ther of these things to so brave and able a soldier. Amid these gilded
youths de Tobar with noble magnanimity and affection had proved himself
Alvarado's staunchest friend. A romantic attachment had sprung up
between the two young men, and the first confidant of de Tobar's love
affairs had been Alvarado himself. To betray his friend was almost as
bad as to betray his patron. It was not to be thought of.

Yet how could he, a man in whose blood--though it may have been ignoble
for aught he knew--ran all the passions of his race with the fervor and
fire of the best, a man who loved, as he did, the ground upon which the
Senorita de Lara walked, stand by tamely and see her given to another,
no matter who he might be? He would have given the fortune which he had
amassed by honorable toil, the fame he had acquired by brilliant
exploits, the power he enjoyed through the position he had achieved, the
weight which he bore in the councils of New Spain, every prospect that
life held dear to him to solve the dilemma and win the woman he loved
for his wife.

He passed hours in weary isolation on the plaza of the great castle
overlooking the stretched-out town upon the narrow strand with the
ceaseless waves beating ever upon the shore from the heavenly turquoise
blue of the Caribbean wavering far into the distant horizon before him.
He spent days and nights, thinking, dreaming, agonizing, while he
wrestled vainly with the problem. Sometimes he strove to call to his
mind those stern resolutions of duty which he had laid before himself at
the beginning of his career, and to which he had steadfastly adhered in
the pursuit of his fortunes; and he swore that he would be true to his
ideals, that the trust reposed in him by the Viceroy should not be
betrayed, that the friendship in which he was held by de Tobar should
never be broken, that he would tear out of his heart the image of the
woman he loved. And then, again, he knew that so long as that heart kept
up its beating she would be there, and to rob him of her image meant to
take away his life. If there had been a war, if some opportunity had
been vouchsafed him to pour out, in battle against the enemy, some of
the ardor that consumed him, the situation would have been ameliorated;
but the times were those of profound peace. There was nothing to occupy
his mind except the routine duties of the garrison.

Spain, under the last poor, crazed, bewitched, degenerate descendant of
the once f