Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/404

388 after their interests with the utmost care, and they had accustomed themselves to look up to him as a father as well as an invincible commander. His tenacious persecution of rebels had put an end to many obscure leaders, till at last there remained in the province only one insurgent chief who had acquired any considerable distinction. This was José Antonio Torres, generally called El viejo Torres, who had rendered good service to the cause in Nueva Galicia. His fate was a sad one. With his later operations against Valladolid the reader is already acquainted. From his stronghold in Michoacan he was wont to invade the region of Rio Grande, and in February 1812 he attacked Negrete near Tlasasalca. Torres was repulsed and, assailed in turn, was utterly routed. From the time of this reverse he was actively pursued from place to place, and on the 4th of April was surprised and captured at Palo Alto, near Tupátaro, by Lopez Merino, one of Negrete's subordinates. It was no small matter this capture of so noble a patriot, and the royalists made the most of it after their fashion. He was taken to Guadalajara and his arrival made a public spectacle. Wishing to heap every indignity upon him, his foes were about to fasten him by the neck to a wooden prop that his face might be well seen, but the old man told them to have no fear, he would carry his head high enough. He was tried by the oidor Velasco, and sentenced on the 12th of May to be hanged and quartered. The execution was carried into effect on the 23d. In the presence of the assembled crowd the head was severed from the body and raised upon a pole. One quarter of the body was sent to Zacoalco, the scene of his victory over Villaseñor; another was placed at the Mexicalcingo gate, by which he had made his triumphal entry into Guadalajara, and the remaining two at the gates of El Carmen and San Pedro.