le breast,
Each hero--save in Bogota!

At the first sudden gush of the music from within, the father of the
damsel started to his feet, and with confusion in his countenance, was
about to leave the apartment. But Bolivar arrested his footsteps, and
in a whisper, commanded him to be silent and remain. The conspirators,
startled, if not alarmed, were compelled to listen. Bolivar did so
with a pleased attention. He was passionately fond of music, and this
was of a sort at once to appeal to his objects and his tastes. His eye
kindled as the song proceeded. His heart rose with an exulting
sentiment. The moment, indeed, embodied one of his greatest
triumphs--the tribute of a pure, unsophisticated soul, inspired by
Heaven with the happiest and highest endowments, and by earth with the
noblest sentiments of pride and country. When the music ceased,
Zalabariata was about to apologize, and to explain, but Bolivar again
gently and affectionately arrested his utterance.

"Fear nothing," said he. "Indeed, why should you fear? I am in the
greater danger here, if there be danger for any; and I would as soon
place my life in the keeping of that noble damsel, as in the arms of
my mother. Let her remain, my friend; let her hear and see all; and
above all, do not attempt to apologize for her. She is my ally. Would
that she could make these _men_ of Bogota feel with herself--feel as
she makes even me to feel."

The eloquence of the Liberator received a new impulse from that of the
improvisatrice. He renewed his arguments and entreaties in a different
spirit. He denounced, in yet bolder language than before, that
wretched pusillanimity which quite as much, he asserted, as the
tyranny of the Spaniard, was the cause under which the liberties of
the country groaned and suffered.

"And now, I ask," he continued, passionately, "men of Bogota, if ye
really purpose to deny yourselves all share in the glory and peril of
the effort which is for your own emancipation? Are your brethren of
the other provinces to maintain the conflict in your behalf, while,
with folded hands, you submit, doing nothing for yourselves? Will you
not lift the banner also? Will you not draw sword in your own honor,
and the defence of your fire-sides and families. Talk not to me of
secret contributions. It is your manhood, not your money, that is
needful for success. And can you withhold yourselves while you profess
to hunger after that liberty for which other men