Chata and Chinita, Chapters XXIX-XXX [pp. 522-539]

Chata and Chinita.
where the brilliant young life had ended in
a bloody tragedy, a deep wave of sorrow
surged over his soul, and from its depths, as
from the loose sands of the wind-leveled
grave, appeared to rise a cry for vengeance.
Though not till now had Chinita's charge
that he be taken to the American's grave,
been carried out, the message from Dofia
Isabel, which Pep6 had not failed to deliver,
had reached him some days before, and had
been supplemented by a visit from Don
Rafael. Although a certain fascination had
inclined Ashley to linger still at Tres Her manos, he had so little hope of adding to
the information he had already gained of
his cousin's life there seemed so little possibility that the marriage which John Ashley had intimated had taken place, could
ever have been more than a mere sentimental dedication of the one to the other, in
which they deemed themselves man and
wife in the sight of God, but which in the
sight of man was a mere illicit connection,
to be condemned or ignored —that he had
not dared to present himself before the
haughty mother of the one Herlinda whom
he suspected to have been the object of his
cousin's passion, and to insult her with questions or insinuations that would cast a doubt
upon her daughter's purity, and a stain upon
the fame of the house of Garcia, which
even the blood of John Ashley, and his own
added thereto, would be insufficient to wash
away.
He had decided, then, to accept the order
of dismissal, so delicately conveyed in the
intimation that by accepting the escort of
the troops as far as they might proceed toward
G, he would not only reach a point
whence in all probability he might in safety
proceed to the city, but that he would thus
render a favor to Doha Isabel, who was
minded by the same opportunity to withdraw from the hacienda-her presence there
being liable to act as a lure to either party,
who might by seizing her person levy a ransom upon the family, which even their large
resources would be severely strained to meet.
Although the fiction was maintained that
her assistance of the Liberal cause was in voluntary, it was readily surmised that she
was in reality seeking to avoid the ven geance of the Conservatives, while their
forces were so demoralized and scattered
that she might hope to reach G,
which was then occupied by a patriot
guard, before the tide of the war should
turn, and bring the army of the Church
again to the fore in masses, collected by
the clarion cry of fanaticism, and lavishly
rewarded from the hoards of silver and gold
drawn from the vaults into which for gene rations had been drained the prosperity and
the very life blood of the peasantry.
Ashley Ward had been struck with admnira tion of the woman who thus dared the dangers of the road —to which she had been no
stranger. He had felt something of the chival-X
rous enthusiasm of a knight of old, as he
joined the irregular band, which by daylight had gathered upon the sandy plain before the straggling village. The soldiers had
fallen into march with something like order,
with Ruiz at their head —for once with an
anxious face, for he felt that the die was
cast, and that he had raised up for himself
an enemy whom it would be mad temerity
to face, and hopeless to attempt to conciliate. The baggage mules, driven by the
leathern-clad arrieros, who even thus early
had begun their profane adjurations to the
nimble-footed beasts, listened for these
with quivering ears, thrown back in obstinate surprise at every unwonted silence.
The women who had come from other villages were laughing, and chiding their unruly
infants, as they arranged and re-arranged
their baskets of maize and vegetables upon
the panniers of their donkeys —if they
were fortunate enough to possess any —or
upon their own shoulders if they were to
walk; and those who were for the first time
leaving their own Sierra to follow the fortunes of husband or sweetheart, burst into
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EMay