Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 407 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

G - fort,” said the general, calling out from the boat astern. “Yes, Senor General, and they are at it in earnest,” responded Isodor, as the two pieces of ae brought from the brig began firing rapidly. ‘or fully half an hour the firing was kept up, and then came an instant of lull, after which borne across the waters, were heard cheers and small-arms. Then a sudden silence followed, and the Cubans knew that the fort had been stormed and taken by the Spaniards. ‘* Those Spaniards are as mad as tigers now,” called out the general; and a laugh, at the ex- pense of their foes, ran around the boats. ** Now we are out of sight, Bueno; so up with the mast and shake out the sail, for with my blistered hands rowing is getting monotonous,” said Isodor, and the little mast was soon stepped and the leg-of-mutton sail spread to the breeze. The other boats at once followed the example of the skiff, setting their sails, and the three | little fugitive craft went sailing merrily along in their flight, driven by a light breeze. Through the hours of the night they held on their way, and with the dawn were long leagues away from the island where they had so nearly met their doom; while many a joke was cracked at the expense of their foes, who had, upon the return of daylight, found their victims had es- caped in some mysterious way, for victims to Spanish mercilessness they certainly would have been had they fallen into the power of the com- mander of the El Moro and his guest, Captain Atares, The Butcher and deadly foe to Cubans. CHAPTER VIII. A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE. In the outskirts of the pretty city of Mobile, on the Bay Road, at the time of which I write, there was a pleasant cottage house. About it were large grounds filled with majestic trees and well-trimmed shrubbery, and the fence in front overlooked the shell drive, beyond which, a few rods distant, were the waters of Mobile Bay. The house was a comfortable one, well fur- nished, and the front piazza overlooked the blue waters of the Bay, with the Ridge of Hollywood for the other shore, Mobile, a few miles up the river ef the same name, to the left, and in tho far distance to the right was the Gulf of Mexico —the great inland sea which has been the thea- ter of piracy and romance for two centuries, It was a home such as one might seek to while away in dreamy idleness the days of life, away from the busy whirl of turmoil, work, strife and gayety. - Unon the piazza, one bright morning, a week after the flight of the Cubans from the island, were sea two persons watching the lake steamer, running between New Orleans and Mobile, heading for the latter city, As she came swiftly along, and was brought near the little home by a turn in the channel, one of the two persons upon the piazza sprung to her feet, and cried, excitedly: ‘‘Mother, there stands brother Isod.«' upon the steamer’s deck!” ‘‘Tmpossible, Estrella, for your brother left in his yacht, and—” : “y- ‘* No, mother, it is not impossible, for it is Isodor! ‘See! there stands Bueno by his side, and the erew of the Cloud are also there, “Oh! how happy I am to feel that we will soon know all,” ‘¢‘ And your father, Estrella, Ido not see him though I do recognize my brave boy now,” and the voice of the lady trembled while her eyes filled with tears, ‘* No, mother, father is not there, but Isodor brings us news of him.” The two were mother and daughter. Their home was in Cuba, where the husband of the une, the father of the other, was_one of Sai wealthiest planters in the ‘‘ Ever Faithful sle,” A Cuban born, he yet had been an officer of the army of Spain; but had resigned his com- mission to return to his estates, and enjoy a life of luxury and joy at his beautiful home. of Villa Vista upon the coast, with his loved wife and two children, Isodor and Estrella, A suspected Cuban chief, one who was said to have raised a secret league of Insurgents, he had been forced to take to the mountains and sound the tocsin of war, as he learned that he was to be arrested, while he forced his wife and daugh- ‘ter to fly in his son’s yacht, to seek a haven in -America, The brave boy had found them a home upon the shores of Mobile Bay, and