In Paraguay a certain
_opera bouffe_ element, together with a series of grimly farcical
incidents, continually mingled themselves with some of the darkest
tragedies that have been known in any age. From the very start something
of the kind had become evident. The members of the Junta, for instance,
finding their own means insufficient to support the pomp and state which
was suddenly thrust upon them, and which they had grown to love, began
to adopt some extraordinary measures in order to maintain their
position. Any portable national assets were sold without the least
compunction for this purpose, and they even went to the length of
compelling State prisoners to purchase their liberty--an idea which
undoubtedly ranks as one of the most extraordinary schemes for raising
money ever employed. Measures such as this constituted a sufficiently
ominous beginning; they provided, indeed, an only too true augury of
what was to come and from what species of wrongs the unfortunate country
was doomed to suffer for generations.
In justice to Francia himself it must be said that he took no part in
these first minor acts of oppression. His grim and proud nature cared
but little for mere matters of pomp and ceremony.
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