STANDING ALONE
Weeks passed, busy weeks for Marcelino Ponce de Leon. Every morning at
cockcrow the reveillé sounded at the Chacra de Los Sauces, at sunrise
the recruits mustered, and the first six hours of the day were spent in
steady drill and in long marches. Marcelino had but a dozen muskets
which had been lent him by the commandant of the Guardia; a dozen men
were detached every hour for instruction in the manual exercise by the
sergeant, the rest were instructed in evolutions by Marcelino himself
and the corporals. The afternoons were spent by the negroes in the
manufacture of accoutrements, and in the routine work of the encampment;
at sundown they were paraded again, and sentinels were told off for the
night.
Under this discipline the negroes improved rapidly, lost their slouching
gait, and some of them showed such intelligence that in January
Marcelino selected sergeants and corporals from among them, and advanced
his four Spaniards to brevet rank as subaltern officers. Not a week
passed but he received some accession of strength by small drafts of
slaves from the estancias or chacras round about; at the end of January
he had 150 men. At this time he received a note from Don Gregorio Lopez
of the Barrancas, telling him that he was going to march his
newly-raised squadron inside for inspection by General Liniers, and
advising him to accompany him, as, if his recruits would bear
inspection, the Reconquistador would probably give him arms for them at
once.
* * * * *
It was the second week in February; Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon and his
wife Doña Constancia had a houseful of guests at their quinta. The paved
verandah round the house had resounded all day with the clanking of
sabres and the jingling of armed heels. The Reconquistador and his staff
had breakfasted with them that day at noon, after inspecting the cavalry
regiment from Las Barrancas and the negro recruits under the command of
Marcelino Ponce de Leon. Her military guests had done full justice to
the plentiful breakfast Doña Constancia had placed before them,
patriotic toasts had been honoured with enthusiasm, cheerfulness and
confidence had shone in every face.
The morning inspection had passed off very well, the cavalry had
performed some simple evolutions without getting into hopeless disorder;
the negroes, now fully armed and accoutred, had marched and wheeled with
a rapidity and precision which surprised the general, and had elicited
a warm eulogium from Major Belgrano of the Patricios, for whose opinion
the commandant of the negroes had a very high regard. All this was very
pleasing to Doña Constancia, but nevertheless, now that Liniers and his
staff had returned to town, and her remaining guests were chiefly
members of their own family, sitting at her ease under the front
verandah with her favourite son beside her, she was far from cheerful or
happy herself. She had cause for anxiety, one face that she had been
accustomed to see almost daily for more than twenty years she had not
seen to-day, nor for many days past, the face of her second son, Juan
Carlos.
Early in January a detachment of the Patricios had volunteered to
proceed to Monte Video to aid in the defence of that city against the
English. They had crossed the river too late to take part in the action
of the 20th January, in which the Spanish troops had been defeated by
Sir Samuel Auchmuty. Since then the city had been invested by land and
sea, and whether the Patricios were on their way back again, or whether
they had succeeded in entering the city, and now formed a portion of the
beleaguered garrison, was as yet unknown in Buenos Aires. Among these
volunteers had gone Juan Carlos Ponce de Leon with the rank of
lieutenant.
Mother and son found much to talk of, and they talked together sitting
side by side, till the long shadows of the trees had stretched
themselves right across the open space in front of the house, had
climbed up the white palings of the outer fence, shutting them out from
the sinking sun, and had then stretched on into infinity until they were
no longer shadows at all, but all was one general shadow, the shadow of
night. Others came and went in the verandah, some who had had a busy day
seating themselves there to rest their weary limbs, but presently
lounging away again to some room inside where they could rest yet more
at their ease. Others walked to and fro under the shade of the trees in
couples, blue smoke curling up from under the wide brims of their hats,
and as they themselves were lost to sight under the darkling shade of
the foliage, the fiery tips of their cigars yet gave evidence of their
presence. Among them Dolores flitted backwards and forwards, having
taken upon herself the care of their guests now that the more important
of them had gone, and so leaving her mother at liberty and at rest. She
was dressed in a white gossamer-like material bound together some few
inches below her shoulders by a broad scarlet ribbon, tied behind her in
a huge bow with two long streamers. The sleeves of her dress were very
short, not reaching down to her elbows, and were puffed out till they
looked like a pair of young balloons. Her round white arms were
uncovered, and on her head she wore a small straw hat, also adorned with
scarlet bows and streamers, of which hat she was very proud, only
wearing it on great occasions, for such a head-dress was rarely seen in
Buenos Aires at that time.
