he was also involved in efforts to bring down the Spanish Viceroy in Lima with revolutionary conspiracies. Her husband discovered her secret and demanded she stop, "and that meant trouble, the first real rift in the marriage. For no one ever really ordered Manuela to do anything" (23).
When war hero Bolivar returned from victories over the Spaniards and traveled through Quito, he and Saenz met for the first time, although Von Hagen's account sounds very romanticized: "Manuela leaned forward in sudden excitement. This was he at last---the greatest man on he continent, the embodiment of all her dreams, her high enthusiasm, the cause for which she had fought so long." She throws a laurel at him, meaning it to land at his feet, but it hits him in the head. He looks up angrily, then sees Saenz, "her dark eyes wide and luminous, the skin flushed a dull red, the white hands pressed to her white breast where hung the golden emblem of the Sun" (28-29). Again, we should keep in mind that the author is engaging in much imaginative conjecture in these descriptions. We can only trust that he is giving us the basic facts about Saenz and Bolivar, along with the romanticized descriptions.
They officially met soon thereafter. She was 24, he was 39. Both were married. Bolivar was not merely attracted to the vivacious and sultry Saenz, for he also knew about "her important place in the revolutionary movement" (Von Hagen 37). They immediately began a love affair: "Two revolutionaries exchanged their burning kisses" (44). But Bolivar was not about to lose himself entirely in a single affair with a single woman: "Manuela was mere woman, and he was after bigger game; he was out t
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