CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
RAFAEL AND GERTRUDIS.
As already stated, Don Luis Tres-Villas, the father of Don Rafael, was aSpaniard. He was one of those Spaniards, however, who from the firsthad comprehended the necessity of making liberal political concessionsto the Creoles--such as those accorded to them by the enlightened DonJose Iturrigaray. Even the interest of Spain herself demanded thesereforms.
Don Luis, himself an officer in the vice-regal guard, had been one ofthe most devoted partisans of Iturrigaray; and when the latter wasarrested by the more violent _Gachupinos_ and sent prisoner to Spain,Tres-Villas saw that all ties of attachment between Spaniards andCreoles had been severed by the act; and that an open rupture was athand. Unwilling to take part against the native people, Don Luis hadthrown up his commission as captain in the vice-regal guards, left thecapital, and retired to his estate of Del Valle.
This hacienda was situated on the other side of the ridge that boundedthe plain of Las Palmas on the north, and about two leagues distant fromthe dwelling of Don Mariano de Silva. These two gentlemen had met inthe metropolis; and the slight acquaintance there initiated had beenstrengthened during their residence in the country.
On receiving the news of Hidalgo's insurrection, Don Luis had sent anexpress messenger to his son Don Rafael, summoning him to the Haciendadel Valle. In obedience to the order of his father, the young captainof dragoons, having obtained leave of absence from his regiment, was onhis way thither, when he overtook upon the road the student of theology.Nevertheless, Don Rafael had not deemed the order of his father sopressing as to hinder him from passing a day at the hacienda of LasPalmas, which lay directly in the route to that of Del Valle. This,therefore, he had determined upon doing.
A word about the antecedents, which led to this resolve on the part ofthe dragoon captain.
In the early part of the preceding year Don Mariano de Silva had passedthree months in the Mexican metropolis. He had been accompanied by hisdaughter Gertrudis--Marianita remaining in Oajaca with a near relativeof the family. In the _tertulias_ of the gay capital the fair_Oajaquena_ had met the dashing captain of dragoons, and a romanticattachment had sprung up between them, mutual as sincere. To this therecould be no objection by the parents on either side: since there wasbetween the two lovers a complete conformity in age, social position,and fortune. In all likelihood the romance of courtship would soon haveended in the more prosaic reality of marriage; but just at that time theyoung officer was ordered upon some military service; and Don Marianowas also suddenly called away from the capital. The marriage ceremony,therefore, that might otherwise have been expected to take place, thusremained unconsummated.
It is true that up to this time Don Rafael had not formally declared hispassion to the young Creole; but it is probable that she knew it withoutany verbal avowal; and still more that she fully reciprocated it.Neither had Don Mariano been spoken to upon the matter: the captain ofdragoons not deeming it proper to confer with him till after he hadobtained the consent of Gertrudis.
After the separation of the two lovers, by little and little Don Rafaelbegan to doubt whether his passion had been really returned by the fairOajaquena. Time and absence, while they rendered more feeble theremembrance of those little incidents that had appeared favourable tohim, increased in an inverse ratio the impression of the young Creole'scharms--that in fancy now appeared to him only the more glowing andseductive. So much did this impression become augmented, that the youngofficer began to think he had been too presumptuous in aspiring to thepossession of such incomparable loveliness.
His cruel doubts soon passed into a more cruel certainty; and he nolonger believed that his love had been returned.
In this state of mind he endeavoured to drive the thoughts of Gertrudisout of his head: by saying to himself that he had never loved her! Butthis attempt at indifference only proved how strongly the sentimentinfluenced him; and the result was to force him into a melancholy,habitual and profound.
Such was the state of Don Rafael's mind when the soldier-priest,Hidalgo, pronounced the first _grito_ of the Mexican revolution. Imbuedwith those liberal ideas which had been transmitted to him from hisfather--and even carrying them to a higher degree--knowing, moreover,the passionate ardour with which Don Mariano de Silva and his daughterlooked forward to the emancipation of their country; and thus sure ofthe approbation of all for whom he had reverence or affection--DonRafael determined to offer his sword to the cause of Independence. Hehoped under the banners of the insurrection to get rid of the blackchagrin that was devouring his spirit; or if not, he desired that in thefirst encounter between the royalist and insurgent troops, death mightdeliver him from an existence that was no longer tolerable.
At this crisis came the messenger from Del Valle. The message wassimply a summons to his father's presence that he might learn from himsome matters that were of too much importance either to be trusted topaper or the lips of a servant. The young officer easily conjecturedthe object for which he was summoned to Oajaca. Knowing his father'spolitical leanings, he had no doubt that it was to counsel him, DonRafael, to offer his sword to the cause of Mexican Independence.
The message, however significant and mysterious, partially restored thecaptain of dragoons to his senses. In the journey he was necessitatedto make, he saw there might be an opportunity of sounding the heart ofGertrudis, and becoming acquainted with her feelings in regard to him.For this purpose he had determined upon frankly declaring his own. Infine, he had half resolved to renounce those chivalric sentiments, thathad already hindered him from opening the affair to Don Mariano withoutthe consent of Gertrudis. So profound had his passion become, that hewould even have preferred owing to filial obedience the possession ofher he so devotedly loved, than not to possess her at all.
Influenced by such ideas, no wonder that with feverish ardour he rushedover the hundred leagues that separated Mexico from Oajaca; and it wasfor this reason he was willing to risk the danger of perishing in theflood rather than not reach the Hacienda las Palmas, on the evening hehad appointed to be there.
It may be mentioned that in sending back the messenger of his father, hehad charged the man to call at the hacienda of Las Palmas and inform itsproprietor of his--Don Rafael's--intention to demand there thehospitality of a night. Having calculated the exact time he might beoccupied on his journey, he had named the day, almost the very hour,when he might be expected. Without knowing the importance which theyoung dragoon attached to this visit, Don Mariano was but too gratifiedto have an opportunity of showing politeness to the son of a gentlemanwho was at the same time his neighbour and friend.
With regard to the sentiments of Gertrudis, they are already known tothe reader. What would not Don Rafael have given to have been equallywell acquainted with them! Ah! could he have known the secret pleasurewith which his arrival was expected--the ardent prayers, and thatsacrificial vow registered in his favour, at the moment when he wasstruggling with danger--could he have known all this, it would have atonce put an end to his melancholy!
At this time the insurrection was just beginning to make some stir atOajaca. On throwing off the mask, Hidalgo had despatched secret agentsto the different provinces of Mexico, in hopes that they might all joinin the _grito_ already pronounced by him in Valladolid. The emissariessent to Oajaca were two men named Lopez and Armenta; but both, havingfallen into the hands of the government authorities, were beheaded onthe instant, and their heads, raised upon poles, were exposed upon thegreat road of San Luis del Rey, as a warning to other insurgents.
This rigorous measure had no effect in retarding the insurrection.Shortly after, a ranchero, named Antonio Valdez, raised the standard ofindependence, and, at the head of a small _guerilla_ of country-people,commenced a war of retaliation. Many Spaniards fell into his hands; andtheir blood was spilled without mercy: for in this sanguinary manner didthe Mexican revolution commence; and in such fashion was it continued.