Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/293

Rh fetters were never for a moment removed. On the 23d of April they reached their destination. The comandante Salcedo had already made ready for the occasion. It was not every day Chihuahua offered such a spectacle as Hidalgo and his generals conducted in chains through her streets! So on the 21st Salcedo issued a proclamation granting permission to all the inhabitants of the city to witness the entrance of the prisoners, and prescribing rules to be observed on the occasion, the infringement of which would be visited with severe punishment. Any expression of either sympathy or hate was forbidden. Having passed through this ordeal, the prisoners were incarcerated without removal of their fetters, in the places assigned for that purpose.

On the 25th Juan José Ruiz de Bustamante was appointed to draw up the preliminary proceedings for their trial; and on the 6th of May following a military court was established, composed of a president, auditor, secretary, and four voting members. The prosecution rested entirely upon the declarations of the prisoners, special judges being appointed to examine them and take their depositions. These were then submitted to the above-mentioned tribunal, which pronounced its verdict in accordance, and passed sentence. The members of the court were Manuel Salcedo, president; Rafael Bracho, auditor; and captains Pedro Nolasco Carrasco, José Joaquin Ugarte, and Simon Elias Gonzalez, three of the voting members. Angel Abella, the director of the postal service at Zacatecas, was appointed on the same day on which