Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/199

Rh favorably are their proposals regarded by some of Trujillo's officers, that they induce him no less than three times to hold a parley with the enemy in front of his line of infantry. Hostilities, meanwhile, have ceased. Friendly and specious are the words which Trujillo uses, and at each conference the insurgents, gathering in crowded ranks about their spokesman, draw nearer and nearer. At the third parley he has enticed the unsuspecting revolutionists close up to his bayonets; then he throws off the mask and orders his men to fire. The volley which follows stretches more than sixty victims to his perfidy dead upon the ground.

This treacherous act infuriated the insurgents, and the battle was renewed with increased vigor. Trujillo, however, maintained his position until half-past five in the evening, when, having lost one third of his force in killed and wounded, among whom were many of his best officers, his ammunition, moreover, being wellnigh exhausted, he decided to force his way through the enemy in his rear. His position was indeed no longer tenable. His ranks were being decimated by the insurgents' artillery, his troops, worn out with fatigue, were without provisions; while numbers of the enemy were hastening to reënforce those who were waiting to intercept his retreat. Abandoning his cannon, therefore, he put himself at the head