Don Diego of the South

Good! said the Padre, believe me still,     Don Giovanni, or what you will,     The types eternal! We knew him here     As Don Diego del Sud. I fear     The storys no new one! Will you hear?     One of those spirits you cant tell why     God has permitted. Therein I     Have the advantage, for I hold     That wolves are sent to the purest fold,     And wed save the wolf if wed get the lamb.     Youre no believer? Good! I am.     Well, for some purpose, I grant you dim,     The Don loved women, and they loved him.     Each thought herself his last love! Worst,     Many believed that they were his first!     And, such are these creatures since the Fall,     The very doubt had a charm for all!     You laugh! You are young, but I indeed     I have no patience . . . To proceed:     You saw, as you passed through the upper town,     The Eucinal where the road goes down     To San Felipe! There one morn     They found Diego, his mantle torn,     And as many holes through his doublets band     As there were wronged husbands you understand!     Dying, so said the gossips. Dead     Was what the friars who found him said.     May be. Quien sabe? Who else should know?     It was a hundred years ago.     There was a funeral. Small indeed     Private. What would you? To proceed:     Scarcely the year had flown. One night     The Commandante awoke in fright,     Hearing below his casements bar     The well-known twang of the Dons guitar;     And rushed to the window, just to see     His wife a-swoon on the balcony.     One week later, Don Juan Ramirez     Found his own daughter, the Dona Inez,     Pale as a ghost, leaning out to hear     The song of that phantom cavalier.     Even Alcalde Pedro Blas     Saw, it was said, through his nieces glass,     The shade of Diego twice repass.     What these gentlemen each confessed     Heaven and the Church only knows. At best     The case was a bad one. How to deal     With Sin as a Ghost, they couldnt but feel     Was an awful thing. Till a certain Fray     Humbly offered to show the way.     And the way was this. Did I say before     That the Fray was a stranger? No, Seor?     Strange! very strange! I should have said     That the very week that the Don lay dead     He came among us. Bread he broke     Silent, nor ever to one he spoke.     So he had vowed it! Below his brows     His face was hidden. There are such vows!     Strange! are they not? You do not use     Snuff? A bad habit!      Well, the views     Of the Fray were these: that the penance done     By the caballeros was right; but one     Was due from the cause, and that, in brief,     Was Dona Dolores Gomez, chief,     And Inez, Sanchicha, Concepcion,     And Carmen, well, half the girls in town     On his tablets the Friar had written down.     These were to come on a certain day     And ask at the hands of the pious Fray     For absolution. That done, small fear     But the shade of Diego would disappear.     They came; each knelt in her turn and place     To the pious Fray with his hidden face     And voiceless lips, and each again     Took back her soul freed from spot or stain,     Till the Dona Inez, with eyes downcast     And a tear on their fringes, knelt her last.     And then perhaps that her voice was low     From fear or from shame the monks said so     But the Fray leaned forward, when, presto! all     Were thrilled by a scream, and saw her fall     Fainting beside the confessional.     And so was the ghost of Diego laid     As the Fray had said. Never more his shade     Was seen at San Gabriels Mission. Eh!     The girl interests you? I dare say!     Nothing, said she, when they brought her to     Only a faintness! They spoke more true     Who said twas a stubborn soul. But then     Women are women, and men are men!     So, to return. As I said before,     Having got the wolf, by the same high law     We saved the lamb in the wolfs own jaw,     And thats my moral. The tale, I fear,     But poorly told. Yet it strikes me here     Is stuff for a moral. Whats your view?     You smile, Don Pancho. Ah! thats like you!