Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/501

Rh and three guns. Matamoros attacked the Cármen, which was soon taken, though hotly defended by the Spanish friars, particularly Friar Félix, one of the captains of Bishop Bergosa's ecclesiastical militia. Lieutenant-general Gonzalez Saravia sallied forth with the cavalry of European Spaniards to meet the independents that were coming in from all quarters, but his men quickly fled, leaving him alone, and he sought refuge in a house. The whole affair lasted but two hours.

The city being thus taken, pillage and punishment followed, the houses and shops of the Spaniards receiving the chief attention. The convents as well as the effects deposited in them were, however, respected; but Morelos afterward took out everything belonging to the Spaniards, and applied it to the uses of his army. He also issued an edict commanding the surrender of all effects that had been concealed by Spaniards. Next those were looked after who were to die. Five hundred prisoners came with the city's capture, two hundred of whom were fine old Spaniards. The notorious Régules Villasante was found in the Carmelite convent, hidden be hind some coffins. Among the royalist officers taken