Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/537

Rh and Filisola razed the fortifications at Cerro de Nadó, with all the storehouses and the valuable factories for arms. This Filisola figures prominently in after years under Iturbide and Santa Anna; and a fellow-lieutenant in this campaign, Miguel Barragan, was the one who a dozen years later received the surrender of the last Spanish stronghold on the North American continent, and who soon after, as president of the republic, raised to the supreme rank in the country a descendant of Montezuma II., in the person of his wife. Such were the men now foremost in seeking to extinguish the dawning independence.

The capture of Cerro del Gallo involved the destruction of the best machinery possessed by the revolutionists for the manufacture of arms and ammunition, and its fall spread no little dismay. The reputed impregnable capital lost, and that within a few days, to a handful of men, and the president a fugitive, were disasters more discouraging than almost any previous defeat, and preceded the advancing royalists like an ominous blight.

Castillo now marched to Zitácuaro, which Ramon Rayon had entered in company with his brother, only to abandon it on the approach of the royalists. He thereupon took up a position at Maravatío, thus assuring communication between Valladolid and the capital, leaving the commander of the province to continue the pursuit. Notwithstanding his forlorn condition as fugitive, President Rayon moved with all the splendor he could muster, exacting pompous