chafing within himself at his impotence to put a stop to such
disorderly assemblages, they would turn and shout after him as he went:
"Spain has fallen!"
Don Carlos Evaña, strolling through the streets of the city, heard these
shouts and smiled to himself:
"The day is at hand."
Marcelino Ponce de Leon, busy at his desk in the office of the
Consulado, heard these shouts, and passed his fingers through his curly,
black hair, saying resignedly:
"It is too late, America must be for Americans alone."
Don Manuel Belgrano, revising the proofs of his _Diario_, heard these
shouts, and turned over with his fingers the sheets of a series of fiery
articles he had received some days before, saying to himself:
"I might almost venture them now; they do but say what men now shout
aloud at the street corners."
Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon, in the quiet of his own study, heard these
shouts and said nothing, for his heart was heavy with a foreboding care.
To the Viceroy, surrounded by his guards and sentries, came these
shouts, and he shrugged his shoulders and thought nothing of them. To
him they were but as the utterance of a fact, and conveyed no warning.
"Spain has fallen!" said old men, joining hands together, and reading
each in the face of the other the realisation of a hope long deferred.
"Spain has fallen!" shouted men in the vigour of life, throwing back
their heads proudly, and striding through the streets of their own city,
treading the soil of their own country with a joyful sense of freedom.
"Spain has fallen!" shouted young men, as they saw the world opening up
before them with prospects of which their fathers had known nothing, and
who saw themselves the centre of proud hopes, as yet but dimly discerned
through the mists of the unknown future.
"Spain has fallen!" So throughout the great, straggling city was heard
the voice of the people, asking nothing, demanding nothing, proclaiming
only a fact known to all.
Yet was this voice both a warning and a menace to those who sought to
rule the people for their own ends. Buenos Aires had looked to Spain as
to a mother, yet in this voice there was no pity. Buenos Aires still
looked upon Spain as a tyrant, yet in this voice there was no fear.
The hatred of an enslaved people against their tyrants, the jealousy of
a dependent race against the race which has dominated over them for
centuries were both expressed in that one shout, which had in it nothing
of love, nothing of fear:
"Spain has fallen!"
BOOK VI
LIBERTY
PROLOGUE
The division of youth from manhood is marked by no fixed line
established by law or custom. To each youth there comes a day when,
without aid or counsel, he has to decide upon some important step which
shall influence the whole course of his future life. According to the
bias of his nature he ponders long upon this step, or he comes rapidly
to some decision. The day he so decides marks for him the end of his
youth, the commencement of his manhood.
When a youth so steps into manhood, he meet the world face to face, and
braces himself for the encounter. Hope, which is the dowry of youth,
attends upon him; he puts forth all his energies, never doubting of
success, and achieves that which is deemed impossible.
Buenos Aires, long impatient of Spanish tyranny, saw her tyrant
helpless; she saw a continent around her, groaning with the slavery of
centuries; she felt within herself the strength of a young nation, and
asked herself whether the task were not hers to give liberty to these
enslaved peoples, to achieve it for herself.
Long she pondered over this question, doubting within herself whether
the day were come. Having decided, with resolute hand she cast aside the
trammels which bound her, broke through the subterfuges of those who
still sought to impose upon her ignorance, and stood forth, free
herself, and the champion of freedom for all Spanish America.
As the sun, bursting through a veil of clouds, dissipates the mists of
the early morn, rousing men from the slumbers of night to the active
work of day, so Buenos Aires, bursting through the traditions of
centuries, dissipated for ever the mists of ignorance, under which
slumbered in ignoble servitude the colonies of Spain.
The sun of May, emblem of Buenos Aires, shone forth over the New World,
rousing enslaved peoples to the bold assertion of their rights as men.
In the struggle which followed, this emblem was ever in the fore-front
of the battle, the rallying-point of a band of heroes, whose swords
achieved the liberation of an entire continent.
Buenos Aires, free herself, became at once the apostle and champion of
freedom for all Spanish America.
CHAPTER I
HOW THE LAST TIE WAS BROKEN
Spain has fallen! These words echoed through the city from end to end,
but to the majority of men they were simply the proclamation of an
acknowledged fact, an outburst of that jealousy of Spain, that
fretfulness of Spanish domination, which had for years been growing up
in Buenos Aires. But there was a minority in Buenos Aires, a minority
ever increasing, a minority of men of cultivated minds, of men of
far-seeing intelligence; to these men these words taught a lesson, in
them they inspired a hope.
At the head of this minority were Don Carlos Evaña, Don Marcelino Ponce
de Leon, and the other members of the secret committee. They consulted
among themselves, asking one another, "Has not the day come?" "What
shall we do?"
Then, true to their principle of keeping themselves as much as possible
in the background, they decided upon requesting Don Gregorio Lopez to
call again together a meeting of the chiefs of the militia and of the
leading citizens, and to propound to them these questions, to which they
themselves purposed to find an answer.
Yet March passed over and nothing was done, and all this time Don
Alfonso Miranda lay in prison, and his daughter, who was not allowed to
visit him, found shelter under the roof of Don Fausto Velasquez. Many
efforts were made by Don Fausto and by Don Gregorio Lopez to procure his
release, but in vain, and their enquiries as to the cause of his
detention were met by evasive answers. Then as they insisted that they
should at least have liberty to speak with him, the Viceroy referred
them to Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon.
Don Roderigo answered his father-in-law and Don Fausto with great
brevity, saying that he had long suspected Don Alfonso of treasonable
designs, and had only acted upon receipt of positive information.
"Have you discovered anything in his papers to criminate him?" asked Don
Fausto.
"Nothing. He either keeps his correspondence well concealed or has
destroyed it."
"Then upon what pretext do you keep him in prison?"
"His examination is not yet concluded," replied Don Roderigo.
"And you still refuse us permission to visit him?" said Don Fausto.
"I can allow him to have no communication with any one. In the present
excited state of the city it would be unsafe to permit him any chance of
communicating with his accomplices."
"I compliment you upon your policy," replied Don Fausto. "It may cause
the death of a harmless old man, and can only tend to increase the
popular excitement, of which you seem somewhat apprehensive."
"His daughter spoke to me of a black coffer which was discovered in his
room, and by which Don Alfonso seemed to set great store," said Don
Gregorio; "do you know what has become of it?"
"All his effects are in the hands of Major Asneiros, who had charge of
the examination of his papers," replied Don Roderigo.
"Asneiros has behaved like a brute," said Don Fausto.
"The Señor Asneiros has small sympathy for traitors," replied Don
Roderigo.
Don Gregorio and Don Fausto returned to the house of the latter
gentleman but little pleased with the result of their interview. In the
ante-sala they found Doña Josefina with Magdalen and Elisa Puyrredon; to
whom they recounted the ill-success of their errand.
"It is a barbarity," said Elisa Puyrredon. "Where are we going to stop?
Wait till my brother comes back. I cannot understand it at all."
"Nor I," said Doña Josefina. "This Asneiros has not come to see me for a
month, why do you not go to see him, Fausto? He will tell you more than
Don Roderigo. Magdalen says it is all owing to him that her father was
arrested, and he was so great a friend of Don Alfonso."
As Doña Josefina said this she looked sharply at Magdalen, who flushed
scarlet, and said:
"I do not think the Señor Asneiros was ever a friend to papa, he was a
spy."
"I know he did not go to the quinta so often to see Don Alfonso," said
Doña Josefina.
At this moment Marcelino Ponce de Leon walked in at the open door. His
entrance caused no surprise for he had been a frequent visitor at his
aunt's house for a month past, but Magdalen rose from her seat
immediately and left the room.
"She is always so," said Doña Josefina, shrugging her plump, white
shoulders. "If any gentleman pays her any attention, from that moment
she abhors him. I can remember when Marcelino and she were the best of
friends, now see how she treats him, she will not remain a minute in the
room if he comes in. Without doubt it has been the same with this
Asneiros, you heard how she spoke of him just now. He has resented her
treatment of him, we have the old man in prison, and the daughter----"
here came another shrug of the plump, white shoulders, then turning to
Marcelino she asked:
"Are all English girls like that, Marcelino? The Señor Gordon at any
rate knew how to behave himself."
"The Señor Gordon was as polished as a Porteño," said Elisa Puyrredon.
"You thought he was drowned, Marcelino, and never said a word of it for
so many months. But I saw you were triste about something."
"Where is he now?" asked Don Gregorio.
"He was on Marshal Beresford's staff," replied Marcelino; "but, as he
can talk Spanish, he says they have set him to drill the Portuguese,
from the idea that he can make them understand him."
"Well, Fausto, if you intend to see Don Ciriaco I think the sooner you
see him the better," said Doña Josefina.
"We will go at once," said Don Gregorio.
When the two elder gentleman had gone, Doña Josefina rose from her seat
and went through the folding-doors into the sala.
"You are triste yet," said Elisa Puyrredon, drawing her chair nearer to
Marcelino. "Have you some other sorrow than the supposed loss of your
friend? You might tell me."
"Think you it is no sorrow to me to see that when my father has the
power he is a tyrant, the same as any other Spaniard? In this
imprisonment of Don Alfonso he has committed a great injustice. I have
been told that years ago this Don Alfonso did him some injury; now that
he can he revenges himself, like a Spaniard. I thought him both too
good-hearted and too politic to have taken such a false step in times so
critical as the present."
"You take great interest in all that concerns Don Alfonso?"
"I think of my father and do not like to hear him accused of tyranny,
and to be able to say no word in his defence."
"Magdalen is very unhappy. Have you no sorrow for her. As Doña Josefina
said just now, once you were the best of friends together."
"Naturally I am sorry for her, I have done all I can for Don Alfonso for
her sake."
"What have you done?"
"I have used all my influence with Asneiros, who has the charge of
examining Don Alfonso's papers, to prevail upon him to declare at once
what he has found. But he refuses to examine them and says he has simply
sealed them up until further orders."
"Have you not spoken to Don Roderigo?"
"How can I go to my father and accuse him to his face of injustice?"
"I thought that when men loved they would dare anything, even the anger
of their father, for the sake of the one they loved."
"But if that love is slighted, and thrown aside as a thing of no value,
why should I risk what is next in value to me for the sake of what is
lost?"
"Are you sure it is lost? I have heard say that when a girl once loves
she loves for ever. You once thought that you were loved."
"I more than thought so, I was sure of it. I have been told that girls
easily love and easily forget. It is their nature to love some things,
but it is very little matter to them what they love."
"You heretic! You never deserve that any one should love you, never."
"I do not care now if no one ever does love me. I am content with such
love as I have. I love my mother and Lola, and I would give my life to
preserve to its end my love and respect for my father."
"Don't tell me that, I know better. The love of father and mother and
sister is never enough for any man. A man is not a man until he have
some other love."
"And if he win another love, such a love as he dreamed about, such a
love as would make his life complete, only to lose it, what then?"
"The grave," said Elisa, in a very solemn voice, then bursting into a
merry laugh she clapped her hands. "Mi Dios!" she exclaimed, "you have
the face of a hero of tragedy."
"You have never loved or you would not laugh at me," said Marcelino.
"I never loved! I have been in love fifty times. Why the first time I
ever met that Asneiros I fell in love with him at once. He was dressed
in a gorgeous coat of crimson velvet, and had diamond buckles in his
shoes; it was those buckles that captured me, the first glance at them."
Again she laughed, and this time Marcelino laughed with her.
"But I can tell you one thing I should not like," she said, after a
pause; "if I were very much in love with anyone I should not like to see
him _very_ friendly with some one very much prettier than I am."
"You need never fear that. Most men say that there is no one in Buenos
Aires prettier than you are."
"Traitor! Is not the girl you love fairer to you than any one else in
the world?"
"Dearer, yes. But beauty is to be admired, not loved. It is not
essential to love that the loved one be beautiful."
"Yet the loved one is always fair?"
"Always."
"Even when she turns her back upon you and leaves you and smiles on some
one else?"
"Even then."
"Then I retract my statement that I have been in love fifty times. I
suppose I have never been in love, not even with the Señor Don Ciriaco
Asneiros. I could never forgive a lover who was rude to me and had
smiles for some one else--never."
"The love of women differs from that of men, it is more exacting," said
Marcelino.
"I suppose it is," said Elisa, with something of weariness in her tone.
"You and I have been always very good friends, do you know that there
are people who say that there is more than friendship between us?"
"What matters it what people say?"
"Nothing to us, but if any one has said so to Magdalen it may matter
much to her." Then Elisa looked down confusedly, twining her fingers
together, and with a flush on her fair face.
Marcelino rose from his chair and went into the sala where Doña Josefina
was sitting out of sight, but within hearing of them.
"Aunt," said he, sitting down beside her, "was there any truth in what
you told me, that Magdalen was going to marry Don Ciriaco?"
"I thought there was," replied Doña Josefina quietly. "I know Don
Alfonso wished it, but Magdalen tells me it is quite false, and now I
suppose it is impossible."
Marcelino remained talking with his aunt and Elisa Puyrredon for nearly
an hour, when Don Fausto returned alone, saying that Don Ciriaco
Asneiros could give them no help or information whatever, alleging that
he was merely acting under orders and knew nothing of the cause of the
arrest of Don Alfonso.
"You will speak to your father now, will you not?" said Elisa Puyrredon
to Marcelino, as he took up his hat to go.
"I am going at once," asked Marcelino.
"At last I shall believe that there are some men who know how to love,"
said she to him in a whisper.
* * * * *
It was late in the afternoon when Marcelino reached his father's house.
Don Roderigo had left half an hour before for the quinta, where the
family were then staying. He ordered his horse to be saddled and sent
after him to the house of Don Carlos Evaña, whither he proceeded on
foot. He found Don Carlos in his study, his table covered with sheets of
manuscript which he was revising. Marcelino took up some of these sheets
and glanced over them.
"If Don Ciriaco Asneiros still wants proofs of treason, you had better
send him a few of these, Carlos," said he.
"Treason, you say," replied Evaña, "wait a month or two and you will
call them patriotic."
"So soon?"
"For what are we to wait? Everything is now ready, it wants but a spark
and the mine explodes."
"Is this the spark?"
"Scarcely so. This is the wind to keep the spark from going out."
"You seem to have done enough for to-day, a gallop would do you good. I
want you to help me with my father as I helped you with Asneiros."
"You want him to set Don Alfonso at liberty. I tell you he will refuse."
"I hope not, it is a gross injustice."
"Then Don Roderigo is at the quinta?"
"Yes, and I had rather see him there than in the city. He will not like
my interference, and may say things which I should be sorry if any but
ourselves were to hear."
* * * * *
Two hours afterwards Don Roderigo was seated in his sala at the quinta,
his face was flushed, as though something had angered him. Near him sat
Don Carlos Evaña with a quiet smile playing upon his lips. Marcelino
stood leaning against the window frame, evidently suffering bitterly
from some disappointment. Doña Constancia entered the room, and seeing
the sorrow in her son's face walked up to him.
"Do you know, Constancia, what has brought these two young men out here
this evening?" said Don Roderigo.
"They have come to see us, I suppose," answered the lady. "Don Carlos
has been quite a stranger lately."
"Not at all; they have come to ask me to set that traitor Miranda at
liberty."
"I can excuse Marcelino for that," said Doña Constancia. "Don Alfonso
was very good to him when he was wounded."
"Don Alfonso is a physician, and found good practice in his broken ribs.
He was well paid for his trouble."
"I did not know that you paid him," said Marcelino; "he refused any
acknowledgment from me."
"You cannot think that I would accept a favour from a man like him. I
can assure you he was ready enough to take my gold."
"I have no doubt he deserves his imprisonment or the Viceroy would not
have put him in prison, so do not trouble yourself any more about him,
Marcelino," said Doña Constancia.
"It is not about him that I trouble myself," replied Marcelino. "If he
were justly imprisoned I would not say a word for him, but we have made
enquiries and can hear of no accusation having been brought against him,
merely suspicions. And men say----!"
"Who are _we_ that have made those enquiries?" asked Don Roderigo.
"My grandfather and Don Fausto as well as myself."
"They were with me to-day. In future you had better leave such enquiries
to them."
"But, father, have not you heard how people talk about it all over the
city? It has brought discredit upon the Viceroy, and upon all those who
act with him. We all thought that the days of arbitrary imprisonments
were gone by."
"What matters it what the mob says? You may be sure that the Viceroy has
good reasons for what he does."
"Then why does he not bring him to trial? Why does he say that he does
not know anything of the charges against him, and refer those who ask
him to you?"
"I have given you my answer, and I request that you never mention the
man's name to me again." So saying Don Roderigo rose from his chair and
left the room.
As Don Roderigo left the room by one door Dolores entered it by another.
"What is to do?" said she. "Papa looked quite angry."
"There is this to do, my sister," said Marcelino; "that the cause of
Spain is lost in America. There are many of us Creoles who would have
gladly joined the Spaniards in raising up in America a new kingdom for
King Ferdinand now that the French have taken his old one, but we demand
equal rights and equal laws for all, and the best of the Spaniards will
not yield that. There is one law for Spaniards and another law for
Americans."
"What nonsense you talk, Marcelino. King Ferdinand will soon win back
his own kingdom again."
"By the help of the English?" said Don Carlos.
"Yes, the English will help him. But what is it all about?" said
Dolores. "Papa was angry."
"Marcelino wanted him to ask the Viceroy to pardon Don Alfonso Miranda,
and to let him go," said Doña Constancia.
"No wonder then, that papa was angry. How could you think of making such
a request, Marcelino?"
"I did not ask for pardon, my sister, I asked only for justice."
"Justice! of course he will have justice, he will be well punished."
"For what, fair lady?" said Don Carlos.
"They would not put him in prison unless he deserved it. I am not a bit
sorry for him, but I am for Magdalen. Is she stopping yet with Aunt
Josefina?"
"Yes," said Don Carlos, "the poor girl has nowhere else to go to."
"And I suppose the Señor Asneiros goes there every day to see her?"
"He has not been near the house since she has been there."
"Then do you think it is all over between him and Magdalen?"
"There never was anything between them. Magdalen merely looked upon him
as a friend of her father's, but now she says that he only went to the
quinta to spy upon him."
"That is strange; but Aunt Josefina is always trying to get people
married who care nothing about each other. I thought it very strange
that Magdalen should care anything for a man like Major Asneiros."
"Then we shall have another laugh at Aunt Josefina, she is always making
mistakes of that sort, but she never tires of her amusement," said Doña
Constancia.
"I fear it will be no laughing matter for Don Alfonso," said Don Carlos.
"I will tell you what I will do," said Dolores, going up to Marcelino
and leaning upon his arm. "In a few days, I will ask papa to speak to
the Viceroy for Don Alfonso; but not yet, he is angry now, and no
wonder, when you talk to him about injustice."
* * * * *
Marcelino and Don Carlos remained that night at the quinta, the next
morning, as they rode together to the city, Marcelino said to his
friend:
"You think, then, that our errand has been successful?"
"I think it has," said Evaña. "Don Roderigo will yield to the prayer of
his daughter what he refused when you asked for justice."
"From my father I hoped better things than that."
"Do not blame Don Roderigo, it is the Spanish system which makes such
things possible. Unlimited power debases not only those who are subject
to it, but quite as much, or even more so, those who exercise it. A few
years of such power as he has at present, would change your father from
a most liberal-minded man to a despot."
"We can only put an end to this system by establishing a government of
our own," said Marcelino.
"Then let us do it at once. For what are we waiting? The people and the
troops all anticipate a change, they wait only for the leaders to give
the signal."
CHAPTER II
HOW DON GREGORIO LOPEZ FOR THE THIRD TIME SOUGHT AN ANSWER TO THE
QUESTION OF THE DAY
Spain has fallen, but that made no difference to Buenos Aires, all was
apparently as it had ever been, Spaniards were the lords, Americans were
but vassals born to do their will. Yet in one respect all was not as it
had been, the troops who upheld the power of the Spaniards were no
longer Spaniards also, they were Americans.
Then was seen the anomaly of a small handful of men ruling over an
immense country, whose power was based neither upon the will of the
people nor upon brute force. Neither was there any external power upon
which they might fall back were their authority disputed, their power
rested solely upon an old tradition. They were men born in the Old
World, who upon this accident of birth based their claim to rule in the
New.
Again Marcelino Ponce de Leon urged upon his grandfather that he should
call together a meeting of the principal citizens, and ask them this
question which was in the mouths of every one:
"What shall we do?"
* * * * *
It was a calm night in April, when men, singly or in couples, wended
their way through the streets of the city as they had done on two former
occasions, and sought the house of Don Gregorio Lopez:
One password, "Libertad," admitted them to the house and to the large
inner room.
Valentin Lopez y Viana, who had a list of those who had been invited,
and who had accosted each man on his entrance, announced to his father
that all were present, whereupon Don Gregorio took his place at the head
of the table, and when his guests had arranged themselves round the
room, rose to his feet and spoke:
"Señores," said he, "the question which I have invited you here this
evening to discuss, is one which occupies the minds of all. We have no
king, for our king is in a French prison; we have no longer a
mother-country, the fall of Spain has been proclaimed aloud in our
streets. How, then, shall we submit any longer to be ruled by a handful
of Spaniards, who derive their authority from a power which no longer
exists? We in no way disown our allegiance to Ferdinand our king, if we
assert our right to provide ourselves for the government of the country
until such time as he may be able to re-assume his authority over us.
"Señores, the idea of choosing from amongst ourselves the men who shall
rule over us is now no novelty amongst us. Spain herself has set us the
example. What we demand is a Junta. Among us there can be no question of
our right to demand a Junta, the question I propose to you is this":
"Has the day come for us to demand the appointment of this Junta?"
"Yes, yes!" shouted several of the younger men, as Don Gregorio paused
and looked round him.
"A Junta! a Junta! we are free," shouted the others.
Then rose up Don Carlos Evaña from the chair on which he was seated,
half way down the room.
"Junta! Junta! like that of Spain," said he. "We are a free people,
therefore we must take example from a people who are not free, and must
have a Junta to rule over us.
"What are these words that I hear? Have we not suffered long enough from
the tyranny of Spain? Are we yet, when we cast from us the domination of
Spain, to set her up before us as an example? Why should we take Spain
as our example. We are a free people and demand a government of our own,
but why look to Spain for a form of government suited to a free people.
The history of the whole world is open before us, there we may learn how
in ancient days free men have chosen their own rulers, and have been at
once victorious abroad and prosperous at home. Let us not look to Spain
for any guidance in the path before us, the example of Spain can be
nothing more than a warning to us. Neither need we look far back into
the history of the world for an example we may follow; in our own days a
great people has risen against its oppressors, has stood forth as the
champion of freedom to an entire continent, has fought unaided against
the united strength of many despots, has triumphed over them and has
given liberty to a multitude of peoples. France, emulating the most
glorious days of Greece and Rome, freed herself from tyranny, and, as a
Republic, gave to all the world an example of heroism such as even her
enemies were fain to regard with admiration.
"Señores, let us talk no more of a Junta like that of Spain, or of a
king, but let us concert measures for calling together a representative
assembly of the people, and for proclaiming at once the Argentine
republic."
Opposite to Don Carlos Evaña sat Don Cornelio Saavedra, a handsome man
with somewhat stern features, dressed in an old-fashioned uniform, and
wearing his hair combed back and united in one broad plait which fell on
to his shoulders, which style of dressing the hair was _de rigueur_ in
the regiment of the Patricios, of which he was commandant. His face
flushed with anger, and as the speaker sat down he made as though he
would rise at once, but Don Fausto Velasquez, who sat next to him, laid
his hand upon his arm, saying to him:
"Cosas de Evaña! What matters it?"
Then several spoke one after the other, some saying a few words without
rising to their feet, others interrupting those who spoke with
contradictions, and there was much confusion. At length Don Gregorio
Lopez leaned over and whispered to Don Manuel Belgrano:
"Speak you something, to you they will listen."
Then Belgrano stood up and there was silence.
"Señores," said he, "the idea of an Argentine Republic seems new to many
of you, to others of us it is not new. We have thought of it years ago,
but we thought of it then and we think of it now as a possibility, which
may be considered of at some date far in the future. It is not for the
consideration of any such matter that we have been invited to meet
together this evening. We look upon ourselves already as a free people,
while our present government is composed entirely of Spaniards, who are
responsible to no one. The means of putting an end to this anomaly in
the government of a free people is obvious and being of Spanish origin
will therefore be the more readily adopted by us; the appointment of a
Junta of government, and the immediate abolition of the viceregal power.
A Junta may not be the most perfect form of government, but it is the
form which we can adopt at once, and which will secure to us opportunity
for the full discussion of plans for some superior form of government."
The words of Don Manuel Belgrano, spoken calmly and deliberately,
soothed at once the excitement which had been produced by the speech of
Don Carlos Evaña; as he resumed his seat Don Marcelino Ponce de Leon
rose.
"Señores," said he, "the only measure which is possible for us as an
immediate step, is the substitution of a Junta named by the people for a
Viceroy named by Spain; this I think even my friend Don Carlos Evaña
will admit. Now the question before us is, not whether we be ruled by a
Junta or an assembly, but whether we demand at once the resignation of
the Viceroy and the vesting of his powers in a Junta. Shall we demand
this at once, or shall we wait? If we must yet wait how much longer are
we to wait, and why?
"I say that the day has come, and that any longer delay in the assertion
of our rights expose each one of us to suffer from arbitrary acts
against which there is no appeal."
As Marcelino sat down he was warmly applauded, and many shouted:
"The day has come! The day has come! Junta! No more of an irresponsible
government. Down with the Viceroy!"
Then Don Cornelio Saavedra rose to his feet and there was instant
silence.
"Señores," he said, "it is not for us who are men of experience to give
heed to the dreams of an enthusiast; let us look upon the peculiar
circumstances in which we are placed with the sober eyes of mature
reason. We are colonists of Spain, we are loyal subjects of King
Ferdinand VII., but it very just that we should not obey irresponsible
rulers. If it were, as has been stated, a fact, that there exists no
power to whom our present rulers are responsible, I should immediately
concur with many here present in at once demanding the appointment of a
governing Junta. But such a power does exist; so long as the Central
Junta of Spain holds its position at Seville, the second city of Spain,
that Junta constitutes in the absence of the king, the legal government
of Spain and the Indies, and to its commands we, as loyal subjects of
King Ferdinand, are bound to submit. Some of you have cried out that
the day has come for the appointment of a Junta of our own; I tell you
that so long as the Central Junta maintains itself at Seville, Spain has
not fallen, and the day has not come. When the French force the passes
of the Sierra de la Morena, when a French army chases the Junta from
Seville, then Spain has fallen, then may we with justice demand a Junta
of our own, without violating our loyalty to our king. I pray to God
that that day may yet be far off, that it may never arrive, but if it
come then I will join you in demanding what will then be our right, a
Junta of our own."
Don Cornelio was listened to with deep attention, and when he sat down
men looked at each other, many seeming anxious to reply to him, more
looking towards Evaña, as though they expected him to speak. Then Don
Gregorio Lopez rose again.
"Señores," said he, "the question I have asked you has, I think, been
satisfactorily answered by Don Cornelio Saavedra. Let us do nothing
rashly; in so important a step as this we have discussed, it is of the
first importance that we be all united. By many of us the establishment
of a Junta of government may be looked upon as a first step only; be it
so, but let them join us to accomplish this first step, there will
afterwards be time enough to discuss what further steps the majority of
us may think necessary. Let us await with patience the day when Seville
shall fall into the power of the French, then we will look to Don
Cornelio for that powerful assistance which will make the establishment
of a governing Junta a matter of no difficulty whatever."
Don Juan Martin Puyrredon, who had returned from exile two days before,
had sat near to the head of the table all the evening without speaking.
As the door was thrown open, and the meeting commenced to disperse, he
crossed the room and remained for some minutes speaking in low tones to
Don Cornelio Saavedra, after which they left the house together.
Two days after this Don Juan Martin held another meeting in his own
house, to which none were invited save military officers, both native
and Spanish, above the rank of captain. To these he propounded the same
question which had been proposed by Don Gregorio Lopez and his friends.
The native officers were almost unanimous that the day was come for the
deposition of the Viceroy and the establishment of a Junta Gubernativa,
but many of the Spanish officers demurred, saying that they could see no
present necessity for so extreme a measure.
After much time had been expended in useless discussion, Don Cornelio
Saavedra rose and spoke to the same effect as he had spoken at the house
of Don Gregorio. His words carried weight with them, and his proposal
met with general acquiescence.
Throughout the city it soon became known that the principal citizens and
the military commandants, had agreed together that the fall of Seville
was to be the signal for the deposition of the Viceroy, and the
establishment of a Junta Gubernativa, which should rule in the name of
King Ferdinand over the whole Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires.
CHAPTER III
THE OPENING OF THE MONTH OF MAY
It was the first week in May, the family of Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon
had returned to the city, Dolores had come to spend the day with her
Aunt Josefina, and was sitting with her and Magdalen Miranda in the
ante-sala. The door opened, and in came Marcelino and Don Carlos Evaña.
Marcelino went at once to Magdalen and took her hand.
"I have come to bring you good news," he said, "Don Alfonso will be set
at liberty to-day. Don Fausto has gone with the order to the Cabildo."
"Thanks, thanks," said Magdalen. "Poor papa! at last!"
"Do not thank me, thank Lola."
"I knew papa could, if he would try," said Dolores. "The Viceroy will do
anything that papa asks him. I made him promise me last night; you know
I told you I would not rest until I had made him promise."
She could say no more, for Magdalen threw her arms round her neck,
kissing her, and the two girls wept together, speaking to each other
with many endearing words, till, becoming more composed, they sat hand
in hand beside each other, waiting; Magdalen listening with all her ears
for the sound of a footstep in the patio.
Half an hour they waited; then was heard the voice of Don Fausto.
Magdalen sprang from her chair, and ran out into the patio. An old, old
man, bowed with weakness, tottered towards her, leaning on the arm of
Don Fausto, so old, so bent, Magdalen could hardly believe her eyes.
With a cry she ran up to him, and threw her arms round him, it was her
father.
"Chica!" said Don Alfonso, straightening himself a little, but he said
no more, suffering himself to be led into the house and seated on a
chair, where he looked round him with a bewildered gaze, apparently deaf
to the welcome of Doña Josefina and to the congratulations of the
others.
Magdalen drew a stool to his feet and seated herself upon it, leaning
upon his knees.
"Papa, won't you speak to me?" she said. "You are free now, we will go
back to the quinta and you will soon be quite strong again."
Don Alfonso laid his hand upon her head and smiled at her, then looking
up with an anxious gaze at Don Fausto he said:
"And my coffer, where is it? Did not you tell me they would give me
everything back?"
"Yes, I have an order to Major Asneiros that he return to you everything
he took from the house on the night of your arrest."
"Give me the order," said Marcelino, "I will go and get them at once."
Don Fausto drew a folded paper from his pocket and gave it to Marcelino,
who immediately left the house. During his absence Don Alfonso still sat
in his chair with a vacant stare in his eyes, answering nothing to the
questions that were addressed to him, and resisting every effort of Doña
Josefina, who pressed him to eat something. Dolores placed a basin of
broth in his hands; mechanically he took the spoon and stirred it, but
put it away from him untasted.
Marcelino was not long absent. When his footstep was heard in the patio
Don Alfonso pushed his daughter from him, and rising to his feet walked
to the room door to meet him, with a firmer step than seemed possible
from his former gait. Marcelino had with him two peons, one of whom
carried a large package of books and papers, the other bore on his
shoulder a small black coffer, bound with brass bands and with a brass
lock. To one of the handles of this coffer hung a bunch of keys tied
with a string.
"Bring it in, bring it in," said Don Alfonso to the peon who carried the
coffer.
"Jesus! but it is heavy," said the man.
Then as he set it down roughly on the floor there came from it a
jingling sound as of pieces of metal striking against one another. At
this sound Don Alfonso's eyes sparkled, and he rubbed his hands
together; then, stooping, he took hold of the coffer by one of the
handles and tried to lift it, but it was too heavy for his wasted
strength.
"Yes, it is heavy, it is heavy," he said, chuckling strangely to himself
and again rubbing his hands together.
After this he took up the basin of broth which he had refused, and as he
supped it he commenced talking, but when they questioned him of the
lonely days he had spent in prison he shuddered and would answer
nothing.
In the afternoon, Don Fausto took Don Alfonso and Magdalen out again to
the quinta in his carriage, Don Alfonso insisting upon having the black
coffer placed inside and sitting with his feet upon it. He seemed to
have recovered strength surprisingly since the morning. Magdalen was in
great spirits at finding everything at the quinta in good order, and
that many needful repairs had been made during their absence, but she
did not then know that this was owing to Marcelino Ponce de Leon and Don
Carlos Evaña, one or other of whom had visited the place every day
during the imprisonment of Don Alfonso.
Don Fausto left them at sundown, feeling no anxiety for Don Alfonso,
whose prostration in the morning he attributed solely to the effects of
solitary confinement upon one who was accustomed to live much in the
open air.
Soon after dark Magdalen who was setting out her tea-things, was
startled by a shrill cry which came from her father's room. Running in
she could see nothing, there being no light in the room, but she could
hear a low moaning. She called aloud for her father, but there was no
answer. Attracted by her cries, the single maid-servant who lived in the
house with them came running with a lighted candle in her hand, to know
what was the cause of the alarm, then Magdalen saw her father stretched,
apparently lifeless, on the floor. Beside him stood the black coffer,
open and with the lid thrown back; on the floor lay a small hand-lamp,
broken; strewn about lay a number of silver coins, and under her
father's hand there lay something which had been wrapped in paper, but
from which the paper was partly torn away.
The two had great difficulty in raising Don Alfonso and laying him upon
his bed, and for long all their efforts to restore consciousness were in
vain. When at last he opened his eyes he gazed vacantly round him,
answering nothing to Magdalen's eager questions, till he saw the black
coffer which they had left untouched. Then he started up, and struggling
from their hands staggered to it, throwing himself upon his knees before
it, and groping with his hands inside of it. He pulled out handfuls of
silver coins, throwing them on the floor, and several packages wrapped
in paper, like the one Magdalen had noticed lying on the floor when she
had discovered her father's state. From each of these packages he tore
off the wrapper as he took it out and threw it from him. Each package as
it fell upon the floor gave a dull, heavy sound, as though it were a
block of lead. As he threw from him the last package, he started to his
feet, clutching his hair with both hands, and uttering a wild cry like
that which had brought Magdalen to him.
Then he burst out with foul curses and imprecations, grinding his teeth,
and stamping his feet in his rage, while Magdalen and the maid both
looked upon him in terror, thinking he had gone mad. When at last his
rage subsided, he clasped his hands together and bent over the coffer
once more.
"Not one! not one have they left me!" he exclaimed. "Fool that I was,
ever to let a Spaniard inside my house!"
With a hollow groan he fell forward over the coffer, striking his head
upon the floor. Again Magdalen and her maid lifted him up and laid him
upon his bed, where for hours he lay insensible, breathing heavily, and
when at last he began to speak it was in incoherent words, mingled with
curses, which made Magdalen shudder as she listened.
So the weary night wore through, and with the day came more efficient
help, but days and days passed ere Don Alfonso knew anything of what
went on about him, or recognised his daughter. These days were a fearful
trial to Magdalen, yet there was one who came to see her every day,
whose loving words strengthened her and encouraged her in her arduous
duty. Not a day passed that Marcelino Ponce de Leon did not sit with her
for at least an hour, by the bedside of her unconscious father, telling
her of all that was happening in those days, big with the destiny of a
young nation, seeking counsel and solace from her in the sore struggle
which was going on within himself. Years before he had thought of the
day when he must decide between his father and his country, he had
thought of it with trembling and dismay, and pondered long and anxiously
of how he might avert it. Now the day was come, his resolution was
fixed, yet it was none the less painful to him to array himself in
direct opposition to his father, that his resolve was the result of
mature deliberation.
Magdalen fully sympathised with him in his anxious wish, if it were yet
possible, so to arrange matters that Don Roderigo might yield a tardy
assent to a new order of affairs, and forget that he was a Spaniard for
the sake of his children, who were Americans. But as she listened to the
incoherent words and occasional curses which fell from the lips of her
own suffering father, her heart refused to let her counsel Marcelino to
give up one iota of what he considered his rights as a free-born citizen
of Buenos Aires, or to shrink from any duty, however painful, which the
assertion of those rights for himself and others might entail upon him.
And through all those days between those two there passed no word of
love, yet were their hearts open to one another, the most simple words
that all the world might hear, yet bore from one heart to the other a
message of love, the most common act of politeness became a caress.
* * * * *
A week after the return of Don Alfonso to the Miserere, Don Baltazar de
Cisneros, the Viceroy, gave audience in one of his private apartments,
to two in whom he placed great confidence, Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon
and Don Ciriaco Asneiros.
"I have brought the Señor Asneiros that he himself give you an account
of this affair," said Don Roderigo.
"You opened the coffer yourself?" said the Viceroy to the major. "What
was there in it?"
"Some few papers written in English which appeared to be bonds or
titles, about $400 in silver coins, and some heavy packets wrapped in
paper, what they were I did not look, I was searching for documents,"
replied Asneiros.
"And did no one but yourself examine the coffer?"
"No one. When I saw that there was nothing there of what I expected to
find, I relocked it, and kept the keys in my own possession, till I
received an order, signed by your Excellency, to deliver it and the
other articles I had brought from the Miserere."
"But with false keys any one might have opened the coffer in your
absence?"
In reply to this Asneiros merely shrugged his shoulders:
"And you did not open any of those heavy packages of which you speak?"
said Don Roderigo.
"I pricked them with my knife and found them all solid metal, but I did
not open one of them. They say now that they are ingots of lead, and
that the medico expected to find them of gold and has gone out of his
mind. There are men who will believe anything, and there are others who
will say and do anything to throw discredit upon a loyal Spaniard."
"It is a most unfortunate affair," said Don Roderigo. "The people are in
such an evil frame of mind at present that they lay upon us the blame
for any unfortunate accident that may befall."
"It were easy to cure them," said Asneiros.
"How?" asked the Viceroy.
"Shoot half a dozen men that I can point out to you."
"And bring on a revolution," said Don Roderigo.
"When men talk treason in their houses without hindrance, a revolution
is not far off," said Asneiros. "Your Excellency thinks the troops will
not support you, and whilst they are officered as they are at present
they will not, but shut the troops in their barracks, arrest all the
Creole officers, and commission me to raise a regiment for you, which I
can do in two days, and I assure you these citizens will think twice
before they will fight."
The Viceroy looked from one to the other irresolute. Asneiros was not
the first Spaniard who had warned him of danger, and had counselled
extreme measures of repression ere it was too late.
"There is at least one regiment upon which I can rely," said he.
"The Tijo," said Asneiros; "it is little better than a skeleton
regiment, but it would be easy to bring it up to the full complement,
and there is only one regiment from which there is any danger, the
Patricios. In the other regiments all you have to do is to change the
officers, and they will serve you as well as the Tijo. There are scores
of Spaniards unemployed, while these Creoles strut about the streets in
uniform as if the city were theirs."
"Any extreme measure will force them into revolt and then the city will
be theirs," said Don Roderigo. "Your Excellency would do well to shut
your ears to such counsel, our only chance lies in temporising. The
misfortunes of our country have excited the most extravagant hopes in
these insolent Creoles; as you know it has been actually proposed among
them to demand a Junta Gubernativa."
"That was the doing of your friend Don Juan Martin Puyrredon," said the
Viceroy. "It was false clemency on my part to listen to your request and
permit his return."
"I think not," said Don Roderigo; "he was not alone in proposing this
Junta, and it is better that if any such revolutionary measure be forced
upon us, we should have men such as he to treat with, and not men whose
heads are full of extravagant French ideas. There are men in the city
who look upon a Junta as only the first step to the establishment of a
republic."
"The people generally will not support them," said the Viceroy.
"At present they will not; but if we irritate them by measures of
repression they will commit any extravagance."
"But we must repress with severity any such idea as the establishment of
a Junta."
"Our best plan would be to forestall any popular demand by appointing a
Junta ourselves."
"They will want a Junta of Creoles."
"They will; therefore it would be wise to prevent all chance of their
demanding a Junta by appointing one ourselves. If we set up a Junta half
Spaniards and half Creoles, and appoint you President, all the moderate
men among the Creoles will side with us."
"Well, I will take the matter into consideration," replied the Viceroy;
"but I am not disposed even to yield so far as to appoint a mixed Junta,
until no other course is left to me."
"Your Excellency does not fully appreciate the danger."
"I see no necessity for any immediate action, but you will do me the
favour to advise me if you see symptoms of any increase in the popular
excitement."
"When all remedial measures will be too late," replied Don Roderigo;
then seeing the Viceroy indisposed to continue the colloquy, he took up
his hat, and with a low bow retired.
Don Ciriaco Asneiros lingered till he had seen Don Roderigo pass through
the first ante-room, then stepping up to the Viceroy he said to him in a
low voice:
"Do not alarm yourself, your Excellency, at the warnings of this worthy
gentleman. We all know him; though loyal, he is so intimately connected
with Creole families that at times he forgets that he is a Spaniard.
What want we with Creoles in a Junta, or a Junta at all? What we want
are troops, troops, good Spanish soldiers, upon whom we can depend, and
I assure you we will soon bring these Creoles to reason. When I told you
that I could raise you a regiment in two days I did not speak without
thinking, we Spaniards are tired of the insolence of these Creoles."
"You were not at that meeting at the house of the Señor Puyrredon?" said
the Viceroy.
"These Creoles know me too well to ask me to talk treason with them."
"If they had resolved upon anything, we should know it?"
"According to what I have heard, the resolution is postponed until there
come more certain news from Spain."
"Think you that this Puyrredon is a dangerous man?"
"Without doubt; but there are more dangerous. Whilst the Señor Evaña
lives in Buenos Aires your Excellency is always in danger of some
conspiracy."
"Evaña! But against him you have been unable to bring me any proof."
"Give me authority to arrest him and search his house."
"For the present there is no danger, this excitement will calm down,
when something positive occurs, there will be time enough for severe
measures." So saying the Viceroy bowed and dismissed the major, who left
him at once and walked away to his own house in deep thought.
In an inner room of this house Don Santiago Liniers, ex-Viceroy of
Buenos Aires and Marshal of the armies of Spain, walked restlessly up
and down. Don Baltazar de Cisneros had not dared to send him under
arrest to Spain in accordance with his instructions, but had exiled him
to the learned city of Cordova, where he considered that his popularity
would cease to be dangerous. Liniers, hearing of the excitement in
Buenos Aires, had returned in secret, proposing to offer his services to
the Viceroy for the preservation of the authority of Spain. Asneiros had
been commissioned by him to speak to Cisneros telling him of his
arrival, if he found him disposed to adopt stringent measures of
repression, but not otherwise.
As Asneiros entered the room Liniers paused in his walk, waiting for him
to speak.
"Don Baltazar will do nothing," said Asneiros. "Let us not think any
more of him, he is lost. Before many days we shall have a Junta of
Porteños."
"And this Evaña, can you do nothing against him?"
"Nothing. He has always the protection of your friend Don Roderigo. But
have no fear, he will fall with the rest."
"When? A Junta is a revolution, and he will be one of the chiefs. He is
a man of terrible energy and respects nothing."
"Without doubt he is our most dangerous enemy."
"Then you feel sure that we shall have a Junta?"
"Or something worse, and without troops what can we do? Don Baltazar
gives not the slightest attention to my offer."
"Then my journey here will result in nothing."
"Return to Cordova, it is the best thing you can do, but prepare at once
for a second reconquest of this Buenos Aires. Against a Junta of
Porteños it will be a very easy matter to stir up the Provinces."
"To Cordova then this night," said Liniers. "Adios! Buenos Aires; twice
have I saved you from foreigners, yet once more will I come to save you
from your own people."
CHAPTER IV
DIAS DE LA PATRIA
In January the French armies forced the passes of the Sierra de la
Morena, and poured like a deluge over the smiling plains of Andalusia,
sweeping everything before them. Cordova and Granada fell, and on the
1st February King Joseph, at the head of his triumphant army, marched
into the city of Seville.
Rumours of these events reached Buenos Aires in April, but till a month
later there arrived no certain information. On the 13th May full details
were received by a ship from Europe which anchored in the port of Monte
Video. On the 14th the news reached Buenos Aires.
Don Manuel Belgrano had been for a fortnight absent from the city,
recruiting his strength and refreshing his jaded energies in quiet
solitude at a quinta he possessed at the little town of San Isidro,
which stands on the banks of the river about five leagues north of
Buenos Aires, leaving the _Diario_ in the care of Marcelino Ponce de
Leon. On the afternoon of the 14th he received a letter from Marcelino.
"Come at once, we have need of you. The moment has arrived to work for
the Patria, and to achieve our longed-for liberty and independence."
Before nightfall Don Manuel was again in the city. A meeting of the
secret committee was at once convened, not one of the brotherhood was
absent, long and earnestly they discussed the measures they should
adopt. The proposition of Don Carlos Evaña to appoint a committee of
public safety with absolute powers, and to proclaim a Republic, was
overruled. It was determined to call upon the Ayuntamiento of the city
to appoint a Junta, elected in "Cabildo Abierto," which should unite the
powers of the various corporations; that this Junta should invite the
concurrence of each Province of the Viceroyalty for the purpose of
assembling a Congress which should decide upon the future of the
country; and that for the prevention of any attempt to oppose the
authority of the Junta the first act of this body should be to despatch
an army into the interior, the commander of which should be invested
with ample power for the repression of any hostile movement.
* * * * *
For three days the city was in a state of great agitation; Spain had
fallen, the colonies of Spain were free.
"What shall be done?"
"What authority shall take the place of that which exists no longer?"
Every man asked these questions of himself, and of his neighbour, and
the members of the secret committee, spreading themselves through the
city, did all in their power to increase the general excitement, and to
prepare the way for such answers to these questions as should secure for
ever the liberties of Buenos Aires.
Again the Viceroy sought the counsel of Don Roderigo, repenting him that
he had not followed his advice, and prepared beforehand an answer to
these questions which convulsed the city. In accordance with his present
advice he now published a fly-sheet giving in detail an account of all
the recent events of Spain, which he followed up on the 18th by a
proclamation, recommending the people for their own sake to preserve
order and union, until such time as he, in concert with the other
Viceroys of Spain in South America, might adopt such measures as were
requisite for the public well-being, and for the due preservation of the
royal authority in America.
That same day, the 18th May, Don Cornelio Saavedra and Don Manuel
Belgrano applied to the Ayuntamiento in the name of the citizens that
they should:
"Without delay convene a Cabildo Abierto, so that by a general assembly
of the people it might be determined whether the Viceroy should resign
his powers into the hands of a Junta of government for the better
security of the public weal."
On the night of the 19th the Viceroy called together all the commandants
of the troops quartered in the city, both Spaniards and native, and
announced to them that he depended upon them to put a stop to this
demand for a Cabildo Abierto, and to maintain his authority. To this Don
Cornelio Saavedra replied:
"Your Excellency cannot count upon me nor upon the Patricios for that
purpose. Our future and that of America is in question, and we do not
consider it secure in your hands. The time has come for your Excellency
to resign your authority; the source of that authority no longer exists,
therefore it also has ended."
With one exception all the officers present supported Don Cornelio, and
the deposition of the Viceroy was thus virtually achieved.
During these days of excitement the secret committee had admitted
several new members to their counsels. On the night of the 20th they
issued orders to the native troops to remain in their barracks in
readiness for any emergency. The troops obeyed, as though the committee
were some recognised authority. At the same time they resolved that two
of their number should wait upon the Viceroy, and notify to him that his
authority had ceased. Dr Don Juan Jose Castelli and Comandante Don
Martin Rodriguez were chosen for this perilous mission.
The fort was that night garrisoned by a grenadier corps of native
troops, the officers of which were for the most part Spaniards. With the
two envoys went Comandante Terrada, who, entering the fort with them,
took command of the grenadiers. Without sending forward to announce
their visit, the envoys proceeded straight to the private apartments of
the Viceroy, who, far from expecting any such visitors was playing cards
with some friends. Castelli spoke first;
"Most excellent sir," said he, "it is our painful duty to announce to
you, that we come in the name of the people and of the army to notify to
your Excellency that your authority as Viceroy has ceased."
These words caused the greatest consternation among those present, but
Cisneros started angrily to his feet.
"What insolence is this?" said he to Castelli; "how dare you insult thus
the King in the person of his representative? This is the foulest
outrage you could commit against his authority."
"There is no need for anger, your Excellency," replied Castelli with
perfect calmness; "there is no alternative."
"Señor, they have given us five minutes in which to return with your
answer. Your Excellency would do well to think carefully what you do,"
said Don Martin Rodriguez.
Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon, who was one of those present, drew the
Viceroy with him into an adjoining room, whence the latter soon
returned.
"Señores," said he to the envoys, "I deeply lament the evils which will
fall upon this country in consequence of the step you have taken. But if
the people cease to respect me, and the army abandon me, pues! do what
you will."[12]
Next day, the 21st, the Cabildo applied to the Viceroy for authority to:
"Convene a meeting of well-disposed citizens, who in public congress may
give expression to the will of the people, so as to put an end to this
state of dangerous excitement."
