“During that first conversation he never removed his big hands from the sword-hilt, except once, to arrange the coverings about her, with gentle, careful touches.  They noticed that whenever she spoke he would fix his eyes upon her in a kind of expectant, breathless attention, and seemingly forget the existence of the world and his own existence, too.  In the course of the farewell banquet, at which she was present reclining on her couch, he burst forth into complaints of the treatment he had received.  After General San Martin’s departure he had been beset by spies, slandered by civil officials, his services ignored, his liberty and even his life threatened by the Chilian Government.  He got up from the table, thundered execrations pacing the room wildly, then sat down on the couch at his wife’s feet, his breast heaving, his eyes fixed on the floor.  She reclined on her back, her head on the cushions, her eyes nearly closed.

“‘And now I am an honoured Spanish officer,’ he added in a calm voice.

“The captain of the English frigate then took the opportunity to inform him gently that Lima had fallen, and that by the terms of a convention the Spaniards were withdrawing from the whole continent.

“Gaspar Ruiz raised his head, and without hesitation, speaking with suppressed vehemence, declared that if not a single Spanish soldier were left in the whole of South America he would persist in carrying on the contest against Chile to the last drop of blood.  When he finished that mad tirade his wife’s long white hand was raised, and she just caressed his knee with the tips of her fingers for a fraction of a second.

“For the rest of the officers’ stay, which did not extend for more than half an hour after the banquet, that ferocious chieftain of a desperate partida overflowed with amiability and kindness.  He had been hospitable before, but now it seemed as though he could not do enough for the comfort and safety of his visitors’ journey back to their ship.

“Nothing, I have been told, could have presented a greater contrast to his late violence or the habitual taciturn reserve of his manner.  Like a man elated beyond measure by an unexpected happiness, he overflowed with good-will, amiability, and attentions.  He embraced the officers like brothers, almost with tears in his eyes.  The released prisoners were presented each with a piece of gold.  At the last moment, suddenly, he declared he could do no less than restore to the masters of the merchant vessels all their private property.  This unexpected generosity caused some delay in the departure of the party, and their first march was very short.