Chapter 45
part three chapter fourteen of garcia moreno by a guest in birth the slipper vox recording is in the public domain recording by maria the morning eighteen seventy five no sooner had the death of garcia moreno become known than the whole town went into mourning the streets were hung with black the bells tolled from all the churches the cannon sounded hour by hour and the grief of the people was so universal that one might have imagined that each family had lost its dearest member instead of breaking out in a revolution as the radicals hoped the whole capital was filled with sorrow and consternation the official journals justly interpreted the public feeling when they wrote under the weight of this terrible and unexpected sorrow all life seems to have stopped short men's lips are dumb and their hearts fail them by destroying our chief a band of villains fathered themselves that they would at the same time annihilate our religion and our country but the spirit of gercia moreno abides with us and the martyr in heaven will plead for its sorrying people in fact there was not a semblance of disorder the assassins fled in different directions not to be themselves torn to pieces by public vengeance the vice-president don xavier leon was declared the head of the executive and placed the republic in a state of siege
by a circular address to the governors of the provinces he ordered them to use every means to track the murderers appealing to the army he said officers and soldiers men whose hands are still red with the blood of your beloved general-in-chief may strive to enlist you under another banner than that of religion and your country but you will not forget his teaching you will be faithful to his laws brave soldiers turn your eyes towards heaven see on the head of him from whom you are weeping the glorious crown of a martyr and swear to defend the institutions for which he gave his life from cuenca guayaquil and all the other provinces came protestations of devotion to the country and of the deepest sorrow while the whole diplomatic corps associated itself with the grief of the nation the ninth of august was the day fixed for the public funeral in the metropolitan church on the catafalque were engraved these words as a summary of his life to the regenerator of his country and the invincible defender of the catholic faith during the three days which elapsed between his death and the funeral the body was exposed seated in an arm-chair dressed in his presidential uniform and surrounded by his guards one would have thought he was only asleep
his assassins had hacked his body to pieces but respected his face of which the manly and expressive features remained intact during three days the sobbing people crowded without intermission round the bier not only from quito but from all the neighbourhood an interminable procession of men women and children went to pray by the body and left it crying bitterly and exclaiming we have lost our father he has shed his blood for us on the day of the funeral a magnificent catafalque was erected in the cathedral on which lay the body of the president in his general's uniform the head still uncovered then came the archbishop and his clergy the members of the government and all the civil and military authorities only the president's chair of state remained vacant and at the sight of that the people burst out in tears and grins the emotion was redoubled when don vincent cuestra dean of the cathedral of riobamba and senator applied the words of holy writ to this new judas the people of israel bewailed him with great lamentations and said how is the mighty man fallen that saved the people of israel one maccabees nine twenty twenty one after dwelling on the terrible event he exclaimed
o god of nations how is it thou hast permitted the sentinel of thy house this defender of thy church the glory and pride of his people thus to fall by the hands of the impious bathed in his own blood o my god prostrate before thine infinite majesty we can but adore thine inscrutable designs thou hast given him to us and thou hast taken him away blessed be the name of the lord we will strive to drive from our hearts all feelings of vengeance and will not even ask his assassins canes what have you done with the blood of this just man sobs stifled the voice of the orator as he described not only his public acts but his personal and private virtues his faith piety charity and zeal and his late noble protest against the invasion of the pontifical states which had attracted the attention of the whole world to their nation and added the soldier of god has died as a martyr to his zeal and his faith in apostrophizing the body he exclaimed garcia moreno your eyes do not see our tears your ears cannot hear the lamentations of your people your noble heart no longer beats in your rest but your soul understands us ah from that happy region to which your heroic virtue has brought you look down in pity on your children do not abandon your country to anarchy and ruin ask of god to raise up a man worthy to succeed you one who will carry on your great work and will know how to say with you adveniat renum tuum
