood there, silent, grim and sorrowful.
Page 62.
The Bedchamber of Juana La Garza. 63
For a moment they did not move.
Then the lady Juana la Garza, like one in a
dream, moved slowly back, her eyes fixed with
an awful fascination upon this broken old young
man, whom she had last seen in all the splendor
of glorious young manhood.
He had not drawn his sword.
With no weapon but the light of righteous
indignation, and outraged honor in his eyes, he
followed her silently into the boudoir.
And he too looked with an awful fascination
upon the beautiful woman, who cowered there
before him.
She seemed almost too young to die.
He felt sorry for her.
He felt sorry for himself.
Perhaps he had better go away and leave this
woman to her sin.
Perhaps
A deep sigh from the sleeping Viceroy re-
called him to a sense of his duty.
He stepped over to the window and drew
aside the curtain, allowing the glorious sun rays
to stream full into the apartment.
The Viceroy stirred restlessly in his slum-
ber.
Captain la Garza drew aside the canopy of
the bed, and stood there looking at the sleep-
ing man, his eyes fixed, hypnotic, intent, — his
arms folded upon his breast.
The lady Juana la Garza, had fallen upon her
knees and was telling her rosary, before a little
altar near the window.
64 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
Gradually the Viceroy stirred restlessly —
yawned — opened his eyes, — and encountered
the stern, unrelenting gaze of Capitan la Garza.
11 Diable ! — betrayed, by heaven ! " he ex-
claimed, raising himself to a sitting posture.
Then as Capitan la Garza made no movement,
the Viceroy continued :
" I suppose it is an assassination. Well, then,
strike, sefior. I am ready."
And he bared his breast.
Captain la Garza, contemptuously pointed
to the Viceroy's sword which lay upon a chair
with his clothes.
4< It is not an assassination, Excellency. It
is retribution. Draw and defend yourself, be-
fore I forget that I am a gentleman of Mexico
and strike an unarmed man."
His tones were hard and merciless.
The Viceroy sprang from the bed and throw-
ing a dressing-gown loosely over his shoulders,
drew his sword with trembling hand.
Very leisurely Captain la Garza divested
himself of his coat and rolled up his sleeves,
and in turn drew his saber.
The two men saluted and Captain la Garza
advanced upon the Viceroy.
Their blades crossed.
Then indeed there was pretty swordplay.
The duello was one between skilled swordsmen.
It was advance and retreat, lunge, parry, parade
and riposte, to the metallic rasping of the
steel.
Slowly La Garza drove the Viceroy back, for
The Bedchamber of Juana La Garza. 65
he had it in his mind to pin him against the
wall.
His Excellency made a furious lunge and the
point of his sword just missed his opponent's
heart. His Excellency gave vent to a savage
cry of joy, as a small red spot appeared upon
La Garza's shirt-front.
But the Captain, all oblivious to his wound,
pressed his enemy the more closely.
Sparks of fire played along the two blades.
And La Garza's blade snapped asunder.
" I have you," shouted the Viceroy.
" Not yet," hissed la Garza.
And parrying the Viceroy's furious thrust,
with his broken blade, he seized him by the
throat and forced him back against the wall his
sinewy hands encircling His Excellency as in a
vise, — one, long, slender, snakelike, creeping
around the Viceroy's throat, — the other grasp-
ing the Viceroy's right hand, pinning it with
the sword, hard upon the wall behind.
The Viceroy gagged and choked. That aw-
ful, anaconda-like clasp, tightened around his
throat, strangling him, killing him. That aw-
ful, placid face, with the great, black eyes,
peering into his with a ghastly smile — the face
of Captain la Garza — ah, Dios, — he would carry
it to the grave . This must be death, in-
deed.
Through his fast glazing eyes he became
aware of a newcomer in the room.
The priest, Rafael Aristo.
And the Viceroy fainted.
5
66 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
When His Excellency gradually recovered
consciousness, he became aware of many mar-
tial, uniformed officers surrounding him where
he lay upon the bed, — of a pale, disheveled
woman, sobbing near the window, — of the
priest, Rafael Aristo.
And of the still, silent figure of Captain la
Garza, lying full length upon the floor, a great
gash upon his head.
" Madre de Dios, Your Excellency — the good
God sent me here in time to save you," cried
the priest joyfully. " A moment more and it
would have been too late — too late."
The Viceroy rose slowly and walked over
to the prostrate body of Captain la Garza.
He looked down upon it for a long time
and spurned it with his foot. Then turned
away.
" Is the man dead ? " he asked finally.
One of the officers knelt over the prostrate
figure and placed his ear to the chest.
" His heart still beats faintly, Excellency,"
he said.
" Bueno," muttered the Viceroy grimly.
Then pointing to the sobbing woman, he con-
tinued :
" Holy father, I came between this woman
and this man, in the long ago. I unite them
again. The woman would have betrayed me.
The man has dared to raise his hand against
God's anointed. See to it that they spend
their second honeymoon in the deepest dun-
geon of the Fortress of San Juan de Uloa."
The Bedchamber of Juana La Garza. 67
The lady Juana la Garza, uttered a fearful
cry of terror and agony.
11 Ah, Your Excellency, mercy, mercy," she
sobbed. " I swear as God is my judge, I am
innocent."
The priest, Rafael Aristo, roughly seized her
slender wrists, and bending over until his hot,
fevered breath touched her cheek, he hissed :
" Silence, woman. I promised you a fate
far, far worse than death if you failed us.
Daughter of the Church, no longer, — come to
the dungeons of San Juan de Uloa, — the begin-
ning of the end."
And he would have dragged her to her feet,
but that with a final shriek —
" The dungeons of San Juan de Uloa — hell
upon earth, — ah God "
She fainted.
68 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico,
CHAPTER VII.
THE HONOR OF SANTA ANNA.
His Excellency the Viceroy of Mexico sat
at table, surrounded by the officers of his staff.
The cuisine was of the richest, and the wines
were of the best. But there was no laughter
upon the Viceroy's face.
The furnishings of the apartment were of the
most luxurious. Satin upholstery, rugs of the
richest furs, massive old plate with the Vice-
regal crest, old-world china, great rosewood
chairs of state, and satin-draped settees, gave
an air of almost regal magnificence to the sur-
roundings.
His Excellency was holding one of his
famous councils in dressing-gown and slippers,
but even so his costume was of the most
elegant.
The Viceroy then did not laugh, for there
were many vacant chairs at this informal coun-
cil of war. At such a crisis when a simple up-
rising had developed into a revolution, when
the victorious armies of Agustin de Iturbide,
were advancing daily nearer the Capitol, and
driving the picked forces of Spain before them,
at such a time, His Excellency the Viceroy,
The Honor of Santa Anna. 69
had every reason to look for a full attendance
of los Gachupines, or his Spanish Generals.
But the chairs of Bustamente, Andrade,
Quintanares, Cortazares, Negrete, Echavarri,
and Novella were conspicuously vacant.
Around the official whose sun was about to
set, in the political firmament, there were still
gathered a faithful few, mostly line officers.
There was Brigadier Linan, resplendent in a
hussar uniform of blue and gold, and near him,
the Brigadier Don Jose Davila, Captain Fer-
nando del Valle and Lieutenant Navarrette.
" The case is desperate indeed," murmured
the Viceroy, glancing at the empty chairs."
" We are losing ground. Yesterday when I
went upon the Plaza Grande, I was greeted with
the cry, Viva el Virey — Live the peacemaker."
To-day there were scowling faces and sullen
silence. Dios, senores, something must be done
and quickly to retrieve our arms. Shall we unite
our forces against the arch traitor Iturbide, or
shall we make a division and attack the forces
of the lesser rebel, Santa Anna, in the south
simultaneously ? "
The vote was taken in silence.
Then the Viceroy rising said :
" Brigadier Linan, — you will take a division
and march immediately against Iturbide in the
western provinces, Brigadier Davila, you will
march at once to the southern provinces, occupy
Vera Cruz, and take the rebel Santa Anna,
dead or alive. If you find yourself forced to
surrender the Fortress of San Juan de Uloa,
70 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
you will before capitulation, sec to the instant
execution of all the prisoners confined in
the dungeons, — irrespective of sex. They are
rebels and traitors all."
" Does your Excellency include the Captain
la Garza and his wife in this order?" began
the Brigadier Davila hesitatingly.
" I believe I remarked all the prisoners, irre-
spective of sex," replied the Viceroy dryly.
The Brigadier Linan broke in.
" Our departure leaves the Capitol almost
defenseless save for the Blues and the City
Guard."
"They are all-sufficient," responded His Ex-
cellency. " Besides, to-night, Captain Berdejo
and the Jalapa troop will arrive, convoying a
conducta of one million dollars, which will give
us the means of throwing new troops into the
field. And now, gentlemen of the armies of
Spain, how soon can you put your forces in
motion ?"
" At once. The soldiers are now under
arms," was the simultaneous response.
" Then go, and God speed you," said His
Excellency.
The two Brigadiers saluted and left the
apartment. -i
The Viceroy rose.
The two remaining officers saluted.
" Captain del Valle, who is stationed at the
door to my library ? " asked the Viceroy.
" The new recruit, — the one who comes from
the southern provinces," was the reply. " He
The Honor of Santa Anna. 71
is dumb and hence the more reliable in these
uncertain times when every nook and corner
may conceal a spy."
" I passed the man but an hour since," said
the Viceroy. " There is a familiar something
about the fellow and yet I cannot place him
Pity he is dumb."
" Has Your Excellency aay orders?" asked
Captain del Valle.
" If Captain Berdejo should arrive show him
at once into the library," said His Excel-
lency. " My writing will occupy me until
morning."
The officers saluted and withdrew. The
Viceroy gazed around the now silent, deserted
room and put his hand before his eyes.
" Treachery and treason — daily desertions,"
he murmured sadly. " To-night I am His
Excellency — to-morrow what ? "
Opening a private door he ascended a short,
onyx stairway of a few steps, leading into his
library. At the door, he saw a tall hussar,
with his saber at a carry, who saluted as he
approached. The Viceroy gave the man a
piercing glance as he passed, for there was
something about the fellow that made him ill
at ease.
In the library, His Excellency the Viceroy,
threw himself heavily into the state chair be-
side the table, and after glancing at the docu-
ments with which it was littered, began a care-
ful study of the map.
The upholstering of the library was of crim-
72 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
son satin, the furniture was of dark mahogany,
and the scarlet shades of the candelabra en-
hanced the somber hues. A large, onyx inlaid
table, was in the center of the apartment, upon
which was a saber with jeweled hilt and a pair
of pistols.
An hour passed — an hour of silence, broken
only by the tick, tick, tick, tick, of the old
clock, which had ticked for the nightly vigils of
sixty-seven Spanish Viceroys.
The door opened and closed.
His Excellency looked up.
Before him stood the sentry.
With his sword at a carry, he saluted, then
placed it in its sheath, and stood there in
silence, his arms folded upon his breast.
" Eh — what ? I did not summon you, fel-
low," gasped the Viceroy, with a vague
alarm.
The soldier removed his helmet and the
Viceroy sank back in the great chair, his brow
pallid and clammy.
" Santa Anna " he gasped.
" Santa Anna," calmly said the soldier, in a
dull, hard voice.
" You are mad, man. Do you not know
that with a single pull of the bell-cord, I can
summon those who will lead you forth to in-
stant execution as a spy? "
And His Excellency stretched out his hand
towards the bell-cord, but there was something
in Santa Anna's face, that arrested his hand.
" Why are you here ? " he asked abruptly.
The Honor of Santa Anna. 73
"To obtain from you an order releasing the
lady Juana la Garza, from the Fortress of
San Juan de Uloa," said Santa Anna.
"And you offer in return for this?" sneered
the Viceroy.
" Your life," said Santa Anna.
Then as the Viceroy again stretched his
hand towards the bell-cord, Santa Anna con-
tinued :
" Excellency, we two are absolutely alone.
Before your officers can come to your assist-
ance, one or both of us will be dead."
Again His Excellency refrained from pulling
the bell-cord. For he knew that Santa Anna
spoke the truth.
" You offer me but small return when you
offer me my life," he said earnestly. " For to
a man like me my vengeance is dearer than
life itself. And after all my star is on the
wane. Perhaps I might hold a more honored
place in history, were I to fall by the hand of
Santa Anna to-night. For to-night I am still
His Excellency the Viceroy of Mexico and to-
night the proud banner of old Spain floats
over the Capitol. But to-morrow "
He did not complete his sentence, but buried
his face in his hands.
Nor did Santa Anna speak.
Finally His Excellency resumed :
"You are a brave man, General Santa Anna,
and I believe that with your support, the cause
of the Bourbons will triumph in Mexico. Take
the field under the Spanish banner and I will
74 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
give you the life and liberty of the woman you
love."
And a crafty smile overspread the bilious
face of His Excellency.
" Draw my sword for the accursed cause
against which I have fought these many years
— draw my sword against my brother-in arms,
Iturbide ? It would be dishonor, unworthy of
a Mexican gentleman," cried Santa Anna.
" Dishonor — Iturbide," softly said the Vice-
roy with his fathomless, crafty smile. " Strange
that you should link the two, my friend. They
are synonymous."
" What do you mean ? " asked Santa Anna.
" Will you force me to say that which will
cause you regret all through your life ?" asked
the Viceroy.
" I do not understand Your Excellency,"
said Santa Anna. " Dishonor — Iturbide — ■
synonymous ? Ah God — you do not mean my
little sister Dahalia? Tell me you do not
mean my little sister Dahalia, — Excellency.
He is to marry her. He gave me his word as
a gentleman of Mexico. Madre de Dios — why
does Your Excellency not speak? You are
torturing me."
The Viceroy bowed his head again upon his
hands, and was silent.
Santa Anna continued :
" Our dear old mother entrusted her to my
care when she was but a nifia — a little, toddling,
innocent child. And I have watched over her
and guarded her these many years. And only
The Honor of Santa Anna. 75
when I thought I was going to certain death
did I entrust her to the care of the Liberator
General, — a gentleman of Mexico — her affi-
anced husband."
The Viceroy shook his head sadly.
" Do you not know that General Iturbide
has a wife living in the province of Valladolid ? "
he asked.
With a groan Santa Anna sank into a chair,
his form shaken by a great emotion.
The Viceroy could have easily summoned his
officers and overpowered the man. But he
thought to win him over to the cause of Spain.
After a long interval Santa Anna rose, once
more himself.
" Is this the truth, Your Excellency ? " he
asked in a forced, unnatural voice.
" On my honor as a Spanish nobleman," re-
plied the Viceroy, very solemnly.
" Then accursed be the day that I gave my
hand in friendship to Agustin de Iturbide," said
Santa Anna. " As I have labored to raise him
to the supremacy of Mexico, so henceforth I
shall labor to his undoing."
"And I will aid you," said the Viceroy, a
great joy in his eyes. " For I will commission
you a Brigadier of the Spanish line."
" Excellency — there is one thing I place
above all personal feeling," replied Santa
Anna gravely. " Mexico — my country. This
man — Iturbide — has driven back your forces
almost to the Capitol. He is on the eve of
establishing the Independence of Mexico. So
76 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
be it. The private vengeance of Santa Anna
can wait. But when this new star in the fir-
mament shall have risen almost to the highest
pinnacle of his ambition, he shall find his Santa
Anna as England's Edward found his War-
wick."
