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VICE-PRESIDENT VIGIL.

51

hoist the French flag; the chief of the state said he would tear it down. Don Pedro was imprisoned in his own house, his family excluded from him, and his food handed in by a soldier, until a friend paid the money. Don Pedro contended that the majesty of France was violated in his person; the government said that the proceedings were against him as the agent of Mercer, and not as French consul; but any way, consul or agent, Don Pedro's body bore the brunt, and as this took place but two days before our arrival, Don Pedro was still in bed from the indisposition brought upon him by vexation and anxiety. We received the above, with many details, from Don Pedro's son, as an apology for his father's absence, and an explanation of the ravings we heard in the adjoining room.

In the evening I called upon the vice-president. Great changes had taken place since I saw him at Zonzonate. The troops of the Federal Government had been routed in Honduras; Carrera had conquered Quezaltenango, garrisoned it with his own soldiers, destroyed its existence as a separate state, and annexed it to Guatimala. San Salvador stood alone in support of the Federal Government. But Señor Vigil had risen with the emergency. The chief of the state, a bold-looking mulatto, and other officers of the government, were with him. They knew that the Honduras troops were marching upon the city, had reason to fear they would be joined by those of Nicaragua, but they were not dismayed; on the contrary, all showed a resolution and energy I had not seen before. General Morazan, they said, was on his march against Guatimala. Tired as they were of war, the people of San Salvador, Señor Vigil said, had risen with new enthusiasm. Volunteers were flocking in from all quarters; and with a de

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termination that was imposing, though called out by civil war, he added that they were resolved to sustain the Federation, or die under the ruins of San Salvador. It was the first time my feelings had been at all roused. In all the convulsions of the time I had seen no flash of heroism, no high love of country. Selfpreservation and self-aggrandizement were the ruling passions. It was a bloody scramble for power and place; and sometimes, as I rode through the beautiful country, and saw what Providence had done for them, and how unthankful they were, I thought it would be a good riddance if they would play out the game of the Kilkenny cats. It was a higher tone than I was accustomed to, when the chief men of a single state, with an invading army at their door, and their own soldiers away, expressed the stern resolution to sustain the Federation, or die under the ruins of the capital. But they did not despair of the Republic; the Honduras troops would be repulsed at San Vicente, and General Morazan would take Guatimala. The whole subject of the revolution was discussed, and the conversation was deeply interesting to me, for I regarded it as touching matters of life and death. I could not compromise them by anything I might say, for they are all in exile, under sentence of death if they return. They did not speak in the ferocious and sanguinary spirit I afterward heard imputed to them at Guatimala, but they spoke with great bitterness of gentlemen whom I considered personal friends, who, they said, had been before spared by their lenity; and they added, in tones that could not be misunderstood, that they would not make such a mistake again.

In the midst of this confusion, where was my government? I had travelled all over the country, led on

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by a glimmering light shining and disappearing, and I could not conceal from myself that the crisis of my fortune was at hand. All depended upon the success of Morazan's expedition. If he failed, my occupation was gone; but in this darkest hour of the Republic I did not despair. In ten years of war Morazan had never been beaten; Carrera would not dare fight him; Guatimala would fall; the moral effect would be felt all over the country; Quezaltenango would shake off its chains; the strong minority in the other states would rise; the flag of the Republic would once more wave triumphantly, and out of chaos the government I was in search of would appear.

Nevertheless, I was not so sure of it as to wait quietly till it came to me at San Salvador. The result was very uncertain, and if it should be a protracted war, I might be cut off from Guatimala, without any opportunity of serving my country by diplomatic arts, and prevented from prosecuting other objects more interesting than the uncertain pursuit in which I was then engaged. The design which the captain had in coming up to San Salvador had failed; he could not join Morazan's expedition; but he had nothing to do at the port, was anxious to see Guatimala, had a stock of jewelry and other things which he might dispose of there, and was so sure of Morazan's success that he determined to go on and pay him a visit, and have the benefits of balls and other rejoicings attendant upon his triumph.

In the excitement and alarm of the place, it was very difficult to procure mules. As to procuring them direct for Guatimala, it was impossible. No one would move on that road until the result of Morazan's expedition was known; and even to get them for Zonzonate it was necessary to wait a day. That day I intended to ab

stract myself from the tumult of the city and ascend the Volcano of San Salvador; but the next morning a woman came to inform us that one of our men had been taken by a pressgang of soldiers, and was in the carcel. We followed her to the place, and, being invited in by the officer to pick out our man, found ourselves surrounded by a hundred of Vigil's volunteers, of every grade in appearance and character, from the frightened servant-boy torn from his master's door to the worst of desperadoes; some asleep on the ground, some smoking stumps of cigars, some sullen, and others perfectly reckless. Two of the supreme worst did me the honour to say they liked my looks, called me captain, and asked me to take them into my company. Our man was not ambitious, and could do better than be shot at for a shilling a day; but we could not take him out without an order from the chief of the state, and went immediately to the office of the government, where I was sorry to meet Señor Vigil, as the subject of my visit and the secrets of the prison were an unfortunate comment upon his boasts of the enthusiasm of the people in taking up arms. With his usual courtesy, however, he directed the proper order to be made out, and the names of all in my service to be sent to the captains of the different pressgangs, with orders not to touch them. All day men were caught and brought in, and petty officers were stationed along the street drilling them. In the afternoon intelligence was received that General Morazan's advanced guard had defeated a detachment of Carrera's troops, and that he was marching with an accession of forces upon Guatimala. A feu de joie was fired in the plaza, and all the church bells rang peals of victory.

In the evening I saw Señor Vigil again and alone He was confident of the result. The Honduras troops

TAKING OF SAN MIGUEL.

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would be repulsed at San Vicente; Morazan would take Guatimala. He urged me to wait; he had his preparations all made, his horses ready, and, on the first notice of Morazan's entry, intended to go up to Guatimala and establish that city once more as the capital. But I was afraid of delay, and we parted to meet in Guatimala; but we never met again. A few days af terward he was flying for his life, and is now in exile, under sentence of death if he returns; the party that rules Guatimala is heaping opprobrium upon his name; but in the recollection of my hurried tour I never for get him who had the unhappy distinction of being vice. president of the Republic.

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I did not receive my passport till late in the evening, and though I had given directions to the contrary, the captain's name was inserted. We had already had a difference of opinion in regard to our movements. was not so bent as I was upon pushing on to Guati mala, and besides, I did not consider it right, in an official passport, to have the name of a partisan. Accordingly, early in the morning I went to the Government House to have it altered. The separate passports were just handed to me when I heard a clatter in the streets, and fifteen or twenty horsemen galloped into the courtyard, covered with sweat and dust, among whom I recognised Colonel Hoyas, with his noble horse, so broken that I did not know him. They had ridden all night. The Honduras troops had taken San Miguel and San Vicente, and were then marching upon San Salvador. If not repulsed at Cojutepeque, that day they would be upon the capital. For four days I had been running before these troops, and now, by a strange caprice, at the prospect of actual collision, I regretted that my arrangements were so far advanced,

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