may choose whether you will die like a
soldier, sword in hand, or like a criminal, under the axe of the
executioner."

Tobar withdrew. He hastened to the room of the confessor. With him he
called upon Leonora, and, taking a few witnesses, repaired to the
church, where the marriage ceremony was immediately performed. Within
an hour he returned to the governor and informed him that he had made
all the reparation in his power. De Soto, his brow still clouded with
severe displeasure, replied:

"You have saved your life, but you can never regain my confidence. You
are no longer my lieutenant. That office can be held only by one whose
honor is unsullied."

De Soto remained about three months in Cuba, making a tour of the
island, establishing his government, purchasing horses, and making
other preparations for the expedition to Florida. While thus engaged,
he sent a vessel, with a picked crew, to coast along the shores of the
land he was about to invade, in search of a commodious harbor, where
his troops might disembark. After many perilous adventures, the vessel
returned with a satisfactory report.

The fleet, and all the armament it was to bear, were rendezvoused at
Havana, on the northern coast of Cuba, where a fair wind in a few
hours would convey them to the shores of Florida. On the twelfth of
May, some authorities say the eighteenth, of the year 1539, the
expedition set sail upon one of the most disastrous adventures in
which heroic men ever engaged. Terrible as were the woes they
inflicted upon the natives, no less dreadful were the calamities which
they drew down upon themselves.

Isabella had been anxious to accompany her husband to Florida. But he,
aware of the hardships and perils to which they would be exposed,
would not give his consent. She consequently remained at Cuba,
entrusted with the regency of the island. She never saw her husband
again. Poor Isabella! In sadness she had waited fifteen years for her
nuptials. Two short years had glided away like a dream in the night.
And then, after three years of intense anxiety, during which she heard
almost nothing of her husband, the tidings reached her of his death.
It was a fatal blow to her faithful and loving heart. World-weary and
sorrow-crushed, she soon followed him to the spirit-land. Such is
life; not as God has appointed it, but as sin has made it.

The expedition consisted of eight large ships, a caraval, and two
brigantines. They were freighted wi