I began to feel that I was getting the better of that
insane passion for Dolores which had made us both so unhappy, and when
we were once more in the saddle the "Castilian gravity," to which the
General had satirically alluded, had pretty well vanished.
No expeditions were sent out that day; after we had marched about
twelve or thirteen miles eastward and nearer to the immense range of
the Cuchilla Grande, we encamped, and after the midday meal spent the
afternoon in cavalry exercises.
On the next day happened the great event for which we had been
preparing, and I am positive that, with the wretched material he
commanded, no man could have done more than Santa Coloma, though, alas!
all his efforts ended in disaster. Alas, I say, not because I took,
even then, any very serious interest in Oriental politics, but because
it would have been greatly to my advantage if things had turned out
differently. Besides, a great many poor devils who had been an
unconscionable time out in the cold would have come into power, and
the rascally Colorados sent away in their turn to eat the "bitter
bread" of proscription. The fable of the fox and the flies might here
possibly occur to the reader; I, however, preferred to remember Lucero's
fable of the tree called Montevideo, with the chattering colony in its
branches, and to look upon myself as one in the majestic bovine army
about to besiege the monkeys and punish them for their naughty
behaviour.
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