for their misdeeds, had not the monk, chief of the mountain guerrillas, appeared and interceded for them with San Martin, urging as a consideration his own past services. Francisco, after the battle of Agacucho, in which he served under Bolivar, returned to Chili, where he was engaged by Rivadavia's agents to go to Mendoza and organize a force to dislodge Facundo Quiroga, who had taken possession of San Juan. For Quiroga, having heard something of the agitation among the Catholics, lost no time in raising a black flag with a red cross upon it, and the words, "Religion or Death!" though it is very certain that he did nothing for the benefit of religion anywhere, and equally true that violence and death constantly followed his footsteps. It is singular to see how these restless Caudillos looked for some pretense to disguise their vague, undefined ambition.
A letter addressed to Quiroga by one of his partisans contains this statement: "We can't do anything more with 'Religion or Death,' general, it no longer makes an impression; confederation is the word for us now; let us have a Constitution, and we will carry it at the point of the bayonet." Yet Quiroga was assassinated while endeavoring to pursuade the Unitarios to join him for the purpose of destroying Rosas and the Federals.
Francisco Aldao arrived at Mendoza with ten thousand dollars, which he had received beforehand for the enterprise against Quiroga; but a consultation with his brothers caused him to change his mind, and keeping the money, he joined with them in forming the military trio from which Mendoza suffered so many
