Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/100



70 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

not reply^ but that the same was not the case with all his entourage. He is a hon vivant, a gourmand, and a gourmet — fond of a song after dinner ; he rides well^ and there is no reason why he should not conduct a guerilla war. Mr.Wash- burn made him drink^ and supplied him with a diarrhoea — all fancy. He is fond of " chaflBng."^ An English second engineer sent him an impudent answer to a message^ and when summoned to his presence pointed at some object with his forefinger. The hand was at once struck down by the President^ with the remark^ ^' In England it is not manners to point V He addresses, a la Napoleon, jocular remarks in the Guarani tongue to his troops,, who receive them with the greatest delight and enthusiasm ; and, like the King of Dahome, he scolds his officers.

The courage of the " unconquered Marshal" as he styles himself, is at best questionable. His panegyrists, like M. Felix Aucaigne,"^ call him the " Premier soldat du Para- guay .^^ His official organ terms him the " Vencidor (Conqueror) of Coimbra, Albuquerque, and Corumba.^' On March 5^ J 865, the National Congress created exclusively for him the rank of Field-Marshal ; the only General of Division being his brother-in-law Barrios, who succeeded him as Minister of War, whilst many of the third rank or brigadiers were appointed. He is said to have commanded in person at the great actions of May 2 and May 24, 1866. It is stated that during the seven days^ fighting in December, 1868, at Loma Valentina, he had two horses killed under him ; and that his son, Panchito (Frank), a youth about


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" Les Contemporains Celebres " (by various authors. 1st series. Paris Librairie Internationale. 1867-9). The article in question gives Paraguay 1,500,000 of inhabitants ; compares it with a Poland struggling in the arms of the Eussian colossus, Brazil ; makes the poor earth- works of the Tebicuary river a "second Humaita;" and affectingly reminds us of the little Helvetia versus Austria, on the field of Mor- garten.