CHAPTER XIII.
"Freedom calls you! Quick! be ready: Think of what your sires have been: Onward! onward! strong and steady, Drive the tyrant to his den." PERCIVAL.
How intoxicating is the love of power; and how madly the votaries of ambition whirl to the vortex of that moral Corbrechtan, which has ingulfed so many hapless victims.

Our own noble Washington stands forth a bright beacon to warn every ruler, civil or military, of the thundering whirlpool.

Father of your country! you stand alone on the pedestal of greatness; and slowly rolling years shall pour their waters into the boundless deep of eternity ere another shall be placed beside you.
When Iturbide attempted to free his oppressed countrymen from the crushing yoke of Spanish thraldom, Liberty was the watchword.

Success crowned his efforts--sovereign power lay before him.

He grasped it, and made himself a despot.