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The Heart's Secret; Or, the Fortunes of a Soldier: a Story of Love and the Low Latitudes. by Maturin Murray Ballou
page 25 of 231 (10%)
he sipped the cool and grateful beverage, and wiled away the hour
until the evening parade.

Though Don Gonzales duly appreciated the great service that
Lieutenant Bezan had done him, at such imminent personal hazard,
too, yet he would no more have introduced him into his family on
terms of a visiting acquaintance in consequence thereof, than he
would have boldly broken down any other strict rule and principle of
his aristocratic nature; and yet he was not ungrateful; far from it,
as Lieutenant Bezan had reason to know, for he applied his great
influence at once to the governor-general in the young officer's
behalf. The favor he demanded of Tacon, then governor and
commander-in-chief, was the promotion to a captaincy of him who had
so vitally served the interests of his house.

Tacon was one of the wisest and best governors that Cuba ever had,
as ready to reward merit as he was to signally punish trickery or
crime of any sort, and when the case was fairly laid before him, by
reference to the rolls of his military secretary, he discovered that
Lieutenant Bezan had already been promoted twice for distinguished
merit, and replied to Don Gonzales that, as this was the case, and
the young soldier was found to be so deserving, he should cheerfully
comply with his request as it regarded his early promotion in his
company. Thus it was, that scarcely ten days subsequent to the
meeting in the Paseo, which we have described, Lieutenant Bezan was
regularly gazetted as captain of infantry, by honorable promotion
and approval of the governor-general.

The character of Tacon was one of a curious description. He was
prompt, candid, and business-like in all things, and the manner of
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