11 Then you refuse a Brigadier's commission
in our army?" said the Viceroy. " You will
fight for the cause of a man who has attainted
your name with dishonor?"
" Por Dios — no," thundered Santa Anna.
" Release the lady — Juana la Garza — and I
pledge you my word, as a Mexican gentleman,
to retire to my hacienda of Mango de Clavo,
and suffer Iturbide to work out his destiny
alone."
" So be it," said the Viceroy and grasped his
pen.
This was a victory half gained.
When he had finished his writing, and
stamped the document with the royal seal, he
handed the paper to Santa Anna.
" This is the first of the month," he said.
''That order will release the lady Juana la
Garza from the Fortress of San Juan de Uloa
on the fifteenth at high noon."
Santa Anna saluted.
" I thank Your Excellency. I shall not for-
get what you have done for me this night.
Henceforth Santa Anna lives but for two
things — love and vengeance."
A moment and he was gone.
The Viceroy looked after him sneeringly.
The Honor of Santa Anna. Jj
" Poor fool — poor fool ! " he muttered. " But
a moment ago you held the destiny of Mexico
in your hand and you sacrificed your great
opportunity for the love of a woman you will
never, never see again."
Once more the door opened and closed. His
Excellency looked up. Before him stood a
dust-covered, haggard trooper, with downcast,
livid countenance.
He saluted with his saber.
Then advanced to the Viceroy and laid it
upon the table. Next tore off the gold-laced
insignia of an officer of the Blues and cast them
to the ground.
" Excellency " he faltered, the tears cours-
ing down his cheeks.
The Viceroy of Mexico sprang up and swore
a great oath.
" The convoy ! " he gasped, " the one mil-
lion in Spanish bullion? "
" Is in the hands of Iturbide," groaned Cap-
tain Berdejo.
" Santo Dios ! and the Jalapa troop — the
pride of my regiment — permitted this?"
shrieked the Viceroy.
" There is no longer a Jalapa troop, Excel-
lency. They fell fighting for you," groaned
the man.
" And you ? " shrieked the Viceroy.
" I returned to make the only reparation a
soldier can," said the Captain of the Jalapa
troop. " Or else to retrieve mine honor."
" There is but one reparation you can make,"
78 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
said the Viceroy grimly. And he took up one
of the pistols from the table.
" I am ready, Excellency," said the Captain,
folding his arms, and throwing his head back
with a new-found joy in his eyes.
The Viceroy fired.
Intentionally or otherwise he missed his aim.
The Cajotain of the Jalapa troop never
moved.
The Viceroy looked at him a moment in
admiration, then tossed the pistol aside with
a bitter laugh.
" No, no, my brave Captain. It is not such
men as you that I can spare at such a time. I
give you your life for the present," he said.
'•You give — me — my life, Excellency?"
gasped the Captain of the Jalapa troop, falling
upon his knees. " And my pardon ? "
" Not yet," replied the Viceroy, writing rap-
idly at the table. " You are under sentence
of death until "
And he finished his writing and sealed the
document with the royal arms. Then con-
tinued —
" Until you bring me convincing proof, that
the lady J uana la Garza is dead. Here are two
documents. One is an order for the immediate
execution of Captain la Garza and his wife, the
lady Juana, at eleven o'clock, of the 15th day
of this month. The other is an order for the
delivery of the body of the lady Juana la Garza
to the General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna,
at high noon of the 15th. You understand? "
The Honor of Santa Anna. 79
And he handed him the documents.
" I understand, Excellency," said the Cap-
tain of the Jalapa troop. " Henceforth I live
but to serve you, and I shall not rest until I
have seen these two enemies of my master
dead."
" Bueno," said the Viceroy of Mexico sternly.
" And remember, you serve me best by put-
ting this foul, treacherous woman where she
can lure no more men to ruin. Hasta la vista,
pues, hasta, amigo. By riding night and day,
you can reach the Fortress of San Juan de
Uloa, on the evening of the 14th."
" Your orders shall be obeyed," said the
Captain of the Jalapa troop. Then saluted
and with an " Adios, Excellency," left the
room.
When he had gone the Viceroy buried his
face in his hands.
Finally :
" My cause is lost — lost irrevocably. But I
think my revenge will almost be worth the loss
of a one-million-dollar convoy."
8o Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DUNGEONS OF SAN JUAN DE ULOA.
On a rocky island commanding the city of
Vera Cruz, towering skyward, stands the Castle
of San Juan de Uloa, the heritage left by Her-
nan Cortez to the Viceroys of Mexico. Blacker
than the Black Hole of Calcutta within,
strongly fortified as Gibraltar without, it stood
apart upon its little morro, a little hell in it-
self.
Loud around it roared many an angry storm.
Hoarse against its crags dashed many pitiless
breakers.
But all the noises of the heavens above, and
of the ocean beneath could not suffice to drown
the awful, pitiful, wailing shrieks of the poor
wretches doomed to the misery of durance in
San Juan de Uloa.
Spain has left many a bloody page on the
memorials of history and when in the aftertime
her name shall be called from the roll of the
world's nations, there will rise in accusation
against her, from her new world records, a
Montezuma, an Ahatualpa, a Hidalgo, a Mina,
and a host of martyrs, whose blood has served
to glut the appetites of her creatures. But
when the blackest page of her new world record
The Dungeons of San Juan De Uloa. 81
is scanned, methinks the name of San Juan de
Uloa will stand blazoned out in letters of
blood-red scarlet.
There are dungeons upon dungeons in the
great military prisons of the world, but no-
where are there such dungeons as in the Fort-
ress of San Juan de Uloa.
Situated far below the level of the sea,
beneath the buttresses of the Castle, extending
some sixteen feet below, their stony walls were
possessed of a dank, disagreeable, fever-breed-
ing humidity. Their floors were more or less
covered with water from the sea and not infre-
quently great crabs and shiny jellyfish would
ooze in and awaken the sleeping wretches con-
fined there with nightmare of realism. Fetid,
vaultlike odors had seasoned the gloomy life
coffins, until el vomito became a frequent
visitor, and the very sentries on guard shud-
dered and were staggered with nausea, as they
opened the low doors, to toss the scant allow-
ance to the hungry skeletons within, who tore
and clawed at the bits of food like vultures
quarreling over cadaverous repast. And well
they might. For the rations were not many.
Upon the prison records the allowance daily
per capita was of bread four ounces, of rice
three ounces, and of beans three.
But the venial officials of a venial nation,
often curtailed this and the result was that the
Fortress of San Juan de Uloa was the dwelling
place of life in death. The beans and rice were
always cooked in salt water, that the prisoners
6
82 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
might learn the lesson of economy and not
yearn for second service.
Prison economy was not limited to food, but
extended even to the manacles. As a means
of saving space, the unfortunate wretches were
chained by twos or threes or fours, men and
women, arm to arm and leg to leg.
The only light came from a slit-like aperture
at the top, and one hardly knew whether it was
night or day.
It was night.
Deepest silence everywhere, broken by an
occasional long-drawn sigh or lingering groan.
Face forward on a slimy, dirty surface, a man
and a woman lay, manacled to the floor. The
man's face was covered by a rough beard of
many days' growth, his hair, matted and un-
kempt, hanging in shaggy, tangled locks over
his shoulders. Something cold and gristly
whisked by his ear with a shrill squeak, and
Captain la Garza gibbered and laughed fran-
tically, — for long-suffering had made him mad.
The lady Juana la Garza, pinioned to the floor
near him, could only look and look and look
with a great pity in the direction of the man
whom once she had loved.
And she tried to remember the gallant young
officer, in his blue and gold hussar uniform, who
had led her to the altar and given her his name.
A name she had sullied with dishonor.
The man who was now a poor, unhappy fool,
a vacant stare upon his face, the laugh of idiocy
upon his lips, great clots of blood upon his
O be
The Dungeons of San Juan De Uloa. 83
clothes, and upon his wrists and limbs suppur-
ating ulcers from the cruel irons, sores in which
the processes of decomposition and gangrene
were already far advanced.
His sufferings must have been awful. Chain-
ed beside him was the dead, decomposing body
of an old man.
Only the preceding day, the Surgeon of the
Fortress had drawn up a memorial to the Gov-
ernor, stating that another day under such con-
ditions meant certain death for Captain la
Garza. For the Surgeon had a spark of pity
for the poor devils under his care, being still a
young man and not yet hardened to such
things.
But the Governor of the Fortress wrote upon
the memorial, —
" Que los lleve, mientras respira."
Which is to say :
" While he breathes, he shall wear them."
And so signed the death warrant of Captain
la Garza.
From overhead the great bell of the Castle
tolled midnight and the slow, measured clangor
sounded through the thick walls of the dungeon,
like a mortuary summons.
It was the morning of the fifteenth of the
month.
Gradually the wild laughter of the prisoner
ceased. In his eyes shone the light of battle.
In his fevered imagination he heard the rattle
of musketry and the rasping clash of steel upon
steel. He seemed to hear the roar of conflict
84 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
in the distance, — the curdling grito of his
troopers as they swept on to the charge and
carnage and conflict.
" At them, muchachos, at them," he shouted
wildly. " For old Spain."
And he strove to tear himself from that
merciless grip of steel, — which held him down
— down — down — to the dank floor.
" For the honor of old Spain ! " he cried
again in clear, ringing tones.
And then died.
With every faculty strained to its utmost
tension, the lady Juana la Garza lay there anx-
iously awaiting the first break of dawn. All
sorts of uncanny terrors possessed her. She
missed the gibbering of the maniac. There
had been a sense of human companionship even
in that awful, guttural murmuring — unintel-
ligible though it was.
Finally, through the slitlike lattice, the weird
grayish light of the dawn broke into the dun-
geon.
With dilated, staring eyes, the lady Juana la
Garza peered into the gloom to see if her hus-
band slept.
And when she saw the still, silent figure, sud-
denly came the realization that he did indeed
sleep, and that his sleep was that which knows
no waking.
Overcome by the horror of it all she fainted.
The Castle bell tolled ten o'clock, in mournful
cadence.
The Dungeons of San Juan De Uloa. 85
It was the morning of the fifteenth.
In the Governor's room a squad of soldiers
were receiving their instructions as to the con-
duct of the execution of two prisoners of state,
which was set for eleven.
Upon the battlements, overlooking the city
of Vera Cruz, — all ignorant of the preparations
going on within the Governor's room, — General
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna paced restlessly
to and fro, awaiting the coming of that noon,
which should restore to his arms the woman he
loved.
Along a dark, ill-lighted passage, the priest,
Rafael Aristo, moved rapidly. For time was
passing quickly, and the Governor allowed him
only half an hour to confess the prisoners.
A surly turnkey preceded him and stopped
before Cell No. 13, the lowermost dungeon in
the tier. Inserting a great key in the rusty lock
the turnkey roughly pushed the great door in-
wards.
The priest, Rafael Aristo, entered the dun-
geon.
The lady Juana la Garza looked at him with
the hunted look of an animal at bay, and her
whole form shook with fear.
But Rafael Aristo raised his hand in bene-
diction, while the turnkey unlocked the man-
acles that held her in a vice.
" Courage, my daughter," he murmured, " I
come to save you. To restore you to the arms
of your lover, General Santa Anna."
" To save me ? " echoed the lady, like one in
86 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
a dream. " To restore me to General Santa
Anna ? "
And there was a radiant look of hope upon
her wan face and a great joy in her eyes.
"Yes, my daughter," continued the priest
softly. The Viceroy has ordered your ex-
ecution within the next hour, and the Gov-
ernor is even now making his preparations.
This faithful fellow is a good Catholic and has
consented to give me his aid in saving you.
The passage without leads to the Santiago
bastion, which is unguarded. A boat waits us
there. Come, my daughter, for the time
presses. Come, — to liberty and to Santa Anna."
And he supported her trembling figure upon
his arm.
Together they followed the turnkey along
the passage-way, and presently stood upon the
Santiago bastion.
Beneath them roared, seethed, swept, ad-
vanced, retreated, the angry breakers. They
dashed against the hard, irregular cliffs of San
Juan de Uloa. They leaped joyously, tossing
white flecks of foam in air. They crept again
into the grander, vaster expanse behind. And
again advanced in renewed onslaught, upon the
rocky barriers.
Oh ! the welcome, soothing roar of these
whitecapped breakers ! The inspiration of the
salt sea-air !
The scintillating glint of the joyous waves
was reflected by the sun-rays, athwart the
gloomy fortress walls around and behind them.
The Dungeons of San Juan De Uloa. 8j
When the turnkey had prepared the boat,
the priest assisted the lady to a seat in the
stern and the man pushed off, keeping well
under the shadow of the great battlements to
escape the eyes of the sentries above.
" Is it not glorious to breathe the salt air and
to see grand old ocean ? " asked the priest with
a strange smile upon his face.
But the lady was sobbing from very excess
of joy.
" My daughter, if you look to the extreme
northern battlement, you will just discern the
figure of a man standing erect and looking to-
wards Vera Cruz," continued the priest, Rafael
Aristo.
The lady Juana la Garza looked, but made
no remark.
The priest continued :
" It is the rebel General, Antonio Lopez de
Santa Anna."
And seeing the wonder in the lady's eyes, he
continued :
" My daughter, I promised you a fate, far,
far worse, than any death of which you could
dream, if you failed us. Your imprisonment,
in San Juan de Uloa, was but the beginning.
The end was yet to come. Even death cannot
cheat the Church of Rome of its vengeance.
I, Rafael Aristo, have this day cheated death
of a victim, that I might exact that retribution
which the Church demands. Henceforth, there
are but two persons in this world — you and
myself. Over in the city yonder, two swift
88 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
horses await us. Together wc will go to the
summits of the Cumbres. You shall live with
me the life of a wild beast, where no man
knoweth. At night, your bed shall be upon the
open. By day, we will climb up, up, ever up,
and there shall be no rest. So day by day,
we shall travel on through the mesquit and
chaparral of the Southland, fleeing in terror
from the wild beasts and the reptiles every-
where abounding. Living upon the dried bark
and berries of the forest. Up, up, up, and
on, on, on, until all reason has left us and we
are, stark, staring mad. Then, perhaps my
heart will find that pity which it now knows
not."
The priest ceased abruptly. But in his eyes
was the fierce, wild glare of the fanatic.
The woman looked long into his face, fas-
cinated by that awful, penetrating stare.
Then, with a shriek of awful agony, would
have flung herself in to the sea.
But he felled her with a swift blow.
And raising his hand, said solemnly —
" For the good of the Church of Rome."
General Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
saluted indifferently as Captain Berdejo joined
him upon the ramparts of San Juan de Uloa.
" You come from the north, senor Capitan ? "
he asked fixing the other with a penetrating
glance.
" On behalf of His Excellency the Viceroy,"
replied Captain Berdejo brusquely. " On much
The Dungeons of San Juan De Uloa. 89
the same business, I fancy that brings the
General Santa Anna to Vera Cruz."
And Captain Berdejo winked knowingly at
General Santa Anna.
" I do not understand you, sefior Captain,"
Santa Anna replied coldly.
" Ah, so," said the other. Then tapping the
papers in his belt he continued : " I fancy I
have the duplicate of the document which
brings the General Santa Anna to Vera Cruz.
