Chapter 2
THE ROSE THAT WAS A THORN IN THE LAND OF ROSES
I. Meagre Shanks 273 II. The Black Decree 284 III. As Between Women 293 IV. The Lacking Coincidence 298 V. The Missourians 306 VI. If a Kiss Were All 315 VII. A Crop of Colonels 324 VIII. Royal Resolution 335 IX. Interpreter to the Almighty 344 X. Alone Among His Loving Subjects 351 XI. Fatality and the Missourian 359 XII. The Rendezvous of the Republic 369 XIII. A Buccaneer and a Battle 380 XIV. Blood and Noise--What Else? 391 XV. Of All News the Most Spiteful 406 XVI. Vendetta's Half Sister, Better Born 422 XVII. Under a Spanish Cloak 434 XVIII. El Chaparrito 443 XIX. In Articulo Mortis 459 XX. Knighthood's Belated Flower 465 XXI. The Title of Nobility 475 XXII. The Abbey of Mount Regret 484 XXIII. The Contrariness of Jacqueline 496 XXIV. The Journalistic Sagacity of a Daniel 506
THE PEOPLE OF THE STORY
THE MISSOURIAN, known in every fight as the Storm Centre. His real name is John D. Driscoll, familiarly shortened to Din Driscoll. At the close of the Civil War he finds himself a lieutenant-colonel in General Joe Shelby's brigade of Confederate daredevils, sent by his comrades as emissary to the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.
JACQUELINE, who is the Marquise Jeanne d'Aumerle, on a mission of high politics from Napoleon III. to the Court of Mexico.
BERTHE, her maid.
MAXIMILÍAN, archduke of Austria, occupant of the New World throne created for him.
CHARLOTTE OF ORLEANS, the Empress.
ANASTASIO MURGUÍA, a Mexican hacendado, who acquires riches by running Federal blockades into Southern ports. He is both a coward and a miser.
MARÍA DE LA LUZ, his daughter.
RODRIGO GALÁN, brigand and guerrilla.
TIBURCIO, blackmailer of the highway, scout, and "loyal Imperialist."
AUGUSTIN FISCHER, "the Fat Padre," a renegade priest of subtle parts.
MICHEL NEY, grandson of the "Bravest of the Brave."
THE MARSHAL BAZAINE, commander-in-chief of the French Army of Occupation in Mexico.
MADAME LA MARECHALE, his bride.
COLONEL DUPIN, the "Tiger of the Tropics," chief of the Contra Guerrillas.
MIGUEL LOPEZ, colonel of Dragoons, a favorite of the Emperor.
MONSIEUR ÉLOIN, the Emperor's secretary.
MARQUEZ, MIRAMON, MEJÍA, MENDEZ, Imperialist officers.
RÉGULES, ESCOBEDO, Republican officers.
DANIEL BOONE, first scout among the Missourians, one-time editor and editor yet to be.
"OLD BROTHERS AND SISTERS," "TALL MOSE" BLEDSOE, OF THE COUNTY OF PIKE, and yet more of the Missouri colonels.
BENITO JUAREZ, president of the Mexican Republic.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"JACQUELINE" "She was the spirit of the enigma, the very personification of the Napoleonic sphinx" _Frontispiece_
Facing page
"MURGUÍA" "He had evidently passed through salty spray, had braved the deep, this shrinking old man in frayed black" 16
"RODRIGO GALÁN" "The fierce stranger, however, seemed undecided. His brow furrowed, and for the moment he only stared" 18
"JOHN DINWIDDIE DRISCOLL, THE MISSOURIAN" "His cheeks were smooth, but they were tight and hard and brown from the weathering of sun and blizzard" 38
"COLONEL DUPIN" "The Tiger of the Tropics ... the chief of Contra Guerrillas" 94
THE EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN 134
"MARÍA DE LA LUZ" "The tapestry behind them parted and fell" 146
"BERTHE" "... brought down the ponderous knocker so terrifically that it abashed her, for all her present agitation" 220
PART FIRST
THE THORN IN THE LAND OF ROSES
"Array you, lordyngs, one and all, For here begins no peace." --_The Ballad of the Battle of Otterburn_