Comic History of the United States

It was a beautiful evening at the close of a warm, luscious day in old Spain. It was such anevening as one would select for trysting purposes. The honeysuckle gave out the sweetannouncement of its arrival on the summer breeze, and the bulbul sang in the dark vistas ofolive-trees, -sang of his love and his hope, and of the victory he anticipated in themorrow's bulbul-fight, and the plaudits of the royal couple who would be there. The pinkwest paled away to the touch of twilight, and the soft zenith was sown with stars cominglike celestial fire-flies on the breast of a mighty meadow.Across the dusk, with bowed head, came a woman. Her air was one of proud humility. Itwas the air of royalty in the presence of an overruling power. It was Isabella. She was onher way to confession. She carried a large, beautifully-bound volume containing amemorandum of her sins for the day. Ever and anon she would refer to it, but the twilighthad come on so fast that she could not read it