Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/292

272 should again prevail, and the latter disbanding rather than take the oath of obedience now exacted by the government from all officials and authorities.

Every one of these acts added to the ferment at the capital. Pasquinades and threatening notices appeared against the executive, and the statue of Santa Anna was made an object of ridicule by means of a hangman's cap and other devices. Now came news that the garrison at Puebla had pronounced against Santa Anna. The government fully understood the effect this would have at Mexico, and sought to create a diversion by fomenting a pronunciamiento in favor of the federal system, to be subsequently directed to its own advantage, as on more than one previous occasion. The opponents saw the move, and recognizing the danger of a split, hastened to anticipate it. On the 5th of December the battalion of recruits under Céspedes caught the Puebla infection, and in course of the day other sections of troops at the capital also declared for the plan of Paredes, including the Pueblan corps at the palace, and called on General José Joaquin Herrera, president of the council, to assume direction of affairs in accordance with the constitution. Without hesitation Herrera summoned the deputies to the convent of San Francisco, and thence issued on the 6th an appeal to Canalizo to assist in upholding the constitutional government and prevent bloodshed. Finding by this time that he could not rely even on the few troops still around him, the representative