tion that gave him a
new lease of life, as it were. Already, at the time of the
President-Dictator's visit to Sulaco, Moraga had sounded a note of
warning from Sta. Marta about the War Minister. Montero and his brother
made 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 Jose 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 Jose
from a dangerous attack of jaundice.

After getting over the shock, Don Jose 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
th