Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/783

Rh uniform and general's sash. The joy of the reactionists was unbounded, and was manifested in salutes, illuminations, etc.; the victory serving Miramon to cover up his error and fiasco of Vera Cruz. Amid that rejoicing, and the chanting of a te deum by the clergy, Miramon issued a written order to Marquez to shoot all his prisoners of the rank of officers. Marquez, being a man of very limited education, regardless of the duties of humanity, had gone into the war prompted by fanaticism and personal ambition. Shooting prisoners was perfectly in order in his estimation, and consequently he fulfilled Miramon's order to the letter, and even went beyond; for either himself, or those to whom he intrusted its execution, committed on that day and night crimes that filled the world with horror. Several students of the medical college had come out to attend the wounded of either band, and while fulfilling this mission were dragged in the darkness of night from the bedsides of their patients to the place where the prisoners were being shot, and immolated with the others. Both Miramon and Marquez disclaimed responsibility for the outrage, shifting it one upon the other.