Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/43

Rh then the cathedral chapter, the municipality, the university corporation, and the commercial representatives carried it successively, the oidores taking it from the last station into the cathedral, where it was placed in a lofty position, amid a blaze of lights. As the alféreces approached they lowered the standards, and placed them at the foot of the coffin. On the left rested Guerra's coat of arms; on the right were the cross and the guidon. After service the coffin was buried at a late hour by the high altar, on the evangel side. It was a grand and glorious casting-forth.

During the novenary each religious order came to chant masses, assisted by ecclesiastic and civil bodies. On March 7th the members of the procession marched in the same order as before to the cathedral, where the vigil was chanted, and a funeral oration delivered in Latin. The following day the funeral sermon was preached by the dominican provincial.

The government now passed into the hands of the audiencia, and the senior oidor, Pedro de Otalora, a pious man, took possession of the palace. Affairs were by no means such as to require a strong hand at their head; yet the loss of the recognized chief seems to have created an unsettled feeling, and the revelation of an intended uprising among the negroes so alarmed the capital that on Monday and Thursday the customary religious processions of the week did not take place. On the evening of Thursday a trampling of feet was heard, with much grunting and yelling, and the cry spread that the negroes were upon them. The panic-stricken people either closed their doors or fled for protection toward the palace, and terror reigned until morning, when the cause of the uproar appeared in a drove of pigs for the