The Missourian

CONTENTS
PART I. The Thorn in the Land of Roses
I.	A Wilful Maid Arrives	3
II.	A Fra Diavolo in the Land of Roses	11
III.	The Violent End of a Terrible Bandit	18
IV.	La Luz, Blockade Runner	27
V.	The Storm Centre	34
VI.	A Bruising of Arms for Jacqueline	45
VII.	Swordsmanship in the Dark	55
VIII.	The Thoughts of Youth May Be Prodigiously Long Thoughts	64
IX.	Toll-Taking in the Huasteca	69
X.	The Brigand Chief	80
XI.	The Cossacks and Their Tiger Colonel	89
XII.	Pastime Passing Excellent	98
XIII.	Unregistered in Any Studbook	108
XIV.	The Herald of the Fair God	114
XV.	The Ritual	122
XVI.	He of the Debonair Sceptre	131
XVII.	Rather a Small Man	140
XVIII.	Little Monarchs, Big Mistakes	149
XIX.	A Tartar, and a Tartar	156
XX.	In the Wake of Princely Cavalcades	164
XXI.	The Red Mongrel	173
XXII.	“Equidad en la Justicia”	182
XXIII.	A Curious Pagan Rite	188
XXIV.	The Man Who Did Not Want to be Shot	193
XXV.	The Person on the Other Horse	200
XXVI.	The Strangest Avowal of Love	209
XXVII.	Berthe	219
XXVIII.	“Mike”	228
XXIX.	The Whisper of the Sphinx	238
XXX.	The Ambassador	242
XXXI.	Carlota	253
XXXII.	The Woman Who Did Not Hesitate	258
XXXIII.	A Sponsor to the Fat Padre	266
PART II. 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

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PART FIRST THE THORN IN THE LAND OF ROSES

PART FIRST
THE THORN IN THE LAND OF ROSES