Blanco

“ Back in the town, Blanco had certain investigations to make. He knew Von Ritz's men had been too late to capture the Duke, and that the Countess Astaride had sailed by the steamer leaving for French and Italian ports. Wherever these two conspirators should meet would become the next point to watch.
Blanco felt sure that Louis would be willing to drop back into the routine of his life in Paris, freshly stocked with pessimistic memories of how a crown had slipped through his fingers. It would take driving to prevent him lagging into the inertia of sentimental brooding. ”

“ You may judge for yourselves, señores, whether a man who never has lied to save himself or his money would tell false tales about matters that profit him nothing.
Now you were speaking of that tale which most men here have heard, but which is new to you strangers—that of El Blanco Negro, or Black White; the man of mystery who roams like a lost soul through the Guayana mountains south of here, and who never is seen by any man except the Indians who live there. ”

“ Certainly those who have beheld the heavens on an Oriental night can conceive nothing more glorious than the spectacle, nor recall aught more wonderful than the Psalmist’s description of it.
It was left to the theologian Blanco White to combine the two thoughts of fear and illumination, expressed in the Midrash quoted above and in Psalm 8, into an exquisite Sonnet. The author’s name is queer enough. But though Joseph Blanco White (1775-1841) was born in Seville, he was an Irishman by descent. When the family settled in Spain, they translated the patronymic White into Blanco. ”

“ Blanco Fombona possesses irony, the gift of telling a story, a rich descriptive talent, ease of dialogue, and a power of forcible scene-painting. A novelist by temperament, he has written the biography of a representative Creole, the lamentable type created by environment, for whom love and life reserve their most terrible cruelties. ”

“ The last regiment that Blanco formed was of Negro volunteers, to whom he paid--or, rather, promised to pay, which is quite another matter, considering Blanco's habit--the unusual hire of $20 a month, showing his appreciation of the colored man as a soldier. If General Weyler evinced any partiality in Cuba, it was for the black Creole. During the ten years' war, his cavalry escort was composed entirely of colored men. Throughout his latest reign in the island he kept black soldiers constantly on guard at the gates of the government palace. ”

“ After dinner, when the Captain had betaken himself to the bridge and the smoke from the Spaniard's cigarettes and Benton's pipe had begun to wreathe clouds against the ceiling-beams, Blanco broached his diplomacy.
In the dulled expressionlessness of the face opposite him and the stoop of the shoulders, Manuel read a need for an active antidote against the corrosive poison of despair.
"Where are we going now, Señor?"
Benton shrugged his shoulders.
"'Quien sabe!' as you say in Spain. We are simply cruising, drifting, keeping out of sight of land." ”

“ Occasionally a Moor in fez and wide-bagging trousers, passed silently through the volatile chatter, looking on with jet eyes and lips drawn down in an impervious dignity.
They found a table in one of the more prominent cafés from which they could view through the plate-glass front the parade in the street, as well as the groups of coffee-sippers within.
"Yonder," prompted Blanco, indicating with his eyes a near-by group, "he with the green-lined cape, is the Duke de Tavira, one of the richest men in Spain—it is on his estate that they breed the bulls for the rings of Cadiz and Seville. ”

“ At this camp, Blanco, the celebrated Apache chief, was driven to such close quarters that he evidently began to feel that the safety of his whole tribe stood in jeopardy. He made his appearance on a high point of rocks and asked the white men who occupied the plain beneath for a parley, which was granted him. He said, in the Spanish language, that he and his Indians wished to make peace; that they were tired of fighting. In reply, he was informed that the terms he demanded would be listened to on his coming into the soldiers' camp. ”

“ I come flying on the wings of the wind, only to learn that my blessed divinity has a lover. If only my excellent Blanco had shot this fellow Law instead of that Guzman! If only I could lay hands upon him here in Mexico! Ha! There would be something to print in the American papers." He began to dress himself feverishly, muttering, as he did so: "I will permit no one to come between us. ... The thought kills me. ... You bring me bad news, José, and yet I am glad you came. I accept your offer, and you shall be my man henceforth; ... but you shall not go out to be shot by those rebels. ”