His Excellency the Viceroy makes me his ex-
ecutioner and makes the rebel General Santa
Anna the custodian of the dead."
Santa Anna started, restrained himself and,
assuming an indifference he did not feel, asked :
" Executioner ? Ah, I think I understand —
I think I understand, senor Capitan. His Ex-
cellency has passed sentence upon the heretic,
Captain la Garza ? "
" Not upon the man alone but upon the
woman as well, General Santa Anna," replied
Captain Berdejo, and produced the papers from
his belt. " See, here is the sentence of death
upon Captain la Garza and the lady Juana his
wife, to be carried out at eleven o'clock of the
morning of the fifteenth of the month. The
other document is an order to the Governor of
the Fortress giving into your custody the body
of the lady Juana la Garza at twelve noon of
the same day. Well, senor, it is just five
minutes to eleven o'clock, and in five minutes
this double execution will take place. My
troopers are even now gone to conduct the
Qo Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
the prisoners to the ramparts. I am a soldier,
seftor General, but am a man as well, and being
a man I have known what it is to love. I have
heard of your love for the lady Juana la Garza.
Perhaps I am doing what is wrong but I will
take the chance. I think the Viceroy plays
you false. My duty will I do, sciior General
Santa Anna, but it is my purpose to offer you
a last farewell and a word in private with the
woman you love."
General Santa Anna took from the hands of
the other the documents as though to read
them, speaking never a word. Then stepped
to the extreme end of the rampart and whistled
softly.
" What — you do not accept my offer ? " asked
Captain Berdejo in amazement. He thought
the General Santa Anna was signaling for
his boatmen. As indeed he was.
" It will not be necessary, seilor Capitan,"
blandly responded the rebel General. " And
yet I thank you for the service you intended."
Two score of fierce-looking J orocho cavalry-
men ascended the ramparts and ranged them-
selves behind their General. They were all
armed to the teeth, their belts stuck full of pis-
tols, and each brandishing a heavy saber.
At a signal from Santa Anna they took pos-
session of a battery and turned the guns so
that they commanded every approach to the
rampart.
" What does this mean ? " queried Captain
Berdejo fiercely, his hand upon his sword-hilt.
The Dungeons of San Juan De Uloa. 91
" It means that there will be no execution
to-dav, seilor Capitan," smiled Santa Anna,
the gleam of the devil in his beady eyes. And
he spat upon the papers of the Viceroy and
threw them into the sea. " Santa Anna is
not quite a fool, nor did he trust entirely to
the Viceroy. I came prepared for peace or
war. The Viceroy has declared war. So be it.
This battery commands the powder magazines
of the Fortress. Let the Governor proceed
with the execution, sefior, and then "
" And then gasped Captain Berdejo."
" Why then we'll all go to hell together,"
sneered Santa Anna.
He would have said more but that the bell
of the castle pealed long and violently. The
Governor of the Fortress appeared suddenly
upon the ramparts followed by the officers of
his staff.
" The prisoners — guard the prisoners ! "
shouted Berdejo as he rushed towards the
group of men.
" The prisoners ! " gasped the Governor,
tremulous with rage. " The prisoners — cospita,
senores, the prisoners have escaped. But, thank
God, it is not too late. Turn the guns upon
them."
And he pointed to a little speck upon the
water midway between the Fortress of San
Juan de Uloa and the city of Vera Cruz.
Then for the first time became aware of
General Santa Anna and his Jorochos at the
battery.
92 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
" In the name of the Viceroy," he cried, ad-
vancing a step.
But Santa Anna waved him back gaily with
his sword.
" There is no longer a Viceroy," he shouted,
with a keen note of triumph in his voice. " The
Viceroy met the Emperor Iturbide at Villa
Cordova last night and capitulated. And mine
be the first banner of revolt raised against these
double traitors. Come, gentlemen, cry with
me: Viva Santa Anna. For Santa Anna is
master of Vera Cruz and the Fortress of San
Juan de Uloa."
Only his own devoted little band took up
the cry.
Santa Anna shrugged his shoulders.
" Well, gentlemen, you do not join with
me. I must ask for 3/our swords then."
" And if we refuse ? " asked the Governor
half-heartedly.
Santa Anna pointed to the powder maga-
zines. It was an excellent answer.
The Governor and his officers gave up their
swords.
Santa Anna turned to Captain Berdejo whose
troopers had arranged themselves around
him.
" Well, amigo, you see how it is," he con-
tinued kindly. <4 W T ill you follow the rising
star of General Santa Anna ? "
" My life and mine honor are pledged to my
Viceroy, seilor General," replied the man.
" So be it," said Santa Anna. " It is not my
The Dungeons of San Juan De Uloa. 93
custom to remain long in any man's debt.
You would have done me a service but a short
while back. My obligation I now discharge,
and give you your liberty. Go ! "
He pointed to the boat in which he had come
from Vera Cruz. Saluting stiffly the Captain
Berdejo entered with his troopers and pushed
off. Once he looked back and saw that the
banner of the rebel General Santa Anna had
replaced the flag of Spain.
At a meson in Vera Cruz he procured horses
for himself and the troopers of his party.
" Do we join the Viceroy ? " asked his lieu-
tenant, a huge, massive man with a great black
beard.
" Carramba, no," replied the Captain. " Think
you I am a fool ? We must follow those pris-
oners and carry out the will of the Viceroy
before Santa Anna sets out in pursuit. As
soon as he has the reinforcements he doubtless
expects he will set out after that woman. I
know the man."
" He will perhaps think she is safe in the
hands of the priest who compassed her escape,"
replied the lieutenant.
" As she is, no doubt, until we overtake
them," said the Captain.
" But do you seek out a Mestizo guide and
we will follow on their trail even though it
lead to the summit of the Cumbres. For it is
my life or my lady's. So hasten, companero,
the guide and then — the road again."
Saluting, the lieutenant left the meson in
94 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
quest of a Mestizo guide and as he passed the
sea wall he saw upon the beach many troops of
Jorocho cavalrymen and boat-load after boat-
load setting out for the Fortress, of which
Santa Anna was now master.
For the Church of Rome. 95
CHAPTER IX.
FOR THE GOOD OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.
On the morning of the 27th of September,
1821, a great crush of people flocked to the
southern barriers of the Capitol. There were
poverty-stricken leperos, and dirty, squalid
Indians, pressing ever so closely against the
closed caleches, through the openings of which
timidly peeped the black-robed senoras and
senoritas.
Occasionally, an Aguador, with his great clay
pitcher, strapped upon his back, and filled with
fresh water, would elbow his way through the
crowd, crying his monotonous " Agua — Agua."
Or a gaily-decked cavalier, in silver-bullioned
black jacket, with gold braided zapateros, and
great sombrero, wearing the colors of his seft-
orita upon his arm, and his gaudy serape,
jauntily wrapped around his gold-embossed
saddle, would dig the rowels of his spurs into
the foam-flecked sides of his steed, and ride
down a group of affrighted children or leperos,
to the great edification of the senoritas in the
caleches.
Merrily rang the bells of the Cathedral.
Loud sounded the petards of the soldiery.
Occasionally a troop of Rurales would dash
into the crowd with a blending of oaths, and
96 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
shouts that only added to the general confu-
sion.
At the great Portales, flanking the Vera Cruz
road, a regiment of Jalapa Infantry were drawn
up, the monotony of their long wait enlivened
by the martial music of the regimental band,
which was at times broken in upon by the dis-
tant roll of drums, or the prolonged blowing of
bugles from a distant cavalry troop.
And so it was throughout the city. In the
aristocratic residence quarter, upon the over-
hanging terraces, could be caught glimpses of
fat seiioras and slender seiioritas, with great
wavy hair, falling over their waists, and some-
times reaching to the ground. They were be-
lated risers, but had not foregone the custom-
ary morning toilet. And now having had their
heads washed, they were drying their locks.
If one looked closer upon the terraces he
might have seen some sefiora, of more embon-
point, or greater laziness than her sisters, en-
joying her morning chocolate with perhaps a
tortilla.
At the Plaza Mayor, beneath a huge trium-
phal arch, were the authorities of the city, in
gorgeous gala uniforms — Prefects and Clergy,
— then a band of white-robed little ones with
floral pieces, and lastly the Ayuntamiento.
The tricolor of General Iturbide was every-
where in evidence, although occasionally might
be seen the cockades of the Bourbons.
In an old-world gathering of this kind, one
might have looked for more or less impatience.
For the Church of Rome. 97
But the dolce far niente Mejicano rolls his
cigarette, lights it with a shrug of the shoul-
ders and smokes.
Ayer!
Hoy!
Manana !
It is all the same. Quien sabe ?
And so the good people of the Capitol
elbowed each other with placid smiles, smoking
the while. The cavaliers upon horseback rode
over the half-naked Indians and the Indians
laughed and picked themselves up and smoked
again as contentedly as ever.
Presently the great guns at the southern
entrance to the city told to the bystanders
that the National forces, known as the Army of
the Three Guarantees, were entering the Capi-
tol.
And the corpulent senoras intent upon the
advancing procession and forgetful of their
dampened hair, shielded their faces with costly
rebosas of finest silk, while they craned their
mustached faces over the terraces. For even
in bonito Mexico, some of the ladies are pos-
sessed of these luxuriant hirsute appendages.
And the lepero dropped his cigarette to
clamber upon a caleche, while the fat senoras
with the chocolate and tortillas, too fat to crane
over the terraces could only spill their choco-
late and becrumb their tortillas and fume and
fret and wriggle, in vain endeavor to see the
plumes at least of the passing soldiery.
The regiment of chasseurs in green and gold
7
98 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
passed by, followed successively by the troops
of dragoons and hussars. Then came a proces-
sion of black-robed priests with banners and
chasubles, chanting aTe Deum. And then the
dusky, bronzed fellows of old Guerrero and the
Indianos of Guadalupe Victoria. Then the
fierce-looking, " Scarlet regiment " of General
Iturbide, the great black plumes upon their
helmets, waving responsive to the breeze, their
facings of gold braid, setting jauntily upon the
scarlet, and each pair of mustaches bristling
fiercely. And they were greeted with applause
more than all the others because they were the
regiment of the Liberator General.
Alone were absent the Jorochos, the wiry,
rough riders of the South, the daring cavalry
of General Santa Anna, who, resting on their
arms in the Southland, awaited only the word
of their chief, to make a dash against the forces
of the Liberator.
And so the troops passed on through the
streets of the Capitol cheered on every side.
Some distance behind, came a high, covered
diligence, drawn by ten sturdy mules with silver
trappings, and driven by a fierce-looking fellow
with a rough jacket, of skins, and goat zapa-
teros, his head protected by a bullioned som-
brero. For outriders there were four buglers,
who sounded the approach of their Excellen-
cies — the Viceroy of Mexico and the Liberator
General Agustin de Iturbide.
For a final battle had been fought, and the
Viceroy, when his forces had been driven
For the Church of Rome. 99
almost to the sea, had met his victorious oppo-
nent at Villa Cordova, and drawn up a joint
treaty, providing for a Regency of Mexico,
until Spain should affirm or repudiate the con-
tract.
Surrounding the coach, rode the swarthy-
looking, gorgeously uniformed suite of His
Excellency, while within the diligencia, were
seated General Iturbide, the Viceroy, and Da-
halia Santa Anna.
When the people beheld them there were
shouts of rejoicing, and the bright cockades,
tossed high in air, made a most tasty ensemble
of color. The noise of rejoicing was such that
their Excellencies could only doff their cha-
peaus and bow.
Under the great arch at the Plaza Mayor the
Ayuntamiento solemnly presented General
Iturbide with the keys of the Capitol. As
solemnly the Liberator embraced the civic
officers.
The diligencia then moved on and drew up
before the Government Palace. The last of
the Viceroys descended, followed by Iturbide
and Dahalia.
The Clergy of the city, headed by the Arch-
bishop, in gorgeous sacerdotal vestments, all
chanting a Te Deum, preceded their Excel-
lencies and suites into the gloomy corridors of
the Palacio to the grand Salon of Ambassadors,
where a magnificent banquet was in waiting.
Upon the walls of this great Salon, with its
tapestry hangings, hung a choice collection of
ioo Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
oils from celebrated old world masters, portraits
of Charles V., Ferdinand VII., Hernan Cortez,
and of many of the Viceroys.
Upon the spacious tables, loaded down with
every delicacy, were great pyramids of native
fruits, — platanos, ananas, papayas, and zapotes,
— all intermingled. And there were crys-
tal carafes of the choicest wines, and great
bowls of ices from Popocatapetl. The service
of silver plate was rich and heavy and bore the
royal arms of the Bourbons. Large, fragrant
bouquets were at every plate.
The courses were long and tedious, but Itur-
bide presided with much patience, although
manifestly fatigued and perturbed.
During the banquet, a party of boys and
girls delighted the eyes of the guests with a
measured, rhythmical Tertulia, to the slow, soft
accompaniment of mandolins and guitars. And
when they finally began the steps of La Haba-
nera, a dance as dear to the Mexicans as was
the minuet to the hearts of the Colonial dames,
there was one great round of applause. It was
during the enthusiasm incident upon La Ha-
banera that His Excellency the Viceroy, Gen-
eral Iturbide, and Dahalia, made their egress
from the Salon of Ambassadors to the scarlet
library of the Viceroys.
A kindly-faced, stately-looking woman, in a
fashionable evening costume, was telling her
rosary in a secluded room of the Palace of the
Archbishop of Mexico.
For the Church of Rome. 101
The time was evening.
From the National Palace, some distance
away, she could hear a military band discours-
ing patriotic airs. And her heart was glad.
For Madame de Iturbide had come by special
diligence, post-haste, from her villa at Valla-
dolid to see her husband's triumphant entry
into the Capitol.
The stately, saintlike woman had felt no
twinge of suspicion or jealousy at her husband's
seeming neglect, since she knew that he was a
soldier of Mexico.
A door leading into the apartment opened
and one of the ladies in waiting entered noise-
lessly and stood respectfully until her mistress
should speak.
" Approach, Nita," said Madame de Iturbide
kindly.
" Sefiora, His Eminence the Archbishop of
Mexico, Cardinal del Fonte, attended by his
seven suffragans, craves an audience."
" I will see him, Nita," said Madame de Itur-
bide, and the girl withdrew.
A moment later the Archbishop entered,
looking grandly severe in his red simar and
laces.
His Eminence raised his hand in benediction
over Madame de Iturbide.
" I have brought my suite as an escort for
you, Madame."
" As an escort ? I fail to understand, your
Eminence," murmured Madame de Iturbide.
" To conduct you to the Imperial Palace,"
102 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
replied the Archbishop. " Since your husband
comes not to you, it is obvious that you must
go to him and assume your proper place at his
side."
" He is busied with affairs of state," said
Madame de Iturbide. " And will come to me
at his own good time."
" Say rather with affairs of love, Madame,"
replied his Eminence gently. " Few secrets
can be hidden from the Church, and I say that
if it is not already too late, it is your duty to
save your husband from dishonor. God knows,
I would have spared you this. But the path
of duty forces me to speak, though rather
plainly. Your husband, though admittedly a
great man in those affairs pertaining to the
sword and politics, is weak where it comes to
his affections. For some months he has been
thrown into constant association with the
Senorita Dahalia Santa Anna."
