t of State affairs, he had shown
that he had the courage of his convictions. He consented to stand
against Diaz in a contest for the Presidency of the Republic.

The malcontents had found their leader. Madero not only accepted
nomination, but began an active campaign, making speeches against the
Diaz administration, denouncing abuses, more especially the retention
of office by the Vice-President and the tactics of Limantour, and
showing the people that as General Diaz was then eighty years of age,
and his new term would not expire until 1916, Corral would almost
certainly succeed to the inheritance of the Diaz regime.

Energetic, courageous, and outspoken, Madero had full command of the
phraseology of the demagog. His only shortcoming in the eyes of his own
party was that he had not been persecuted by the Government. The
officials, alas, soon supplied this deficiency. A few days before the
Presidential election in July, 1910, when making a speech in Monterey,
Madero was arrested as a disturber of the peace and thrown into prison,
where he was kept until the close of the poll.

The election resulted, as usual, in a triumphant majority for General
Diaz, though votes were recorded, even in the capital itself, for the
anti-reelectionist leader.

As soon as opportunity offered, Madero escaped to the United States,
and from that vantage-ground kept up a correspondence with his friends
and partizans. Though the election had been held in July, the
inauguration of the President did not take place until December, 1910.
A fortnight before that date, a conspiracy, at which Madero probably
connived, was discovered in Puebla. The first victim was the Chief of
the Police at Puebla. He was shot dead by a woman who at his knock had
opened the door of a house wherein the revolutionists were holding a
meeting. The revolution had begun. Risings took place in different
parts of the Republic, but were quickly quelled, with the exception of
one in the State of Chihuahua, where the rebels had a special grievance
against the all-powerful family of the great landowner, General
Terrazas. These large landed proprietors are a subject of hatred to the
new Socialist party.

Trouble followed trouble in the north, which, be it remembered, runs to
a distance of over a thousand miles from Mexico City itself. But
nothing very serious occurred, until suddenly, in the early weeks of
1911, President Taft mobilized a force of 20,000 American troops to
w