pavement. Wood blocks now. Sulaco National Bank there, with the sentry
boxes each side of the gate. Casa Avellanos this side, with all the
ground-floor windows shuttered. A wonderful woman lives there--Miss
Avellanos--the beautiful Antonia. A character, sir! A historical woman!
Opposite--Casa Gould. Noble gateway. Yes, the Goulds of the original
Gould Concession, that all the world knows of now. I hold seventeen of
the thousand-dollar shares in the Consolidated San Tome mines. All the
poor savings of my lifetime, sir, and it will be enough to keep me in
comfort to the end of my days at home when I retire. I got in on the
ground-floor, you see. Don Carlos, great friend of mine. Seventeen
shares--quite a little fortune to leave behind one, too. I have a
niece--married a parson--most worthy man, incumbent of a small parish in
Sussex; no end of children. I was never married myself. A sailor should
exercise self-denial. Standing under that very gateway, sir, with some
young engineer-fellows, ready to defend that house where we had received
so much kindness and hospitality, I saw the first and last charge of
Pedrito's horsemen upon Barrios's troops, who had just taken the Harbour
Gate. They could not stand the new rifles brought out by that poor
Decoud. It was a murderous fire. In a moment the street became blocked
with a mass of dead men and horses. They never came on again."

And all day Captain Mitchell would talk like this to his more or less
willing victim--

"The Plaza. I call it magnificent. Twice the area of Trafalgar Square."

From the very centre, in the blazing sunshine, he pointed out the
buildings--

"The Intendencia, now President's Palace--Cabildo, where the Lower
Chamber of Parliament sits. You notice the new houses on that side
of the Plaza? Compania Anzani, a great general store, like those
cooperative things at home. Old Anzani was murdered by the National
Guards in front of his safe. It was even for that specific crime that
the deputy Gamacho, commanding the Nationals, a bloodthirsty and
savage brute, was executed publicly by garrotte upon the sentence of
a court-martial ordered by Barrios. Anzani's nephews converted the
business into a company. All that side of the Plaza had been burnt; used
to be colonnaded before. A terrible fire, by the light of which I saw
the last of the fighting, the llaneros flying, the Nationals throwing
their arms down, and the miners of San Tome, all Indians from the
Sierra