ounded as to be incapable of taking any
vigorous action.

While the authorities digested the amazing news of the outbreak, the
movement grew with surprising rapidity. Hidalgo's little band was joined
by the regiment of his comrade Allende, and a crowd of field laborers,
armed with slings, sticks, and spades, hastened in to swell their ranks.
So popular did the movement prove that in a brief period the band of
eighty men had grown to a great host, fifty thousand or more in numbers.
Poorly armed and undisciplined as they were, their numbers gave them
strength. Hidalgo put himself at their head as commander-in-chief, with
Allende as his second in command, and active exertions were made to
organize an army out of this undigested material.

The next thing we perceive in this promising movement for liberty is the
spectacle of Hidalgo and his host of enthusiastic followers marching on
the rich and flourishing city of Guanajuato, capital of a mining state,
the second largest in Mexico. This city occupies a deep but narrow ravine,
its houses crowded on the steep slopes, up which the streets climb like
stairways.

The people of the city were terrified when they saw this great body of
people marching upon them, with some of the organization of a regular
army, though most of them bore only the arms of a mob. The authorities,
who were advised of their approach, showed some energy. Resolving not to
surrender and making hasty preparations for defence, they intrenched
themselves in a strongly built grain warehouse, with the governor at their
head.

Much better armed than the mass of their assailants, and backed up by
strong stone walls, the authorities defended themselves vigorously, and
for a time the affair looked anything but promising for Hidalgo's
improvised army. Success came at last through the courage of a little boy,
called Pipita, who, using as a shield a flat tile torn from the pavement,
and holding a blazing torch in his hand, crept through a shower of bullets
up to the gate of the stronghold and set fire to it. As the flames spread
upward, the insurgents broke in upon the frightened defenders, killing
some and making prisoners of the others.

The common people of the city, in sympathy with the revolutionists, and
inspired with the mob spirit of pillage, now rushed in disorder through
the streets, breaking into and robbing shops and houses, until checked in
their career of plunder by Hidalgo, who restored order by thre