Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/418

398 to save the national honor, that the proposal on the part of Taylor's commissioners that the army should be allowed to retire without parole, the officers retaining their side-arms, was refused. The Mexican commissioners insisted on the retention of the arms and artillery, and though Taylor, responding to the wish expressed by Ampudia to avoid further bloodshed, instructed his commissioners to concede the former, the Mexican general, with a persistency that grievously tried the patience of Taylor, still held out for the artillery. Taylor was on the point of closing the negotiations, and announcing the conference closed rose to depart, when one of the Mexican commissioners entered into conversation with him. The result was that an agreement was finally arrived at by which the Mexican army was allowed to retire from Monterey, retaining the small arms, and one field-battery of six pieces with twenty-one rounds of ammunition. An armistice for eight weeks was also arranged, by the terms of which the Mexican troops were to retire within seven days beyond the line formed by the pass of the Rinconada, the city of Linares, and San Fernando de Presas, while Taylor engaged himself not to advance his force beyond that line before the expiration of the specified time. When the