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Updated: June 12, 2025
Between the two groups was a solitary figure, kneeling with hand pressed to the wall and face uplifted. When the voice ceased I struck a match, and five pairs of little hands applauded enthusiastically. He sang them another song, then galloped away. "It is Don Diego Estenega," said one of the girls. "He rarely sings, but I have heard him before." "An Estenega!" exclaimed Chonita.
That they happen to be catalogued under the general title of Diego Estenega is a mere detail; an accident, for that matter; they might be pigeon-holed in the skull of a Bandini or a Pico. I happen to be the magnet, that is all." "If I could forget that you were an Estenega, just for a week, while you are here," she said, wistfully. "You are a woman of will and imagination, also of variety.
As the dance went on and she grew more and more like an untamed wood-nymph, even the caballeros became vaguely uneasy, hotly as they admired the beautiful wild thing enchaining their gaze. I looked again at Estenega and knew that his heart beat in passionate sympathy. "I have found her," he murmured, exultantly.
The Forgotten had been entertained with vivid and shifting pictures of the great capital in which he had passed his boyhood. He smiled occasionally; now and again he gave a quick impatient sigh. Suddenly Estenega leaned forward and fixed him with his powerful gaze. "Is there gold in these mountains?" he asked, abruptly.
The men remained in the dining-room after the ladies had withdrawn, and Estenega, restored to his normal condition, and in his natural element among these people of the world, expanded into the high spirits and convivial interest in masculine society which made him as popular with men as he was fascinating, through the exercise of more subtle faculties, to women.
A few Americans were there in the ugly garb of their country, a blot on the picture. At the door, just in front of the cavalcade, stood General Vallejo's carriage, the only one in California, sent from Sonoma for the occasion. Beside it were three superbly-trapped horses. The governor placed the swelling nurse in the carriage, then glanced about him. "Where is Estenega? and the Castros?" he asked.
As he listened to Estenega, shorn, for the time-being, of his air of dictator and watchful ambition, a man of the world taking an enthusiastic part in the hilarity of the hour, but never sacrificing his dignity by assuming the rôle of chief entertainer, there grew within him a dull sense of inferiority: he felt, rather than knew, that neither the city of Mexico nor gratified ambitions would give him that assured ease, that perfection of breeding, that calm sense of power, concealing so gracefully the relentless will and the infinite resource which made this most un-Californian of Californians seem to his Arcadian eyes a being of a higher star.
"Do not blame Alvarado, my father. Remember, he must listen to the Departmental Junta; and this is their work." "Fool that I am!" she added to herself, "why do I not tell who alone is to blame? But I need no one to help me hate him!" "Is it true that this Estenega of whom I hear so much is a member of the Junta?" "It may be." "If so, it is he, he alone, who has brought dishonor upon my house.
That wily and astute politician, who was always abreast of progress and never in its lead, recognized in Estenega the coming man, and, knowing that the seizure of the Californias by the United States was only a question of time, was keenly willing to make an ally of the man who he foresaw would control them as long as he chose, both at home and in Washington.
Take me out of this place by its other entrance at once, that I may remain on the hill until morning. I would not trust your word. You shall tell me, if I have to torture you." The priest made a sudden spring and closed with Estenega, hugging him like a bear. The lantern fell and went out.
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