Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

PART THIRD: THE LIGHTHOUSE 5. CHAPTER FIVE (continued)

And Senor Fuentes, puffing out his leathery cheeks, had inclined
his head slightly to the left, letting a thin, bluish jet of
smoke escape through his pursed lips. He had understood.

His Excellency was exasperated at the devastation. Not a single
chair, table, sofa, etagere or console had been left in the state
rooms of the Intendencia. His Excellency, though twitching all
over with rage, was restrained from bursting into violence by a
sense of his remoteness and isolation. His heroic brother was
very far away. Meantime, how was he going to take his siesta? He
had expected to find comfort and luxury in the Intendencia after
a year of hard camp life, ending with the hardships and
privations of the daring dash upon Sulaco--upon the province
which was worth more in wealth and influence than all the rest of
the Republic's territory. He would get even with Gamacho
by-and-by. And Senor Gamacho's oration, delectable to popular
ears, went on in the heat and glare of the Plaza like the uncouth
howlings of an inferior sort of devil cast into a white-hot
furnace. Every moment he had to wipe his streaming face with his
bare fore-arm; he had flung off his coat, and had turned up the
sleeves of his shirt high above the elbows; but he kept on his
head the large cocked hat with white plumes. His ingenuousness
cherished this sign of his rank as Commandante of the National
Guards. Approving and grave murmurs greeted his periods. His
opinion was that war should be declared at once against France,
England, Germany, and the United States, who, by introducing
railways, mining enterprises, colonization, and under such other
shallow pretences, aimed at robbing poor people of their lands,
and with the help of these Goths and paralytics, the aristocrats
would convert them into toiling and miserable slaves. And the
leperos, flinging about the corners of their dirty white mantas,
yelled their approbation. General Montero, Gamacho howled with
conviction, was the only man equal to the patriotic task. They
assented to that, too.