Then Dare was called, and the lovers knew that their hour of parting was come. They said nothing of the fears in their hearts; and on Antonia’s lifted face there was only the light of love and of hope.
“The fight will soon be over, darling, and then!”
“And then? We shall be so happy.”
CHAPTER VI. ROBERT WORTH IS DISARMED.
“Strange sons of Mexico, and strange her fate;
They fight for freedom who were never free;
A kingless people for a nerveless state.”
“Not all the threats or favors of a crown,
A Prince’s whisper, or a tyrant’s frown,
Can awe the spirit or allure the mind
Of him, who to strict Honor is inclined.
Though all the pomp and pleasure that does wait
On public places, and affairs of state;
Though all the storms and tempests should arise,
That Church magicians in their cells devise,
And from their settled basis nations tear:
He would, unmoved, the mighty ruin bear.
Secure in innocence, contemn them all,
And, decently arrayed, in honor fall.”
“Say, what is honor? ‘Tis the finest sense
Of justice which the human mind can frame.”