and that it would be treason to question their capability, even when ill. Aldao governed Mendoza to the last, and that without attending to anything but his own health. As his death approached, he would not remain alone for a moment, tormented as he was by the terrors of his imagination, and a number of the citizens were obliged to take turns in watching with him. One night he sprang from his bed and rushed in among them with a pair of pistols in his hands. They without waiting to see that the wretched creature was a prey to his own fears, and not attacking them, fled out of the house and the town, and could with difficulty be induced to return the next day. And these were the citizens of the Argentine Republic who had offended other states by their arrogant pride! These were the people who had irritated Bolivar by their overbearing manners! And now they stumbled over one another in their haste to run away from a sick monk!
At length, after months of acute suffering, the cancer caused the bursting of a vein, and the hemorrhage continued until he expired on the 18th of January—in retribution perhaps for the blood of the people which had flowed without stint at his command. Some say that he went back to the church and died penitent, leaving a large part of his wealth to the Dominican order, to which he had belonged. According to the obituary notices he made Rosas his testamentary executor; as the Roman proconsuls, dying in the provinces of the empire, used to leave their wealth to the emperor, together with the government of the provinces. These two contradictory statements prove at least one thing, that at his death there was still a question whether
