But no thought of all this passed through the brain of Major Evaña as he gazed upon the learned city, whose white domes and towers filled up the small valley beneath him; he thought but of that one man whom he considered as the most dangerous enemy of the Argentine people; he had determined within himself to crush this man, and as he looked down upon the city, where he had set up the standard of Spain, he thought only of how best that standard might be trampled in the dust, he dreaded only lest his foe might have escaped him by timely flight.
As his men cleared the wood, he gave the word to trot, and with much jingling of spurs and clattering of iron scabbards, each man with his loaded carbine resting on his thigh, the little force wound its way rapidly along the tortuous path, and, descending the hill without meeting a foe, trotted swiftly up the main street of the city to the Plaza.
Men standing in doorways, gazed curiously upon them as they passed; between the iron bars of many a window peered many a fair face, looking upon the rough soldiers as though they formed part of some unwonted pageant.
Both men and women looked upon these swarthy troopers, and women looked much upon the pale, stern face of him who rode at their head; but the men spoke no word of welcome, and the women gazed after them with foreboding hearts. The steady tramp of the horses, the clattering of the iron scabbards, were sounds unfamiliar to their ears, they recognised intuitively that these men were the heralds of a new era, and that there was little in common between them and the black-robed priests and bearded monks who were the more usual occupants of their streets.
Major Evaña drew up his troop across the sandy Plaza in front of the cathedral, and himself rode up to the hall of justice. Here he was met by a group of the civil authorities, who stood in the sun before him bare-headed, and invited him to dismount. Evana replied by asking them a question.
"Where is the Señor Mariscal Don Santiago Liniers?"
"Marshal Liniers had left the city on the preceding day."
"What troops had he with him?"
"None. Only a few friends had accompanied him."