PDF Tuberculosis The White Plague 1st Edition Miriam Aronin download
PDF Tuberculosis The White Plague 1st Edition Miriam Aronin download
PDF Tuberculosis The White Plague 1st Edition Miriam Aronin download
https://ebookultra.com
https://ebookultra.com/download/tuberculosis-the-
white-plague-1st-edition-miriam-aronin/
https://ebookultra.com/download/how-many-people-traveled-the-oregon-
trail-and-other-questions-about-the-trail-west-1st-edition-miriam-
aronin/
ebookultra.com
https://ebookultra.com/download/plague-war-plague-2-1st-edition-jeff-
carlson/
ebookultra.com
https://ebookultra.com/download/tuberculosis-1st-edition-henry-wouk/
ebookultra.com
https://ebookultra.com/download/plague-ports-the-global-urban-impact-
of-bubonic-plague-between-1894-and-1901-1st-edition-myron-echenberg/
ebookultra.com
Plague Among the Magnolias Deanne Stephens Nuwer
https://ebookultra.com/download/plague-among-the-magnolias-deanne-
stephens-nuwer/
ebookultra.com
https://ebookultra.com/download/barbaric-sport-a-global-plague-1st-
edition-marc-perelman/
ebookultra.com
https://ebookultra.com/download/tuberculosis-treatment-the-search-for-
new-drugs-1st-edition-marcus-v-n-de-souza/
ebookultra.com
https://ebookultra.com/download/tuberculosis-voices-of-the-unheard-
who-regional-office-for-the-eastern-mediterranean/
ebookultra.com
https://ebookultra.com/download/the-routledge-companion-to-philosophy-
of-medicine-1st-edition-miriam-solomon/
ebookultra.com
Tuberculosis The White Plague 1st Edition Miriam
Aronin Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Miriam Aronin, Irina Gelmanova
ISBN(s): 9781936088065, 1936088061
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 15.89 MB
Year: 2010
Language: english
The White Plague!
by Miriam Aronin
[Intentionally Left Blank]
by Miriam Aronin
Consultant: Irina Gelmanova, MD, MPH
Credits
Cover and Title Page, © Noah Seelam/AFP/Newscom; 4, AP Images/Lynne Sladky; 5, Noah Seelam/AFP/Newscom;
6T, AP Images/Lynne Sladky; 6B, Sukree Sukplang/Reuters/Landov; 7T, © Clark Overton/Phototake, Inc; 7B, ©
Nancy Kaszerman/ZUMA Press/Newscom; 8L, © SPL/Photo Researchers, Inc.; 8R, Courtesy of Sarah Mitchell/
University of York; 9, © AKG Images/British Library; 10L, © The Granger Collection, New York; 10R, © The Granger
Collection, New York; 11, Everett Collection/SuperStock; 12L, © Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis; 12R, © Eye of Science/
Photo Researchers, Inc.; 13, © Lester V. Bergman/Corbis; 14, Courtesy of the Adirondack Collection, Saranac
Lake Free Library, #95.202; 15, Courtesy of the Adirondack Collection, Saranac Lake Free Library, #P82.26; 16,
Courtesy of Mwanner; 17T, Courtesy of the Adirondack Collection, Saranac Lake Free Library, #P84.25; 17B,
Courtesy of the Adirondack Collection, Saranac Lake Free Library, #87.674d; 18L, © The National Library of
Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland; 18R, © The National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland; 19, Courtesy of
Rocky Mountain Laboratories/NIAID/NIH/Hamilton, Montana; 20, © Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Newscom; 22, © Denis
Meyer/Imagebroker/Alamy; 23, © AP Images/Themba Hadebe; 24, © Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times/Redux;
25, © Damon Higgins/The Palm Beach Post/ZUMA Press/Newscom; 26, © Damon Higgins/The Palm Beach Post/
ZUMA Press/Newscom; 27, © Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images; 28, © Abdullah Freres/Corbis; 29, © Francisco
Matarazzo Sobrinho Collection, Sao Paulo/SuperStock.
Aronin, Miriam.
Tuberculosis : the white plague! / by Miriam Aronin.
p. cm. — (Nightmare plagues)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-936088-06-5 (library binding)
ISBN-10: 1-936088-06-1 (library binding)
1. Tuberculosis. I. Title.
RA644.T7A76 2011
616.9’95—dc22
2010010679
Copyright © 2011 Bearport Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written
permission from the publisher.
