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PARTISAN REVIEW
cr.osses or gallows, are the tenth or twelfth men in the firing squad
and so on. In short 'the others' who crowd in at the doors and are
neve:r thought the issue of the struggle but who are nevertheless
those whom leaders lead, oppressors oppress and saviors save.
You follow? Still in the excitement they are overlooked, and it
can't be helped, and since it must be should be so.
"But to get on with it: we arrived about an hour after it hap·
pened and
el !efe
took charge. The old man had already been
removed but one of the young doctors who was still there told me
there wasn't much of a chance, that the Belgian, or whatever he is,
had gotten through. There he was having his head bound, sobbing.
They showed us where his hand had been bitten during the struggle
in the study. I had a good look while they were bandaging him;
his face was working, his eyes were shut. He reminded me very
much of my oldest brother in his features and curly hair; though
you wouldn't have wanted to compare him to any man at such a
time and least of all one of your own there was a reason, for as a
kid he was a wild one and once struck an elderly aunt and was
beaten for it by my father before the rest of us. However that may
be, Felipe came to get a brief look too, as he was blindly crying,
and then returned t.o the secretaries who were making their deposi–
tions and where, by the way, most of the reporters were to be
found. His picture was taken in both ensembles. He had no orders
for me at the moment so I stayed with the assassin. I have seen
better behaved murderers than that one. I felt sorry for the
viejo.
He deserved a more manly antagonist. Everything about
him was of much consequence and all based on principle, principle.
I remember him expounding the principle when they chopped up
his room with bullets and how he complained in statements that
rang in with the French Revolution and ended with predictions
of
victory. But maybe since the assassin had undergone all that was
necessary he
was
the right man. He looked unfit and I couldn't
discover the character necessary for it in him, but he must have
had it. Well, that's a fine point and it may be just proper that
death for the
viejo
should come womanish, shrieking and sinewless
since he had always downed whatever of that there was in him.
"But he was a pretty cold dish, the young hero, any way you
took him. I kept wondering if, apart from the politics of
it
(which
I don't know much about) he had not actually tried to equalize