"Yes," gasped Madame de Iturbide, paling
and pressing her hand to her side.
" And under the promise of a marriage he
can never fulfil he is leading the girl on to her
ruin. You alone can save her to-night by tak-
ing your proper place at your husband's side.
So come, Madame, and tear the veil from this
young girl's eyes. Then, if I know the Santa
Annas, her love will turn to hate, and she will
leave the man who has attainted her young
name with dishonor. She will leave him and
go to her brother in the Southland."
" And when she has told him all, turn the
For the Church of Rome. 103
forces of Santa Anna, like unleashed bull-dogs,
upon my husband," added Madame de Iturbide.
— " And with Santa Anna and Iturbide arrayed
against each other, the forces of the Viceroy
will easily recover their lost ground, and the
liberty of Mexico, crushed to earth, will be but
a short-lived dream. Ah, no, no, it shall not be
the wife of the Liberator General that sets
upon him the cavalry of Santa Anna in the
South, in the hour of his triumph. It is far, far
better that I return to the solitude of my villa,
and suffer my husband to exhaust this fleeting
passion. Time and time alone will bring
Agustin back to me, and until then my love
must rest in abeyance for the good of Mexico."
''And I say that your love must assert itself
this night for the good of the Church of
Rome," said the Archbishop, sternly, his eyes
shining with the wild light of fanaticism. For
the Archbishop knew that, when Santa Anna
should once raise the banner of rebellion, the
cause of Iturbide was irrevocably lost, and the
Viceroy, — puppet of the Church, — would come
into his own again.
" For the good of the Church of Rome ? "
gasped Madame de Iturbide.
" Yes, seiiora," said His Eminence, sternly,
" and if you separate not this man and this
woman, the one from the other, to-night, — por
Dios, I'll hurl against your husband's cause the
bans of the Church of Rome, and I need not
tell you that the cause of the excommunicated
is a lost cause."
104 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
" Ah — Dios — excommunication," shrieked
Madame de Iturbide. " No, no, not that, not
that, — I will bow to the will of your Emi-
nence, — even though it means my husband's
everlasting hate."
" Come, then, Madame," said the Archbishop.
And there was the light of triumph in his eyes
as he gently took her hand in his and led her
to the door. " Come to the Palace and order
this girl from your husband's presence. It is
now half-past eight. We should reach the
Imperial Palace at nine. And be brave, my
daughter, be brave. Remember that what you
are about to do is for the good of the Church
of Rome."
The Conversion of a Woman-Hater. 105
CHAPTER X.
THE CONVERSION OF A WOMAN-HATER.
UPON the highest portion of the Mexican
Cordilleras, far above the cloud line, the vegeta-
tion is sparse and scattered, and the only relief
from the monotony and bleakness all abound-
ing, are occasional patches of pitiful, half-dried
magueys, interspersed with mesquit or half-
nourished nopal. The mountain peaks of the
Cumbres consist of a series of barrancas, with
scarce a footpath for the wolf or mountain
lion, let alone for man.
Yet on a certain moonlight night in the early
fall, two human figures crouched before a
scant fire on the highest peak of the Cumbres.
Two figures — a man and a woman — both gaunt
and haggard, from long exposure to the ele-
ments. Their garments were torn and tattered
to threads, from contact with the underbrush
of the Cumbres. Their feet were bare, cut
and bleeding. The moon smiled serenely down
upon the mountain tops, and by its clear light
could be seen far below, endless slopes and the
tropic vegetation of the lowlands. But above
was nothing but the cloudless sky, star-flecked
and clear, and seeming to cry out upon the
pitiful works of man.
The woman gnawed at a piece of dried bark
106 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
with the ravenous interest of a wild beast.
The man crouched close over the feeble fire.
" 1 am cold," he muttered with chattering
teeth. " Cold— cold— cold."
But the woman gnawed at the bark and paid
no attention.
" I am cold," repeated the man, and this
time he struck her across the face with his whip.
Mechanically the woman removed the faded
scarlet vest she wore and handed him. He
wrapped it around his shoulders and continued
to crouch over the fire, cursing and muttering
to himself.
And the woman gnawed at the bark.
A great shaking came upon the man and his
teeth came together like castanets.
" I am cold," he repeated again. And again
he struck her. She removed her soft, embroi-
dered chemise, and this also she wrapped around
him. Save for a tattered silk petticoat, and
an undergarment of merino, the body of the
woman was exposed entirely to the crisp, biting
winds of the uplands. And yet she did not
seem to mind the bleak, piercing blasts, but
gnawed at the strip of bark incessantly. Upon
the beautiful back with its rounded curves ac-
centuated in the play of the moonbeams, great
welts, livid and marked, stood out. But upon
the woman's face, which had once been strik-
ingly beautiful, suffering had placed a restful-
ness that gave a glimpse into the hereafter and
made her seem as one of those of whom the
poet said :
The Conversion of a Woman -Hater. 107
" One spirit in them ruled, and every eye
Glared lightning and shot forth pernicious fire
Among the accursed, that withered all their strength,
And of their wonted vigor left them drained,
Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen."
Out on the night air resounded a pitiful,
prolonged wail, like the cry of a lost soul, or
the plaintive tremor of a little child. And the
woman shivered, though not from the cold,
and with trembling hands added fuel to the
flames. For the cry was that of the coyote,
midnight marauder, whose baleful eyes peered
ravenously from the mesquit of the barranca
upon the two intruders upon the silent moun-
tain wilderness, — the coyote whose sharp,
ravenous teeth were only balked of their feast
of human flesh, by the flickering light of the
camp-fire.
Oblivious to the woman and the coyote, the
man sank down beside the fire and fell into a
troubled slumber. And even in his sleep he
tossed and shook and moaned and cried out
upon the cold. For the fever of the hot lands,
bred of the miasma of the Cumbres, was upon
him and his mind was wandering.
All night the woman sat by the feeble fire,
dry eyed and careless, mechanically adding
fuel, when it died down, and gnawing at her
strip of bark. And all unconscious of her
nakedness.
Once when the wind was cutting, with a
more than usual fierceness, she loosed the
gray-streaked, heavy, luxuriant tresses, and
io8 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
they fell, in great profusion, clown and around
her shoulders giving her the appearance of a
wild, affrighted nymph of the forest. So
through the night.
Gradually, over the surface of the neighbor-
ing barrancas, appeared the first luminous
streaks of the morning and the woman was
glad, for the night had been a night of horror.
High in the east appeared the rose-red sun,
and the early morning breezes, ascending from
below, brought with them the fragrant aroma
of the wild lupins and marigolds, from the
primeval stretch of woodland below. Once a
tiny guardia-bosque, having soared higher than
his wont, flitted timidly near the woman, who
glanced at his rich blue plumage, with lack-
luster eyes.
Only the foolish babbling of the sleeping
man seemed to arouse her, as he moaned and
tossed in his fever like a great helpless infant.
She mechanically seized his great shovel
hat, which had fallen from his head, and
clambering, with a recently-acquired agility,
from rock to rock, she swept into it with her
little hand stagnant water lurking in their
crevices. Then gathering the little berries
from the dwarfed mesquit bushes, all-abound-
ing, she crushed them into a pulp, with her
slender, delicate fingers, and tossed them into
the hat with the water.
Then she aroused her companion, who
glared at her with listless, apathetic eyes and
placed the hat to his lips that he might drink,
The Conversion of a Woman Hater. 109
while with her other hand she stroked his
matted locks, and murmured sweet empty
nothings in his ears.
For she was a woman. And more, she had
suffered in the dungeons of San Juan de
Uloa.
When he had taken a long, deep draught of
the concoction, he handed her the hat and
sank down to sleep again. And the woman
gnawed her bark, and drank some of the
nauseous stuff and then sat there rubbing the
man's fevered head. So the day passed. And
then another night of horror. And then
another day.
Still the man rolled and tossed, but mani-
fested less delirium. Her hand upon his fore-
head seemed to exercise a cooling, soothing
influence.
Once, as she bended over him, she saw in
his belt a stiletto, such as priests were wont
to carry in the troublous times of war. A
baneful light came into her eyes, for her
memory was awakened. And she grasped
it by the hilt, and drew it from its sheath.
With an effort she poised it over his head.
The fever-stricken man was talking in his
sleep and the woman paused to listen. There
was time enough for vengeance.
" Viva Mejico — The Church of Rome — hasta
la eternidad — the Church of Rome."
The stiletto dropped from the woman's
hand.
" No — no — I cannot murder a delirious man,
no Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
even though he has been my worst enemy," she
muttered, and resumed her lonely vigil at his
side.
Upon the morning of the sixth day the
light of reason came to Rafael Aristo. He
looked upon the lady Juana la Garza and there
was sadness in his eyes.
" Oh ! I have dreamed such horrible accursed
dreams," he moaned feebly. " Blood — blood —
blood, and the smoke of battle, the cries of
dying men, patriot and royalist locked in
fierce embrace, all have I seen in mine awful,
terrifying visions. And then I have seen the
sabers of the patriot chiefs turned upon each
other, and seen their armies driven to inevi-
table destruction, by internecine strife and
petty jealousies. Sometimes a momentary
flash of reason revealed to me an angel, bend-
ing over me and stroking my aching head.
And when I looked into the face of my be-
neficent genius I saw the lady Juana la Garza,
and, just behind her, the face of my dear old
mother, stern and angry, — who shook her gray
head in menace, and drew under her protect-
ing arm the form of my good angel. Oh, my
lady, take up the stiletto, and kill me, for I
have well deserved it after the long weeks of
hell I have caused you."
" I forgive you all, Rafael Aristo," said his
companion sadly, " for you too have suffered."
And the eyes of the priest were wet with
moisture, and very humbly he kissed her
hand.
The Conversion of a Woman-Hater, in
Quick passed the day and after it another.
And with the coming of yet another day the
priest was stronger and sought in many ways
how he might make more comfortable his
companion.
For the first time since his convalescence,
he noticed that her bosom and beautiful
shoulders were devoid of covering. Just
between her two milk-white breasts, he saw
a green bag suspended from her neck by a
slender gold chain, and he remembered that
she was a daughter of the Church.
As he bended almost touching her, the vola-
tile, sensuous woman aroma, emanating from
her palpitating bosom, entered into his nostrils
and filled him with a feeling, strange, new and
indescribable. A dainty wisp from her beau-
tiful tresses, brushed his forehead and sent a
savory thrill throughout his trembling form.
" Kill me — kill me ! " he cried, tearing him-
self by an almost superhuman effort of the will,
from the first animal instinct engendered by
the love of woman, and regarding her with
hungry, wistful, devouring eyes. Then for the
first time noticing the great livid welts upon her
shoulders, — welts that he himself had caused
in his mad delirium he drew her forcibly to
him, and although she struggled frantically in
his fierce embrace, he rained down upon her
swanlike neck, a passionate, ardent shower of
hot, fevered, burning, soulful kisses.
" Love me — love me ! " he cried, in an
agony of emotion, — pressing her the closer to
ii2 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
him, while the red blush, of shame circled her
cheeks in a hectic flush making her seem like
that Juana la Garza who had held sway at
Apodaca's court, as the most beautiful woman
in Mexico.
" Release me — release me ! " she panted,
breathing heavily. " Else by the Mother of
God, your stiletto shall bury my shame-
Remember — you are a priest of the Church of
Rome."
" Love me — love me ! " panted Rafael Aristo
tearfully. " You have awakened within me my
manhood — your contact tells me that there is
something more to live for than the Church —
the love of woman. Love me — love me — and
I swear by the Virgin that I will make up to
you the loss of Santa Anna. I am a Jesuit and
can sway these puppets at will. You shall
have wealth, position, and all that the Church
of Rome can give. Outwardly I will be what
the world demands — the sleek and unctuous
Churchman, but for your sake that I can give
to my mistress all that she could ask and more,
for your sake, I will forswear my vow of celi-
bacy and condemn my soul to eternal hell here-
after, my love, my life."
And once again he showered his burning,
passionate kisses upon her palpitating bosom.
But she repulsed him and would have snatched
the stiletto but that the love-frenzied, amorous
priest bore her to the ground and holding her
in tight embrace pressed his hot, fevered lips
against hers.
The Conversion of a Woman -Hater. 113
" Love me — love me ! " he gasped hoarsely
and drew her closer to him. But the woman
struggled, and struggling there upon the moun-
tain-top her skirt and kirtle became detached
and fell to the ground. For the first time in
all his life Rafael Aristo beheld all the gloried
outlines of one of Nature's masterpieces — a
woman in the nude. The ivory white, palpita-
ting breasts, the rounded hips, superb in every
contour, the thin, tapering waist of a Venus
de* Medici, the glorious, statuesque limbs, all
awakened in the man a thousand devils. The
rose-red umbilic circlet, a beautiful little dot in
the linea alba half hidden by the rising and
falling of the muscular creases, acted upon
Rafael Aristo as a fetich, and he drank in the
wondrous beauty of the woman with eyes star-
ing, fixed. Once in the long ago, in Rome, he
remembered having seen among the paintings
of the old masters, just such another little
navel which had held him spellbound, until he
brought himself to the realization that his fe-
tich was only a creation upon canvas. Now
the old sensation was reawakened within him.
There is in every woman an inherent attribute
of mind or body which never fails to act as an
irresistible charm upon men. The resonant
chord in the mind of Rafael Aristo was touched
by the perfect, dimpling umbilic of the woman
before him. He would have conquered her but
for the weakness in which his fever had left
him. As it was, exhausted, he fell back weak
and trembling, his whole form quivering with
8
H4 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
newly enkindled emotion. Amorous though
weak, he could only look and look and look.
The woman grasped the stiletto, yet mind-
ful of her nakedness quickly veiled all the
wondrous loveliness of Nature with her kirtle.
And her cheeks were flaming — hot. For the
lady Juana La Garza was not yet wholly
wanton.
" Ah God — relieve me of this love fever, else
I perish," gasped the priest with quivering
lips.
" It is your punishment," said the woman
sternly. " 'Tis but a few years, since I was a
pure, innocent child-woman, happy in my hus-
band's love and you — pimp and pander of the
Viceroy that you were — you forced me to
sacrifice my honor for the good of the Church
of Rome. But know that the very hell on
earth you have caused me to suffer, in the last
few months, has cleansed my soul and made
me something more than a thoughtless toy to
gratify man's lust in the pleasure of the mo-
ment. It remained for you, Rafael Aristo, to
make me ashamed that I am a daughter of the
Church. But I will end it all now."
And she pressed the point of the stiletto
upon her palpitating bosom.
" Stop — stop ! " cried the priest with alarm in
his eyes.
" Then swear by your hope of eternal salva-
tion to speak no word of love to me again,"
said the lady Juana La Garza earnestly.
" I swear it by the Virgin," replied Rafael
The Conversion of a Woman-Hater. 115
Aristo, crossing himself and looking at her with
fearful, anxious eyes.
She threw the stiletto upon the ground.
" Henceforth I am your sworn slave — you
have but to command and I obey," continued
the priest.
" I shall trust you," said the lady Juana La
Garza. " Do you know where the Convent of
Santa Teresa lies from here ? "
" Some leagues below, in the foothills," re-
plied the priest. " I think I can find the way.
