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CONGRESS ORDERED — SIEGE OF PUEBLA. 421 



city, its churches, worship, convents, monasteries, inhabitants and 

 property, under the special safe-guard of the faith and honor of the 

 American army. And finally, instead of demanding, according to 

 the custom of many generals in the old world, a splendid ransom 

 from the opulent city, he imposed upon it a trifling contribution of 

 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, — twenty thousand of which 

 he devoted to extra comforts for the sick and wounded ; ninety 

 thousand to purchase blankets and shoes for gratuitous distribution 

 among the common soldiers, while but forty thousand were reserved 

 for the military chest. This act of clemency and consideration is 

 in beautiful contrast with the last malignant spitefulness of the con- 

 quered army, whose commander, unable to overthrow the invaders 

 in fair combat, had released at midnight, the desperadoes from his 

 prisons, with the hope that assassination might do the work which 

 military skill and honorable valor had been unable to effect. 



Meanwhile Santa Anna despatched a circular from the town of 

 Guadalupe recounting to the Governors of the different States the 

 loss of the capital, and, on the 16th, he issued a decree requiring 

 Congress to assemble at Queretrao, which was designated as the 

 future seat of government. As president and politician, he at once 

 saw that he could do nothing more without compromising himself 

 still further. Resigning, therefore, the executive chair in favor of 

 his constitutional successor, Senor Pena-y-Pena, Chief Justice of 

 the Supreme Court, he despatched General Herrera with four thou- 

 sand troops to Queretaro, and departed to assail the Americans in 

 Puebla. On the 18th he evacuated Guadalupe, and took the road 

 to the eastward, with two thousand cavalry commanded by General 

 Alvarez. He knew that the communication with our base of ope- 

 rations in that quarter was seriously interrupted if not entirely cut 

 off; and he vainly hoped to recover his military prestige by some 

 brilliant feat of arms over detached or unequal squadrons. 



When Scott marched into the valley of Mexico, Puebla was left 

 in charge of Colonel Childs, with four hundred efficient men and 

 nearly eighteen hundred in his hospitals. The watchful commander 

 and his small band preserved order until the false news of Mexican 

 success at Molino del Rey was received. But, at that moment, 

 the masses, joined by about three thousand troops under General 

 Rea, a brave and accomplished Spaniard, rose upon, and besieged 

 the slender garrison. On the 22d, Santa Anna arrived, and in- 

 creasing the assailants to nearly eight thousand, made the most vigo- 

 rous efforts during the six following days and nights to dislodge the 



Americans from the position they had seized. 



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