The Harlequin Opal Author:Fergus Hume Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 37 CHAPTER III. DON HYPOLITO XUAREZ. A visionary ? Wherefore not ? All men Who change the world are dreamers in their youth. Thought comes before fu... more »lfilment !—in the earth, The hidden seedling hints the future flower ! So is it with this man ! For years his brain Hath dallied with a thousand fantasies, Which had no being save within himself. But now his dreams take shape !—with purpose firm, He aids their due fulfilment, till therefrom New heavens and earth are formed, and ancient things Crashing to ruin, as foundations serve Whereon to build earth's future destinies. There was no doubt that Don Hypolito laid due stress on ceremonial observances as necessary to consolidate his pretensions. On the ground that Gomez had broken the constitutional rules by which he held his position, Xuarez proclaimed himself saviour and President of the Cholacacan Republic. Not being in possession of Tlatonac, he constituted Acauhtzin his capital for the time being, and thereassumed all the airs of a ruler. He called himself by the title of President, his personal staff and intimate friends constituted a kind of revolutionary Junta, and the building in which this illegal assemblage met for conference was dignified with the name of the Palacio Nacional. In all respects the machinery of the lawful Government was copied at Acauhtzin, and that town was regarded by the Opposidores as the true capital of the country until such time as Xuarez should enforce his pretensions by marching in triumph into the head city of the Republic. As in the Middle Ages two Popes ruled—the one at Rome, the other at Avignon —so the allegiance of Cholacaca was claimed by two Presidents: Gomez at Tlatonac, Xuarez at Acauhtzin. The extraordinary man who avowed himself the saviour of ...« less