Yet assuredly you will not become a veiled nun
and immure your beauty in a living tomb ? "
" Yes," responded the lady. " My beauty
has been to me a fatal curse and I am awearied
of the world and its intrigues. I sigh only for
some secluded spot where the veil will hide my
features from the lustful gaze of men."
11 But this is wrong," said the priest, "and I
will not permit it."
" Remember your oath," said the lady.
" I do and already I repent it," said the priest,
mournfully.
The lady la Garza, again picked up the
stiletto. But Rafael Aristo, with difficulty
rising to his feet, said :
" Since you wish it we will go to the Convent
of Santa Teresa."
" You are too w T eak at present," said the
lady.
"We must go nevertheless," he replied.
" And why ? " asked the lady.
For answer he pointed to the slopes below.
n6 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
His keen Indian eyes had detected what the
lady would not have noticed.
She shaded her eyes with her hand.
Far down the Cumbres the rays of the early
morning sun fell upon the black plumed helmets
of a few blue-jacketed troopers, who were with
difficulty making the ascent behind a Mestizo
guide.
" The troopers of the Viceroy are coming to
carry out the sentence of death, from which I
saved you at Vera Cruz. But we will baffle
them. Once in the Convent of Santa Teresa,
you are saved. For they dare not profane the
house of God."
" They will not hesitate to follow me even
into the sanctuary if the Viceroy wills it," re-
plied the lady wearily ; " for the Viceroy has
no heart nor does he fear God, man or devil.
His vengeance will never rest until I have been
sacrificed. But we will nevertheless attempt to
evade these men who have been so long pur-
suing us. For I do not think I am quite ready
to die just yet."
" Come then," said the priest, " for I am
now become a man, and for the love of woman,
which I have never known until now, I would
peril my very soul. You shall be saved, though
all the armies of the Viceroy and all the devils
in hell were pursuing, for the Church of Rome
protects you."
And taking her little hand in his he led her
on through the chaparral of the barranca, and
away from the helmcted dragoons on the slopes
below.
Compliments of General Santa Anna. 117
CHAPTER XI.
THE COMPLIMENTS OF GENERAL SANTA ANNA.
The old clock in the Imperial Palace was
giving its measured tick, tick, tick, tick, as it
had ticked for the sixty-seven Spanish Viceroys,
as it had ticked for Don Juan Apodaca, on his
last night of power — so now it was ticking
for the last of the Excellencies and for General
Agustin de Iturbide, the man of the future,
and for Dahalia Santa Anna. There were the
same somber scarlet tapestries, the same somber
mahogany furniture with its scarlet upholster-
ings, the same onyx inlaid table, with its state
papers, the great secret panel with hidden
spring, known only to the last of the Viceroys.
The hands of the old clock pointed to a
quarter to eight.
Dahalia was curled upon a divan, in a dis-
tant corner of the library, a kind of oratory,
which shut her off from the main apartment.
She was reading Don Quixote, and its pages
did not evidently interest her greatly, for from
listening to the faint hum of the two Generals
in conversation, she fell gradually into a doze.
She was fatigued, for the last few days had been
most taxing upon all the party.
n8 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
El Generalissimo Agustin de Iturbide was
perusing a war map. His Excellency the
Viceroy was seated by a small table, upon which
was a decanter with glasses, and a silver brazero,
of live coals, from which he lighted many cigars,
for His Excellency was a great smoker.
" I must conciliate Santa Anna," said Itur-
bide thoughtfully.
" Of necessity, for he can be useful," replied
His Excellency. " But how will you bring it
about?"
" By creating him a General of the Southern
provinces and conferring upon him my cross
of the Order of Guadalupe," replied Itur-
bide.
" Cospita, senor Generalissimo," said the
Viceroy, blowing a great cloud of smoke from
his cigar. " Think you a commission and a
decoration will repay a man like Santa Anna
for the loss of his sister's honor ? "
Iturbide started as though to have made some
sharp retort, then remembering that the Vice-
roy was his guest he controlled himself and
finally said :
"Your Excellency joins with the world in
condemning what is little more than a Platonic
association."
" Because I believe with the world that such
a relationship, between a man and a woman is
impossible," said the Viceroy frankly.
" And yet when I assure you on my honor
as a gentleman of Mexico that never in thought
or act have I failed in the trust bestowed upon
Compliments of General Santa Anna. 119
me by General Santa Anna, when I assure you
that Dahalia, his sister, is as pure as when I first
met her "
" I believe you, on such assurance," said the
Viceroy, " but the world — and Santa Anna
himself — ah, my friend, you will find it less easy
to convince them."
There was a knock at the door.
" Pase ! " said Iturbide, rising. A chasseur of
the guard entered.
" A courier from General Santa Anna at
Vera Cruz, seeks an immediate audience," said
the chasseur,
" Bid him enter," said Iturbide.
The chasseur saluted and withdrew.
" Strange that we should be talking of Gen-
eral Santa Anna, at the moment his courier is
entering the gates of the Palacio," said Itur-
bide.
" I look for stranger things than that on this
night," replied the Viceroy musingly.
"Your Excellency speaks in riddles," replied
Iturbide.
" To you, perhaps, yes," responded the Vice-
roy. " And you must pardon the weakness of
a superstitious man. It is my birthnight and
its every anniversary has been to me fruitful of
evil and misfortune. My mother died on the
night of my coming into the world, — my
father was assassinated on its anniversary, two
years later. My only son was drowned at sea,
five years ago to-night. And I have always
felt a superstitious fear of my birthnight since,
120 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
being the last of my family and the last of the
King's Viceroys."
" Mere coincidences," said Iturbide. " And
this one birthnight in particular you were never
more free from danger. My chasseurs guard
every entry to the Imperial Palace. You are
my honored guest. So banish fear and "
A renewed knocking. The same chasseur
entered and after saluting announced :
" The courier from General Santa Anna to
the Generalissimo Iturbide."
A priest entered. The chasseur saluted.
" Let no one disturb me to-night under any
circumstances," said Iturbide.
The chasseur withdrew.
" He signs his own death-warrant," mused the
priest. And there was a sinister gleam in his
little beady eyes. His costume consisted of a
long black robe, the silver cross and rosary of
his order at his belt, while in his hand he held
a three cornered black hat. Even so, he seemed
more soldier than priest.
The old clock of the Viceroys struck eight.
" From Vera Cruz, your reverence ? " asked
Iturbide, resuming his seat and lighting a cigar
from the brazero.
" From the camp of General Antonio Lopez
de Santa Anna," replied the priest.
" And General Santa Anna rests his soldiery
at Vera Cruz ? " continued Iturbide.
" For the present the forces of Santa Anna
encamp at Vera Cruz, sciior Generalissimo,
until he knows your Excellency's will," replied
Compliments of General Santa Anna. 121
the priest. " But he sends a bottle of priceless
old wine, that you may know his heart is in
your cause. And he begs you to drink, to-night,
with the compliments of General Santa Anna."
And the priest produced from under his robe,
a quaint looking carafe, with every appearance
of great age and a cobweb envelope. This he
set upon the table by the Viceroy, whose lips
smacked in anticipation.
" Cospita — seilor Generalissimo," said the
Viceroy. " In faith, I am a Royalist, but for
the sake of this good old wine, I will right
gladly drink a toast to the rebel General Santa
Anna."
And he opened the carafe and filled two
glasses. He was about to fill a third, but the
priest shook his head.
" I care not for wine, Your Excellency," he
said gravely.
The Viceroy set down the carafe. The priest
walked over to the war map, and began to
study it, with his back towards them. He
wished to hide from his victims the wild gleam
of ferocious joy in his eyes.
The two Generals, each took a glass and
held it to the light to see the mellow sparkle
in the limpid, liquid depths. It seemed to cast
off a hundred scintillations in the scarlet reflec-
tion from the candelabra. One might have
fancied that the green monster of the worm-
wood lay sleeping in the dazzling elixir. And
Dahalia slept in the little oratory, all uncon-
scious that the shadow of the Yerba Loco, hung
122 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
heavy like a pall over the scarlet library of the
Viceroys.
There was the sound of steel clashing upon
steel in the patio.
" A street brawl," muttered Iturbide.
The chasseur of the guard burst in uncere-
moniously.
" A troop of the Reds, are fighting the chas-
seurs of the Palace Guard, senor Generalis-
simo," he cried excitedly. " And our Colonel
begs that you quell the riot by showing your
presence in the patio."
" Riot — carramba — it is more than a riot from
the noise," cried Iturbide drawing his saber.
The Viceroy rose with his hand upon his
sword, but Iturbide motioned him to his seat.
The clash of sabers resounded through the cor-
ridors of the Palace and the voices of men in
the agony of mortal combat.
" No — no — your Excellency," said Iturbide.
" You are my guest. Stay and drink the health
of Santa Anna and I will return when I have
stopped these maudlin roysterers."
With this the Generalissimo rushed from the
library sword in hand followed by the chasseur
of the guard.
The last of the Viceroys stood looking after
him uncertainly, his hand upon his sword-
hilt.
"The regency of Iturbide begins with blood-
shed," he murmured.
" And it will end with bloodshed," said the
priest prophetically.
Compliments of General Santa Anna. 123
" Eh ? What did you say ? " asked the
Viceroy.
" I said it would be maintained by the
sword," replied the man.
"Your reverence is right," said the Viceroy.
" But sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
And now for the wine. In truth I will drink a
toast, but instead of drinking to the rebel Gen-
eral Santa Anna I will drain a glass to the patriot
General Iturbide."
And very gracefully the Viceroy emptied his
glass.
" And may his reign be as the effects of the
wine you have drained," said the priest with a
sneer upon his face.
"And how is that?" asked the Viceroy.
" Short and quick," sneered the priest.
" You mean ? " shouted the Viceroy.
" I mean that you have drank of the deadly
Yerba Loco," hissed the priest, his face wild
with passion and hatred. " That Santa Anna
has chosen me as the humble instrument for
the working of his will."
" Mother of God ! " groaned the Viceroy,
pressing his hand to his heart, " It is killing me
now. My body is being consumed by the fires
of hell — I am going blind — my head is bursting.
For God's mercy tell me the antidote, if there
is a spark of human feeling in your breast."
And the Viceroy clutched the table in his
mad agony for support.
" Upon one condition," hissed the priest.
"And it is?"
124 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
" Open the secret panel of the Viceroys,"
replied the priest.
11 Lead me to it then," gasped the Viceroy,
" I am almost blinded, I am going mad, I am
going mad."
Quickly the priest seized the Viceroy's arm
and supporting him led him as he directed to
the panel. With trembling fingers the Vice-
roy felt along the wall and finally touched the
secret spring.
With a loud click the panel flew open.
The priest released the Viceroy's arm.
" The antidote — the antidote ! " gasped His
Excellency.
" The antidote ? Why, carramba, Excel-
lency, the antidote is death," sneered the priest,
and sprang into the passage-way.
Then the Viceroy closed the door upon him
and reeled back, laughing wildly.
" Mother of God — this is my last birthnight
to be sure, but it is the last message you will
bear for General Santa Anna, senor priest.
You know not of the grating at the other end
of the passage. Go — find it — rot there until
your damned, treacherous body is but a mass
of corruption. Rave ! Rave ! Rave ! Storm
and tear your hair in the horrors of suffocation.
Beat upon unanswering walls. The secret of
the panel dies with the last of the Viceroys.
I had intended it for the rebel Iturbide to-
night, but his fate I give to you in exchange
for the Yerba Loco."
And with a terrible laugh the last of the
"Open the secret panel of the Viceroys," replied the priest.
Page 124.
Compliments of General Santa Anna. 125
Viceroys threw himself upon the floor and
began to tear and scratch at the heavy carpet
in his agony.
The heavy fall awakened Dahalia from her
sound sleep ! She rushed from the oratory in
affright. She glanced around the scarlet
library of the Viceroys. There was no one to
be seen. Only the sound of voices in the cor-
ridor. Only a nameless, incessant scratching,
that made her flesh creep weirdly. The girl
glanced at the little table with its carafe. She
saw the carafe. She saw the glass of sparkling
wine that the Viceroy had poured for Iturbide.
She drained it and set the glass upon the table
with trembling hand.
" I am all unnerved," she muttered.
The faint scratching continued, and some-
thing like a groan echoed through the apart-
ment. It was this that guided the trembling
Dahalia, to the prostrate body of the Viceroy,
twitching in the throes of an awful agony.
With wild, dilated eyes, she started back and
shrieked :
"Help, Agustin — help — there has been mur-
der done here — help ! "
And then she heard the answering cry of
Iturbide, the tramping of many feet in the cor-
ridor, and she reeled faintly against the wall,
with glazing eyes, for the deadly Yerba Loco,
was working God's will upon the sister of Gen-
eral Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
When Iturbide re-entered the scarlet library
of the Viceroys, attended by the officers of his
126 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
suite, who had rallied to him, from every cor-
ridor, a strange and fearful sight met his eyes,
and for a moment he stood as though bound
by the glamour of a spell. In one corner lay
a huddled, immobile mass, scarce bearing the
semblance of humankind, — the body of a man
in a rich court costume of black velvet, his
hands clutching convulsively at the thick car-
pet, his locks tangled in confusion, his wild di-
lated eyes almost popping from their orbits,
looking like great red balls of fire, his lips cyan-
otic, with a whitish-blue, foam-flecked, and his
face already black as from the talon of a stran-
gles
And the great clock was ticking its measured
strokes for the final birthnight of His Excel-
lency.
Near an overturned table Dahalia had fallen
to the floor. Her great beautiful hair fell in
luxuriant masses over her shoulders.
Through the folds of her evening dress her
beautiful bosom was revealed, of an alabaster
whiteness, rising and falling, in quick, palpitat-
ing undulations. There was an agonized flex-
ion of her slender fingers, accentuated by a fast-
gathering tint of blue discoloration. Her face
was wan and pinched and yellowish in hue and
her cyanosed lips twitched convulsively. Only
her eyes were brighter and more dilated as if
unwilling to yield to impending dissolution,
and in them was a look of unutterable horror,
as if she were the victim of an awful hallucina-
tion.
Compliments of General Santa Anna. 127
" Dahalia — my darling — speak to me — for
God's sake speak to me," moaned Iturbide,
oblivious of everything but the delirious girl
whose brow was already damp with the dew of
death.
His voice seemed to rouse her, for she raised
her head, with those wildly staring death's eyes,
and repulsing his caresses she began to slowly
crawl, upon her hands and knees, to the panel
whereday the stiffened body of the Viceroy in
his court costume of black.
Iturbide watched her with his hand upon his
burning brow.
Slowly the delirious girl dragged herself
across the room, slowly and painfully, step by
step, her body shaken by repeated spasmodic
convulsions, her face already set, — only those
wondrous, flashing eyes bespeaking life.
With those awful, flexed, bluish fingers, she
grasped the shoulders of the Viceroy, and bend-
ing over until her face almost touched the
black, discolored features of His Excellency,
she stared long and earnestly as one drawn by
an awful fascination, into his great, blood-
circled, protruding eyes, with their sunken
orbits, and black rings, the only coloring in the
mass of dissolution.
