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406 granted. Next day news came that Vicente Fernandez with a force from Tlahuelilpan was approaching to relieve Pachuca. With some difficulty Madera satisfied the insurgents that there had been no treachery on his part; and to convince them, he went with a priest of the apostolic college to request Fernandez to retire. But during the conference the latter chief noticed that insurgents were occupying positions in his rear; indeed, they had opened fire on his men. He therefore beat a retreat, and the insurgents used this as a pretext to arrest all the Spaniards and convey them to Sultepec. The viceroy, in ignorance of the occurrences at Pachuca, on the 25th of April despatched 300 men with two howitzers to bring away the silver bars, and provide the place with coin and tobacco; but the force only reached San Cristóbal and returned on the 27th.

The repeated losses thus sustained by the royalists in the last two months greatly troubled Venegas, who in his correspondence with Calleja clearly intimated that the capture of Cuautla was a question of life or death. Had the insurgents acted together under one or more leaders, and on some uniform plan,