This combined compendium outlines the principal actors, the sequence of decisive incidents, causal links between private motive and public action, and the outcome through the episodes from the protagonists’ enlistment in the Texan filibuster to the mountain campaign and its immediate aftermath.

Principal characters
Florence Kearney: an Irish gentleman schooled in military matters, newly arrived in New Orleans and passionately attracted to Doña Luisa Valverde; impulsively becomes captain of a volunteer company. Cris Rock: a colossal Texan, rough but fiercely loyal, Kearney’s protector and comrade. Don Ignacio and Doña Luisa Valverde: an exiled Mexican statesman and his beautiful daughter, Luisa being the object of Kearney’s affections. Don Ruperto Rivas: Spaniard-Mexican officer turned leader of the clandestine “Free Lances.” Colonel Carlos Santander: vain Creole antagonist, later a colonel on Santa Anna’s staff. Ysabel Almonté, the Condesa, and servants Pepita and José: civilian allies whose actions prove pivotal. Zorillo: a deformed hunchback whose duplicity catalyses betrayal and reprisal.

Narrative progression and causality
Stirred by patriotic posters and thwarted love, Kearney volunteers for Texas, is recruited and elected captain through Cris Rock’s support, and wounds Santander’s reputation in a duel near Lake Pontchartrain when Santander is exposed as a coward. Kearney’s company joins the ill-fated Mier expedition; survivors, including Kearney and Rock, are captured and incarcerated in the Acordada, suffering chains and forced labour. Ambiguities of loyalty surface as Santander reappears in Mexican service and Don Ignacio gradually regains political footing.

A daring escape is engineered from the city: Doña Luisa and the Condesa, aided by Pepita and José, create a pretext, provide a carriage, and the fugitives seize the chance to flee to the Pedregal and the Cerro Ajusco. There Rivas reveals the Free Lances—an organized band of proscribed officers using monastic disguise as cover—and Kearney and Rock accept inclusion, exchanging captivity for covert resistance.

The mountain episodes (Chaps. 48–61) hinge on Zorillo’s furtive opportunism. He attempts to sell news and steals jewellery from the ladies, but José recovers the trinkets and overhears Zorillo’s overtures to Santander. Zorillo’s betrayal prompts a rapid Hussar expedition against the monastery; forewarned by José’s climb, Rivas’s men evacuate and then counter-raid San Agustín. In the ensuing clash the Hussars are routed, Santander is slain, and Zorillo is captured and summarily executed by Cris Rock.

Outcome and themes
The patriots evacuate by schooner, cross to Panama, and live temporarily in exile; later, Rivas and his allies re-enter Mexico and contribute to the regime’s overthrow. The narrative consistently links intimate motives—love, honour, loyalty—to political consequence: duelling, betrayal, reconnaissance, and disguise determine fate. Recurring tensions—honour culture, the ambiguity between “robber” and “patriot,” and the moral cost of insurgency—culminate in restorative domestic resolutions and an explicit vindication of sacrifice and fidelity.