Following the inevitable progress of tyranny, as time went on Francia's vigilance and cruelty increased, while as the discontent of the populace became evident his suspicions grew more and more on the alert. Conceiving the possibility of an assassin lurking behind one of the orange-trees with which the streets of the capital were so liberally and beautifully planted, Francia cut them down, and it is said that when his horse once shied at the sight of a barrel before a door, the owner of the cask was made to suffer severely on account of the nerves of the Dictator's steed! Paraguay gradually became more and more a hermit State under the rule of this despot. It was difficult in the extreme to enter the country, but, having once passed its frontiers, it was harder still to return. Forts were established along the borders, and the rivers were strictly policed. A strict watch was kept on all travellers, and none might move from spot to spot without being in possession of a passport especially granted by the Dictator. Some there were who attempted to make their way from the now dreaded country through the vast swamps of the Chaco, but death at the hands of the Indians or the teeth of the wild beasts was the usual result. It was inevitable that stagnation of commerce should have ensued, but the traders by this time no longer dared to complain openly. Francia himself, so long as he had the State to govern, cared little whether its people were rich or poor. As for the unfortunate Spaniards in Paraguay, the enactments against them became more and more severe. As evidence of his supreme contempt for these Europeans, Francia issued a decree by which they were forbidden to intermarry with a white woman. This extraordinary measure shows the length to which this strange man carried his tyranny, and how deeply was the hatred of the Spaniard implanted in his queer and grim mind. It is impossible, however, to go fully into the details of Francia's autocratic reign, incredible as many of these are. The destruction of the Church, the secularization of the monks, wholesale executions and torturings, the suppression of the Post Office, and a hundred other acts of irresponsible and childish tyranny--these are only some of the episodes which characterized the days of his rule. During all this while the power of the army grew until militarism became rampant--militarism, that is to say, instigated by Francia, since no officer or man of his troops dared move hand or finger unless commanded by the Dictator himself. His title was now "Supremo Dictator Perpetuo de la Republica del Paraguay" (Supreme and Perpetual Dictator of the Republic of Paraguay).