Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/180

 144 MEXICO. ing the enemy, when once thrown into disorder, from forming again. Morelos himself was equally successful with Galeana in repulsing the column which attacked the Plaza de St°. Do- mingo, where he commanded in person. The action lasted from seven in the morning till three in the afternoon; when Calleja, after a fruitless attempt to decoy the Mexicans from their entrenchments, by pretending to abandon his artillery, drew off his men, (leaving five hundred dead upon the spot,) and retired, in good order, to a village, about a league from the town, where he established his head-quarters. The event of the day had so completely discouraged him, that he did not think of risking another assault, but deter- mined to lay siege to Cuautla in form, and wrote to Venegas for supplies of artillery, ammunition, and men. Venegas im- mediately sent him all that the magazines of the capital con- tained ; and ordered Brigadier Llano, who had before been opposed to Morelos, to join the army of the Centre with his whole division. The courier charged with the Viceroy's dis- patches having fallen into the hands of an Insurgent party, Morelos was apprized of the increase of force, which Calleja was about to receive ; but he felt, likewise, that the eyes of all Mexico were turned upon the contest at Cuaiitla, and that a retreat would defeat the hopes, which the repulse of the Royalists, in their first attack, had excited. He determined, therefore, to defend himself to the last, in a place where, ac- cording to the rules of war, defence was impossible and this resolution was most gallantly carried into effect. Llano was, at this time, engaged in an attack upon Iziicar, which was succcessfully defended by Don Vicente tGuerrero, who had, at that time, begun his long and perilo us career. In the course of the Revolution, this general hadl received upwards of fifty wounds, and has had almost as many mira- culous escapes : one of the most extraordinary, perlhaps, was at Izucar, where, while he was asleep, exhausted witlh fatigue, a small shell came through the roof, and rolled under his bed.