time of the catastrophe), but I was told for the third time to close my shop and mount guard in the character of ensign of militia, to which rank I had of late been promoted. I was very much opposed to that guard, and over my own signature I complained of the service, and used the expression, 'with which we are oppressed.' I was at once relieved of the guard, and summoned into the presence of the colonel of the army of Chili, Don Manuel Quiroga, then Governor of San Juan, who at the moment was taking his ease, seated in the court-yard of the Government House. This circumstance and my extreme youth (sixteen), naturally authorized the Governor, on speaking to me, to keep his seat, and keep on his hat. But it was the first time I had presented myself before one in authority. I was young, ignorant of life, haughty by education, and perhaps by my daily contact with Caesar, Cicero, and other favorite personages, and as the Governor did not answer my respectful salute, before answering his question, 'Is this your signature, sir?' I hurriedly lifted my hat, intentionally put it on again, and answered resolutely, 'Yes, sir.'
"The dumb scene that followed would have perplexed the spectator, doubting which was the chief and which the subaltern, who were defying each other by their glances, the eyes of each wide open and fixed upon each other; the Governor endeavoring to make me cast down mine by the flashes of anger that gleamed from his own, and I with mine fixed unwinking, to make him understand that his rage was aimed at a soul fortified against all intimidation. I conquered, and in a transport of anger, he called an aide-de-camp and sent me to prison.
"Friends flew to see me, among them Laspuir, now minister, who was very fond of me; he advised me to do what he had always done, yield before difficulties. My father came soon, and after I had told him the story, he said,
