Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/749

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ITURBIDE'S AMBITION.
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the loving remembrance of the people on whom he had bestowed freedom.[1] But the flame of ambition was burning in his heart.[2] A project had been formed to proclaim him emperor that very day,[3] and visions of a sceptre were already flashing on his thoughts. But he knew that the time was not yet ripe.

  1. See his address of the same day, in which, after exhorting them to lay aside all animosity of race, and proclaim union and close friendship, he concludes with these words: 'Concededme solo vuestra sumision á las leyes, dejad que vuelva al seno de mi tierna y amada familia, y de tiempo en tiempo haced una memoria de vuestro amigo.' Gaz. de Mex., 1821, xii. 1019-20; Niles' Reg., xxi. 274; Mex. Doc. Relativos, no. 3.
  2. The words of Abad y Queipo, writing to the viceroy in 1813 in reference to Iturbide, were prophetic: 'That young man is full of ambition, and it would not be strange if in the course of time he should be the very one to effect the independence of his country.' Arrangoiz, Méj., i. 234.
  3. See the account given in Méj. Bosquejo Rev., 113-15.