MEXICO. 149 orders to rendezvous at Izucar ; and such was the promp- titude with which this was effected, that the Spanish troops, finding no enemy between them as they advanced, began firing upon each other, and lost a number of men before the mistake was discovered. Morelos reached Izucar, which was in possession of Don Miguel Bravo, in two days, and had the pleasure to find, when his different divisions arrived, that of the soldiers of Cuautla only seventeen were missing. Amongst these, un- fortunately, was Don Leonardo Bravo, who had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and whose loss was universally re- gretted. Calleja did not enter Cuautla until some hours after Mo- relos had quitted it, and even then, his troops advanced with the greatest precaution ; so apprehensive were they of some new stratagem. The cruelties which he exercised upon the unfortunate inhabitants of the town, will leave, for ever, a stain upon his reputation. I have heard officers, who were present at the siege, speak of them, after a lapse of ten years, with horror. On the 16th of May, the army returned to the Capital ; where its reception was very different from that which it had experienced three months before. In spite of the pompous account of its success, published in the Gazette, and the number of deaths with which Calleja had swelled his reports, every body knew that he had been repulsed, and out- witted at last, by Morelos ; and, as for the army, its appear- ance spoke for itself. A comedy was acted a few nights after- wards, in which a soldier was introduced, who, on his return from battle, presents his general with a turban, and tells him in a very pompous manner, " Here is the turban of the Moor, whom I took prisoner ^' And the Moor himself " O ! he unfortunately escaped !" The passage was received with bursts of laughter, and the application instantly made by the spectators. Such was the event of the siege of Cuautla Amilpas, which
