Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/94

74. On the 30th of October the municipality, with the best grace possible, issued proclamations in accordance with the order, declaring their joy at the prospective re-entry of their viceroy on the morrow, and ordering a pompous celebration with salvos and fireworks to testify "the affection which the city entertained for the marquis."

On the 31st a vast procession of officials, nobles, gentry, and prominent citizens appeared at the convent, whence the troops had been removed, and hat in hand the oidores made their bow. Gelves vaulted into the saddle and was escorted to the palace. Along the very streets so lately trodden by him as a decried fugitive shielded by the darkness, he now proceeded with the pomp of a victor, beneath arches and festoons, amid salvos and ringing of bells, beneath floral showers from fair hands, and amid the thundering cheers of countless spectators, who now and then made a diversion by cursing the oidores and other enemies of their beloved viceroy. At the palace gate he was actually caught in the arms of the fickle populace and carried to where Cerralvo stood to receive him. In the evening came festivities with illumination and fireworks. Gelves did not, however, expect to assume executive power, for this he regarded as already vested in Cerralvo. He merely came to triumph. The next day he left the palace, and followed this time by a sorrow-stricken crowd entered the Franciscan convent at Tacuba, there to await his residencia.

The popular demonstrations at his entry and departure were by no means so insincere as at first glance might appear. An interval of eight months had calmed men's passions considerably, and the rule of the audiencia had tended to exalt in the eyes of most citizens the salutary strictness of the overthrown