Señor Mendoza, threescore and ten and one, led forth the lithe Francesca Sanchez, and never youth tripped a lighter step than did the governor of California at his daughter's wedding.
Pio Pico, gallant and graceful, placed his hat on a señorita's head, and they followed Mendoza and his partner.
Alvarado and Castro, Pedro Zelaya and Abelardo Peralta found ladies and joined; so did de la Barra, and Higuera, Salvador Vallejo and Nazario Dominguez, until, as some said, California north, and south, and center, was united, if only for the contra danza.
Small hours found the gaiety undiminished, for midnight supper strengthened for further dancing. Neither was one day deemed sufficient to do adequate honor to the marriage of Carmelita Mendoza and Comandante Morando.
Next day the couple, the Governor Mendoza, and all friends repaired to the hacienda house of Fulgencio Higuera, two leagues away, to dance and to make merry till the break of another morning.
The third day was passed with Señor Berryessa, near pueblo San José, the following at Marco Calderon's, and so on.
The seventh day found them entering the porte cochere of their own home, once the residence of Colonel Barcelo, from whose gates, ere many moons, they were to see, with rejoicing hearts, the Stars and Stripes burst, in unending vigil, over government house, plaza and castle.
Long years, and happy ones, they lived, and their descendants, now of the third and fourth generation, bless their memory, and tell of the honor, the bravery, the virtue of General Morando and his bride of Mission San José.