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246 the confidence of their sympathizers. The effort to procure a loan from the government at Washington had been rejected in congress, but private coffers were opening more freely every day among bankers, traders, and others. Arms and ammunition were obtained in any quantity, and a large number of volunteers offered themselves, more indeed than it was thought needful or prudent to accept.

In pursuance of the plan for withdrawing the French troops, Billot had retired on the 31st of January, 1866, from Chihuahua, leaving it in charge of a Mexican garrison, sustained by the Indian tribes which had pronounced for the empire and proved its stanchest adherents; but erelong the whole country was in revolt. Chihuahua fell in March into the hands of Luis Terrazas, the Juarist governor. Allende, Batopilas, and other places revolted; and the posts still held at Parral, Cerro Gordo, and to the south had to be evacuated. The province of Durango also responded, from the beginning of the year, to the liberation movement, especially as the French in July fell back on its