One Hundred Years of Solitude

officers and they told their
superiors. On Sunday,
although no one had revealed
it openly, although no action
on the part of the military had
disturbed the tense calm of
those days, the whole town
knew that the officers were
ready to use any manner of
pretext to avoid responsibility
for the execution. The official
order arrived in the Monday
mail: the execution was to be
carried out within twenty-four