It was a little after seven when they advanced.and the air was mild and peaceful.Men and women came crowding to the doors and windows of the huts as they passed, and stood watching them in silence, not knowing to which party the small army might belong.
In order to enlighten them, Clay shouted, ``Viva Rojas.'' And his men took it up, and the people answered gladly.
They had reached the closely built portion of the city when the skirmish line came running back to say that it had been met by a detachment of Mendoza's cavalry, who had galloped away as soon as they saw them.There was then no longer any doubt that the fact of their coming was known at the Palace, and Clay halted his men in a bare plaza and divided them into three columns.Three streets ran parallel with one another from this plaza to the heart of the city, and opened directly upon the garden of the Palace where Mendoza had fortified himself.Clay directed the columns to advance up these streets, keeping the head of each column in touch with the other two.At the word they were to pour down the side streets and rally to each other's assistance.
As they stood, drawn up on the three sides of the plaza, he rode out before them and held up his hat for silence.They were there with arms in their hands, he said, for two reasons: the greater one, and the one which he knew actuated the native soldiers, was their desire to preserve the Constitution of the Republic.
According to their own laws, the Vice-President must succeed when the President's term of office had expired, or in the event of his death.President Alvarez had been assassinated, and the Vice-President, General Rojas, was, in consequence, his legal successor.It was their duty, as soldiers of the Republic, to rescue him from prison, to drive the man who had usurped his place into exile, and by so doing uphold the laws which they had themselves laid down.The second motive, he went on, was a less worthy and more selfish one.The Olancho mines, which now gave work to thousands and brought millions of dollars into the country, were coveted by Mendoza, who would, if he could, convert them into a monopoly of his government.If he remained in power all foreigners would be driven out of the country, and the soldiers would be forced to work in the mines without payment.