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Rh would not allow his men to fire, until the enemy was within pistol-shot of the entrenchments.

An attempt to enter Cuautla, by establishing a correspondence with some of the inhabitants, likewise failed. Calleja had managed to induce a Captain Manso, to promise to deliver up a battery entrusted to his charge, but his treachery was discovered by Galeana, and turned against the Royalists, who, on seeing the signals agreed upon, advanced, by night, and were introduced by Galeana himself into the trenches, where they were received with so general, and so well-directed a discharge, that they left one hundred men dead upon the spot.

Calleja's own reports do ample justice to the gallantry of the defence made by the Insurgents. He acknowledges, (March 25th) in his correspondence with the Viceroy, that, so far from having shown any symptoms of discouragement, they had supported both the firing and the bombardment, "with a firmness worthy of a better cause;" and that they continued to harass his troops by frequent sallies, which kept them constantly upon the alert. He calls Morelos, "a second Mahomet;" and though he terms fanaticism the enthusiasm with which he had inspired his followers, he confesses that it had produced the most extraordinary effects. At a much earlier period, he had applied for a train of heavy artillery from Pĕrōtĕ; but though Venegas instantly despatched the necessary