Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/272

263 "Yes," will reply some rank republican, "and set up an empire of your own."

"But I first blew the trumpet-call of freedom!" will claim the bold Hidalgo.

And some member of the Church party will retort: "And in so doing sealed the doom of your Catholic mother."

The irrepressible Santa Anna will doubtless attempt to prove that he was the saviour of Mexico; but some of his numerous enemies will fling at him his supreme selfishness, and enumerate his defeats at the hands of the Americans.

Guerrero and Comonfort, and a host of generals, who made their fortunes and lost their lives in the cause, fighting in the light that then shone on them, will not allow themselves to be ignored. Miramon and Mexia will point to their martyrdom in the cause of the Church and the Empire, while Maximilian will loftily, and perhaps justly, claim that the imperial government he represented and gave his life for was the only one fitted for Mexico. Juarez will undoubtedly rest serenely confident that the peace and progress resulting from his administration is his title to a seat among the elect. But what will they all say when there appears the apparition of the great warrior who made their feeble exercise of power a possibility? Will they not shrink before his terrible features, and allow him a hearing without interruption? Cortes, the conqueror, the chosen of the Lord, the fighter for the faith, the murderer of Indians of royal blood, the founder of Spanish dominion in New Spain,—all must bow before him, unless the Aztecs, whom he destroyed, be allowed to have a voice in the matter. Montezuma and Guatemotzin! what burning brands ye could cast at the Spanish bigot! Would he bow his head before your reproaches, or would he fling at you the long record of the victims of the sacrifice murdered by you and your ancestors? The record of Cortes is not a true one, if he would not overwhelm you with evidence that he did the world a service in destroying you and your religion.

Now, not all these heroes are buried here in San Fernando, but the few that are, having represented politics of such