Page:Civilization and barbarism (1868).djvu/207

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GENERAL PAZ.
163

martyrs! Thou hast faith. Faith has saved thee, and in thee is the only hope of the Republic.

There is certainly a destiny about this man. He alone, in the ill-advised revolution of the first of December, was able to justify it by victory. Taken at last from the head of his army by the irresistible power of the gaucho, he was kept ten years in prison, Rosas, even, not daring to kill him, as if a guardian angel watched over his life. He escaped almost miraculously one stormy night, and through the rough waters of the La Plata, reached the eastern bank. Repulsed at one place, and disappointed at another, he at last obtained command of the few remaining forces of a province which had seen three armies successively destroyed. From such remnants he again gathered with much care and patience means of resistance, and when the armies of Rosas had triumphed everywhere, and carried terror throughout the Republic, the one-armed general called aloud from the marshes of Caguazú, "The Republic still lives!" Afterwards, despoiled of his laurels by those he had served, and ignominiously taken from the head of his army, he sought refuge among his enemies in Entre Rios, where the very elements seemed to protect him, and even the gauchos of the forest Montiel did not have it in their hearts to kill the one-armed man who harmed no one. At last he reached Montevideo, and learned that Ribera had been defeated, probably because he was not there to take the enemy in his own snares. The whole city was in consternation, and hurried to the poor lodging of the fugitive to beg for advice and comfort. "If I can only have twenty days, they will not take