Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/340

322 vessel of the United States government. But he was a disgraced man in the nation's eyes. He returned to his hacienda of Manga de Clavo, and burying himself for a while in obscurity, was screened from the open manifestation of popular odium. Here he lurked until the brilliant attempt was made to disenthral his country by Mexia, in 1838. Demanding, once more, the privilege of leading the army, he was entrusted with its command, and, encountering the defender of federation in the neighborhood of Puebla, he gave him battle immediately. Mexia lost the day; and, with brief time for shrift or communication with his family, he was condemned by a drum-head court martial and shot upon the field of battle. This was a severe doom; but the personal animosity between the commanders was equally unrelenting, for when the sentence was announced to the brave but rash Mexia, he promptly and firmly declared that Santa Anna was right to execute him on the spot, inasmuch, as he would not have granted the usurper half the time that elapsed since his capture, had it been his destiny to prove victorious!

Soon after the accession of Bustamante there had been gritos in favor of federation and Gomez Farias, who was, at that period, imprisoned; but these trifling outbreaks were merely local and easily suppressed by Pedraza and Rodriguez.

In the winter of 1838, however, Mexico was more severely threatened from abroad than she had recently been by her internal discords. It was at this time that a French fleet appeared at Vera Cruz, under the orders of Admiral Baudin, to demand satisfaction for injuries to French subjects, and unsettled pecuniary claims which had been long and unavailingly subjects of diplomacy. Distracted for years by internal broils that paralized the industry of the country ever since the outbreak of the revolution, Mexico was in no condition to respond promptly to demands for money. But national pride forbade the idea of surrendering without a blow. The military resources of the country and of the Castle of San Juan de Ulua, were, accordingly, mustered with due celerity, and the assailed department of Vera Cruz entrusted to the defence of Santa Anna, whose fame had been somewhat refreshed by his victory over Mexia. Meanwhile the French fleet kept up a stringent blockade of Vera Cruz, and still more crippled the commercial revenues of Mexico by cutting off the greater part of its most valuable trade. Finding, however, that neither the blockade nor additional diplomacy would induce the stubborn government to accede to terms which the Mexicans knew would finally be forced