Title:  Their Mariposa Legend

Author:  Charlotte Herr

Release Date:  February, 2004 [EBook #5196] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 3, 2002]

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of the project gutenberg EBOOK, their Mariposa legend ***

This eBook was produced by David Schwan davidsch@earthlink.net.

Their Mariposa Legend

A Romance of Santa Catalina

By Charlotte Herr

To Little Bruce Parker Who Loved Stories

Part I

Sir Francis Starts It

It began to happen a long time ago, centuries ago, when, in a fragrant rush of rain, spring came one day to Punagwandah, fairest of the Channel Islands.  Beneath the golden mists of sunrise danced a radiant sea.  On steeply sloping hillsides where thickets of wild lilac bloomed, the lark shook from his tiny throat a tumult of glad music.  In shadowed niches of the canyons lilies waited to fill with light their gleaming ivory cups.  Spring in very truth was there.

And looking down upon it from her cavern bower high above the beach, watched the Princess Wildenai.  Kneeling there, the light of dawn shining on her long black hair, she was, herself, the sweetest blossom of the spring.  Loveliest was she among all the maidens of the Mariposa and of royal blood besides; although of this the great chief Torquam, who even at that moment lay sleeping in his lodge of deerskin on the crescent beach below, knew more than he had ever told.

With eyes rapt, her breath scarcely stirring the folds of softest fawnskin drawn across her breast, the princess bent her gaze to where the waves ran silver on the ocean’s distant rim.  There she knew the sun must rise and, as the first dazzling ray sparkled across the water, she rose slowly until she stood erect, a slender, graceful figure against the dim, gray rocks, and stretching her arms toward the East, spoke in the musical words of her people.

“Oh, Waken-ate, great spirit-father,” she pleaded, “have mercy on me.  Grant to me, thy humble daughter, one only boon.  Grant, I pray thee, that it need not be I wed with Torquam’s friend, the pale-face stranger.  Well knowest thou I would not disobey my father, him the bravest and most powerful of all thy warriors, him whom his people delight to honor, and whom I strive to please.  All the more I feel my duty since, many moons ago, they laid my mother underneath the flowers.  Yet, even so, I cannot find it in my heart to wed with Don Cabrillo, dearly as does my father wish it.  Can’st thou not then, in thy great power, turn his heart, oh lord of spirits, that he no longer may desire it?  Help me in this, my only trial, I pray thee, and in all else will I be indeed his loyal daughter, — in all else save alone in this one thing!”