Long she stared and then raising her head,
with a swift convulsive movement, she said in
a hard, metallic voice, that seemed to emanate
from the depths of a vault :
" I have seen upon the retina of His Excel-
lency, the accursed features of his murderer,
128 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
bespeaking hate and assassination, and the in-
sensate love of the Yerba Loco. I have seen
the same accursed features livid and staring
from an awful suffocation, in yon secret pas-
sage of the Viceroys. I have seen him clutch-
ing at his throat, rending his hair in dire an-
guish and dashing his fists frantically against
the great walls of the barred passage-way, — for
the good God has placed in the eyes of the
victim the picture of His awful vengeance,
and gives me the knowledge, that the murder-
ous priest, is even now gasping in the last throes
of a grim, horrible death. Near him lies the
decomposed, putrid body of another victim of
God's will and the priest is tearing at the dead
flesh in his agony of soul. He shrieks in his
despair. He blasphemes and his utterance
chokes from an awful fear, for he feels the
weight of God's hand, exacting an awful ret-
ribution. The chill of death has seized upon
his limbs. It is creeping up — up — up — slower
— quicker — quicker, almost to his heart. He
shrieks. The death-rattle sounds and sticks in
his throat. He clutches at the silent dead man
at his side and, with a long, low gasp of horror,
— dies. That is the picture God gives me,
Agustin. And now I see the sea, with its
great, rolling breakers and the glint of the sand
upon the shore. A ship is tossing at anchor
in the harbor. There are soldiers upon the
beach, and Agustin, erect and proud, my Agus-
tin standing alone. His eyes are blinded by the
tricolor. His hands are bound. They raise
Compliments of General Santa Anna. 129
their muskets. Madre de Dios — it is an execu-
tion — no, no, no, they shall not shoot. Stop,
stop, stop, Agustin, my life, my love, my Em-
peror." *
With a wild shriek she fell prone upon the
floor.
Iturbide rushed to her side and raised her
head, looking into her glazed expressionless
eyes.
Then letting it fall and bowing his head
upon his hands he sobbed :
" Dead — Dahalia dead — ah, little nifia, speak
just one word of love — give me one sign of rec-
ognition — one little reminder, that may soften
the memory of this awful night. Dead — ah
* " A mediados de Julio llego Iturbide a Soto la Marina y
Beneski recibio orden de desembarcar el primero e investigar
el estad de la opinion y la disposicion de los espiritus. — El dia
19 de Julio (1824) D. Felipe de la Garza se presento al Sr.
Iturbide y le dijo friamente que estaba preso, y que el con-
greso habia resuelto que fuese pasado por los armas en virtud
de la ley que le declaraba proscripto. Inutiles fueron todas las
reflecsiones que hizo el desgraciado caudillo : inutiles sus pro-
testas, sus razonamientos, el recuerdo de sus servicios, de
aquellos servicios cuyo fruto era la independencia del pais, y
la ecsistencia de aquellas mismas autoridades que le con-
denaban. Cinco diputados habian pronunciado la sentencia
de su muerte, ejerciendo el poder judicial de la manera mas
inaudita y atroz. EL HEROE DE IGUALA fue fusilado en
la plaza publica de Padilla, a presencia de un pueblo lleno de
estupor. Antes de morir echsorto a los que le escuchaban a
obedecer las leyes y procurar la paz, y suplico que se respetase
a su esposa, cuya situacion reclamaba la compasion de todo
hombre que no hubiese perdido toda la sensibilidad de que la
naturaleza doto a la especie humana."
•' Ensayo Historico de las Revoluciones de Mexico."
Por D. Lorenzo de Zavala. (Mexico, 1845.)
9
130 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
Dios — grant her one little brief moment of
consciousness that her eyes may look into mine
with the old look of love, with the old look of
stainless purity and innocence. Dahalia dead
— ah — no, no, no — God will not be so cruel as
to take her from me — speak, my little nina,
speak, chiquita — only come back to me for one
little moment of love — for one little brief mo-
ment of life — and I will give up all my armies
my honors, my country, my life. Dahalia
dead — my God ! thou art cruel to me this night,
unless thou takest me too. Dead — dead — the
Viceroy dead — Dahalia dead — the accursed
poisoning priest dead — and only Iturbide lives
— only Iturbide lives — and for what ? My love
has died to-night, and my ambitions have been
crushed. For what then? With Dahalia it
might have been Augustin the Good, the Just,
the Great. Without Dahalia, it will be Agus-
tin the Reckless, the Cruel, the Despairing."
And the Emperor of Mexico broke down
and sobbed like a child, and his body was
shaken by the violence of his emotions. His
grief was that mighty, all-consuming grief which
comes but once in a lifetime to strong self-
contained men.
From far down the corridor of the Palacio
there came a solemn chanting, in mournful
cadences, the chanting of the suffragans, those
grim, gloomy, black-robed attendants of His
Eminence, the Archbishop of Mexico.
Iturbide knelt beside the body of Dahalia,
weeping, and never raised his head as His Em-
Compliments of General Santa Anna. 131
inence appeared at the doorway of the salon,
in his red simar and laces, leading Madame de
Iturbide by the hand and followed by the
seven, grim, shaven men in black, still chanting
the mournful music of the Church of Rome.
His Eminence made the sign of the cross.
Madame de Iturbide, taking all the terrible
scene at a glance, crossed over to her husband,
raised him gently, and led him to a chair as she
would have led a little child. Then unclasping
her rich, furred satin cloak, she threw it over the
bodies of the Viceroy and Dahalia Santa Anna,
thus shutting off the pitiful, gruesome, ghastly
sight.
"We have come too late to save the child,"
said His Eminence sternly, " but not too late
to avenge her."
Then pointing his finger at Iturbide he be-
gan—
" En nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del
Espiritu Santo ! "
"Stop! — "shrieked Madame de Iturbide,
extending her hands in supplication. "Your
Eminence will surely not place the ban of the
Church upon my husband without a hearing ? "
" What need of a hearing when the evidence
of a foul crime lies unveiled before us?" mur-
mured the Archbishop.
Iturbide rose with anger in his eyes.
" Proceed with the excommunication, your
Eminence," he said, "only let the wrath of the
Church of Rome descend upon the unworthy
priest, the author of this night's work im-
132 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
prisoned in yonder secret passage of the Vice-
roys."
" A priest — imprisoned in the secret passage
of the Viceroys ? " gasped His Eminence, start-
ing back. " It is murder. For you know and
I know that the passage was sealed at the far-
ther end, by order of the Viceroy Calleja, the
predecessor of Apodaca."
" And doubtless the accursed priest has dis-
covered the fact by this time," replied Itur-
bide caustically.
" I demand that you tear down the secret
panel with your troopers," cried His Eminence
sternly. " Would you sacrifice another life in
this accursed cause ? Have you no heart ? "
" There lies the heart of Iturbide," was the
reply, as the Emperor pointed to Dahalia.
" There lies my love, my future, my all. And
there (pointing to the panel), there lies my
revenge."
" But this is murder," gasped the Archbishop.
" The murder of a Churchman and a member of
our brotherhood. Refuse my demand and I
shall withdraw from your cause the countenance
and support of the Church of Rome."
" Go then," responded Iturbide, with a look
of fierce defiance. " My cause was reared
without the aid of the clergy, and it will live
without the aid of the clergy. In England,
Henry VIII. divorced Church and State. In
France, the Republicans hurled defiance at the
Pope. In Mexico, I, Agustin de Iturbide,
Emperor by the Grace of God and the will of
Compliments of General Santa Anna. 133
the Mexican people, bid you go with your
empty forms and mummery, fit alone for the
priest-ridden Bourbons. For two hundred years
the Church of Rome has preyed upon this poor
country, like the sopilote of the desert, exercis-
ing the vilest extortions, practising the most
fearful inhumanities, working upon the fears of
the simple minded by the dread terrors of the
Inquisition, and glutting the national resources
to fatten your monks, your nuns, your cathe-
drals, and rear up a tinsel framework of cere-
monials to pander to your idle vanities, while
the ragged lepero, the beggared ranchero, and
despairing tradesman bow their worn, emaciated
bodies in the dust, to receive, in return for all
they have given to the Church, the empty vac-
uous smile and meaningless benediction of some
over-fed, lumbering priest, whose very shovel
hat and black robe have been paid for from the
full measure of their sacrifice. Yon man devil,
who, I pray God, has already rendered his
account, is an example of your sophistry, ex-
cusing all things on the ground that the end
justifies the means."
" You have hurled down your grito of defi-
ance and must answer to the Pope," cried the
exasperated Archbishop, his form shaken with
wrath. " The cause of the Excumulgado, has
•ever been a lost cause."
" I shall answer to my God and to Him alone,"
cried Iturbide. " And if my cause fail because
I have been the first of the Mexicans to raise
my voice against extortionate priestcraft, then
134 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
be it so. But hearken, your Eminence, that
day will come for Mexico when some man shall
rise strong enough to forever divorce Church
and State. Perhaps it may be an Iturbide —
perhaps a man of a future generation — as yet
unborn, but so surely as to-morrow's sun shall
rise over the city, so surely will the hour and
the man come. Go then, your Eminence, mete
out the curses of the Church of Rome, let the
Papal Bulls decry against my cause, flee across
the water to the Court of the Bourbons. I
defy you all and rest my cause before Almighty
God."
The Archbishop raised his hand as though
to pronounce the dread sentence of excommu-
nication, but Madame de Iturbide cast herself
before him and seized the hem of his robe.
" Forbear, your Eminence, I beseech you,"
she cried. " Grief has made my husband mad.
He knows not what he says. He knows not
what he does. I have ever been a faithful
daughter of the Church and I will answer for
my husband."
" So be it," said the Archbishop. " But un-
til he retracts his words he rests under the ban
of disapproval of the Church of Rome."
And motioning his suite to follow he passed
with dignity from the scarlet chamber of the
Viceroys, the suffragans chanting all the while.
Compliments of Emperor Iturbide. 135
CHAPTER XII.
THE COMPLIMENTS OF THE EMPEROR ITURBIDE.
The Convent of Santa Teresa consisted of a
retreat for about twenty nuns and a monastery
of several hundred Jesuit Fathers. It was a
large structure of quadrangular form, with a
square court, enclosed by gloomy, forbidding-
looking cloisters.
The Angelus was ringing, when a man and a
woman, footsore and weary, with dirty, worn,
tattered garments, knocked at the portals of
the convent.
A voice from within spoke through the rega.
" Who knocks at the portals of Santa Teresa ? "
The woman replied :
" A sister who desires sanctuary."
" Enter, little sister," said the same voice.
And the wicket opened disclosing a number of
thin, gaunt nuns, in great black robes, at the
feet of the Mother Superior, and in the shadow,
six blue-jacketed dragoons, headed by Captain
Berdejo.
The Commander of the Jalapa troop ad-
vanced courteously, helmet in hand, and with
a deferential bow said :
" We have anticipated your arrival by a few
hours, lady la Garza, — and I have already per-
6 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
fectcd arrangements to carry out the sentence
of death pronounced upon you by the Viceroy.
The execution will take place at midnight.
A pretty chase you have led us these many
days, — through the mountains and over the
lowlands. But all is well that ends well, and so,
seiiora, I suppose you will want to spend the
few hours left you at the Confessional."
The lady Juana la Garza looked with great,
sorrowful eyes at the stern, uncompromising
features of the Captain of the Blues, and in
them saw no pity. Then at the sorrowful,
sympathetic faces of the nuns.
Last at the passion-distorted face of Rafael
Aristo, who trembling with a rage that deprived
him of utterance, had fallen weakly against the
wicket for support.
With a beautiful resignation, she turned
gently to the priest and, bending close until
their faces almost touched, she kissed him
gently on the brow.
Then whispered softly in his ear :
" The Convent of Santa Teresa is but a few
leagues from the hacienda of Mango de Clavo.
If you can procure a swift horse, you can reach
Santa Anna in time to save me. We have
some few hours yet. If not — and you should
fail — then tell him that my last — last thoughts
were of him — tell him that perhaps it were
better so — for I am all unworthy the love of
such a mi 1."
The face of the priest brightened.
With the light of new-found hope and joy in
Compliments of Emperor Iturbide. 137
his eyes, he bended over the lady's hand and
then, before any one knew his intention, he
vanished through the wicket and into the dark-
ness of the night.
When he had gone the lady Juana la Garza
turned to the Mother Superior and said very
quietly :
" Mother, I am prepared to follow you."
And the Mother Superior, taking her hand,
led her through the gloomy corridors of Santa
Teresa, nuns and troopers following.
At an inn near the convent Rafael Aristo
procured a horse and took the road to the south
at a rapid gallop. Behind him along the north-
ern road he heard the rumbling of heavy
artillery wagons and the steady trot of cavalry,
and surmised rightly that the army of the Em-
peror Iturbide was advancing from the Capitol.
Ahead, however, the priest had a clear road
and he urged his good steed to the utmost over
the hard dry alkali road. As he sped along, he
cast many a sidelong glance over the low-lying
stretch of desert and wondered if his night-ride
was destined to transform the peaceful waste
into a charnel for the soldiers of Mexico, if the
gentle chaparral was destined before morning
to be crushed and bruised by the charge of
cavalry and the rush of infantry, if Santa
Anna's forces were sufficient in number to
drive back the troopers of the Emperor and cut
a way through to Santa Teresa, and if he,
Rafael Aristo, was to see again in this life the
138 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
beautiful face of the woman he loved, Juana la
Garza !
Again he urged his horse on, and on, and on,
for the love of woman was his, than which man
can have no greater incentive.
A turn of the road brought him to the out-
posts of Santa Anna's camp, and awakened him
from his reverie. The click of a gunlock and
the shrill challenge, — " Centinela alerta : '' ring-
ing out on the crisp air of the night, caused him
to bring his steed to a standstill.
The camp stretched out in parallel lines for
miles, the cavalry and infantry apart from the
light artillery, which formed a separate division
under General Marian, Santa Anna command-
ing the others.
Near the sentinel who barred his path, the
priest saw a few old women making tortillas,
while coffee-pots simmered over the camp-fires.
The men of the outpost, big, strapping fellows,
with bronzed, scarred cheeks, their heads cov-
ered by dirty, red handkerchiefs, or worn and
tattered sombreros, their manta trousers sup-
ported by parti-colored bandas, from which pro-
truded great pistols and machetes, lolled around
smoking their cigarettes as though they had
no other care in all the world.
" Pass me at once to the tent of the General
Santa Anna, hombre — 'tis a matter of life and
death," panted the priest.
" Impossible, your reverence," replied the
sentinel respectfully. " We have come by
forced marches from Vera Cruz and officers and
Compliments of Emperor Iturbide. 139
men are exhausted. General Santa Anna has
issued orders that no one disturb him to-night.
You will have to rest here with us until
morning and then, seilor, if you wish you can
see General Santa Anna."
With a deft swing of his arm Rafael Aristo
pushed the sentinel out of the pathway and
dashed on at full speed. The soldiers at the
outpost shouted and followed, but did not
fire, because their quarry was a son of the
Church.
Rafael Aristo drew up his panting horse be-
fore a great tent, in front of which was planted
Santa Anna's standard. Exhausted by his
hard ride he flung himself to the ground and
parted the flaps of the tent. The lights were
burning low within, throwing weird, grotesque
shadows on the flaps. A man, in the green
and go-Id uniform of a brigadier, was seated at
a table on which was a great war map which
he had evidently been studying, but his head
had fallen upon his arm and he slept.
