Page 446 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

the hammock. With less confidence, but as ignorant as his
flock, he asked the major what did he think was going to
happen now.
Don Pepe, bolt upright in the chair, folded his hands
peacefully on the hilt of his sword, standing perpendicu-
lar between his thighs, and answered that he did not know.
The mine could be defended against any force likely to be
sent to take possession. On the other hand, from the arid
character of the valley, when the regular supplies from the
Campo had been cut off, the population of the three vil-
lages could be starved into submission. Don Pepe exposed
these contingencies with serenity to Father Roman, who, as
an old campaigner, was able to understand the reasoning
of a military man. They talked with simplicity and direct-
ness. Father Roman was saddened at the idea of his flock
being scattered or else enslaved. He had no illusions as to
their fate, not from penetration, but from long experience
of political atrocities, which seemed to him fatal and un-
avoidable in the life of a State. The working of the usual
public institutions presented itself to him most distinctly
as a series of calamities overtaking private individuals and
flowing logically from each other through hate, revenge,
folly, and rapacity, as though they had been part of a divine
dispensation. Father Roman’s clear-sightedness was served
by an uninformed intelligence; but his heart, preserving its
tenderness amongst scenes of carnage, spoliation, and vio-
lence, abhorred these calamities the more as his association
with the victims was closer. He entertained towards the In-
dians of the valley feelings of paternal scorn. He had been