Evaña nodded.
"I should not like to lead a charge against him," said the Colonel.
"If the necessity should arise I will be there and will lead the regiment for you," said Evaña.
"This Liniers, three years ago the 'Reconquistador,' to-day is a Goth, is he not, Senor Evaña?" asked the Colonel, stretching himself and leaning back in his chair. Then as Evaña looked at him in surprise without answering, he continued—
"What is this you have been telling Viana about Goths?"
"Ah! Viana, yes, I have told him about the Goths. Does he speak much of them among the people?"
"He does nothing else than talk about them. Goth now stands with them for everything that is bad. My little Ignacio was naughty the other day, and I heard Mauricia tell him that if he was not good the Goths would come and take him away. When I received your letter, telling me to come to town, the peons came crowding to the estancia to know if the Goths had landed. Why have you put such folly into their heads?"
"It is no folly, Gregorio," said Don Carlos. "You understand the paisanos, it is of no use to talk to them about patriotism or about liberty. All their traditions and customs lead them to look upon Spaniards as their natural rulers; if the Spaniards knew how to enlist their sympathies on their side, we might gain a transient victory in the towns and cities, but eventually we should succumb, for the main strength of every country lies in its peasantry. Fortunately Spaniards understand nothing of that, they look upon the paisanos as barbarians by whose labour they can amass wealth. Before they learn their error, I seek to forestall them by supplanting these traditions among the paisanos by a new idea, which they will comprehend very rapidly. We do not fight against Spaniards, who are very decent people, but against Goths, who are robbers and murderers; in favour of the Goths there is no tradition among them. These tales that I have told Viana about the Goths are perfectly true, they will circulate from rancho to rancho all over the campaña, and if ever the day come that we are hard pressed, thousands of valiant horsemen will follow you against the Goths who would not move a finger to help you against the Spaniards."
"Then there really are such people as the Goths?"
"They were barbarians who overran Europe in the time of the Roman Empire."