But now,
alas! it was very different; life was most sweet to him, because it
was so fully imbued with love and hope in the future.
Wild as the idea might have seemed to any one else, the young
officer had promised his own heart, that with ordinary success, and
provided no extraordinary difficulty should present itself in his
path, to win the heart and love of the proud and beautiful Isabella
Gonzales. He had made her character and disposition his constant
study, was more familiar, perhaps, with her strong and her weak
points than was she herself, and believed that he knew how best to
approach her before whom so many, vastly higher than himself, had
knelt in vain, and truth to say, fortune seemed to have seconded his
hopes.
It was the death of all these hopes, the dashing to earth of the
fairy future he had dreamed of, that caused his proud lip to tremble
for a moment. It was no fear of bodily ill.
General Harero had accomplished his object, and had triumphed over
the young officer, whose impetuosity had placed him within his
power. The sentence of death cancelled his animosity to Lorenzo
Bezan, and he now thought that a prominent cause of disagreement and
want of success between the Senorita Isabella Gonzales and himself
was removed.
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