CHAPTER IX.
CIVIL WAR. TABLADA, A CITY.
"There is a fourth element coming; they are the barbarians, new hordes who come to throw themselves upon the old society with complete freshness of manners, soul and spirit, and who have as yet done nothing, but are ready to receive everything with the aptitude of the most suave and naive ignorance."—Cherminier.
The presidency had fallen amid the hissings and rejoicings of its enemies. Dorrego, the able leader of the opposition in Buenos Ayres, was the friend of the governors of the interior, who were his abettors and supporters in the Provincial Congress in which he was triumphant. Victory was no longer with the Republic in its foreign wars; and, though its arms had met with no disasters in Brazil, the necessity for peace was everywhere felt. The opposition of the provincial leaders had weakened the army by destroying regiments, or refusing to furnish recruits. An apparent tranquillity reigned in the interior, but the earth trembled; strange rumors were afloat. The newspapers of Buenos Ayres were filled with gloomy prophecies. Threats came alike from the government and the opposition. The administration of Dorrego began to show a want of strength, because the party of the city, called Federal, which had established it, had not the power to sustain itself with honor after the fall of the residency. The new administration, far from resolving any of the
