Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/769

Rh Zacatecas was taken by Marquez, but it availed him nothing; he had to quit the city, and it was forthwith reoccupied by the constitutionalists. He marched to Guadalajara with 4,000 men, and Degollado evacuated it, his forces going in various directions, a portion of them making an unsuccessful defence of several days on the Tololotlan bridge, some eighteen miles from Guadalajara. The reactionists were also successful in capturing Perote on the 16th of November.

In the early part of November, Zuloaga's minister Fernandez de Jáuregui offered to resign his portfolio, but the resignation was not accepted. When the constitutionalists took Guadalajara and committed the terrible acts of retaliation described, the utmost alarm seized the government circle in Mexico, and the oft-repeated cry of religion, country, and society being threatened with destruction was again heard. The British and French ministers, Otway and Gabriac, held frequent conferences with Zuloaga, and Spain showed herself a most decided friend of the reaction. Judging by the satisfaction the reactionists were manifesting, it was pretty certain that they would coöperate with the foreign squadrons in the blockade of Mexican ports. There were in Vera Cruz at the time armed vessels not only of two European powers named, but one of the United States, which had come to demand payment of the claims of their citizens. The latter found in Juarez' government the best disposition to settle the claims.