 could lead his troops
into battle very well with a simple stick in his hand. »It has been my custom
ever since,« he would say.
    He was always overwhelmed with debts; even during the periods of splendour
in his varied fortunes of a Costaguana general, when he held high military
commands, his gold-laced uniforms were almost always in pawn with some
tradesman. And at last, to avoid the incessant difficulties of costume caused by
the anxious lenders, he had assumed a disdain of military trappings, an
eccentric fashion of shabby old tunics, which had become like a second nature.
But the faction Barrios joined needed to fear no political betrayal. 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 lucrative Occidental command, mainly through the exertions of his
creditors (the Sta. Marta shopkeepers, all great politicians), who moved heaven
and earth in his interest publicly, and privately besieged Señor Moraga, the
influential agent of the San Tomé mine, with the exaggerated lamentations that
if the general were passed over, We shall all be ruined. 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 blooming 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. The women of that class especially seemed
positively fascinated by the long dropping nose, the peaked chin, the heavy
lower lip, the black silk eye-patch and band slanting rakishly over the
forehead. His high rank always procured an audience of Caballeros for his
sporting stories, which he detailed very well with a simple, grave enjoyment. As
to the society of ladies, it was irksome by the restraints it imposed without
any equivalent, as far as he could see. He had not,
