Everything was put in requisition for the coming campaign, and it was found unnecessary to go to the banks of the La Plata for a good battle-field. General Paz, with eight hundred veterans, had gone to Cordova, fought and conquered Bustos, and taken possession of the city, which was but a step from the Llanos, and within reach of the cries from the "montoneras" of the Sierra Cordova.
Facundo hastened his preparations; he longed for a personal encounter with a one-armed general who could not manage a lance or flourish a sword. What could Paz hope for in an encounter with the conqueror of Colonel Madrid? Facundo was to be joined by Don Felix Aldao, a friar general from Mendoza, with a regiment of trained auxiliaries equipped entirely in red; and without waiting for a force of seven hundred regulars from San Juan, he set out for Cordova with four thousand men, eager to measure arms with the cuirassiers of the second division and their officers.
The battle of Tablada is so well known that details are unnecessary. It has been brilliantly described in the "Revue des deux Mondes;" but there is one fact worth remembering. Facundo attacked the city with all his army, and was repulsed for a day and night by one hundred young clerks, thirty mechanics, and seven sick soldiers, from behind slight breastworks defended by only four pieces of artillery. And it was only when he announced his intention of burning the beautiful city, that they consented to surrender the place. Knowing that Paz was approaching, he left his infantry as useless, and went out to meet him with a cavalry force at least three times as large as the army of his oppo-
