had gone out of the wigwam to get some corn to eat, Wynchucka, the wife of Mowema, told him she did not like the pale-faced strangers, because their hands were coldthat she feared they would soon warm them below. The Indian sprang to his feet, uttered their yell of exultation over a fallen foe, and, close to my ear, laughed the diabolical laugh which captives hear when being tortured by fire or scourge. "Mowema's torturing the white squaw in red men's blood. Mowema called her a captive now." Again the panther screamed, and again the Indian yelled and laughed. His delight could have been but little less exquisite had his phantom been a reality, and some captive white woman was being slowly roasted before his eyes. With one hand on my revolver I listened attentively for every motion of my companion, for who can penetrate and divine the dark designs of a barbarian when all his fiendish nature is appealed to by his superstition and hereditary hate? Listening thus, I caught the sound of trickling water; following it, within a few hundred feet from where I stood, was rewarded by a delicious drink of pure mountain water, flowing from a cave-like indenture in the ledge. Here we made a fire, boiled a grouse apiece on the coals, which with a pot of tea constituted our supper. After this, under the socializing influence of our brier-wood pipes, the Indian gave me as an explanation of his conduct the following, as the received Indian tradition of Mowema Lake and its spiritual tenants: Away back the river of Time, ere our fathers' fathers were buried, the mighty chief of all red men lived beneath the rising sun. He was great, for he had lived from the forever. He was good, and the Great Spirit al ways remembered his prayers for the good of the red men, his children, and kept his heart brave. He was the father of all red men, and we called him the first father or MoweThen the Indians owned all the country from sunrise to the great waters that wash the foot of this mountain. When the first white men came to this country, he took them by the hand; they were strangers and he felt sorry for them, because the wind had blown their canoes so far from their country and people. His wife also shook hands with the white-faced strangers, but when the whites ma. foolish woman. These words caused Wynchucka to go into the woods and weep. Her oldest son Aliqua, seeing his mother weeping, inquired the cause of her grief, and when she told him her fears concerning the white stran gers, he strung up his long bow, and said he would kill the white men. Mowema, learning his son's design, rebuked him. This made Aliqua mad, and he came toward the setting sun, many of the young men following him, and he became chief of all the young men. "Mowema and the old men remained, and he was their chief, and his council was composed of the wisest of all the red men. But when the whites began to come in great numbers, and to take the land from the red men, and to warm their cold hands in the blood of Indians, there were no young war riors to oppose them; for the young men and their chief were far in the west. The young men had been taught by Aliqua to laugh at the authority of Mowema, and make sport of the wise advice of the old men in council. These things so weakened the power of Mowema that but few would obey his call to avenge the wrongs of the red men; and all the people became divided into small bands, and the whites, like a great flood or winter storm, came and devoured them by valleys full. Mowema spent many years vainly attempting to regain his power and unite his people against the whites Many whites were killed, but more came from the big waters. When an Indian was killed, there was none to take his place, and it was forever vacant. "Mowema seeing this, called his great medicine men together; and after they had made medicine for three moons, the Grea Spirit came to them and said: Wynchuck was right. The hands of the white men wer cold, but now they steam with the blood my red children. They are too strong and numerous; they are in league with the fire of the stars and the thunder of the storms. The dark spirits of the night give them counsel. I cannot save you, my children, until the hands of the white men get cold again; then they will die. They will spread like a herd of angry buffaloes over the land, trampling down the forests and the graves of my people.' Then spake Mowema: 'What shall I do without a people, or where shall I go to rejoin my numerous dead? For I am unlike them; I cannot die.' "The Great Spirit answering said: 'Because you were beguiled by the fair faces and lying tongues of the whites, you shall go far toward the setting sun, and there in the high mountains against whose base the great >cean roars—there walled in by a mountain f stone so high, so steep, and dangerous