illo had taken up a position. The only remarkable circumstance that took place during the action was the fact of an insurgent officer, with a flag of truce, having been encouraged by Trŭxīllŏ to approach his lines until he came close to the ranks, when a general discharge was ordered, by which he was killed, with those who accompanied him. This act of treachery was boasted of by Truxillo in his official report of the engagement, and approved by the Viceroy, who thus gave his sanction to the principle, that none of the ordinary rules of war were to be observed with the Insurgents. Vĕnēgăs, however, was so much alarmed at their success and near approach, that he had again recourse to the superstition of the people, as the best method of preserving tranquillity. The image of the Virgin of los Rĕmēdĭŏs was brought in great pomp, from a little village where it was usually kept, to the Cathedral of the Capital, where Vĕnēgăs went in full uniform to pay his respects to it; and, after imploring the Virgin to take the Government into her own hands, terminated his pathetic appeal to her by laying at her feet his staff of command.
A flaming account was published, on the following day, of the action of Las Cruces, where Truxillo was said to have obtained a decided advantage, though circumstances had afterwards obliged him to retreat;—a term which was rendered but too intelligible by the melancholy condition, in which both he and his troops entered the capital. Every preparation
