Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/212

192 After a close confinement at Puebla of over seven months, General Diaz escaped and gained Guerrero, where Alvarez readily granted the necessary assistance to form a new army. This province had been left to the republicans after the evacuation of Acapulco in the preceding autumn; but the designs of Santa Anna induced the imperialists to reoccupy it on the 11th of September, with the aid of French vessels. Beyond this, however, no advance was made, and the nearest allied forces eastward were stationed in the valley of Rio Mescala, so that the opportunity was not unfavorable for reviving the spirit of patriotism.

In the central provinces of Mexico, Querétaro, Guanajuato, and those adjoining, the patriotic fire was still kept alive, though feebly, and by scattered guerrillas, prepared to form the nuclei for larger uprisings at an opportune moment. In Jalisco the recent operations of Douay's forces, culminating with the defeat and death of the redoubtable Rojas, had restored comparative quiet, which the proximity of large French bodies, and those under Lozada of Tepic, served to insure.