or
ally, who might, if allured by their foes, prove a terrible weapon against
them. But they found in Quiroga no submissive servant. So openly did he
disregard the injunctions of his superiors, that a corps of the principal
officers in the army entreated their general, Ocampo, to seize upon and
execute the rebellious Gaucho, but failed in inducing him to adopt their
advice. It was not long before he had occasion to repent his leniency, or
his weakness.

A mutiny having occurred among some troops at San Juan, a detachment was
sent against them, and with it Quiroga and his horsemen. The mutineers
proved victorious, and, headed by their ringleaders, Aldao and Corro,
continued their line of march towards the North. While Ocampo with his
beaten troops fell back to wait for reinforcements, Quiroga pursued the
retreating victors, harassed their rear, clogged their every movement, and
proved so formidable to the enemy, that Aldao, abandoning his companion,
made an arrangement with the government of La Rioja, by which he was to be
allowed free passage into San Luis, whither Quiroga was ordered to conduct
him. He joined Aldao.

And here, close upon the summit of the steep he has so easily ascended, we
cannot help pausing for an instant to reflect upon the singular
manifestation of _destiny_ in his life. History acquaints us with no
similar character who displayed so little forethought with such
astonishing results. He premeditated nothing, unless now and then a
murder. He took no trouble to form a plan of government, yet his authority
was unquestioned during many years in Mendoza, Cordova, and San Juan. Even
his most monstrous acts of perfidy appear to have been committed on the
spur of the moment, with less calculation than he gave to a game at cards.
Thrown upon the world with brutal passions scarcely controlled by a
particle of reason, whirled hither and thither in a general and fearful
cataclysm, he shows us preeminently the wonderful designs of Providence
carried into effect, as it were, by a succession of blind and sudden
impulses. In a community of established order the gallows would have put a
speedy check upon his misdeeds; in the Argentine Confederation of 1820 he
was gradually lifted, by an ever-rising tide of blood, to the eminence of
lawless power.

Only for a while, however; for the stream did not cease to rise. The flood
that had elevated him alone disregarded his commands. For a few moments he
might maintain hi