Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/286

268 sealed as China against the entrance of strangers. Nevertheless Branciforte encouraged a most disgraceful persecution against these unfortunate persons, by arresting them on the slightest pretexts, throwing them into prison, and seizing their possessions. He found, in his assessor general, Don Pedro Jacinto Valenzuela, and in his criminal prosecutor, Francisco Xavier de Borbon, fitting instruments to carry out his inexorable determinations. Upon one occasion he even demanded of the Sala de Audiencia that certain Frenchmen, after execution, should have their tongues impaled upon iron spikes at the city gates, because they had spoken slightingly of the virtue of the queen Maria Louisa! Fortunately, however, for the wretched culprits, the Sala was composed of virtuous magistrates who refused to sanction the cruel demand, and the victims were alone despoiled of their valuable property. These acts, it may well be supposed, covered the name of Branciforte with infamy even in Mexico.

In 1796, on the 7th of October, war was declared by Spain against England, in consequence of which the viceroy immediately distributed the colonial army, consisting of not less than eight thousand men, in Orizaba, Cordova, Jalapa, and Perote; and, in the beginning of the following year, he left the capital to command the forces from his headquarters near the eastern coast. This circumstance enabled him to leave, with an air of triumph, a city in which he was profoundly hated. The people manifested their contempt of so despicable an extortioner and flatterer of royalty, not only by words, but by caricatures. When the sovereign sent him the order of the golden fleece, they depicted Branciforte with a collar of the noble order, but in lieu of the lamb, which terminates the insignia, they placed the figure of a cat! At his departure, the civil and financial government of the capital was entrusted to the regency of the audiencia, while its military affairs were conducted by the Brigadier Davalos. In Orizaba the conduct of Branciforte was that of an absolute monarch. All his troops were placed under the best discipline, but none of them were permitted to descend to Vera Cruz; yet, scarcely had he been established in this new military command, when it was known that Don Miguel Jose de Azanza was named as his viceroyal successor. Nevertheless Branciforte continued in control, with the same domineering demeanor, as in the first days of his government, relying for justification and defence in Spain upon the support of his relative, the Prince of Peace. In Orizaba he was surrounded by flatterers and his court was a scene of disgraceful orgies; yet the day of his fall