Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/238

222 to the plan proposed to Hidalgo, it is not improbable that the royalists would have been defeated. As it was, Allende despaired of success from the first, and with unusual apathy assigned the direction of the batteries and troops to Jimenez, remaining himself in the city. When the news arrived of the capture of the outlying batteries at Rancho Seco, he endeavored to arouse the inhabitants by ordering sounded the general call to arms; but this had the effect only to increase the consternation. The more respectable families took refuge in the churches and convents, or barricaded themselves in their houses, while a large portion of the populace betook themselves to the hills. Allende was helpless to awaken resistance. As height after height was stormed by the victorious royalists, and aware that all was lost, accompanied by his brother officers and a few horsemen, he fled from the city in the direction of San Luis Potosi, taking with him what treasure he had remaining.

And now the Alhóndiga de Granaditas is again brought forward in the history of this unfortunate city as the scene of another appalling massacre. No longer restrained by the interference of military chiefs, early in the afternoon the populace throng the streets with demonstrations of mingled fear and anger. They collect in dense crowds about the alhóndiga, and with