of a veritable saviour. There was only one thing necessary to complete his popularity, and that was that he should become the victim of the system he so strenuously denounced. With a disregard of consequences which proved absolutely fatal to themselves, the Diaz party arrested him in July, 1910, a few days before the election, whilst making a speech at Monterey, on the grounds that he had incited the populace to unrest. He was at once incarcerated, being kept in close confinement until the completion of the poll. The election ended in a complete triumph for the Diaz party.
Madero, rightly considering that Mexican soil was unsafe, made his way to the United States, whence he continued to incite his partisans to rebellion. The fire of revolution was kindled in the town of First
Blood.Puebla, where the chief of police was assassinated by a female member of one of the many revolutionary societies in the provinces. The State of Chihuahua, roused to fury by the tyrannies and exactions of the great land-owning family of the Terrazas, flew to arms; and the fiery cross of revolt was dispatched from province to province with a rapidity that appalled and paralysed those in power. News of the condition of popular revolt which was daily growing in Mexico now began to reach Europe; but the Mexican authorities, fearful of their reputation, minimised the gravity of the situation.
In February, 1911, advices received by the Mexican Minister in Great Britain stated that with the exception of trouble in Chihuahua, the situation in Mexico was perfectly tranquil. The Minister said that news of the disorder in the far north of Mexico did not in any way indicate the existence of a revolutionary movement. The unrest was confined entirely to the State of Chihuahua, and was said to be due to the operations of bands of robbers who roamed about the almost inaccessible mountains along the Mexican-United States frontier. These had no special grievance against the Federal Government, their aim being to loot and raid