The Viceroy gave the needful permission, and the Cabildo, composed half
of Spaniards and half natives invited between four and five hundred of
the leading citizens to meet the next morning in the saloons of the
Cabildo.
On the 22nd, at nine o'clock, the citizens commenced to assemble; more
than 250 accepted the invitation, while the Plaza Mayor and the
approaches to it were filled with dense crowds of people, a detachment
of troops being stationed at each corner to preserve order.
The place where this memorable assembly was convened, was a large saloon
in the upper story of the Cabildo, to-day occupied by the Tribunals of
Justice. Long straight-backed forms, borrowed from the churches, were
arranged in lines down this saloon from end to end. At the head of the
room was placed a large table covered with a crimson cloth, round which
were seated in arm-chairs the bishops, the members of the Ayuntamiento
and Cabildo, and other public functionaries, who presided over the
meeting.
The discussion was opened by the following address from the Cabildo:
"Faithful and generous people of Buenos Aires, you are now met together,
speak then with all freedom, but with the dignity which is natural to
you, showing yourselves a wise, noble, docile, and generous people."
In this meeting three parties were represented. One, headed by the
bishop and the Spanish employés, desired the continuance of the Viceroy
in his office; the second, which included many Spaniards, such as Don
Roderigo Ponce de Leon, who preferred measures of conciliation, desired
to invest the higher powers in the Cabildo, until such time as a
provisional government might be organised, which should rule under the
supreme authority of the government of Spain; the third, which included
all the more ardent of the patriots, desired the deposition of the
Viceroy, and the establishment of a government chosen by the people.
Many speeches were made by the most distinguished orators of all
parties, the discussion and the voting on many different propositions
lasted all day, and the Cabildo clock sounded the midnight hour ere the
meeting broke up. The resolution which was at length adopted by a
majority of votes was proposed by Don Cornelio Saavedra, who was
supported by Belgrano, by all the more moderate among the patriots, and
by some of the Spaniards. It was as follows:
"The permanence of the Viceroy in his office and the continuance of the
present system of government being incompatible with public tranquility,
the Cabildo is hereby authorised to appoint a Junta in conformity with
the general ideas of the people and with present circumstances, which
shall exercise supreme authority until a meeting of deputies from the
other cities and towns of the Viceroyalty may be convened."
So terminated the first session of the first assembly of the Argentine
people.
From this assembly Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon walked rapidly away to the
fort, where the Viceroy had been for hours awaiting him.
"Then all is lost," said the Viceroy, as Don Roderigo read to him the
resolution of the assembly.
"By no means," replied Don Roderigo. "Everything remains in the hands of
the Cabildo, and I do not think it will be difficult to appoint a Junta
which will keep the power in our own hands. You cease to be Viceroy, we
will make you President of the Junta."
But as Don Roderigo walked away to his own house his heart was heavy
within him, not from sorrow only, but from anger. That day one of the
most violent speeches made at the assembly had been spoken by his own
son, and Don Carlos Evaña, from whom he had hoped for aid in
establishing a better order of affairs, though he had not spoken, had
been incessantly active all day among the most determined opponents of
Spanish rule, reconciling the varied opinions which prevailed among
them, and at length uniting them to vote for the resolution which was
carried.
The next day the sun shone gloriously upon an emancipated city. The
bright but not scorching beams of the sun of May, shone upon a people
who woke for the first time conscious that they were a people. In
deliberative assembly they had decided upon the future of their own
country, they had decided that they were no longer to be ruled by
foreigners, responsible only to a foreign court, but were to be ruled by
men chosen by themselves, by deputies from every city and town, by men
who, representing the people, should be the exponents of their will, and
should be responsible to the people alone.
The streets and public places were thronged with crowds of men, who
greeted each other joyously, looking with a friendly eye even upon the
Spaniards who passed among them, for Spaniards were no longer tyrants to
be dreaded, and might be with them citizens of a new nation.
The Cabildo met at an early hour, and deliberated long with closed
doors, hours passed and nothing was done, no new announcement was made
to satisfy the eagerness of the joyous people. The Viceroy still
occupied his official apartments at the fort, still the sentry paced to
and fro before his door, to all appearance he was Viceroy yet, and the
Junta was as yet but as a thing spoken of, as a thing which had no
existence. So the day wore on, and the joyousness of the people
disappeared and became impatience.
The secret committee had ceased to be a secret committee, its existence
was known to the whole city, men spoke of it as the "Revolutionary
Committee," and having none other to whom they might look, looked to the
members of this self-appointed committee as their leaders.
The meetings of the committee were no longer secret, many men of
influence among the townsmen joined them on the 23rd May, many of the
officers of the native regiments sought their advice on that day, and
proffered their services for the enforcement of their resolutions.
At the house of the Señor Rodriguez Peña the committee was assembled,
awaiting the announcement that the Cabildo had formally decreed the
deposition of the Viceroy, awaiting also with anxiety the list of the
members of the new Junta. No such announcement, no such list reached
them. The delay roused in them suspicion, as it had roused impatience in
the people.
But, dreading the effect of a popular commotion, they determined to do
all they could to allay the excitement of the people, and to demand from
the Cabildo the immediate carrying out of the resolution of the assembly
of the day previous.
Don Cornelio Saavedra and Don Manuel Belgrano were deputed to wait upon
the Cabildo, and the rest of the committee dispersed about the city,
where they soon calmed the agitation of the people and restored general
confidence.
As the brilliant sun which had shone upon the city throughout this
memorable day touched the western horizon, a company of the Patricios,
with drums beating before them and bayonets fixed, marched through the
streets, a guard of honour to a herald from the Cabildo, who at each
street-corner proclaimed in a loud voice that the power of the Viceroy
had ceased in the provinces of the Rio de la Plata, and that the
Cabildo, by the will of the people, took the supreme authority upon
itself.
The Cabildo met again early next morning, and, warned by their
experience of the day previous, proceeded at once to the election of the
members of the Junta. They decided that the Junta should consist of two
Spaniards and two natives, and should act under the presidency of Don
Baltazar de Cisneros, who should retain the command of the troops. The
two natives selected were Don Cornelio Saavedra and Dr Castelli. At the
same time they offered an amnesty to all who had taken part in
opposition to the authorities on the 22nd.
"Don Cornelio Saavedra, always inclined to avoid extremes, accepted in
good faith the decision of the Cabildo, and his vote drew with it that
of the other commanders of the troops, who pledged themselves to sustain
the authority so established by the Cabildo."[13]
The Junta was proclaimed amid the ringing of the church bells and the
thunder of the cannon, the colonial system of Spain was re-established
under a new form, and Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon, who had taken a
leading part in this arrangement, returned to his house triumphant,
doubting no longer of success; Spaniards were a majority in the Junta,
and the support of the troops was secured by the accession of Saavedra.
As Don Roderigo entered his sala he met Marcelino, who made way for him,
bowing his head in silence.
"Ah, my son!" said he, "we have seen nothing of each other for several
days, except at a distance. I congratulate you on your speech the other
day, it did you credit, but you see we have not yet arrived at the stage
when such ideas can be more than dreams."
"I think that if you will walk through the city you will see that they
are more than dreams already," replied Marcelino.
"Excuse me, I would rather not, it is raining steadily and there is a
most disagreeably cold wind."
"Yet the streets are thronged with people as though it were as fine as
yesterday. What, think you, is the reason that these people brave the
weather in the streets instead of seeking the shelter of their homes?"
"What matters it to me, the people?"
"I am afraid it matters less to you than I once thought and hoped."
"This people was almost in open mutiny yesterday, as we did not appoint
the Junta quick enough to please them. Now they have their Junta, what
more would they?"
"The people have been deceived and they know it. In the assembly on
Tuesday it was resolved by the great majority of votes that the power of
the Viceroy should cease, and that a Junta composed of men possessing
the confidence of the people should exercise his powers, until deputies
from the different cities and towns should meet to decide upon a new
form of government for the whole country. Don Baltazar de Cisneros is no
longer Viceroy, but he is President of the Junta, and Commander-in-chief
of the troops, which comes to the same thing. What confidence have the
people in such men as Salas and Inchaurregui? To give us such a Junta as
that is to invite a revolt."
Don Roderigo turned pale with anger, but ere he could speak in reply,
Dolores, who had listened in alarm to this altercation between two of
those whom she loved most in the world, ran up to him, and throwing her
arms round him drew him away.
"Papa! papa!" she said, "do not look so at Marcelino, he does not know
what he is saying. They have put quite strange ideas into his head in
that committee."
"You love him, Lola, and he is your brother, he makes me forget that he
is my son."
With this answer to his daughter Don Roderigo turned away, and Marcelino
left the room and the house, and walked hurriedly to the Plaza Mayor.
The wide causeway of Recoba Nueva was covered with groups of excited
men, other groups filled the roadway under the balconies of the Cabildo,
shouting loudly their demand that the Cabildo should cancel the decree
just published. Among these groups Marcelino walked, till he found Don
Carlos Evaña declaiming angrily to a number of young men, who were
collected round him, calling upon them to resist to the last extremity
this fraud which had been practised upon them by the Cabildo. Taking him
by the arm Marcelino drew him aside.
"Do not let us waste time in harangues in the streets," said he; "let us
first secure the troops, all the junior officers of every corps are with
us, through them we can secure the men, and even if Don Cornelio still
desert us, to-morrow we will upset this Junta by the bayonet, if no
other course is open to us."
Evaña agreed with him, and separating they went among the groups,
calming the excitement of the people by assuring them that next day they
would secure the appointment of another Junta, composed of men in whom
they might trust. Both of them were well known as prominent members of
the revolutionary committee; men hearkened to them, believed in their
assurance, and dispersed quietly to their homes. Before sundown the
Plaza Mayor was tranquil.
Marcelino and Evaña then went to the barracks of the Patricios, where
they found the troops under arms, and all the junior officers of the
regiment collected in the guard-room, debating whether they should not
at once march upon the fort and put an end by force to the authority of
Don Baltazar de Cisneros. The great majority were in favour of this step
and received Marcelino with shouts of welcome, calling upon him, as an
officer of higher rank than any there present, to put himself at their
head. Marcelino acceded to their request, but proposed the postponement
of any active step to the next day, as night was already closing in, and
it was necessary to concert measures with the rest of the native troops.
After some warm discussion, the young officers consented to wait until
Marcelino and Evaña could consult with the other members of the
revolutionary committee.
Meantime the committee, convened at the house of the Señor Rodriguez
Peña, also discussed the proceedings of the Cabildo with great warmth
and indignation. Opinions were divided, but the great majority were in
favour of an appeal to arms. As Marcelino and Evaña entered the room
where they were assembled, the Señor Peña was speaking, calmly
advocating the employment of all other means to procure the peaceful
resignation of the Viceroy.
"But if he will not resign?" said Evaña.
Don Manuel Belgrano, wearied out with the anxieties of several days, lay
on a sofa in an adjoining room; as Evaña repeated his question in a loud
voice, Don Manuel, who was dressed in uniform as a Major of the
Patricios, sprang from his sofa, and standing in the open doorway, his
face flushed with indignation, his eyes flashing, laid his hand upon the
hilt of his sword.
"I swear to my country and my comrades," he exclaimed, "that if by three
o'clock in the afternoon the Viceroy has not resigned we will cast him
out from the windows of the fort."
"Leave that to us, Don Manuel," said Marcelino, laying his hand upon the
shoulder of Valentin Lopez y Viana, who had come with him from the
barracks of the Patricios, and who with several other young officers
there present had grasped the hilts of their swords as Belgrano spoke.
"Leave that to us, the Patricios wait but the word and are ready to
storm the fort at once, if it appear to the committee that such a
measure is advisable."
There was great confusion and excitement as Marcelino told of what was
occurring at the barracks of the Patricios, but the committee had
already learned one thing, of which Marcelino was yet ignorant, which
was that Don Cornelio Saavedra had reconsidered his hasty acquiescence
in the decree of the Cabildo, and that they could count upon his support
to a "Representation," which they had resolved to present to the Cabildo
on the following day. Don Nicholas Rodriguez Peña had with some
difficulty succeeded in calming the excitement, and proposed that they
should send a deputation to the Patricios, informing them of the change
in the ideas of their commandant, and asking for their support to the
"Representation."
This proposal was agreed to; two members of the committee left at once
for the barracks of the Patricios, where they arranged that the men
should remain in the barracks all night, and that the entire regiment
should be under arms next day, at an early hour, in readiness to support
the people in case the Cabildo refused to listen to their demands.
After the departure of this deputation most of the members of the
committee retired to their homes to recruit their strength for the next
day; Marcelino Ponce de Leon threw himself upon the sofa where Don
Manuel Belgrano had been lying as he entered, and fell at once into a
sound sleep, but Don Carlos Evaña and a few others remained together and
passed the night in endeavouring to draw up a list of names for the
Junta, which should meet with general acceptation. All agreed that Don
Cornelio Saavedra was the best man they could appoint as President, but,
as the original members of the secret committee refused to allow their
names to be proposed, there was great difficulty in deciding upon his
colleagues. The discussion lasted till nearly dawn, many lists had been
made out, but to all there were objections. Then Evaña, rising from his
seat, went into the next room, and shook Marcelino by the shoulder.
"I am going home to sleep for an hour or two," said he. "Come with me."
Marcelino sprang up from his sofa, and he and Evaña walked away together
along the muddy streets in the semi-darkness of the early morning, the
morning of the 25th May. It had ceased to rain, but there was a cold
wind, and the clouds hung heavily over the city. They reached Evaña's
house, but the cold wind and the morning air had revived Marcelino from
his sleepiness; he declined his friend's offer of a bed, and asked him
for the loan of his horse.
"It is three days since I have seen Magdalen," he said. "She always
rises before the day since her father has been ill. I will go and talk
with her while you sleep; a talk with her always puts me into good
spirits, and I have so much to tell her."
Evaña laughed, but lent him his horse, watched him as he rode away,
awoke his servant, telling him to rouse him in two hours, and then
throwing himself, dressed as he was, upon a sofa, slept soundly.
[12] For this scene see "La Historia de Belgrano," by General Mitre.
[13] "La Historia de Belgrano," by General Mitre.
CHAPTER V
THE 25TH MAY, 1810
Out through the silent streets, out through the quiet suburbs, galloped
Marcelino Ponce de Leon, arousing many an unquiet sleeper from uneasy
slumbers, for few slept soundly in Buenos Aires on that night between
the 24th and 25th May.
Spaniards cowered in their houses, mindful of the 1st January, 1809,
dreading an explosion of popular wrath, which they knew themselves
powerless to resist. Natives, indignant at the fraud which had been
practised upon them, remembered also the 1st January, 1809, and looked
anxiously for the day, resolute to overcome all obstacles to the full
execution of their will.
Trampling through the mud, splashing through pools of water which lay in
the unpaved roadways, Marcelino galloped on, heedless that many a window
was thrown hastily open as he passed, and many an anxious eye gazed
after him as he rapidly disappeared from sight; heeding no more the
anxious looks of men than he did the angry snarling of the curs, who
leaped up upon him from many a hedgerow in the suburbs.
He reached the Miserere, and, drawing rein at the quinta gate, looked
over the hedge at the windows of the house beyond. That of the sala was
thrown wide open, and the mulatta servant girl stood there, staring with
a bewildered look upon the clouds. Marcelino dismounted and, throwing
his rein over the gate-post, walked up to the porch; the door was opened
for him by Magdalen herself. She was dressed in a white wrapper with a
frilled collar, and her hair was bound round her head with a fillet of
blue silk. She seemed not in the least surprised to see him at that
untimely hour, and her eyes spoke her welcome as she met him.
Marcelino took her hand, and she turned with him to go inside.
"I have not seen you for three days," he said; "I could not let another
day pass without telling you what we have done, and to-day will be one
which will mark an epoch in our history."
"I have heard something, but not all; you will tell me."
"Señorita!" exclaimed the mulatto girl, running out from the sala, "have
you not seen the sky? In all my life I have seen nothing so strange."
Marcelino and Magdalen looked behind them through the open door of the
porch. A bright light shone upon everything they saw, tinging everything
with pink.
Then the two went out and stood in the porch, the young man and the
maiden, hand in hand, together speaking not, and in their silence was
there more eloquence than in many words.
Together they stood watching the dawn of the morning, their hearts
communing one with another in silent sympathy, the sympathy of mutual
trust and love. Together they watched the rising of the sun on the
morning of the 25th May, a sunrise which is now hailed every year as the
day comes round by the thundering salute of the cannon of emancipated
peoples, and by the voices of thousands of children, who in every city
and town throughout the one-time colonies of Spain welcome with
patriotic songs the rising of the sun on the 25th of May.
Together they stood in the porch and looked forth upon the eastern sky.
The clouds which hung low over the city seemed to form but one cloud,
stretching from horizon to horizon in one dense mass of dark grey,
shaded with pink, which cast a bright pink reflection upon the domes and
towers of the churches, and upon the white-washed walls of the houses in
the nearest quintas. Then as they stood together and looked, the pink
tints died out of the sky, and the dark grey of the clouds changed to a
brilliant orange. Far away on the eastern horizon, just in the path of
the rising sun, there was a break in the vast uniformity of cloud, a
semicircle of deep blue; in the centre of this blue sky, up rose the
sun, launching his fiery beams straight on the concave surface of the
cloud. In an instant the orange tints died out, and the whole cloud
became one mass of brilliant yellow, so brilliant and free from shades
that it was impossible to tell that there was any cloud at all. It
seemed as though a noonday sun had spread himself over the whole sky,
that the sky itself had become a sun, bathing the world beneath in a
flood of yellow light, which was reflected from every object round,
dazzlingly brilliant, but without one ray of warmth in it.
As they gazed in silence, still hand in hand, from north to south there
darted a rosy streak of lightning, and the curtain of cloud sank down
over the blue space on the eastern horizon, shutting out the sun. As the
cloud descended the golden sheen faded away out of the sky, and there
came from far off in the north a clap of thunder, which rolled and
rolled away above the clouds, echoing and re-echoing till it lost itself
in the farthest south. Then the clouds were again one mass of dull grey,
hanging low over the city, and heavy drops of rain fell pattering on the
roof of the porch above them.
"What is this?" said Magdalen, drawing closer to Marcelino; "never have
I seen a sunrise like this."
"Nor I," replied Marcelino; "and if I mistake not, the day which follows
will be a day such as has never been seen before in Buenos Aires."
"Saw you the sun, how brilliantly he shone out? Then there came that
angry flash of lightning, all the glory died out of the sky, and there
was a long roll of thunder. Do you believe in omens? Do you not
tremble?"
"I do not tremble," said Marcelino; "have you not taught me faith? to do
right and fear nothing? What can be more right or more noble than to
free one's native country from the slavery of centuries? The liberty we
shall win to-day, may but give us the right to toil and labour for years
to come, but is it not more noble to labour than to sleep?"
Then Magdalen leaned upon his arm and whispered:
"Yes, that is faith."
Marcelino, throwing his arms round her, pressed her to his breast and
kissed her. For a minute there was silence between them. That kiss was
the seal of a compact of which both had thought much, but of which
neither had spoken until this day--a compact which bound them to each
other so long as their lives should last, a compact which made the cares
and toils of one, the cares and toils of both, a compact which blended
their two lives into one life, and which death alone could cancel.
Marcelino was the first to speak.
"The presage of the rising sun," said he, "may be fulfilled. The liberty
we shall achieve to-day may be soon clouded over, the storm may burst
upon us, and all our efforts may be long unavailing to raise the people
from the sloth and ignorance into which they have fallen under Spanish
rule, but this sun over which the storm-cloud has fallen, this sun which
is now hidden from us, will shine out again to-morrow when the storm has
passed over. This storm is but the herald of the winter, which will tear
off the last leaves from the trees, which will wither up the few
remaining flowers. It is but the first of many storms, but they also
will pass over. Winter will give place to spring. Again the genial sun
will shine out, clothing the whole earth with verdure. The earth,
refreshed and invigorated by the stern discipline of winter, will give
new strength to the trees, fresh beauty to the flowering shrubs, and in
the joyous springtime we shall forget the storms of winter. Shall it not
be so with us, Magdalen? Life has many storms in store for us, but we
will not shrink from facing them. Shall we not walk together, cheering
and strengthening each other, looking together in faith to the future?"
Magdalen's lips spoke no answer to his question, but her eyes looked up
into his with a brave confidence, which was answer sufficient.
"Señor Don Marcelino, shall I not tie your horse under the shed, your
saddle will be sopping wet in five minutes?"
It was the gardener who spoke, an old man with a face like a block of
wood. How long he had been standing there neither of them knew.
"Leave it," said Marcelino, turning sharply on him.
"You must not go yet," said Magdalen, "I have so much to ask you. Papa
is asleep, so I can make coffee for you myself."
Old Antonio got no further answer, and stood looking after them as they
went back into the house together. Then, with a wink of his cunning old
eyes, he hobbled to the gate, and taking the horse by the bridle led him
away.
An hour later, Marcelino and Magdalen again stood in the porch side by
side and hand in hand. Still the rain poured down, still the wind sighed
mournfully among the trees, still the withered leaves broke off from
the swaying branches, and gathered in sodden masses on the wet ground;
over all hung the leaden sky, and the far-off towers and domes of the
churches were invisible, shrouded in thick mist and driving rain. The
prospect as they looked out was dismal, yet they looked upon it with
cheerful eyes, the confidence which filled their hearts made them
oblivious to aught else than their own thoughts.
"Come to me when all is settled and tell me what you have done,"
whispered Magdalen.
"The knights of old went forth to fight with their lady's glove in their
helmet," said Marcelino. "There will be no shivering of lances to-day,
yet may I not carry with me some gage of love, to remind me that I fight
to-day not for myself nor even for my country alone?"
As he spoke he looked at the fillet of blue silk which bound Magdalen's
brown hair. She, with a smile, twisted it from her head and, unfastening
it, passed it through the buttonhole of his coat, tying it there in a
small bow from which hung two short streamers. Then she stood off to
look at him, but shook her head, and going back to his side untied the
bow and pulled away the ribbon.
"Wait a minute," she said, shaking back the hair which hung over her
face, and then went off to her own room.
Some minutes she was away. When she came back her hair was again bound
up with a fillet, but the fillet was no longer a simple blue ribbon, it
was of two ribbons, one blue, the other white, twined together. In her
hand she carried a blue-and-white rosette, from which hung three
streamers, of which the centre one was white, the other two blue. She
brought also a needle and thread, and the active fingers stitched the
rosette with its three streamers to the lappel of Marcelino's coat.
"There," she said, as she finished her work and stood back to admire it,
"there you take not only a gage but an emblem. The sky in the springtime
is not blue only, it is blue and white. If you meet with more difficulty
than you expect, look on this ribbon, blue and white, and think of the
springtime of which you told me."
As Marcelino rode away Magdalen stood in the porch looking after him,
till a tall aloe hedge shut him out from her sight, then she seated
herself in a low chair with her hands folded before her, gazing vacantly
at the raindrops as they fell from the eaves, in deep thought, till the
sound of a bell called her to her father's room.
"You have had a visitor this morning, Chica," said Don Alfonso, in a
more natural tone than she had heard him speak in for weeks.
"Yes, papa," said she, what little colour she had in her face fading
away, and her lips closing firmly together.
"Who was it, Chica?"
"Don Marcelino Ponce de Leon, papa," she answered.
"Does Don Marcelino love you, Chica?"
"Yes," she said, trying hard to answer in a steady voice.
Don Alfonso stretched out his hand, and drawing her down to him he
kissed her, and murmured in a low voice in English:
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against
us."
Then Magdalen fell on her knees beside the bed and burst into tears.
When Marcelino reached Evaña's house he found his friend already gone.
On foot he followed him, not doubting that he would see him or hear of
him on the Plaza Mayor. Neither here nor in any of the streets as he
passed along did he see any troops, every corps was in its own barracks,
under arms and ready to march at a moment's notice, awaiting orders only
from the revolutionary committee to appear. But every street leading to
the Plaza Mayor was thronged with groups of citizens, who, careless of
the rain, wended their way thither. As Marcelino entered the Plaza he
saw the wide causeway of the Recoba Nueva occupied by long lines of
young men, all of whom were armed, some with pistols, some with
sword-sticks. Among these young men Evaña walked hurriedly, striving
apparently to establish some organisation amongst them, which was each
moment destroyed by the accession of fresh recruits.
"What is that?" said Evaña, as Marcelino walked up to him and he saw the
blue and white rosette on the lappel of his coat.
"These," answered Marcelino, taking the streamers in his hand, "are the
colours of La Patria."
