likely to be believed by the other.

"Fie, fie, Bezan. You in love, man? A soldier to marry? By our lady,
what folly! Don't you remember the proverb? 'Men dream in courtship,
but in wedlock wake.'"

"May I wake in that state with her I love ere a twelvemonth," said
Lorenzo Bezan, smiling at his comrade's sally and earnestness.

"Are you serious, captain?" asked the other, now trying to half
believe him.

"Never more so in my life, I assure you," was the reply.

"And who is the lady, pray? Come, relieve your conscience, and
confess."

"Ah, there I am silent; her name is not for vulgar ears," said the
young soldier, smiling, and with really too much respect to refer
lightly to Isabella Gonzales.






CHAPTER IV.

CUBAN BANDITTI.