A HERO IN LOVE In balmy Cuba there is a beautiful girl named Se orita Isabella Gonzales, daughter of the distinguished Don Gonzales. Her blazing eyes enslaved men -- and their hearts became her toys. Lieutenant Lorenzo Bezan fell in love with her on first sight. For years, he adored her from afar. Then one fateful night, Isabella's little brother Ruez fell off a wall into the sea. Lieutenant Bezan, witness to this, immediately dived into the water and saved the boy. Thus he gained the favor of the beautiful Se orita. Thus he was able to declare his love, finally. But as ever, the course of true love does not run smooth. For Isabella has other suitors who fought in both love and war. To gain advancement, Lieutenant Bezan must return to Spain. Enter the villainous General Harero, intent on thwarting Lorenzo goals!

Author Biography

Maturin Murray Ballou (1820 - 1895) was a writer and publisher in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. He co-founded Gleason's Pictorial, was the first editor of the Boston Daily Globe and wrote numerous travel books and works of popular fiction. Starting around 1838, Ballou wrote for the Olive Branch, a weekly paper published in Boston. In addition to writing, he worked various jobs for the Boston Post Office and the Boston Custom House. From 1842 through 1844, Ballou and Isaac H. Wright published the weekly newspaper Bay State Democrat. Writing under the pseudonym Lieutenant Murray, Ballou authored popular novels which were published by Frederick Gleason starting around 1845, such as The Gipsey and the Robbers of Naples: a Story of Love and Pride. He also wrote stories for The Flag of Our Union. In 1851, Ballou and Frederick Gleason established the weekly paper Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion. It was inspired by The Illustrated London News. The first issue appeared on May 3, 1851 and declared: "The object of this paper is to present, in the most elegant and available form, a weekly literary melange of notable events of the day. Its columns are devoted to original tales, sketches and poems, by the best American authors and the cream of the domestic and foreign news; the whole well spiced with wit and humor." In November 1854, Ballou bought out Gleason and changed the paper's name to Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion.