ITURBIDE RETURNS ARREST EXECUTION. 305 



March, and were chosen by the old congress which quickly reas- 

 sembled, as a triumvirate to exercise supreme executive powers 

 until the new congress assembled in the following August. In 

 October, 1824, this body finally sanctioned the federal constitution, 

 which, after various revolutions, overthrows, and reforms, was re- 

 adopted in the year 1847. 



On the 14th of July, 1824, a vessel under British colors was per- 

 ceived on the Mexican coast near the mouth of the Santander. On 

 the next day, a Polish gentlemen came on shore from the ship, and, 

 announcing himself as Charles de Beneski, visited General Felix la 

 Garza, commandant of the district of Soto la Marina. He pro- 

 fessed to visit that remote district, with a friend, for the purpose of 

 purchasing land from the government on which they designed es- 

 tablishing a colony. Garza gave them leave to enter the country 

 for this purpose ; but suspicions were soon aroused against the 

 singular visiters and they were arrested. As soon as the friend of 

 the Pole was stripped of his disguise, the Emperor Iturbide stood 

 in front of Garza, whom he had disgraced for his participation in 

 the revolt during his brief reign. 



La Garza immediately secured the prisoner, and sent him to 

 Padilla, where he delivered him to the authorities of Tamaulipas. 

 The state legislature being in session, promptly resolved, in the 

 excess of patriotic zeal, to execute a decree of the congress, passed 

 in the preceding April, by condemning the royal exile to death. 

 Short time was given Iturbide to arrange his affairs. He was 

 allowed no appeal to the general government. He confessed to a 

 priest on the evening of the 19th of July, and was led to the place 

 of execution, where he fell, pierced with four balls, two of which 

 took effect in his brain and two in his heart ! 



Thus perished the hero who, suddenly, unexpectedly, and ef- 

 fectually, crushed the power of Spain in North America. It is not 

 fair to judge him by the standards that are generally applied to the 

 life of a distinguished civilian, or even of a successful soldier, in 

 countries where the habits and education of the people fit them for 

 duties requiring forbearance, patience, or high intellectual culture. 

 Iturbide was, according to all reliable accounts, a refined gentle- 

 man, yet he was tyrannical and sometimes cruel, for it is recorded 

 in his own handwriting, that on Good Friday, 1814, " in honor of 

 the day, he had just ordered three hundred excommunicated 

 wretches to be shot ! " His early life was passed in the saddle 

 and the barrack room ; nor had he much leisure to pursue the 

 studies of a statesman, even if his mind had been capable of re- 



