Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/401

Rh at Tampico, which had been quelled by General Sóstenes Rocha after a short siege and bloody assault, was followed by other revolts which were put down only with the spilling of much blood. A serious attempt to upset the government occurred in the national capital on the 1st of October, when Toledo, Chavarría, Negrete, Mayer, and others seized at three o'clock in the afternoon the Ciudadela and the Belem jail. Juarez, with his characteristic promptness, adopted measures for the suppression of the sedition, and its authors were routed at midnight, after a desperate resistance, by Rocha, under orders from General García, their position being taken by assault. Colonel Castro, governor of the federal district, perished in an encounter on the road to Popotla with the forces of the guerrilla chief Aureliano Rivera.

Diaz' partisans in Oajaca, before his manifesto was issued, had seized the federal artillery, and a large quantity of other war material. Juarez was well enough prepared to meet the issue of battle, though it must be confessed that at times the fate of his