Part 13 (1/2)
”Senorita,” I said, ”it is not necessary for you to re that you forgive me, for it makes me very unhappy to think that I have offended you”
She turned to ave ive ht word,” she said ”I ratitude Do you know I think you are one of those who like to laugh at s, senor--no, let me call you Richard, and you shall call me Dolores, for we must remain friends always Let us make a compact, then it will be impossible for us to quarrel You shall be free to doubt, question, laugh at everything, except one thing only--ladly reement,” I replied ”It will be a new kind of paradise, and of the fruit of every tree I aily
”I will now leave you,” she said ”You are suffering pain, and are very tired Perhaps you will be able to sleep” While speaking she brought a second cushi+on forI fell into a refreshi+ng doze
I spent three days of enforced idleness at the Casa Blanca, as the house was called, before Santa Coloone, during which I had subsisted on a flesh diet unteetables, they were indeed like days spent in paradise to arden when he arrived, and, coreatly feared from my previous experience of your iht have left us,” he said kindly
”I could not do that very well yet, without a horse to ride on,” I returned
”Well, I came here just now to say I wish to present you with a horse and saddle The horse is standing at the gate now, I believe; but, if you are only waiting for a horse to leave us I shall have to regretyou this present Do not be in a hurry; you have yet many years to live in which to accomplish all you wish to do, and let us have the pleasure of your cohter desire nothing better than to keep you with them”
I promised him not to run away immediately, a promise which was not hard to make; then ent to inspect my horse, which proved to be a very fine bay, saddled with a dashi+ng native _recado_
”Co to ride out to the Cerro Solo”
The ride proved an extremely pleasant one, as I had notto spicerassy plain, the General all the ti freely of his plans and of the brilliant prospects awaiting all those timely-wise individuals who should elect to link their fortunes with his at this early stage of the cae of El Molino, was a high, conical hill standing quite alone and overlooking the country for a vast distance around A feell- watch; and, after talking with them for a while, the General led e mound of sand and stone, up which we made our horses climb with some difficulty While we stood here he pointed out the conspicuous objects on the surface of the surrounding country, telling me the nas The whole country about us seeth, but continued gazing over the wide, sunlit prospect with a strange, far-off look on his face Suddenly dropping the reins on the neck of his horse, he stretched out his aran to murled fury and exultation transformed his face It passed away as suddenly as it ca till his knee touched the ground, he kissed the rock before him, after which he sat down and quietly invitedto the subject he had talked about during our ride, he began openly pressing me to join hiin almost immediately, and would infallibly result in a victory, after which he would reward me for the incalculable service I had rendered hi hi offers, which would have fired le state, I h I did not state ed his shoulders in the eloquent Oriental fashi+on, re that it would not surprise him if I altered my resolution in a few days
”Never!” I mentally ejaculated
Then he recalled our first arita, that ht it strange so fair a flower as that should have sprung from the homely stalk of a sweet potato? I answered that I had been surprised at first, but had ceased to believe that she was a child of Batata's, or of any of his kin He then offered to tell arita's history; and I was not surprised to hear that he knew it
”I owe you this,” he said, ”in expiation of the somewhat offensive reirl But you must reme so, it was only natural that my speech should be, as you find it in our coo there lived in this country one Basilio de la Barca, a person of so noble a figure and countenance that to all those who beheld him he became the type of perfect beauty, so that a 'Basilio de la Barca' came to be a proverbial expression in Montevidean society when anyone surpassingly handsoht-hearted disposition and loved social pleasures, he was not spoilt by the admiration his beauty excited Sih perhaps not capable of any very strong passion, for though he ithout seeking it, the hearts of ht have married some rich woman to improve his position had he been soelse in his life, Basilio appeared to be incapable of doing anything to advance his own fortunes The de la Barcas had once possessed great wealth in land in the country, and, I have heard, descended fro, disastrous wars this country has suffered, when it was conquered in turn by England, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, and the Argentines, the fa out The last of the de la Barcas was Basilio, and the evil destiny which had pursued all of that naenerations did not spare hi he entered the arement he received a terrible wound which disabled him for life and compelled him to abandon the military career After that he embarked all his little fortune in coth when he had been reduced to great poverty, being then about forty years old, he ratitude for the kindness she had shown to hiues east of Cabo Santa Maria Here in a srine, and with only a few sheep and cows to subsist on, he spent the reh old, bore hiht her nothing; for in all respects they lived like peasants and had forgotten the use of books The situation was also wild and solitary, and they very seldo over the dunes on that lonely coast, with only wild flowers, birds, and the ocean waves for play then about eleven, she was at her usual pasti in the wind, her short dress and bare legs ith the spray, chasing the waves as they retired, or flying with merry shouts fro a cloud of foa form, when a youth, a boy of fifteen, rode up and saw her there He was hunting ostriches, when, losing sight of his co himself near the ocean, he rode down to the shore to watch the tide co in
”Yes, I was that boy, Richard--you are quick inconclusions”
This he said not in reply to any reuessed very aptly
”The impression this exquisite child made on me it would be impossible to convey in words I had lived e, and was accustomed to associate with pretty women
