t it is probable that she knew it without
any verbal avowal; and still more that she fully reciprocated it.
Neither had Don Mariano been spoken to upon the matter: the captain of
dragoons not deeming it proper to confer with him till after he had
obtained the consent of Gertrudis.

After the separation of the two lovers, by little and little Don Rafael
began to doubt whether his passion had been really returned by the fair
Oajaquena. Time and absence, while they rendered more feeble the
remembrance of those little incidents that had appeared favourable to
him, increased in an inverse ratio the impression of the young Creole's
charms--that in fancy now appeared to him only the more glowing and
seductive. So much did this impression become augmented, that the young
officer began to think he had been too presumptuous in aspiring to the
possession of such incomparable loveliness.

His cruel doubts soon passed into a more cruel certainty; and he no
longer believed that his love had been returned.

In this state of mind he endeavoured to drive the thoughts of Gertrudis
out of his head: by saying to himself that he had never loved her! But
this attempt at indifference only proved how strongly the sentiment
influenced him; and the result was to force him into a melancholy,
habitual and profound.

Such was the state of Don Rafael's mind when the soldier-priest,
Hidalgo, pronounced the first _grito_ of the Mexican revolution. Imbued
with those liberal ideas which had been transmitted to him from his
father--and even carrying them to a higher degree--knowing, moreover,
the passionate ardour with which Don Mariano de Silva and his daughter
looked forward to the emancipation of their country; and thus sure of
the approbation of all for whom he had reverence or affection--Don
Rafael determined to offer his sword to the cause of Independence. He
hoped under the banners of the insurrection to get rid of the black
chagrin that was devouring his spirit; or if not, he desired that in the
first encounter between the royalist and insurgent troops, death might
deliver him from an existence that was no longer tolerable.

At this crisis came the messenger from Del Valle. The message was
simply a summons to his father's presence that he might learn from him
some matters that were of too much importance either to be trusted to
paper or the lips of a servant. The young officer easily conjectured
the object for which he was summoned to