and again.

Hardly had the bell of Independence ceased ringing out in joyous clang
on September 15, 1910, in celebration of free Mexico's centenary,
hardly had the gorgeous _fetes_ for the President's birthday or the
homage paid him by the whole world run their course, when the spark of
discontent became a blaze. He had mistaken the respect and regard of
his people for an invitation to remain in office.

By the time the Presidential election approached, signs of agitation
had increased. A political party rose in direct hostility, not so much
to General Diaz himself or Limantour, as to the Vice-President, who, as
next in the succession, in the event of the demise of the President,
would have been able to rivet the autocracy on the country.

Corral was the Vice-President. What little I saw of him I liked; but
then he had hardly taken up the reins of power. He did not make himself
popular; in fact, a large part of the country hated and distrusted him.
But for that, probably nothing would have been heard of the troubles
which ensued. As the party anxious for the introduction of new blood
into the Government increased in vigor, the people showed themselves
more and more determined to get rid of Corral. They wanted a younger
man than Diaz in the President's chair: they wanted, above all, the
prospect of a better successor.

But the official group whose interests depended on the maintenance of
the Diaz regime was, for the moment, too powerful, and it succeeded in
inducing the President to accept reelection.

To the general hatred of this group on the part of the nation, Madero
owed his success. He was almost unknown, but the malcontents were
determined to act, and to act at once, and they could not afford to
pick and choose for a leader. As a proof that the country thought less
of the democratic principles invoked than of the destruction of the
official "cientificos," may be cited the fact that it at first placed
all its trust and confidence in General Reyes, who is just as despotic
and autocratic as General Diaz, but has at the same time, to them, a
redeeming quality--his avowed opposition to the gang. Reyes refused to
head the insurrection, and it was then Madero or nobody.

In the spring of 1910 Francis I. Madero came to the front. He was a man
of education, of fortune, of courage, and a lawyer by profession. He
had written a book entitled the _Presidential Succession_, and although
without experience in the managemen