“ Once upon a time a wall reached from the great fort in both directions around the city of Havana. But now there was scarcely a trace of it left.
"How narrow and dirty the streets are," said Maria as they left the Morro. "I must say I would rather live in the country, if I could choose for myself."
"It doesn't matter so much about the width of the streets," said Blanco, "or the poor sidewalks, either. Because, you know, we almost always ride. The working people are the ones who walk. But I do not like the dirt. That is all the fault of the Spaniards. ”

“ White, Joseph Blanco (1775-1841) .—Poet, s. of a merchant, an Irish Roman Catholic resident at Seville, where he was b., became a priest, but lost his religious faith and came to England, where he conducted a Spanish newspaper having for its main object the fanning of the flame of Spanish patriotism against the French invasion, which was subsidised by the English Government. He again embraced Christianity, and entered the Church of England, but latterly became a Unitarian. ”

“ He told us that the revolution was extremely popular. Men were flocking far and wide to the White banner, and up towards Paysandu had already joined in very large numbers. He asked us if any of the "Colorados" had come to the estancia, and if we knew of any being about in our neighbourhood. As they departed they looked quite picturesque, with the Blanco device round their hats, and the white banner flying from their lances, many leading their spare horses. ”

“ But I was stopped by the click of a rifle-hammer and the hard, strained voice of El Blanco himself.
“Sit still!” he commanded. “Don’t come near me or I’ll shoot. No white man sees me and lives. Talk! ”

“ Blanco raised his voice again in casual conversation and beckoned to the sentinel at the door. When the man approached the Spaniard pointed over the wall. "Do you see that rock? Is that a figure crouching behind its shelter?" he demanded. As the man leaned forward, Manuel suddenly struck him heavily at the back of the neck with a loose stone caught up from the masonry's coping. The soldier dropped without a sound.
"Now, Your Majesty, we must risk it down the rock," prompted the man from Cadiz, in hurried, low-pitched words. "Moments are invaluable.... ”

“ Blanco stood gazing in astonishment. "You—the King!" Then, recognizing that the shaving of a mustache and the change into civilian clothes had made the difference in a face and figure he had seen only on the streets and through shifting crowds, he bowed with belated deference.
Karyl once more held out his case. "Now perhaps you will have a cigarette?"
The toreador took one and lighted it slowly. The King went on.
"My sole pleasure is pretending that I am not a Monarch. Between ourselves, I should prefer other employment. ”

“ Much stress, for instance, is laid on the insignia that—in the absence of regular military uniforms—distinguish the adherents of one side from those of the other. In a Blanco district, when trouble is seething, it may be laid down as a hard-and-fast maxim that the traveller should wear no trace of red about his person. ”

“ Joseph Blanco White was born of Irish parents in Seville, Spain, July 11, 1775, and was put in training for a mercantile career, but he left his father’s counting house and was ordained a priest in 1796, and continued in the priesthood until 1810, when, because of the political crisis in Spain, he went to England, residing in London as a man of letters, where he contributed largely to the leading reviews and periodicals, and produced several books, treating mostly of Spain and its affairs. ”

“ Unless I were in the confidence of the Duke, I could scarcely be here with a knowledge of your plans."
Blanco's eyes blazed in sudden and well simulated wrath. "I have no time to waste in argument. Choose quickly. Shall I return to Louis and inform him that [Pg 127] you refuse to trust those he selects to bear his orders?"
For an instant the Spaniard stood contemptuously regarding the other's terror, then with a disgusted exclamation he turned on his heel and started to the door of the kiosk. But Lapas was in a moment catching at his elbow and protesting himself convinced. ”

“ I heard many tales on the coast of Blanco's cruelty, but I doubt them quite as much as I do the stories of his pride and arrogance. I have heard it said that he shot a sailor for daring to ask him for permission to light his cigar at the puro of the Don. Upon another occasion, it is said that he was traveling the beach some distance from Gallinas, near the island of Sherboro, where he was unknown, when he approached a native hut for rest and refreshment. The owner was squatted at the door, and, on being requested by Don Pedro to hand him fire to light his cigar, deliberately refused. ”

