oud:--

"By Heaven! I had not thought of this. A correspondence, I have no
doubt. Fiends! such a woman! She must know all ere this--if the fellow
himself is not deceived by us! I must watch in that quarter too. Who
knows but _that_ will be the trap in which we'll take him? Love is even
a stronger lure than brotherly affection. Ha! senorita; if this be
true, I'll yet have a purchase upon you that you little expect. I'll
bring you to terms without the aid of your stupid father!"

After figuring about for some minutes, indulging in these alternate
dreams of vengeance and triumph, he left his room, and proceeded towards
that of the Comandante, for the purpose of communicating to the latter
his new-gotten knowledge.

CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

The house of Don Ambrosio de Cruces was not a town mansion. It was
suburban--that is, it stood upon the outskirts of the village, some
seven or eight hundred yards from the Plaza. It was detached from the
other buildings, and at some distance from any of them. It was neither
a "villa" nor a "cottage." There are _no_ such buildings in Mexico, nor
anything at all resembling them. In fact, the architecture of that
country is of unique and uniform style, from north to south, through
some thousand miles of latitude! The smaller kinds of houses,--the
ranchos of the poorer classes,--show a variety corresponding to the
three thermal divisions arising from different elevation--_caliente_,
_templada_, and _fria_. In the hot lands of the coast, and some low
valleys in the interior, the rancho is a frail structure of cane and
poles with a thatch of palm-leaves. On the elevated "valles," or
table-plains--and here, be it observed, dwell most of the population--it
is built of "adobes," and this rule is universal. On the forest-covered
sides of the more elevated mountains the rancho is a house of logs, a
"log-cabin," with long hanging eaves and shingled roof, differing
entirely from the log-cabin of the American backwoods, and far excelling
the latter in neatness and picturesque appearance.

So much for the "ranchos." About them there is some variety of style.
Not so with "casas grandes," or houses of the rich. A sameness
characterises them through thirty degrees of latitude--from one
extremity of Mexico to the other; and, we might almost add, throughout
all Spanish America. If now and then a "_whimsical_" structure be
observed, you may find, on inquiry, that the owner is some f