The Story Invariably Told Was That A Man Convicted Of Some Serious
Crime And Condemned To Suffer The Last Penalty,
And left, as the
custom then was, for long months in the gaol in Buenos Ayres, amused
himself by composing
The story of the Bien-te-veo, and thinking well
of it he made a present of the manuscript to the gaoler in
acknowledgment of some kindness he had received from that person. The
condemned man had no money and no friends to interest themselves on
his behalf; but it was not the custom at that time to execute a
criminal as soon as he was condemned. The prison authorities preferred
to wait until there were a dozen or so to execute; these would then be
taken out, ranged against a wall of the prison, opposite a file of
soldiers with muskets in their hands, and shot, the soldiers after the
first discharge reloading their weapons and going up to the fallen men
to finish off those who were still kicking. This was the prospect our
prisoner had to look forward to. Meanwhile his ballad was being
circulated and read with immense delight by various persons in
authority, and one of these who was privileged to approach the
Dictator, thinking it would afford him a little amusement, took the
ballad and read it to him. Rosas was so pleased with it that he
pardoned the condemned man and ordered his liberation.
All this, I conjectured, must have happened at least twenty years
before I was born.
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