done your duty," exclaimed the exasperated general to his officers, "the men would have done theirs, and Guanajuato would have been ours." He thereupon dismissed them with a censure to their respective districts, on guerrilla duty, and rode away with about a hundred followers.
He required rest and consultation before deciding on future movements, and withdrew to the rancho del Venadito, belonging to a devoted revolutionist and friend named Maríano Herrera,[1] Pursuers were believed to be far away, and so Mina for once, after a long interval, abandoned himself to repose within the house, instead of staying as usual with his men. It so happened that this very day the watchful Orrantia came by accident to Silao, twenty miles off, seeking for traces of the general, and there received the desired information.[2] Tired as he was, Orrantia pushed onward during the night, and with the first streaks of light on the morning of October 27th he rushed upon the farm. The startled sentries gave one shout of alarm and turned in flight, and the rest hurried after them as best they could, many being overtaken and killed, including Moreno, lately commandant of Sombrero.[3] The noise roused Mina, who rushed out half
- ↑ A man who had suffered greatly at royalist hands for his cause, in ravaged lands, burned buildings, extorted ransoms, etc. He now lived in assumed poverty on his rancho.
- ↑ From the cura, says Robinson, but ever zealous in behalf of the cloth. Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., iv. 533-4, explains that a ranchero named Chagoya gave the information.
- ↑ Orrantia estimates the party at a round 200, of which nearly half were killed, 25 being captured and shot. Gaz. de Mex., 1817, viii. 1241-4. Herrera was also taken, but escaped execution by feigning madness, a deception maintained till 1821, when he joined the victorious republicans. According to Robinson, Mina brought only about 70 men, yet they might have made a stand had they chosen. The captor did not recognize his prize till he announced himself. It is related that Orrantia spoke insolently, calling him a traitor, etc., and Mina replying in no complimentary terms about the king, he struck him with the flat of his sword. 'It is sad to be a prisoner, but sadder still to be in the hands of one who fails to respect himself as a soldier and a Spaniard,' said Mina. Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. ap. 102-3, afterward corrects this story at the request of Orrantia, who declares that he struck him simply because he continued to abuse the king after being warned. He said nothing on being struck. Zamacois, Hist. Méj., x. 370-2. Orrantia also denies that Moreno's head was carried in triumph on a pike.