leaving them — : 4 : . ‘ : > 5 my, ‘5% +t : . — Ae biz eh Sie Mra mi ~~ ns = F j YR “ " The Boy Insurgent. ° eee + a seen, The result of that unfortunate expedition is known, for General Lopez, the Cuban chief, with ' his men, had been captured by an American cruiser, the revolt had proven a failure by the arrest of the leaders, and the Cloud had been _ forced to return with her cargo and volunteers, | _ A beautiful woman, still youthful, for she was | ee upon the threshold of two-score years, the | Senora Christobal’s life now knew its first deep sorrow, in the peril of her husband, her exile from her home, and the absence of her noble in face, and possessed the erect and haughty carriage of her father. She was noted as the most beautiful maiden in | Cuba, as well as the heiress to vast wealth, and lovers were constantly pleading for her hand, but in vain. Among them was Colonel Cazandra Morelos, a Spanish officer ot noble title, but a man whose life had been one of reckless dissipation. there with the few faithful slaves they had brought with them, he had returned to Cuba in his yacht, bearing a precious cargo of arms and volunteers for the Insurgents, as the reader has boy. Estrella Christobal was very like her mother j ; ‘ I did not at once tell you of my father, but alas* | disaster has befallen us, and more than all else, mother, my poor father is dead |” | The Senora Christobal did not start, as lsoccr in the full seriousness of a heart full with en o- tion, told his mother of the death of her hus- and, | She looked him straight in the face, and while her voice quivered, said: ‘*T will hear all, my son, for I can bear any- _ thing.” | Estrella had uttered a slight cry, and then glancing at her mother, had made a great ef- fort, and controlling her emotion, drew her chair to the side of the senora and grasped her’ hand, It was a pitiful scene, and a striking one. The cect and daughter geated there, their hands clasped, their faces deadly pale, and their eyes fixed upon Isodor, who leaned against a | column of the piazza and nerved himself to tell all that he had seen in the land he had so lately | left, Leon De Soto was seated near, and his ex- pressive face revealed how deeply he suffered to- see the sorrow upon those he Joved, ‘* Mother, I must tell you all, but I pray you He was a favorite with Queen Isabella of | do not curb your grief so, for you will only make a - Spain, the Captain-General of Cuba toadied to him, his officers and troops feared him, and Cubans hated him. Refused by Estrella Christobal, he had shown his true nature to such an extent, that it was determination to force her to marry him, or bring death and ruin upon those of her name, that had forced them to make the midnight flight from the island, and Don Piedra Christo- bal to determine to take to the mountains and head the secret bands of Insurgents. Reared in close companionship with her brother, whose senior she was by two years, Es- trella had, like him, become a paitsgen 4 rider, a thorough sailor, a crack shot, and could handle a sword with wondrous skill. One who beheld her in the grand parlors of Villa Vista, listened to her superb voice in song, discovered her great accomplishments as a caste woman, would little dream that she possessed also accomplishments in which the sterner sex _might feel proud to be her equal. as it a wonder then that the mother and daughter, upon discovering upon the steamer’s deck the loved son and brother, accompanied by his black crew of the Cloud, became strangely excited? He had departed in his beautiful yacht, and | he returned upon the New Orleans steamer. ‘‘He is waving to us, Estrella! let us hasten | out to the gate, and then we will send the car- riage up to town to meet him,” and calling to a servant the Senora Christobal ordered the car- riage to go up to the town to meet her son | after which she and Estrella ran to the gate and | waved their kerchiefs until the flutter of the moving linen could no longer be seen, as the steamer sped on her way to her destination. Two hours after the carriage drove up to the cottage gate, and from it sprung Isodor Christo- bal and Leon De Soto, while Bueno, his faithful black companion leaped down from the box. Then followed the meeting between Isodor aie his mother and sister, after which the youth