Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/235

Rh letters to the former show bitterness. His last communication even charges Hidalgo with the intention of collecting money at Guadalajara and escaping with it by way of San Blas. But Hidalgo, informed of the successes in Nueva Galicia, had determined to go to Guadalajara, and had left Valladolid before Allende had written him.

Meanwhile batteries were placed by Allende on no less than ten different heights commanding the Marfil road, besides two outlying points which occupied hills on its left at a place known by the name of Rancho Seco. In the narrowest part of the road, with infinite labor, fifteen hundred holes were drilled for blasts. These were connected by a single fuse, the intention being to fire it as Calleja's troops passed. The design, however, became known to the royalist leader and proved ineffectual.

Calleja, whose movements were never marked by rapidity, left Querétaro on the 15th of November, and passing through Celaya, Salamanca, and Irapuato, reestablished obedience in those towns, and reorganized their governments. On the 23d he arrived at the rancho de Molineros, distant four leagues from Guanajuato, and on the following morning advanced to the entrance of the Cañada de Marfil, intending to reconnoitre; but being interrupted by the batteries at Rancho Seco, he decided to attack at once. Accordingly he threw out on his left a strong body of cavalry and infantry under General Empáran, with the two fold object of occupying the Silao road and executing a flank attack, while Captain Linares charged the positions from the front. The assault was successful. Ill served and badly directed, the artillery of the insurgents did no execution; indeed, so miserably had the cannon been mounted that they could only be fired in the one direction pointed; and the royalists, charging up the slope at places out of the line of fire, quickly routed the insurgents, capturing four pieces of artillery and a number of prisoners. The facility with which