Page:Life in Mexico vol 2.djvu/245

Rh are making different moves, while the pawns are looking on and taking no part whatever.

To understand the state of the board, it is necessary to explain the position of the four principal pieces—Santa Anna, Bustamante, Paredes, and Valencia. The first move was made by Paredes, who published his plan, and pronounced on the eighth of August in Guadalajara. About the same time, Don F M, a Spanish broker, who had gone to Manga de Clavo, was sent to Guadalajara, and had a conference with Paredes, the result of which was that the plan of that General was withdrawn, and it was supposed that he and Santa Anna had formed a combination. Shortly after, the Censor of Vera Cruz, a newspaper entirely devoted to Santa Anna, pronounced in favor of the plan of Paredes, and Santa Anna, with a few miserable troops, and a handful of cavalry, arrived at Perote. Here he remains for the present, kept in check by the (government) General Torrejon. Meanwhile, Paredes, with about six hundred men, left Guadalajara and marched upon Guanajuato; and there a blow was given to the government party by the defection of General Cortazar, who thought fit thus to show his grateful sense of having just received the rank of General of brigade, with the insignia of this new grade, which the President put up with his own hands. Another check to the President. Once begun, defection spread rapidly; and Paredes and Cortazar having advanced upon Quéretaro, found that General Juvera, with his garrison, had already pronounced there, at the moment that they were expected in Mexico to assist the