Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/471

 Rh capitol of the nation, in the very heart of the excited country.

The visitor to Mexico to-day may see a reminder of this fact in the shape of a monument to our fallen heroes in the American cemetery.

Perhaps a harder task than the capture of the capital was the government of it, after the heads of power had fled and had let loose in their flight the desperate inmates of their prisons. A hideous monster lifted itself into view in a few days in the shape of a mob, which assaulted the victors from roof-tops and churches for the space of two days. This mob was composed mainly of the filthy leperos,—the vilest, most degraded wretches that ever infested any portion of the earth. From the earliest days of Mexico, these abandoned villains have existed there, and to-day even they prowl about the streets of the beautiful city.

Martial law was proclaimed, and the city, placed under the protection of American honor, was soon at peace, enjoying a security of life and property that it had never felt under its own chosen government. Santa Anna and his generals had fled to Guadalupe, and thence, reforming their army, marched upon the city of Puebla, and to the attack of the scattered garrisons guarding the American connections with the base of supplies at Vera Cruz.

The garrison at Puebla had been left in command of Colonel Childs, with but four hundred men on duty, and guarding eighteen hundred in the hospitals. For three weeks they were closely besieged by the rising of the masses, and by a force swelled to eight thousand troops on the arrival of Santa Anna. Their condition was most desperate until General Lane, fighting his way all the distance from Vera Cruz against fierce bands of guerillas, came to his assistance. Santa Anna, marching out to