nent; then came hard fighting, and the cavalry charged again and again, but in vain. That mass of horsemen, though surrounding the eight hundred veterans, were driven back every moment, and compelled to return to the charge. The lance of Quiroga forcing back his own retreating men, caused as much terror in the rear of his army as the guns and swords of the enemy in front. But all was in vain; it was like the raging billows of the sea beating against a rough, motionless rock; sometimes, indeed, it is engulfed by the angry waves, but its black summit presently reappears firm and unshaken. Of the eight hundred auxiliaries only sixty survived, and of the six hundred red cavalry, not a third were living; the numerous other companies lost all discipline, and fled in every direction. Facundo retreated to the city, and the next day lay with his guns and infantry like a tiger in ambush: but all was soon over, and fifteen hundred dead bodies proved how obstinate the contest had been on both sides.
The battles of Tablada and Cordova were trials of strength between the provincial and city forces under their great leaders, Facundo and Paz, worthy representatives of the two powers which were struggling for dominion in the Republic. Facundo, ignorant, barbarous, for the greater part of his life an outlaw, and famous only for his acts of desperation; brave to rashness, endowed with herculean strength, always upon his horse, which he managed skillfully through terror and violence, knowing no other power than that of brute force, had no faith but in his horse, and dependent for success upon bravery, the lance, and the terrible charges of his cavalry. In all the Argentine Republic
