They are in the parlor, and the senorita."

Down sprang Ned and hitched his pony to a post, but then he hurried through the front door as quickly as Dola herself had done. Perhaps it was well that he should get in without being recognized by too many eyes. He did not have to actually get into the parlor before he was welcomed, for a light form sprang out into the hall, and Felicia herself shouted, eagerly:

"Oh, Senor Carfora! Are you here? This is wonderful!"

"Senorita," he interrupted her, "I have letters for your mother and Senora Paez. Where are they?"

"They are right here," she said, "but we have letters, too. All the flags in the city are out and they are firing salutes of rejoicing."

"I saw the flags," he said, "and I heard some firing, but what on earth are they rejoicing over? Is there any news?"

The two grown-up women were standing behind her, with faces in which there was no joy whatever when Felicia exultingly told him:

"Why, have not you heard? General Santa Anna has beaten your gringo army all to pieces. The United States fleet is coming to Vera Cruz with another army, and the American soldiers will not dare to come on sh.o.r.e.

All they can do will be to sit there in their ships and look at the city."

"Come in, Senor Carfora," said Senora Paez. "I cannot tell you how glad we are to see you. Yes, we have very important letters. I may suppose that yours are from the general. Please let me have them."

"Do, Senor Carfora!" said Senora Ta.s.sara. "I cannot wait a moment. We will retire to read them, and, while we are gone, Felicia may tell you all the news from the great battle at the north."

"Yes, so I will," she exclaimed. "And I want him to tell me all about the places he has been in, and what he has been doing."

In a moment more they two were alone in the parlor, and she was repeating to him the substance of Santa Anna's report of the manner in which, at the hard-fought battle of Angostura, or Buena Vista, on the 22d of February, he had shattered the American army under General Taylor. He had, he said, effectively prevented its further advance into Mexico, and there was really a strong appearance of truth in his way of presenting the consequences of the battle, for the American army seemed to have retreated. Horse after horse had been ridden to death in taking such great tidings to the city of Mexico, and, for the hour, at least, the great Mexican commander was more firmly fixed in supreme power than ever.

Of course, the triumphant bulletin did not make any mention of the fact that General Taylor had had no intention of advancing any further, being under express orders from General Scott not to do so, and that Santa Anna's well-planned and at first nearly successful attempt to crush the northern invaders had really proved a failure. Ned Crawford listened to Felicia's enthusiastic account of the battle with a curious question in his mind which he was too polite to utter.

"Why," he thought, "if Santa Anna was so completely victorious, did he not make General Taylor surrender?"

There was no one to inform Ned that the Mexican commander had invited General Taylor to do so before the fight was half over, and that the stubborn old American had unkindly refused the invitation. At this moment, however, the senorita's tongue began to busy itself with quite another matter. The United States fleet, under Commodore Connor, had, indeed, begun to arrive in front of Vera Cruz on the 18th of February, with a vast convoy of transport ships under its protection, having on board the army of General Scott. Neither Ned nor the senorita was aware, however, how many important questions have to be answered before so many military pa.s.sengers might undertake to land, with all their baggage, within possible reach of the artillery of an enemy. Felicia, for her part, was positive that they all were too badly scared by the Castle of San Juan de Ulua and by the bad news from Buena Vista to so much as try to make a landing.

"General Santa Anna himself is now marching down to meet them," she told him, "with his whole victorious army, and he will crush them as fast as they can get out of their ships."

Owing to the grand reports from their army, this was precisely the idea which was forming in the minds of all the people of Mexico.

"Oh, Senorita Felicia!" said Ned, as if he were quite willing to change the subject. "I've had a wonderful time. I've been travelling, travelling, travelling, everywhere with the general."

"Tell me all about it!" she commanded him. "I want to know. It seems to me as if I had been shut up here and had not seen anybody."

"Well, I can't tell it all just now," he said, "but when we left here we hurried all the way to Oaxaca. Then we stayed there awhile, among his own people, and n.o.body gave us any trouble. No, I mustn't forget one thing, though. A band of those mountain robbers came one night, and we had an awful fight with them--"

"Did you kill any of them?" she asked, hastily. "They all ought to be killed. They are ready to murder anybody else."

"Well," said Ned, "we beat them, and ten of them were shot. I was firing away all the while, but I don't know if I hit any of them. It was too dark to tell. The rest of them got away. But I've hunted deer, and I killed a good many of them. I shot a lynx, too, and a lot of other game.

There's the best kind of fishing on the general's estates. I like fishing. Then we went south, to the Yucatan line, and I saw some queer old ruins. After that, the general's business took him away up north of Oaxaca, and I went with him, and I saw half the States of Mexico before we finished the trip. I've seen the silver mines and Popocatepetl and Istaccihuatl, and I don't care to ever see any higher mountains than they are."

"I have seen Popocatepetl," she said, "and it almost made me have the headache. They say it is full of sulphur, to make gunpowder with."

Before she could tell anything more about the possible uses of the tall, old volcano, her mother reentered the parlor.