For more information, write to Bearport Publishing Company, Inc., 101 Fifth Avenue, Suite 6R,
New York, New York 10003. Printed in the United States of America in North Mankato, Minnesota.
072010
042110CGF
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Something Really Bad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A Giant Hole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
A Mysterious Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Crisis in the Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
An Amazing Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Fresh Air and Sunshine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Life in a Sanatorium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
New Medicines, New Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
A Global Emergency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Even Worse News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Isolated! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The Ones We Really Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Oswaldo
Juarez
NORTH
AMERICA
Atlantic
O c ean
Pacific
O c ean SOUTH
Peru AMERICA
W E
4
Oswaldo rushed to see a doctor. The doctor did tests
and gave him the terrible news. Oswaldo had pulmonary
tuberculosis, or TB—a disease that attacks a person’s lungs
and can be deadly if not treated. Doctors believe Oswaldo
caught TB in his home country before he left for Florida.
A nurse caring
for a TB patient
6
Without treatment, tuberculosis attacks more and more
of a patient’s lung tissue. Eventually, he or she can no longer
breathe and will die. To save his lungs and his life, doctors
gave Oswaldo medicines called antibiotics. Unfortunately,
none of the medicines his doctors tried at first worked.
Healthy lungs
When a TB patient’s lungs These lungs were infected with TB. It can take
months or even years for the disease to cause a
become damaged, blood vessels hole, such as the one in Oswaldo’s lung, to develop.
in the lungs can break open. Then Many people who have TB don’t always feel sick at
the patient may start coughing up first, so they don’t know that they have the disease
until it’s so far advanced that it has caused harm to
blood, just like Oswaldo did. their bodies.
7
Oswaldo’s doctors knew how deadly tuberculosis could
be. The disease has been killing people for more than 4,000
years. Around 2,500 years ago, the famous Greek doctor
Hippocrates (hih-PAH-kruh-teez) identified tuberculosis as the
most common and the deadliest disease in the world.
TB was also a mysterious illness. Some victims died
months after getting sick. Others became weaker and weaker
for years before dying. Sufferers became so thin that they
looked like skeletons. Few people recovered.
10
Becoming sick from tuberculosis was often a death
sentence. It killed about one billion people between 1700
and 1900. However, without knowing what caused TB,
doctors couldn’t figure out how to treat it.
Stages of TB
13
Koch’s discoveries inspired an American doctor named
Edward Livingston Trudeau to study tuberculosis. Trudeau
himself was sick with TB. During his illness, he moved to the
Adirondack Mountains in New York, hoping that the fresh
air and sunshine would cure him. Though he still had TB
bacteria in his body, his health soon improved dramatically.
Could fresh air help other TB patients?
When Trudeau first became sick with TB, his doctors told him he would not
live long. After moving to the Adirondack Mountains, though, he found that
his health improved. Here, he is with his wife in the Adirondacks.
14
To find out, Trudeau infected ten rabbits with
tuberculosis bacteria in 1885. He kept five of the rabbits in
a dark, damp box with little food. He moved the other five to
a small island. There, they had plenty of fresh air, sunshine,
and food—just as Trudeau had in the Adirondacks. Three
months later, four of the rabbits in the box were dead. Only
one of the rabbits living outdoors had died of the disease.
Trudeau working
in his lab
15
After seeing the results from the test with the rabbits,
Trudeau believed fresh air and plenty of food could help
human TB patients, too. So he opened a sanatorium in the
Adirondacks.
At the sanatorium, patients mainly rested and ate. They
got three meals, several snacks, and lots of milk every day.
They also had long periods of rest outdoors in the fresh air.
16
Soon, other sanatoriums were opened across the
country to treat patients. They helped some TB patients
feel better. When patients’ symptoms improved, they
stopped spreading the disease to others. Treatment in the
sanatoriums also helped people build up their own bodily
defenses against the TB bacteria. However, many patients
were not cured by their sanatorium stay and later died.
18
As the doctors gave the same antibiotic to more TB
patients, they discovered a problem. The tuberculosis
bacteria changed quickly and became resistant to the
medicine. This caused the drug to stop working. Doctors
were able to solve this problem by using more than one kind
of antibiotic on each patient. By the 1950s, tuberculosis
was a treatable disease.
