e, in turn, to the gates of Bogota. Without taking up arms
himself, he contributed secretly from his own resources to supplying
the coffers of Bolivar with treasure, even when his operations were
remote--and his daughter was the agent through whose unsuspected
ministry the money was conveyed to the several emissaries who were
commissioned to receive it. The duty was equally delicate and
dangerous, requiring great prudence and circumspection; and the skill,
address and courage with which the child succeeded in the execution of
her trusts, would furnish a frequent lesson for older heads and the
sterner and the bolder sex.

La Pola was but fourteen years old when she obtained her first glimpse
of the great man in whose cause she had already been employed, and of
whose deeds and distinctions she had heard so much. By the language
of the Spanish tyranny, which swayed with iron authority over her
native city, she heard him denounced and execrated as a rebel and
marauder, for whom an ignominious death was already decreed by the
despotic viceroy. This language, from such lips, was of itself
calculated to raise its object favorably in her enthusiastic sight. By
the patriots, whom she had been accustomed to love and venerate, she
heard the same name breathed always in whispers of hope and affection,
and fondly commended, with tearful blessings, to the watchful care of
Heaven. She was now to behold with her own eyes this individual thus
equally distinguished by hate and homage in her hearing. Bolivar
apprised his friends in Bogota that he should visit them in secret.
That province, ruled with a fearfully strong hand by Zamano, the
viceroy, had not yet ventured to declare itself for the republic. It
was necessary to operate with caution; and it was no small peril which
Bolivar necessarily incurred in penetrating to its capital, and laying
his snares, and fomenting insurrection beneath the very hearth-stones
of the tyrant. It was to La Pola's hands that the messenger of the
Liberator confided the missives that communicated this important
intelligence to her father. She little knew the contents of the billet
which she carried him in safety, nor did he confide them to the child.
He himself did not dream the precocious extent of that enthusiasm
which she felt almost equally in the common cause, and in the person
of its great advocate and champion. Her father simply praised her care
and diligence, rewarded her with his fondest caresses,