Page 159 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

scribed in Guzman Bento’s time) there was another of those
great orations, when Don Jose greeted these old emblems
of the war of Independence, brought out again in the name
of new Ideals. The old idea of Federalism had disappeared.
For his part he did not wish to revive old political doc-
trines. They were perishable. They died. But the doctrine of
political rectitude was immortal. The second Sulaco regi-
ment, to whom he was presenting this flag, was going to
show its valour in a contest for order, peace, progress; for
the establishment of national self-respect without which—
he declared with energy—‘we are a reproach and a byword
amongst the powers of the world.’
Don Jose Avellanos loved his country. He had served
it lavishly with his fortune during his diplomatic career,
and the later story of his captivity and barbarous ill-us-
age under Guzman Bento was well known to his listeners.
It was a wonder that he had not been a victim of the fero-
cious and summary executions which marked the course of
that tyranny; for Guzman had ruled the country with the
sombre imbecility of political fanaticism. The power of Su-
preme Government had become in his dull mind an object
of strange worship, as if it were some sort of cruel deity. It
was incarnated in himself, and his adversaries, the Federal-
ists, were the supreme sinners, objects of hate, abhorrence,
and fear, as heretics would be to a convinced Inquisitor. For
years he had carried about at the tail of the Army of Pacifi-
cation, all over the country, a captive band of such atrocious
criminals, who considered themselves most unfortunate at
not having been summarily executed. It was a diminish-

1 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard