Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/497

Rh without waiting for the left, ordered his cavalry, supported by the grenadiers, to charge. The left column soon came up, and the independents, abandoning their first line and the artillery there placed, retreated to the second. The fight here became very hot; the dragoons of Mexico were forced to give way, and their lieutenant-colonel, Moran, had his horse killed under him. Manuel Flon, a son of the conde de la Cadena, who commanded a squadron of Puebla cavalry, met with a like adventure. Whilst this was going on, mules, men, and women were all making their escape with as much tobacco as they could carry, all taking the side road toward Tehuacan. Morelos and his soldiers were finally forced to do likewise. The scattered revolutionists came together again by previous appointment at the town of Chapulco, on the way to Tehuacan. Galeana, whose horse was killed, escaped capture by hiding himself in the hollow trunk of an old cork tree. Águila reported him among the killed, and Morelos had also given him up as lost till he reappeared the next day.

Morelos remained in Tehuacan only seven days. With 2,500 men from Izúcar under Matamoros, 2,000 from the Mizteca under Miguel and Victor Bravo, and 500 collected at Chapulco, he had about 5,000 soldiers, with whom, and 40 pieces of artillery of various calibre, he started for Oajaca, making slow