The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalogo was followed by an extensive _debandement_, which sent many thousands of sabres ringing back into their scabbards--some of them soon after to spring forth in the cause of freedom, calumniously called "filibustering;" others perhaps destined never to be drawn again. Using a figurative expression, not a few were converted into spades; and in this _pacific_ fashion, carried to the far shores of the Pacific Ocean--there to delve for Californian gold--while still others were suspended in the counting-house or the studio, to rust in inglorious idleness. A three years' campaign under the sultry skies of Mexico--drawing out the war-fever that had long burned in the bosoms of the American youth--had satisfied the ambition of most. It was only those who arrived late upon the field--too late to pluck a laurel--who would have prolonged the strife. The narrator of this tale, Edward Warfield--_ci-devant_ captain of a corps of "rangers"--was not one of the last mentioned. With myself, as with many others, the great Mexican campaign was but the continuation of the little war--_la petite guerre_--that had long held an intermittent existence upon the borders of Texas, and in which we had borne part; and the provincial laurels there reaped, when interwoven with the fresher and greener bays gathered upon the battle-fields of Anahuac, constituted a wreath exuberant enough to content us for the time. For my part, notwithstanding the portentous sound of my ancestral patronymic, I was tired of the toils of war, and really desired a "spell" of peace: during which I might indulge in the _dolce far niente_, and obtain for my wearied spirit a respite of repose. My wishes were in similitude with those of the poet, who longed for "a lodge in some vast wilderness--some boundless contiguity of shade;" or perhaps, more akin to those of that other poet of less solitary inclinings, who only desired the "desert as a dwelling-place, with one fair spirit for his minister!" In truth, I felt a strong inclination for the latter description of life; and, in all likelihood, would have made a trial of it, but for the interference of one of those ill-starred contingencies that often embarrass the best intentions. A phrase of common occurrence will explain the circumstance that offered opposition to my will: "want of the wherewith to support a wife."