ves up there with their treasures, were massacred; upwards of
five millions of hard dollars fell into the hands of the insurgents.
This success brought more Indians from all parts of the country. There
were soon eighty thousand men collected together, but amongst them were
hardly four thousand muskets. Pressing forward, by way of Valladolid,
towards Mexico, they totally defeated Colonel Truxillo at Las Cruces,
and, on the 31st October, looked down from the rising ground of Santa Fe
upon the capital city, within the walls of which were thirty thousand
Leperos,[6] who awaited but the signal to break into open insurrection.
Only two thousand troops of the line garrisoned Mexico; Calleja, the
commander-in-chief, was a hundred leagues off; another general, the
Count of Cadena, sixty; in the mountains the people were rising in
favour of the revolution; another patriot chief was marching from
Tlalnepatla to support Hidalgo, while the viceroy was preparing to
retire to Vera Cruz. The fate of Mexico was, according to all
appearance, about to be decided; one bold assault, and the Indians would
again be the rulers of the country. But on the very day after their
arrival within sight of Mexico, Hidalgo, with his hundred and ten
thousand men, commenced a retreat. The capital was saved; and from that
day may be dated the sufferings and reverses of the patriots.

Or the 7th November, at Aculco, Hidalgo met the united Spanish and
Creole army, and was defeated in the combat that ensued. Soon
afterwards, Allende experienced a like misfortune at Marfil; and a third
action, near Calderon, decided the fate of the campaign. Hidalgo himself
was betrayed at Acalito, with fifty of his companions, and put to death.

The first act of the revolutionary drama was over, within six months
after the bloody curtain had been raised; but the torch of insurrection,
far from being extinguished by the fall of its bearer, had divided and
multiplied itself, as if to spread the conflagration with more
certainty. Thousands of those who had escaped from the battle-fields of
Aculco, Marfil, and Calderon, now spread themselves through the
different provinces, and commenced a war of extermination that was
destined, slowly but surely, to sweep away their unappeasable tyrants.
Most of these bands were commanded by priests, lawyers, or adventurers,
who acted without plan or concert, and possessed little or no
qualification for their post as leaders, save their hatred o