Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/834

Rh revolution is confined mainly to the central provinces and the busy highways, rather than to remote districts with their less turbulent and ambitious settlers, who in the north cluster round presidios for shelter against the wild Indians.

Finally, at the lowest ebb in the war, a liberal and anti-clerical sentiment, under the mask of freemasonry, makes a step against absolutism in Spain, and wrings concessions from a faithless king. In Mexico the effect is startling. While the revolutionists fail to appreciate the boon gained, it rouses the only elements hostile to them, a powerful church threatened in its privileges, and an army rendered discontented by precept and grievances, and now seduced by promises and clerical influence. To gain their end, they join issue with the former; Guerrero disinterestedly yields his own plans, and hopes for the prospect of immediate partial relief, and when the capricious soldiers begin to desert Iturbide, he remains true and assists to save the tottering movement. The waiting revolutionists, strengthened by a period of repose, fall into line. They recognize the brilliant qualities of Iturbide, as a soldier round whom to unite the discordant elements.

The new and now leading faction naturally objected to a republic, and many deemed a moderate monarchy a safer stepping-stone from a three-century despotism to independence. At any rate, this was the only promising plan for the moment, one held forth already by Rayon, the masses being propitiated with freedom and presumed equality, while the conservative Spaniards, the aspiring creoles, and a church jealous of its privileges were each appeased. Soon the last link of bondage to Europe was cast aside, in substituting a native ruler for a foreign prince, the idea of an empire flattering a court-loving capital, and to some extent the dreaming Indians. Unfortunately for himself, Iturbide was a soldier rather than a