Many severe wounds were caused among the British ranks by these
ferocious fish, and it may be imagined that in the first instance
experiences of the kind were as startling as they were disconcerting.
General Paez was one of the chief heroes of the north. His career was to
the full as adventurous as that of any other revolutionary leader. He
enlisted in the first place as a common soldier in the militia of
Barinos, and was soon after captured by the Spanish forces. His
execution, together with that of all the other prisoners, was ordered,
and would have taken place on the following day but for some
circumstances which enabled him to give his captors the slip.
The manner of his release was afterwards frequently recalled with no
little awe by the superstitious. At eleven o'clock at night the alarm
was given that the Royalist forces were about to be attacked by the
patriots, whose army had been seen advancing. The Spaniards retreated in
a panic, and Paez and his fellow-prisoners effected their escape. The
following morning, when the Royalists had recovered from their alarm,
they could find no enemy within a radius of fifty miles. This incident
was put down by the populace to the intervention in his favour on the
part of the host of departed spirits known as the "ejercito de las
animas.
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