Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/241

Rh from him, on the subject of his adventure and the effect it had upon his mind.

"When the Americans marched upon the interior of the country," he said, "after gaining every battle on the outskirts, the most horrible ideas of their cruelty and rapacity were set afloat. As they drew near the capital, we were given to understand that there was no torture nor disgrace to which they would not subject the inhabitants if they conquered us. The priests made themselves particularly busy in influencing the minds of the people in every part of the city, against them; and numbers of the secular clergy went from house to house of the wealthier classes—to arouse their zeal against the invaders, and to procure sums of money for the benefit of the cause. It was generally believed that our enemies were neither more nor less than a kind of monsters, permitted by Heaven to visit us, as a judgment upon our crimes and neglect of the Holy Church.

"For my own part, such a dreadful idea of our opponents had taken possession of me, that I could neither eat nor sleep: I was like one bereft of his senses. Every avenue of my mind seemed closed but that of fear;