Federico by this time was nineteen years of age, tall, handsome, and
accomplished beyond all the youth of his rank and time of life in Cuba:
But you have seen him, gentlemen--in his extremity; it is true--yet,
fallen as he was, I mistake if you thought him a common man or good, or
for evil, my heart told me he would be conspicuous, and I was, alas the
day! too true a prophet. His attachment to his cousin, who, on the death
of her mother, had become an inmate of Don Picador's house, had been
evident to all but the purblind old man for a long time; and when he did
discover it, he imperatively forbade all intercourse between them, as,
forsooth, he had projected a richer match for him, and shut Maria up in
a corner of his large mansion, Federico, haughty and proud, could not
stomach this. He ceased to reside at his father's estate, which had
been confided to his management, and began to frequent the billiard
table, and monte--tables, and taverns, and in a thousand ways gave, from
less to more, such unendurable offence, that his father at length shut
his door against him, and turned him, with twenty doubloons in his
pocket, into the street."
"Friends interceded, for the feud soon became public, and, amongst
others, I essayed to heal it; and with the fond, although passionate
father, I easily succeeded; but how true it is, 'that evil communication
corrupts good manners!' I found Federico, by this time, linked in bands
of steel with a junto of desperadoes, whose calling was any thing but
equivocal; and implacable to a degree, that, knowing him as I had known
him, I had believed impossible.
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