Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/349

Rh my father; murdered him in cold blood for choosing Mexico and liberty before Spain and her tyrannies. Some of you are fathers, and may imagine what my father felt in being thrust from the world without one farewell word from his son,—ay! and your sons may feel a portion of that anguish of soul which fills my breast, as thoughts arise of my father's wrongs and cruel death.

"And what a master is this you serve! For one life, my poor father's, he might have saved you all, and would not. So deadly is his hate, that he would sacrifice three hundred of his friends rather than forego this one sweet morsel of vengeance. Even I, who am no viceroy, have three hundred lives for my father's. But there is yet a nobler revenge than all. Go! You are free! Go, find your vile master, and henceforth serve him, if you can!"



In gratitude to him for sparing their lives, the soldiers, with tears in their eyes, offered their services in his cause, and were faithful to the last. General Bravo afterward bore a conspicuous part in the history of his liberated country. He lived to take part in the American war, his last military service being at the defense of Chapultepec and Molino del Rey. He died in 1854, at the age of sixty-eight, beloved and admired by all who knew him.

Equal in luster are the lives of other leading heroes of independence, whose deeds might shine in the bright galaxy of a Plutarch. Guadalupe Victoria was one of these immortal and brave spirits the record of whose career resembles more a fabled romance than a veritable history of real life. When the power of Spain seemed re-established, Victoria retired to the mountains, where he