Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/71

Rh being in the secret, challenged them as they ap proached. Receiving no reply, he fired on them, and was preparing to reload when he was shot down. Recovering from this mishap, they entered the palace without further opposition; and notwithstanding the two shots which had been fired without, they found Iturrigaray asleep in his chamber. Aroused, the viceroy found himself a prisoner, and having given up the keys of his cabinets, he was conducted with his two eldest sons in a carriage to the inquisition, and lodged in the house of the inquisitor Prado. His wife and two children of tender age were at the same time conveyed to the nunnery of San Bernardo.

Thus fell this vacillating viceroy, whose mediocrity of character, courage, and ability rendered him signally unfit to govern during this most critical period. Intriguing but feeble in design, ambitious but timid, he could neither skilfully plan nor boldly execute, while his temporizing policy encouraged his enemies and disappointed his friends. Had he at the first adopted with decision the views of either faction, and supported them by positive measures, he would doubtless have retained control of affairs. Although the arbitrariness of his final acts, and his intention to concentrate forces in the capital, seem to indicate that at last he had determined to support the Creole party with a view to independence, his want of caution in allowing his action to outstrip his power to maintain it by the presence of troops which he could rely upon was his ruin, and he was seized in the viceregal palace