Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/388

372 hastened to repair his fortune, collecting his scattered troops and preparing for a new campaign.

Meantime the slaughter of the unarmed crowd was horrible. Men, women, and children, old and young, were indiscriminately butchered by the royalists, and for seven leagues the bodies of the slain lay strewn upon the road. This cowardly vengeance of Calleja's was among the most dastardly doings in the war. Villanous as it was, and vengeance-satisfying, it was but poor comfort after all to the leader so long sure of his prey. This priest had worsted him and baffled him, had finally eluded his grasp not a very happy reflection for so proud a soldier. Calleja's sickness was a serious bilious attack, and we may be sure that his temper was not improved thereby. Of the dreadful punishment which he inflicted upon the heroic inhabitants of that wretched city I shall give no further details. Let a veil be drawn over the frightful scenes of cruelty. "I have heard officers, who were present at the siege, speak of them," says Ward, "after a lapse of ten years, with horror."

Having destroyed the fortifications of Cuautla—the siege of which cost the government 564,426 pesos, exclusive of munitions of war and other expenses—Calleja, with his military reputation by no means improved, and his troops in miserable plight, returned to the capital, which he entered on the 16th of May, there to meet the ridicule of the inhabitants who well knew that he had been outwitted, despite his glowing accounts.