Page 399 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

Meantime, the exodus had begun. Carretas full of la-
dies and children rolled swaying across the Plaza, with men
walking or riding by their side; mounted parties followed
on mules and horses; the poorest were setting out on foot,
men and women carrying bundles, clasping babies in their
arms, leading old people, dragging along the bigger chil-
dren. When Charles Gould, after leaving the doctor and the
engineer at the Casa Viola, entered the town by the harbour
gate, all those that had meant to go were gone, and the oth-
ers had barricaded themselves in their houses. In the whole
dark street there was only one spot of flickering lights and
moving figures, where the Senor Administrador recognized
his wife’s carriage waiting at the door of the Avellanos’s
house. He rode up, almost unnoticed, and looked on with-
out a word while some of his own servants came out of the
gate carrying Don Jose Avellanos, who, with closed eyes
and motionless features, appeared perfectly lifeless. His
wife and Antonia walked on each side of the improvised
stretcher, which was put at once into the carriage. The two
women embraced; while from the other side of the lan-
dau Father Corbelan’s emissary, with his ragged beard all
streaked with grey, and high, bronzed cheek-bones, stared,
sitting upright in the saddle. Then Antonia, dry-eyed, got
in by the side of the stretcher, and, after making the sign
of the cross rapidly, lowered a thick veil upon her face. The
servants and the three or four neighbours who had come
to assist, stood back, uncovering their heads. On the box,
Ignacio, resigned now to driving all night (and to having
perhaps his throat cut before daylight) looked back surlily

Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard