A Set of Six | Page 8

was to
entertain in his house the officers of the foreign men-of-war visiting the
harbour. For Englishmen he had a preference, as for old com- panions
in arms. English naval men of all ranks accepted his hospitality with
curiosity, because he had known Lord Cochrane and had taken part, on
board the patriot squadron commanded by that marvellous sea- man, in
the cutting out and blockading operations be- fore Callao -- an episode
of unalloyed glory in the wars of Independence and of endless honour
in the fighting tradition of Englishmen. He was a fair linguist, this
ancient survivor of the Liberating armies. A trick of smoothing his long
white beard whenever he was short of a word in French or English
imparted an air of leisurely dignity to the tone of his reminiscences.
III
"YES, my friends," he used to say to his guests, "what would you have?
A youth of seventeen sum- mers, without worldly experience, and
owing my rank only to the glorious patriotism of my father, may God
rest his soul. I suffered immense humiliation, not so much from the
disobedience of that subordinate, who, after all, was responsible for
those prisoners; but I suffered because, like the boy I was, I myself
dreaded going to the adjutant for the key. I had felt, before, his rough
and cutting tongue. Being quite a common fellow, with no merit except
his savage valour, he made me feel his contempt and dislike from the
first day I joined my battalion in garrison at the fort. It was only a
fortnight before! I would have confronted him sword in hand, but I
shrank from the mocking brutality of his sneers.
"I don't remember having been so miserable in my life before or since.
The torment of my sensibility was so great that I wished the sergeant to
fall dead at my feet, and the stupid soldiers who stared at me to turn
into corpses; and even those wretches for whom my entreaties had
procured a reprieve I wished dead also, because I could not face them
without shame. A mephitic heat like a whiff of air from hell came out
of that dark place in which they were confined. Those at the window
who had heard what was going on jeered at me in very desperation: one
of these fellows, gone mad no doubt, kept on urging me volubly to
order the soldiers to fire through the window. His insane loquacity

made my heart turn faint. And my feet were like lead. There was no
higher officer to whom I could appeal. I had not even the firmness of
spirit to simply go away.
"Benumbed by my remorse, I stood with my back to the window. You
must not suppose that all this lasted a long time. How long could it
have been? A minute? If you measured by mental suffering it was like a
hundred years; a longer time than all my life has been since. No,
certainly, it was not so much as a minute. The hoarse screaming of
those miserable wretches died out in their dry throats, and then sud-
denly a voice spoke, a deep voice muttering calmly. It called upon me
to turn round.
"That voice, senores, proceeded from the head of Gaspar Ruiz. Of his
body I could see nothing. Some of his fellow-captives had clambered
upon his back. He was holding them up. His eyes blinked without
looking at me. That and the moving of his lips was all he seemed able
to manage in his overloaded state. And when I turned round, this head,
that seemed more than human size resting on its chin under a multitude
of other heads, asked me whether I really desired to quench the thirst of
the captives.
"I said, 'Yes, yes!' eagerly, and came up quite close to the window. I
was like a child, and did not know what would happen. I was anxious
to be com- forted in my helplessness and remorse.
"'Have you the authority, Senor teniente, to re- lease my wrists from
their bonds?' Gaspar Ruiz's head asked me.
"His features expressed no anxiety, no hope; his heavy eyelids blinked
upon his eyes that looked past me straight into the courtyard.
"As if in an ugly dream, I spoke, stammering: 'What do you mean? And
how can I reach the bonds on your wrists?'
"'I will try what I can do,' he said; and then that large staring head
moved at last, and all the wild faces piled up in that window
disappeared, tumbling down. He had shaken his load off with one
movement, so strong he was.
"And he had not only shaken it off, but he got free of the crush and
vanished from my sight. For a moment there