said: ‘* Mother, you see the Senor De Soto has re- turned with me?” Leon De Soto was a young Cuban planter, Mt estates joined the plantation of Villa ista. He was handsome, rich, and dwelt with his aged parents and young sister in their handsome home, and the two families, the Christobals and De Sotos, had always been upon most intimate terms, while Leon had loved most devotedly Estrella from her early girlhood, but meetin with only friendly oa in return, had buri his love and been con ‘¢ But, Isodor, you have not told me of your father, and both you and the Senor Leon look as though *you had passed through a severe ill- ness,” and the Senora Christobal laid her hands | | yourself ill,’ ‘*'Tell me all, Isodor, I would hear all,” was the low reply. ‘‘I left here, mother, as you know, under: orders of the Cuban Junta, and when out in the: Gulf I met by appointment a schooner loaded with munitions of war, and carrying a Cuban: general and some forty companions. ‘* I took the cargo and Cubans on board, and: then had a race with an American cruiser,, which tried hard to capture us, but failed. ‘*‘ Heading for the Cuban coast at a point near Villa Vista, I ran in by night and hid the yacnt away in the Lost Lagoon, which you know well, sister, as we have often sailed there together to. fish and to hunt along its shores, ‘**T left the yacht, with orders to Bueno to run out if danger threatened from any Spanish cruisers, and made my way to Villa Vista. ** Alas! our beautiful home I found in ruins, for Colonel Morelos had been there with his Spanish soldiers and laid it in ashes, | ‘*A hound howling dismally some distance: off as I stood gazing upon the scene, I called. him to my side, and lo! it was my father’s pet: animal. ‘*T asked him where his master was, and he led me away from Villa Vista to the home of Leon De Soto. ‘*) saw « light still in the library, and knock- ae at the door,.the Senor Leon came to the oor. ‘You may know the welcome he gave me,, my mothe. and sister, for you know all that: Leon is. ‘‘T told him where the yacht was, and he went with me to the lagoon, told the general that I would not return until the next night, and ther I went back to the De Soto Sagal ‘‘ from the Senor Leon I heard how Colonel Morelos had learned from a traitor the names of’ our secret leaders, our hiding-places for armas, and all, end had seized upon my father and. twelve other chiefs, ‘The name of the Senor Leon was also down: upon the dread list, but you recall that he once saved the life of Colonel Morelos in Havana, and. he was not arrested, owing it to the Spanish. Butcher that he was not, and whom I did not: believe held one atom of gratitude or mercy in his heart. ‘‘ Diseuised by the Senor Leon, in his dress as a student, and with a false beard, I drove with him to the town, for he told me that Morelos in- tended to make an example of the Cuban Insur- gent leaders.” ‘ ‘‘Your father among them?’ said the Senora; ent to be her friend only, | Christobal with strange calmness. ‘‘ Yes, mother, father and twelve others, ‘¢The Cubans had been ordered to the town to witness the execution, the Spanish soldiers were: already drawn up upon the plaza when we ar- upon the shoulders of her son and gazed straight | rived, and soon after the doomed men and their into his face, while she became very pale, as it “eo arrived, headed by the head-quarter a flashed upon her that some evi] had befallen her husband, ‘¢ Mother! sister! it is of my father that I now would tell you. “Come, let us sit here on the piazza,” and Iso- dor spoke in a voice of the deepest sadness, while his words seemed a foreboding of evil. CHAPTER IX. THE STORY OF AN EXECUTION, ‘‘MoTHER, you may Wonder why I returned by steamer, when I left in my yacht, and that i : ue : ‘ / PIE SND hy 2 TAL SCR yk ts | | or take her eyes © nd playing a dirge. ‘Colonel Morelos and his staff also appeared upon the scene and all was ready for the execu- tion, Estrella groaned, but her mother did not move, ff of her son’s face, and, with | an effort controlling his emotion, he continued: - ra ‘‘T sat in the carriage, in full view of my fa- ther, and his fellow Patriots, and my heart thrilled with pride to see that the Spaniards could not force from them even a look of dread, ‘‘ Leaving the carriage, the Senor Leon daring- Eomi