Page:The Story of Mexico.djvu/290



XXVII.

YTURBIDE.

remained several months at the head of government and then returned to Spain, having taken vigorous measures to extinguish forever, as he thought, the flames of insurrection. In the last days of his administration he arrested and sent to a convent two women distinguished for their devotion to the cause of independence; one of them, Doña Josefa Dominguez, the wife of the man who began with Hidalgo the agitation of the subject.

Calleja returned to Spain, where he was made Conde de Calderon. He was cruel and despotic, and has left in Mexico a name much detested.

The struggle for independence continued in several parts of the country, but the Spanish government, with good troops and ample resources, either dispersed or routed the rebellious forces. Some of the chiefs of the insurrection abandoned the cause, accepting the indulgence offered them by the viceroy, while others retired to the mountains, like Pelayo in the early days of Spain, when the Moors swept over the Peninsula, to keep active for happier days the sacred fire of liberty.

The successor of Calleja, Apodaca, by his