Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/340

290 oppression even unto death. For a long series of years La Vendeé bade defiance to the armies of the French republic. The Swiss peasant, as he quaffs the choice vintage of his native land, never fails to bless the brave men who rescued her from the grasp of the Austrian despot, and the brave descendants who maintained the freedom so nobly won, against the efforts of France and Burgundy. The guerilla mode of warfare adopted by Mina, Empecinado, and their compatriots, had its origin in the same impulses, and their deeds of cruelty and vengeance, — sometimes just, yet always fearful, — are well remembered in the Spanish Peninsula. But the Mexican guerilleros were influenced by no such feelings, — by no such emotions. The principle which animated them was love of plunder, rather than love of country, — and the standard under which they rallied, was the emblem of the bandit. — not the flag of the patriot!

The line of the national road has always been infested with banditti, and the guerilla bands organized to annoy the American army, were principally composed of that class of the population, their associates and companions, and a few deserters from the Spanish vessels of War lying in the Gulf. With very rare exceptions — and those mainly confined to the civil and military officers of the government, — the better classes