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396 discuss the present superiority of affairs over those of Montezuma's time, referring to the elements possessed by the country to become an independent monarchy. At other times he spoke of the difficulties there might be to keep up uninterrupted relations with the mother country in future wars with England or France, now that their navies were becoming so much more powerful than Spain's. Then he would expatiate on the need the Mexicans had of erecting strong fortifications at certain points in the interior, and of making other preparations, so that they could rely on their own resources in the event of a foreign invasion when Spain could afford them no aid. Thus he would hint, his accusers said, that Mexico received no benefits, but on the contrary much injury from maritime wars, and all because of a useless, indefensible, and damaging connection with Spain. The frequent social gatherings at the palace and at private houses are said to have afforded him opportunities for quietly promulgating such ideas. Another charge advanced against the count is that, to further gain the good-will of the people, he invited the ayuntamiento of the capital to stand sponsor of a child soon to be born, and which, if a girl, was to be named Guadalupe after the worshipped patroness of the city. The reconstruction of Chapultepec, and the peculiar form and strength given it, likewise aroused suspicion. It was not, they said, a palace for the viceroy's pleasure, but a masked fortress, or a citadel