he towns, disarmed through mistrust on the part of a
weak government, fell easy prey into his hands--at his approach the
fields were abandoned by the farmers, the herds were scattered, while
a trail of blood and fire marked his passage. _Matanglawin_ laughed at
the severe measures ordered by the government against the tulisanes,
since from them only the people in the outlying villages suffered,
being captured and maltreated if they resisted the band, and if they
made peace with it being flogged and deported by the government,
provided they completed the journey and did not meet with a fatal
accident on the way. Thanks to these terrible alternatives many of
the country folk decided to enlist under his command.

As a result of this reign of terror, trade among the towns, already
languishing, died out completely. The rich dared not travel, and
the poor feared to be arrested by the Civil Guard, which, being
under obligation to pursue the tulisanes, often seized the first
person encountered and subjected him to unspeakable tortures. In its
impotence, the government put on a show of energy toward the persons
whom it suspected, in order that by force of cruelty the people should
not realize its weakness--the fear that prompted such measures.

A string of these hapless suspects, some six or seven, with their
arms tied behind them, bound together like a bunch of human meat,
was one afternoon marching through the excessive heat along a road
that skirted a mountain, escorted by ten or twelve guards armed with
rifles. Their bayonets gleamed in the sun, the barrels of their rifles
became hot, and even the sage-leaves in their helmets scarcely served
to temper the effect of the deadly May sun.

Deprived of the use of their arms and pressed close against one
another to save rope, the prisoners moved along almost uncovered and
unshod, he being the best off who had a handkerchief twisted around
his head. Panting, suffering, covered with dust which perspiration
converted into mud, they felt their brains melting, they saw lights
dancing before them, red spots floating in the air. Exhaustion and
dejection were pictured in their faces, desperation, wrath, something
indescribable, the look of one who dies cursing, of a man who is
weary of life, who hates himself, who blasphemes against God. The
strongest lowered their heads to rub their faces against the dusky
backs of those in front of them and thus wipe away the sweat that
was blinding