of the city. A negress, who had nursed him in his infancy, came to see her boy Facundo. He seated her by his side and conversed affectionately with her, while the priests and dignitaries of the city stood unaccosted, the chief not even deigning to dismiss them.
The Catholics must have been somewhat doubtful of the importance and divinity of the aid which came to them in such an unexpected form. A few days after, learning that the Curé of the Conception was in favor of free worship, Facundo caused him to be arrested, thrown into prison, and sentenced to death. My Chilian readers must know that there were in San Juan at this time, priests, curés, and monks, who believed in freedom of conscience, and belonged to the party of the President. Among others the presbyter Centeno, well-known in Santiago, together with six others, was very zealous in the ecclesiastical reform. But something must be done in the cause of religion, to justify the device of the flag. With this laudable aim, Facundo wrote to a priest of his party, asking his advice about the resolution he had formed to shoot all the city authorities for not having decreed the restitution of the secular revenues of the clergy.
The good priest, who had not foreseen the consequences of arming crime in the name of God, felt some scruple about such a mode of reparation, and advised that the officials should be commanded to make the necessary decrees.
Was there any real question of religion in the Argentine Republic? I should deny it utterly if I did not know that the more barbarous and irreligious a people is, the more liable it is to prejudice and fanaticism.
