ANGOSTURA DE PAINE. 251 



" directed. Besides, if it be criminal to correspond, have you proof 

 " that I have written, or replied to, or any way acknowledged, the 

 " letters of Don Jose Miguel ? Or is it wonderful, that in the 

 " desolation of his house, he should write to and condole with his 

 " martyred brother's wife ?' She was that day questioned no farther, 

 " but sent to the Augustine nuns, whence she was twice led to be re- 

 " examined ; but she never varied her answers. After this, her health 

 " becoming daily more delicate, her mother and youngest sister were 

 " allowed to attend her in the convent, which they did for five 

 " months." — After which the Director himself caused her to be 

 liberated, I believe at the instance of Mr. Prevost. Some persons 

 consider her as really implicated in a state intrigue. Her family 

 look on her as a suffering angel. 



While she was confined in the convent, she became intimate with 

 a most interesting young person, whose misfortunes, of a different cast 

 from her own, had induced her to retire thither for life. Her husband 

 had been won over from the patriot to the royal cause, at an age 

 when principles can rarely be fixed ; — he had been faithful to it. 

 He was taken in battle, and imprisoned rather as a deserter than an 

 honourable enemy. She, being at that time at Talcahuana, and near 

 her first lying-in, resolved to join her husband ; and so set out with 

 one faithful female servant, on foot, and with so little money, as to be 

 dependant for the greater part of the road, 500 miles, upon the 

 hospitality of her countrymen ; to whom her name, indeed, was not 

 indifferent. She reached Santiago; — a relation received her kindly. 

 She bore her infant, sending daily to the prison to know how her 

 husband was, and had always an answer of comfort. One morning 

 she heard a volley, and then another, of small arms — she was seized 

 with a shivering : she enquired after her husband ; she was told, 

 " He is out of prison, and will' never be molested more." She askeci 

 no farther, but rose from her bed as soon as she was able, and retired 

 to the Augustines. She was right, — he was shot that morning : his 

 child had died. In her solitude she was sometimes visited by her 

 friends, and her brother Justo Salinas was among the number. 



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