CHAPTER IX.
LEAVING THE HACIENDA
It was near the close of a bright summer day, and a deeply interestedcompany had gathered in the dining-room of the Crawford home in NewYork. Dinner was on the table, but nobody had yet sat down. The numberof young persons present suggested that Ned must have older brothers andsisters.
"Father Crawford," exclaimed one of the grown-up young men, "what isthis about another letter from Edward? I came over to hear the news."
"Letter?" said Mr. Crawford. "I should say so! I guess I'd better readit aloud. It was a long time getting out and coming around by way ofEngland. There are all sorts of delays in war-time. It is the last ofthree that he wrote before escaping into the interior of Mexico with hisnew friends. I am glad that he did go with them, though, and there mustbe other letters on the way. We shall hear from him again pretty soon."
They all were silent then, and he read the letter through, with now andthen a few words of explanation, but Mrs. Crawford had evidently read itbefore, and all she could say now was:
"Oh, dear! I don't like it! I wish he had come home!"
"It's all right, mother," said Mr. Crawford, "for I have something moreto tell. Captain Kemp is here, and, from what he says, it is plain thatit would not have done for Ned to have remained anywhere on the coast.He will be safe where he is, and he will learn a great deal. I would nothave him miss it for anything. What's pretty good, too, we have beenpaid all our insurance money for the loss of the _Goshhawk_, and our firmhas been given a contract to furnish supplies for the army. I shall bedown on the gulf before long myself, in charge of a supply ship, and Ican make inquiries about Ned. He will turn up all right."
Everybody appeared to be encouraged except Ned's mother, and it was apity she could not have seen how well he was looking at that very time.If, for instance, she had possessed a telescope which would havereached so far, she might have seen a fine, large bay horse reined in toa standstill in front of a modern-appearing country-house, well built ofa nearly white kind of limestone. Around this residence was awide-spreading lawn, with vines, shrubbery, flowers, and other evidencesof wealth and refinement. The rider of the horse appeared to sit himeasily, and he was a picture of health and high spirits, but for anexpression of discontent that was upon his sunburned face.
"This is all very beautiful," he said, as he glanced around him, "but Iwish I were out of it. I want to hear from home. They must have myletters by this time, but they couldn't guess where I am now."
He was silent for a moment, and the horse curveted gracefully under him,as if in doubt whether to gallop away again, or to ask his rider to getoff.
"Well!" said Ned, with a pull on the rein. "It seems like a long,wonderful dream since I saw General Zuroaga ride away from us at thecross-roads. What a skirmish that was! Then we made our way through themountains, and came here, and hasn't it been a curious kind of life eversince? I've learned how to ride like a Mexican. I've seen all there isto see for miles and miles around this place. I've seen lots of oldruins, all that's left of ancient houses and temples and altars. Ibelieve the senora likes nothing better than to tell me yarns about theMontezuma times and about her ancestors in Spain. That's a greatcountry. I think I'll go over there, some day, and see Granada and theAlhambra and the old castles and the Spanish people. I like the Mexicansfirst-rate, all that I have seen of them. They will be a splendid nationone of these days, but they're awfully ignorant now. Why, every one inthese parts believes that our army is all the while being whipped all topieces by theirs, and I can't exactly swallow that. I'd like to knowjust what is really going on. I'm all in the dark."
"Senor Carfora!" called out a clear, ringing voice.
He turned in the saddle, from seeming to gaze at the distant forest, andthere, in the piazza which ran all along the front of the house, stoodSenorita Felicia, her usually pale face flushed with excitement.
"We have a letter from father!" she shouted. "He has completed hisregiment, and he is to command it. President Paredes is going north, todrive the gringos out of Mexico, and father may have to go with him. Hesays it is time for us to move to the city of Mexico. We are to livewith my aunt, Mercedes Paez, and you are to come with us. Is it notgrand?"
"It is just what I was wishing for!" exclaimed Ned. "I'd give almostanything to see that city, after what your mother has told me."
"Oh," said Felicia, "she was born there, and she'll make you see allthere is of it. But we were all ready, you know, and we are to set outearly to-morrow morning."
"Hurrah!" responded Ned. "But I'd like to hear from General Zuroaga. Iwish I knew whether or not he was much hurt in that fight in the road."
"Father does not believe he was," said Felicia. "Sometimes I almostthink he knows all about it. But there are some things he won't speakof, and General Zuroaga is one of them."
