Ramona | Page 7

the Senora it seemed as if there were no longer any people about the
place. A beggarly handful, she would have said, hardly enough to do
the work of the house, or of the estate, sadly as the latter had dwindled.
In the General's day, it had been a free-handed boast of his that never
less than fifty persons, men, women and children, were fed within his
gates each day; how many more, he did not care, nor know. But that
time had indeed gone, gone forever; and though a stranger, seeing the
sudden rush and muster at door and window, which followed on old
Marda's letting fly the water at Juan's head, would have thought, "Good
heavens, do all those women, children, and babies belong in that one
house!" the Senora's sole thought, as she at that moment went past the
gate, was, "Poor things! how few there are left of them! I am afraid old
Marda has to work too hard. I must spare Margarita more from the
house to help her." And she sighed deeply, and unconsciously held her
rosary nearer to her heart, as she went into the house and entered her
son's bedroom. The picture she saw there was one to thrill any mother's
heart; and as it met her eye, she paused on the threshold for a second,--
only a second, however; and nothing could have astonished Felipe
Moreno so much as to have been told that at the very moment when his
mother's calm voice was saying to him, "Good morning, my son, I hope
you have slept well, and are better," there was welling up in her heart a
passionate ejaculation, "O my glorious son! The saints have sent me in
him the face of his father! He is fit for a kingdom!"
The truth is, Felipe Moreno was not fit for a kingdom at all. If he had
been, he would not have been so ruled by his mother without ever

finding it out. But so far as mere physical beauty goes, there never was
a king born, whose face, stature, and bearing would set off a crown or a
throne, or any of the things of which the outside of royalty is made up,
better than would Felipe Moreno's. And it was true, as the Senora said,
whether the saints had anything to do with it or not, that he had the face
of his father. So strong a likeness is seldom seen. When Felipe once, on
the occasion of a grand celebration and procession, put on the
gold-wrought velvet mantle, gayly embroidered short breeches fastened
at the knee with red ribbons, and gold-and-silver-trimmed sombrero,
which his father had worn twenty-five years before, the Senora fainted
at her first look at him,-- fainted and fell; and when she opened her eyes,
and saw the same splendid, gayly arrayed, dark-bearded man, bending
over her in distress, with words of endearment and alarm, she fainted
again.
"Mother, mother mia," cried Felipe, "I will not wear them if it makes
you feel like this! Let me take them off. I will not go to their cursed
parade;" and he sprang to his feet, and began with trembling fingers to
unbuckle the sword-belt.
"No, no, Felipe," faintly cried the Senora, from the ground. "It is my
wish that you wear them;" and staggering to her feet, with a burst of
tears, she rebuckled the old sword-belt, which her fingers had so many
times -- never unkissed -- buckled, in the days when her husband had
bade her farewell and gone forth to the uncertain fates of war. "Wear
them!" she cried, with gathering fire in her tones, and her eyes dry of
tears,-- "wear them, and let the American hounds see what a Mexican
officer and gentleman looked like before they had set their base,
usurping feet on our necks!" And she followed him to the gate, and
stood erect, bravely waving her handkerchief as he galloped off, till he
was out of sight. Then with a changed face and a bent head she crept
slowly to her room, locked herself in, fell on her knees before the
Madonna at the head of her bed, and spent the greater part of the day
praying that she might be forgiven, and that all heretics might be
discomfited. From which part of these supplications she derived most
comfort is easy to imagine.

Juan Canito had been right in his sudden surmise that it was for Father
Salvierderra's coming that the sheep-shearing was being delayed, and
not in consequence of Senor Felipe's illness, or by the non-appearance
of Luigo and his flock of sheep. Juan would have chuckled to himself
still more at his perspicacity, had he overheard the conversation going
on between the Senora and her son, at