University of Virginia Library

3. CHAPTER III.

It was nearly dawn when the Liberator left the city. That
night the bleaching skeleton of the venerable patriot Hermano
was taken down from the gibbet where it had hung so long, by
hands that left the revolutionary banner waving proudly in its
place. This was an event to startle the viceroy. It was followed
by other events. In a few days more, and the sounds of

insurrection were heard throughout the province — the city still
moving secretly — sending forth supplies and intelligence by
stealth, but unable to raise the standard of rebellion, while Zamano,
the viceroy, doubtful of its loyalty, remained in possession
of its strong places with an overawing force. Bolivar himself,
under these circumstances, was unwilling that the patriots
should throw aside the mask. Throughout the province, however,
the rising was general. They responded eagerly to the
call of the Liberator, and it was easy to foresee that their cause
must ultimately prevail. The people in conflict proved themselves
equal to their rulers. The Spaniards had been neither
moderate when strong, nor were they prudent now when the
conflict found them weak. Still, the successes were various.
The Spaniards had a foothold from which it was not easy to expel
them, and were in possession of resources, in arms and material,
derived from the mother-country, with which the republicans
found it no easy matter to contend. But they did contend,
and this, with the right upon their side, was the great guarantee
for success. What the Colombians wanted in the materials of
warfare, was more than supplied by their energy and patriotism;
and, however slow in attaining their desired object, it was yet
evident to all, except their enemies, that the issue was certainly
in their own hands.

For two years that the war had been carried on, the casual
observer could, perhaps, see but little change in the respective
relations of the combatants. The Spaniards still continued to
maintain their foothold wherever the risings of the patriots had
been premature or partial. But the resources of the former
were hourly undergoing diminution, and the great lessening of
the productions of the country, incident to its insurrectionary
condition, had subtracted largely from the temptations to the
further prosecution of the war. The hopes of the patriots naturally
rose with the depression of their enemies, and their increasing
numbers, and improving skill in the use of their weapons,
not a little contributed to their endurance and activity. But
for this history we must look to other volumes. The question
for us is confined to an individual. How, in all this time, had
La Pola redeemed her pledge to the Liberator — how had she
whom he had described as the “guardian genius of Bogota,”

adhered to the enthusiastic faith which she had voluntarily
pledged to him in behalf of herself and people?

Now, it may be supposed that a woman's promise, to participate
in the business of an insurrection, is not the thing upon
which much stress is to be laid. We are apt to assume for the
sex a too humble capacity for high performances, and a too
small sympathy with the interests and affairs of public life. In
both respects we are mistaken. A proper education for the sex
would result in showing their ability to share with man in all
his toils, and to sympathize with him in all the legitimate concerns
of manhood. But what, demands the caviller, can be expected
of a child of fifteen? and should her promises be held
against her for rigid fulfilment and performance? It might be
enough to answer that we are writing a sober history. There is
the record. The fact is as we give it. But a girl of fifteen, in
the warm latitude of South America, is quite as mature as the
northern maiden of twenty-five; with an ardor in her nature
that seems to wing the operations of the mind, making that intuitive
with her, which, in the person of a colder climate, is the
result only of long calculation and deliberate thought. She is
sometimes a mother at twelve, and, as in the case of La Pola, a
heroine at fifteen. We freely admit that Bolivar, though greatly
interested in the improvvisatrice, was chiefly grateful to her for
the timely rebuke which she administered, through her peculiar
faculty of lyric song, to the unpatriotic inactivity of her countrymen.
As a matter of course, he might still expect that the
same muse would take fire under similar provocation hereafter.
But he certainly never calculated on other and more decided
services at her hands. He misunderstood the being whom he
had somewhat contributed to inspire. He did not appreciate
her ambition, or comprehend her resources. From the moment
of his meeting with her she became a woman. She was already
a politician as she was a poet. Intrigue is natural to the genius
of the sex, and the faculty is enlivened by the possession of a
warm imagination. La Pola put all her faculties in requisition.
Her soul was now addressed to the achievement of some plan of
co-operation with the republican chief, and she succeeded, where
wiser persons must have failed, in compassing the desirable
facilities.

Living in Bogota — the stronghold of the enemy — she exercised
a policy and address which disarmed suspicion. Her father
and his family were to be saved and shielded, while they remained
under the power of the viceroy, Zamano — a military despot
who had already acquired a reputation for cruelty scarcely
inferior to that of the worst of the Roman emperors in the latter
days of the empire. The wealth of her father, partly known,
made him a desirable victim. Her beauty, her spirit, the charm
of her song and conversation, were exercised, as well to secure
favor for him, as to procure the needed intelligence and assistance
for the Liberator. She managed the twofold object with
admirable success — disarming suspicion, and, under cover of the
confidence which she inspired, succeeding in effecting constant
communication with the patriots, by which she put into their
possession all the plans of the Spaniards. Her rare talents and
beauty were the chief sources of her success. She subdued her
passionate and intense nature — her wild impulse and eager
heart — employing them only to impart to her fancy a more impressive
and spiritual existence. She clothed her genius in the
brightest and gayest colors, sporting above the precipice of feeling,
and making of it a background and a relief to heighten the
charm of her seemingly wilful fancy. Song came at her summons,
and disarmed the serious questioner. In the eyes of her
country's enemies she was only the improvvisatrice — a rarely
gifted creature, living in the clouds, and totally regardless of the
things of earth. She could thus beguile from the young officers
of the Spanish army, without provoking the slightest apprehension
of any sinister object, the secret plan and purpose — the
new supply — the contemplated enterprise — in short, a thousand
things which, as an inspired idiot, might be yielded to her with
indifference, which, in the case of one solicitous to know, would
be guarded with the most jealous vigilance. She was the princess
of the tertulia — that mode of evening entertainment so common,
yet so precious, among the Spaniards. At these parties
she ministered with a grace and influence which made the house
of her father a place of general resort. The Spanish gallants
thronged about her person, watchful of her every motion, and
yielding always to the exquisite compass, and delightful spirituality
of her song. At worst, they suspected her of no greater

offence than of being totally heartless, with all her charms, and
of aiming at no treachery more dangerous than that of making
conquests, simply to deride them. It was the popular qualification
of all her beauties and accomplishments that she was a coquette,
at once so cold, and so insatiate. Perhaps, the woman
politician never so thoroughly conceals her game as when she
masks it with the art which men are most apt to describe as the
prevailing passion of the sex.

By these arts, La Pola fulfilled most amply her pledges to
the liberator. She was, indeed, his most admirable ally in
Bogota. She soon became thoroughly conversant with all the
facts in the condition of the Spanish army — the strength of the
several armaments, their disposition and destination — the operations
in prospect, and the opinions and merits of the officers —
all of whom she knew, and from whom she obtained no small
knowledge of the worth and value of their absent comrades.
These particulars, all regularly transmitted to Bolivar, were
quite as much the secret of his success, as his own genius and
the valor of his troops. The constant disappointment and defeat
of the royalist arms, in the operations which were conducted
in the province of Bogota, attested the closeness and correctness
of her knowledge, and its vast importance to the cause of
the patriots.