No wonder, then, that he thus soliloquized to
himself upon the theme of which he dreamed.
The life he led, the fierce contests he engaged in, had no effect in
hardening the heart of the young soldier: one thought, one single
word, when he permitted himself to pause and look back upon the
past, would change his whole spirit, and almost render him
effeminate. At times his thoughts, spite of himself, wandered far
away over the blue waters to that sunny isle of the tropics, where
Isabella Gonzales dwelt, and then his manly heart would heave more
quickly, and his pulses beat swifter; and sometimes a tear had wet
his check as he recalled the memory of Ruez, whom he had really
loved nearly as well as he had done his proud and beautiful sister.
The boy's nature, so gentle, affectionate and truthful, and yet in
emergency so manly and venturesome, as evinced in his drawing the
bullets from the guns that would else have taken the life of Lorenzo
Bezan, was a theme of oft recalled admiration and regard to the
young soldier.
Though he felt in his heart that Isabella Gonzales could never love
him, judging from the cold farewell that had at last separated them,
still fame seemed dear to him on her account, because it seemed to
bring him nearer to her, if not to raise a hope in his heart that
she might one day be his.
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