A COMPROMISE. 131 
At first, when the yrange of my liberation 
was discussed in the Junta D, 
he symptoms were gtd squally, as some 
bigoted and unruly members of the Council 
seemed determined to have me _ punished, 
night or wrong. After a long and tedious de- 
bate, however, my friend brought me the draft 
of a petition which he desired me to copy 
and sign, and upon the presentation of which 
to the Governor, it had been agreed I should 
be released. This step, [ was informed, had 
been resolved upon, because, after mature de- 
liberation, the Council came to the conclusion 
that the proceedings against me had been ex- 
tremely arbitrary and illegal, and that, if I 
should hereafter prosecute the Department, I 
might recover heavy damages. The whole- 
some lesson which had so lately been taught 
the Mexicans by France was perhaps the 
cause of the fears of the Chihuahua pad 
ties. A clause was therefore inserted in 
petition, wherein I was made to renounce all 
intention on my part of ever troubling the 
Department on the subject, and became my- 
self a suppliant to have the affair considered 
as concluded. 
This petition I would never have consented 
to sign, had I not been aware of the arbitrary 
power which was exercised over me. Im- 
prisonment, in itself, was of but little conse- 
quence; but the total destruction of my pro- 
perty, which might have been the result of 
further detention, was an evil which I deemed 
it necessary to ward off, even at a great sacri- 
