," said Hope, "I miss everything. I think
I'll come, however, anyhow. The servants are all going, and I'll go
with them disguised in a turban."

As the men neared Valencia, Clay turned in his saddle, and asked
Langham if he thought his sister would really venture into the town.

"She'd better not let me catch her, if she does," the fond brother
replied.

The reviewing party left the Government Palace for the Alameda at three
o'clock, President Alvarez riding on horseback in advance, and Madame
Alvarez sitting in the State carriage with one of her attendants, and
with Stuart's troopers gathered so closely about her that the men's
boots scraped against the wheels, and their numbers hid her almost
entirely from sight.

The great square in which the evolutions were to take place was lined
on its four sides by the carriages of the wealthy Olanchoans, except at
the two gates, where there was a wide space left open to admit the
soldiers. The branches of the trees on the edges of the bare parade
ground were black with men and boys, and the balconies and roofs of the
houses that faced it were gay with streamers and flags, and alive with
women wrapped for the occasion in their colored shawls. Seated on the
grass between the carriages, or surging up and down behind them, were
thousands of people, each hurrying to gain a better place of vantage,
or striving to hold the one he had, and forming a restless, turbulent
audience in which all individual cries were lost in a great murmur of
laughter, and calls, and cheers. The mass knit together, and pressed
forward as the President's band swung jauntily into the square and
halted in one corner, and a shout of expectancy went up from the trees
and housetops as the President's body-guard entered at the lower gate,
and the broken place in its ranks showed that it was escorting the
State carriage. The troopers fell back on two sides, and the carriage,
with the President riding at its head, passed on, and took up a
position in front of the other carriages, and close to one of the sides
of the hollow square. At Stuart's orders Clay, MacWilliams, and
Langham had pushed their horses into the rear rank of cavalry, and
remained wedged between the troopers within twenty feet of where Madame
Alvarez was sitting. She was very white, and the powder on her face
gave her an added and unnatural pallor. As the people cheered her
husband and herself she raised her head slightly and seemed to be