88 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



brother, narrowly escaped from death himself, and who 

 looked as if smiles had been forever driven from his 

 face, told me he had no doubt his mother's darling was 

 killed. 



During these scenes the captain and I were not un- 

 noticed. The captain found among the officers several 

 whom he had become acquainted with at the port, and 

 he learned that others had made their last campaign. 

 In the first excitement of meeting them, 'he determined 

 to turn back and follow their broken fortunes ; but, 

 luckily for me, those trunks had gone on. He felt that 

 he had a narrow escape. Among those who had ac- 

 companied General Morazan were the former secre- 

 tary of state and war, and all the principal officers, 

 civil and military, of the shattered general government. 

 They had heard of my arrival in the country. I had 

 been expected at San Salvador, was known to them all 

 by reputation, and very soon personally ; particularly 

 I became acquainted with Colonel Zerabia, a young 

 man about twenty-eight, handsome, brave, and accom- 

 plished in mind and manners, with an enthusiastic at- 

 tachment for General Morazan, from whom, in refer- 

 ring to one affair in the attack on Guatimala, with tears 

 almost starting from his eyes, he said, Providence seem- 

 ed to turn the bullets away. I had often heard of this 

 gentleman in Guatimala, and his case shows the unhap- 

 py rending of private and social ties produced by these 

 civil wars. His father was banished by the Liberal 

 party eight years before, and was then a general in the 

 Carlist service in Spain. His mother and three sisters 

 lived in Guatimala, and I had visited at their house 

 perhaps oftener than at any other in that city. They 

 lived near the plaza, and while Morazan had possession 

 of it, the colonel had run home to see them ; and in the 