"Senor Carfora," she said, "Felicia will have to give you up. Here are some letters for you that came while you were absent. You had better read them now, for I cannot say how long it will be best for you to remain here. Step this way a moment, if you will."

Ned followed her, all in a sudden whirl of excitement at the unexpected prospect of hearing from his far-away home, but she still held his promised envelopes in her own hand, while she said to him:

"My dear young friend, you know that Colonel Ta.s.sara is with his regiment. He was in the thickest of the fight at Angostura. He was wounded, but he hopes to recover soon, and we have not told Felicia. He writes me that it was really a lost battle, and that the fall of Santa Anna is surely coming, but that n.o.body can foretell what course he will take, cruel or otherwise, when he and his army return to fight with General Scott, on the road from the sea to this city. Go and read your letters, and then I will see you again."

Felicia had to give him up, and away he went. The best place to read home letters seemed to him to be the library, and when he entered the dim old room, he half imagined that the man in armor nodded at him, and tried to say how d'ye do. After that, Ned almost forgot that he was in Mexico, while he devoured the news from home. It was a grand thing to learn, too, that the letters which he had feared would never get to New York had all been carefully delivered under the kindly care of the British consular system. He had never before felt quite so high an admiration for the British Empire as he acquired just then.

"I'll do something good for the next Englishman I get hold of!" he declared, with energy, and then he sat still and stared around the room.

"It was just as well," he said, "that I did not stay here and try to read all those books. I read enough about the ancient times, too. What father wanted me to know about is Mexico as it is now, and I've seen a great deal of it. What I want to see next is our army, and I'm going to find my way to Vera Cruz. Then I'll get on board an American ship, somehow or other. I wonder if the Mexican officers will manage to arrest me between this and the seacoast."

That was a point worth thinking of, for General Zuroaga had told him very plainly that some ignorant or overhasty patriot might easily find an excuse for calling him a spy, and having him shot at a moment's notice. He did not have a long time to consider that matter, however, for the door opened, and the two senoras walked in, with clouded faces.

"Senor Carfora," said Senora Ta.s.sara, "you will have no time to lose.

General Zuroaga is right, and his letter must go at once to his friend, General Morales, who is now in command at Vera Cruz. So must one from my own husband. It is important, for the best interest of Mexico, that Morales should know the whole truth. That is, he must be informed that he cannot expect any help from Santa Anna's beaten army. Are you too tired to set out immediately? I can give you a fresh horse."

"I'll go!" exclaimed Ned. "My pony isn't tired. He is a first-rate traveller. I want something to eat, though, and I wish I knew whether or not the army patrols will stop me on the way."

"I can take care of that," said Senora Paez. "I have had to send special messengers before this. You will be able to show a government pa.s.s."

As she spoke, she held out to him a sealed envelope. Where or how she had obtained such a thing, she did not explain, but it was an official envelope, and on it was a printed lettering which might have been translated: "Government Business. From the Headquarters of the Army.

Despatches from His Excellency, General Bravo." In her own handwriting was added, moreover: "To His Excellency, General Morales, Vera Cruz."

"There!" she said. "If it becomes necessary, show that, and any man hindering you will be promptly punished. Do not show it if you can help it, however, for there are many kinds of army officers nowadays."

"I have seen some of them," said Ned, but what he was really thinking about most seriously, at that moment, was the supper he had asked for, and he was well pleased to be led down into the dining-room.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE DESPATCH-BEARER

There are hills to climb, on the crooked highway from the city of Mexico to the sea, but the greater part of the distance is down, down, down, for its highest point is over seven thousand feet above tidewater. It was in a pa.s.s leading over this ridge that Ned Crawford looked around him, up and down and ahead, and exclaimed, as well as his chattering teeth would let him:

"Well, I'm glad there are no snow-drifts in my way. I suppose the army men look out for that. But don't I wish I had an overcoat and some furs!

Old Mount Orizaba can get up a first-cla.s.s winter on his own account."

It looked like it, and this part of his experiences had not been at all provided for. The Cordillera was very white, and its garment of snow and ice went down nearer to its feet than when Ned had first seen it.

Moreover, the pony which had travelled so well when he cantered away from the Paez mansion, some days before, was showing signs of exhaustion, and it was manifestly well for him that he was now going down instead of climbing. So it was for Ned, and his uppermost wish was to hurry down into a more summery climate. He was still doing so, to the best of his shivering ability, two hours later, when a loud summons to halt sounded in the road before him.

"Whoop!" shouted Ned, and the soldier, who had presented his bayonet so sternly, was greeted as if he had been an old friend. Rapid explanations followed, in Spanish, but before they were completed an officer had made his appearance from a small but comfortable guard-house at the side of the road. He was only a lieutenant, and he appeared to gaze with more than a little awe upon the superscription of Ned's precious government envelope. He turned it over and over, and almost smelled of it.

"Senor Carfora!" he exclaimed. "This must not be delayed for a moment!

You must ride on, if it kills you. Come in and get a dinner. We will give you a fresh mount. Tell us the news while you are eating."

"I will do so," replied Ned, with a tremendous effort to stop shivering and look important. "But I will say that I was told that any man interfering with that despatch would be shot in one hour."