This review of the recruits raised by her uncle and brother had been a
great occasion for Dolores. During the inspection she had ridden at the
left hand of General Liniers in this her gala dress, with the addition
of a flowing mantle and gloves reaching up to her elbows. The general
had been very polite to her, treating her with great deference and
toasting her afterwards at the breakfast as the Queen of the day. In his
suite she had also found many other attentive cavaliers, who had found a
sure way to her smiles and good graces by lavishing encomiums upon her
brother and his negro troops. Among these cavaliers was one who seemed
to take almost as much pride as herself in the proficiency of the
negroes, but who looked somewhat contemptuously upon the cavalry,
Lieutenant Gordon, who was again her father's guest at the Quinta de
Ponce. To him General Liniers had been very cordial, and Major Belgrano
of the Patricios had ridden beside him all the morning, conversing with
him and listening attentively to all his critiques upon the movements
and bearing of the recruits. Major Belgrano had not returned to town
with the General and his staff, but had accepted Don Roderigo's
invitation to remain at the quinta until the following day.
Dolores had also had another cavalier in attendance who had enjoyed the
military display even more than she had done, her youngest brother
Evaristo, who was yet only fourteen years of age. Mounted on a pony, he
had galloped about all the morning, eagerly trying to make himself
useful, chiefly succeeding in being always in the way when any rapid
movement was performed, but invariably extricating himself with great
skill and presence of mind from his difficulties.
"They will ride over that boy presently," said Liniers to Dolores, on
one of the occasions. "Who is he?"
"He is my brother," replied Dolores.
Whereupon Liniers, calling the lad to him, complimented him upon his
horsemanship, and subdued and rewarded his enthusiasm by appointing him
an extra aide-de-camp, and keeping him beside himself till the
evolutions came to an end.
Lamps were lighted in the sala, the table was duly set out for dinner,
Marcelino and his mother yet sat side by side under the shade of the
wide verandah, when the galloping of horses was heard on the road
outside. As they reached the quinta gate the horsemen drew rein and
dismounted, they opened the gate and two walked up the winding path to
the verandah with the confidence of men who were no strangers there. As
they drew near one quickened his step and took off his hat as he set
foot on the brick pavement. One word only he said:
"Mamita!"
"Juan Carlos! my son!" exclaimed Doña Constancia, springing from her
chair and throwing herself into his arms.
At her cry many others came forward from inside and from under the
trees, and crowded round Juan Carlos, shaking him warmly by the hand or
embracing him, all of them asking him but one question:
"What news?"
"What matter the news?" said Doña Constancia; "I have my son again, let
me look at him."
She drew him into the sala, into the lamplight.
"You look pale, my son," said she, "and weary. These cursed wars! But
you are back again!"
"We have been very anxious about you, Juan Carlos," said Don Roderigo.
"Since the affair of the 20th January we could not tell what had become
of you. I am glad you have come back again, it would have been useless
to try to force your way into Monte Video."
"I went to Monte Video, father," answered Juan Carlos sadly, "and I have
come back again. That I am here at all I owe to----Ah! where is he? I
thought he had come with me."
He turned and looked out into the darkness. There, unnoticed by anyone,
leaning in an attitude of careless grace against one of the iron pillars
of the verandah, stood a tall man, with his hat thrust back from his
forehead, while an amused smile flitted over his sallow features,
lighting them up into a kind of stern beauty.
"Evaña!" exclaimed Marcelino, who was the first to recognise him, and
ran out at once to seize him by the hand and draw him forward.
"You are glad to see me again, mother," said Juan Carlos. "Then thank
him, for to him I probably owe my life, and certainly my escape from an
English prison."
"Don Carlos!" said Doña Constancia; "you are back? This is the second
time that you have been the one who has given me happiness when I was
anxious for my sons. Are you their guardian angel? God bless you for it,
I can only give you the thanks of a grateful mother."
"And that is reward sufficient, Señora," said Evaña, as he raised her
hand to his lips in courtly salutation. "But I fear that the news we
bring will not give equal pleasure to all of you."
"What of Monte Video?" asked Don Roderigo. "What has been done?"
Evaña turned away without answering, leaving Juan Carlos to answer for
him.
"You said you came from Monte Video; what has happened?" asked Marcelino
of his brother.
"Monte Video has fallen," answered Juan Carlos.
"How? The English have taken the city already!" exclaimed Don Roderigo.
"They opened a breach in the wall close to the sea, and stormed it under
the fire of their ships. We had blocked up the gap in the night before
the assault, and the defence was rude and cost them many men, but they
carried everything before them at the point of the bayonet."
"When was the assault?"
"At dawn on the third."
"And you had entered the city before that?"
