Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
A man singled out by his fellow-citizens for the honorable nickname of El Rey de Sulaco could not but receive a full recognition from an imperial democracy as
a great captain of industry and a person of weighty
counsel, whose popular designation would be soon replaced by a more solid title. "Eh, Don Carlos? No!
What do you say? Conde de Sulaco, eh?—or marquis . . ."
He ceased. The air was cool on the Plaza, where a patrol of cavalry rode round and round without penetrating into the streets, which resounded with shouts and the strumming of guitars issuing from the open doors of pulperias. The orders were not to interfere with the enjoyments of the people. And above the roofs, next to the perpendicular lines of the cathedral towers, the snowy curve of Higuerota blocked a large space of darkening blue sky before the windows of the In- tendencia. After a time Pedrito Montero, thrusting his hand in the bosom of his coat, bowed his head with slow dignity. The audience was over.
Charles Gould, on going out, passed his hand over his forehead as if to disperse the mists of an oppressive dream whose grotesque extravagance leaves behind a subtle sense of bodily danger and intellectual decay. In the passages and on the staircases of the old palace Montero's troopers lounged about insolently, smoking, and making way for no one; the clanking of sabres and spurs resounded all over the building. Three silent groups of civilians in severe black waited in the main gallery, formal and helpless, a little huddled up, each keeping apart from the others, as if in the exercise of a public duty they had been over-
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