Ned sprang to the ground, and a barefooted "peon" servant took charge ofhis horse. It was not at all the kind of dismounting he had performed atthe camp in the woods on the road from Vera Cruz. Neither did he nowhave any machete dangling from his belt, to entangle himself with, andthere were no pistol holsters in front of the saddle. He went on intothe house with the senorita, and in a moment more he was hearingadditional news from her mother. Senora Tassara was as stately as ever,but it was apparent that she had taken a liking to her young Americanguest, whether it was on account of his deep interest in her oldstories, or otherwise. It may have been, in part, that company was agood thing to have in a somewhat lonely country-house, for she could nothave thought of associating with Mexican neighbors of a social ranklower than her own. Was she not descended from Spanish grandees, andwere they not, for the greater part, representatives of the mere Aztecsand Toltecs, whom her forefathers had conquered? It was that veryfeeling, however, which in the minds of such men as Paredes and similarleaders was standing in the way of every effort to construct a genuinerepublic out of the people of the half-civilized States of Mexico.
Ned's next questions related to the war, and he inquired how many moregreat battles Colonel Tassara had reported.
"Battles?" exclaimed Senora Tassara. "Why, there has not been one foughtsince Resaca de la Palma. But he says that General Ampudia sends wordthat the American army is about to advance upon him. They will attackhim at the city of Monterey, and they never can take so strong a placeas that is. He is ready for them, but President Paredes believes that itis time for him to take command of the army in person."
It certainly was so. The Mexican President was a cunning politician, andhe had been by no means an unsuccessful general. He was well aware thatit would not be wise for him to now allow too many victories to be wonby any other Mexican. It might interfere with his own popularity. On theother hand, if General Ampudia should be defeated, as he was quitelikely to be, then it was good policy for the commander-in-chief, thePresident, to be promptly on hand with a larger force, to overwhelm theinvaders who had ruined Ampudia. Therefore, it might be said that theAmericans had the tangled factions and corrupt politics of Mexicoworking for them very effectively.
Ned Crawford already knew much about the condition of military andpolitical affairs, but he was not thinking of them that evening. It wasa great deal pleasanter to sit and talk with Senorita Felicia about thecity of Mexico and others of the historical places of the ancient landof Anahuac. She still could remind him, now and then, that she hated allkinds of gringos, but at all events she was willing to treat one of themfairly well. He, on his part, had formed a favorable opinion of someMexicans, but he was as firm as ever in his belief that their army couldnever drive the Americans out of Texas.
There was one place which was even busier and more full of theexcitement of getting ready for a new movement than was the Tassarahacienda. It was among the scattered camps of General Taylor's army,near Matamoras, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. Reinforcements had madethe army more than double its former size, but it was understood that itwas still of only half the numbers of the force it was soon to meet,under General Amp
udia. It was a curious fact, however, that all ofGeneral Taylor's military scholars were entirely satisfied with thatcomputation, and considered that any other arrangement would have beenunfair, as they really outnumbered their opponents when these were onlytwo to one. What was more, they were willing to give them the advantageof fighting behind strong fortifications, for they knew that they weresoon to attack the mountain city of Monterey. Part of what was nowgenuinely an invading army was to go up the river in boats for somedistance. The other part was to go overland, and it was an open questionwhich of them would suffer the more from the hot summer sun. It was tobe anything but a picnic, for here were nearly seven thousand Americansof all sorts, who were obtaining their first experiences of what warmight really be, if made in any manner whatever in the sultriest kind ofsouthern weather. Much more agreeable for them might have been a marchacross the central table-lands beyond, at an elevation of four thousandfeet above the sea level and the _tierra caliente_.
That was precisely the kind of pleasant journey that was performed byNed Crawford and the imposing Tassara cavalcade on the morrow and duringa couple of wonderful days which followed. There being no railway,whatever the senora wished to take with her had to be conveyed in wagonsor on pack-mules, and the ladies themselves now preferred the saddle toany kind of carriage. In fact, Ned shortly discovered that SenoritaFelicia was more at home on horseback than he was, and he more than oncecongratulated himself that she had never witnessed his firstperformances in mounting his fat pony.
"How she would have laughed at me!" he thought. "But at that time therewasn't another spare saddle-horse, and she and her mother didn't care acent whether I could ride or not. They were thinking of Guerra'slancers."
The scenery was exceedingly beautiful as well as peaceful. There wasnothing whatever to suggest that a dreadful war was going on. There werehouses of friends to stop at, instead of hotels. There were towns andvillages of some importance to be rapidly investigated by a tourist likeNed, from New York by way of England, and now a good young Mexican forthe time being. Then there was an exciting evening, when all who were onhorseback rode ahead of the wagons and on into the city, which occupiesthe site of the wonderful Tenochtitlan, which was captured by HernandoCortes and his daring adventurers ever so long ago. From that timeonward, during a number of busy days, Ned became better and bettersatisfied with the fact that his father had sent him across the sea tolearn all that he could of Mexico and the Mexicans.