But the two main Spanish bodies hastened up from Cuzco and Charcas, outmanoeuvred Santa Cruz, united their forces, and routed his army in a panic, not a fourth ever reaching the seaboard. Shortly after Santa Cruz's departure on this ill-fated expedition, Sucre arrived at Lima with the first instalment of the promised Colombian auxiliaries. The Spanish general, Canterac, had concentrated a large army at Jauja and descended on the capital; Lima was denuded of Peruvian troops; the government helpless against the Spaniards or Sucre. The Colombian was made commander-in-chief, and retiring to the fortifications of Callao before Canterac's overwhelming numbers, procured Riva Aguero's deposition and the nomination of one of his own tools as nominal president, while he sent off an urgent message to Bolivar to come in person. Canterac, after holding Lima for a few weeks, went back to the mountains, and Bolivar himself landed at Callao on the 1st of September, almost at the very moment when Santa Cruz's army was getting involved in that snarl out of which it never extricated itself. The news of its destruction left Bolivar undisputed master of the situation, and in February the submissive rump of the Peruvian parliament conferred upon him an absolute dictatorship. He now devoted all the wonderful energy with which nature had endowed him to preparation for a campaign which he meant to be final; and united ten thousand men under his command, two-thirds of whom were Colombian veterans and the rest Peruvians, Argentines, and Chileans who fought for the sheer love of fighting. His officers were the pick of South America, men who had proven their bravery and skill on all the hundred battle-fields from Venezuela to Chile. With such a force he did not hesitate to attack the Spaniards, although the latter were nearly twice as numerous. Suddenly, however, his plans were seriously disturbed by a revolt of the garrison in Callao castle--Argentines and Chileans who had not received their pay. The mutineers hoisted the Spanish flag and sent word to Canterac that he might come in and take possession. This event produced a great sensation at Lima. Many citizens who distrusted Bolivar or were fearful of the final result vacillated in their allegiance. Even men who had been prominent liberals went over to the royalists. Bolivar abandoned the capital and removed his base of operations to Trujillo, three hundred miles north. But discouragement gave place to confident enthusiasm when news came that the Spanish generals were fighting among themselves. Olaneta, the renegade Argentine, who commanded in Bolivia, had quarrelled with La Serna, whom he regarded as a pestilent liberal and an enemy of the absolute pretensions of the Spanish king. The viceroy sent Valdez against him, and some hard fighting had taken place, when this fratricidal war was interrupted by the news of Bolivar's preparations. [Illustration: MILK-WOMAN OF LIMA ON HORSEBACK.]