Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/380



350 GENERAL ARGOLO.

a Field Marshal and Visconde de Itaparica. After this change of life, his father was pleased to recognise him.

General Argolo is a Liberal in politics; and Liberals are apt to look after their own. In appearance he is of the bird of rapine type : short, thin, and small, with high nose and hawk^s eyes ; a tall, broad forehead, straight hair and beard waxing grey ; he may already have turned the half- century. Cool in the extreme under fire, he is deliberate in act and slow in speech : his drawling tones give you des crispations. He is loved as a father by his men, but he is by no means a favourite with the Argentines. General Osorio, whose salt humour and quaint sayings made me involuntarily think of Coeur de Lion, called him, in wicked pleasantry, "Macio, miudo e massante " — a bony bit of a bore.

We visited the quarters of this " model marshal of the generalissimo Caxias.^^ The lodging was in the roughest state, and the tenant, ever ready for action, sat in long boots and chain-spurs. He pressed us to accept a cam- paigning dinner, and we soon saw the means by which he wins the hearts of men. He seated by his side a Brazilian private who had lost both his arms in the Curupaity affair, and he fed the cripple with his own hands. Not the least pleasing part of the spectacle was to see the perfect self- possession of the young Mineiro. After dinner entered a neatly-dressed Paraguayan boy whom Marshal Argolo had adopted. When taken by the Brazilians as they entered Humaita, the youngster asked who was the commanding officer, and walked up to him, saying, " General! you must be my father.^^

General Argolo accepted the charge, and I have no doubt that the orphan has found a home for life. Farewell!