LETTER XV. 
IJEVOLUTION. WAX-FIGUKES. VISIT TO THE MTTSEUM. ANTIQUITIES. 
It was just after the conclusion of the Revolution of 1841, which re- 
sulted in placing General Santa Anna at the head of the Government, 
that I arrived in the city of Mexico, and found the marks of the struggle 
that took place on that memorable occasion, yet visible in the streets. 
For a month the city had been in a state of siege ; General Bustamante, 
the Constitutional President, occupying the National Palace, and holding 
possession of portions of the town with his troops, while General Valencia 
controlled the citadel, from which he cannonaded and threw shells into the 
city. During all this time the work of slaughter went on ; but the chief 
injury was inflicted on harmless non-combatants, who happened at times 
to pass exposed places, or to cross streets which were raked by the artil- 
lery. Numbers of poor laborers, and laborers' wives, bringing them food, 
were thus destroyed ; and during the whole of the period I remained in 
the Capital, the scars and indentations made by the balls and bullets 
in the walls of the Calle Refugio, were never repaired. From the tops of 
houses, too, death was dealt by the insurgents. Screening themselves 
behind the parapet walls of azoteas, and frequently in church-towers, they 
shot down, indiscriminately, all who passed, and made the sureness of 
aim a matter of boast and joke. In the Revolution or ^meute of the pre- 
vious year. General Valencia had thus well nigh fallen victim to some 
reckless marksman. As he passed along one of the streets, at the head 
of his troops — at a moment, too, when no attack was meditated — a solitary 
rifleman sent a ball from a steeple through his chapeau. The General 
keeps the hat as a sort of military trophy. 
Upon the azotea of the house occupied by the Prussian Charge d'Affaires, 
a man was slain early one morning, by a shot from the azotea of the op- 
posite convent of the Profesa ; yet, so incessant was the firing, that the 
family was prevented from coming to his succor or removing the body for 
several hours. 
Thus did that fearful struggle degenerate into murder within the city 
walls, while the horrors of civil war were enhanced by a bombardment 
and cannonade from the citadel, under a commander who, until within a 
few days, had enjoyed the highest confidence of the Constitutional Gov. 
ernment. 
It is sincerely to be hoped, that the lesson taught at this epoch has dis- 
gusted the nation with these bloody turmoils. There appears among the 
