lf up to an
enormous sword and was hung all over with revolvers. He is ridiculous,
but the bravest German of his size that ever tapped the key of a Morse
transmitter. He had received the message from Cayta reporting the
transports with Barrios's army just entering the port, and ending with
the words, 'The greatest enthusiasm prevails.' I walked off to drink
some water at the fountain, and I was shot at from the Alameda by
somebody hiding behind a tree. But I drank, and didn't care; with
Barrios in Cayta and the great Cordillera between us and Montero's
victorious army I seemed, notwithstanding Messrs. Gamacho and Fuentes,
to hold my new State in the hollow of my hand. I was ready to sleep, but
when I got as far as the Casa Gould I found the patio full of wounded
laid out on straw. Lights were burning, and in that enclosed courtyard
on that hot night a faint odour of chloroform and blood hung about.
At one end Doctor Monygham, the doctor of the mine, was dressing the
wounds; at the other, near the stairs, Father Corbelan, kneeling,
listened to the confession of a dying Cargador. Mrs. Gould was walking
about through these shambles with a large bottle in one hand and a
lot of cotton wool in the other. She just looked at me and never even
winked. Her camerista was following her, also holding a bottle, and
sobbing gently to herself.

"I busied myself for some time in fetching water from the cistern for
the wounded. Afterwards I wandered upstairs, meeting some of the first
ladies of Sulaco, paler than I had ever seen them before, with bandages
over their arms. Not all of them had fled to the ships. A good many had
taken refuge for the day in the Casa Gould. On the landing a girl, with
her hair half down, was kneeling against the wall under the niche where
stands a Madonna in blue robes and a gilt crown on her head. I think
it was the eldest Miss Lopez; I couldn't see her face, but I remember
looking at the high French heel of her little shoe. She did not make
a sound, she did not stir, she was not sobbing; she remained there,
perfectly still, all black against the white wall, a silent figure of
passionate piety. I am sure she was no more frightened than the other
white-faced ladies I met carrying bandages. One was sitting on the top
step tearing a piece of linen hastily into strips--the young wife of an
elderly man of fortune here. She interrupted herself to wave her hand to
my bow, as though she were in her carriage on the A