Part 15 (1/2)

They are in the parlor, and the senorita.”

Down sprang Ned and hitched his pony to a post, but then he hurried through the front door as quickly as Dola herself had done. Perhaps it was well that he should get in without being recognized by too many eyes. He did not have to actually get into the parlor before he was welcomed, for a light form sprang out into the hall, and Felicia herself shouted, eagerly:

”Oh, Senor Carfora! Are you here? This is wonderful!”

”Senorita,” he interrupted her, ”I have letters for your mother and Senora Paez. Where are they?”

”They are right here,” she said, ”but we have letters, too. All the flags in the city are out and they are firing salutes of rejoicing.”

”I saw the flags,” he said, ”and I heard some firing, but what on earth are they rejoicing over? Is there any news?”

The two grown-up women were standing behind her, with faces in which there was no joy whatever when Felicia exultingly told him:

”Why, have not you heard? General Santa Anna has beaten your gringo army all to pieces. The United States fleet is coming to Vera Cruz with another army, and the American soldiers will not dare to come on sh.o.r.e.

All they can do will be to sit there in their s.h.i.+ps and look at the city.”

”Come in, Senor Carfora,” said Senora Paez. ”I cannot tell you how glad we are to see you. Yes, we have very important letters. I may suppose that yours are from the general. Please let me have them.”

”Do, Senor Carfora!” said Senora Ta.s.sara. ”I cannot wait a moment. We will retire to read them, and, while we are gone, Felicia may tell you all the news from the great battle at the north.”

”Yes, so I will,” she exclaimed. ”And I want him to tell me all about the places he has been in, and what he has been doing.”

In a moment more they two were alone in the parlor, and she was repeating to him the substance of Santa Anna's report of the manner in which, at the hard-fought battle of Angostura, or Buena Vista, on the 22d of February, he had shattered the American army under General Taylor. He had, he said, effectively prevented its further advance into Mexico, and there was really a strong appearance of truth in his way of presenting the consequences of the battle, for the American army seemed to have retreated. Horse after horse had been ridden to death in taking such great tidings to the city of Mexico, and, for the hour, at least, the great Mexican commander was more firmly fixed in supreme power than ever.

Of course, the triumphant bulletin did not make any mention of the fact that General Taylor had had no intention of advancing any further, being under express orders from General Scott not to do so, and that Santa Anna's well-planned and at first nearly successful attempt to crush the northern invaders had really proved a failure. Ned Crawford listened to Felicia's enthusiastic account of the battle with a curious question in his mind which he was too polite to utter.

”Why,” he thought, ”if Santa Anna was so completely victorious, did he not make General Taylor surrender?”

There was no one to inform Ned that the Mexican commander had invited General Taylor to do so before the fight was half over, and that the stubborn old American had unkindly refused the invitation. At this moment, however, the senorita's tongue began to busy itself with quite another matter. The United States fleet, under Commodore Connor, had, indeed, begun to arrive in front of Vera Cruz on the 18th of February, with a vast convoy of transport s.h.i.+ps under its protection, having on board the army of General Scott. Neither Ned nor the senorita was aware, however, how many important questions have to be answered before so many military pa.s.sengers might undertake to land, with all their baggage, within possible reach of the artillery of an enemy. Felicia, for her part, was positive that they all were too badly scared by the Castle of San Juan de Ulua and by the bad news from Buena Vista to so much as try to make a landing.

”General Santa Anna himself is now marching down to meet them,” she told him, ”with his whole victorious army, and he will crush them as fast as they can get out of their s.h.i.+ps.”

Owing to the grand reports from their army, this was precisely the idea which was forming in the minds of all the people of Mexico.

”Oh, Senorita Felicia!” said Ned, as if he were quite willing to change the subject. ”I've had a wonderful time. I've been travelling, travelling, travelling, everywhere with the general.”

”Tell me all about it!” she commanded him. ”I want to know. It seems to me as if I had been shut up here and had not seen anybody.”

”Well, I can't tell it all just now,” he said, ”but when we left here we hurried all the way to Oaxaca. Then we stayed there awhile, among his own people, and n.o.body gave us any trouble. No, I mustn't forget one thing, though. A band of those mountain robbers came one night, and we had an awful fight with them--”

”Did you kill any of them?” she asked, hastily. ”They all ought to be killed. They are ready to murder anybody else.”

”Well,” said Ned, ”we beat them, and ten of them were shot. I was firing away all the while, but I don't know if I hit any of them. It was too dark to tell. The rest of them got away. But I've hunted deer, and I killed a good many of them. I shot a lynx, too, and a lot of other game.

There's the best kind of fis.h.i.+ng on the general's estates. I like fis.h.i.+ng. Then we went south, to the Yucatan line, and I saw some queer old ruins. After that, the general's business took him away up north of Oaxaca, and I went with him, and I saw half the States of Mexico before we finished the trip. I've seen the silver mines and Popocatepetl and Istaccihuatl, and I don't care to ever see any higher mountains than they are.”

”I have seen Popocatepetl,” she said, ”and it almost made me have the headache. They say it is full of sulphur, to make gunpowder with.”

Before she could tell anything more about the possible uses of the tall, old volcano, her mother reentered the parlor.

”Senor Carfora,” she said, ”Felicia will have to give you up. Here are some letters for you that came while you were absent. You had better read them now, for I cannot say how long it will be best for you to remain here. Step this way a moment, if you will.”