Just as Marianita was about to open the door and inquire the cause of
the tumult, the _femme-de-chambre_ rushed into the room; and, without
waiting to be questioned, cried out--
"_Ave Maria, senoritas! the inundation is coming_! A vaquero has just
galloped in to say that the waters are already within a league or two of
the hacienda!"
"The inundation!" echoed both the sisters in a breath; Marianita
repeating the sign of the cross, while Gertrudis bounded up from the
_fauteuil_, and, gathering her long hair around her wrists, rushed
towards the window.
"_Jesus! senorita_," cried the waiting-maid, addressing herself to
Gertrudis, "one would think you were going to leap down to the plain, as
if to save some one in danger."
"Don Rafael, God have pity on him!" exclaimed Gertrudis in a state of
distraction.
"Don Fernando!" cried Marianita, shuddering as she spoke.
"The plain will soon be one great lake," continued the servant; "woe to
them who may be caught upon it! But as for Don Fernando, you may make
yourself easy, senorita. The vaquero who came in was sent by Don
Fernando with a message to master, to say that he would be here in the
morning in his boat."
After delivering this intelligence the attendant retired, leaving the
young girls once more alone.
"In a boat!" exclaimed Marianita, as soon as the servant had gone out.
"Oh, Gertrudis!" she continued, suddenly passing from sadness to a
transport of joy, "won't that be delightful? We shall sail upon the
water in our state barge crowned with flowers, and--"
As Marianita turned round, her transport of frivolous egotism was
suddenly checked, as she saw her sister, with her long dark tresses
hanging dishevelled around her, kneeling in front of an image of the
Madonna. Giving way to a feeling of reproach, she also knelt down and
mingled her prayers with those of Gertrudis, while the alarm-bell
continued to peal forth to the four quarters of the compass its notes of
solemn and lugubrious import.
"Oh, my poor Gertrudis!" said she, taking her sister's hand in her own,
while her tears fell fast upon the glistening tresses; "pardon me if, in
the fulness of my own joy, I did not perceive that your heart was
breaking. Don Rafael--you love him then?"
"If he die I shall die too--that is all I know," murmured Gertrudis,
with a choking sigh.
"Nay, do not fear, Gertrudis; God will protect him. He will send one of
his messengers to save him," said the young girl, in the simplicity of
her faith; and then returning, she mingled her prayers with those of her
sister, now and then alternating them with words of consolation.
"Go to the window!" said Gertrudis, after some time had passed. "See if
there is yet any one upon the plain. I cannot, for my eyes are filled
with tears. I shall remain here."
And, saying these words, Gertrudis again knelt before the image of the
Virgin.
Marianita instantly obeyed the request, and, gliding across the floor,
took her stand by the open window. The golden haze that had hitherto
hung over the plain was darkening into a purple violet colour, but no
horseman appeared in the distance.
"The horse he will be riding," said Gertrudis, at the moment
interrupting her devotions, "will be his bay-brown. He knows how much I
admire that beautiful steed--his noble war-horse that carried him
through all his campaigns against the Indians. I have often taken the
flowers from my hair to place them upon the frontlet of the brave
bay-brown. Oh! _Virgen Santissima_! O Jesus! sweet Lord! Don Rafael!
my beautiful! my loved! who will bring you to me?" cried the young
girl--her wild, passionate ejaculations mingling with the words of her
prayer.
The plain was every moment becoming less visible to the eye, as the
twilight deepened into the shadows of night, when all at once it was
re-illuminated by the pale rays of the moon. Still no horseman could be
seen either near or afar off--nothing but the tall, dark palm-trees that
stood motionless in the midst of the silent savanna.
"He has been warned in time," suggested Marianita, in hopes of
tranquillising her sister. "Most likely he will not have set out
to-day."
"Oh, no--no!" cried Gertrudis, wringing her hands in anguish; "you are
wrong. I know Don Rafael too well. I judge his heart by my own. I am
sure he would try to be here this very evening. Another day would be
too long for him. He would brave every danger, if only to see me a few
hours sooner--I know he would. I know he will be coming at this
moment!"
Just then a noise as of distant thunder was heard mingling with the
metallic notes of the bell; and simultaneous with this ominous dialogue,
between the hoarse muffled rumbling of the waters and the lugubrious
clanging, a sheen of reddish light was seen to gleam suddenly over the
moon-whitened plain, and, as it glared far into the distance,
illuminating the dark forms of the palm-trees. It was proceeding from
the beacon fires which Don Mariano had caused to be kindled both on the
platform of the hacienda and on the higher ridge behind it--in hopes
that their light might serve as a guide to those who might be still
wandering upon the plain.
Both the eye and the ear were thus warned of the threatening danger;
and, as the people moved around the blazing fires, their shadows,
magnified to gigantic proportions, were projected far out upon the
savanna.
The moments passed slowly, amidst fearful and ominous sounds. The
muffled roar of the inundation was every instant heard more distinctly,
as the exasperated flood came rolling onward. Already it resembled the
noise of the loudest thunder, when the mass of dense waters was seen
glistening under the light of the fires, only a few hundred paces
distant from the western wall of the hacienda!
"Oh, sister!" cried Gertrudis, in a voice of despair, "look again! Is
no one in sight? O mercy!"
Marianita still stood by the window, eagerly directing her glance over
the plain, and endeavouring to penetrate the obscure gleam outside the
circle lighted by the glare of the fires.
"No--no one," replied she; and then her tone suddenly changing into one
of terror, she shrieked out--"O mercy! I see two horsemen--yes; they
are horsemen. _Madre de Dios_! they are flying like the wind! Alas!
alas! they will be too late!"
