Bolivar
and Paez entreated them in vain, and they declared that rather than go to
the hill-country they would desert and return to their native plains,
where alone they were willing to fight. This was their only act of
insubordination under their favorite leader, who usually had complete
control over them. He made himself one with his men, would divide his last
cent with them, and was called by them uncle and father. His
staff-officers were all llaneros and formed his regular society, they
being alike destitute of education and ignorant of tactics, but bold and
dashing and ready to follow their leader to the cannon's mouth.
The British Legion, about six hundred strong, was in the last year of the
war attached to the llaneros corps, its members being highly esteemed by
Paez, who called them "my friends, the English." The soldiers of the
legion, however, were bitterly opposed to their commander, Colonel
Bossuet, whom they held responsible for the miserable state of their
rations and clothes and their want of pay. At the end of one day, which
was so scorchingly hot that the soldiers were excused from their usual
five o'clock parade, the legion rushed from their quarters at this hour
and placed themselves in order of battle, crying that they would rather
have a creole to lead them than their colonel.
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