Fragment of the novel by Ignacio Manuel Altamirano where he describes the bandit that gives the title to his work.
He was a young man in his thirties, tall, well proportioned, with a Herculean back, and literally covered in silver. The horse he was riding was a superb sorrel, of good height, muscular, with a robust meeting, with small hooves, powerful haunches like all mountain horses, with a fine neck and an intelligent and erect head. It was what ranchers call a "fight horse."
The rider was dressed like the bandits of that time, and like our charros, the most charros of today. He wore a dark cloth jacket with silver embroidery, breeches with a double row of silver “escutcheons”, joined by chains and laces of the same metal; he covered himself with a hat of dark wool, with large and spread wings, and which had both above and below them a wide and thick silver chevron ribbon embroidered with gold stars; The round and flattened cup was surrounded by a double silver shawl, on which two silver plates fell on each side, in the shape of bulls, ending in gold rings.
He wore, in addition to the scarf with which he covered his face, a woolen shirt under his waistcoat, and on his belt a pair of ivory-handled pistols, in their black patent leather holsters embroidered with silver. On the belt was tied a "canana", a double leather belt in the form of a cartridge belt and filled with rifle cartridges, and on the saddle a machete with a silver handle inserted in its sheath, embroidered with the same material.
The saddle he was riding was lavishly embroidered with silver, the large head was a mass of silver, as were the tile and stirrups, and the horse's bridle was full of chapetas, stars, and capricious figures. Above the black cowboy, the beautiful goat hair, and hanging from the saddle, hung a musket, in its also embroidered sheath, and behind the tile a large rubber cape could be seen tied. And everywhere, silver: in the embroidery on the saddle, on the pommel, on the covers, on the tiger skin chaps that hung from the head of the saddle, on the spurs, everything. That was a lot of silver, and the effort to lavish it everywhere was evident. It was an insolent, cynical and tasteless display. The moonlight made this whole ensemble glow and gave the rider the appearance of a strange ghost in some kind of silver armor; something like a bull ring picador or a motley Holy Week centurion. ...
The moon was at its zenith and it was eleven at night. The "silver" withdrew after this quick examination, to a bend that towards the bed of the river next to an edge full of trees, and there, perfectly hidden in the shade, and on the dry and sandy beach, he set foot ashore. He untied the rope, released the bridle from his horse and, holding it by the lasso, let it go a short distance to drink water. After the animal's need was satisfied, he confronted it again and mounted with agility on it, crossed the river and entered one of the narrow and shady alleys that led to the bank and that were formed by the fences of trees of the orchards.
He walked at a pace and modestly for a few minutes, until he reached the stone fences of a vast and magnificent garden. There he stopped at the foot of a colossal sapote whose leafy branches covered the entire width of the alley like a vault, and trying to penetrate with his eyes into the dense shadow that covered the enclosure, he contented himself with twice in a row articulating a kind of sound of appeal :
-Psst ... psst ...! To which another of the same nature replied, from the fence, on which a white figure soon appeared.
-Manuelita! -said in a low voice the "silver"
"My Zarco, here I am!" answered a sweet woman's voice.
That man was Zarco, the famous bandit whose name had filled the entire region with terror.
