DELIBERATION OF THE MEXICAN CABINET AND PROPOSALS. 401 



Meanwhile the greatest consternation prevailed within the city. 

 When Santa Anna reached the Palace, he hastily assembled the 

 Ministers of State and other eminent citizens, and, after reviewing 

 the disasters of the day and their causes, he proclaimed the indis- 

 pensable necessity of recurring to a truce in order to take a long re- 

 spite. There was a difference of opinion upon this subject; but it 

 was finally agreed that a suspension of arms should be negotiated 

 through the Spanish Minister and the British Consul General. 

 Senor Pacheco, the Minister of Foreign Relations, accordingly ad- 

 dressed Messrs. Mackintosh and Bermudez de Castro, entreating 

 them to effect this desired result. During the night the British Con- 

 sul General visited the American camp, and was naturally anxious 

 to spare the effusion of blood and the assault by an army on a city 

 in which his country had so deep an interest. On the morning of 

 the 21st, when General Scott was about to take up battering or as- 

 saulting positions, to authorize him to summon the capital to sur- 

 render or to sign an armistice with a pledge to enter at once into 

 negotiations for peace, he was met by General Mora y Villamil and 

 Senor Arrangoiz, with proposals for an armistice in order to bury 

 the dead, but without reference to a treaty. Scott had already de- 

 termined to offer the alternative of assault or armistice and treaty to 

 the Mexican government, and this resolution had been long cherished 

 by him. Accordingly he at once rejected the Mexican proposal, 

 and, without summoning the city to surrender, despatched a note to 

 Santa Anna, expressing his willingness to sign, on reasonable terms, 

 a short armistice, in order that the American Commissioner and the 

 Mexican Government, might amicably and honorably settle the in- 

 ternational differences, and thus close an unnatural war in which too 

 much blood had already been shed. This frank proposal, coming 

 generously from the victorious chief, was promptly accepted. Com- 

 missioners were appointed by the commanders of the two armies on 

 the 22d ; the armistice was signed on the 23d, and ratifications ex- 

 changed on the 24th ; and thus, the dispute was for a while transferred 

 once more from the camp to the council chamber. On the morning 

 of the 21st, the American army was posted in the different villages 

 in the vicinity. Worth's division occupied Tacubaya. Pillow r 's 

 Mixcoac, Twiggs's San Angel, while Quitman's remained still at 

 San Agustin, where it had served during the battles of the 19th 

 and 20th in protecting the rear and the trains of the army. Tacu- 

 baya became the residence of General Scott, and the head-quarters 

 of the commander-in-chief were established in the Bishop's Palace. 



