Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/709

Rh Meantime ill luck dogged the footsteps of the fugitive junta. Ayala and Doctor San Martin were cap tured; and though another junta was formed in the neighborhood of Huétamo, it was similarly dispersed in June, and its president, José María Pagola, and secretary, Pedro Bermeo, shot in the cemetery of that town. The year 1818 was otherwise fatal to the cause of independence and its chief supporters. Padre Torres, after his unsuccessful attempt to relieve Jaujilla, made his name execrated by his tyranny and violence. Seizing private property, and burning villages and haciendas, under the pretext of cutting off supplies from the enemy, he soon became a scourge in the land. His own officers began to hate him, and revolting against his tyranny, appointed Colonel Juan Arago as their commander-in-chief in his stead.