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Then suddenly, at once, his fear left him; upon the road, that he knew was not two hundred yards away, he distinctly heard the cadenced tramp of marching men. Immediately it flashed across his mind as a certainty that they were the troops from Grand-Pre, whose coming had been awaited with such anxiety General Dumont bringing in Bordas' brigade.
Two hours later a courier came galloping in, breathless with terror, to announce that General Bordas had positive information that the enemy were on the Vouziers road, and dared not leave Grand-Pre.
His designation did not please the Jimenistas, and the Horacistas also became hostile when it appeared that President Bordas contemplated forming a party of his own. His opponents promptly rose in the Cibao and took possession of the ports of Puerto Plata, Sanchez and Samana, which were thereupon blockaded by the government forces.
Bordas' brigade had followed the 4th hussars into the abandoned passes of the Argonne, and was supposed to have got itself into trouble; the division had gone to its assistance, and that had been succeeded by the corps, and that by the entire army, and all those movements had amounted to nothing.
The rumor spread that General Bordas had sent in a courier to announce that he had encountered the enemy in force at Grand-Pre and had been compelled to fall back on Buzancy, which gave cause to apprehend that he might soon be cut off from retreat on Vouziers.
A municipal election was in fact held, but President Bordas, alleging that conditions were too unsettled for a general presidential election, held on as president de facto beyond the term for which he had been provisionally elected. On the day his term ended, April 13, 1914, another revolution broke out and rapidly spread to all parts of the Republic.
For the purpose of bringing order and efficiency into the collection and disbursement of the public revenues of Santo Domingo, the American government in 1913 urged that it be permitted to designate an American comptroller and financial adviser and the Bordas administration at length consented, but as there was no legal authority for such action and as the appointee was not characterized by unusual ability, the Jimenez administration declined to continue the arrangement.
Again the American government lent its good offices for the restoration of order. In August, 1914, a commission of three delegates of the United States arrived in Santo Domingo to present a plan for the resignation of Bordas, the selection of a provisional president by the chiefs of the several political parties, a revision of the election law, and the holding of general elections.
There had been an issue of bread, meat, and forage the day before, thanks to the efficient mayor of Vouziers, and about ten o'clock that morning permission had been granted the men to make soup, in the fear that they might not soon again have so good an opportunity, when another movement of troops, the departure of Bordas' brigade over the road taken by the hussars, set all tongues wagging afresh.
The Dominican Congress immediately considered the choice of a temporary successor and after many ballots elected a compromise candidate, General Jose Bordas Valdez, an Horacista senator from Monte Cristi, as provisional president for a period of one year. He assumed office April 14, 1913.
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