the

result since Rosas had secured his position, and that was immediately after the defeat of Quiroga at the Lagona Lago. Had Gov. Paz secured his advantage at that moment, country would have existed thenceforth under a government of liberal laws; but the opportunity was lost, and the chains of the people were more closely riveted than they before had ever been during the existence of the country as a republic.

The dictator was now severely annoyed in his turn, and so fearful of assassination, that he forbade the citizens carrying arms near his residence. His fears of personal violence were indeed so great, that on various occasions of excitement he took refuge on board the English ship Calliope, and the vessel was at length quaintly denominated "Rosas' frigate." Hemmed in with a blockade on the one hand, and the discontented provinces on the other, his rage was unbounded, and, with a determination to quell the insurgents, he again had recourse to his system of impost upon the unlucky Unitarians of the city.

For a more effectual establishment of his authority, and as a further means of intimidation to the weak, Rosas, in the year 1839, caused a portrait of himself to be mounted in gorgeous trappings, upon a triumphal car, and thus drawn through the streets of the city. This instrument of tyranny was sometimes drawn by the wives and daughters of the men of the Massorca, and at other times it was drawn by the men themselves. The car was always followed by a procession of noisy wretches, who rent the air with the accustomed shout," Viva la Federacion, mueran los salvages Unitarians," (Life to the Federation-death to the savage Unitarians.) But this was not all; the mere exhibition of this picture to the populace, with all the attendant and disgusting paraphernalia that I have named, did not suffice-sacrilege must be added to the list of enormities. The picture was conveyed from church to church, at each of which it was received by

the priests with a show of even devotional respect. It was conveyed through the sacred aisles amid the sounds of the organ, the anthem, and of prayer. It has been consecrated with incense, decorated for the celebration of high mass, and placed upon the altar by the side of the crucified Saviour; and thus with sacrilegious rites, and disgusting hypocrisy, worshipped, through fear, almost as a deity. This wicked mummery was continued from time to time during my stay, viz. till 1841, during all of which time the subject of this impious adulation was continually washing his hands in the blood of the people.

All public documents, custom-house permits, &c., were stamped in crimson characters with the words, "Mueran los salvages Unitarians." ."* The same sentence was painted above the doors of the courts of justice, and other public buildings; and, in short, nothing was left undone that was calculated to awe with dread, or excite his emissaries to an exterminating hatred against his political opponents.

The Massorca were in constant requisition, and committed their depredations in the most bold and outrageous manner. Ruin stared every citizen in the face, business was at a stand, the people by thousands fled the town, and a scene of desolation and terror followed that was truly terrible. So completely was the city deserted, in order to avoid the scenes of danger and exaction, that grass sprang up in the streets and thoroughfares, and people talked one with another of their oppression. They said, "This quarrel of Rosas with the French is not our quarrel, we have no hand in it; it is the quarrel of one man that brings us to this condition. us see if the representatives will not listen to us, and give us relief from this ruinous oppression; we have borne it long enough."

Let

Private tertulias were accordingly held, at which President

* Death to the savage Unitarians.

At

Masa and other members of the House were invited. these meetings the affairs of the country were fully discussed, and a restriction of the executive power was the most prominent object of reform that was suggested. This it was proposed to effect by legislative action, and measures were taken to obtain such a vote in the house of representatives as would accomplish the object.

CHAPTER XXII.

Story of Cienfuego.

AMONG the horrors of the time-horrors enacted by a man whose guilty conscience turned each shadow to a foe-stands boldly conspicuous the story of the youthful Cienfuego; more especially so, however, on account of the attendant circumstances of his position and death, than the mere fact that he was one of the murdered.

This man was about twenty-five years of age; a native of Buenos Ayres; and being of one of those families that had been reduced by the convulsions of the times, resided with a sister, (his only remaining relative in the province,) in unostentatious and retired apartments. An earnest and devoted attachment to the Doña Fortunata wealthy Don Carlos

-, daughter to the

who had formerly been an intimate and attached friend of his father, held him to the city that he would gladly have left, in search of a more peaceful abode, even though that city was the home of his nativity. But the affections of the heart are ever more potent than its fears or its regrets, and when those holy influences are in the ascendant, there is no earthly power that can awe them into submission.

The events here related, of the fate of this young man, were gleaned from persons who witnessed them, and may be relied on as substantially true.

Cienfuego, who often visited the house of his beloved, was on one occasion surprised, by a request on the part of her father, that his visits might be discontinued Prior to this

Don Carlos had never interposed the slightest objection to the growing attachment that was evidently existing between the young couple; and this sudden and unexpected repulse, filled the mind of the lover with painful astonishment. In a tone of remonstrance, he said

Why is this, noble señor? Surely I have given you no offence !"

None, my young friend," replied the father; "but it is my wish that you shall visit my daughter no more."

"Alas, I know my crime, señor," said Cienfuego; "it is that of poverty; but, I entreat of you, do not turn me hopeless from your door on that account. Say it is but that, and I shall go forth cheerfully, and with a glad heart struggle with fortune, until my circumstances shall enable me to claim and protect the object of my soul's affection. I pray you let me see her now, señor, that I may assure her of my unabated attachment, and beg that she will not forget me in my exile."

"That cannot be,” replied Don Carlos ; "I have already told my daughter that she must see you no more."

"For the love that my father bore to you, I pray, señor, that you will not turn me thus in disgrace from your door! What have I done to cause this cruel change in your demeanor? What can I do to restore your former confidence? Am I too young? I will wait your pleasure. Am I poor? I will gain riches: but for heaven's sake do not forbid me to hope!"

"You must forget each other," was the cold response of the unyielding father.

That, señor, can never be; you have not power over the mind, Don Carlos, and, despite your cruel mandate, I shall still think of and love my Fortunata. Again, in the name of the man whom you once loved, my own lamented father, I entreat your forbearance."

"If

you respect the memory of your deceased father," said