"Viva La Patria!" shouted Evaña, taking off his hat.
The shout was taken up and echoed all over the Plaza, and in an instant
all the organisation which Evaña had been labouring to establish was
destroyed. Each man after he had shouted turned to his neighbour to ask
why. One only obtained a satisfactory answer, and he was Marcelino, who
asked the question of Evaña himself.
"You have given me the idea I wanted," said Evaña. "There are of all
sorts here, and we must have some means of knowing our own. Choose your
pickets of young men we can trust, and station them at every entrance to
the Plaza. I will procure blue and white ribbons for distribution to all
patriots, your pickets will keep back any who seek to enter the Plaza
who have not these ribbons."
Half an hour later the Plaza was crowded with people, but every man
there had in the buttonhole of his coat two ribbons, one blue, the other
white.
The Cabildo met at an early hour that morning. The first subject which
engaged their attention was the resignation by Don Baltazar de Cisneros
of the dignity of President of the Junta, which had been conferred upon
him the day previous.
Don Cornelio Saavedra had been with Don Baltazar during the night, and,
showing him that it would be impossible otherwise to preserve public
tranquillity, had persuaded him to send in this resignation.
The second subject before the Cabildo was the "Representation" drawn up
by the revolutionary committee, and signed by some hundreds of citizens,
which formed a protest against their proceedings.
Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon exerted himself to the utmost in favour of
moderation, counselling them to name Don Cornelio Saavedra President of
the Junta in place of Don Baltazar de Cisneros, and Don Manuel Belgrano
as the fourth member of that body, in the place of Don Cornelio. But Don
Roderigo was feebly supported by the native members of the Cabildo, his
proposal was scouted as an act of cowardice by the more violent of the
Spaniards. He warned them that hundreds of the people, greatly excited,
and most of them armed, patrolled the Plaza Mayor and filled the cafés.
The answer of the Cabildo to this popular demonstration was to send for
the commanders of the troops. As soon as these officers were assembled
at the Cabildo they received orders to march their troops to the Plaza
and disperse the people at the point of the bayonet. Most of these
officers refused point blank to obey the command, the rest stated that
any such attempt would infallibly produce a mutiny among their men.
The Cabildo thus found themselves powerless, but even then would not
listen to the moderate counsels of Don Roderigo. Hours passed, and, as
they debated the matter angrily among themselves, there came a violent
knocking upon the outer doors, which were closed.
The people, wearied out by long waiting, had sent a deputation headed by
Don Carlos Evaña and Don Marcelino Ponce de Leon, who demanded the
immediate deposition of Don Baltazar de Cisneros. Don Martin Rodriguez,
who was at the Cabildo with the other commanding officers, opened the
door and went out to them. He was instantly surrounded by a number of
excited young men, who asked him angrily what the Cabildo were doing,
that for hours they kept the people waiting, instead of at once revoking
their edict of the preceding day.
"Don Baltazar de Cisneros has sent in his resignation himself," answered
Don Martin, "which renders necessary the appointment of an entirely new
Junta. They require time to decide upon what men to choose for the
Junta."
"Is that all?" replied Evaña. "We will save them the trouble of debating
that question any longer."
So saying, Don Carlos drew out his pocket-book and turning to a blank
leaf wrote on it in pencil, seven names.
"There," said he, tearing out the leaf and presenting it to Don Martin,
"there, give that list to the Señores of the Cabildo, and tell them that
that Junta and no other will satisfy the wishes of the people."
"Come in and present it to them yourself," said Don Martin, drawing
back.
Upon this Evaña and Marcelino Ponce de Leon followed Don Martin into the
council-chamber, a large room in the upper story, lighted by windows
which reached to the floor of the room, and opened upon the balconies
overlooking the Plaza Mayor.
Evaña, holding the paper in his hand, strode up to the table round which
the members of the corporation were seated, and laying it before the
Alcalde de primer voto--
"Señores," he said, "you are but wasting your time here, the people have
chosen a Junta for themselves, you have nothing more to do than to draw
up an edict appointing this Junta according to legal forms, and then to
retire and leave the power in their hands."
"The people!" exclaimed Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon, starting to his
feet, "where is this people? and how have they chosen this Junta?"
"Step this way, Don Roderigo, and look upon the people," replied Evaña,
drawing the bolts of one of the windows and throwing the window wide
open.
Don Roderigo walked to the window and stepped out upon the balcony.
Something more than a hundred young men stood drawn up in line on the
roadway beneath him, the rest of the Plaza was nearly deserted; it was
now an hour past noon, and the heavy rain had driven the greater part of
those who had filled the Plaza some hours before, back to their own
homes or to the shelter of the cafés.
"Do you call these boys the people?" said Don Roderigo
"The people were here hours ago," said Don Carlos. "These only have
remained, but they are sufficient to tell you the will of the people.
Ask them."
Then as Don Roderigo looked back in indignation upon his colleagues each
man of whom still sat in his place as though stricken with fear, Don
Carlos also turned to them.
"Señores," said he, "will you that I call all the people back, that you
may speak to them? If you wish it I will do so. I will also send round
to the barracks, and from each barrack there will march forth a regiment
of patriots, each patriot with a musket on his shoulder. Will you that I
send for them?"
But the Cabildo, especially the more violent members, were stricken with
consternation, they cowered before the haughty bearing of Don Carlos
Evaña, and looked in vain for hope into the quiet, resolute face of
Marcelino Ponce de Leon. Round the door, which had been left open, there
crowded other stern, determined faces. Evaña, Marcelino, and each of
these men wore blue and white ribbons hanging from the lappels of their
coats. The people who had thronged the Plaza two hours before had also
each man worn these ribbons. These ribbons were the same colours which
the Patricios had carried through smoke and fire triumphantly, on the
5th July, 1807. They looked at each other and their hearts quailed
within them; they looked into the faces of the military commandants, who
looked up at the ceiling or down on the ground, their hands playing with
their sword-knots, or with the buckles of their belts, but who looked
back at them, never at all. They fancied themselves the victims of some
wide-spread conspiracy.
Then the Alcalde de primer voto, who was the President ex-officio, took
up the paper which lay before him and read aloud the names which Evaña
had there written.
"I see no objection to any of these gentlemen," said one, "they are all
men highly respectable, and of influence among the people."
The rest murmured their acquiescence, all save Don Roderigo Ponce de
Leon, who, coming back from the window, now even more vehemently opposed
their timid yielding to dictation, than he had opposed their purblind
obstinacy in the morning.
"Señores," said he, "if you appoint that Junta you endorse a revolution,
you strike the first blow against the honour of the flag of Spain, you
are guilty of treason to your legitimate sovereign."
"The Junta will rule in the name of King Ferdinand, and will be
responsible to him for the use it makes of its authority," said
Marcelino.
"I say nothing against the Junta," said Don Roderigo. "The Cabildo have
the right to appoint what men they please on the Junta, but they have
also the right of forbidding all intrusion upon their counsels, and when
they submit to unauthorised dictation they are guilty of treason."
The members looked up irresolute, but behind Don Roderigo stood the tall
figure of Don Carlos Evaña, leaning against the frame of the open
window, twisting the blue and white ribbons which hung from the
buttonhole of his coat round his fingers. Their faces fell and they
whispered one to the other--
"Why not? What better can we do?"
Then Don Roderigo turned his back upon them, and throwing his cloak over
his shoulders, drawing his hat down over his eyes, left the room,
elbowed his way through the throng of young men who crowded the
staircase and the courtyard, and so out into the open Plaza, speaking no
word to any, but walking rapidly away to his own house.
At three o'clock that afternoon, the Cabildo published an edict,
appointing in the name of King Ferdinand VII. a Junta of government as
follows:--
_President._--Don Cornelio Saavedra.
_Members._
Dr. Don Juan Josè Castelli.
" " Manuel Alberdi.
" Manuel Belgrano.
" Miguel Azcuenaga.
" Domingo Matheu.
" Juan de Larrea.
Being a copy of the list which had been so hurriedly drawn up by Don
Carlos Evaña.
No clangour of bells or roaring of guns hailed the publication of this
edict, a solemn silence fell over the city, all felt that a great
revolution had been accomplished, a revolution unstained by one drop of
blood.
Buenos Aires made no noisy demonstration of joy over this great victory,
she saw clearly the task she had undertaken, and, content that the first
step was gained so peacefully, forbore to triumph over her fallen
tyrants, setting her face steadfastly towards the great future now
opening up before her.
The new Junta met the next day, the 26th May. Their first step was to
appoint two secretaries--
Dr. Don Mariano Moreno
and " " Juan Josè Passo.
whom they incorporated into their body, thus raising the total number of
the Junta to nine.
To this committee of nine men, Buenos Aires entrusted her destiny, the
destiny of the Argentine people. They ruled Buenos Aires and directed
her energies in the name of Ferdinand VII., King of Spain and the
Indies. They styled themselves the Junta Gubernativa of the provinces of
the Rio de la Plata; they yet acknowledged as their King a Spaniard of
the House of Bourbon, who lay in a French prison; they yet considered
their country as a part of the wide empire of Spain; but they looked
upon the men of Buenos Aires as the people from whom they held their
authority and to whom alone they were responsible; they were, although
they knew it not, the founders and the first rulers of the Argentine
Republic.
CHAPTER VI
LIONS IN THE PATH
On the 26th of May Don Gregorio Lopez gave a dinner-party to a number of
his friends to celebrate the installation of the new Junta. Don Cornelio
Saavedra was there as the principal guest, also Don Manuel Belgrano, and
other members of the one time secret committee; of course Marcelino
Ponce de Leon and Don Carlos Evaña were present, but the chair which had
been placed for Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon was vacant.
At the bottom of the table sat Colonel Lopez, who had only that morning
arrived in town from his estancia, and was now eager to learn all the
particulars of the events of the memorable days just flown.
Conversation was brisk during the whole time the dinner lasted, each man
spoke proudly of the part he had taken in these events, every face
beamed with confidence, none seeming to have any doubt of the prosperous
future they had secured for their country, but the eye of Don Gregorio
wandered now and then uneasily to that vacant chair, which had been
placed for his son-in-law Don Roderigo, and which had been kept vacant,
in the hope that he might appear.
The dinner concluded with a number of patriotic toasts, proposed in
eloquent words, and honoured with enthusiasm, after which the company
adjourned to the sala, where many ladies awaited them, among whom the
eye of Don Gregorio sought in vain for his daughter Constancia, or for
his granddaughter Dolores. The younger people soon commenced dancing,
while the elders collected in groups in the corners of the sala, or in
the ante-sala, talking; some remained in the dining-room, where coffee
was served to them, of whom Colonel Lopez was one. As Evaña had risen
from his seat to go to the sala the Colonel had stopped him, and Evaña
had taken another chair beside him.
"So you have your republic at last," said the Colonel, after they had
conversed some time together.
"Not quite," replied Evaña, "but to this there can be only one end, a
republic."
"Then there is work before us yet?"
"Without doubt. Here the Spaniards are powerless, but in the provinces
they may yet raise opposition."
"And you wish me to join this expedition with my regiment?"
"I do, and more. You have no officer under you above the rank of
captain, I wish you to take me with you with the rank of major."
To this the Colonel made no answer, but sat twisting his moustachios.
"I know why you hesitate," said Evaña. "You are accustomed to absolute
authority in your own regiment, and do not like the idea of having
another officer with you, so near to you in rank."
"And of all men you the least," said the Colonel bluntly. "I know you,
Carlos, where you are, there you will have the command, and there are
not a few men in my regiment who would be ready to mutiny if you told
them. Besides, you have never served at all, how can you take rank at
once as a major?"
"I have arranged all that with Don Cornelio. Of course he would not give
me such rank in an infantry regiment, but in the cavalry it is
different."
"Hum!" said the Colonel indignantly, "you city men think anything is
good enough for cavalry. I can assure you that if we have any fighting
with the Spaniards it will be the cavalry that will secure us the
victory. What would you do in a country which is one immense pampa, with
infantry or artillery?"
"I thought you would feel flattered at my preference for the cavalry,"
replied Evaña. "But do not alarm yourself, I do not wish to interfere in
any way in the management of the regiment, I merely wish to march with
you and hold a definite rank."
"Look you, Evaña," said the Colonel, with a searching look in his eyes,
"there is more in this than you tell me. Be frank with me, tell me what
you want, and count upon me."
"I want nothing more than I have told you, but I will tell you why."