The abrupt entrance of the priest awakened
him and he sprang to his feet, his hand upon
his sword-hilt. The face which met the eager
gaze of Rafael Aristo had once been a very
handsome face, but it was deeply lined and
haggard from battles, forced marches and all-
night vigils. The heavy jet-black curls were
streaked with silver threads, giving the daring
General a dignity which well became him.
The eyes were weary, tired-looking eyes yet in
the dim candle-light they threw out a s-cintillat-
140 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
ing glitter that fascinated the priest as no
other eyes had ever done in all his life. He
saw now why the lady Juana la Garza loved
this magnetic, soldier gentleman, the idol of
the Southland.
" My orders " began General Santa Anna
imperiously.
" Excellency — the lady Juana la Garza —
Convent of Santa Teresa — execution — mid-
night " panted the priest and fell in a dead
faint to the ground.
Without waiting for the priest to recover
himself Santa Anna rushed hastily from his
tent and crossed over to that of Colonel Duran
adjoining. A number of brilliantly uniformed
staff officers were carousing and making merry
over their wine. Deep silence fell as the
General entered and stood regarding them, a
drawn sword in his hand, his face calm, impas-
sive. Every man set down his glass and stood
at attention.
" Colonel Duran, you will advance your regi-
ment and take the enemy upon the right,"
began Santa Anna hurriedly.
" To-night ? " gasped Colonel Duran.
" To-night — at once," said Santa Anna in-
cisively.
General Marian broke in —
" The enemy are fortified on the Santa Teresa
road. My vedette Captain reports that they
outnumber us five to one. Even with our
reserves, which will not arrive until five o'clock
to-morrow morning, the -Emperor has an ad-
Compliments of Emperor Iturbide. 141
vantage in men and position. It is madness
to think of an advance to-night."
General Santa Anna turned to an orderly.
44 Teniente, have my cavalry ready to move
in ten minutes."
The Teniente saluted and left the tent at
once. A moment later a bugle sounded the
call " boots and saddles."
Santa Anna turned again to his astonished
officers.
" I see you are not in accord with me," he
said pleasantly, " I breakfast to-morrow morn-
ing in the Convent of Santa Teresa, gentlemen."
" In all probability we'll breakfast in hell,"
growled Colonel Duran.
" Perhaps," smiled Santa Anna, and his eyes
gleamed luridly with the fire of battle. " But
we'll have distinguished company, gentlemen,
for in half an hour we will join battle with the
enemy. I will lead the cavalry attack upon
the enemy's center, Colonel Duran the infantry
upon the enemy's right and you, General Ma-
rian, will bring your batteries in play upon the
enemy's left and concentrate your fire to draw
his attention from the center which I mean to
force to-night."
" Impossible " began Duran.
" There is no such word for Santa Anna,"
smiled that General. " We rendezvous after
the battle at Santa Teresa, gentlemen. God
speed you all, and speed our battle-cry, Mexico
and Santa Anna."
As they echoed the viva of their chief, Santa
142 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
Anna bowed very cordially and passed out to
where his troopers waited him. With a set
face and lips tightly compressed Santa Anna
vaulted into his saddle and led his band for-
ward at a rapid trot. He had thought the
woman he loved was safe and awaiting him in
the care of the priest who had saved her. For
love of her he had raised the standard of revolt
and declared against the Emperor, for love of
her he had abandoned the impregnable for-
tress of San Juan de Uloa and led his little army
to the north that he might cut his way victo-
rious into the Capitol and make her the first
lady of Mexico. And to-night, on the eve of
his success, when his picked reserves were al-
most at hand, the news of her peril forced his
hand and gave him an almost insurmountable
task.
" By God, I'll drive them back, I'll drive
them back," he muttered, " I'll drive them back
if it costs me every man I have."
And Santa Anna led his troopers on with
increased speed.
Meanwhile the camp was all confusion. The
vedettes had been called in and the infantry of
Colonel Duran and the field batteries of Gene-
ral Marian began their advance to certain de-
struction. Every officer of Santa Anna's staff
knew what odds confronted them. But Santa
Anna had trained his men to obey without
question and cheerily they followed their fear-
less leader, though they knew it was for many
of them the last battle, though they feared that
Compliments of Emperor Iturbide. 143
the morning's sun would rise for them no more,
for Santa Anna led them on, and with Santa
Anna they could smile at the very gates of
hell.
In the tent of General Santa Anna, the lights
were burning low, when the priest Rafael Aristo
came to himself. A great crucifix was hung on
one of the flaps of the tent and the priest pros-
trated himself before it, praying for the lady
Juana la Garza whose life hung by a thread.
Outside was the clatter of cavalry, the deep
heavy tread of infantry which gradually died
away in the distance. Then the sound of the
heavy gun-carriages of General Marian as
battery after battery passed. Rafael Aristo lis-
tened to the shouting of the drivers as they
lashed their horses and then continued his
prayer. Far away in the distance sounded the
rattle and crash of musketry, and the resonant
booming of field-guns, but above all the frenzied
cries of men in the agony of mortal conflict.
The priest sprang to his feet and listened with
clasped hands, then moved by a sudden inspira-
tion he seized the great crucifix and rushed from
the tent in time to join the last battery as it
swept on to action and death, the swarth artil-
lery-men shouting their battle-cry, " Mexico
and Santa Anna!" and the priest, waving the
crucifix and echoing their cry, " Mexico and
Santa Anna ! " sprang upon an axletree seat
and was swept along in the charge.
The nuns of Santa Teresa were at the re-
144 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
fectory. This, like the cells, was a gloomy
apartment, so furnished as to be a constant
picture of the mutability of human life. Upon
the walls at stated intervals were suspended
the moldy bones of divers Saints. In the
center of the table was a skull and crossbones.
While the twenty nuns supped of their simple
fare, consisting of an apple and a tortilla for
each, the Mother Superior read aloud the
prayers of the Church of Rome.
Apart from the rest the condemned woman
listened and waited the coming of the Father
Confessor.
The hour was eleven.
One hour of life.
Would Santa Anna reach her in time to save
her?
From an adjoining room came the voices of
Captain Berdejo's troopers toasting each other
over their wine. Soldier-like they had no
thought of the poor soul so soon to be hurried
into eternity.
There was the sound of chanting and the
great rumbling wheels of a coach from the
courtyard.
" It is the good Padre Madrid," said the
Mother Superior to the condemned woman.
" Little sister, art thou prepared for the Con-
fessional ? "
The bell of the convent tolled mournfully
the quarter.
'* I am prepared for the Confessional," echoed
the lady Juana la Garza, listlessly.
Compliments of Emperor Iturbide. 145
There was still three-quarters of an hour
left.
And the lady Juana la Garza believed in her
lover.
" Come, then," said the Mother Superior,
taking her hand. And she led her from the
refectory out through the gloomy cloister to
the Confessional.
A gorgeously-attired priest, in violet robe,
with a scarlet cloak, knelt prostrate before a
huge wooden crucifix, chanting the prayers of
the Church of Rome.
" Padre Madrid, I bring thee the condemned
woman, that her last moments may be spent
in preparation to meet her God."
The priest bowed and continued his chant-
ing.
The Mother Superior withdrew, crossing her-
self.
The lady Juana la Garza sank upon her
knees, and began telling her rosary. All hope
had left her now. With a white, wan face, she
looked pitifully at the great crucifix, before
which the priest still knelt.
" Juana " murmured the priest.
The lady la Garza pressed her hand to her
heart and gasped :
" Madre de Dios — Antonio "
" Yes, Antonio ! " replied the priest passion-
ately, and turned suddenly upon her, holding
out his arms.
" Antonio, who loves you with all the love
that his broken heart has left ; Antonio, who,
10
146 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
loving you, has come to die for you, or failing
that has come to die with you."
And he would have embraced her.
But with a great cry of awful agony, she
shrank from him.
" Ah, God — you are bleeding — you are
wounded — Antonio, my Antonio " she
sobbed piteously.
" Yes, I had to cut my way through the
army of Iturbide, which was advancing upon
Mango de Clavo. To-morrow I should have
given him battle — for I have raised the grito
of revolt against the man who took my little
sister's honor. And I think I should have
won the day, for my reserves were advancing
from the south. But when, to-night, your
messenger came to me and told me of your
impending fate, I started with what forces I
could gather, and advanced upon mine enemy.
Ah, God ! it was a battle — and we cut our way
through, — but of my brave Jorochos, there are
scarce half a hundred left. And Iturbide is in
hot pursuit. My men hold the only approach
to the convent, and will hold it against all the
army of Iturbide, until every man of them has
fallen. Fate sent the Padre Madrid across our
path, in his great coach, scarce half an hour
since. He was bearing the Host to the dying.
Around his carriage ran six acolytes in robes
of white, chanting and waving their incense.
We waylaid them and slew the Confessor and
the boys. Then, donning their robes, myself
and six of my most trusted men gained access
Compliments of Emperor Iturbide. 147
to the convent. My companions hold the ap-
proaches to the Confessional."
" Ah, Dios — you do love me — you do indeed
love me " sobbed the lady Juana la Garza,
throwing herself into his outstretched arms.
''And since we cannot live together, we can at
least die together."
" Talk not of death while Santa Anna has
his sword to defend you," said her lover.
And throwing off the robes of the Father
Confessor, he drew his saber, and stood before
her, every inch a soldier, in his blood-bespat-
tered uniform of green and gold.
" Come — my love — my nifla — there is still
time and I will lead you to liberty and to
love "
Solemnly rang through the Confessional the
first stroke of twelve.
"Ah, Dios — too late — too late " gasped
the lady Juana la Garza.
As if to verify her words, the furious clash
of sabers rang through the corridor.
With the light of battle in his eyes, Santa
Anna gently disengaged her clinging arms, and
with a passionate kiss of farewell, cried :
" Wait you here, my darling. If I live, I
will return to you and lead you from this hot-
bed of danger."
And then he sprang into the corridor, where
his brave troopers were fighting the soldiers of
Captain Berdejo. Slowly the soldiers of the
Blues retreated before the determined onset of
Santa Anna and his Jorocho cavalrymen. And
148 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
retreating, entered the room where Berdejo had
made merry with his officers but a short time
since. And now there were but three of all the
combatants left alive — Santa Anna — and op-
posed to him, the Captain and Lieutenant of
the Blues. And Berdejo, supported with his left
arm, the body of a boy sergeant, which he used
as a buckler in this awful game of life and
death.
For his sword had already crossed the sword
of Santa Anna, and he knew that he had found
his master. For Santa Anna was the best
swordsman in Mexico.
The room was small and there was little op-
portunity to display any great maneuvering.
Round and round the apartment swayed the
three combatants, and Santa Anna allowed the
blades of his opponents, to play along his own,
keeping his eyes fixed upon the Lieutenant, a
huge massive man with a great black beard.
There was time for the Captain later.
And the Lieutenant pressed Santa Anna the
more fiercely, since in the eyes of Santa Anna
he read death. Once he made a pass at Santa
Anna's head, but missed his stroke and the
point of his saber struck the partition. And
Santa Anna returned the pass and by the soft
feel of resistance to his point, knew that he
had pierced the Lieutenant's shoulder.
With an awful oath the Lieutenant dropped
his saber and sank weakly against the wall.
And Captain Berdejo, making a fierce rush
upon Santa Anna, fought as only a desperate
Slowly the soldiers of the Blues retreated before the
determined on5et of Santa Anna, * * *
Page 148,
Compliments of Emperor Iturbide. 149
man can, and fighting, broke his opponent's
saber.
But Santa Anna grasped the heavy wine
bottle from the table hard by and, with the cool
desperation of a man who sees nothing but
death before him, hurled it at his opponent's
head, felling him like an ox.
Then with a savage cry of joy, he would have
turned again to the corridor, to rejoin his love,
but as he faced the door, he saw standing there,
surrounded by his brilliantly uniformed staff,
the man he most hated in all the world — Itur-
bide.
" Buenos noches, General Santa Anna," said
the Emperor smiling. " It seems we have ar-
rived a little late to participate in this drama."
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, leaned
weakly against the table, and gazed with lack-
luster eyes at the man who had robbed him of
his sister, who had defeated his faithful Joro-
chos, and who was now about to crown his
triumph by sending the woman he loved to her
death, for it was not reasonable to suppose that
a hardened soldier like the Emperor Iturbide
would have any consideration for the man who
had sought to bring about the downfall of the
Empire, nor for the woman he loved.
" You have just five minutes to live," con-
tinued Iturbide in a stern voice. " You have
dared to raise the grito of revolt against the
man who was your Emperor — God's anointed
— the Liberator of Mexico."
" And the man who dishonored the little
1 5o Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
sister I entrusted to his care," added Santa
Anna, with an awful look of agony and a great
sadness in his voice.
Iturbide started as though he had received a
blow, — advanced upon Santa Anna, with fea-
tures hard and set. Then controlling himself,
with an effort said :
" General Santa Anna, I swear as God is my
judge, that Dahalia's honor was sacred to me.
Religiously I kept the trust imposed upon me.
I loved her — ah God, — I loved her better than
life itself. And when she was taken from me,
my heart was broken. While your sister lived
I could never forget that I was a gentleman of
Mexico, and her honor was dearer to me than
mine own."
" You swear that this is the truth as God is
your judge?" said Santa Anna, rising to his
feet with a radiant look of joy upon his face.
" As God is my judge, I swear that this is
the truth," said Iturbide, raising his hand to
heaven.
" 'Tis all that I could ask," cried Santa Anna.
"And I thank the good God that He permits
me to go to my death with the knowledge that
the little sister I loved was pure."
Iturbide held out his hand. But Santa Anna
sadly shook his head.
" No — no," he said finally. " I am no hypo-
crite. I raised the grito of revolt against you
when I saw that you had driven out the Span-
ish Viceroys only to create a New World Em-
pire for yourself. I am a Mexican of the
Compliments of Emperor Iturbide. 151
Mexicans, and were I freed to-night, I should
rally my scattered troopers against you to-
morrow, and do my best to tear down the
throne you have mounted."
" For Dahalia's sake I would have wished it
otherwise," said Iturbide, regretfully. " But
you pronounce your own death sentence, when
you declare against me. If I would have peace
in Mexico, I must crush out mine enemies.
We might have been friends."
" Yes — the Liberator-General and Santa
Anna might have been friends," was the reply.
" But the Emperor of Mexico and Santa Anna
— never. So order your soldiers to proceed
with the execution. Excellency, I am ready."
And he threw back his head proudly and
folded his arms upon his blood-stained breast.
Iturbide motioned to a squad of soldiers in
the corridor and they took their position before
the condemned man, while the Emperor and
his staff moved aside.
At a word from the officer in charge they
slowly raised their muskets.
Before the fatal word of command could be
given, a pale, sorrowful-looking woman, with
disheveled hair, and grief-stricken features,
rushed into the room and threw her arms
around Santa Anna.
" Ah, Dios — Juana — my darling" — groaned
Santa Anna — " I could have died like a soldier
but now — now I am all unmanned. Why have
you come here when you might have escaped
your enemies? "
152 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
" I have come to die with the man I loved,"
sobbed the woman, clinging passionately to him
and twining her soft arms around his neck.
Iturbide turned towards them and in a kindly,
gentle tone said :
" We are not butchers of women, my lady.
