Lorenzo's Revolutionary Quest by Lila Guzmán

“Why has Colonel De Gálvez sent American rebels to Texas?”
    â€œI showed you his letter. It explained that I’m buying cattle for Colonel De Gálvez.”
    â€œIs that so? My connections in Spain tell me we have decided to remain neutral in King George’s squabble with his rebellious colonists. Why would the colonel send Americans here?”
    â€œIt is not a lieutenant’s place to question a colonel’s actions,” Lorenzo replied.
    At the riverbank, Red turned toward Soledad, took her hands and brought them to his lips.
    Lorenzo glanced at Miguel.
    A muscle twitched in his jaw. “If he lays a glove on my sister. . .”
    â€œSergeant O’Shaughnessy is being a gentleman.”
    Soledad plucked a wild flower, stood on tiptoe, and wove it around Red’s hat brim.
    â€œ
Válgame Dios
, Lieutenant,” Lorenzo said in a tone of mock surprise. “From this angle, it looks like she just laid a glove on him.”
    Miguel scowled.
    Lorenzo had seen happier faces on people about to be hanged. “Everything is going well here. If you will excuse me, Lieutenant.” Lorenzo tipped his hat and headed across the river to his father’s grave.

Chapter Eleven
    Lorenzo stood in the mission cemetery and sobbed. Time heals all wounds, people said. Seeing his father’s grave had just ripped Lorenzo’s wound open. He knew returning to San Antonio would be difficult, but the full impact of the situation now hit him.
    How he missed Papá. A whole year without him. It didn’t seem possible.
    Falling to one knee, Lorenzo held a lantern close to the wooden marker and traced his father’s name and date of death. Who had put it there? And who had left a vase of fresh flowers? Obviously, some generous soul was taking care of his father’s grave. Was it Doña María? Or the monks? It could be any number of people.
    Without speaking a word, Lorenzo told Papá all that had happened in the last year: the secret flatboat flotilla taking supplies to George Washington, meeting Eugenie, joining the Continental Army, and especially keeping his promise to deliver a letter from his father to his grandfather, Judge Bannister.
    After reading it, Judge Bannister had refused to recognize Lorenzo as his grandson. It still hurt to think that his grandfather hadn’t wanted him.
    Lorenzo told his father how he had learned from Cincinnatus, an elderly slave on Judge Bannister’s plantation in Virginia, that he was a quadroon, a quarter black, legally his grandfather’s slave. Lorenzo explained how he left Virginia because English law did not allowhim to buy his freedom and went south to New Orleans. There, using a provision in Spanish law, he bought freedom papers. Those documents were now hidden in Colonel De Gálvez’s study in New Orleans. With the colonel’s help, Lorenzo also filed legal documents to force his grandfather to recognize him as his rightful heir. When Lorenzo inherited the plantation, he would free the slaves.
    Before returning to New Orleans for his next assignment, Lorenzo had bought Cincinnatus’s freedom and even joined the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society.
    After he explained everything, Lorenzo felt at peace, satisfied that his father was pleased with him. He took one final look at the vase full of trumpet-shaped blossoms and wished he could thank the person responsible.

    Dunstan blew smoke rings at the ship’s ceiling and watched Thomas polish boots to a high gloss. The boy didn’t look happy about being turned into his bootblack, but Dunstan knew a dose of humility was good for a growing boy.
    Dunstan unsheathed his sword to sharpen it.
    â€œWhy did thou bring that?” Thomas asked, his disgust obvious.
    â€œThis sword never leaves my side. I pity the man who tries to take it from me.”

    The morning after his arrival, Lorenzo visited Mission San Antonio de Valero and talked to the head monk who