gave them no
thanks. On the contrary, he ordered them to be executed for not having
returned to their regiments before!

Towards the end of the war scarcely a man of mature age and whole body
was left in the ranks. These were filled largely now by youths and,
indeed, mere boys. Many children of twelve and fourteen were to be found
in the later stages of the war carrying their rifles and fighting with
the rest, while the women of the country, including in their numbers all
those of good estate and of gentle birth were, under the guardianship of
lancers, set to march through the desolate forest tracts and over the
countryside in order to establish new agricultural colonies. Here they
were made to dig the soil and to plant cereals and sweet potatoes in
order that the armies might be fed; and should any one of these women on
the march fall by the wayside, her body was transfixed by the spear of
one of the escort as an example to the rest. Thus the roadway was
littered with the corpses of these slain women.

All this while Lopez was sufficiently busy in his own way. His dreams of
Empire appear to have died hard, and not until the very end came could
he be brought to believe that his armies could effect no more. He
permitted his own comforts to be very little affected by the dire
hardships which his troops--and, indeed, the entire nation--were
undergoing. Although he refrained as much as possible from entering into
the neighbourhood of the battles themselves, he took an important share
in the direction of the campaign, and it was undoubtedly owing largely
to his crass ineptitude in all strategical matters that many of the
disasters came about. Although some of his moves were of the nature to
render surrender or death inevitable to the actual combatants engaged in
the grim struggle, a capitulation on the part of one of his officers
was, in the eyes of Lopez, an unpardonable crime, and not only was the
offending officer himself wont to be executed on account of the deed,
but on several occasions his family was made to share his fate.

Seeing that the male members and connections of his own family had
suffered tortures and execution at his hands, and that even his sisters
had been flogged by his orders, it was not to be expected that the
average Paraguayan would meet with mercy from Lopez. Certainly it is no
exaggeration to say that none was ever shown unless with some special
object in view. There is no doubt that a Paraguaya