Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/296

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268
PICTURES OF LIFE IN MEXICO.

of casting ridicule upon them and upon his people! His Indian indignation arose at the fancied insult; his eyes rolled, his lip trembled, and his fingers quivered. Perceiving a white figure, in the direction of his left hand, adorned with a bull's head upon its shoulders, and a paper inscription on its breast; and another figure, half man half horse, with another paper on its breast—his wrath became so ungovernable, that he seized a footstool standing in the apartment, and began laying about him right and left most zealously, to put an end to the desecration. Already were the figures of the centaur and taurus dashed into fragments, and marks of his vengeance imprinted on the rest; when a group of soldiers and attendants, alarmed by the noise, rushed into the room, closely followed by a dark, restless-looking gentleman with a wooden leg, an upright figure, and fierce eyes.

The last comer was General Santa Anna; and before his attendants had time to recover from their shock of horror, he had himself advanced in a towering passion to the wretched Indian, thrown him down upon the floor, and held him there with his own hands till the