The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gaspar Ruiz, by Joseph Conrad

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Title: Gaspar Ruiz

Author: Joseph Conrad

Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8736]
Posting Date: June 18, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GASPAR RUIZ ***

Produced by John Orford

GASPAR RUIZ

By Joseph Conrad

I

A Revolutionary war raises many strange characters out of the obscurity
which is the common lot of humble lives in an undisturbed state of
society.

Certain individualities grow into fame through their vices and their
virtues, or simply by their actions, which may have a temporary
importance; and then they become forgotten. The names of a few leaders
alone survive the end of armed strife and are further preserved in
history; so that, vanishing from men's active memories, they still exist
in books.

The name of General Santierra attained that cold, paper-and-ink
immortality. He was a South American of good family, and the books
published in his lifetime numbered him amongst the liberators of that
continent from the oppressive rule of Spain.

That long contest, waged for independence on one side and for dominion
on the other, developed, in the course of years and the vicissitudes of
changing fortune, the fierceness and inhumanity of a struggle for
life. All feelings of pity and compassion disappeared in the growth of
political hatred. And, as is usual in war, the mass of the people,
who had the least to gain by the issue, suffered most in their obscure
persons and their humble fortunes.

General Santierra began his service as lieutenant in the patriot army
raised and commanded by the famous San Martin, afterwards conqueror of
Lima and liberator of Peru. A great battle had just been fought on the
banks of the river Bio-Bio. Amongst the prisoners made upon the routed
Royalist troops there was a soldier called Gaspar Ruiz. His
powerful build and his big head rendered him remarkable amongst his
fellow-captives. The personality of the man was unmistakable. Some
months before, he had been missed from the ranks of Republican troops
after one of the many skirmishes which preceded the great battle