19
Not everyone who becomes infected with tuberculosis
becomes sick. Most infected people have latent tuberculosis,
which means the TB bacteria enter their bodies and stay
there. Yet these people do not look or feel sick. Fortunately,
those with latent TB cannot spread it to others.
Only about 10 percent of people infected with tuberculosis
ever become ill with active TB. However, some diseases such
as AIDS or diabetes, or conditions such as malnutrition
weaken people’s immune systems. Their bodies may not be
strong enough to keep the bacteria under control. Latent
tuberculosis infections can then easily become active.
ASIA
NORTH EUROPE
AMERICA
Atlantic
O c ean
Pacific
O c ean Pacific
AFRICA
O c ean
50–99 W E
25–49
S
0–24 S outhe rn O c ean
No Estimate
ANTARCTICA
This map shows cases of active TB around the world in 2006. About
one-third of all people on Earth have latent tuberculosis infections. Many
of these people live in Southeast Asia and southern Africa. 21
Active tuberculosis patients treated with a few kinds
of antibiotics can quickly begin to feel better. After several
weeks, they are no longer contagious. However, full treatment
takes at least six months. Missing even one dose of antibiotics
can be very dangerous. If patients do not finish the treatment,
the TB infection can come back as a stronger strain, called
multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). This powerful
strain cannot be killed by the usual tuberculosis medicines.
It must be treated with more expensive antibiotics—and
treatment can take up to two years.
24
There is no known effective treatment for XXDR-TB.
Doctors tried many different kinds of drugs to cure
Oswaldo, who took up to 30 pills every day. Doctors used
needles to inject even more medicines into his blood.
Amazingly, by July 2009, almost two years after being
diagnosed with TB, Oswaldo was cured. His lung healed and
he was no longer contagious.
25
While 95 percent of TB cases are treatable, doctors
are still worried. Deadly, drug-resistant strains of TB
are spreading. They have popped up in many countries,
including South Africa and Russia. Dr. Ashkin says cases like
Oswaldo’s, “are the ones we really fear because I’m not sure
how we treat them.”
Here, Dr. Ashkin (front) works with a TB patient. Since tuberculosis is spread through
the air, Dr. Ashkin believes that treating one TB patient is “protecting all of us.”
26
Many organizations are helping to fight TB in poor
countries, such as South Africa, where people are
undernourished and can’t afford to buy medicine. These
groups, such as Partners in Health and Doctors Without
Borders, raise money that is used to buy food and medicine
for these people. Scientists are also working to create new
medicines for TB. Much progress has been made in the
treatment of the disease. However, there is still more to do
to win the battle against the white plague.
A TB hospital in
the 1800s
28
Fifty years ago, tuberculosis was on the decline, but the disease has made
a comeback. Today, someone in the world is infected with the illness every
second. Here are some more facts about TB.
29
Glossary
active (AK-tiv) something that progresses malnutrition (mal-noo-TRISH-uhn) a harmful
condition caused by not having enough food
AIDS (AYDZ) an often deadly disease in
or eating the wrong kinds of food
which the body’s ability to protect itself
against illness is destroyed outbreak (OUT-brake) a sudden start or
increase in the activity of something, such
antibiotics (an-ti-bye-OT-iks) medicines
as the spread of a disease
that destroy or stop the growth of bacteria
that cause diseases phlegm (FLEM) the thick substance that can
be found in the lungs and is often coughed up
bacteria (bak-TIHR-ee-uh) tiny life forms
during a cold
that can be seen only under a microscope;
some can cause disease plague (PLAYG) a disease that spreads
quickly and often kills many people
blood vessels (BLUHD VESS-uhlz) tiny
