Flying before his pursuers into the wilds of the north and frantically dragging along with him masses of fugitive men, women, and children, whom he remorselessly shot, or starved to death, or left to perish of exhaustion, Lopez turned finally at bay, and, on March 1, 1870, was felled by the lance of a cavalryman.

He had sworn to die for his country and he did, though his country might perish with him.
No land in modern times has ever reached a point so near annihilation as Paraguay.

Added to the utter ruin of its industries and the devastation of its fields, dwellings, and towns, hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children had perished.

Indeed, the horrors that had befallen it might well have led the allies to ask themselves whether it was worth while to destroy a country in order to change its rulers.

Five years before Lopez came into power the population of Paraguay had been reckoned at something between 800,000 and 1,400,000--so unreliable were census returns in those days.