And yet, even seven years later, he records without a
smile that two beach-combers gave his army "moral and material
strength." And it is most characteristic of the man that at the
moment he was rejoicing over this addition to his forces, to
maintain discipline two Americans who had set fire to the houses
of the enemy he ordered to be shot. A weaker man would have
repudiated the two Americans, who, in fact, were not members of
the Phalanx, and trusted that their crimes would not be charged
against him. But the success of Walker lay greatly in his stern
discipline. He tried the men, and they confessed to their guilt. One
got away; and, as it might appear that Walker had connived at his
escape, to the second man was shown no mercy. When one reads
how severe was Walker in his punishments, and how frequently
the death penalty was invoked by him against his own few
followers, the wonder grows that these men, as independent and as
unaccustomed to restraint as were those who first joined him,
submitted to his leadership. One can explain it only by the
personal quality of Walker himself.
Among these reckless, fearless outlaws, who, despising their allies,
believed and proved that with his rifle one American could
account for a dozen Nicaraguans, Walker was the one man who
did not boast or drink or gamble, who did not even swear, who
never looked at a woman, and who, in money matters, was
scrupulously honest and unself-seeking.
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