The Missourians looked at one another and were reluctant. They hated to forego a battle. But it takes two sides to make one. Not outlawed, not even threatened, they had no excuse to hold against the Liberals.
"But," said Crittenden, "as an ally of this sister Republic, we'll still have our fighting."
"Well," demanded Driscoll, "what will you ask for?"
"Our Córdova lands back, after we've won them from the Empire."
"And," put in Grinders, "equality. We want republican equality."
"No sir-ee, by cracken! Equality high up, that's what! We'll be colonels, breveted colonels, every last one of us--Colonel Driscoll, Colonel Grinders, Colonel Brothers and Sisters, Colonel----"
"That's easy," said Driscoll smiling. "Now I'll go and fix it up with General Pavon, before he gets away."
... To conclude this chapter on the Missourians' Republic, there is yet a word, which perhaps is also explanation of the saddened change that had come over Din Driscoll since that night after the battle with Don Rodrigo. It must be remembered that the peerless lad had just won his old comrades to the Mexican Republican cause. While yet rejoicing that here he more than made good the three hundred Liberals he had helped to capture when a captain under the Empire, he found that he had only cast his recruits out of the pale of law, first against the Empire, and then against the Republic.... Then he proposed their own republic, and for themselves they took Tampico from the French. But why? What was the real object in Driscoll's innermost thought? The suspicion arises: Was it to win a peace-offering wherewith to make friends again with the Liberals? Such an explanation of his otherwise wild scheme is but a theory, but the theory fits, for John D. Driscoll, though as reckless as any and quick for any forlorn hope, was, when a leader, scrupulously practical.
The above suggestion, moreover, is apropos in these later days, when the Tampico Republic has become to be folklore throughout Missouri, and when our cousins, the Kentuckians, even those proud colonels by acclamation, cannot rank beside these five hundred colonels scattered over the sister state; so that, when a stranger questions, a Missourian answers: "He a colonel? W'y yes, of course, sir. And, by God sir, a Tampico colonel, too! Yes, one of the five hundred!" and the stranger's eyes bulge as he takes off his hat.