re the mountain has been pierced in search of the precious
metals, while a little way off is the road to the extensive
copper-mines.

THE HERETIC AND THE JALAPINA.

There is a curious story about the first marriage that took place
between a heretic and a Jalapina. The hero held the important position
of agent of the English _Real del Monte_ Company at Jalapa. In one
of the families that had been greatly reduced in their worldly
circumstances by the ruin of the _Consulado_ of Vera Cruz, was a
dark beauty with whom he became deeply enamored. But how to make her
his wife was the difficulty. The lady was willing--was more than
willing; "for when the fires of Spanish love are kindled, they burn
unextinguishably," says the proverb. Or, in the poetical language of
the Indians, "it burns as did the fires of Mount Orizaba in its
youth--fires that only went out when its head was coated with silver
gray." The mother was willing; and no one but the Church had aught to
say why they should not be united. How could the holy sacrament of
matrimony be profaned by administering it to a heretic? It never had
been, it never must be, in the Republic. He might take the woman if he
chose, and live with her; but to marry them would be a sin. So said the
Padre of the parish, and so said every dignitary of the Church up to
the Bishop of Puebla, then the only remaining bishop in the Republic.
The intercession of political authorities was invoked. The matter
became serious, and a council was held at Puebla to dispose of the
case. From this holy council came the intimation to the lover that a
bribe of $2000 might be of service. But John Bull by this time had
become stubborn. He had spent money enough; he would spend no more; he
would get a chaplain from a man-of-war then at Vera Cruz; or better
still, he would take his intended bride to New Orleans; for he would be
married and not mated, as is the case of those who can not raise the
fee claimed by the priest. He would not be ranked with that
poverty-stricken set that are unmarried, or, as the phrase is, are
"married behind the Church." He was no _peon_. It was contrary to an
Englishman's ideas to have a wife unmarried; and as no English chaplain
came along, he wrote to the Roman Catholic Bishop of New Orleans,
giving an account of his difficulties, and inquired if he would marry
him under the circumstances. With a liberality that ever distinguishes
Catholic functionaries in Protestant countries