; and on
the public plaza, in presence of the multitude, I chastised the
insulter.

"I was seized and thrown into a prison, where I lay for several weeks.
When I was freed, and sought my home again, it was plundered and
desolate. The wild Navajo had been there; my household gods were
scattered and broken, and my child, oh, God! my little Adele, was
carried captive to the mountains!"

"And your wife? your other child?" I inquired, eager to know the rest.

"They had escaped. In the terrible conflict--for my poor peons battled
bravely--my wife, with Zoe in her arms, had rushed out and hidden in a
cave that was in the garden. I found them in the ranche of a vaquero in
the woods, whither they had wandered."

"And your daughter Adele--have you heard aught of her since?"

"Yes, yes, I will come to that in a moment.

"My mine, at the same time, was plundered and destroyed; many of the
workmen were slaughtered before they could escape; and the work itself,
with my fortune, became a ruin.

"With some of the miners, who had fled, and others of Valverde, who,
like me, had suffered, I organised a band, and followed the savage foe;
but our pursuit was vain, and we turned back, many of us broken in
health and heart.

"Oh, monsieur, you cannot know what it is to have thus lost a favourite
child! you cannot understand the agony of the bereaved father!"

The speaker pressed his head between his hands, and remained for a
moment silent. His countenance bore the indications of heartrending
sorrow.

"My story will soon be told--up to the present time. Who knows the end?

"For years I hung upon the frontiers of the Indian country, hunting for
my child. I was aided by a small band, most of them unfortunates like
myself, who had lost wife or daughter in a similar manner. But our
means became exhausted, and despair wore us out. The sympathies of my
companions grew old and cold. One after another gave up. The Governor
of New Mexico offered us no aid. On the contrary, it was suspected
then--it is now known--that the Governor himself was in secret league
with the Navajo chiefs. He had engaged to leave them unmolested; while
they, on their side, promised to plunder only his enemies!

"On learning this terrible secret, I saw the hand that had dealt me the
blow. Stung by the disgrace I had put upon him, as well as by my wife's
scorn, the villain was not slow to avenge himself.

"Since then his life has been twice in my po