'Nothing.
But it is an ugly thing.'
"'And you are an ugly thing,' Pablo said.
'You murderer of peasants.
You who would shoot your own mother.'
"'I have never killed any one,' the _civil_ said.
'And do not speak of my mother.'
"'Show us how to die.
You, who have always done the killing.'
"'There is no necessity to insult us,' another _civil_ said.
'And we know how to die.'
"'Kneel down against the wall with your heads against the wall,' Pablo told them.
The _civiles_ looked at one another.
"'Kneel, I say,' Pablo said. 'Get down and kneel.'
"'How does it seem to you, Paco?' one _civil_ said to the tallest, who had spoken with Pablo about the pistol.
He wore a corporal's stripes on his sleeves and was sweating very much although the early morning was still cool.
"'It is as well to kneel,' he answered.
'It is of no importance.'
"'It is closer to the earth,' the first one who had spoken said, trying to make a joke, but they were all too grave for a joke and no one smiled.
"'Then let us kneel,' the first _civil_ said, and the four knelt, looking very awkward with their heads against the wall and their hands by their sides, and Pablo passed behind them and shot each in turn in the back of the head with the pistol, going from one to another and putting the barrel of the pistol against the back of their heads, each man slipping down as he fired.
I can hear the pistol still, sharp and yet muffled, and see the barrel jerk and the head of the man drop forward.
One held his head still when the pistol touched it.
One pushed his head forward and pressed his forehead against the stone.
One shivered in his whole body and his head was shaking.
Only one put his hands in front of his eyes, and he was the last one, and the four bodies were slumped against the wall when Pablo turned away from them and came toward us with the pistol still in his hand.
"'Hold this for me, Pilar,' he said.
'I do not know how to put down the hammer,' and he handed me the pistol and stood there looking at the four guards as they lay against the wall of the barracks.
All those who were with us stood there too, looking at them, and no one said anything.
"We had won the town and it was still early in the morning and no one had eaten nor had any one drunk coffee and we looked at each other and we were all powdered with dust from the blowing up of the barracks, as powdered as men are at a threshing, and I stood holding the pistol and it was heavy in my hand and I felt weak in the stomach when I looked at the guards dead there against the wall; they all as gray and as dusty as we were, but each one was now moistening with his blood the dry dirt by the wall where they lay.
And as we stood there the sun rose over the far hills and shone now on the road where we stood and on the white wall of the barracks and the dust in the air was golden in that first sun and the peasant who was beside me looked at the wall of the barracks and what lay there and then looked at us and then at the sun and said, '_Vaya_, a day that commences.'
"'Now let us go and get coffee,' I said.
"'Good, Pilar, good,' he said.
And we went up into the town to the Plaza, and those were the last people who were shot in the village."
"What happened to the others?" Robert Jordan asked.
"Were there no other fascists in the village?"
"_Que va_, were there no other fascists?
There were more than twenty.
But none was shot."
"What was done?"
"Pablo had them beaten to death with flails and thrown from the top of the cliff into the river."
"All twenty?"
"I will tell you.
It is not so simple.
And in my life never do I wish to see such a scene as the flailing to death in the plaza on the top of the cliff above the river.
"The town is built on the high bank above the river and there is a square there with a fountain and there are benches and there are big trees that give a shade for the benches.
The balconies of the houses look out on the plaza. Six streets enter on the plaza and there is an arcade from the houses that goes around the plaza so that one can walk in the shade of the arcade when the sun is hot.
On three sides of the plaza is the arcade and on the fourth side is the walk shaded by the trees beside the edge of the cliff with, far below, the river.
It is three hundred feet down to the river.
"Pablo organized it all as he did the attack on the barracks.
First he had the entrances to the streets blocked off with carts as though to organize the plaze for a _capea_. For an amateur bullfight.