which he had been for some time suffering.

To make known his feelings it is necessary to repeat what passed through
his mind after he had separated from the Texan.

"There's something odd in all this," soliloquised he, as he strode on.
"Here am I going to fight for a country I care nothing about, and
against one with which I have no cause of quarrel. On the contrary, I
have come four thousand miles to visit the latter, as a peaceful
friendly traveller. Now I propose making entry into it, sword in hand,
as an enemy and invader! The native land, too, of her who has taken
possession of my heart! Ah! therein lies the very reason: _I have not
got hers_. I fear--nay, I am certain of that, from what I saw this
morning. Bah! What's the use of thinking about it, or about her?
Luisa Valverde cares no more for me than the half-score of others--these
young Creole `bloods,' as they call themselves--who flit like
butterflies around her. She's a sweet flower from which all of them
wish to sip. Only one will succeed, and that's Carlos Santander. I
hate the very sight of the man. I believe him to be a cheat and a
scoundrel. No matter to her. The cheat she won't understand; and, if
report speak true of her country and race, the scoundrel would scarcely
qualify him either. Merciful heavens! to think I should love this
Mexican girl, warned as I've been about her countrywomen! 'Tis a
fascination, and the sooner I get away from it and her presence, the
better it may be for me. Now, this Texan business offers a chance of
escaping the peril. If I find she cares not for me, it will be a sort
of satisfaction to think that in fighting against her country I may in a
way humiliate herself. Ah, Texas! If you find in me a defender, it
will not be from any patriotic love of you, but to bury bitter thoughts
in oblivion."

The chain of his reflections, momentarily interrupted was after a time
continued: "My word," he exclaimed, "there's surely something ominous in
my encounter with this Cris Rock! Destiny seems to direct me. Here am
I scheming to escape from a thraldom of a siren's smiles, and, to do so,
ready to throw myself into the ranks of a filibustering band! On the
instant a friend is found--a patron who promises to make me their
leader! Shall I refuse the favour, which fortune herself seems to
offer? Why should I? It is fate, not chance; and this night at their
meeting I shall know whether it is meant in earnest. So