dying glance of the African woman, as distinct as speech, pointed through the open door of the tiny hut and toward the mountain where her two sons would soon withdraw to avenge her death.
Romulus and Remus
History is a river of truth that follows its majestic course through the ages. The Novel is a lake of lies, the expanse of which is concealed underwater; calm and pure on the surface, it sometimes hides the secret of the destiny of peoples and societies in its depths, much like Lake Asphaltites.5 History, a sonorous echo, faithfully reproduces the sound and fury of human hurricanes. To brave these storms and guide our savage heroes to port requires something other than a frail canoe of bark; and besides, savages ourselves, we have neither map, nor compass, nor nautical expertise. Thus the experienced pilot to the stormy sea and we to the tranquil lake; trusting to the breath of God, perhaps we will arrive at the end of our journey, guided by the Star of Nations!
The sons of the African woman—whom we introduce in this chapter under the names Romulus and Remus, less with the thought of establishing an analogy between these men and the historic twins and more because they were brothers—had no physical mark of distinction, no sign revealing their future greatness.6 Indeed, they were of small size and common appearance. Their character was as rough as the bark of that tree in our forests whose heart possesses the incorruptibility of iron.III Like this tree, they also possessed an excellent strength. It was this source of virtue that Liberty would later award with her divine favor.
Romulus—the older brother—had a cold, reserved, taciturn character. He had absolute control of himself and rarely revealed his thoughts. Remus had an ardent, expansive, and aggressive temper. Unlike Romulus, calm and moderation were not in Remus’s nature. Yet the brothers had in common the improvidence characteristic of their kind.
In childhood these young men had tended animals. This first job gave them notable dexterity and agility. No one knew as well as they how to bend the yoke to the wild bull, how to tame the stamping steed. Their talent in the art of setting traps, preparing an ambush, or rerouting the course of a river was remarkable. They were excellent at swimming and arrived before the herds in a footrace; they mounted a horse bareback better than an Arab, fast as the wind. Was it any coincidence that the hardy childhood of William Tell was spent in the same manner?7
Romulus and Remus moved from keeping the animals to working the fields and acquired, by habit of exaggerated toil, an uncommon vigor. The advantages of the athlete and the valuable qualities of the soldier were united in these two brothers. Their sober demeanor made them insensible to the kinds of deprivations that irritate even the manliest of men. These adolescents, whom crime had made into orphans, possessed a level of maturity beyond their years.
The boys awoke as men on the day after they were deprived of their guardian’s affection, in whose shade they—until then—had lived life carefree and timid, without want or anger. The feelings that bring forth independence excited their thoughts, which had ripened in the heat of their hatred.
One day Remus said to Romulus: “The sight of the Colonist enrages me. I can hardly stifle my fury. I always have the desire to jump at his throat when he approaches us, that villain. He degrades us below his ass and his dog and treats us worse than all of the beasts that serve him. What reason does he have for acting so? Is he an avenger from hell come to erase the mark of some new original sin with our tears? He made our mother die by the whip! If you agree with me, my brother, we will attack him and—”
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