The post master grew green with fear when he heard this menace,—a threat he well knew these men capable of executing. He was still more frightened at the expression salvajes unitarios, an epithet used to designate the enemies of Rosas, and generally the prelude to a massacre.
"Señor General," cried he, with an heroic effort to utter a few words.
"I am not a general," broke in the colorado in a somewhat smoother tone, for his pride was secretly flattered by the sonorous title; "I am not a general yet, though I hope to be one someday. I am only teniente (lieutenant), which is already a pretty step; so call me nothing else for the present. Now, go on."
"Señor Teniente," replied the ranchero, a little comforted, "there is nobody here except good friends of the well beloved General Rosas; we are all federals."
"Ha! I doubt that," said the terrible lieutenant. "You are too close to Monte Video to be thorough Rosistas."
We must state here that throughout the Argentine provinces there was only one town which had the noble courage to oppose itself to the savage tyranny of the ruthless Dictator. This town, whose devotion to the sacred cause of liberty has made it celebrated throughout both the Old and New Worlds, is Monte Video. Resolute to perish, if it must be, in the holy cause it bad embraced, it heroically sustained a siege of nine years against the troops of Rosas, whose impotent efforts were repeatedly shattered against its walls.
"Señor Teniente," replied the ranchero obsequiously, "the people who meet here are solely arrieros and wagoners, who are only passers-by, and never meddle with politics."
This explanation, which the postmaster thought most adroit, had no influence on the colorado.
"¡Vive Dios!" he cried, with haughty voice, "We will see; and woe to the traitor I discover! Luco," he continued addressing his cabo, or corporal, "just step and rouse up those brute beasts, and bring them hither. If any sleep too soundly, stir them up with the point of the sabre; it will exhilarate them and induce them to move more quickly."
The cabo gave a malicious grin, and went out immediately to execute his orders.