towards the end of the ceremony the rumour spread among the people that an attempt had been made to murder little gabriel the late president's son and that some men had disinterred rao to place him in consecrated ground the body of garcia moreno was in consequence secretly and provisionally placed in an unknown grave so as to save it from the risk of sacrilegious profanation these infamies so exasperated the people that they were determined to make an end of the assassins palanco and camposano were already in prison the former hoped that a radical pronunciamento would follow on the president's assassination but on seeing the indignation of the people and the fury of the soldiers he ran to take refuge in the shop and afterwards tried to escape to a safer retreat but the soldiers followed and seized him young cornejo had hid himself in a hut on the mountains and sent a servant to get his things but this man found the house deserted cornejo's parents inconsolable at the crime of their son had disappeared so that all he could do was to go with the light and try and collect some of the clothes of the fugitive one of the neighbours watched and followed him the servant was arrested and condemned to be instantly shot unless he would reveal cornejo's hiding-place cornejo hearing through an indian of the approach of the troops escaped to the woods
the soldiers surrounded them but finding that he could not be dislodged from the thickets the exasperated peasants set fire to the forest seeing the flames coming near him corneggio got into the hollow of a tree and had nearly baffled pursuit when he lifted up his head to get some air was seen by a soldier and nearly torn to pieces by the people tried by a council of war corneggio made a complete confession which proved that palenco had been the soul of the whole tragedy condemned to death he expressed true contrition and read a letter to his mother saying i am glad to die to expiate my crime and to have had the happiness before my death of being reconciled to god if i had escaped i should have been lost for ever just before camposano had paid his debt to justice after his condemnation he was offered life if he would reveal the names of his accomplices it is useless exclaimed the poor wretch my companions would never forgive me i had rather be shot than stabbed polanco strangely enough was only condemned to ten years imprisonment but god was less patient than the court he escaped two years later during a revolution and pouring out blasphemies against the sacred heart told the soldier to fire on the banner when a ball hit in debt on the spot
andrade and mancanjo managed to gain the frontier and remained in exile till the temporary triumph of ventimilla in eighteen seventy seven but although to the great scandal of the people the radical government allowed them to return they were obliged to fly from the menaces and contempt of their countrymen who would have nothing to say to garcia moreno's murderers a few days after the funeral the chambers met vice-president lyonne informed the senators and deputies of the measures taken to preserve public order and added it is at the election of a new president that men of honour must meet we will leave revolt and assassination to others as for me i only wish to return into private life i should prefer exile to supreme power when i see what has been the reward given to the most noble and generous of men as the minister the friend and companion of the late president i have now but one wish and that is to weep in the midst of my family for the purest best and most virtuous man i have ever known the minister of the interior then presented to congress the message which garcia moreno had in his hand at the moment of his assassination it is impossible to express the emotion caused in the house by the sight of this ms all stained with his blood in which the father of his people had expressed his supreme wishes and the reading of which was listened to in a kind of religious silence
a few years ago wrote garcia moreno ecuador repeated sadly the complaint of bolivar when he addressed his last message to the congress of eighteen thirty i blush to own it we have conquered our independence it is true but at the cost of every other good since the time that placing all our hope in god we have left the current of impiety and apostasy which seems to carry away the world in these days of blindness and that we have reorganized ourselves in eighteen sixty nine as a really catholic country all has gone on improving from day to day for the welfare and prosperity of our beloved country then he gave a summary of all that had been done in the different branches of the administration and wound up with the touching words in a few days the mandate confided in me in eighteen sixty nine will have expired the republic has enjoyed six years apiece and during that time has marched on steadily in the path of progress under the visible protection of divine providence the results obtained would have been greater if i had possessed all the qualities required for good government or if to do good it were enough ardently to desire it if i have committed faults i ask your pardon for them a thousand times and beg my countrymen to believe that my will has never ceased to try and follow out what seemed to me best for the nation if on the contrary you think i have succeeded in anything attribute the merit first to god and to the immaculate dispenser of the treasures of his mercy and next to yourselves to the people to the army and to all those who in the different branches of the government have helped me with so much intelligence and fidelity to carry out my difficult duties
