but not
"strong enough for the place," and with an empty treasury, tried to
make a stand against the clergy and the army, who stood firm against
any attempt at reform--knowing, with a certain instinct, that, if any
real reform once began, their own unreasonable privileges would soon be
attacked. So the clergy and part of the army set up an anti-president,
one Haro; and he installed himself at Puebla, which is the second city
of the Republic, and there Comonfort besieged him. So far I have
already described the doings of the "reaccionarios."

The newspapers gave wonderful accounts of attacks and repulses, and
reckoned the killed on both sides at 2,500. There were 10,000 regular
troops, and 10,000 irregulars (very irregular troops indeed); and these
were commanded by a complete regiment of officers, and _forty_
generals. This is reckoning both sides; but as, on pretty good
authority (Tejada's statistical table), the troops in the Republic are
only reckoned at 12,000, no doubt the above numbers are much
exaggerated. As for the 2,500 killed, the fact is that the siege was a
mere farce; and, judging by what we heard at the time in Mexico, and
soon afterwards in Puebla itself, 25 was a much more correct estimate:
and some facetious people reduced it, by one more division, to two and
a half. The President had managed, by desperate efforts, to borrow some
money in Mexico, on the credit of the State, at sixty per cent.; and it
seems certain that it was this money, judiciously administered to some
of Haro's generals, that brought about the flight of the
anti-president, and the capitulation of Puebla. The termination of the
affair, according to the newspapers, was, that the rebel army were
incorporated with the constitutional troops; that their officers--500
in number--were reduced to the ranks for a term of years; that a hot
pursuit was made after the fugitive Haro; and that, as it was notorious
that the clergy had found the money for the rebellion, it was
considered suitable that they should pay the expenses of the other side
too; and an order was made on the church-estates of the district to
that effect. Of course, it was an understood thing that the officers
thus degraded would desert at the first opportunity, and thus the
Government would be rid of them. As for Haro, it is not probable that
they ever intended to catch him; and they were very glad when he
disguised himself in sailor's clothes, and shipped himself off
somewher