58 MEMOIR OF COLONEL TUPPER.
to whom I have so many and great obligations, was implicated with the rest. I was aware, however, that the faction was composed of bad and dangerous men, — moreover, that the provinces of Coquimbo and Con- ception would certainly support Freire, and therefore, that a civil war must be the result of the election in the city. 1 represented all this to Beauchef in the strongest terms ; I endeavoured to convince him that civil war must always be a losing game for foreign officers, — he, however, would not see it as I did, and I felt myself under the disagreeable necessity of taking the command of the regiment from him. This may appear strange, but it was easily effected. I called the officers together, and made them a spirited exhor- tation in my uncle Savery's style ; they all swore upon their drawn swords to support me to the last. I distributed thirty rounds of ball cartridge to each man, — of their love and confidence I had no doubt, — I believe they would follow me to perdition itself. All this was done at midnight. Beauchef soon after came into the barracks ; I made it evident to him that the corps was no longer under his orders ; I once again urged him not to ruin himself for ever, and he at last submitted to lead the battalion to the assistance of the director, and the whole business was quelled with the banishment of about twenty indivi- duals. Our corps being considered a crack one, other battalions were induced to follow the example we had set, and a counter revolution was in conse- quence effected without difficulty."
The commendation in the Representative we have not seen, but the Morning Chronicle in January, 1826, concluded an account of this political commo- tion in the following words : —
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