Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/150

148 almost absolute want of fixed principle in the government of society.

The historical portion of the novel is superb. We who profess admiration for the qualities of valor and perseverance, who consider ourselves allied in bonds of brotherhood with the oppressed of every land, should be ashamed of our ignorance in regard to the Mexican struggle for independence. The vicissitudes of our own Revolution are tame, the sufferings even of the winter at Valley Forge sink into insignificance, compared with the events of 1864 and 1865, in this tragedy of dolor and endurance. Whole towns were swept out of existence. The population, flying through night and storm, sought asylum in unbroken forests, filled with wild beasts and noxious reptiles, or amid the rocks and caves of desert places. "Ashes marked the location of homes; the direction of roads was outlined by corpses." Menaced by hunger and thirst, decimated by pestilence, the small and lessening band of Republicans melted like smoke before the advancing Imperialists, whose conquering forces carried all before them. Buffeted by every rudeness of fortune, they still persevered in the unequal struggle, and snatched