Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/805

Rh So well had the emperor dissembled, that up to this time Santa Anna apparently had no suspicion that Iturbide intended to call him to account. The announcement to Santa Anna of his removal from the command in Vera Cruz was made in terms of highest compliment; and when Iturbide departed for the capital on the 1st of December, he embraced him and said: "I await you in Mexico, Santa Anna, to make your fortune for you." It was, perhaps, a little overdone by Iturbide, and Santa Anna was as clever a dissembler as he. Further than this, he was secretly warned that his ruin was meditated. Therefore, with every appearance of undisturbed confidence, with every mark of subservient respect, he attended Iturbide for a short distance on his journey, but returned with hatred in his heart to Jalapa, and in a few hours was on his way to Vera Cruz. He arrived at the port on the following day, and putting himself at the head of the 8th infantry regiment, of which he was colonel, proclaimed in the name of the nation a republican government, declaring that the three guaranties of the plan of Iguala would be inviolably observed.