Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/824

808 rancho de los Arroyos, about six leagues from the sea, where they put up for the night. But Iturbide had been recognized as he went ashore, and the officer in command of the detachment at the point of Pescaderia sent soldiers in pursuit of the strangers, who were disturbed in their sleep and placed under arrest after midnight. In the afternoon of the following day Garza, who had been informed of the occurrence, arrived with his escort. His meeting with Iturbide was most cordial, and he manifested his joy at seeing him. In friendly converse they journeyed together, and Iturbide now learned for the first time that he had been proscribed by the congress. But he doubted not Garza's professions and promises to aid him. From Soto la Marina, where they arrived at ten o'clock at night, he wrote to Padre Lopez, instructing him to follow him there with his wife and companions. On the following morning, however, Garza's aide-de-camp appeared and told him to prepare for death, as both of them were to be shot at three o'clock that afternoon. Iturbide received the information with composure. "Tell General Garza," he said, "that I am ready to die, and only request three days to prepare to leave this world as a Christian." He also requested that Beneski's life might be spared.

Nevertheless, Garza was unwilling to shoulder all the responsibility of a political murder. To put a man to death by virtue of a decree the existence of which he knew not of till he had made himself liable to the penalty would be an inhuman act, and the general would have washed his hands of the matter if he could have done so. I believe, too, that he really wished to save Iturbide's life. Be his feelings what