Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/99



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 09

" La boutiquiere/^ whose language he understands, but can speak little, and who treated him as it did Mr. Secretary Seward, with her usual trick of neglect. On the other hand, he was delighted with France, and he learned French well. He keeps up his practice at home.

President Lopez II. rose to power a young man. His appearance is not unfavourable, though of late he has become very corpulent, after having been a slim and active youth. He is about 5 feet 7 inches in height, of bilious-nervous temperament, and darker than Spaniards, or even than the generality of his sallow- faced subjects, a brunet, without however any admixture of inferior blood. His hands and feet are small, and his legs are bandy with early riding. His features are some- what Indian, his hair is thick, and his beard, worn in the form which we once called " Newgate frilV^ is by no means so full and thick as his portraits show. These are taken, in fact, from the equestrian picture for which he sat in Paris, and which does not err by under-flattering. He still affects the white charger, and the Napoleonic grenadier boots and spurs, the rest of the toilette being a kepi, a frock coat, and a scarlet poncho with gold fringe and collar ; in fact, he has a passion for finery. Dignified in manner, he has a penetrating, impressive look, which shows the overweening pride and self-confidence that form the peculiar features of his character. He delights in curious intrigues, which may be called '^ dodges,^^ and which have been qualified by one of his employes as ^' inexplicable tan- trums.^^ This is doubtless a result of " Indian^' blood. The Marshal-President has not left pleasant reminiscences with diplomatists generally. On the other hand, English, French, and American naval officers agree in speaking highly of him. They repeatedly assert that he never asked them a question to which, as men of honour, they could