From that day, each return of twilight"s gentle hour saw me in the Calle del Obispo. The sun was not more certain to set behind the snow-crowned Cordilleras, than I to traverse the street where dwelt Mercedes Villa-Senor.
Her name and condition had been easily ascertained. Any stray pa.s.senger encountered in the street could tell, who lived in the grand _casa_ with the frescoed front.
"Don Eusebio Villa-Senor--_un rico_--with two daughters, _muchachas muy lindas_!" was the reply of him, to whom I addressed the inquiry.
I was further informed, that Don Eusebio was of Spanish descent, though a Mexican by birth; that in the veins of his daughters flowed only the Andalusian blood--the pure _sangre azul_. His was one of the _familias princ.i.p.ales_ of Puebla.
There was nothing in this knowledge to check my incipient admiration of Don Eusebio"s daughter. Quite the contrary.
As I had predicted, I was soon in the vortex of an impetuous pa.s.sion; and without ever having spoken to her who inspired it!
There was no chance to hold converse with her. We were permitted no correspondence with the _familias princ.i.p.ales_, beyond the dry formalities which occasionally occurred in official intercourse. But this was confined to the men. The senoritas were closely kept within doors, and as jealously concealed from us as if every house had been a harem.
My admiration was too earnest to be restrained by such trifling obstructions; and I succeeded in obtaining an occasional, though distant, view of her who had so interested me.
My glances--given with all the fervour of a persistent pa.s.sion--with all its audacity--could scarce be misconstrued.
I had the vanity to think they were not; and that they were returned with looks that meant more than kindness.
I was full of hope and joy. My love affair appeared to be progressing towards a favourable issue; when that change, already recorded, came over the inhabitants of Puebla--causing them to a.s.sume towards us the att.i.tude of hostility.
It is scarce necessary to say that the new state of things was not to my individual liking. My twilight saunterings had, of necessity, to be discontinued; and upon rare occasions, when I found a chance of resuming them, I no longer saw aught of Mercedes Villa-Senor!
She, too, had no doubt been terrified into that hermitical retirement-- among the senoritas now universal.
Before this terrible time came about, my pa.s.sion had proceeded too far to be restrained by any ideas of danger. My hopes had grown in proportion; and stimulated by these, I lost no opportunity of stealing out of quarters, and seeking the Calle del Obispo.
I was alike indifferent to danger in the streets, and the standing order to keep out of them. For a stray glance at her to whom I had surrendered my sword-knot, I would have given up my commission; and to obtain the former, almost daily did I risk losing the latter!
It was all to no purpose. Mercedes was no more to be seen.
Uncertainty about her soon became a torture; I could endure it no longer. I resolved to seek some mode of communication.
How fortunate for lovers that their thoughts can be symbolised upon paper! I thought so as I indited a letter, and addressed it to the "Dona Mercedes Villa-Senor."
How to get it conveyed to her, was a more difficult problem.
There were men servants who came and went through the great gateway of the mansion. Which of them was the one least likely to betray me?
I soon fixed my reflections upon the _cochero_--a tall fellow in velveteens, whom I had seen taking out the sleek carriage horses. There was enough of the "picaro" in his countenance, to inspire me with confidence that he could be _suborned_ for my purpose.
I determined on making trial of him. If a doubloon should prove sufficient bribe, my letter would be delivered.
In my twilight strolls, often prolonged to a late hour, I had noticed that this domestic sallied forth: as if, having done his day"s duty, he had permission to spend his evenings at the _pulqueria_. The plan would be to waylay him, on one of his nocturnal sorties; and this was what I determined on doing.
On the night of that same day on which I indited the epistle, the Officer of the Guard chanced to be my particular friend. It was not chance either: since I had chosen the occasion. I had no difficulty, therefore, in giving the countersign; and, wrapped in a cloth cloak-- intended less as a protection against the cold than to conceal my uniform--I proceeded onward upon my errand of intrigue.
I was favoured by the _complexion_ of the night. It was dark as coal tar--the sky shrouded with a thick stratum of thunder clouds.
It was not yet late enough for the citizens to have forsaken the streets. There were hundreds of them, strolling to and fro, all natives of the place--most of them men of the lower cla.s.ses--with a large proportion of "leperos."
There was not a soldier to be seen--except here and there the solitary sentry, whose presence betokened the entrance to some military cuartel.
The troops were all inside--in obedience to the standing order. There were not even the usual squads of drunken stragglers in uniform. The fear of a.s.sault and a.s.sa.s.sination was stronger than the propensity for "raking"--even among regiments whose rank and file was almost entirely composed of the countrymen of Saint Patrick.
A stranger pa.s.sing through the place could scarce have suspected that the city was under American occupation. There was but slight sign of such control. The Poblanos appeared to have the place to themselves.
They were gay and noisy--some half intoxicated with _pulque_, and inclined to be quarrelsome. The leperos, no longer in awe of their own national authorities, were demeaning themselves with a degree of licence allowed by the abnormal character of the times.
In my progress along the pavement I was several times accosted in a coa.r.s.e bantering mariner; not on account of my American uniform--for my cloak concealed this--but because _I wore a cloak_! I was taken for a native "aristocrat."
Better that it was so: since the insults were only verbal, and offered in a spirit of rude badinage. Had my real character been known, they might have been accompanied by personal violence.
I had not gone far before becoming aware of this; and that I had started upon a rash, not to say perilous, enterprise.
It was of that nature, however, that I could not give it up; even had I been threatened with ten times the danger.
I continued on, holding my cloak in such a fashion, that it might not flap open.
By good luck I had taken the precaution to cover my head with a Mexican sombrero, instead of the military cap; and as for the gold stripes on my trowsers, they were but the fashion of the Mexican _majo_.
A walk of twenty minutes brought me into the Calle del Obispo.
Compared with some of the streets, through which I had been pa.s.sing, it seemed deserted. Only two or three solitary pedestrians could be seen traversing it, under the dim light of half a dozen oil lamps set at long distances apart.
One of these was in front of the Casa Villa-Senor. More than once it had been my beacon before, and it guided me now.
On the opposite side of the street there was another grand house with a portico. Under the shadow of this I took my stand, to await the coming forth of the cochero.
CHAPTER SIX.
"VA CON DIOS!"
Though I had already made myself acquainted with his usual hour of repairing to the pulqueria, I had not timed it neatly.
For twenty minutes I stood with the _billet.i.ta_ in my hand, and the doubloon in my pocket, both ready to be entrusted to him. No cochero came forth.
The house rose three stories from the street--its ma.s.sive mason work giving it a look of solemn grandeur. The great gaol-like gate--k.n.o.bbed all over like the hide of an Indian rhinoceros--was shut and secured by strong locks and double bolting. There was no light in the _sagnan_ behind it; and not a ray shone through the jalousies above.
Not remembering that in Mexican mansions there are many s.p.a.cious apartments without street windows, I might have imagined that the Casa Villa-Senor was either uninhabited, or that the inmates had retired to rest. The latter was not likely: it wanted twenty minutes to ten.
What had become of my cochero? Half-past nine was the hour I had usually observed him strolling forth; and I had now been upon the spot since a quarter past eight. Something must be keeping him indoors--an extra scouring of his plated harness or grooming of his _frisones_?
This thought kept me patient, as I paced to and fro under the portico of Don Eusebio"s "opposite neighbour."
Ten o"clock! The sonorous campana of the Cathedral was striking the noted hour--erst celebrated in song. A score of clocks in church-steeples, that tower thickly over the City of the Angels, had taken up the cue; and the air of the night vibrated melodiously under the music of bell metal.