Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/646

630 choosing the successful Victoria for lieutenant-general, under the pretence of adhering to the congress.

Rosains gave vent to his rage by sending an agent to ravage and reduce to ashes the town of San Andres, simply because the otherwise well disposed population had been reduced by his rivals. Undaunted as ever, he thereupon collected all the force he could muster against the leaders in Vera Cruz. His men by no means relished a campaign against brethren in arms, and their chief having been repulsed on the Jamapa, they nearly all abandoned him. Teran, who had so far remained true, was now persuaded to arrest and remove him from command. This was effected August 20th, and after being tossed from one leader to another, it was resolved to send him in chains to the congress. On the way he escaped, accepted pardon from the viceroy, and repaid it with most injurious exposures of insurgent plans. And so disappeared a man who owed his rise to the partiality of Morelos rather than to ability as a leader, and who chose to sacrifice the cause of his country and the blood of his adherents to satisfy a selfish ambition and indulge a choleric temperament.

Calleja considered this a good opportunity to seize upon Tehuacan, the centre of Rosains' district. The