Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 455

"The Belle of the Cibolo" by Buckskin Sam (Maj. Sam S. Hall) This frontier romance serial opens near El Paso and Presidio del Norte on the Rio Grande, just before the Civil War. Don Juan de Casas, a wealthy Mexican hacendado, owns vast lands and herds; his fourteen-year-old daughter Anita, physically mature and pure Castilian, has been raised in convent seclusion. When Anita overhears her father and Padre Jose discussing plans to journey to Chihuahua City to arrange her marriage to a suitable middle-aged man, she responds with fury—realizing she craves love with a handsome, brave, noble young man. Though she dares not reveal her eavesdropping, Anita resolves to attend the upcoming bull-fight at Presidio del Norte. The narrative notes that her beauty has spread across Texas, drawing rancheros across the border, though Texans face danger on Mexican soil. Anita appears changed, as if foreseeing a fateful meeting.