Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/812

796 9th, and there installed a governing junta; and by the beginning of March all that was left to Iturbide of his empire was within sight from his palace windows.

When the news of Echávarri's defection became known in the capital, consternation reigned. In the ranks of the Iturbidists, the emperor alone bore a bold front. At an extraordinary session of the junta instituyente, on February 9th, he said that if it was intended to coerce him by means of the army, he would prove that the arm which had achieved the country's independence was not yet broken; still he took no energetic step. On the contrary, a commission, one of the members being Negrete, was despatched to treat with the leaders of the movement, who were advancing rapidly toward the capital. At Jalapa, Echávarri formed a military junta, in which even the rank and file of the different corps were represented. This assembly was to meet whenever occasion required, Echávarri being appointed president and Calderon vice-president. A permanent executive council, composed of five members, was also established.

On the 17th the commission sent by the government arrived at Jalapa, but in the conferences which followed no adjustment was arrived at; and the commissioners, with the exception of Negrete, who remained in Puebla and soon after espoused the popular cause, returned to report their failure. The army of liberators then advanced to Puebla, where Echávarri resigned the command in order to counteract the