Page 434 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

court, and had conceived the idea of an existence for him-
self where, like the Duc de Morny, he would associate the
command of every pleasure with the conduct of political
affairs and enjoy power supremely in every way. Nobody
could have guessed that. And yet this was one of the imme-
diate causes of the Monterist Revolution. This will appear
less incredible by the reflection that the fundamental causes
were the same as ever, rooted in the political immaturity
of the people, in the indolence of the upper classes and the
mental darkness of the lower.
Pedrito Montero saw in the elevation of his brother the
road wide open to his wildest imaginings. This was what
made the Monterist pronunciamiento so unpreventable.
The general himself probably could have been bought off,
pacified with flatteries, despatched on a diplomatic mis-
sion to Europe. It was his brother who had egged him on
from first to last. He wanted to become the most brilliant
statesman of South America. He did not desire supreme
power. He would have been afraid of its labour and risk, in
fact. Before all, Pedrito Montero, taught by his European
experience, meant to acquire a serious fortune for himself.
With this object in view he obtained from his brother, on
the very morrow of the successful battle, the permission to
push on over the mountains and take possession of Sulaco.
Sulaco was the land of future prosperity, the chosen land
of material progress, the only province in the Republic of
interest to European capitalists. Pedrito Montero, follow-
ing the example of the Duc de Morny, meant to have his
share of this prosperity. This is what he meant literally. Now