Scalp Hunters. Captain Mayne Reid
under similar circumstances, a transient thing. Through all my wanderings I had remembered and loved her. Had she been as true to me?
“I determined to assure myself; and leaving my affairs in the hands of my mayoral, I set out for my native city.
“Adèle had been true; and I returned, bringing her with me.
“I built a house in Valverde, the nearest inhabited district to my mine.
“Valverde was then a thriving place; it is now a ruin, which you may have seen in your journey down.
“In this place we lived for years, in the enjoyment of wealth and happiness. I look back upon those days as so many ages of bliss. Our love was mutual and ardent; and we were blessed with two children, both girls. The youngest resembled her mother; the other, I have been told, was more like myself. We doted, I fear, too much on these pledges. We were too happy in their possession.
“At this time a new Governor was sent to Santa Fé, a man who, by his wantonness and tyranny, has since then ruined the province. There has been no act too vile, no crime too dark, for this human monster.
“He offered fair enough at first, and was feasted in the houses of the ricos through the valley. As I was classed among these, I was honoured with his visits, and frequently. He resided principally at Albuquerque; and grand fêtes were given at his palace, to which my wife and I were invited as special guests. He in return often came to our house in Valverde, under pretence of visiting the different parts of the province.
“I discovered, at length, that his visits were solely intended for my wife, to whom he had paid some flattering attentions.
“I will not dwell on the beauty of Adèle, at this time. You may imagine that for yourself; and, monsieur, you may assist your imagination by allowing it to dwell on those graces you appear to have discovered in her daughter, for the little Zoe is a type of what her mother was.
“At the time I speak of she was still in the bloom of her beauty. The fame of that beauty was on every tongue, and had piqued the vanity of the wanton tyrant. For this reason I became the object of his friendly assiduities.
“I had divined this; but confiding in the virtue of my wife, I took no notice of his conduct. No overt act of insult as yet claimed my attention.
“Returning on one occasion from a long absence at the mines, Adèle informed me what, through delicacy, she had hitherto concealed — of insults received from his excellency at various times, but particularly in a visit he had paid her during my absence.
“This was enough for Creole blood. I repaired to Albuquerque; and on the public plaza, in presence of the multitude, I chastised the insulter.
“I was seized and thrown into a prison, where I lay for several weeks. When I was freed, and sought my home again, it was plundered and desolate. The wild Navajo had been there; my household gods were scattered and broken, and my child, oh, God! my little Adèle, was carried captive to the mountains!”
“And your wife? your other child?” I inquired, eager to know the rest.
“They had escaped. In the terrible conflict — for my poor peons battled bravely — my wife, with Zoe in her arms, had rushed out and hidden in a cave that was in the garden. I found them in the ranche of a vaquero in the woods, whither they had wandered.”
“And your daughter Adèle — have you heard aught of her since?”
“Yes, yes, I will come to that in a moment.
“My mine, at the same time, was plundered and destroyed; many of the workmen were slaughtered before they could escape; and the work itself, with my fortune, became a ruin.
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