offer a bribe. Damme, I could land thirty men this blessed
night, and pull this old rookery down, and get you all out that way; but
as for bribery, it is a devilish dirty piece of business, to make the
best of it; besides, I tell you, I don't know how; if I did, I would try
it, as dirty as I think it."

Morton, could not forbear smiling at the old man's unwillingness to
employ a piece of machinery, at the present day so indispensable in our
government throughout all its branches; he assured him that nothing was
more simple; it was only to wait upon the Don in private, and request
his acceptance of either cash or certain valuable merchandize, that
would be attractive in the sight of the governor. "There are my
silver-mounted pistols, and curious East India dagger, and my rifle,
that all might be thrown out as baits to begin with;"--it was all in
vain; the blunt old seaman still persisted that bribery, or any thing
that approximated it, was but a dirty affair after all; and that,
although he would leave no plan untried to effect the liberation of the
prisoners, there was a moral contamination attached to the mode proposed
that he neither could nor would submit to.

True to his appointment, Captain Williams, soon after sunset, repaired
to dame Juanita's shop, with the location of which he had previously
made himself acquainted. He was introduced by that worthy old lady into
her back parlor, if a little apartment ten feet square, with a clay
floor and no windows, deserves so dignified, or rather so _comfortable_
a title; and in half an hour a female, closely veiled, entered the room.
Notwithstanding her disguise, the old seaman had tact enough to perceive
that his companion was young and graceful, or in more modern language,
genteel, while the silvery music of her voice, as she addressed him,
convinced him that she could be no otherwise than beautiful.

"Are you," said the lady, in a hesitating, tremulous voice, "are you the
commander of the American ship in the bay?"

"I am; and you, senorita, are the lady who wrote me the note that I
received this morning?"

"Yes, I--that is, I sent you a note requesting to see you."

"And you are the generous, devoted, and true friend that takes such a
lively interest in the fate of my friend and officer, and his companions
in prison and misfortune?"

"I am--I am," replied the lady hurriedly.

"And you are, in short," continued the commander, rising and
respectfully offering his