Evaña paused, looking round him to see that no one was within earshot,
then drawing his chair closer to the Colonel and leaning his elbows on
the table he continued--
"There is only one man whom we need fear, he is an able soldier and very
popular. If he should pronounce against us, many even of the Creoles
will join him, and among us there are few who will be eager to fight
against him. If he rise, he must be crushed at once. I go to keep an eye
upon the officers of this expedition and to ensure that there be no
vacillation."
"Liniers?" said the Colonel.
Evaña nodded.
"I should not like to lead a charge against him," said the Colonel.
"If the necessity should arise I will be there and will lead the
regiment for you," said Evaña.
"This Liniers, three years ago the 'Reconquistador,' to-day is a Goth,
is he not, Senor Evaña?" asked the Colonel, stretching himself and
leaning back in his chair. Then as Evaña looked at him in surprise
without answering, he continued--
"What is this you have been telling Viana about Goths?"
"Ah! Viana, yes, I have told him about the Goths. Does he speak much of
them among the people?"
"He does nothing else than talk about them. Goth now stands with them
for everything that is bad. My little Ignacio was naughty the other day,
and I heard Mauricia tell him that if he was not good the Goths would
come and take him away. When I received your letter, telling me to come
to town, the peons came crowding to the estancia to know if the Goths
had landed. Why have you put such folly into their heads?"
"It is no folly, Gregorio," said Don Carlos. "You understand the
paisanos, it is of no use to talk to them about patriotism or about
liberty. All their traditions and customs lead them to look upon
Spaniards as their natural rulers; if the Spaniards knew how to enlist
their sympathies on their side, we might gain a transient victory in the
towns and cities, but eventually we should succumb, for the main
strength of every country lies in its peasantry. Fortunately Spaniards
understand nothing of that, they look upon the paisanos as barbarians by
whose labour they can amass wealth. Before they learn their error, I
seek to forestall them by supplanting these traditions among the
paisanos by a new idea, which they will comprehend very rapidly. We do
not fight against Spaniards, who are very decent people, but against
Goths, who are robbers and murderers; in favour of the Goths there is no
tradition among them. These tales that I have told Viana about the Goths
are perfectly true, they will circulate from rancho to rancho all over
the campaña, and if ever the day come that we are hard pressed,
thousands of valiant horsemen will follow you against the Goths who
would not move a finger to help you against the Spaniards."
"Then there really are such people as the Goths?"
"They were barbarians who overran Europe in the time of the Roman
Empire."
"And did they really sack the city of Rome and try to kill the Holy
Father?"
"They did."
"And they would do it again if they had the chance?"
"There are no Goths now, but many Spaniards are descended from the
Goths, therefore those of them who may refuse to obey the Junta, we can
call Goths. There is much in a name, my friend Don Gregorio."
"Do you know, Evaña, you are a man who can see far," said the Colonel,
"but there are men who can see almost as far as you. You say that the
Spaniards understand nothing of the paisanos, I can tell you there are
other men who are quite as ignorant as the Spaniards. What know these
lawyers and shopkeepers of the city of the nature of the paisanos? I
tell you they know even less than the Spaniards. I know the Argentine
people, and I know that they will never be content to be governed by
lawyers and shopkeepers, so take care how you arrange this congress, for
the danger is not from Spaniards alone, and will not be averted by
telling extravagant tales about the Goths. Come, let us see what they
are doing in the sala."
* * * * *
While Don Gregorio Lopez was in vain looking for his son-in-law among
the many visitors who crowded his sala that evening, Don Roderigo was
thinking of far other things than festivity and dancing. The first part
of the evening he had spent at the residence of Don Baltazar de Cisneros
in conference with the ex-Viceroy. About nine o'clock he left him and
returned to his own house, walking with a firm, quick step, as though
the result of his interview had been satisfactory. As he entered his
sala he found there one visitor, talking with his wife and Dolores, Don
Ciriaco Asneiros. Doña Constancia looked at him anxiously as he came
in.
"Marcelino has been here," she said; "he wished to take us to my
father's. They are all very much disappointed that you would not allow
us to go."
"I am very glad papa would not," said Dolores. "I have no wish to dance
with men who are traitors to Spain."
"There spoke my own daughter," said Don Roderigo, smiling.
"Marcelino is there and Don Carlos Evaña," said Doña Constancia.
"Marcelino does not know what he is doing," said Dolores; "and Don
Carlos, we all know what ideas he has always had, but I never thought
that he would do more than talk. Now I see that the Viceroy was right to
put Don Alfonso Miranda in prison, and I am very sorry, papa, that I
asked you to get him out."
"The Señor Evaña has been at the head of the conspiracy for years past,"
said Asneiros.
Doña Constancia glanced hurriedly at Don Roderigo.
"But, papa, I have something else to tell you," said Dolores. "Marcelino
says that they are going to send an army into the provinces, and that
Evaristo has volunteered. You will stop him, won't you?"
Don Roderigo started, and then walked up the room and back again.
"Cannot you prevent that, Constancia?" he said to his wife.
"I will try, but I am afraid he will not listen to me."
"Evaristo is always so obstinate, but if you order him not to go, papa,
then he will not," said Dolores.
"When Buenos Aires revolts against Spain fathers need not hope for much
obedience from their sons," said Don Roderigo; "I suppose Marcelino has
persuaded him to go with him."
"Marcelino is not going," said Doña Constancia.
"I understood that he had been offered the command of a regiment."
"He declined it," said Asneiros. "I have been offered a command also,
but not here, in Monte Video. I came to consult you about it."
"Elio is preparing in time. These patriots as they call themselves seem
quite sure that all the cities and towns will join them, but they may
perhaps find themselves mistaken," said Don Roderigo, with a significant
glance at his wife, who took it as a signal to retire.
"Of course you will go to Monte Video at once," said Don Roderigo to
Asneiros when they were alone.
"I do not know that, I have come to speak with you on the subject,"
replied Asneiros.
"It is from Monte Video that we must look for the reaction," said Don
Roderigo. "If Elio remains faithful he will not have much difficulty in
securing Monte Video, the fleet will obey him and will give us the
command of the rivers, and I have persuaded Cisneros to apply to Peru
for an army to secure the northern provinces."
"I was with Don Baltazar this morning; he then seemed quite castdown,
and spoke of any attempt to upset the Junta as folly."
"We cannot do anything here at present, but I think we may soon reduce
these rebels to the city if we proceed cautiously. The provinces are all
jealous of Buenos Aires."
"There is some one else thinks so," said Asneiros. "Don Santiago
Liniers was here in secret not many weeks ago. He hoped that Don
Baltazar would have adopted severe measures to prevent this outbreak;
when he went he thought only of a reconquest."
"Liniers!" exclaimed Don Roderigo, "I had not thought of him. Truly he
is a man from whom at this juncture we may hope more than from Don
Baltazar. Upon Concha and Bishop Orellana we may count with certainty."
"His name is alone worth an army," replied Asneiros. "He wished me to go
with him, but I thought it better to remain here and watch the course of
events. Yesterday I sent off a chasque to him. What say you? Should I
not do better in Cordova than in Monte Video? In the provinces we may
soon raise an army."
Don Roderigo hesitated, and Asneiros continued--
"What will give us difficulty is this, that as the Junta was appointed
by the Cabildo it has the appearance of a legitimate government. What
Liniers will require is the aid of some leading Spaniard from the
capital, whose name alone will be guarantee for our loyalty."
"We want money and arms, in Monte Video we should have them."
"And be under the command of General Elio, who will have the credit of
all you do. No, better join Liniers, and have the credit of what he
does. I can procure arms and men too, if you will guarantee me payment
of my expenditure when we retake Buenos Aires."
"Men you may persuade to follow you by promises, but arms you will have
to pay for, I can assist you very little in that."
"I do not want any money from you, I merely wish your guarantee for the
repayment, in the name of the first Spanish Viceroy who has the key of
the treasury of Buenos Aires."
"I will give you that readily enough, but how can you raise money
sufficient?"
"Have you forgotten the black coffer of that traitor Don Alfonso?"
"Three or four hundred dollars you said there were in it, but you
returned them to him?"
"I thought you understood me," said Asneiros, turning aside his face to
conceal his vexation. "Of course I gave him the money back, and his
ingots too, but I gave him leaden ingots for his gold ones, they are
quite as much use to him as the gold ones would ever have been, and now
the gold will buy muskets and men to reconquer Buenos Aires for Spain."
"It was true then, you stole the old man's gold?"
"It was no use to him, but it is rather a pity that it should turn out
to be the dowry of your son's wife."
"The dowry of my son's wife! Marcelino's wife! What do you mean?"
"That Don Marcelino is going to marry Magdalen Miranda, the daughter of
that old traitor, and that the ingots should have been hers. We will
give them back to her if you like, when we retake Buenos Aires."
"Marcelino marry! I thought----leave me, I can talk no more."
"Come with me to Cordova. When you are president of a Spanish Junta you
will have the remedy in your own hands."
To this Don Roderigo made no answer, and Asneiros, giving a fierce twirl
to his moustachios, left the room.
CHAPTER VII
THE FIRST FIGHT IN THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
By the second week in June the "Espedicion Auxiliadora," composed of
1200 volunteers, had assembled under the command of Colonel Ocampo of
the Arribeño regiment. The force had been originally planned to consist
of 500 men, but the first advices received by the new Junta from the
interior, sounded a note of danger.
The answer of General Concha, Governor of Cordova, to the notification
sent to him by the Junta Gubernativa of their assumption of supreme
power, was a proclamation issued by Marshal Liniers and himself, in
which they denied the authority of the Junta, and called upon all loyal
subjects of King Ferdinand VII., to aid them in resisting its
pretensions. Orellana, Bishop of Cordova, gave their opposition the
sanction of his name and influence.
Instead of 500, 1200 volunteers were enrolled and equipped in little
more than a fortnight, the whole of the preliminary expenses being
defrayed by voluntary subscriptions. Ere they were ready to march,
Colonel Lopez had already left the Barrancas at the head of 200
volunteers from his regiment. He proceeded to the north of the province
and encamped on the river Arrecifes, collecting horses for the force
under the command of Colonel Ocampo. The entire troop commanded by
Venceslao Viana had volunteered, on learning that Don Carlos Evaña would
march with them as major of the regiment.
On the 10th June there was considerable excitement in Buenos Aires. On
the preceding night, a number of the volunteers had left their barracks
without leave, many of them having taken their arms and equipments with
them; none of them returned to the barracks, it was evident that they
had deserted. Some of the men began to talk of overtures which had been
made to them by a certain Spanish major who had been greatly trusted by
the ex-Viceroy, and it was remarked that all the men who had deserted,
had formerly served in one or other of the regiments which had been
disbanded on the 2nd January, 1809. In the afternoon it became known
that at daylight that morning, a party of about eighty men, well armed
and mounted, had crossed the river Las Conchas, apparently on the march
for the north of the province.
Search was made everywhere for Major Asneiros, but he could not be
found. Marcelino Ponce de Leon with a party of Patricios examined the
house where he had usually resided, and was met by a finely-dressed
lady, who told him that the major had left on the previous night for
Monte Video, and would not be back for some time. In his rooms nothing
was found which could give any clue to the reason of his absence.
All that could be done was to send a chasque to Colonel Lopez, telling
him to look out for and intercept these deserters.
Don Carlos Evaña had been one of the most active in prosecuting the
search for Major Asneiros. In the evening he, with several other
officers of the expedition, after dining with Don Cornelio Saavedra,
strolled about the city paying farewell visits to their friends, for
they were to march on the day following. The last house at which Don
Carlos called was that of Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon, but he was
disappointed there, not one of the family was at home. About ten o'clock
he returned to his own house, at the door he found his servant Pepe
waiting for him.
"Ah, Señor!" said Pepe, "for two hours I have been looking for you
everywhere. There is a lady waiting to see you. She would not go till
you came, and I could not find you. She is in the sala, Señor, and the
girl with her."
As Don Carlos entered his sala he was met by a girl whose face was
covered with a mantle. On seeing him she turned quickly towards another
female figure, also muffled up, who was seated in an obscure corner of
the room.
"Here he comes at last, Señorita," she said. Then stepping back so that
Don Carlos might pass her, she went to the door and closed it, standing
there as though on the watch lest any other should enter.
Don Carlos walked quickly towards the shrouded figure which he could
dimly see reclining in a large arm-chair, when that figure started up,
and throwing aside the heavy shawl which covered her from head to foot
Dolores Ponce de Leon stood before him.