Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/685

Rh The foe had shortly before taken a favorite officer of Mina, who offered in exchange the numerous prisoners held by him. He was refused. Then he called his prisoners before him and said: "Behold the heartless indifference of your government. Your lives are doubly mine—mine by victory and retaliation; yet you are free! You may join my standard or peaceably depart, as you will." A policy so rare and generous won an almost unanimous adhesion to the insurgents, and the report of it spread abroad evoked an admiration that added not a little to the popularity of the general, even in the opposing ranks.

Greater achievements could not have been desired to inspire the confidence necessary for energetic coöperation among the insurgents. To promote this end, Mina now held a conference with Father Torres and two members from the junta of Jaujilla, besides other chiefs. Torres was an ignorant man of ferocious instincts, a gambler and profligate, who after figuring with little credit as a priest, joined the guerrilla Albino García. His sacerdotal character assisted him to rise, and at this time he was the most prominent leader, with the rank of lieutenant-general, whose will indeed was law, both to the council and to the bands sustaining the cause. While devoted enough to the cause, he loved above all the display of a power sustained greatly by fear of his cruelty, and was only too ready to look upon the Navarrese as an interloper, whose transoceanic fame and brilliant feats would surely eclipse his own. Hence also he felt predisposed to suspect, and spread the insinuation,