ANGOSTURA DE PAINE. 249 
about whom I could receive no satisfaction. At twelve o’clock the 
mist cleared away ; and in the afternoon Don Justo, Doiia Ana Maria, 
Rosario, Mr. de Roos, and I, rode to a hill in the neighbourhood to see 
a lovely view over the plain of Maypu, and to take our matee and 
chat till sunset. I may repeat, a thousand times over, ’tis the loveliest 
day I have seen ; for, in the fresh untouched scenes of nature, each 
succeeding one is lovelier than the last. The star-like ower beneath 
my feet, the magnificent purple shrub that bent over the cliff hun- 
dreds of feet above the nearest resting-place, and where Salinas clung 
like a wild roe as he grasped the splendid plant; the pinnacle on 
which the skins were spread, where Ana Maria and Rosario,—two 
creatures more lovely than the flowers about them, — reclined while 
the matee was brought in silver cups ;—all, all were beautiful ; and we 
talked till many a story of living people was told, that romancers 
would be glad to possess. Dofia Ana Maria’s first husband was, as I 
knew long before, Juan Jose Carrera. * After his death, her brother 
Jose Antonio crossed the Andes to Mendoza, and brought her home 
to her family, where she lived for a time in utter seclusion. 
At nineteen years she had seen her husband at the head of the 
government of his country, or, at least, only second to his brother ; 
she had twice followed him across the Andes as a fugitive; she had 
shared his prison; she had begged for him; she had seen him expire, 
locked in his youngest brother’s arms, on the scaffold ;—what wonder 
that she was dear to the surviving Carrera! What wonder that he 
wrote to her in that confidential cipher which had nearly cost her her 
life! Some of his letters were intercepted ; and she was imprisoned 
in the convent of the Augustine nuns in Santiago. But I will write 
down this part of her history, as nearly as I can, in the words of her 
mother, addressed to me some days ago: —“ On Ana Maria’s return 
* from Mendoza we found her health so impaired by her sufferings, 
« that we hurried her into the country, whither poor Miguel and I 
* accompanied her. I was speedily recalled to town on Mariquita’s 
* See Introduction, p.24.; and Mr. Yates’s paper in the Appendix, 
KK 
