ays it is time for us to move to the city of Mexico. We are to live
with my aunt, Mercedes Paez, and you are to come with us. Is it not
grand?"

"It is just what I was wishing for!" exclaimed Ned. "I'd give almost
anything to see that city, after what your mother has told me."

"Oh," said Felicia, "she was born there, and she'll make you see all
there is of it. But we were all ready, you know, and we are to set out
early to-morrow morning."

"Hurrah!" responded Ned. "But I'd like to hear from General Zuroaga. I
wish I knew whether or not he was much hurt in that fight in the road."

"Father does not believe he was," said Felicia. "Sometimes I almost
think he knows all about it. But there are some things he won't speak
of, and General Zuroaga is one of them."

Ned sprang to the ground, and a barefooted "peon" servant took charge of
his horse. It was not at all the kind of dismounting he had performed at
the camp in the woods on the road from Vera Cruz. Neither did he now
have any machete dangling from his belt, to entangle himself with, and
there were no pistol holsters in front of the saddle. He went on into
the house with the senorita, and in a moment more he was hearing
additional news from her mother. Senora Tassara was as stately as ever,
but it was apparent that she had taken a liking to her young American
guest, whether it was on account of his deep interest in her old
stories, or otherwise. It may have been, in part, that company was a
good thing to have in a somewhat lonely country-house, for she could not
have thought of associating with Mexican neighbors of a social rank
lower than her own. Was she not descended from Spanish grandees, and
were they not, for the greater part, representatives of the mere Aztecs
and Toltecs, whom her forefathers had conquered? It was that very
feeling, however, which in the minds of such men as Paredes and similar
leaders was standing in the way of every effort to construct a genuine
republic out of the people of the half-civilized States of Mexico.

Ned's next questions related to the war, and he inquired how many more
great battles Colonel Tassara had reported.

"Battles?" exclaimed Senora Tassara. "Why, there has not been one fought
since Resaca de la Palma. But he says that General Ampudia sends word
that the American army is about to advance upon him. They will attack
him at the city of Monterey, and they never can take so strong a place
as that is. He is ready for th