"Yes, three days before. We were not at the breach, but were posted near
the citadel, and beat off a party that tried to scale the wall, but we
were cut off and surrounded by the English before we knew that they had
forced the breach. We fired on them, and they would have massacred us
but for Don Carlos, who kept them back, and ran in through our fire
waving a handkerchief. He told us that resistance was useless, as the
English had already captured the Plaza, and had all our positions in
reverse, so we surrendered."
"Then you were made prisoner," said Marcelino.
"Yes, but Don Carlos spoke for me, and they let me go on promising that
I would not serve against them any more in this war."
"And Sobremonte, what does he do?" asked Don Roderigo. "He had some
force collected not far off, and we expected that he would prevent the
English from attempting an assault."
"Sobremonte does nothing."
"And never will do anything," said Marcelino sullenly.
"How many men have the English?" asked Major Belgrano.
"About 5000," answered Juan Carlos.
"They have the city, but they have not yet the campaña," said Don
Gregorio Lopez, who had already sent off his recruits to their homes,
but who had remained himself at the quinta.
"The campaña, with Sobremonte to keep it, is the same as lost," said
Marcelino.
"Henceforward we can only look upon the Banda Oriental as a danger,"
said Major Belgrano. "The English have now secured themselves a footing
on American soil, that is all they seek in Monte Video, but the prize
they strike for is Buenos Aires. They will come, my friends, but this
time they will find us ready for them. Is it not so, Don Gregorio? Is it
not so, Marcelino?"
"It is," answered both together.
"Then courage, my friends," added Belgrano; "you have to-day shown us
that we have the raw material amongst ourselves of an efficient army. I
have wished to take our militia from their homes and embody them as
soldiers. I feel confident that this is the only way in which we can
hope to meet with success in a renewed struggle against these invaders,
but my counsels are set at naught, and my forebodings are treated with
derision. The Reconquistador is a man of experience and shares my
opinions, but unfortunately he values his popularity too much to support
them. Aid me then, my friends, ere it be too late."
"I would aid you with pleasure if my aid could be of any service," said
Don Roderigo; "but the militia will not leave their homes and their
families until the enemy land."
"Leave such follies alone, that is what I counsel you, Don Manuel," said
Don Gregorio Lopez. "Among streets and houses your militia are all
right, but in the open camp they are worth nothing."
"The proper way to defend the city," said Belgrano, "is to meet the
invaders when they land, and not to let them see the city at all."
Don Gregorio and the major carried on the discussion for some time, but
no one else paid any further attention to the matter, crowding round
Juan Carlos as he told of his adventures since he had left Buenos Aires,
and questioning Evaña as to where he had been for months past, but not
pressing their questions, as he seemed little inclined to satisfy their
curiosity.
* * * * *
It was nearly midnight. Marcelino and his friend Don Carlos Evaña sat in
an inner room talking earnestly together, seated one on each side of a
small table, on which stood a shaded lamp. Both had been smoking, but
Marcelino had let his cigar go out, so absorbed was he in the subject on
which they conversed together.
"What are you two discussing?" said Major Belgrano, pausing as he passed
the open door in company with Don Gregorio Lopez; "you might be talking
treason, you look so solemn."
"Something very like treason, according to my friend here," answered
Evaña, stretching himself on his chair, and puffing a long jet of smoke
from his lips. "Come in; I should like to hear your opinion on the
subject, Major, and yours too, Don Gregorio."
"Say no more," said Marcelino, leaning over the table, and whispering to
him, "with my uncle there is danger in such ideas; he does not
understand you as I do."
"Danger!" replied Evaña laughing; "I should like all the world to listen
to me, my opinions are no secret. I see you in your ignorance rushing
headlong to destruction; I am no traitor, but a friend, when I try to
open your eyes to your danger. What do you say, Don Gregorio?"
"You are among friends here and may speak," replied Don Gregorio,
drawing forward a chair and seating himself; "but I know your opinions,
and I warn you that you run great danger if you show yourself in the
city."
"So will you run danger when you rush with your raw levies upon the
bayonets of the English."
"I shall do my duty."
"And I not less so. I have been to England, as I told you, and what I
foresaw has come to pass. The English are not a warlike people, but they
are very jealous of their military fame, and the affair of the 12th
August has raised a storm of indignation. I had interviews with several
members of the Government, and got the same answer from them all.
Whatever their private opinions may be, they are forced to yield to the
popular clamour, which demands the conquest of Buenos Aires in
satisfaction for the defeat of their General Beresford."
"And the people of Buenos Aires will deny this satisfaction to the
people of England," said Don Gregorio, fiercely striking the table with
his clenched fist. "We have defeated and made prisoner one Beresford;
let them send ten Beresfords, we will serve them all the same."