hat no pale face dare to climb-you will find lake of sweet water, and a shade of tall tees; and that shall be your home until the ands of your enemies are cold, and they ie for want of red men's blood in which to arm them. Your form shall be that of a own bear. And in you shall live, and in u shall be accumulated, the woes and the onies, the fears and hopes of all your peoWhen one dies his troubles and pains all all be transferred to and live in you til they are avenged in due time, and you all forget the souls of none of your people. id when the hands of the white men have in become cold, I will send Wynchucka m the happy hunting ground, and with will come all the Indians from that beaulland, and they will be young, brave and ining, and Aliqua thy eldest son shall 1 them to war upon the whites, and he ll slay them all.' And again inquired Mowema of the at Spirit: 'Shall I forever bear the sufigs of my people?' "To which the Great Spirit replied: 'When Aliqua and his host return from the dead, and begin to avenge the wrongs of the red man, for every white destroyed you shall have the pain of one slaughtered Indian assuaged, and when the whites have suffered as much as the Indians have, you shall be free from pain, and then will I restore you to your proper body, and you may go forth to slaughter, for it will not then be half finished. And when all the whites have been killed and their hateful works destroyed from off the face of the earth, then shall Wynchucka again be thy wife, beautiful as when you first embraced her. All these promises,' said the Great Spirit, 'are conditioned that you never again see a white man that you do not kill; and woe to the Indian, and woe to his tribe, who leads a pale face to your retreat.' "Mowema, guided by the Great Spirit, found the lake which the bursting star lit up awhile ago, and there he has remained ever since. The spirits of captives whom we burn alive go to him, and he renews their torment at his pleasure. Did you not hear the cries of that woman last night? The fire that burned her body is forever in her spirit. The west wind at times is loaded with their wails; our children hear them, and laugh to think that the great and good Mowema finds some pleasure even beneath his heavy load of pain." By the time my Indian companion had finished his discourse-which to me was interesting because it contains the basic ideas upon which the religious creed of the "Indian Dreamers" is founded-daylight had appeared, and it was time to prepare breakfast; which being dispatched, we resumed our journey and bid adieu to Mowema Lake and its unhappy tenants. George B. Currey. A ROMANCE OF HISTORY. [The following narrative is not simply based upon history, but a literal transcript of facts, as related to the author by the ladies Pereti themselves-names and dispersed them to their homes until some new disturbance should arise which could only be settled by recourse to arms. Those merchants who had not fled from the country at the first signs of a revolution now re-opened their places of business, and peddlers and water-carriers once more made their daily rounds. Families resumed the usual routine, and after the wild excitement which the victory of Gracianos produced had subsided, a reaction took place which made peace appear to reign for a time, at least. Nevertheless, the conservatives still felt uneasy, for they knew that Gracianos was one of the most cruel, immoral, and despotic Spaniards that had ever taken the reins of state in hand. and localities alone being changed. This literal truth of the narrative must excuse the apparently sensational nature of some of the occurrences related.] THE intelligence had been brought into Guatemala that Cerna was defeated, and that Gracianos was then marching towards the city. Many of the merchants refused to believe the tidings, and without concerning themselves further, went back to their offices. Later in the day a mounted envoy was seen to leap from his foaming and panting horse before the door of the President's mansion, and ere long the news reached the people that Gracianos demanded the keys of the city. The foreign diplomats and consuls and those persons in high authority were hurriedly called together, and after a long and serious debate they decided to march out upon the road and welcome the victor, Señor Manuelo Gracianos. By the tact of these civil authorities the anticipated pillage and bloodshed were averted, and the occupation of the city made in peace and quiet. In Central America there have always been two great political parties of the most pronounced type. As in every other country, capital has been represented by the conservatives, and labor by the liberals. The former included the Roman Catholic orders and the wealthy Spanish-American planters; while the latter had for