Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/406

386 the disease rapidly progressed, and shortly after 11 o'clock that night the president expired, surrounded by his children and friends. At dawn the next morning minute-guns announced to the Mexican nation that their chief magistrate was no longer among the living; that the great mind which during so many years and mid so many difficulties and tribulations faithfully guided it toward liberty and progress had ceased its labor, the great heart that so dearly loved Mexico had ceased to beat. The announcement fell upon the people like a calamity. Even party strife for the moment was paralyzed. Juarez remains, while still warm, were taken to the salon de embajadores of the palace; and the people thronged the hall to view the peaceful features of him who had been in life the object of so much admiration on the part of some, and of so much hatred on the part of others.

The president of the supreme court, Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, having been summoned to assume the reins of government, qualified at half-past eleven o'clock in the morning of the 19th of July, before the comision permanente of congress, received the condolence of the diplomatic corps and public officials, and gave directions for the funeral of the late chief magistrate to be in accordance with that exalted position. The remains were embalmed and kept in state till the 22d, when at nine o'clock in the morning they were placed in a zinc coffin, which in its turn was enclosed in a mahogany case, garnished with two sprigs of laurel and olive, and bearing the initials B. J. A magnificent hearse, drawn by six horses, which were kept in hand by six lackeys, conveyed the