CHAPTER X.
CIVIL WAR.
What has become of Facundo in the mean time? At Tablada he had lost everything,—arms, officers, men, reputation; everything except rage and valor. Moral, governor of Rioja, taken aback by the news of this unlooked-for disaster, availed himself of a slight excuse for leaving the city, and from Sañogasta sent Quiroga a despatch offering him what assistance the province could afford. Before the expedition the friendship between this nominal governor and the all-powerful commander had somewhat cooled. Quiroga thought he had not had the full number of armed men that he considered due him from the result of the census, in addition to the troops already in the province, and which had come from Tucuman, San Juan, Catamarca, etc. And another circumstance strengthened the suspicions with which Quiroga regarded the governor. Sanogasta was the manorial residence of the Dorias Davilas, the enemies of the commander; and the governor, foreseeing what the suspicions of Facundo would deduce from the date of the despatch, dated it from Uanchin, a place about four leagues distant. But Quiroga knew that Moral was in Sañogasta, and all his doubts were confirmed. Fontanel and Barcena, two of Facundo's odious in-
