Francisco, and the placid Duenna Juanita make up a pleasant home
circle. It is brightened by luxuries provided by the new lord.
Maxime Valois' voice is heard through the valleys. He travels in
support of James Buchanan, the ante-bellum President. For is not John
C. Breckinridge, the darling son of the South, as vice-president
also a promise of Southern success?

San Francisco throws off its criminals by a spasmodic effort.
The gallows tree has borne its ghastly fruit. Fleeing "Roughs" are
self-expatriated. Others are unceremoniously shipped abroad. The
Vigilance Committee rules. This threshing out of the chaff gives
the State a certain dignity. At least, an effort has been made
to purge the community. All in all, good results--though a Judge
of the Supreme Court sleeps in a guarded cell as a prisoner of
self-elected vindicators of the law.

When the excitement of the presidential election subsides, Maxime
Valois joins the banquets of the Democratic victors. The social
atmosphere is purer. Progress marks the passing months. The State
springs forward toward the second decade of its existence. There
is local calm, while the national councils potter over the Pacific
railways. Valois knows that the great day of Secession approaches.
The Sons of the South will soon raise the banner of the Southern
Cross. He knows the purposes of the cabinet, selected by the
conspirators who surround Buchanan. Spring sees the great departments
of the government given over to those who work for the South. They
will arrange government offices, divide the army, scatter the navy,
juggle the treasury and prepare for the coming storm. The local
bitterness heightens into quarrels over spoils. Judge Philip
Hardin, well-versed in the Secession plots, feeds the ever-burning