junction with General Guerrero, who had maintained his position on the river Zăcātūlă, unsubdued by the forces which had been successively detached against him, but who did not hesitate to place himself under Iturbide's orders, as soon as he knew that the Independence of the country was his object. From this moment his success was certain. On his route to the Baxio, towards which, as a central position, he directed his march, he was joined by all the survivors of the first Insurrection, as well as by detachments of Creole troops. Men and officers flocked to his standard, in such numbers as to set all fear of opposition at defiance. The Clergy and the People were equally decided in his favour. The most distant Districts sent in their adhesion to the cause, and wherever he appeared in person, nothing could equal the enthusiasm displayed. Few have enjoyed a more intoxicating triumph than Iturbide;—few have been called, with more sincerity, the saviour of their country; and none have offered a more striking example of the instability of popular favour, and of the precarious tenure of those honours, which great revolutions sometimes give. While the tide of success lasted, nothing could arrest his progress: before the month of July, the whole country recognized his authority, with the exception of the Capital, in which Novella had shut himself up, with all the European troops. Iturbide had reached Qŭerētărŏ, on his road to Mexico, which he was about to invest, when he received intelligence of the
