Page:Civilization and barbarism (1868).djvu/200

156 Things were in this condition when peace was concluded with Brazil, and the first division of the army, commanded by Lavalle, was disbanded. Dorrego knew well the spirit of these veterans of the War of Independence, who, covered with wounds, and grown gray in the service, had obtained only the rank of colonels, majors, or captains; two or three, perhaps, becoming generals; while in the interior of the Republic, without ever having passed the frontiers, were dozens of leaders, who, in four years, had been raised from the rank of gaucho-outlaws to that of commanders; from commanders to generals, and from generals to absolute masters of provinces. Need we look for any other motive for the implacable hatred of the veterans for these men? What had they to anticipate, now that the new order of things had taken from them the hope of entering the capital of Brazil as conquerors?

On the 1st of December, two companies of regulars were drawn up in Victoria Square. Governor Dorrego had fled to the country, and the Unitarios filled the air with shouts of triumph. A few days afterward, seven hundred cuirassiers, commanded by general officers, went out through Peru Street toward the pampas to meet several thousand gauchos and Indians, together with a few soldiers, commanded by Dorrego. For a moment the field of Navarro was covered with the dead, and the following day an officer, now in the service of Chili, brought in Dorrego as prisoner. An hour later, the body of Dorrego lay pierced with balls. The officer who had ordered his execution announced it to the city in the following terms:—