“Senorita Isabella Gonzales:  Deeply interested as we are for the welfare of all our loyal subjects, we have taken occasion to send you some words of information relative to yourself.  Beyond a doubt you have loved and been beloved devotedly; but pride, ill asserted arrogance of soul, has rendered you miserable.  We speak not knowingly, but from supposition grounded upon what we do know.  He who loved you was humble-humble in station, but noble in personal qualities, such as a woman may well worship in man, bravery, manliness and stern and noble beauty of person.  We say he loved you, and we doubt not you must have loved him; for how could it be otherwise?  Pride caused you to repulse him.  Now, senorita, know that he whom you thus repulsed was more than worthy of you; that, although he might have espoused one infinitely your superior in rank and wealth in Madrid, since his arrival here, he had no heart to give, and still remained true to you!  Know that by his daring bravery, his manliness, his modest bearing, and above all, his clear-sighted and brilliant mental capacity he has challenged our own high admiration; but you, alas! must turn in scorn your proud lip upon him!  Think not we have these facts from him, or that he has reflected in the least upon you; he is far too delicate for such conduct.  No, it is an instinctive sense of the position of circumstances that has led to this letter and this plain language.  (Signed) your queen.

“The Senorita Isabella Gonzales.”

One might have thought that this would have aroused the pride and anger of Isabella Gonzales, but it did not; it surprised her; and after the first sensation of this feeling was over, it struck her as so truthful, what the queen had said, that she wept bitterly.

“Alas! she has most justly censured me, but points out no way for me to retrieve the bitter steps I have taken,” sobbed the unhappy girl, aloud.  “Might have espoused one my superior in rank and fortune, at Madrid, but he had no heart to give!  Fool that I am, I see it all; and the queen is indeed but too correct.  But what use is all this information to me, save to render me the more miserable?  Show a wretch the life he might have lived, and then condemn him to death; that is my position-that my hard, unhappy fate!

“Alas! does he love me still? he whom I have so heartlessly treated-ay, whom I have crushed, as it were, for well knew how dearly he loved me!  He has challenged even the admiration of the queen, and has been, perhaps, promoted; but still has been true to me, who in soul have been as true to him.”

Thus murmured the proud girl to herself-thus frankly realized the truth.

“Ah, my child,” said Don Gonzales, meeting his daughter, “put on thy best looks, for we are to have the new lieutenant-governor installed to-morrow, and all of us must be present.  He’s a soldier of much renown, so report says.”