78 MEMOIR OF COLONEL TUPPER.
knowing that their defection, as composing the finest battalion in the service, would prove fatal to the constitutional cause. Colonel Tupper, being quickly informed of the attempt, mounted his horse and gal- loped furiously to the barracks. He rushed in, and the difficulty of his situation will be easily con- ceived, — a foreigner opposed singly to a native of the highest present military and late civil rank, and beloved also by the soldiery, — but the result will best prove the attachment of his men towards him. Ad- dressing them in Spanish, he spoke briefly to this effect : ' ' Soldiers ! the captain general has led you to victory, — your colonel has also led you to victory ; whom do you obey, — your colonel or General Freire ?" The whole battalion instantaneously responded as one man, " We obey our colonel, — Viva el Coronel Tup- per !" and General Freire and his suite, among whom was Admiral Blanco, were happy to escape unhurt, the soldiers having, we believe, levelled their muskets at them. On their way to the barracks they were followed by a large mob, who attempted to force the gates, but on hearing Colonel Tupper order the guard to prime and load, the people, well knowing his resolute character, dispersed in a moment. This was quartered in the same barracks, and would have immediately followed the secession of No. 8. Freire, on his return home, was taunted by his wife with the baseness and inconsistency of his conduct on this occasion. Her family belonged to the constitutional party, and this beautiful young woman told her husband that the soldiers had acted like men of honor, and in her indignation she threw a plate on a marble table, whence it glanced off and shattered a
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