Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/163

 MEXICO. Venegas had found means to collect about 7OOO men in, or near Mexico, whom he disposed in the most advantageous manner, for the defence of the town, with the exception of a small corps of observation stationed upon the Toluca road, under the command of Colonel Triixillo, assisted by Don Agustin Iturbide, then a Lieutenant in the Spanish service. This corps was defeated by Hidalgo and Allende, on the 30th of October, at Las Cruces, a pass in the chain of mountains which separates the valley of Mexico from that of Toluca, where Truxillo had taken up a position. The only remark- able circumstance that took place during the action was the fact of an insurgent officer, with a flag of truce, having been encouraged by TruxTllo to approach liis lines until he came close to the ranks, when a general discharge was ordered, by which he was killed, with those who accompanied him. This act of treachery was boasted of by Truxillo in his official report of the engagement, and approved by the Viceroy, who thus gave his sanction to the principle, that none of the ordi- nary rules of war were to be observed with the Insurgents. Venegas, however, was so much alarmed at their success and near approach, that he had again recourse to the superstition of the people, as the best method of preserving tranquillity. The image of the Virgin of los Remedies was brought in great pomp, from a little village where it was usually kept, to the Cathedral of the Capital, where Venegas went in full uniform to pay his respects to it ; and, after imploring the Virgin to take the government into her own hands, terminated his pathetic appeal to her by laying at her feet his staff of command. A flaming account was published, on the following day, of the action of Las Cruces, where Truxillo was said to have obtained a decided advantage, though circumstances had afterwards obliged him to retreat ; — a term rendered but too intelligible by the melancholy condition in which both he and his troops entered the capital. Every preparation was