Nor is a military execution a fitting sight for
your eyes. So if you will leave us "
" Leave the man I love — the man who is
about to die, because he risked his all for me ? "
gasped the lady Juana la Garza. "Ah, no, no,
no ! If we cannot live together, we can at
least die together. Grant me this one request,
Excellency. I am a Mexican woman and I
have asked no mercy for Santa Anna nor for
myself. I too know how to die, and my one
great desire is to be permitted to die in the
arms of the man I love."
Gently Santa Anna disengaged her clasp,
and advancing to the Emperor held out his
hand.
" A few moments ago, I refused your offer of
friendship, because, as a Republican at heart, I
could not tolerate a Mexican Emperor. But
you have offered life and liberty to the one
woman in all the world to me. I thank you.
I staked my all in this game of life and death
and I have lost. I am ready to pay the reckon-
ing. Have the lady Juana la Garza removed
and let the execution proceed."
And with a great effort he turned his back
upon her.
She fell upon her knees before the Emperor
Compliments of Emperor Iturbide. 153
Iturbide, and seizing his hand, sobbed pite-
ously.
" Ah, Excellency — do not let them take me
from him — let us die together — it is all I ask
— it is all I ask."
And she fainted.
Gently they bore her from the room and
Santa Anna turned to Iturbide with an inclina-
tion of the head, saying softly :
" I thank your Excellency."
Iturbide looked at him with admiration, and
looking saw upon his face the look of the dead
Dahalia, — the look of the little woman who
had drank of the death potion intended for
her Emperor.
And seeing the likeness of the dead sister in
the living brother, his heart was heavy with
grief and he groaned :
" Ah, no, no, — I cannot do it — I cannot do
it. — Dahalia pleads with me to spare you.
Perhaps I am preparing the downfall of the
Empire I have builded — perhaps I am setting
free the man who will foment rebellion and
civil war in Mexico. But for her sake I will
take the chance. General Antonio Lopez de
Santa Anna, you are free — free to depart with
the woman you love."
Santa Anna grasped Iturbide's hand and
gently raised it to his lips.
"Again I thank your Excellency," he said,
"but I am in duty-bound, as a gentleman of
Mexico, to tell you that, when I return to the
Southland, my first act will be to rally to my
154 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
banners the remnant of my army, and to de-
clare against the Empire, since clearer to Santa
Anna than his life and even his love is Mexico,
his country. Yet perhaps may come that time
when opportunity will be given to General
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to remember
that the Emperor Iturbide gave him his life
and his love, and he will not forget."
For answer the Emperor pointed to the door.
And Santa Anna passed through the bril-
liantly-uniformed suite of officers — to liberty —
and to the woman he loved.
Epilogue. 155
EPILOGUE.
A.
A NEW moon broke through the nebulosity
of the southern sky and cast its gentle, yellow
light upon the long, low stretch of alkali desert.
The silence of the night prevailed unbroken.
To the north, out of the low-lying mist
which hovered like a dense pall over the low-
lands, petrous Popocatapetl and Iztaccihuatl, —
gruesome, gray phantasms of the night —
loomed out of the darkness.
Through the veil of mist, in the south, a par-
aselene sky caught out of the great desert the
shades of the waning night, alternating with
fitful, phosphorescent strands of green and gold,
orange and vermilion, in the east, — heralds of
the dawning day.
As the gray of early morning slowly drove
back the blackish gloom, amorphous shadows
of the night became tangible realities of the
day, and far as eye could see was one huge
conglutination of human bodies, horses and
ordnance.
In the glister of the fine white alkali, was gluey
red crassament which had formed a thick vis-
cous pool.
Under the battered flanges of a field-gun, a
156 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
group of fierce Jorochos were sleeping their
last sleep, their faces ghastly, drawn, their jaws
fallen, their teeth gleaming white, their muti-
lated bodies drenched in the fluxion of their
own blood. The bronzed, ugly faces with con-
tracted foreheads, beady, bulging eyes, high
cheekbones and square, massive animal jaws,
were not pleasant to look upon in death.
Near them, blood-soaked, lay a troop of the
Emperor's dragoons, under and alongside the
stiffening bodies of their horses, — riders and
steeds shot down in the charge by the last fire
from the Jorocho battery, which had finally
succumbed to superior numbers, but had sur-
rendered only to King Death.
Between the two groups and beside a great
wooden crucifix lay a squat, pitiful figure, in
the long, black robe of a Jesuit father. The
position of the priest indicated that he had
been in command of the Jorocho battery, and
he had evidently been cut down by the charg-
ing dragoons when rallying his men around the
cross of Christ. There was a great gash across
the man's forehead, from which a little red
stream had trickled over his ecchymotic face,
forming a dark red congelation. The body of
a dapple-gray cavalry horse had fallen across
the man's left arm, breaking it at the bend of
the elbow.
Through the mist broke the red blaze of the
rising sun, and lighted the gruesome repast of
the Sopilotes, great black scavengers, who
foraged from body to body with a jubilant,
Epilogue. 157
" Caw, caw, caw — caw, caw, caw," plucking and
tearing at the soft, yielding flesh of their silent
prey, and holding the quivering red tid-bits
aloft in blood-reddened claws, while they drove
their sharp, razor-like beaks into eye or cheek
to further glut and gorge their carrion-swelled
bodies. And so from group to group, from
rebel Jorocho to royal dragoon, went the car-
rion vultures, performing well their gruesome
task, and leaving, instead of the bronzed,
battle-scarred faces, smooth, eburnean, white,
grinning skulls shining in the sunlight of the
early morning. And so from group to group
went the carrion vultures, until they came at
last to the blood-shrouded group under the
battered flanges of the field gun.
The sudden descent of the carrion vultures
startled from under the body of the priest a
huge rattlesnake, which, rearing itself from the
encrimsoned pool where it had lain, coiled
itself as though for a spring, hissing angrily all
the while, then sullenly glided off to a more
quiet retreat near some neighboring cacti.
Likewise fled from the stark and silent dead a
body of red ants which had been attracted to
the group by the putrescent effluvium given
off from the bodies already beginning to rot in
the sunlight.
One huge, black vulture, so swollen from
carnal repast as to make his movements clumsy,
settled heavily on the head of the priest and
began to peck slowly at the gash upon the
forehead, whereupon the blood began to trickle
158 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
afresh down the ecchymotic, swollen face. A
nervous tremor shook the body of the priest
and the muscles of his face worked convulsive-
ly. Something between a sob and a hiccough
came from the prostrate form, and a red-white
foam flecked the blanched lips. The huge
carrion vulture sank a great claw into the
priest's right eye, tearing the ball and crushing
it back into the socket.
With an awful groan and a sob the priest
raised his right arm, and the carrion bird of
prey flapped its great black wings, essaying to
fly, but, overweighted by its glut of blood and
flesh, it toppled down and off the swollen face,
and the right hand of the pain-maddened man
closed around the great black neck, and crushed
and ground and tore, until the hand retained
in its fierce clasp only a soft, pulpy mass of
quivering flesh and warm red blood,
Sobbing and hiccoughing, the priest shook
off the slimy, oozy, pulpy mass, and with an
effort carried his right hand, blood-soaked
and gluey wet, to the maimed, sightless eye-
ball, which burned and ached and bled, and
did more to bring the man to consciousness by
the very exquisite pang of pain than aught else
could have done. He attempted to raise him-
self upon his elbow, but the body of the dapple-
gray held his limp left arm immobile. He ex-
erted himself, more by instinct than by any
consciousness of what he was doing, to release
the injured limb from the vise which held it
down. It yielded a little, but the effort gave
Epilogue. 159
him a thrill of awful agony and he shrieked
aloud. Again he sought to release the arm
from the sickening weight which held it, and
this time succeeded, but from very agony fell
back weak and fainting. For a long time he
lay silent, his body quivering from an occa-
sional hiccoughing.
When at last he came again to himself the
sun was a fiery ball of red directly overhead, and
its fierce heat beat upon his unprotected head,
overpowering his reason with frenetic scotomy.
He essayed to rise, but paraplegy held him
powerless for a long time. He seemed no
longer a human being, but a bloody, raging,
nameless thing.
Again and again he essayed to rise and again
and again fell back.
" God Almighty ! — God Almighty ! — God
Almighty ! " he cried again and again.
After awhile he dragged himself with an effort
a few paces to where the blood-red crucifix lay
in the white alkali of the desert. He caught
the crucifix to him and kissed it again and
again, babbling all the while in his delirium —
babbling of the Church, babbling of Mexico,
babbling of the woman he loved.
He was quite mad, poor priest ; crazed by
the pitiless heat which seethed from the caldron
overhead ; crazed by the pain in his sightless,
pulpy eye ; crazed by the parched, swollen lips
and the dried, parchment-like tongue which
protruded from his mouth, a shapeless red thing
like a piece of dried leather.
160 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
With his uninjured eye he made out the still
bleeding, bruised body of the carrion bird of
prey, and caught it up with his right hand,
squeezing out the viscous red ooze upon his
parched lips and tongue, and drawing in the
nauseous effluence with little chuckling gasps
of glee. At last, when he had finished his
loathsome draught, he flung the shapeless thing
from him and looked long and earnestly to the
north. Nothing met his eye but the corse-
strewn stretch of alkali, with its covering of
dead dragoons, dead Jorochos, dead horses and
broken gun carriages.
Everything was still and silent, on every
side, save the feasting sopilotes, circling here
and there with incessant, rancorous,
" Caw, caw, caw, — caw, caw, caw."
He turned himself with an effort to the
south, and looked long into vacancy, scanning
the desert from zenith to horizon, but no single
living thing except the sopilotes could be seen,
and he groaned aloud with an awful sense of
loneliness and abandonment. Nearer sounded
the never-ceasing,
" Caw, caw, caw, — caw, caw, caw,"
and the priest shuddered as he thought of the
shapeless dead thing whose blood he had
drained.
Gradually came to him a fixed idea, which
began to shape itself into words, and he mur-
mured over and over again :
" She is there, — she is there, — she is
there "
Epilogue. 161
Then after a while :
" God Almighty, good God, merciful God
Almighty, — give me strength to see her once —
once again before I die.''
And with an almost superhuman effort, his
swollen lips compressed, his jaw firmly set, he
began to drag himself with his right arm over
the silent hillocks of the dead, towards the
south, babbling all the while.
11
162 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
EPILOGUE.
B.
A BEAUTIFUL woman in a stylish riding-
habit, mounted upon a dapple gray, and a
soldierly-looking, handsome man, in a uniform
of green and gold, upon a great war-horse,
were riding upon that part of the road to Vera
Cruz, lying to the north.
Twilight was just setting in as they drew
near the hacienda of Mango de Clavo, — the
hereditary estate of the Santa Annas. The
soil was rich and fertile, — great herds of fat,
sleek-looking cattle browsed through the pas-
turage and tropical undergrowth, while wiry,
well-groomed horses, startled at the approach
of the intruders, would dash through the forest
and along the shores of the gulf, pursued by
the bronzed vacqueros whose care it was to
watch them.
As the evening drew on, they began to pass
the large granaries and storehouses of the
estate. Exterior to these was a huge fortified
wall, garrisoned by armed retainers. Near the
granaries were a few jacals, around which
stood the Zaragates and Gauchinangos, or
peon retainers, who rent the air with cries of
joy at their beloved master's homecoming.
At last the master of Mango de Clavo and
Epilogue. 163
his fair companion came to the great drive-
way, leading to the mansion house, the whole
length of which, on either side, was lined with
Jorocho cavalrymen — bronzed, intrepid, wiry,
wild-eyed little men, who seldom slept. For
they were the Cossack lancers of the South,
who in the thick of battle were on and off
their horses, now thrusting with their lances,
now performing miracles of sharpshooting,
with their carbines, now wading over the blood-
stained batteries they had swept aside like
chaff, to perform new wonders in the resistless
rush against the enemy.
And so, on this particular evening, when
they had assembled to greet their chieftain,
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, and
the woman for love of whom he had sacrificed
his chosen ones, their impatient ponies pawed
the ground, to the accompaniment of their sil-
ver trappings, and the little group of fierce,
savage-looking officers, sat like marionettes in
their saddles — behind them the fierce Jorochos,
every lance at an angle, every carbine across
the crupper, every bearskin shako jauntily set,
every bristling pair of mustaches stiffened with
pride.
And as he saw once more the devoted band,
which he had thought lost to him forever, a
feeling of sadness came upon Santa Anna, and
there was moisture in his eyes. But as he
looked at the beautiful woman at his side, his
grief gave way to happiness, and he told him-
self that for the love of such a woman he would
164 Iturbidc, A Soldier of Mexico.
send this remnant of his dear army to the gates
of hell.
And when they had come to the great man-
sion, General Santa Anna took his lady's hand,
and after assisting her to dismount, led her
into the patio of Mango de Clavo, where a
great banquet was spread for the homecoming
of master and mistress.
The dinner was a most elaborate one. Olla
podrida in great silver bowls, juicy tender joints
on platters of Dresden china, steaming chili
con carne, dainty entrees, freshest of pineapples,
and strawberries from the plantation, inter-
spersed with wines rich and varied, and followed
by coffee and cigarros.
And when the toasts were drunk, Santa Anna,
looking at the gallant officers around the festal
board proposed :
" The most beautiful lady in all the land ! "
And the officers with their eyes upon the
lady Juana la Garza echoed right heartily :
" The most beautiful lady in all the land ! "
And the night wore on apace — a night of
feasting and revelry. And on the stroke of
twelve appeared in the doorway two dust-be-
spattered troopers, supporting between them
an abject, gaunt, pitiful-looking figure, in a
black cassock, a great cut upon his forehead,
and the ashen hue of death upon his face, his
right eye a sightless pulp, his left arm limp and
helpless by his side, a figure more thing than
man.
The priest Rafael Aristo !
Epilogue. 165
Through the startled group of officers they
led him, and never paused until they had set
him gently in a chair near General Santa Anna.
" Rafael Aristo ! " gasped the lady Juana la
Garza.
" Yes — Rafael — Aristo " — said the priest
with a great effort — " Rafael Aristo, — who was
left last night for dead upon the battlefield.
But a merciful God — gave me strength — to live
— to look once more upon the one woman — in all
the world — to me — and to know that she will
be happy. I have dragged my poor, maimed
body — along the alkali desert, all this day, —
until these faithful ones — found me. Some-
thing told me that my mission had not been —
fruitless — that Santa Anna would be in time —
and I — I could not bear to die — my children —
without giving you — the blessing of the Church
of Rome. That blessing I now pronounce —
upon this man and this woman — for I am once
more a priest of the Holy Church — and I think
the good God will pardon me — if I was mis-
taken in seeking what other men have sought
— I think He will pardon me, I say — because I
have given my life — that the woman I loved
might live — and be happy — and be happy —
ah God — I am coming — I am coming — the
Church — the Church of Rome — Mexico."
His head fell back ; a great stream of blood
issued from his lips and so he died.
And the lady Juana la Garza, kneeling be-
side him, pressed a gentle kiss upon the pallid,
death-dampened brow.
i66 Iturbide, A Soldier of Mexico.
Then turning, saw her
herself
lover standing near,
and throwing herself into his outstretched
arms, buried her face upon his great chest and
wept like a little child.
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Return to desk from which borrowed.
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
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