tubes, such as veins, that carry blood pulmonary tuberculosis (PUHL-muh-nair-ee
around a person’s or an animal’s body tu-bur-kyuh-LOH-sis) a contagious disease,
caused by bacteria, that attacks the lungs and
contagious (kuhn-TAY-juhss) able to be
causes patients to lose weight, have fevers,
passed from one person to another
and have trouble breathing
diabetes (dye-uh-BEE-teez) a disease in
resistant (ri-ZIS-tuhnt) not affected
which a person has too much sugar in his
or her blood sanatorium (san-uh-TOHR-ee-uhm)
a building where patients suffering from
extensively (ek-STEN-siv-lee) very
certain long-term diseases stay to increase
HIV (aych-eye-VEE) stands for Human their health and ease symptoms
Immunodeficiency Virus; the virus that
strain (STRAYN) a type or variety of
causes AIDS
something, such as a disease
immigrants (IM-uh-gruhnts) people who
tenements (TEN-uh-muhnts) small, run-down,
come from one country to live permanently
often crowded apartment buildings
in a new one
tissue (TISH-oo) a group of connected cells
immune systems (i-MYOON SISS-tuhmz)
of the same type inside a plant or animal
the systems that people’s bodies use to
that work together as one
protect themselves from harmful germs
that can cause diseases vaccine (vak-SEEN) medicine that helps
protect a person or animal from getting a
infected (in-FEKT-id) spread a germ or
particular disease
disease to others
ventilated (VEN-tuh-layt-id) exposed to
isolated (EYE-sul-late-id) kept separate
fresh air
and away from others
X-rays (EKS-rayz) images of the inside of a
latent (LATE-uhnt) invisible or not active,
person’s body
but still present
30
Bibliography
Altman, Lawrence K., M.D. “Rise of a Deadly TB Reveals a Global System in
Crisis.” The New York Times (March 20, 2007).
Maso, Margie, and Martha Mendoza. “Drugs Can’t Always Stop TB Anymore.”
San Francisco Chronicle (January 10, 2010).
Steward D.A., L.D. Ross, and E.L. Ross. Tuberculosis: An Insidious Disease.
The Canadian Medical Journal Association (August 1934), 160–164.
Yancey, Diane. Tuberculosis. Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First Century Books
(2007).
www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/drtb/default.htm
Read More
Finer, Kim Renee. Tuberculosis. New York: Facts on File (2003).
O’Shei, Tim. The World’s Deadliest Diseases. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press
(2006).
Silverstein, Alvin, Virginia B. Silverstein, and Laura Silverstein Nunn. The
Tuberculosis Update. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers (2006).
Wouk, Henry. Tuberculosis. Tarrytown, NY: Benchmark Books (2009).
31
Index
active tuberculosis 20, 22, 29 Marten, Dr. Benjamin 28
Adirondack Mountains 14–15, 16 microscope 12, 28–29
AIDS 20 multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
antibiotics 7, 18–19, 22, 24, 29 (MDR-TB) 22–23, 29
Ashkin, Dr. David 6, 26
rabbits 15, 16
bacteria 12–13, 14–15, 17, 18–19, Russia 26
20, 28
sanatoriums 16–17, 18
blood 4, 7, 9, 10–11, 25
South Africa 26–27
cities 10–11, 28 Sweetser, Dr. William 11
consumption 9
tenements 10, 13
coughing 4, 6–7, 10–11, 13, 24, 29
tests 5, 16, 29
extensively drug-resistant tissue 6–7
tuberculosis (XDR-TB) 23, 29 Trudeau, Dr. Edward Livingston
extremely drug-resistant 14–15, 16
tuberculosis (XXDR-TB) 24–25
vaccine 27
factories 10
white plague 9, 27
Hippocrates 8, 28 World Health Organization
(WHO) 21, 23, 24, 29
Juarez, Oswaldo 4–5, 6–7, 8,
24–25, 26 X-rays 6
32
[Intentionally Left Blank]
The White Plague!
Oswaldo Juarez, a 19-year-old student in Florida, had
been feeling ill for a few weeks. Then, on a fall night in 2007,
he began to cough up blood. As he looked at the red stain in
his sink, he thought he might be dying. He raced to a doctor
to have tests done to find out what was wrong with him.
Then came the terrible news. Oswaldo had tuberculosis,
or TB—a disease that kills more than one million people on
Earth every year.
How does this killer disease spread to so many people?
Look inside to find out more about Oswaldo and other
victims of tuberculosis. You’ll also discover what causes
the dangerous illness, how it affects the body, and—most
important—how to protect yourself from it in the first place.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
Narbáez, por la mayor parte deseosa de la paz, ó con poco afecto á
sus dictámenes; y no desconfió de hacerle la guerra, ó traerle al
ajustamiento que deseaba con la fuerza ó con la floxedad de sus
mismos soldados. Comunicó uno y otro á sus Capitanes; y
considerados los inconvenientes que por todas partes ocurrian, se
tuvo por el menor ó el ménos aventurado salir á la campaña con el
mayor número de gente que fuese posible: procurar incorporarse
con los Indios que se habian prevenido en Tlascála y Chinantlá; y
marchar unidos la vuelta de Zempoala con presupuesto de hacer alto
en algun lugar amigo, para volver á introducir desde mas cerca las
pláticas de la paz: logrando la ventaja de capitular con las armas en
la mano, y la conveniencia de asistir en parage donde se pudiese
recoger la gente de Narbáez que se determináse á dexar su partido.
Publicóse luego entre los soldados esta resolucion, y se recibió con
notable aplauso y alegría. No ignoraban la desigualdad incomparable
del exército contrario; pero estuvieron á vista del peligro tan lejos
del temor, que los de ménos obligaciones hicieron pretension de salir
á la empresa: y fué necesario que trabajasen el ruego y la autoridad,
quando llegó el caso de nombrar á los que se dexaron en México.
Tanto se fiaban los unos en la prudencia, los otros en el valor, y los
mas en la fortuna de su Capitan: que así llamaban aquella repeticion
extraordinaria de sucesos favorables con que solia conseguir quanto
intentaba: propiedad que puede mucho en el ánimo de los soldados,
y pudiera mas, si supieran retribuir á su Autor estos efectos
inopinados, que se llaman felicidades, porque vienen de causa no
entendida.
Pasó luego Hernan Cortés al quarto de Motezuma, prevenido ya de
varios pretextos para darle cuenta de su viage, sin descubrirle su
cuidado; pero él le obligó á tomar nueva senda en su discurso dando
principio á la conversacion. Recibióle diciendo:
Quedó Hernan Cortés mas animoso que irritado con esta última
sinrazon de Narbáez, pareciéndole indigno de su temor un enemigo
de tan humildes pensamientos; y que no fiaba mucho de su exército,
ni de sí, quien trataba de asegurar la victoria con detrimento de la
reputacion. Siguió su marcha en mas que ordinaria diligencia; no
porque tuviese resuelta la faccion, ni discurridos los medios; sino
porque llevaba el corazon lleno de esperanzas, madrugando á
confortar su resolucion aquellas premisas que suelen venir delante
de los sucesos. Asentó su quartel una legua de Zempoala, en parage
defendido por la frente del rio que llamaban de Canoas, y abrigado
por las espaldas con la vecindad de la Vera Cruz, donde le dieron
unas caserías ó habitaciones bastante comodidad para que se
reparáse la gente de lo que habia padecido con la fuerza del sol, y
prolixidad del camino. Hizo pasar algunos batidores y centinelas á la
otra parte del río: y dando el primer lugar al descanso de su
exército, reservó para despues el discurrir con sus Capitanes lo que
se hubiese de intentar, segun las noticias que llegasen del exército
contrario, donde tenia ganados algunos confidentes, y estaba
creyendo que lo habian de ser en la ocasion quantos aborrecian
aquella guerra: cuyo presupuesto, y las cortas experiencias de
Narbáez, le dieron bastante seguridad para que pudiese acercarse
tanto á Zempoala sin falta de precaucion, ó nota de temeridad.
Llegó á Narbáez la noticia del parage donde se hallaba su enemigo;
y mas apresurado que diligente, ó con un género de celeridad
embarazada, que tocaba en turbacion, trató de sacar su exército en
campaña. Hizo pregonar la guerra, como si ya no estuviera pública:
señaló dos mil pesos de talla por la cabeza de Cortés: puso en precio
menor las de Gonzalo de Sandoval y Juan Velazquez de Leon.
