Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/314

294 means of liberal bounties and seductive promises to some, while the unwilling were forced to enlist or to send substitutes, Guzman succeeded in recruiting a sufficient number of men in Guatemala, Oajaca, and elsewhere. He filled his military chest by seizure of funds belonging to the crown, an act involving a constructive arrest of the treasury officials who opposed him, and the extortion of forced loans from the wealthy of the city, though this was forbidden by law. Preparations for the campaign though hasty were thorough, and greatly facilitated because of the almost omnipotent power enjoyed by the president, and just before Christmas he hastened to his usual pleasant pastime in fresh fields at the head of the largest and best equipped army that as yet had marched under the royal banner in the New World, consisting as it did of two hundred horse, three hundred foot soldiers, and some artillerymen with twelve guns, together with at least ten thousand Tlascaltecs and Mexicans. Two chaplains, joined afterward by two others, accompanied the force, and Guzman took with him the unfortunate Caltzontzin, who, after having been forced to minister to the avarice of his Jailer, was so soon to become his victim.