332 EVENTS SUCCEEDING THE ELECTION. 



after days of most intense excitement, were only varied when some comrade was to be added to 

 those already beneath the sands. No wonder they were desirous to get away. 



Perceiving, when too late, the treason in his camp, and the certain consequences of continuing 

 longer in his present position, the shattered remains of his army was put in motion on the 12th, 

 and recrossed the Loncomilla. Bulnes started in pursuit on the same day. He had been rein- 

 forced by a few small detachments from the vicinity of Talca and other parties of infantry and 

 cavalry dispersed on the 8th, and therefore could again afford to assume the offensive. Of the 

 events of the 13th and 14th near the belligerents, no one at Santiago spoke ; nor does it appear 

 that any event of primary consequence transpired. The two parties were convinced that the 

 government, in spite of its unpopularity, had the means to gain ground ; liberalism was too 

 poor for success. 



Two days after, the cannon on Santa Lucia announced, and every good citizen hoped, that 

 this had been the concluding act of the domestic tragedy. The Vijilantes had gone round early 

 on the evening before, directing each housekeeper to display the national flag over his roof-tree, 

 as a treaty of peace was to be thus publicly celebrated. The two military secretaries had 

 finally agreed on the following terms : The revolutionary party to recognise Senor Montt as 

 the legitimate President, and place all the regular troops in their ranks under the orders of 

 Bulnes ; Cruz and other officers holding commissions under the republic to retain rank unpre- 

 judiced by the parts they had taken, except for offences prior to September 1st ; Bulnes to use 

 his influence to obtain a general amnesty which should include those of April as well as civil 

 offenders ; and Cruz to endeavor to effect the dispersion of the montoueros, and the cessation of 

 resistance at Coquimbo. 



Both parties were rabid enough at the result : ministerialists, because they hoped for and 

 would have gladly witnessed the extermination of their opponents ; and revolutionists, because 

 they had spent their money fruitlessly, and compromised themselves, whilst their leaders and 

 friends, not already in exile, were less than ever likely to escape from their places of conceal- 

 ment. No stipulation for civilians had been made in the capitulation, and they had strong 

 reasons to dread the dictatorial and irresponsible powers with which the President remained 

 invested. On the same day that the terms were signed, the camps, as hostile bodies, were 

 broken up. Bulnes set out for the capital via the Maule and Valparaiso, and entered Santiago 

 on the 24th. His friends had prepared a civic escort and banquet for his arrival the Presi- 

 dent and ministers joining in the procession to receive him at the outskirts of the city ; and the 

 cortege passed through the streets amid the firing of cannon and strains of military music. 

 But there was no popular enthusiasm ; and if, by chance, a few " Vivas" swelled the noise of 

 vehicles and music, the sequent was a sign of the cross over the forehead, not the name of 

 Bulnes or Montt. Nor would the mass believe that he came otherwise than as a fugitive ; for they 

 asked, " Whoever heard of a victorious general coming to Santiago without soldiers ; and where 

 are his?" 



Cruz returned to his hacienda, near Concepcion, a disappointed and almost ruined man. His 

 letter to the Intendente there plainly exhibits the former, and elicited from those who knew 

 him most painful sympathy. He says : 



" The necessity, on the one hand, for terminating civil war, and, on the other, events crowding 

 upon me which it would take long to detail to you, have obliged me to initiate a treaty in 

 which no better condition has been obtained for the republic than before the war. But I was 

 compelled to a treaty, though nominally with sufficient force to continue the war. 



' ' I have not heart to criminate an individual ; yet the origin of the results which have so 

 greatly distressed me during the last eight days was in the very bosom of my own camp. On 

 signing the treaty yesterday, and returning to private life, I felt that I was laying down a load 

 whose weight had not been easy to bear. I lacked not disposition to fulfil the promises given. 

 We had already advanced far ; but I counted on the co-operation of others who failed me in 

 the hour of need. I counted on the ordinary course of human successes, and have found my- 



