was not so in reality: that her name was
Isabella Monterola, and that she was a ward of Don Fernando. Then
suddenly changing her tone from gay to grave, she said,--"I am happy
here, and they are all very kind; but I cannot forget my poor father,
who was murdered by the cruel Spaniards because he loved liberty and
hated tyranny; and, alas! my mother, who was compelled to witness his
execution, died of grief. They would have shot her too, had she lived,
as they did other women, without remorse; and me, perhaps, because I was
their child, had I not been so young but I was rescued from prison by
Juan Serrano, and brought here secretly. The Spaniards did not know who
carried me off, and therefore could not send to bring me back, or they
would have done so. You have not been long enough in the country to
have heard one-tenth part of the horrible cruelties those Gothos have
inflicted on our people."

"But you, Donna Isabella, are Spanish, and so are all our friends here,"
I said, after having expressed my horror of the atrocities which had
been committed in the country.

"I am a child of Venezuela," she answered proudly. "I disown the name
of Spaniard; do not, Senor Barry, ever call me one again. We speak the
language of Spain, it is true, and boast our descent from noble
ancestors who conquered the country in which we live; but we have for
ever severed our connection with the land from which we came, because
Spaniards desire to enslave us."

I had considered Donna Paola a heroine, but as I listened to Donna
Isabella I thought her a still more interesting one; and she was equally
anxious to enlist recruits in the cause of liberty.

I had not forgotten the advice General Bermudez had given me; and I
found my young cousins were in the habit of exercising themselves daily
in the use of the lance, as well as with firearms and swords. Every
morning they went out for some hours on horseback, and practised on a
level meadow at some little distance from the house; and I soon became
as expert as any of them. The ends of our lances were not only
headless, but covered with a soft pad, so that we could charge at each
other without much risk of serious injury; and one day, in a sham fight,
I unhorsed all my opponents in succession. As I rode up to where the
ladies--who had come out to witness our sports--were standing, they
greeted me with loud applause, and Donna Isabella especially showed her
satisfaction by the bright smile