BEN RUBIDEAUX.

The consul, seeking Cedric, told him he Had sent a messenger in search of him With letters, and gave him one from Lola, Requesting that the messenger be sent. Cedric sent Morales to intercept The messenger and bring the letters back. This the faithful fellow did, and Cedric Read them with dismay. Morales saw the Troubled look on Cedric’s face and begged to Go with him. With his tamales, and his Mascal, and being Cedric’s servant, he Was satisfied. He cared not for his share; Would leave it all with him. Cedric, with real Affection, grateful for his faithfulness, Told him he might go and evermore abide With him. He read the letters o’er and O’er with sinking heart, read Lola’s letters. Beginning at the first, he read how proud Of him she was when he “so grandly stood Before her father, with the bearing of A king, and faced him in his wrath;” then of Her sad and lonely days when he was gone; How her father sought by gentleness to Mould her to his will and bring her to forget The one she loved. Of the attention paid By Simon Blake, her father’s friend and boon Companion, the man he wanted her to Wed,—a vile, besotted wretch who knew no God but gold; she hated gold and wished that He might come back poor in all but love and Purity of soul, with which no other Riches can compare. This man had urged his Suit until she had exhausted all the Harmless arts of womanhood to evade His coarse advances, praying daily that Her Cedric would return; when he boldly Claimed her hand, she told him, “No;” he bro’t her Father who commanded that she wed him; She, helpless in their hands, had pled for time— One more year; then, if Cedric had not come, Her answer they should have. One day she, in An arbor half hidden in the trellis, Had heard her father’s overseer, Ben Rubideaux, and Simon Blake make bargain That for a sum the overseer would watch For Cedric and murder him if he should Come. She knew he did not fear them all, but For her sake, she begged him not to venture There. She gave a number in the city Where he would find a friend, a lady friend, Of hers. It was arranged that she should come For her. Then, as his lawful wife, he could Defend her and himself, if needs must be. ’Twere best that he should come with pistols, armed; Ben Rubideaux and Blake were desperate And wicked men. She wrote, fearing lest her Letters would not be received; since he left, She had received no word from him; she knew That he would write, but they had come between.