One Hundred Years of Solitude

give outsiders an impression
of invulnerability. It was a
double-edged deception, for
the government did not dare
attack the place for ten
months, but when it did it
unleashed such a large force
against it that resistance was
liquidated in a half hour.
From the first day of his rule
Arcadio revealed his
predilection for decrees. He
would read as many as four a
day in order to decree and