ar? and quick--
aprisa! aprisa!"

"Si, senor."

"Ah! here comes le voyageur Canadien. So, old Nor'-west! you've brought
the wine?"

"Vin delicieux, Monsieur Saint Vrain! equal to ze vintage Francais."

"He is right, Haller! Tsap--tsap! delicious you may say, good Gode.
Tsap--tsap! Come, drink! it'll make you feel as strong as a buffalo.
See! it seethes like a soda spring! like `Fontaine-qui-bouille'; eh,
Gode?"

"Oui, monsieur; ver like Fontaine-qui-bouille. Oui."

"Drink, man, drink! Don't fear it: it's the pure juice. Smell the
flavour; taste the bouquet. What wine the Yankees will one day squeeze
out of these New Mexican grapes!"

"Why? Do you think the Yankees have an eye to this quarter?"

"Think! I know it; and why not? What use are these manikins in
creation? Only to cumber the earth. Well, mozo, you have brought the
coffee?"

"Ya, esta, senor."

"Here! try some of this; it will help to set you on your feet. They can
make coffee, and no mistake. It takes a Spaniard to do that."

"What is this fandango Gode has been telling me about?"

"Ah! true. We are to have a famous one to-night. You'll go, of
course?"

"Out of curiosity."

"Very well, you will have your curiosity gratified. The blustering old
grampus of a Governor is to honour the ball with his presence; and it is
said, his pretty senora; that I don't believe."

"Why not?"

"He's too much afraid lest one of these wild Americanos might whip her
off on the cantle of his saddle. Such things have been done in this
very valley. By Saint Mary! she is good-looking," continued Saint
Vrain, in a half-soliloquy, "and I knew a man--the cursed old tyrant!
only think of it!"

"Of what?"

"The way he has bled us. Five hundred dollars a waggon, and a hundred
of them at that; in all, fifty thousand dollars!"

"But will he pocket all this? Will not the Government--?"

"Government! no, every cent of it. He is the Government here; and, with
the help of this instalment, he will rule these miserable wretches with
an iron rod."

"And yet they hate him, do they not?"

"Him and his. And they have reason."

"It is strange they do not rebel."

"They have at times; but what can they do? Like all true tyrants, he
has divided them, and makes them spend their heart's hatred on one
another."

"But he seems not to have a very large army; no bodyguard--"

"Bodyguard!" cried Saint Vrain, interrupting me; "look out! there's his
body