Page 188 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

costume caused by the anxious lenders, he had assumed a
disdain of military trappings, an eccentric fashion of shab-
by old tunics, which had become like a second nature. But
the faction Barrios joined needed to fear no political betray-
al. He was too much of a real soldier for the ignoble traffic
of buying and selling victories. A member of the foreign
diplomatic body in Sta. Marta had once passed a judgment
upon him: ‘Barrios is a man of perfect honesty and even
of some talent for war, mais il manque de tenue.’ After the
triumph of the Ribierists he had obtained the reputedly lu-
crative Occidental command, mainly through the exertions
of his creditors (the Sta. Marta shopkeepers, all great politi-
cians), who moved heaven and earth in his interest publicly,
and privately besieged Senor Moraga, the influential agent
of the San Tome mine, with the exaggerated lamentations
that if the general were passed over, ‘We shall all be ru-
ined.’ An incidental but favourable mention of his name in
Mr. Gould senior’s long correspondence with his son had
something to do with his appointment, too; but most of
all undoubtedly his established political honesty. No one
questioned the personal bravery of the Tiger-killer, as the
populace called him. He was, however, said to be unlucky
in the field—but this was to be the beginning of an era of
peace. The soldiers liked him for his humane temper, which
was like a strange and precious flower unexpectedly bloom-
ing on the hotbed of corrupt revolutions; and when he rode
slowly through the streets during some military display,
the contemptuous good humour of his solitary eye roaming
over the crowds extorted the acclamations of the populace.

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