Mandaba muchas cosas á un tiempo sin olvidarse de su enojo:
mezclabanse las órdenes con las amenazas; y todo era despreciar al
enemigo con apariencias de temerle. Puesto en órden el exército,
ménos por su disposicion, que por lo que acertaron sin obedecer sus
Capitanes, marchó como un quarto de legua con todo el grueso, y
resolvió hacer alto para esperar á Cortés en campo abierto:
persuadiéndose á que venia tan desalumbrado, que le habia de
acometer donde pudiese lograr todas sus ventajas el mayor número
de su gente. Duró en este sitio y en esta credulidad todo el dia,
gastando el tiempo, y engañando la imaginacion con varios discursos
de alegre confianza: conceder el pillage á los soldados: enriquecer
con el tesoro de México á los Capitanes: y hablar mas en la victoria
que de la batalla. Pero al caer el sol se levantó un nublado que
adelantó la noche, y empezó á despedir tanta cantidad de agua, que
aquellos soldados maldixeron la salida, y clamaron por volverse al
quartel: en cuya impaciencia entraron poco despues los Capitanes, y
no se trabajó mucho en reducir á Narbáez, que sentia tambien su
incomodidad: faltando en todos la costumbre de resistir á las
inclemencias del tiempo; y en muchos la inclinacion á un
rompimiento de tantos inconvenientes.
Habia llegado poco ántes aviso de que se mantenia Cortés de la otra
parte del rio: de que, no sin alguna disculpa, conjeturaron que no
habia que rezelar por aquella noche; y como nunca se halla con
dificultad la razon que busca el deseo, dieron todos por conveniente
la retirada, y la pusieron en execucion desconcertadamente,
caminando al cubierto, ménos como soldados, que como fugitivos.
No permitió Narbáez que su exército se desuniese aquella noche,
mas porque discurrió en salir temprano á la campaña, que porque
tuviese algun rezelo de Cortés; aunque afectó por los demas el
cuidado á que obligaba la cercanía del enemigo. Alojaronse todos en
el adoratorio principal de la villa, que constaba de tres torreones ó
capillas poco distantes: sitio eminente y capaz, á cuyo plano se subia
por unas gradas pendientes y desabridas, que daban mayor
seguridad á la eminencia.
Guarneció con su artillería el pretil que servia de remate á las
gradas; eligió para su persona el torreon de en medio, donde se
retiró con algunos Capitanes, y hasta cien hombres de su
confidencia, y repartió en los otros dos el resto de la gente: dispuso
que saliesen algunos caballos á correr la campaña; nombró dos
centinelas que se alargasen á reconocer las avenidas: y con estos
resguardos que, á su parecer, no dexaban que desear á la buena
disciplina, dió al sosiego lo que restaba de la noche, tan lejos el
peligro de su imaginacion, que se dexó rendir al sueño con poca ó
ninguna resistencia del cuidado.
Despachó luego Andres de Duero á Hernan Cortés un confidente
suyo, que pudo echar fuera de la plaza con poco riesgo, para que á
boca le diese cuenta de la retirada, y de la forma en que se habia
dispuesto el alojamiento, mas por asegurarle amigablemente que
podia pasar la noche sin rezelo, que por advertirle ó provocarle á
nuevos designios. Pero él con esta noticia tardó poco en
determinarse á lograr la ocasion que, á su parecer, le convidaba con
el suceso. Tenia premeditados todos los lances que se le podian
ofrecer en aquella guerra: y alguna vez se deben cerrar los ojos á las
dificultades, porque suelen parecer mayores desde lejos; y hay casos
en que daña el discurrir al executar. Convocó su gente sin mas
dilacion y la puso en órden, aunque duraba la tempestad; pero
aquellos soldados, endurecidos ya en mayores trabajos,
obedecieron, sin hacer caso de su incomodidad, ni preguntar la
ocasion de aquel movimiento inopinado: tanto se dexaban á la
providencia de su Capitan. Pasaron el rio con el agua sobre la
cintura: y vencida esta dificultad, hizo á todos un breve
razonamiento, en que les comunicó lo que llevaba discurrido, sin
poner duda en su resolucion, ni cerrar las puertas al consejo. Dióles
noticia de la turbacion con que se habian retirado los enemigos,
buscando el abrigo de su quartel contra el rigor de la noche, y de la
separacion y desórden con que habian ocupado los torreones del
adoratorio: ponderó él el descuido y seguridad en que se hallaban:
la facilidad con que podrian ser asaltados ántes que llegasen á
unirse, ó tuviesen lugar para doblarse: y viendo que no solo se
aprobaba, pero se aplaudia la proposicion:
"De todo, amigo, se deben las gracias á Dios; pero sin género
de vanidad os puedo asegurar que pongo esta victoria y vuestra
prision entre las cosas menores que se han obrado en esta
tierra."