I had also crossed the water and had seen all that was entine cities And re of life This child, playing with the waves, was like nothing I had seen before I regarded her not as afroion who had strayed to earth, just as a bird of white and azure plue, and unknown to our woods, sometimes appears, blown hither fro those who see it onder and delight I hair loose to the winds, swift and graceful in her motions as the waves she plays with, her sapphire eyes sparkling like sunlight on the waters, the tender tints of the sea-shell in her ever-changing countenance, with a laughter that seearita has inherited the form, not the spirit, of the child Transita She is an exquisite statue endoith life
Transita, with lines equally graceful and colours just as perfect, had caught the spirit of the wind and sunshi+ne and was all freedoelic I saw her only to love her; nor was it a common passion she inspired in ed to wear her onti the hot breath of love on so tender and heavenly a blossom I went to her parents and openedwell known to Basilio, I obtained his consent to visit their lonely _rancho_ whenever I could; and I, on my part, promised not to speak of love to Transita till her sixteenth year Three years after I had found Transita, I was ordered to a distant part of the country, for I was already in the ar that it would not be possible fortihter, as now fourteen She had by this tirown extreht tothe shore, or seated on sos she knew, and of that wonderful, far-away city life of which she was never tired of hearing When I opened htened at these new strange e her fear grow less In one day she ceased to be a child; the rich blood mantled her cheeks, to leave her the nextwith the rim of the honeyed cup Before I left her she had pro to me, with her beautiful eyes ith tears
”Three years passed before I returned to seek her During that time I sent scores of letters to Basilio, but received no reply Twice I ounded in fight, once very seriously I was also a prisoner for severalto Montevideo, obtained leave of absence Then, with heart afire with sweet anticipations, I sought that lonely sea-coast onceon the spot where Basilio's _rancho_ had stood In the neighbourhood I learnt that he had died two years before, and that after his death thehad returned to Montevideo with Transita After long inquiry in that city I discovered that she had not long survived her husband, and that a foreign senora, had taken Transita away, no one knehither Her loss cast a great shadow on rief cannot endure for ever, nor for very long; only the rief endures To this memory, which cannot fade, it is perhaps due that in one respect at least I am not like other men I feel that I am incapable of passion for any woia were to co the fiery seeds of adoration upon all men, could they blossom to love in this arid heart Since I lost Transita I have had one thought, one love, one religion, and it is all told in one word--_Patria_
”Years passed I was captain in General Oribe's are of my own city One day a lad was captured in our lines, and ca put to death as a spy He had co for me He had been sent, he said, by Transita de la Barca, as lying ill in the town, and desired to speak to me before she died
I asked and obtained per personal friendshi+p for erous, and more so for me, perhaps, than it would have been for many of ed I succeeded, however, by persuading the officers of a French sloop of war, stationed in the harbour, to assist ners at that time had friendly relations with the officers of both armies, and three of them had at one time visited our General to ask him to let them hunt ostriches in the interior He passed the them to my own _estancia_, I entertained them and hunted with them for several days For this hospitality they had expressed thethat they would gladly do me any personal service in the tohich they visited constantly I love not the French, believing theotistical, consequently the least chivalrous, of mankind; but these officers were in my debt, and I resolved to ask theht I went on board their shi+p; I told them uised as one of themselves With some difficulty they consented, and I was thus enabled next day to be in Montevideo and withon her bed, ee of some fatal pulmonary complaint On the bed with her was a child between two and three years old, exceedingly beautiful like her lance was sufficient to tellher in this pitiful condition, I could only kneel at her side, pouring out the last tender tears that have fallen from these eyes We Orientals are not tearless e and hatred My last tears of tenderness were shed over unhappy, dying Transita
”Briefly she told me her story No letter from me had ever reached Basilio; it was supposed that I had fallen in battle, or thatin Montevideo she was visited by a wealthy Argentine lady naular beauty, and wished to see her irl that she offered to take her and bring her up as her own daughter To this the , consented gladly Transita was in this way taken to Buenos Ayres, where she had reat splendour The novelty of this life chare city, and the universal admiration her beauty excited, occupied her mind and made her happy When she was seventeen the Senora Ro man of that city, named Andrada, a wealthy person He was a fashi+onableconceived a violent passion for the girl, he succeeded in winning over the senora to aid his suit Beforehireat affection for hi for that, he only wished, like the animal he was, to possess her for her beauty Shortly aftervery well that a man with a full purse, and whose spirit is a cooat, finds life pleasanter in Paris than in the Plata In Paris Transita lived a gay, but an unhappy life
Her husband's passion for her soon passed away, and was succeeded by neglect and insult After three ether to live with another woman, and then, in broken health, she returned with her child to her own country When she had been several months in Montevideo she heard casually that I was still alive and in the besieging army; and, anxious to impart her last wishes to a friend, had sent for me
”Could you,request Transita wished toto her child, she said, 'Do you not see that Margarita inherits that fatal gift of beauty which won for me a life of splendour, with extreme bitterness of heart and early death? Soon, before I die, perhaps, there will not be wanting soe of her, ill at last sell her to some rich, cruelconcealed? It ith very different views for her that I secretly left Paris and returned here