268 PERSECUTION OF FRENCHMEN ENCAMPMENTS. 



sealed as China against the entrance of strangers. Nevertheless 

 Branciforte encouraged a most disgraceful persecution against these 

 unfortunate persons, by arresting them on the slightest pretexts, 

 throwing them into prison, and seizing their possessions. He 

 found, in his assessor general, Don Pedro Jacinto Valenzuela, and 

 in his criminal prosecutor, Francisco Xavier de Borbon, fitting 

 instruments to carry out his inexorable determinations. Upon one 

 occasion he even demanded of the Sala de Audiencia that certain 

 Frenchmen, after execution, should have their tongues impaled 

 upon iron spikes at the city gates, because they had spoken slight- 

 ingly of the virtue of the queen Maria Louisa ! Fortunately, 

 however, for the wretched culprits, the Sala was composed of 

 virtuous magistrates who refused to sanction the cruel demand, and 

 the victims were alone despoiled of their valuable property. These 

 acts, it may well be supposed, covered the name of Branciforte 

 with infamy even in Mexico. 



In 1796, on the 7th of October, war was declared by Spain 

 against England, in consequence of which the viceroy immediately 

 distributed the colonial army, consisting of not less than eight 

 thousand men, in Orizaba, Cordova, Jalapa, and Perote ; and, in 

 the beginning of the following year, he left the capital to command 

 the forces from his headquarters near the eastern coast. This 

 circumstance enabled him to leave, with an air of triumph, a city 

 in which he was profoundly hated. The people manifested their 

 contempt of so despicable an extortioner and flatterer of royalty, 

 not only by words, but by caricatures. When the sovereign sent 

 him the order of the golden fleece, they depicted Branciforte with 

 a collar of the noble order, but in lieu of the lamb, which terminates 

 the insignia, they placed the figure of a cat ! At his departure, 

 the civil and financial government of the capital was entrusted to 

 the regency of the audiencia, while its military affairs were con- 

 ducted by the Brigadier Davalos. In Orizaba the conduct of 

 Branciforte was that of an absolute monarch. All his troops were 

 placed under the best discipline, but none of them were permitted 

 to descend to Vera Cruz ; yet, scarcely had he been established in 

 this new military command, when it was known that Don Miguel 

 Jose de Azanza was named as his viceroyal successor. Never- 

 theless Branciforte continued in control, with the same domineering 

 demeanor, as in the first days of his government, relying for justi- 

 fication and defence in Spain upon the support of his relative, the 

 Prince of Peace. In Orizaba he was surrounded by flatterers and 

 his court was a scene of disgraceful orgies ; yet the day of his fall 



