Front matter

“JACQUELINE” “She was the spirit of the enigma, the very personification of the Napoleonic sphinx”

The Missourian

By

EUGENE P. LYLE, Jr.

“In my predestin’d Plot of Dust and Soul.”

–Omar

Illustrated by Ernest Haskell

New York

Doubleday, Page & Company

1905

Copyright, 1905, by

Doubleday, Page & Company

Published, August, 1905

All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian

To

MY TWO BEST FRIENDS

My Father and my Mother

CONTENTS

PART I. The Thorn in the Land of Roses

I.A Wilful Maid Arrives3

II.A Fra Diavolo in the Land of Roses11

III.The Violent End of a Terrible Bandit18

IV.La Luz, Blockade Runner27

V.The Storm Centre34

VI.A Bruising of Arms for Jacqueline45

VII.Swordsmanship in the Dark55

VIII.The Thoughts of Youth May Be Prodigiously Long Thoughts64

IX.Toll-Taking in the Huasteca69

X.The Brigand Chief80

XI.The Cossacks and Their Tiger Colonel89

XII.Pastime Passing Excellent98

XIII.Unregistered in Any Studbook108

XIV.The Herald of the Fair God114

XV.The Ritual122

XVI.He of the Debonair Sceptre131

XVII.Rather a Small Man140

XVIII.Little Monarchs, Big Mistakes149

XIX.A Tartar, and a Tartar156

XX.In the Wake of Princely Cavalcades164

XXI.The Red Mongrel173

XXII.“Equidad en la Justicia”182

XXIII.A Curious Pagan Rite188

XXIV.The Man Who Did Not Want to be Shot193

XXV.The Person on the Other Horse200

XXVI.The Strangest Avowal of Love209

XXVII.Berthe219

XXVIII.“Mike”228

XXIX.The Whisper of the Sphinx238

XXX.The Ambassador242

XXXI.Carlota253

XXXII.The Woman Who Did Not Hesitate258

XXXIII.A Sponsor to the Fat Padre266

PART II. The Rose That Was a Thorn in the Land of Roses

I.Meagre Shanks273

II.The Black Decree284

III.As Between Women293

IV.The Lacking Coincidence298

V.The Missourians306

VI.If a Kiss Were All315

VII.A Crop of Colonels324

VIII.Royal Resolution335

IX.Interpreter to the Almighty344

X.Alone Among His Loving Subjects351

XI.Fatality and the Missourian359

XII.The Rendezvous of the Republic369

XIII.A Buccaneer and a Battle380

XIV.Blood and Noise–What Else?391

XV.Of All News the Most Spiteful406

XVI.Vendetta’s Half Sister, Better Born422

XVII.Under a Spanish Cloak434

XVIII.El Chaparrito443

XIX.In Articulo Mortis459

XX.Knighthood’s Belated Flower465

XXI.The Title of Nobility475

XXII.The Abbey of Mount Regret484

XXIII.The Contrariness of Jacqueline496

XXIV.The Journalistic Sagacity of a Daniel506

THE PEOPLE OF THE STORY

The Missourian, known in every fight as the Storm Centre. His real name is John D. Driscoll, familiarly shortened to Din Driscoll. At the close of the Civil War he finds himself a lieutenant-colonel in General Joe Shelby’s brigade of Confederate daredevils, sent by his comrades as emissary to the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.

Jacqueline, who is the Marquise Jeanne d’Aumerle, on a mission of high politics from Napoleon III. to the Court of Mexico.

Berthe, her maid.

Maximilían, archduke of Austria, occupant of the New World throne created for him.

Charlotte of Orleans, the Empress.

Anastasio Murguía, a Mexican hacendado, who acquires riches by running Federal blockades into Southern ports. He is both a coward and a miser.

María de La Luz, his daughter.

Rodrigo Galán, brigand and guerrilla.

Tiburcio, blackmailer of the highway, scout, and “loyal Imperialist.”

Augustin Fischer, “the Fat Padre,” a renegade priest of subtle parts.

Michel Ney, grandson of the “Bravest of the Brave.”

The Marshal Bazaine, commander-in-chief of the French Army of Occupation in Mexico.

Madame la Marechale, his bride.

Colonel Dupin, the “Tiger of the Tropics,” chief of the Contra Guerrillas.

Miguel Lopez, colonel of Dragoons, a favorite of the Emperor.

Monsieur Éloin, the Emperor’s secretary.

Marquez, Miramon, Mejía, Mendez, Imperialist officers.

Régules, Escobedo, Republican officers.

Daniel Boone, first scout among the Missourians, one-time editor and editor yet to be.

“Old Brothers and Sisters,” “Tall Mose” Bledsoe, of The County of Pike, and yet more of the Missouri colonels.

Benito Juarez, president of the Mexican Republic.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

“Jacqueline” “She was the spirit of the enigma, the very personification of the Napoleonic sphinx” Frontispiece

Facing page

“Murguía” “He had evidently passed through salty spray, had braved the deep, this shrinking old man in frayed black” 16

“Rodrigo Galán” “The fierce stranger, however, seemed undecided. His brow furrowed, and for the moment he only stared” 18

“John Dinwiddie Driscoll, the Missourian” “His cheeks were smooth, but they were tight and hard and brown from the weathering of sun and blizzard” 38

“Colonel Dupin” “The Tiger of the Tropics ... the chief of Contra Guerrillas” 94

The Emperor Maximilian 134

“María de la Luz” “The tapestry behind them parted and fell” 146

“Berthe” “... brought down the ponderous knocker so terrifically that it abashed her, for all her present agitation” 220