Gustave Aimard

“ What would you do, if you were in my place, Don Estevan?"
"I?" replied he; "I would accept without hesitation. Life is so beautiful, take it all in all, it is best to enjoy it as long as possible."
"There is something true about what you say; but recollect I should become Don Fernando's slave as I could only employ my life in his service, and should be bound to kill myself whenever he gives the word."
"True; but Don Fernando is a caballero who will only exact this sacrifice in so far as to protect his own life." ”

“ You are but a few miles from your hacienda: the road is easy; my help is no longer needful."
"We must not part thus, señor," said the hacendero, holding out his hand; "I owe you too many obligations."
"Forget them, caballero," vehemently exclaimed the young hunter; "forget me too: we must never meet again. You return to civilised life, I to the desert. Our roads are far apart; for your sake and for mine, pray that we never again stand face to face. ”

“ It was a splendid morning: a dazzling sun showered down his hot rays in profusion over the country, making the stones glitter like diamonds; the birds warbled gaily among the leaves; vaqueros and peones began to disperse themselves in all directions, urging on to the pasturage the horses and cattle of the hacienda; the landscape increased in beauty every moment, and bore a smiling aspect, very different to the one it wore under the terrors of darkness. ”

“ The Tigercat drew himself up to his full height, stared disdainfully at the speaker, and replied, in an accent of supreme majesty:
"Your senses wander, boy; this man runs no risk in confiding in me. Granted that there are many things I do not respect in this world, still there is at least one which I have always respected, and have suffered no one to doubt,—my word,—my word, which I have given to this caballero. Come! Let us pass; the young woman whom you have succoured so opportunely is not yet out of danger; her state demands attentions which are beyond your power to afford." ”

“ I know you are to be trusted."
"It is well you say so," replied Luco; "for I have no mind to listen patiently to unjust reproach."
"Lose no more time in talking," said a soldier, interfering; "¡rayo de Dios! I have a capital idea."
"What is it?" asked Don Torribio. "Out with it, Eusebio, or it will blow you up."
The soldier laughed.
"This old hovel," said he, "is full of forage. Let us set fire to it, and roast in the flames all the salvajes unitarios who are here."
"¡Vive Dios!" cried Don Torribio, in high glee; "that is a capital idea. We will set about it at once. ”

“ There was a long silence; the profoundest calm brooded over the village; no sound disturbed the tranquillity of the atepelt; and one might have thought oneself a hundred leagues from a human dwelling.
At length the amantzin rose, cast a searching look over the assembly, and spoke.
"Let my brothers open their ears," he said in measured tones. "The spirit of the Master of Life has entered into my body; it is he who dictates the words which spring from my lips. Chiefs of the Bison-Apaches! The spirit of your ancestors has ceased to animate your souls. ”

“ The woman fulfils all the promise held out by the child and the girl. Your heart is noble, your sentiments are exalted; you are indeed perfect—a chosen soul. I do not blame you for following the impulse of your heart—you are only obeying the instinct for good or evil which sways you in spite of yourself; but, alas! Dear child, I am your elder brother, and my experience is larger than your own. To me, the horizon seems to be clouding over. ”

“ Instead of being lashed into a fury by a menace uttered so peremptorily, the Tigercat suddenly became calm. His austere features lighted up with an expression of good nature which rarely visited them. Clapping his large hands together gaily, he exclaimed, with an air of lively satisfaction:
"Well roared, my lion's whelp! ¡Vive Dios! You deserve your name, Stoneheart! The more I see of you, the more I love you. I am proud of you, muchacho; for you are my handiwork, and I congratulate myself on my success in producing so complete a monster. ”

“ Don Fernando, astonished and galled at finding his feelings so well understood, briskly interrupted the speaker.
"To our business, if it so please you, caballero," he said sharply; "it is better to begin your explanation at once than launch out into suppositions which may be very ingenious, but have the one fault of being erroneous."
"Look, Don Fernando," replied the other, "you will try in vain to lead me on a false trail; so all denial is useless. You are young and handsome. Passing your life among savages, you are utterly ignorant of the great key to human passions. ”