its constituents Indians, negroes, and Zamboes, who depended for their success upon their vast superiority in numbers. These natives being in disposition fiery, vicious, and unmanageable, made formidable enemies to contend with when excited by the spirit of warfare. So far from being pleased with their easy victory in Guatemala, they would have been much better satisfied to have entered the city in martial array, and to have captured it by force. But Señor Gracianos, in a brief but carefully worded address, calmed their turbulent souls, opportunity to bid you adieu has been denied Rocking to and fro in low chairs upon the broad veranda of one of the large houses of the city sat Madame Pereti and her three daughters. Before their eyes stretched a long garden filled with luxuriant midsummer follage and brilliant blossoms, and the rain hav ing just ceased, the air was filled with a moist and heavy fragrance. Beyond the garden rose the clear-cut white outline of the Domis ican Monastery. Farther off were the long even rows of white, one-story, adobe houses with the unpaved avenues like dark thread dividing the city into regular squares. the far distance extended the large coffee are sugar plantations which brought such weal to their proprietors. Beyond these rose bl and indistinct the long line of volcanoes the overlook Guatemala, and at night illumina the horizon with their fiery breath. "O, what tidings!" exclaimed Madar Pereti, hastily glancing over a letter that servant had just handed to her. "It is t you also, my dear daughters. Listen: "My very kind Friends: 666 "When you read this letter I shall be on my to France. The very thought of a separation from y family, which has become so near and dear to re late, makes me inexpressibly sad; and yet eve To assert my just claims against Gracianos and Baredo at this crisis would be, to one in my crippled financial condition, a most disastrous step. In a short time I shall be in Spain, where I hope to accumulate enough capital to be able to return in a few months, and overthrow the man who has ruined and robbed Guatemala. Before I left, the staunch conservatives met together, and we named the president we have in view. The pain it gives me to leave you unprotected is almost unendurable. God grant that Gracianos be not unkind to you, and ere long I shall be with you once more. With the greatest affection, I remain, "Always yours, "RAIMUNDO PADILLO."" The tears welled up into their eyes, for apart from the common sorrow they all felt the deepest sympathy for Inez Pereti, who was broken-hearted at the prospect of a long separation from her betrothed. "Why did we ever come to this wretched country?" she sobbed hysterically; "where there is nothing, nothing, but sadness and sorrow for us all." "Inez, Inez, my dear child, why do you say that, after all the happy days we have passed here when your father was with us? No, no. Sorrow and sadness have not troubled us since we were banished from France for sympathizing with the royalists. Besides, our family has always done so much for the hurch that the priests and sisters will always De our warmest friends, and our truest proectors." Carmelita and Dolores added a few words of comfort, and they had all risen to enter he house, when Diana, the old housekeeper, ame running along the avenue at a speed ntirely foreign to her customary dignified en. Her round face was scornfully conActed as she panted: Señor Padillo is concealed, and he will try and force information from you. He thinks that Señor Padillo will return soon and open a siege with him. O, if we could only get our passports out of this miserable place!" and Diana sank into a chair and burst into tears. "I will write to the president of Costa Rica to-day to make Gracianos give us our passports, for he at least is one man whom Gracianos fears and obeys. I hope to God that Raimundo will punish our new ruler. But, Diana, does the Señor President think that Raimundo is hidden-here? He may search and search, but he will not find him here." "Then," said Carmelita, "it is as Raimundo has feared. We are to suffer every torment at the mercy of that beggar: for he is a beggar. He has drained the purses of the poor and spent the money recklessly, and now he would steal all the wealth of the church and of the wealthy families like our own-that is, if he could. But he never shall spend a piastre of ours—never." And the flash of light from her angry eyes indicated that some plan was already forming in her sharp brain. Until this time Gracianos had made no direct assault upon the Catholic orders. True, both he and his power-behind-thethrone, Señor Baredo, hated the Catholics bitterly, and they hated the conservatives because they upheld the church with their money. On the other hand he fully realized the mighty influence of