Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-05-21
Don Diego Of the South.
(l;4fectsry-xission San Gabrici-lS60.)
III BRET HARTE.

III BRET HARTE.
Good, said tho Padre; believe mo still,
Call him Don Juan, or whatever you will
Tho types eternal! We know him hore
Az Don Diego dol Sud. fear
Tho Story's no new one. viii you hear7
Ono Of those spirits you can't toll why
God has permitted. ThercinI
Have the advantage, for hold
That wolves arc sent to tho purest fold,
And We save tho wolf, II wod get the lamb.
You're no believer! Good. lam.
Well, for some purpose, grant you, dim,
Tho Don loved women, aud they loved him.
Each thought herself his last love! Worst,
Many believed that they were his Jfrstl
Aud, such are those creatures, siuco the Fall,
Tho very doubt had charm for all!
You laugh! You are young-but 1-indeed
Ihsve no patience. To proceed:
You saw - you passed through the upper town
Tho NScin4k where the road goes down
: To 6aasBedips. There, one aorn,
They found Diego; his mantle torn,
And ~ many stabs through his doublet's band
As there were wrongcd husbands, you understand
Dying" SO said tho gossips. "Dead,"
Was what the friars who found him said.
Good! Quicn sabcf Who else should know p
1t was a hundred years ago.
There was funeral. Small indeed
Private. What would your
To proceed:
Scarcely the year had flown. Ono night
The Commandante awOke in fright
Hearing below his easements bar
The well-known twang of the Don's guitar
And rushed to the window just to SEQ
His wife-a-swoon on the balcony.
One week later Don Juan Rimarex
Found his own daughter, the Donna Inez,
Pale as ghost, leaning out to hear
The song Of that phantom cavalier.
Even Alcalde Pedro Bias
Saw, 1t wss said, through his nieces glass
The shade Of Diego twice repass.
What these gentlemen each confessed
Heaven and the Church only knows. At best
The case was bad one. How to deal
With Sin - ghost they couldn't but feel
Was an awful thing. Till a certain Fray
Humbly offered to show the way.
And the way was this: Did Say before
That the Fray was . stranger9 No-senor,
Strange! Very strange! should have said
That tho very week that the Don lay dead
He came among US! Bread he broke
Silent: nor ever to one he spoke.
90 he had vowed it. Below his brows
His fsco was hidden. There are such vows.
Strange. arc they not7 You do not use
snun? bad habit!
Well, the views
OF tho Fray were this: That the penance done
By the cabolleros was right; but ono
Was duo from the cause, and that, in briof,
Was Donna Dolores Gomez, chief,
And Jnez, Sanohicha, Concepcion,
And Carmen. Well, half tho girls in town
On his tablets the Triar had written down.
These were to como on = certain day
And ask 1t the hands Of the pious Fray
For absolution. That done, small fear
But tho shade Of Diego would disappeal.
They came; each knelt in her turn and place
To the pious Fray with his hidden face,
And voiceless lips, and each again
Took back her soul freed from spot or stain.
AAA VIC OVuuo Auc1D Will oyeD UOWuCS0t
And tear on their fringes, knelt her last.
And then-perhaps that her voice was low,
From fear or from shame -.the monks said 10
But the Fray leaned forward, when, swiftly all
We're thrilled by scream, and saw her fall
Painting beside the CONFESSIONAL
And so was tho ghost Of Diego laid,
As the Fray had said. No more his shade
Was seen at San Gabriel's Mission. Eh!
Tho girl interests you, dare say7
Nothing" she said, when they brought her to,
Nothing-s faintness!" They spake moro true
Who said twas q stubborn soul. But then
Women are women, and men are men.
So to return. As said before,
Having got the wolf by the same high law,
We saved the lambs from the VOLTS own Jaw,
And that's my story. The tale, fear,
But poorly told. Yet it strikes me, hero
Is stuff for moral. What's your view7
You smile, Don Pancho, Ah!-that's like you!