Nostromo - A Tale of the Seaboard.pdf - Planet eBook

costume caused by the anxious lenders, he had assumed adisdain of military trappings, an eccentric fashion of shabbyold tunics, which had become like a second nature. Butthe faction Barrios joined needed to fear no political betrayal.He was too much of a real soldier for the ignoble trafficof buying and selling victories. A member of the foreigndiplomatic body in Sta. Marta had once passed a judgmentupon him: ‘Barrios is a man of perfect honesty and evenof some talent for war, mais il manque de tenue.’ After thetriumph of the Ribierists he had obtained the reputedly lucrativeOccidental command, mainly through the exertionsof his creditors (the Sta. Marta shopkeepers, all great politicians),who moved heaven and earth in his interest publicly,and privately besieged Senor Moraga, the influential agentof the San Tome mine, with the exaggerated lamentationsthat if the general were passed over, ‘We shall all be ruined.’An incidental but favourable mention of his name inMr. Gould senior’s long correspondence with his son hadsomething to do with his appointment, too; but most ofall undoubtedly his established political honesty. No onequestioned the personal bravery of the Tiger-killer, as thepopulace called him. He was, however, said to be unluckyin the field—but this was to be the beginning of an era ofpeace. The soldiers liked him for his humane temper, whichwas like a strange and precious flower unexpectedly bloomingon the hotbed of corrupt revolutions; and when he rodeslowly through the streets during some military display,the contemptuous good humour of his solitary eye roamingover the crowds extorted the acclamations of the populace.