the subject of an earnest talk between
the Dictator-President and the Nestor-inspirer of the party. But Don Vincente, a
doctor of philosophy from the Cordova University, seemed to have an exaggerated
respect for military ability, whose mysteriousness - since it appeared to be
altogether independent of intellect - imposed upon his imagination. The victor
of Rio Seco was a popular hero. His services were so recent that the
President-Dictator quailed before the obvious charge of political ingratitude.
Great regenerating transactions were being initiated - the fresh loan, a new
railway line, a vast colonization scheme. Anything that could unsettle the
public opinion in the capital was to be avoided. Don José bowed to these
arguments and tried to dismiss from his mind the gold-laced portent in boots,
and with a sabre, made meaningless now at last, he hoped, in the new order of
things.
    Less than six months after the President-Dictator's visit, Sulaco learned
with stupefaction of the military revolt in the name of national honour. The
Minister of War, in a barrack-square allocution to the officers of the artillery
regiment he had been inspecting, had declared the national honour sold to
foreigners. The Dictator, by his weak compliance with the demands of the
European powers - for the settlement of long outstanding money claims - had
showed himself unfit to rule. A letter from Moraga explained afterwards that the
initiative, and even the very text, of the incendiary allocution came, in
reality, from the other Montero, the ex-guerillero, the Commandante de Plaza.
The energetic treatment of Dr. Monygham, sent for in haste to the mountain, who
came galloping three leagues in the dark, saved Don José from a dangerous attack
of jaundice.
    After getting over the shock, Don José refused to let himself be prostrated.
Indeed, better news succeeded at first. The revolt in the capital had been
suppressed after a night of fighting in the streets. Unfortunately, both the
Monteros had been able to make their escape south, to their native province of
Entre-Montes. The hero of the forest march, the victor of Rio Seco, had been
received with frenzied acclamations in Nicoya, the provincial capital. The
troops in garrison there had gone to him in a body. The brothers were organizing
an army, gathering malcontents, sending emissaries primed with patriotic lies to
the people, and with promises of plunder to the wild llaneros. Even a Monterist
press had come into existence, speaking oracularly of the secret promises of
support given by our great sister Republic of the North against the sinister
land-grabbing designs of