Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/508

488 for no organized resistance could have been offered; all was disorder among the soldiers as well as citizens. The American general returned most unconcernedly to the headquarters at Tlalpam, surrendering his advantages and giving Santa Anna time to recover himself. Scott explains his extraordinary conduct by saying that he, as well as Trist, "had been admonished by the best friends of peace against precipitation: lest by wantonly driving away the government and others, dishonored, he might scatter the elements of peace, excite a spirit of national desperation, and thus indefinitely postpone the hope of accommodation." He also pleads humane considerations, which, if sincere, are creditable enough to the man, but hardly to the general, in his precarious position, to sacrifice one tenth of his small force for an object of questionable value, and then, neglecting to secure the prize, to be compelled to do his work over again.