Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/462

426 Alamo; and the imprisonments in Mexico, Puebla, or Peroté in 1842. But when Lane and his troopers reached Tehuacan, the game had escaped, though his lair was still warm. All the personal effects left behind in his rapid flight, were plundered, with the exception of his wife's wardrobe, which, with a rough though chivalrous gallantry, was sent to the beautiful but ill matched lady. A picked military escort, personally attached and doubtless well paid, still attended him. But, beyond this, he had no military command, and as a soldier and politician, his power in Mexico had departed.

Having sought by public letters to throw, as usual, the disgrace of his defeats at Belen and Chapultepec, upon General Terres and the revolutionary hero Bravo, he aroused the united hatred of these men and the disgust of their numerous friends. Public opinion openly condemned him every where. After Lane's assault he took refuge in Oajaca; but the people of that region were equally inimical and significantly desired his departure. Thus, broken in fame and character, deprived of a party, personal influence, patronage, and present use of his wealth, the foiled Warrior-President stood for a moment at bay. But his resolution was soon taken. From Cascatlan he wrote to the minister of war on the 1st of February, demanding passports, and at the same time he intimated to the American Commander-in-chief his willingness to leave an ungrateful Republic and to "seek an asylum on a foreign soil where he might pass his last days in that tranquillity which he could never find in the land of his birth." The desired passports were granted. He was assured that neither Mexicans nor Americans would molest his departure; and, moving leisurely towards the eastern coast with his family, he was met near his Hacienda of Encero by a select guard, detailed by Colonel Hughes and Major Kenly, and, escorted with his long train of troopers, domestics, treasure and luggage to La Antigua, where he embarked on the 5th of April, 1848, on board a Spanish brig bound to Jamaica. One year and eight months before, returning from exile, he had landed from the steamer Arab in the same neighborhood, to regenerate his country!