“ I have a great desire to serve you."
"Me!" said Don Guzman, with a look of ironical amazement; "Are you quite sure of that?"
"If we continue in this strain, caballero, we shall only envenom our discussion, without coming to an understanding."
"Alas, colonel, we live in an era (and you know it better than most men) in which the most innocent actions are so often made to look like guilt, that no one dares to take a step or hazard a word without dreading to excite the suspicions of a power that broods darkly over us all. ”

“ Manonga felt her breast pierced by the ball. "Alas!" she cried; "You despise me! What does it matter? I die for you! Clarita, I forgive you!"
Don Pablo bounded over the body of the luckless wretch, whose dying eyes still sought his, and threw himself, knife in hand, on the lieutenant. The latter hurled his heavy pistol at his head; but the arriero avoided the weapon, seized the officer round the body, and a deadly fray began. Clarita, with flaming eyes, eagerly watched the struggle between the two, ready to interfere as soon as an opportunity offered in favour of her beloved. ”

“ Now, although everything seemed to smile on the opulent hacendero, and although, to the world that looks beyond the surface, he seemed to enjoy, with every appearance of reason, an unalloyed happiness, nevertheless the deep wrinkles channelled in the forehead of Don Pedro, the mournful severity of his face, and his gaze often turned to heaven with an expression of sombre despair, might give rise to the surmise that the life all thought so happy was secretly agitated by a profound sorrow, which the years, as they rolled on, augmented instead of solacing. ”

“ Then, putting the first finger of each hand into his mouth, he gave a whistle, so sharp and prolonged, that those present crouched against the walls, and trembled with fear, not knowing what new evil this portentous signal might bring upon them.
"¡Sangre de Cristo!" cried Luco, addressing the terrified arrieros, crouching on the floor, "Are you going to stay here and be massacred like stupid ostriches? Take courage caray! seize your weapons, and range yourselves by the side of those who have come to save you!"
The poor devils shook their heads in despair. ”

“ Most of the chiefs rose at once, brandishing their scalping knives.
"The Tigercat is a thieving dog, and a coward!" they shouted. "The Apache warriors will tie his scalp to their girdles."
Only two or three of the sachems attempted to protest; they knew the amantzin's inveterate and long-standing hatred of Tigercat; they knew the knavish character of the sorcerer; and suspected that, in this affair, the truth had been disguised and garbled in order to serve the vengeance of the man who had vowed the death of a foe whom he would never dare to face openly. ”

“ The stranger must have been the constant guest of the forest into which he had so audaciously plunged at the moment when the sun, quitting the horizon, had left the earth to darkness—darkness rendered still denser in the covert, in which the light even at midday could only struggle in at intervals through the tufted branches. ”

“ Love has mastered your heart; when he has utterly burnt it up, you will return to the desert; for then you will have learnt what that life is into which you, poor, ignorant child, are just plunging. You will have learnt that life in this world is but a feather blown hither and thither by every varying breeze; and that at the breath of love, the man who thinks himself the strongest becomes more feeble than the weakest and most wretched of created beings. ”

“ The Mexican, whose life is passed on a volcano, who feels the soil incessantly trembling under his feet, only cares to live for today. For him yesterday no longer exists; tomorrow he may never see the sun rise; today is his all, for today is his own.
The inhabitants of the Hacienda de las Norias, incessantly exposed to the inroads of their redoubtable neighbours the redskins, constantly occupied in defending themselves from their attacks and depredations, were still more forgetful than the rest of their countrymen of a past in which they took no interest. ”

“ Your observation would be just, if these men—half savages from the life they lead, ceaselessly exposed to most serious danger, constantly obliged to strive, in defence of their lives, against the wild beast and the redskin, by whom they are perpetually threatened—had not contracted, perhaps in spite of themselves, the habit of shedding blood; a habit of such cold-blooded cruelty, in a word, that they set no value on human life,—kill a man with the same indifference as they smoke the bees from the tree, and often, for mere pastime, fire on the approaching stranger, white or redskin. ”

