herself as of a third person, she related to me all the particulars of his
first visit, and his admiration of her; that she was then very young,
though married, and the mother of two children, and that when he came to
visit her mother, she was sitting sewing in a corner where the baron did
not perceive her; until talking very earnestly on the subject of cochineal,
he inquired if he could visit a certain district where there was a
plantation of nopals. "To be sure," said La Guera from her corner; "we can
take M. de Humboldt there;" whereupon he first perceiving her, stood
amazed, and at length exclaimed, _"Valgame Dios! who is that girl?"_
Afterwards he was constantly with her, and more captivated, it is said, by
her wit than by her beauty, considering her a sort of western Madame de
Stael; all which leads me to suspect that the grave traveller was
considerably under the influence of her fascinations, and that neither
mines nor mountains, geography nor geology, petrified shells nor
_alpenkalkstein_, had occupied him to the exclusion of a slight _stratum_
of flirtation. It is a comfort to think that "sometimes even the great
Humboldt nods."

One of La Guera's stories is too original to be lost. A lady of high rank
having died in Mexico, her relatives undertook to commit her to her last
resting-place, habited according to the then prevailing fashion, in her
most magnificent dress, that which she had worn at her wedding. This dress
was a wonder of luxury, even in Mexico. It was entirely composed of the
finest lace, and the flounces were made of a species of point which cost
fifty dollars a _vara_ (the Mexican yard). Its equal was unknown. It was
also ornamented and looped up at certain intervals with bows of ribbon very
richly embroidered in gold. In this dress, the Condesa de ----- was laid in
her coffin, thousands of dear friends crowding to view her beautiful
_costume de mort_, and at length she was placed in her tomb, the key of
which was intrusted to the sacristan.