Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/241

Rh So enraged was Calleja at the barbarous murder of the Spaniards that he issued orders to his troops to put the city to fire and sword, and numbers of the inhabitants were slaughtered in the streets. He soon, however, countermanded the order, recognizing that many innocent persons would be put to death. He did not, however, intend that vengeance for the dead should terminate with this first ebullition of wrath; he would proceed with the punishment in a more deliberate and formal manner. During the day he made proclamation, setting forth that although, influenced by humanity, he had suspended his order of extermination, such an atrocious crime could not be left without expiation, and he demanded all arms to be delivered up on the following day, under pain of death. Other items of the proclamation were to the effect that all persons were expected to give information of secreted weapons, and of those known to have favored the insurgent cause; persons congregating in the streets in greater number than three would be dispersed by shot, and those who engaged in seditious speech would be punished with death without respect of person.

But while this proclamation might leave the inhabitants to suppose themselves exempt from further punishment, Calleja was planning merciless retaliation. There should now be a grand massacre on the royalist side, wide-extended and direful, such as would do honor to the cause. On the morning of the 26th the carpenters of Guanajuato were employed in erecting gallows in all the principal thoroughfares of the city, and in the plazas of the neighboring mining towns.