CHAPTER X Y . 

 1 847. 



WHY THE CITY WAS NOT ENTERED ON THE 20TH CONDITION 



OF THE CITY DELIBERATION OF THE MEXICAN CABINET AND 



PROPOSALS REASONS WHY GENERAL SCOTT PROPOSED AND 



GRANTED THE ARMISTICE DELIBERATIONS OF COMMISSIONERS 



PARTIES AGAINST SANTA ANNA FAILURE OF THE NEGOTIA- 

 TION MEXICAN DESIRE TO DESTROY SANTA ANNA. 



It was late in the day when the battles ended. One army was 

 wearied with fighting and victory ; the other equally oppressed by 

 labor and defeat. The conquered Mexicans fled to their eastern 

 defences or took refuge within the gates of their city. There was, 

 for the moment, utter disorganization among the discomfited, while 

 the jaded band of a few thousand invaders had to be rallied and re- 

 formed in their ranks and regiments after the desperate conflicts of 

 the day over so wide a field. It surely was not a proper moment 

 for an unconcentrated army, almost cut off from support, three hun- 

 dred miles in the interior of an enemy's country, and altogether 

 ignorant of the localities of a great capital containing nearly two 

 hundred thousand inhabitants, to rush madly, at night fall, into the 

 midst of that city. Mexico, too, was not an ordinary town with 

 wide thoroughfares and houses like those in which the invaders had 

 been accustomed to dwell. Spanish houses are almost castles in 

 architectural strength and plan, while from their level and embattled 

 roofs, a mob, when aroused by the spirit of revenge or despair, may 

 do the service of a disciplined army. Nor was it known whether 

 the metropolis had been defended by works along its streets-, — by 

 barricades, impediments and batteries, — among which the entangled 

 assailants might be butchered with impunity in the narrow passages 

 during the darkness and before they could concentrate upon any 

 central or commanding spot. Repose and daylight were required 

 before a prudent General would venture to risk the lives of his men 

 and the success of his whole mission upon such a die. 



Accordingly the army was halted ; the dispersed recalled, the 

 wounded succored, the dead prepared for burial, and the tired 

 troops ordered to bivouack on the ground they had wrested from the 

 enemy. 



