THE SOUTH AMERICAN WAY^333
the Brazilians brought up their armored vessels, iron hulls
impervious to enemy shells. Their guns broke the huge chain that
had closed the river. The Paraguayans struck back by sending out
boats full of boarders, who bravely climbed the enemy vessels under
continuing fire from their own shore batteries. They got on board,
but found everything closed, the hatches sealed, the crews below.
And then the Brazilian vessels swept the decks with enfilading fire,
slaughtering the intruders.
Now began the siege. The Brazilian commander wrote his
Paraguayan counterpart, General Alen, to offer him a huge bribe
(2.5 million gold pesos) and assurances of rank and command in the
allied army if he delivered the fortress. Alen's answer deserves to be
recalled: "General," he said, "I don't have that kind of money to
give you, but if you surrender your squadron, I'll give you the
Imperial Crown of Brazil." So the allies kept shelling and shooting,
and the fortress was reduced to rubble. Alen sent news of his losses
and imminent collapse to the marshal-president, but Lopez ordered
him to continue resistance. Alen tried, failed, abandoned hope, and
shot himself in the head. It was the easiest way to go. Eventually
Lopez allowed the garrison to abandon the camp: 2,500 skeletal
survivors who had to surrender a few days later when surrounded by
four times their number. Furious, Lopez had the wife of Alen's
successor arrested and put in chains. Who knows? Maybe she had
urged her husband to quit. Lopez tortured and flogged her for a
week, and when convinced that she could feel no more, had her
shot.
In the end, ferocity and courage—the Paraguayan women fought
as hard as the men—could not stand up to superior numbers and
better materiel: white arms and muskets vs. rifled cannon and
Gatiing guns. Lopez led a small, scantily armed force of survivors
into a swampy corner of the country. Ammunition was so scarce that
executions, still free and easy, had to be done by steel. When the
Paraguayans ran out of shells, they fired stones and broken glass.
Lopez himself fought to the death—his death, that of his oldest son,
and by this time that of the great majority of the Paraguayan male
population—an overall loss (both sexes) of about 70 percent.^41
"Muero con mi patria!" Almost every Paraguayan is said to know
that cry by heart. But the key word is the preposition con: I die with
my country.
To celebrate their victory, the Brazilians organized at Rio one of
the most extravagant concerts in history: eighteen pianos, an