n a dark night, it is ten chances to
one that the jury of inquest return for a verdict, that "the deceased
came to his death in consequence of intoxication," although he may be
the most abstemious water-drinker that ever the sun shone upon. Such
was, ten or eleven years ago, to my certain knowledge, the cliff of San
Blas.

Maddened with jealousy, and rendered incapable of commanding his
movements by intoxication, the unhappy Don Gregorio was whirled, by the
impetuosity of his own motion, far over the brow of the hideous
precipice. One dismal yell of mortal agony broke the stillness of night,
and the next moment his body was heard far below, crashing among the
bushes and loose stones at the foot of the cliff. Fainting with horror
at the dreadful sight, though ignorant of the person of the victim,
Isabella sank upon the ground, and it was some minutes before she
recovered sufficiently to rise. When, at length, she was somewhat
restored, she turned towards her uncle's house with feeble steps and
slow, frequently stopping to lean against the walls of the houses; she
tottered into the room where the family were assembled, and sank
senseless upon the floor. Her relatives, exceedingly terrified,
administered restoratives, and conveyed her to her own chamber, where,
when she was somewhat composed, she informed her anxious friends that
she had been pursued by an intoxicated person, and was extremely
terrified, and begged to be left to her repose, which she assured them
was all she required. Having obtained all the information they were
likely to, her kind and inquisitive cousins left her, after compelling
her to swallow a composing medicine. She awoke in the morning perfectly
refreshed; the horrid scene that she had witnessed the night before
seeming rather like a terrifying dream than a mournful reality.

Before she left her chamber, a man, with his jaws standing ajar with
horror, called upon the governor, and requested to speak with him in
private. He then informed his excellency, that as he was rambling
through the woods at the foot of the precipice, he had found the dead
body of an officer, who had evidently fallen from the cliff above; that
it was so frightfully mangled by the fall, that no vestiges of humanity
were recognizable in the countenance, or in the body; but that, from
the peculiar fashion of the regimentals, he was almost sure that it was
his excellency's aid-du-camp, Don Gregorio Nunez. Alarmed by this
intelli