“ The prisoner wished to die. For a long time Luco racked his brain in vain attempts at finding some means to persuade him to relinquish the feeling. To all his arguments Don Guzman replied, that his cup was full; that life was a burden to him; and that death was the only good he could henceforth look for.
The sergeant shook his head, and retired, perfectly convinced of the fallacy of the arguments. At length he arrived one day at the dungeon, and opened the door with a countenance so radiant with joy, that his master could not help remarking it, and asking what had made him so happy. ”

“ But he could not restrain a cry of horror when his eyes fell on Don Torribio. The lieutenant was tying the head of Don Pablo, which he had hacked off with his sword, to the long tresses of the fainting Clarita. The officer had been slightly wounded by the girl in the hip and arm, and blood was flowing from his garments.
"There," said he, having finished to his satisfaction the knot that bound Clarita's tresses to the long locks of the arriero; "since she loves him so dearly, when she comes to herself she can admire him at leisure, he is all her own now; no one will take him from her." ”

“ Don Fernando remained some time lost in thought, leaning against the knotted trunk of a poplar, and with his eyes cast on the ground.
"Tigercat," said he at length, "I know not who you are, nor the motives which have induced you to renounce civilisation, to take refuge in the desert, and adopt the life of the Indian; I do not wish to know them. Every man is responsible for his own actions, and must render an account of them to his own conscience. ”

“ The path had grown wider, and stretched, in a gentle incline, towards a hillock of moderate height, entirely free from trees.
Arrived at the base of the hillock, the stranger halted; then, without dismounting, cast a searching glance on all around.
The stillness of death pervaded everything; the howling of the wild beasts was lost in the distance; no noise was audible, save that caused by a slender stream of water, which, trickling through the crevices of a rock, fell from a height of three or four yards into a natural basin. ”

“ What power could thus profoundly occupy the mind, hitherto so gay and cheerful, of this young creature, whose life from infancy had been one unbroken succession of gentle joys,—for whom the sky had had no cloud, the past no regrets, and the future no apprehensions Why did she frown so heavily, tracing, on her pure forehead, lines at first hardly perceptible, but deepening with her deepening thoughts? ”

“ Is not hospitality sacred in the desert?"
The Apache burst into a laugh.
"The Tigercat is a great chief; he would neither eat nor drink with the palefaces."
"It is an unworthy artifice."
"The palefaces are thievish dogs. The Apaches will take their scalps."
"Wretch!" cried the hunter; "I too am a paleface. Come and take my scalp."
And, rapid as thought, he cast on the ground the cap of fur which covered his head, and at the same instant precipitated himself on the Indian chief, and plunged his knife into his heart. ”

“ It was obviously approaching.
"Perhaps it is a grizzly bear," muttered the hacendero.
"Or a jaguar in search of prey," added the capataz in a low voice.
The anxiety of the travellers was intense. Abandoned in the forest, without arms to defend themselves, it was clear that they were lost if a wild beast should really attack them; for flight was impossible, as they knew not where to fly to.
"You are mistaken," said Doña Hermosa, who alone had preserved her presence of mind; "no danger threatens us. Look! The horses continue feeding without showing the least alarm." ”

“ As soon as Don Estevan had left him, Don Fernando threw himself into the hammock, and closed his eyes. The night was calm and beautiful; the stars studded the heavens with an infinite number of diamonds; the moon spread her silver rays over the landscape; at intervals, the prolonged baying of the watchdogs mingled with the abrupter bark of the coyotes (prairie-wolves) , whose sinister forms were often perceptible in the distance, the transparency of the atmosphere permitting remote objects to be easily distinguished. ”

“ Don Guzman, a true soldier in the most honourable acceptation of the word, although never ostensibly meddling with politics, was greatly dreaded by the Dictator, on account of the influence his loyal and resolute character gave him over his countrymen, who felt for him a sympathy so profound, and a devotedness so complete, that more than once General Rosas, a man of few scruples, had been forced to relinquish the idea of ridding himself, by exile or worse means, of a man whose seclusion and noble pride seemed to cast a shadow over the actions of the Dictator. ”