An American

ing in the entrance to the prison on the day the people battered down the doors and set at liberty several political prisoners confined therein, but no one could, really, prepare a woman for the visio

attack or afterwards from wounds inflicted either intentionally or inadvertently b

the dead and, also, by the many mourners who crowded among the slabs on which the bodies lay, for there was little of orderly array there, everything being of the rudest and most primitiv

o occupied a proud place in her own right, having been, for a long time, the occupant of a large and beautiful residence that commanded a wide view of the harbor of Havana and was situated on an elevation

ong the prisoners for offenses against the reigning government who had been liberated under her direct orders

ness in the search after evidence that would convince her that she had not been utterly mistaken in the man she had secretly married, believing him to

licitations of many American friends who had visited her in Cuba and urged her to return to the United States with them; she was of a reticent and retiring disposition, loving a good book more than almost anything else in the world, and being surrounded by a splendid library, her time was fully and pleasantly occupied, as she had trustworthy retainers who followed her mandates because they loved to fulfill them and pitied her loneliness while they almost worshiped her superior manners and style of speech as well as of living; Father Felix,

se to exhibit to her in their infrequent meetings prior to his declaration of undying worship and deep and overpowering love for herself as well as of patriotic zeal which latter emotion she fully sympathized with, as she regarded it as similar in many ways to her own feeling for her much-beloved land which was all the more powerful because of her isolation from others of her own nation, she representing, to herself at least, the whole of the entire broad expanse of th

seemed, beyond all doubt, the one bereft by the condition of the body lying there, so straight and still, beneath the rude pall that had b

tingly, for a horrible suspicion began to thrust its ugly head before her vision, "can he who lies here so qui

vely face, tear-stained and drawn by sorrow, and lo

ke him from me! I love him so ..." she suddenly screamed in agony, "I love him so ... Victorio!

, and turned the pall back from the countenanc

receded from her cheeks and from her trembling lips ... she stood so tall and still that the poor girl became conscious of her in spite of her own grief and wondered if she, also, sought to find some one she love

e loved one yesterday? Do you seek, here, in this sad place, the body of one w

rl, for she could see how true and loving she had been by gazing, only for a moment, in her wide, blue eyes, and, yet, it was her right and, perhaps, it was also her duty, to the man who had been her earthly husband, to claim his body and to bury it as would become the husband of a woman such as she had, always, been; but, as he'd always begged her to keep secret their marri

g, loving, sympathetic, untaught girl clinging to her hand and questioning her. At length, having collected a little of her usual unselfish consi

ewly dead.... I, also, wish to find the man I loved as you h

ay, even as poor Estrella, herself, had, when she had first

first time, she realized who the lady was who'd found her there beside her dead, as she supposed, for Victorio had no family in San Domingo, having only come there recently, and having held himself as somewhat superior to the most of hi

p of one who loved her with the kind of love an ignorant, older woman gives to one she much admires and who is far superior to her in every possible way; this

the long, brown lashes that fringed the delicate white lids still brushed the rounded cheeks tha

r very soon ... poor Lady! She sympathized with me in my great sorrow so deeply that she fainted. How sweet and dear she is!" she added, softly, as a shudder shook the form before her. "How v

her cheeks are like a flame of light ... her eyes are just as bright as stars at midnight ... there! They've opening, now ... my Pretty ... my own pretty Dear ... Mage is here ... I'm right here by you Dearie ... there! I'm afraid she's fainted away, again. She seemed to look at yo

with many wrinkles and with deep anxiety for her. Then she raised herself to a sitting posture and put her hands before her eyes as if to hide some horrible spectre from her sight,

u with all my heart and wish that I could help you bear your sorrow. Come to me and I will try to help you ... come

e, seeing her evident distress, hurriedly told Estrella where to come to fi

ike lead within her breast, went back to her own place and left the body of the man she'd called her