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164 the city," was the only answer, given, not with enthusiasm, but with mathematical certainty. Oribe gave Paz all he asked for, and three years have passed since that day of terror at Montevideo. When he had secured the place well, and accustomed the garrison to fight daily as a matter of course, he went to Brazil and remained longer than was agreeable to his friends, and when Rosas was hoping to hear of him in the hands of the imperial police, he learned that he was at Corrientes training six thousand men; that he had formed an alliance with Paraguay, and also that Brazil had invited France and England to take part in the contest; so that the question between the provinces and the cities had now become a struggle between the one-armed, scientific Paz and the gaucho barbarian Rosas; between the Pampas on one side and Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, England, and France on the other.

It was especially to the honor of General Paz that even the enemies he had fought with neither hated nor feared him personally. The "Gaceta" of Rosas, so prodigal of its calumniations, never succeeded in abusing him thoroughly, a proof that he inspired his very detractors with respect. Many of the followers of Rosas in their hearts admired Paz, and the old Federals never forgot that he had always protected them from the fury of the old Unitarios. Who knows if Providence, which holds in its hand the fate of nations, has not preserved this man through many dangers to aid in the reconstruction of the Republic under laws which permit liberty without license, and do not need to be enforced by violence. Paz is a provincial by birth, a guarantee