Page:The History of San Martin (1893).djvu/227

Rh Provinces. In this internecine strife he took no part whatever, but the presence of a portion of his army in Mendoza strengthened the hands of Government and aided greatly in bringing about a truce.

The first news which San Martin heard on his arrival in Mendoza was an account of a terrible tragedy which had just occurred in San Luis. This city was the prison of the principal captives of Maipó and Chacabuco. They were well treated by Dupuy, the Deputy-Governor, who had only a picket of militia under his orders, and who trusted more to the wide Pampa which surrounded them than to prison walls for their security. The officers were not confined in the public prison, but lived in houses and mixed freely with the people. They were so many that they thought they would have no difficulty in overpowering the small garrison. A plan of escape had been for months discussed among them, when, on the 1st February, 1819, Dupuy, on account of the disturbed state of the country round, issued an order that they were not to leave their houses after sundown. Captain Carretero of the Burgos regiment was the head of the conspirators. On the evening of the 7th he invited a number of his comrades to breakfast with him the next morning, proposing to spend the day killing vermin in his orchard. At six o'clock next morning twenty officers met at his house; he led them into the orchard and gave them a light breakfast of bread and cheese washed down with brandy; then, drawing a poniard, he told them that in an hour they would all be free or dead, and distributed ten knives among them, telling the rest to arm themselves with sticks. Captain La Madrid was sent with ten men to seize the barracks, Captain Salvador, with six, to capture the prison and set the prisoners at liberty; while he went off to join Ordoñez, Primo de Rivera, and Morla, who, with their orderlies, would make sure of the Deputy-Governor.

The first party reached the barracks, disarmed the sentry, and overpowered the guard. In an inner yard were a