Chapter 7 Chapter Six
Colonel Aureliano Buendía launched thirty-two armed uprisings, thirty-two of which failed.He had seventeen sons by seventeen women, but they were killed one by one overnight, the oldest was not yet thirty-five years old.He survived fourteen assassinations, seventy-three ambushes, and one firing squad.Once his coffee was spiked with enough strychnine to poison a horse, and he survived.He refused the medal bestowed on him by the President of the Republic, and eventually became the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Army. He led the troops to fight in the north and south, and became the most feared figure in the government, but he never let others take pictures of him.He declined the lifetime pension given to him after the war, and spent the rest of his life making small goldfish in the Macondo workshop.Although he took the lead in every battle, his only fatality was of his own making after signing the Nyrander surrender instrument that ended the two-decade civil war: he shot himself in the chest, and the bullet came out of the back, No vital parts were injured.All that remains is that a street in Macondo is named after him.But even this, according to his claims a few years before his death, had not been counted on when he set off at dawn with twenty-one men to join the ranks of General Victorio Medina.
"We have delivered Macondo to you." This was all he said to Arcadio before he set off: "We have given him to you now, and when we see him again, try to make him It becomes better." For this entrustment, Arcadio's understanding is very arbitrary.Inspired by an illustration in a book by Melquíades, he invented a uniform with ribbons and epaulettes, and at the waist hung the golden-tasseled broadsword of a shot enemy officer.He planted two cannons at the entrance of the town, and put on uniforms his former pupils, who were filled with righteous indignation by his provocative proclamations.Adendio also made them dance through the streets in full armor, in order to impress the strangers that the town was impenetrable.But this strategy is like the two edges of a knife, with advantages and disadvantages.
On the one hand, the government did not dare to attack Macondo rashly within ten months; on the other hand, once an attack was launched, it threw in such a disparate force that within half an hour all resistance was completely destroyed.From the first day of Arcadio's reign, he had shown a penchant for issuing proclamations.He read four newspapers in a row, sorting out and mastering all his thoughts.
He stipulated that everyone over the age of eighteen should perform military service, declared that all animals walking on the streets after six o'clock in the evening were public property, and forced adults to wear red armbands.He imprisoned Father Nicanor in his chapel, threatened to shoot him, and forbade him to say Mass, and forbade him to ring the bell if it were not for the celebration of the Liberal victory.So that no one could doubt the seriousness of his decision, he also ordered a firing squad to take practice shooting at a scarecrow in the square.At first, no one took these things seriously. They thought that, after all, it was just a group of dolls in school playing with adults.But one night, when Arcadio stepped into Catarino's tavern, a trumpeter in the band greeted him with a strange military tune, which made the guests roar with laughter.At this time, Arcadio ordered to be shot for offending the authorities; and those who protested were all shut up in a school room, chained to their feet, and paid only a few dollars. bread and water. "You are a murderer!" Úrsula used to yell at him every time he heard about a new atrocity. "If Aureliano knew, he would have shot you and killed you by then. , I'll be the first to applaud!" However, everything was of no avail, and Arcadio continued to step up this needlessly harsh method, and finally became the most brutal ruler in Macondo's history. "Now they have tasted the pain of a different regime," Don Apolinar Mocote once said. "This is the paradise of the liberals." Arcadio learned of this, and he led a team. Patrolmen, broke into Mocott's house, smashed the furniture, whipped his daughters, and beat Don Apolinar.Mocott forcibly dragged away.Ursula walked through the town, yelling "You shameless, you shameless" all the way.Arcadio was about to order the firing squad to fire when she burst into the barracks yard angrily brandishing a tar-soaked whip.
"You know how to shoot, you little bastard!" Ursula shouted.
Before Arcadio could react, a whip had already hit him on the head.
"You have the guts to shoot, you murderer!" she yelled, "Kill me too, you son of a bitch! If I die, I don't have to cry for raising your bastard." .”
She beat him thoughtlessly and drove him to the end of the yard, where Arcadio crouched like a snail.Don Apolinar Mocote, unconscious, was tied to the pole on which he had earlier practiced shooting, the scarecrows on which had been shattered by bullets.The boys in the firing squad ran away, afraid that Úrsula would take revenge on them, but she didn't even look at them.Leaving Arcadio in his crooked marshal's uniform, Úrsula ignored his howls of pain and irritation, and went straight to untie Don Apolinar Mocote and took him home. Home.Before leaving the barracks, she released the chained prisoners.
From then on, she was the one to call the shots in the town.She restored Sunday Mass, stopped using red armbands, and abolished outrageous proclamations.In spite of her strength of nature, she was always bemoaning her fate.She felt so alone that she had to go to her useless companion, her husband who had been forgotten under the chestnut tree. "Well, here's where we live," she said to him, when the June rain threatened to knock down the palm-leaf arbor.
"Look at this empty home, look at our sons and daughters scattered in every corner of the world, we are just the two of us as before." José Arcadio Buendía was already deep Falling into the abyss of ignorance, deaf to her laments.At the first moment of the onset of the disease, he was in a hurry to defecate and yelled a few times in Latin.In the few moments of his sanity, when Amaranta brought him food, he told her his worst pains and obediently accepted the cupping and mustard dressing.But when Úrsula went to him to complain, he had completely lost touch with real life.He sat on the little bench and Úrsula scrubbed him spot by spot, telling him stories about the family. "It's been more than four months since Aureliano went to war, and we haven't heard from him." She said as she wiped his back with a soapy loofah. "José Arcadio is back, taller than you, and tattooed all over his body. But when he comes back, he will embarrass our family." She seemed to realize that her husband was sad when he heard the bad news, so So she lied to him: "Don't take me seriously," she said, throwing ashes on his excrement so that it could be removed with a shovel. "It was God who married José Arcadio to Rebeca. Now they are happy." She had been so sincere in this deception that she found comfort in the lies. "Arcadio is grown up now," she said, "he is brave, in his uniform and with his machete, and he is a fine fellow." But she seemed to be speaking to a dead man, for José Arcadio Buendía ignored everything, but she kept going on and seeing how obedient he was and how indifferent he was to everything, she decided to let him go.But he sat motionless on the bench, exposed to the sun and rain, as if the rope had no effect at all, and a control beyond all physical restraints continued to bind him to the trunk of the chestnut tree.
Around August, when the interminable winter began, Úrsula was able to tell him what seemed to be certain news.
"Look, luck is still with us," she said, "Amaranta and the Italian piano player are getting married!"
The friendship between Amaranta and Pietro Crespi was indeed strengthened by the confidence gained by Úrsula.This time Úrsula felt that there was no need to monitor their meeting.This is a pair of evening lovers.The Italian always came in the evening, with a bonsai in the buttonhole, and translated Petrarch's sonnets for Amaranta.The two stayed in the hallway filled with the suffocating scent of oregano and roses, he read poems, she hooked the flowers with a needle, and did not care about the horror and bad news caused by the war, they stayed until the mosquitoes came Drive them into the hall.Amaranta's sensitivity, her discreet yet enveloping tenderness slowly wove an invisible web of sisterhood around her boyfriend, so that when he left at eight o'clock he really had to use his white tender skin. , The finger without the ring to push it away.They bound the postcards that Pietro Crespi received from Italy into an exquisite photo album, with pictures of lovers in lonely gardens, hearts with the arrow of love and gold ribbons in their mouths. pattern of doves. "I know this garden in Florence," Pietro Cresti said flipping through the photos, "you hold out your hand, and the birds will fly down and peck at it." Sometimes facing a Venetian watercolor painting, nostalgic Love can turn the smell of ditch silt and rotting crustaceans into the delicate fragrance of flowers.Sighing and smiling, Amaranta dreamed of a second home, where men and women were beautiful and talked like children, where the ancient city was, but its former grandeur was now only in the rubble. of kittens.After searching across the oceans, after mistaking for love the sudden impulse of Rebeca's eagerness to touch him, Pietro Crespi found true love.Happiness itself brings prosperity, and his shop occupies almost a block.There is a greenhouse for the cultivation of fantasies, with a replica of the bell tower in Florence, and a symphony of bells playing the time when it is told; Pentameters will be played; and there will be an incredible variety of musical instruments and clockwork mechanisms of every kind.He couldn't do it alone, so he let his brother Bruno Crespi run the shop.With so many bewildering paraphernalia he exhibited, the Via Turk became a melodious stream, making one forget the tyranny of Arcadio and the succubi of distant wars.When Úrsula resumed Sunday Mass, Pietro Crespi sent a German organ to the church and organized a children's choir.He compiled a list of rituals according to the Gregorian calendar to add some splendor to Father Nicanor's silent ceremony.No one doubted that he would make Amaranta a happy wife.The two of them didn't rush their feelings, and let the emotions in their hearts flow naturally with them.Now it's time to decide the date of the wedding.They encountered no obstacles.Úrsula had always felt guilty about having changed Rebeca's fate in the past by postponing the marriage, and now she did not want to add to her uneasiness.The mourning for Remedios had been pushed into the background because of the tortures of the war, the departure of Aureliano, the atrocities of Arcadio and the expulsion of José Arcadio and Rebeca from their homes.The wedding was imminent, and Pietro Crespi himself had hinted that he would consider Aureliano José his eldest son, since in him Crespi had almost a paternal affection.Everything gave the impression that Amaranta was on her way to a happy place without danger.But, in contrast to Rebeca, she showed no sign of impatience.Like painting colorful tablecloths, weaving fine gold and silver ribbons, cross-stitching peacocks, she waited as calmly as the moment when Pietro Crespi could not bear the urge of his heart.The moment finally came with the inauspicious October rains.Pietro Crespi took her embroidery basket from her skirt and took her hand in both. "I can't wait any longer," he said, "we'll get married next month." Amaranta didn't shudder when she touched his cold hand, which she withdrew like a slippery little fish , to do her work again.
"Don't be naive, Crespi," she smiled, "I will never marry you."
Pietro Crespi lost control and wept without shame.He was so desperate that he almost broke his fingers, but he still couldn't shake her will. "Don't waste your time." That's all Amaranta said to him: "If you really love me so much, don't set foot in this house again." Úrsula felt ashamed Crazed, Pietro Crespi groveled to the point of unbelievable obsequiousness with all the tricks he begged for.He cried all afternoon in Ursula's arms, and Ursula wanted to take out her heart to comfort him.On rainy nights, he was seen wandering around the house with a silk umbrella, hoping to see a little light in Amaranta's room.He had never dressed so well before.His tormented emperor's majestic head now had a peculiar dignity.He begged Amaranta's girlfriends, who used to embroider in the corridors, to try to persuade her.He was careless about the operation of the store, and during the day he hid behind the store and wrote some short messages, and asked someone to send the letters to Amaranta, together with thin flower petals and taxidermy butterfly wings, but Amaranta kept them intact. Backed away without moving.He spent hours shutting himself in his room playing the sitara.One night, he sang.Macondo woke up in astonishment, a sitara that this world is not worthy of, and a voice full of love like it can't be imagined on earth, making the people in the whole town feel ecstatic.Pietro Crespi saw that all the windows in the town were brighter than the lights, except the windows in Amaranta's room which were still dark.November 2nd is the Day of the Dead.His brother opened the shop and found all the lights on, all the music boxes open, all the clocks ticking endlessly, and amidst the confusion of concertos he saw Pietro Crespi was lying on the desk behind the store, both wrists had been cut with a razor blade, and his hands were stuck in a basin of benzoic perfume.
Úrsula was going to keep a vigil for him at home, and Father Nicanor opposed his ceremonies and burial in a shrine.Úrsula quarreled with the priest. "Neither you nor I understand that he is a saint," she said, "so, against your will, I will bury him next to Melquíades' tomb." With the support of the residents, Ursula really did what she said in a very grand funeral.Amaranta did not leave her bedroom, and from her bed she heard Úrsula's weeping, the footsteps and murmurs of the mourning crowd, the sound of the mourning women's horns, and then a deep silence. , There was a scent of trampled flowers.For a long time she felt the scent of lavender that Pietro Crespi used to smell every afternoon, but she managed not to slip into a trance.Úrsula never spoke to her again.That afternoon Amaranta went into the kitchen and put her hands on the coals of the stove, which burned until she could no longer feel the pain, but only smelled the smell of her own flesh, but Úrsula did not even lift her eyelids. lift up to have mercy on her.
That's the stubborn man's cure for guilt.For several days, she had to dip her hands in a bowl of egg white at home, and when the burn healed, it seemed that the egg white also healed her spiritual wounds.The only external trace of the tragedy left her was the black gauze bandage around her burned hand, which she wore until she died of old age.
With rare generosity, Arcadio issued a proclamation announcing the official funeral for Pietro Crespi.Ursula interpreted this move as the lamb's return from the wrong way, but she was wrong.She didn't raise this grandson for nothing since he put on the military uniform, but she never won his heart.She felt that she had raised him as her own child, treated him without discrimination or favor, as she had treated Rebeca, but she did not know that Arcadio was a withdrawn child.During the insomnia epidemic, between Úrsula's pragmatic zeal, José Arcadio Buendía's delirium, Aureliano's taciturnity, and the vows between Amaranta and Rebeca In the standing environment, he was deeply frightened and panicked.Aureliano taught him to read and write absent-mindedly, as if he were a stranger, and the clothes he gave him were rags to be thrown away, but had Vesita Sean modify him so that he could wear them. .
Arcadio was always troubled by his too big shoes, his patched trousers and his womanly hips.He had never talked to anyone so well in Indian as he had with Vesitashawn and Kaduray.In fact, Melquíades was the only one who cared about him, often reading him incomprehensible passages and teaching him the art of copperplate photography.No one would have guessed how many times he had secretly wept over the death of Melquíades.Nor does anyone know how he studied in vain the manuscripts of the dead, trying desperately to relive the days he had lived with him.To preside over the schools and govern at last relieved him of the painful burdens of the past, for in the schools he was valued and respected; and when he came to power he issued those inviolable proclamations and put on the uniform of glory.One night in Catarino's hotel someone had the audacity to say to him: "You don't deserve the name you have." Arcadio, to everyone's surprise, did not have him shot.
"It's an honor," he said, "I'm not from the Buendía family."
People who knew his details thought from this answer that he also knew everything.In fact, he knew nothing about the inside story.His mother, Pilar Ternera, who had made him so passionate in the darkroom, had for him an obsessive and irresistible allure, just as she had first for José Arcadio, the others. Then it was the same for Aureliano.Although she had lost her former charm and the charm of her laughter, Arcadio was able to seek her and find her in her smoky trail.Not long before the war broke out, at noon, when Pilar Ternera arrived at school later than usual to find her youngest son, Arcadio waited in the room where he used to take his naps and now held the handcuffs. she.The child was playing in the yard, trembling with anxiety in the hammock, knowing that Pilar Ternera would pass by.She is coming.Arcadio grabbed her by the wrist and tried to throw her down in the hammock. "No, no, I can't," Pilar Ternera said in panic, "you don't know how much I want to satisfy you, but God behold, I can't do that." Arcadio held him back with his ancestral powers hug her.As soon as he touched her skin, he felt that everything outside became blurred. "Stop pretending to be a saint," he said, "to put it bluntly, you are known to be a whore." Pilar Ternera fought back the disgust of her sad fate.
"The children will know," she murmured, "and you'd better leave the bolts open tonight."
Arcadio waited for her in the hammock that night, shivering hotly.He couldn't sleep, hoped and hoped, and could only hear the crickets chirping incessantly in the endless second half of the night, while the stone sparrows chirped strictly on time.He felt more and more that he had been cheated.Just when his anxiety was about to turn into rage, the door was suddenly pushed open.A few months later, facing the firing squad, Arcadio would recall again the bewildered footsteps in the classroom and the thumping of the benches, the last touch of a plump man in the darkness of the room. Flesh and feel the trembling of the air produced by the beating of another heart.He reached out and touched another hand with two rings on one finger, barely discernible in the darkness.He felt the protruding veins and the pulse of doom in that hand, felt the lifeline in the sweaty palm snapped off at the base of the thumb by the grip of death.At this moment he knew that she was not the woman he was waiting for.Because what this woman exudes is not the smell of smoke, but the smell of sparkling, watery flowers.Her breasts were swollen and full, and her nipples were as small as a man's.Her tenderness is disjointed, showing inexperienced excitement.This is a virgin with an unbelievably good name: Santa Sofia de la Peda.It was Pilar Ternera who had paid half of her life savings—fifty pesos—to do what she was doing.Arcadio had seen her many times before, tending a small grain store owned by her parents, but he had never paid her any attention, because she had a rare talent for, unless the opportunity happened to her, to be exactly like her. As if it doesn't exist.But from that day on, she snuggled up to his warm armpits like a kitten.With the consent of her parents, she often goes to school during her afternoon nap.To her parents, Pilar Ternera paid the other half of her savings.Later, when the government forces drove them out of the school, they made love to each other among butter cans and corn sacks.They already had a daughter when Arcadio was appointed military and political leader.
The only relatives who knew about it were José Arcadio and Rebeca, with whom Arcadio had been very close at that time, more out of complicity than of kinship.The stubborn José Arcadio had been put on the bridle of husband and wife and had become obedient.Rebeca's strong character, greedy sex drive and persistent ambition attracted her husband's incomparable energy, and he finally changed from a lecherous slacker into a good working animal.They have a tidy and clean home.Every morning, Rebeca left the doors and windows of the house open, and the wind from the cemetery came in through the windows and went out to the gate by the courtyard, and the powder turned into bones whitened the walls and polished the furniture.Her hunger for dirt, the sound of her parents' bone crocodile baths, all the annoyance she had been aroused by Pietro Crespi's inaction, were all forgotten now.She was an outsider who was worried about the war, embroidering and embroidering by the window all day long. She didn't stand up until the porcelain pots and pots in the cupboard were tinkling and trembling.After a long while there appeared a pack of scrawny, sniffing dogs, and then a giant in gaiters and shoelace spurs, who carried a double-barreled shotgun almost always in his hand. Carrying a string of hares or ducks, sometimes a beast on their shoulders.It was one afternoon not long after Arcadio's reign, and the new ruler paid them a surprise visit.They hadn't seen him since they left home, and Arcadio was so affectionate and family that they invited him to dinner.It was only over coffee that Arcadio revealed the purpose of his visit: he had received a complaint against José Arcadio.It is said that José Arcadio began by plowing in his own yard, and then he plowed into the adjoining fields, knocked down other people's fences with his oxen, destroyed other people's huts, and even seized the best surrounding land by force. For other farmers whose land did not attract his interest to plunder, he imposed taxes on them. Every Saturday, he led his hounds and carried a double-barreled shotgun to collect them.José Arcadio has pleaded guilty to such charges.His reason was that the seized land was originally distributed by José Arcadio Buendia when he started his business. He thought it could be proved that it was from that time that his father began to go crazy because his father dominated It is in fact the property of the whole family.However, this kind of defense is completely unnecessary, and Arcadio is not here to fight the lawsuit.He had only come to help with the idea of setting up a property registration office so that José Arcadio could legally deed the seized land, on condition that Arcadio authorized the collection of taxes there.In this way, the two reached an agreement.
Years later, when Colonel Aureliano Buendía examined the property certificates, he found that looking around from the mound in José Arcadio's courtyard, everything he could see, including the cemetery, was registered in the in the name of his brother; and it was discovered that during the eleven months of his reign Arcadio not only embezzled all the tax money, but also plundered the money that the inhabitants had given to bury the dead on José Arcadio's property. all payments.
It took Úrsula several months to learn of these well-known facts, which were kept from her so as not to increase her suffering.She had been terrified earlier. "Arcadio is building a new house," she said to her husband with affected airs, trying to put a spoonful of galabamo jam into his mouth.But she couldn't help sighing and said: "For some reason, I always feel that all this is not tasteful." Later, when she learned that Arcadio had not only built a new house, but also ordered a Vienna house. Her suspicions were only confirmed when she bought the furniture: he had dipped into the public funds. "You are the black sheep of our Buendías!" she yelled at Arcadio one Sunday, after mass, when she saw him playing cards with his men in the new house.Arcadio didn't mind.Only then did Úrsula know that he had a six-month-old daughter and that Santa Sofia de la Peda, with whom he had lived without marriage, was pregnant again.Úrsula decided that wherever Colonel Aureliano Buendía was, he had to write and let him know what was going on here.But the succession of events in those days not only delayed her intention, but made her regret having thought it.War, which hitherto had only been a word for some distant and vague situation, was now suddenly concretized in the violent reality of life.At the end of February, a haggard old woman arrived in Macondo on a donkey with a broom on her back.The old lady looked so useless that the patrol team let her in as a commoner who often came to sell things from a village near the swamp without even asking any questions.She went straight to the barracks, where Arcadio received her in what used to be a classroom and now served as a barracks for follow-up troops.Here, some hammocks were rolled up, others fastened to hoops, bedrolls were piled in corners, and rifles, carbines, and shotguns were strewn about.The old woman stood at attention and gave a military salute, and then identified herself: "I am Colonel Gregorio Stevenson."
He brings sad news.According to him, the last few strongholds of the Liberals were failing.Colonel Aureliano Buendía retreated in the direction of Riohacha while fighting.
He appointed Colonel Stevenson to send word to Arcadio that they would hand over the town without resistance, on the condition that the liberals' lives and property would be guaranteed by his honor.Arcadio looked sympathetically at this strange emissary who might have been mistaken for an old woman fleeing.
"Naturally you have something in writing?" he asked.
"Oh, that's absolutely not allowed," Laishi replied. "Under the current situation, it's easy to understand not to bring anything that might hurt others."
As he spoke, he took out a small goldfish from his pocket and put it on the table: "I think this is enough to prove my identity." Arcadio confirmed that it was indeed made by Colonel Aureliano Juendia a goldfish.But the fish could have been bought or stolen before the war, so it didn't serve as a passport at all.In order to make people believe his identity, Lai Shi even did not hesitate to reveal a military secret.He revealed that he had a mission to go to Curacao, where he hoped to recruit exiles from the entire Caribbean region and get enough weapons and munitions to try to land before the end of the year.Colonel Aureliano Buendía was so confident in the plan that he disapproved of unnecessary sacrifices at the present time.However, Arcadio was not moved at all. He ordered the envoy to be locked up until his identity was confirmed, and he was determined to defend the town of Macondo to the death.
It didn't take long for the news of the liberals' defeat to become more concrete.At the end of March, the rainy season came early, and one morning, the tense calm of weeks was suddenly broken by the hoarse bugle blast.Then there was a boom, and the church tower was blown up.In fact, Arcadio's determination to resist is just a dream.He had only fifty poorly armed men with at most twenty rounds each.But among them were his former students, inspired by his impassioned proclamations, determined to lay down their lives for a lost cause.The crowd in boots came and went, the orders issued were contradictory, the roar of the cannon shook the sky, the shooters panicked, and the bugle was blown in an unknown tune.In the midst of this confusion, the man who claimed to be Colonel Stevenson was able to speak to Arcadio at last.
"Please don't let me die in shackles and in women's clothes, so dishonorable," said he, "and if I must die, I shall die in the field." Arcadio believed him, and ordered him Gun and twenty rounds for him to guard the barracks with five others.Arcadio himself took the staff to the front line against the enemy.But before he could make it to the swamp, the barricade was broken.The resisters had to fight the enemy without cover in the streets, at first they fought with rifles at range, then with pistols against rifles, and finally in hand-to-hand combat.At the critical moment when the entire army was wiped out, a group of women took to the streets with sticks and kitchen knives.In the confusion Arcadio saw Amaranta in her pajamas looking for him like a madman, with two old José Arcadio Busdia pistols in her hand, and he handed them over to him. An officer who had lost his weapon in the confrontation walked Amaranta into a nearby street and took her home.Úrsula waited at the door, ignoring the fact that the flying shrapnel had made a hole in the front wall of the neighbor's door.The rain stopped slowly, but the road was slippery and soft like soap soaked in water. In the dark, we had to estimate the distance between each other.Arcadio handed Amaranta to Úrsula and tried to deal with the two soldiers who were shooting at random on the street corner.But the two old pistols that had been hidden in the closet for many years were no longer usable.Úrsula shielded Arcadio with her body and tried to drag him into the house.
"For God's sake, get in there!" she yelled at him. "Haven't you been crazy enough!"
Two soldiers aimed their guns at them.
"Ma'am, let this man go!" cried one of them, "or we'll shoot!"
Arcadio pushed Úrsula into the room and surrendered himself.After a while the gunfire stopped and the bell rang.This resistance was shattered in less than half an hour.None of Arcadio's men survived the onslaught of the enemy, but they fell before their death three hundred soldiers.The last stronghold is the barracks.Before the enemy attacked, the suspicious Colonel Gregorio Stevenson released the prisoners and ordered his men to fight the enemy in the streets. Twenty rounds of ammunition were fired from different windows one by one, giving the impression that the barracks were heavily fortified.The attackers finally had to bombard it with cannons.The commander who led the attack was surprised to find that among the desolate rubble there was only a man in shorts, dead, with a dead rifle clutched in a severed arm.He used a comb to tie a woman's thick hair into a bun on the back of his head, and a small goldfish hung on the shawl around his head and neck.
The Commander kicked him, turning him on his face, but upon seeing the man's face, the Commander was dumbfounded.
"Damn it!" he exclaimed.Other officers gathered around upon hearing the sound.
"You see where this fellow has come from," he said to them. "He's Gregorio Stevenson."
At dawn, following a summary court-martial, Arcadio was shot in front of the cemetery walls.In the last two hours of his life, he did not understand why the fear that had plagued him since childhood suddenly disappeared.He listened with indifference to the endless accusations that were being made against him, without even thinking of displaying the boldness he had just acquired.他想起了乌苏拉，这时候她该在栗树下跟霍塞·阿卡迪奥·布恩地亚一起喁咖啡了；他想起他那八个月的女儿，这孩子还没取名，也想到即将在八月份出世的孩子；他想起了圣塔索菲娅·德·拉·佩达，前天晚上他还叫她腌了一只鹿，准备星期六午饭时吃。他不无留恋地想起她那披散在肩上的秀发和象是装上去的睫毛；他想起了他的手下人，心中并无伤感。在对人生的严肃回顾中，他开始明白自己其实是多么热爱过去最被他憎恨的人们。军事法庭庭长开始作最后发言，这时阿卡迪奥还没意识到已经过了两个钟点了。 “虽然已经查实的罪状并不提供多少重要的依据，”庭长说，“但是，被告把其部下置于无谓死亡的罪孽和不负责任的轻率鲁莽的举动，已足以构成判处其死刑的根据。”在这所毁坏了的学校里——这里，他曾第一次体会到掌握了权力的安全，离他模模糊糊尝到爱情滋味的那个房间不过几米远——阿卡迪奥对死亡的这套程式感到可笑。事实上，死亡跟他没甚关系，而生命才对他有意义。因此，当宣布判决时他的感受不是害怕而是怀恋。他一言不发，直到问他有什么遗言时，他才开口。
“告诉我女人，”他以独特的声调回答说，“叫她给女儿取名乌苏拉。”他停了一下，又强调了一句：“乌苏拉，就象我祖母一样。再跟她说，如果生下的男孩，就叫他霍塞·阿卡迪奥，这不是从我大伯的名，而是从我祖父的名。”
在他被带往行刑墙跟前时，尼卡诺尔神父想为他做临终祈祷。
“我没有什么可忏悔的，”阿卡迪奥说。他喝了一杯很浓的咖啡，然后便听候行刑队的命令。行刑队队长是一位从事即速枪决的老手，他名叫罗克·卡尼塞洛上尉决非仅仅出于偶然。在去公墓的路上，毛毛细雨下个不停。阿卡迪奥注意到地平线上正透出一个阳光灿烂的星期三。他的眷恋随着雾气慢慢消散，留下的是极度的好奇。直到命令他背对墙根站定时，阿卡迪奥才瞧见了雷蓓卡。她一头湿发，穿着玫瑰色的衣服，正在打开屋子的门窗。雷蓓卡好不容易才认出了他，实际上她也只是偶尔向大墙望了一眼才发现他的。她惊呆了，几乎没能作出反应，向他挥手告别。阿卡迪奥挥手作了回答。这时枪口被熏黑了的步枪已对准他，阿卡迪奥一字一句听到了墨尔基阿德斯柳扬顿挫地诵读的训谕，似乎听到课堂里当时还是处女的圣塔索菲娅·德·拉·佩达渐去渐远的脚步声，并在鼻子上体验到同雷梅苔丝尸体的鼻孔里引起他注意的同样冰凉坚硬的感觉。“啊，糟糕！”他想起来了，“我忘了说，要是生女的，就给她取名雷梅苔丝。”于是，撕心裂胆地全身一震，他重又感觉到折磨了他一生的那种恐惧。上尉下令开枪，阿卡迪奥几乎来不及挺起胸膛抬起头，就不知道从什么地方涌出一股热乎乎的液体，烧灼着他的大腿。
“你们这批王八蛋！”他喊道，“自由党万岁！”
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