"Whatever harm they may yet do us, they have at least done us one
service," replied Evaña; "they have taught us our own strength. I know
and rejoice at it. Am I not also a Porteño of Buenos Aires? Shall I not
glory in the prowess of my own countrymen?"
"Well, it may be so. You are a Porteño and a fellow-countryman, but you
sympathise strangely with the enemies of our country. How is that?"
"Spain is our enemy, we have no other."
"And these English then are our friends! They come with their ships and
their cannon to break down our walls and to kill the best men amongst
us, as they killed Don Pancho Maciel, not a month ago, near Monte Video.
Frankly, of friendship of that kind I understand nothing."
"Don Pancho Maciel died in defence of the flag of our tyrants, many more
will die as he did if we continue to defend it. To you, Belgrano, I
appeal; you have more influence with the Patricios than any other, your
newly-organised militia has the destinies of our country in its hands.
Let them tear down that flaunting flag which waves at the fort, and put
our own flag in its place, then we can treat with the English and they
will be our friends."
"Our flag! We have no flag," replied Belgrano.
"We have none, but we can make one. The day we hoist our own flag we
declare our independence and achieve it."
"You deceive yourself, Evaña," said Belgrano; "the time has not yet
come. To tear down that flag now would be to kindle at once a civil war
amongst us, that flag alone it is that binds us together."
"Your own argument tells against you, Carlos," said Marcelino. "We are
the sons of Spaniards, the English people know no difference between us
and them. Whatever flag we fight under, they look upon us as enemies,
and will not be content till they have trampled us under their feet."
"We have more chance than we had last year," said Belgrano. "We have
8000 trained infantry in the capital, and the campaña will rise as one
man when the enemy lands."
"To say nothing of the slaves," said Evaña laughing. "How many of them
have you, Marcelino?"
"I have enough to commence with, and I have many promises of more
to-day."
"And not one of them has yet fired a musket. Can your Patricios yet fire
a musket without shutting their eyes, Belgrano?"
To this Major Belgrano did not answer, and Evaña continued:
"Give up this idea of a foolhardy resistance to an overwhelming force;
you are brave men, show that you are also wise, receive the English as
friends, and staunch friends you will find them. All their interests
drive them to a friendly alliance with us. There is time yet to organise
a provisional government of our own, there wants but one step more to
consolidate our independence, a separate treaty with the English."
As Evaña ceased the three others looked doubtfully at one another, his
words had made a deep impression upon them, for with two of them at
least their independence of Spain was second in importance in their eyes
only to their freedom from the enforced authority of Great Britain.
"Do you think the English commander would make a treaty with us, and
abstain from invading our country, if we had a government of our own?"
asked Belgrano.
"I doubt it much," said Don Gregorio.
"Nevertheless, the first step might be taken," said Marcelino. "After
this news from Monte Video it will not be difficult to persuade the
corporations to depose the Viceroy. Sobremonte has already not one
friend in the city."
"Well thought," said Belgrano, rising. "Of this we will speak more
to-morrow, and will consult with Don Roderigo."
* * * * *
"These ideas of yours are not so new to us as they were," said Marcelino
to Evaña, when they were again alone. "General Beresford and his
officers openly declare that the British Government would cordially
welcome an alliance with us if we would declare our independence of
Spain, but they may make peace with Spain any day and withdraw their
help from us. I can only see danger in such an alliance until we have
some solid organisation of our own."
"Do they mix freely with the citizens?" asked Evaña eagerly.
"They were for two months at liberty on parole," replied Marcelino; "but
they spoke so very openly that Liniers and the Cabildo took alarm;
Beresford and Pack and several others were arrested and sent to Lujan in
October, and most of the other officers have been sent into the
interior; fortunately Gordon has been all the time separate from the
rest, so we have been able to keep him with us. Several citizens were
also arrested on suspicion of treasonable designs, and until now there
they are, the most of them, in prison. It is fortunate that you have
been away all these months, or you would have most certainly been
imprisoned. We gave it out that you had gone to Paraguay, but you will
require to be very cautious."
* * * * *
The following morning Don Roderigo, Don Gregorio, Major Belgrano, and
Don Carlos Evaña, rode in together to the city. Before sundown the
latter had interviews with most of the principal native residents, and
with many Spaniards also. The result of his propaganda appeared on the
10th February, when the various corporations of which the actual
Government was composed assembled together and formally deposed the
Marquis de Sobremonte from his authority as Viceroy and took possession
of his seals and papers.
Thus Buenos Aires became for the time _de facto_ an independent
Commonwealth, but her Government ruled in the name of Spain, and one
only fear kept the heterogeneous members together, fear of the English.