and the order is issued to kill and spare not.[1] Against the burning door, although not yet consumed, they throw themselves until it yields, and the maddened crowd rush like a torrent of flame over the burning debris through the entrance. A deadly volley at point-blank range is poured into them by Berázabal and his men, strewing the ground with the dead. But their impetus is irresistible. Surging onward over the fallen, the human wave overwhelms or drives before it the defenders at the entrance, and Berzábal with a few survivors makes his last stand in a corner of the court.
The struggle is brief. His soldiers are soon stretched upon the pavement; the standard-bearers fall; but Berzábal, supporting the colors with his left arm, for a while defends himself with his sword, till pierced by a dozen lances he sinks lifeless on the ground,[2] still clinging to the standard in his death agony. The victors now rush forward into every part of the building, killing without mercy and without discrimination. Surrendered soldiers are cut down, and
- ↑ Gritaron todos como si los inflamase un mismo espíritu, traicion! traicion! y los gefes dieron órden de no otorgar la vida á nadie!' Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., i. 40. 'La algazara era espantosa, y se oía en todo Guanajuato, multiplicándose su éco por las quiebras y cañadas.' Ib.
- ↑ According to Bustamante, Berzábal fell before the alhóndiga was gained, his death being attributed to one of his soldiers, who shot him because of a reprimand. Ib. The father of Diego Berzábal, Don Baltasar, arrived in Mexico in 1743 and married Doña Juana Duarte, a lady of noble family. Four sons and two daughters were the result, Diego being born in Oajaca in November 1789, thus being a creole. At the age of twelve he was sent to Spain as a cadet in the regiment of Granada. Having returned to Mexico in 1789, he received an appointment in the regiment of Nueva España, and served in Santo Domingo during the revolution in that island. Having obtained the grade of captain, he was promoted to the rank of sargento-mayor of the provincial battalion of Guanajuato. As already noticed in the last chapter, it was to Major Berzábal that Garrido denounced Hidalgo's conspiracy. Berázabal was forty-one years of age at the time of his death, twenty-eight of which he passed in exemplary military service; 'sin haber sufrido jamas un arresto ni tenido una nota en sus hojas de servicio.' Alaman, Hist. Mej.,i. app. 51-2. He left one son and three daughters. Berzábal was a zealous, loyal, and well educated officer. In 1811 his widow caused two official investigations to be made of her late husband's conduct as a military officer, the depositions in which constituted high testimonials of his merits, and entirely refute Bustamante's account of his death as given above. Alaman obtained the particulars from the documents in possession of Berzábal's family, and which were placed at his disposal. Id., app. 51-4.
