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Señora Paez told me that in only a few years before he came, and her great-grandfather and his father with him, those priests cut up more than twenty thousand men, women, and children. He's a curious kind of god, I should say, to sit there and grin while it was going on."
Señora Paez, however, calmly replied: "Ah, Colonel Rodriguez, my dear friend, the President himself has said that, after he has beaten them at the northern border, as he surely will, the Americans are sure to make another attempt by way of Vera Cruz. That, too, was the opinion of our brave friend, Colonel Guerra, and he is making every preparation for a siege.
He then continued on his way to Venezuela, learning that Paez, who was openly opposed to the most cherished ideas of Bolivar, had convoked a Venezuelan constitutional congress to meet in Valencia on the 15th day of January, 1827. Appreciating the type of man he was to face, Bolivar gathered a small army, to be prepared for contingencies.
He went steadily, moreover, as if he might have business rather than pleasure on his hands, and he did not pull in his pony until he had reached the front of the Paez mansion. There was no one on the piazza but a short, fat old woman, in a blazing red cotton gown, who sprang to her feet almost as if he had frightened her, exclaiming: "Señor Carfora!" "Dola!" he responded, sharply.
The House endorsed the accusation and submitted it to the Senate, which suspended Paez from his post and summoned him to the capital. Paez refused to appear, but at last was obliged to leave his command and retire to Valencia as a private citizen.
The first, commanded by General Paez, contained the Cazadores Britannicus, or British Light Infantry, numbering 800 men, and 100 of the Irish Legion. This division, with the local troops, was of 3,100 men. The second, commanded by Cadeno, consisted of 1,800; and the third, led by Ambrosio Plaza, was composed of the Rifles, a regiment officered by Englishmen, and other regiments, in all 2,500 men.
When Bolivar arrived at the point in question with the army, he found that there were no boats ready. When Paez was questioned by the Libertador, he replied: "Oh, yes, Sir, I am counting on the boats." "But where are they?" Bolivar asked. "The enemy has them," said Paez, indicating some royalists' launches and canoes across the river.
It was Paez who had led his Llanero cavalry so often to victory against the Spaniards, and who, as already related in these pages, had achieved the unique feat of capturing a flotilla of Spanish gunboats or, to be more accurate, gun-barges by means of this very cavalry.
A number of other prominent patriot leaders now came forward to assist Bolivar and his comrades, among these being Nariño, who proved himself victorious in many fights against the Royalists. At length, in 1821, Bolivar and Paez effected a junction of their forces, and marched to meet the Spanish army.
"My dear young friend," said Señora Paez, "you will find plenty of the books you wish for. My husband was fond of collecting them. After dinner, the señorita will show you the library, and you may read anything there."
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