When the jailor opened the door in the morning he was
promptly knocked down by Paez and threatened with instant death if he made
a sound. Breaking into the guard-room, they seized the arms of the guard,
set free those whose irons were not yet broken, and marched from the
prison, with Paez at their head, upon the Spanish garrison, two hundred in
number. Many of these were killed and the rest put to rout, and Barinas
was once more in patriot hands.
This anecdote will serve to show, better than pages of description, the
kind of man that Paez was. When the act became known to the llaneros they
proclaimed Paez their general, and were ready to follow him to the death.
These cowboys of the Orinoco, if we may give them this title, were, like
their leader, of Indian blood. Neither they nor their general knew
anything about military art, and felt lost when taken from their native
plains, a fact which was shown when they were called upon to follow
Bolivar in his mountain expedition against New Granada. Neither persuasion
nor force could induce them to leave the plains for the mountains.
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