“ Early in the following week, one morning just after ten o'clock, Colonel Medina rode up to the Cerro, accompanied by seventy Blanco soldiers. I had met him before, and Don Frederico knew him well, for he lived not so very far from the Pichinango, and we had always looked upon him more or less as a neighbour. I at once invited him to dismount and [Pg 111] come inside and have breakfast, assuring him it would not be long before it was ready. As for the soldiers, I said they had better make a fire down below the house, towards the big "manga," and if one was not enough, they could make two. ”

“ In the latter regard he serves in literature as the symbol of a blind, often impotent, struggle to throw off some oppressive incubus.
Enceladus, Manuel Blanco, a distinguished Chilian statesman and soldier, born in Buenos Ayres; trained for the navy in Spain, but joined the Chilian revolutionaries; served with distinction under Lord Cochrane, and rose to high rank both in the army and navy; was commander of the Chilian forces in 1825, and for two months in the following year President of the Republic; was subsequently Governor of Valparaiso, and minister to France (1790-1876) . ”

“ In El Modernismo, Poetas Modernistas, R. Blanco-Fombona has written an interesting, comprehensive, and necessary book about South American poets, and poets of old Spain.
He has related some facts which explain the discussed mystery of the meaning of the Great Nocturn of Silvá. He says that where the poet speaks of their shadows (Silvá and his sister, Elvira) meeting, he is relating, in his grief, a memory of their childhood. Once they went, in summer, to a dwelling, high in the Andes, for cooler air. ”

“ This is as characteristic as his Oda á Carlos III. or the remorseful Castilian lines on Resigned Desire, penned within a year of his death. A very similar talent was that of Blanco's friend, Alberto Lista (1775-1848) , also a Canon of Seville Cathedral, a most accomplished singer, whose golden purity of tone compensates for a deficient volume of voice and an affected method. But, save for such a fragment of impassioned, plangent melody as the poem Á la Muerte de Jesús, Lista is less known as a poet than as a teacher of remarkable influence. ”

“ The Colorados had not come our way at all, being mostly concentrated near Monte Video, the capital, while a fairly large force were also encamped in the province of San Josè. Meanwhile the Blanco army was said to be in great strength out beyond Paysandû, waiting for finer weather, and until the horses should pick up after the somewhat early winter. Spring, when it came, advanced rapidly. ”

“ For reply Blanco hurled a heavy fragment of rock at the assaulters. It grazed perilously close to Ward, against whom Blanco cherished a keen hatred. Instantly Ward's revolver barked, the bullet whistling close by Divine's head. L. Cortwrite Divine, cotillion leader, ducked behind Theriere's breastwork, where he lay sprawled upon his belly, trembling in terror.
Bony Sawyer and Red Sanders followed the example of their commander. Blanco and Wison alone made any attempt to repel the assault. The big Negro ran to Divine's side and snatched the terror-stricken man's revolver from his belt. ”

“ Feeling runs so high that in Blanco districts it is dangerous for a man to wear a red necktie, just as in driving through certain Irish towns a harmless botanist from Britain may, when his car approaches a particular quarter, be warned by the driver to throw away or cover over the ferns which he has gathered in a mountain glen, because the sight of the obnoxious colour will expose him to be stoned by those who regard its display as an affront. ”

“ They galloped furiously one toward the other two or three times, but seemed always to manage to avoid close contact. They fired their guns and revolvers, some of the shots at any rate being hurriedly let off into the air. Then the Reds made a bolt, and thereupon the Blancos, seeing this, galloped furiously after them, with their lances. ”

“ Much smaller balls fastened together in the same manner, with quite thin thongs, are used by the natives to capture the wild ostrich.
Indeed, I have always been given to understand that the "boleadores" were in use among the Indians of the Pampas from quite remote times. A few days passed, and nothing happened, and then one morning just after ten o'clock a Blanco officer and between seventy and eighty soldiers arrived, who asked for food and horses. ”