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 CHAPTER III 1814 TO 1817 THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM SAN MAR- TIN'S EXPEDITION Meanwhile the two Carreras, set at liberty by the treaty, quitted Chilian, August 23rd, 1814, and pro- ceeded to the capital. Their first efforts were directed toward gaining over the troops, for they were still pop- ular with the army at Santiago. This done, they arbi- trarily restored the old junta, of which Jos6 Miguel Carrera himself had been the chief, and abolished the office of supreme-director still filled by Don Francisco de Lastra. This revolution, effected by family influ- ence, force and corrupt measures, aroused the indigna- tion of the citizens of the capital. O'Higgins, still at Talca, was invited to come to Santiago with his troops, to restore order and the legal junta and enforce the fulfilment of the recent terms agreed upon with the viceroy, Abascal, which Carrera and his followers ridi- culed. He set out upon his mission, and met Carrera upon the plains of Maypo. Two armies in Chile en- listed in the same cause of achieving national inde- pendence, faced each other ready to shed patriotic blood, on the banks of the Maypo. There was an inde- cisive combat, and then both sides paused before be- ginning a battle. It can not be said to what extremes 137