The Project Gutenberg EBook of Carmen Ariza, by Charles Francis Stocking

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Title: Carmen Ariza

Author: Charles Francis Stocking

Release Date: October 24, 2009 [EBook #30312]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: In the name of the Church he would serve these humble
people.
--Book 2, Page 77.]

CARMEN ARIZA

BY

CHARLES FRANCIS STOCKING, E. M.

Author of THE DIARY OF JEAN EVARTS, THE MAYOR OF FILBERT, Etc.

CHICAGO

THE MAESTRO CO.

1921

Copyright 1915

BY

CHARLES FRANCIS STOCKING

ISSUED JANUARY 1916

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

TWENTY-FIFTH EDITION

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

CARMEN ARIZA

BOOK 1

Doth this offend you?--the words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit, and they are life.

--_Jesus._

CARMEN ARIZA

CHAPTER 1

The tropical sun mounted the rim of the golden Caribbean, quivered
for a moment like a fledgeling preening its wings for flight, then
launched forth boldly into the vault of heaven, shattering the
lowering vapors of night into a myriad fleecy clouds of every form
and color, and driving them before it into the abysmal blue above.
Leaping the sullen walls of old Cartagena, the morning beams began to
glow in roseate hues on the red-tiled roofs of this ancient metropolis
of New Granada, and glance in shafts of fire from her glittering
domes and towers. Swiftly they climbed the moss-grown sides of church
and convent, and glided over the dull white walls of prison and
monastery alike. Pouring through half-turned shutters, they plashed
upon floors in floods of gold. Tapping noiselessly on closed
portals, they seemed to bid tardy sleepers arise, lest the hurrying
midday _siesta_ overtake them with tasks unfinished. The dormitory of
the ecclesiastical college, just within the east wall of the city,
glowed brilliantly in the clear light which it was reflecting to
the mirror of waters without. Its huge bulk had caught the first rays