Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/774

754 concealed till early in 1861, when he reappeared, claiming that he was president. He carried on a campaign during that year and a part of the next, when he went abroad, returning to Mexico in 1864, but not to figure again in political life.

Miguel Miramon, on assuming the duties of the executive office with the usual formalities, took an oath to discharge them faithfully, and to the best of his ability, upholding the Roman catholic religion. At first he made no appointments of ministers, leaving the several portfolios in charge of the respective oficiales mayores, but on the 15th of February he formed his cabinet, placing at its head Santa Anna's favorite minister and counsellor, Manuel Diez de Bonilla.

Miramon was born in the city of Mexico, on the 29th of September, 1832, descended from a French family of Pau that had been ennobled about the middle of the seventeenth century, as is said to have been established by the records in France, extracts from which were procured at his special request by the French minister, Mousieur de Gabriac. He was of middling height and lean, handsome of face, elegant in figure and manner, with an open brow and searching look, dark hair, mustache, and imperial. A man of fine intellect, he was ambitious, brave, and daring. He had many true friends, and toward those to whom he gave this name he was loyal. In