As she spoke, loud shouts were heard from above--from the _azotea_ of
the house--to which Don Mariano and a crowd of servants had ascended.
Other men, mounted on horseback, galloped along the terrace upon which
the house stood, waving long lazoes around their heads, and ready to
fling them out as soon as the two travellers should approach within
reach. The men below were also uttering loud cries, unable to restrain
their voices at the sight of the two horsemen thus desperately
struggling to anticipate the approach of the mass of roaring waters.
Already the flood was rushing forward upon the walls of the hacienda,
approaching like waves of fire under the glare of the flaming beacons.
The sisters within the chamber heard the cries, without seeing those
that gave utterance to them, or knowing aught of the movements that were
being made for rescuing the two horsemen from their perilous position.
"Oh, Gertrudis!" cried Marianita, now leaning out from the window, and
clinging convulsively to one of the iron bars, "come hither and see
them! You can tell whether it be Don Rafael. I do not know him. If it
be he, your voice might encourage him."
"I cannot--I cannot!" replied Gertrudis, in a voice quivering with
emotion. "Oh, sister! I dare not look upon such a spectacle. 'Tis
he--too well my heart tells me it is he--oh, I can only pray for him!"
"They are both mounted on dark-coloured horses. One of them is a little
man. He is in the costume of an arriero. That cannot be Don Rafael!"
"The other? the other?" cried Gertrudis in a low but anxious tone.
"The other," answered Marianita, "is a head taller than the first. He
sits his horse like a centaur. Now I can see his face distinctly. He
has a fine noble countenance, with black moustaches. There is a band of
gold lace on his hat. The danger does not appear to alarm him. Ah! he
is a noble, handsome fellow."
"It is he!" cried Gertrudis, in a voice that could be heard high above
the _melee_ of sounds. "Yes--it is Don Rafael!" she repeated, springing
to her feet, as if with the intention of beholding him once more before
he should be engulfed in the flood of waters. "Where, sister? where?"
she continued, gliding towards the window; but before she had made three
steps across the chamber, her strength failed her, and she sank
half-fainting upon the floor.
"Mercy!" exclaimed Marianita, half stupified with terror. "Oh! _Jesus
Maria_! another bound of their horses, and they will be safe! _Valga me
Dios_! too late--too late! there are the waters. Oh! their wild roar!
hear how they beat against the walls. Mother of God! shield these brave
men! They hold one another by the hand! They bury their spurs in their
horses' flanks! They ride forward without fear! They advance upon the
frothing flood, as if they were charging upon an enemy! Virgin of
Paradise! one of them, the smaller, is actually chaunting a hymn!"
In effect, at that moment the voice of a man was heard above the rush of
the water, crying out in measured accents--
"_In manus tuas, Domine! commendo animam meam_!"
"Merciful Father!" cried Marianita, "I see them no more, the waters are
over them both!"
For a moment a death-like silence reigned in the apartment, broken only
by the groaning of the waters, and the shouts of those clustering upon
the _azotea_ without.
Gertrudis, prostrate amidst the tresses of her dishevelled hair, was no
longer able to give utterance to a word even in prayer.
The voice of Marianita once more aroused her.
"Now I see them again," continued she, "but no, only one! There is only
one of them in the saddle. It is the taller one--he with the moustache.
The other is gone. No! I see him, but he is dismounted, and borne off
upon the flood. There! the other has seized hold of him! he raises him
up, and draws him across his horse. What a powerful arm the brave man
must have--he lifts the other like a child! The horse too appears
strong as his master. How gallantly he breasts the flood with both men
upon his back! What a strange sound comes from his nostrils! Now they
are heading for the walls. _Santissima Virgen_! will you allow this
brave cavalier to perish? he who overcomes that which has rooted up the
trees of the forest?"
"Oh!" cried Gertrudis, recovering her strength, and speaking in a burst
of passionate pride; "it is Don Rafael, I am sure! No other could
perform such a deed!"
Her heart suddenly sank again, as she observed that her sister once more
spoke in a tone of anguish.
"Alas, alas!" cried Marianita, "an enormous tree is drifting towards
them! Oh! it will strike the horse! they will be overwhelmed by it."
"Angel, whose name he bears!" shrieked Gertrudis, "angel, protect him!
Virgin Mary, appease the rage of the waters, and shield him from
destruction! Holy Virgin, save him, _and I vow to sacrifice my hair for
his life_!"
This was the most precious offering the young Creole could think of
making to the Virgin, and as if the vow had been accepted, the voice of
Marianita was at that moment heard in a more cheerful tone.
"Blessed be God!" exclaimed she, "they will yet be saved! A dozen
lazoes are around the tree. They have been thrown by people from the
house. Good! the trunk no longer rolls onward. It is checked and held
by the ropes. The brave horseman might easily mount upon it. But no!
he will not abandon his noble horse, nor the man he is holding in his
arms. See, he is riding around the tree, his brave steed plunging
through the water with all his strength. Once more he is breasting the
flood--on--on--ah! hear those shouts of triumph! He is up to the walls!
he is saved!"
A loud triumphant cheer rising from below, and blending with a similar
cry that pealed along the roof of the hacienda, confirmed the words of
Marianita; and the two sisters rushing together became locked in a
mutual embrace.
"Ah, Gertrudis!" said Marianita, after a moment, "you have vowed your
hair to the Virgin? your beautiful hair, worth a kingdom!"
"Yes," responded Gertrudis, "and, were it worth a world, I should have
given it all the same for the life of my noble Don Rafael. Ah! yes; and
he shall cut it from my head with his own hands!"