the Catholic orders, and so he waited for some one else to fire a shot which he was too great a coward to fire Meanwhile he was occupied in trying to "The miserable rascal! How are we to himself. ve when we can get nothing to eat?" "Nothing to eat?" inquired Madame Pe- form a cabinet. Respectable men refused ti in blank astonishment. "Nothing to eat?" echoed the girls. appointments, and people from the lowest ranks clamored for offices. Finally Gracianos sent for Señor Gerardo Castelar, and presented him with the portfolio of Secretary of State. "Your Excellency, I must decline the honor of the office which you ask me to accept." "Good God! you are the seventh man who has insulted me in this manner. General Castelar, you must accept the officetake care how you refuse me !" "Your Excellency, I am sorry that I cannot comply with your demands, but-I still refuse." "You refuse? Perhaps you will also refuse to leave the country, but you have fortyeight hours to think about it. If you are not out of my territory then-" A nod, and a flash from the eye of the angry president finished the sentence as effectually as words. With a dignified salute Señor Castelar bowed himself from the council room of the furious president, thinking joyfully that Gracianos might have forbidden him to leave the country, and that would indeed have been unfortunate. As for Gracianos, thoroughly infuriated, he finally frightened a few men into accepting portfolios. His cabinet was small, for it consisted of but three officers, and not select; for after all the officers had to be taken from the middle classes. Every night red republican mass meetings were held in different parts of the city. Bonfires blazed in many quarters, and stump speakers discoursed at every corner. The politicians were principally of the lower and middle classes-mechanics and laborers who for the first time in their lives fully realized their individual power. In the wild reaction that this feeling of power brought, they aimed their first arrows at the church, and in this way the desire of Gracianos and Baredo was fulfilled. Diana, the housekeeper, was in despair. All the merchants knew well her round, rosy face, so it was impossible for her to make the family purchases. There was enough food in the house for a few days, but what then? Carmelita Pereti was a girl of extraordinary spirit and ingenuity; and her brilliant, studious mind rendered her far superior to the ladies with whom she was thrown in contact. That evening at nightfall she and her sister Inez, whom she had taken into her confidence, wrapped themselves in dark cloaks, and gliding noiselessly out into the shrubbery, they passed out of a side gate of the garden, and hurried along the Calle Yer ba Buena to the Convent of Notre Dame. Once there, they breathed freely; and when Sister Marcelina, who admitted them, looked astonished to see them at such an hour, they led her to a sofa, and seating themselves beside her, related the story of their persecution. She shook her head sadly, and offered them her heartfelt sympathy, but the girls gave her very little opportunity to talk. "We know that you feel sorry for us, dear Sister Marcelina," said Carmelita, "and we came to get your coöperation in our little plan. We wish to borrow two of your dresses, one for Inez, the other for me. Then with baskets upon our arms, we can walk along-so-and buy anything we wish. At the worst, people will only jeer at us as nuns, and they dare not touch us as such." Sister Marcelina led them to her dormitory, and while telling the news to a group of nuns clustered about the doorway, she clothed the girls in the conventual garb. As she arranged the head-dresses, the nuns laughed and clapped their hands with mirth. "Madame Pereti will never recognize her own daughters—and the merchants-ha, ha! this time they will not have the best of the bargain," said Sister Lucia with a smile. The bell then ringing for service, the sis ters gravely adjourned to the chapel. Placing a gold piece in Sister Marcelina's white hand, Carmelita and Inez issued from the convent with bowed heads and a humble mien that made the good nun's mouth contract into just a suspicion of a smile. With their baskets upon their arms they walked along the Calle Real, which, like all the other streets in Guatemala, was unpaved and ili drained. Many sneers and coarse remarks greeted the girls; but with brave hearts they finished purchasing the fresh fruit and gro ceries, and then started to return home by a circuitous route. Arriving at their own gate, they slowly walked along the shady avenue leading to the house. Upon the veranda sat Madame Pereti and Dolores, who both rose as the two nuns approached. "Good evening, sisters; pray be seated." The nuns bowed and sank into chairs, while Madame Pereti continued: “I am |