The homemakers may yet win the victory. Some of the remarkable scenes of the past are herein portrayed by one who has seen this game of life played in earnest, the shadowed drama of California. There is no attempt to refer to individuals, save as members of well-defined classes, in these pages. This book has absolutely no political bias. THE AUTHOR. NEW YORK CITY, May 15, 1892. CONTENTS. BOOK I. THE LAST OF THE DONS BY THE BLUE PACIFIC. CHAPTER I.--Under the Mexican Eagle.--Exit the Foreigner.--Monterey, 1840 CHAPTER II.--At the Presidio of San Francisco. Wedding Chimes from the Mission Dolores.--Lagunitas Rancho CHAPTER III.--A Missing Sentinel.--Fremont's Camp CHAPTER IV.--Held by the Enemy.--The Bear Flag BOOK II. GOLD FOR ALL.--A NEW STAR IN THE FLAG. CHAPTER V.--The Golden Magnet.--Free or Slave? CHAPTER VI.--Lighting Freedom's Western Lamp CHAPTER VII.--The Queen of the El Dorado.--Guilty Bonds CHAPTER VIII.--Joaquin the Mountain Robber.--The Don's Peril CHAPTER IX.--The Stranger's Foot at Lagunitas. Valois' Spanish Bride BOOK III. GOING HOME TO DIXIE.--STARS AND STRIPES, OR STARS AND BARS? CHAPTER X.--A Little Dinner at Judge Hardin's. The Knights of the Golden Circle CHAPTER XI.--"I'se gwine back to Dixie."--The Fortunes of War.--Val Verde CHAPTER XII.--Hood's Day.--Peachtree Creek. Valois' Last Trust.--De Gress' Battery.--Dead on the Field of Honor BOOK IV. A LOST HEIRESS.--MILLIONS AT STAKE. CHAPTER XIII.--Mount Davidson's Magic Millions. A California Plutocracy.--The Price of a Crime CHAPTER XIV.--A Mariposa Bonanza.--Natalie de Santos born in Paris.--The Queen of the El Dorado joins the Gallic "Four Hundred" CHAPTER XV.--An Old Priest and a Young Artist. The Changelings CHAPTER XVI.-Hearing Each Other.--The Valois Heirs CHAPTER XVII.--Weaving Spiders.--A Coward Blow.--Marie Berard's Doom BOOK V. REAPING THE WHIRLWIND. CHAPTER XVIII.--Joe Woods Surprises a Lady. Love's Golden Nets CHAPTER XIX.--Lovers Once, Strangers Now. Face to Face CHAPTER XX.--Judge Hardin Meets his Match. A Senatorial Election.--In a Mariposa Court Room.--The Trust fulfilled at Lagunitas LAGUNITAS. BOOK I. THE LAST OF THE DONS BY THE BLUE PACIFIC. CHAPTER I. UNDER THE MEXICAN EAGLE.--EXIT THE FOREIGNER.--MONTEREY, 1840. "Caramba! Adios, Seflores!" cried Captain Miguel Peralta, sitting on his roan charger on the Monterey bluffs. A white-sailed bark is heading southward for Acapulco. His vaqueros tossed up their sombreros, shouting, "Vive Alvarado! Muerte los estrangeros!" The Pacific binds the hills of California in a sapphire zone, unflecked by a single sail in sight, save the retreating trader, which is flitting around "Punta de los Pinos." It is July, 1840. The Mexican ensign flutters in the plaza of Monterey, the capital of Alta California. Miguel Peralta dismounts and crosses himself, murmuring, "Sea por Dios y la Santissima Virgen."