the congress is worthy of such a message it answered by a manifesto in honour of gracia the great great not only in the eyes of the people of ecuador but of america and of the whole world and determined to perpetuate his memory by raising a monument to commemorate the benefits he had conferred on his country in the session of the sixteenth of september they issued a decree in which after enumerating the many great works he had successfully undertaken and carried out in the religious moral material and intellectual order it adds ecuador by the mouth of its representatives accords to the memory of the most excellent don gabriel garcia moreno the homage of her eternal gratitude and to glorify him according to his deserts discerns to him the name of the regenerator of his country and the martyr of catholic civilisation to preserve his mortal remains a mausoleum shall be raised worthy of this great and noble man on a site chosen by the executive to recommend his glorious name to the esteem and respect of posterity a marble statue shall be raised in his honour which shall bear on its pedestal the following inscription to garcia moreno the most noble of the sons of ecuador dying for religion in his country a grateful republic in the halls of the municipal council and other official assemblies the bus of garcia moreno shall be also placed with the inscription
to the regenerator of his country to the martyr of catholic civilization the great national road and the railroad which were the principal material works of the late president shall both bear the name of garcia moreno we must go far back in history before we shall find a man grand enough to those of such praises or a man just enough to award them but all nations combine to do him honour not only in new grenada and chile but in buenos aires lima and in north america the most eloquent panegyrics of the hero and martyr appeared in every paper the confraternity of st michael at new york decreed that on the sixth of august a solemn mass should be offered up yearly on this glorious anniversary at which all the members of the confraternity should assist with the intention of asking god through the intercession of this great christian martyr that his heroism should fill the hearts of all catholics from one end of america to the other in europe the sensation caused by his death was almost as great the papers in spain france germany italy belgium and england vied with one another in describing the episodes of his glorious life and still more heroic death in paris at st
solemn obsequies were celebrated in his honour while at notre dame an eloquent sermon preached by a well-known jesuit orator asked his hearers to recognise inger san marino the just man of our century louis violat in the universe of september twenty seventh eighteen seventy five read a magnificent leader in his honour and above all pious the ninth publicly honoured the son who was indeed and in truth so worthy of him in an address to the pilgrims of laval on the twentieth of september after speaking of the iniquities committed by the sects not only in europe but in america that great pontiff continued with tears in his voice in the midst of all this the republic of ecuador was miraculously distinguished by the spirit of justice and the unshakable faith of its president who showed himself ever the submissive son of the church full of devotion for the holy see and of zeal to maintain religion and piety throughout his nation and now the impious in their blind fury look as an insult upon their pretended modern civilisation upon the existence of a government which while consecrating itself to the material well-being of the people strives at the same time to assure its moral and spiritual progress then in the councils of darkness organised by the sects these villains decree the murder of the illustrious president he fell under the steel of an assassin as a victim to his faith and christian charity pius the ninth also the death of garcia moreno is the death of a martyr
the pope did not limit himself to words a few days later he had a magnificent funeral service celebrated for the soul of garcia moreno as pontiffs do when god has taken away one of the most eminent children of the church and when certain italian catholics determined to erect a statue in his honour pius the ninth largely contributed to it and placed it in the american college on the four sides of this monument is the following inscription religionis integrimus custos octus tudorium optimorum obsequentissimus in christi sedem justitiae cultur the marble likewise tells the story of his martyrdom and the profound mourning of the catholic world gabriel garcia marina summus republicae quittensis in america praeces impia manu per proditionem interemptus nonis aug a d eighteen seventy five virtutum et gloriosae mortis casum emeratione et laudibus diri casus et sociatem boni omnes prosecuti sunt pius ninth font max vicuni at sua et plurum calatheone et gregri de ecclesia et republica merito
pious the ninth and garcia moreno both crusaders against the revolution one martyred by it the other imprisoned the prisoner praising the martyr before the world and god who never dies crowning both this is indeed a glorious remembrance on which to dwell End of Part 3, Chapter 14
