Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/168

152 till their last cartridge was spent, inflicting heavy loss upon their assailants, Iriarte alone killing eighteen. But the crowd now closed in upon them in overpowering numbers, and the ground was quickly covered with the slain. It is said that some, to avoid death by the hands of the merciless victors, threw themselves into the well.

By five o'clock in the afternoon the contest, which had lasted for four hours, ceased, and orders were given to take the prisoners to the jail from which the criminals had been released. Naked and wounded and bound with cords, the wretched survivors were dragged and driven along with insults, blows, and threats of death, many of them dying on the way. Others perished in the prison. Gilberto Riaño and Bernabe Bustamante, both badly wounded, were permitted to go into a private house, but died a few days afterward. Among the slain were sons of the first families of Guanajuato, and many of the principal citizens. With regard to the number killed no certainty can be arrived at, but it probably amounted to over six hundred men, soldiers and civilians.

Of the insurgents, exclusive of the regular soldiers