Ned could not keep from being attracted by the picture that he presented, the handsome young officer bending over his guitar, his heart in the song that he played, but ready at any instant to be the brave and wary soldier.  Circumstance and place seemed to the boy so full of wild romance that he forgot, for the time, his own fate and the message that he wished to bear to those far Texans.

It was very cold that night on the heights, and, now and then, a little snow was blown about by the wind, but Ned kept warm by the fire and between the two serapes.  He fell asleep to the tinkling of Almonte’s guitar.  They started again at earliest dawn, descended the slopes into a highway to Vera Cruz, and pushed on in the trail of Cos.  Ned still rode his burro, which trotted along faithfully with the best, and he kept an eager eye for the road and all that lay along it.  The silent youth had learned the value of keen observation, and he never neglected it.

Before noon Ned saw a dim, white cone rising on the eastern horizon.  It was far away and misty, a thing of beauty which seemed to hang in the air above the clouds.

“Orizaba, the great mountain!” said Almonte.

Ned had seen Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, but this was a shade loftier and more beautiful than either, shooting up nearly four miles, and visible to sailors far out at sea.  It grew in splendor as they approached.  Great masses of oak and pine hung on its lofty sides, up the height of three miles, and above the forest rose the sharp cone, gleaming white with snow.  The face of Juan Nepomuceno Almonte flushed as he gazed at it.

“It is ours, the great mountain!” he exclaimed.  “And the many other magnificent mountains and the valleys and rivers of Mexico.  Can you wonder, then, Edward Fulton, that we Mexicans do not wish to lose any part of our country?  Texas is ours, it has always been ours, and we will not let the Texans sever it from us!”

“The Texans have not wished to do so,” said Ned.  “You have been kind to me, Colonel Almonte, and I do not wish to tell you anything but the truth.  The Texans will fight oppression and bad faith.  You do not know, the Mexicans do not know, how hard they will fight.  Our charter has been violated and President Santa Anna would strip our people of arms and leave them at the mercy of savage Indians.”

Almonte was about to make a passionate reply, but he checked himself suddenly and said in mild tones: 

“It is not fair for me to attack you, a prisoner, even in words.  Look how Orizaba grows!  It is like a pillar holding up the heavens!”

Ned gazed in admiration.  He did not wonder that Almonte loved this country of his, so full of the strange and picturesque.  The great mountain grew and grew, until its mighty cone, dark below, and white above, seemed to fill the horizon.  But much of the gayety of Almonte departed.

“Before night,” he said, “we will be with General Cos, who is my commander.  As you know, he is the brother-in-law of General Santa Anna, and—­he is much inflamed against the Texans.  I fear that he will be hard with you, but I shall do what I can to assuage his severity.”