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172 sometimes barter something of her honor for something of the glory which surrounds a celebrated man; not for the glory which depends on the debasement of others for its brilliancy, but the glory which was the cause of Madame de Maintenon's frailty, or the literary glory to which Madame Roland and other such women are said to have sacrificed their reputations. For whole years Severa resisted. At one time she came near being poisoned by her tiger; at another, Quiroga, in a fit of desperation, tried to poison himself with opium. Once she escaped with difficulty from the hands of some of his creatures, and again she was surprised by Quiroga in her own court-yard, where he seized her by the arm, beat her with his fist until she was covered with blood, then threw her upon the ground and kicked in her skull with the heel of his boot. And was there no one to protect this poor girl, no relatives, no friends! One might well think so; yet she belonged to the first families of Rioja; General Villafañe was her uncle, she had brothers who witnessed the outrages; and there was a cur who shut the doors against her when she sought a refuge in the sanctuary. Finally, Severa fled to Catamarca and went into a convent; two years afterwards, when Facundo was passing through that place, he forced his way into the convent, and ordered the nuns into his presence; at the sight of him one nun uttered a cry and fell senseless upon the floor—it was Severa.

But we must return to the encampment at Atiles, where an army was preparing for the purpose of recovering the reputation lost at Tablada. Two Unitarios of San Juan had fallen into the hands of the tyrant: