Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers — Volume 1 eBook

The monks of the monastery, under whose silent shadows this murderous duel had taken place, roused by the clashing of swords and the angry shouts of combatants, issued out with torches to find one only of the four officers surviving.  Every convent and altar had a right of asylum for a short period.  According to the custom, the monks carried Kate, insensible with anguish of mind, to the sanctuary of their chapel.  There for some days they detained her; but then, having furnished her with a horse and some provisions, they turned her adrift.  Which way should the unhappy fugitive turn?  In blindness of heart she turned towards the sea.  It was the sea that had brought her to Peru; it was the sea that would perhaps carry her away.  It was the sea that had first showed her this land and its golden hopes; it was the sea that ought to hide from her its fearful remembrances.  The sea it was that had twice spared her life in extremities; the sea it was that might now if it chose, take back the bauble that it had spared in vain.

KATE’S PASSAGE OVER THE ANDES.

Three days our poor heroine followed the coast.  Her horse was then almost unable to move; and on his account, she turned inland to a thicket for grass and shelter.  As she drew near to it, a voice challenged—­’Who goes there?’ Kate answered, ‘Spain.’ ’What people?’ ‘A friend.’  It was two soldiers, deserters, and almost starving.  Kate shared her provisions with these men:  and, on hearing their plan, which was to go over the Cordilleras, she agreed to join the party.

Their object was the wild one of seeking the river Dorado, whose waters rolled along golden sands, and whose pebbles were emeralds. Hers was to throw herself upon a line the least liable to pursuit, and the readiest for a new chapter of life in which oblivion might be found for the past.  After a few days of incessant climbing and fatigue, they found themselves in the regions of perpetual snow.  Summer would come as vainly to this kingdom of frost as to the grave of her brother.  No fire, but the fire of human blood in youthful veins, could ever be kept burning in these aerial solitudes.  Fuel was rarely to be found, and kindling a secret hardly known except to Indians.  However, our Kate can do everything, and she’s the girl, if ever girl did such a thing, or ever girl did not such a thing, that I back at any odds for crossing the Cordilleras.  I would bet you something now, reader, if I thought you would deposit your stakes by return of post, (as they play at chess through the post-office,) that Kate does the trick, that she gets down to the other side; that the soldiers do not:  and that the horse, if preserved at all, is preserved in a way that will leave him very little to boast of.