246 



PERU* 



The Cabildo, or town-council, hastily drawn to- 

 gether, next entered, and as many of them were 

 natives of the place, and liberal men, they had 

 enough to do to conceal their emotion, and to 

 maintain the proper degree of stateliness belong- 

 ing to so grave a body, when they came, for the 

 first time, into the presence of their liberator. 



Old men, and old women, and young women, 

 crowded fast upon him : to every one he had some- 

 thing kind and appropriate to say ; always going 

 beyond the expectation of each person he address- 

 ed. During this scene I was near enough to watch 

 him closely ; but I could not detect, either in his 

 manner or in his expressions, the least affectation : 

 there was nothing assumed, or got up ; nothing 

 which seemed to refer to self ; I could not even 

 discover the least trace of a self-approving smile. 

 But his manner, at the same time, was the re- 

 verse of cold ; for he was sufficiently animated, al- 

 though his satisfaction seemed to be caused sole- 

 ly by the pleasure reflected from others. While 

 I was thus watching him, he happened to recog- 

 nize me, and drawing me to him, embraced me in 

 the Spanish fashion. I made way for a beauti- 



