Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/188

172 and on the 17th Hidalgo came up in person, the number of his forces now amounting to sixty thousand. His reception was not wholly to his liking; for al though a commission came out to meet him, and the bells sounded a welcome, when he found that the cathedral was closed on dismounting in front of it to render thanks for his successful entry, he was very indignant. Nor was his anger allayed when, the gates having been at last opened by the servants of the sacristy, he was received only by the chaplains of the choir, and the te deum was badly chanted to peals of the organ abominably played. He resented the slight by forthwith pronouncing vacant all the canonical seats except three.

On the departure of the bishop, the canon, conde de Sierra Gorda, had been left in charge of the mitre, and Hidalgo intimated to him that it would be well to remove the excommunication fulminated against himself and his followers by the fugitive prelate. The obsequious canon complied; the proclamation was taken from the doors of the churches, and circulars sent to the curas in the diocese, informing them that the leaders of the revolutionists had incurred no ecclesiastical censure, and instructing them to read to their flocks on a feast day the removal of the excommunication.

Before entering the city, Hidalgo had promised a commission sent out to receive him that rights of property should be respected, and during the entry no violence was attempted. But the taste for spoils