All knelt with the exception of Dominique, who remained standing, with his flashing eyes fixed on the corpse.
"Dominique," his uncle said to him gently, "does your hatred for him exist beyond the tomb?"
"Yes," he exclaimed in a terrible voice, "may he be accursed to all eternity!"
His hearers sprang up in horror: this awful curse had frozen the prayer on their lips.
[CHAPTER XXXIX.]
EPILOGUE—THE HATCHET.
In the meanwhile political events advanced with a fatal rapidity. The deputation sent to General Ortega returned to Mexico without obtaining any capitulation. The situation was becoming excessively critical: under the circumstances, General Miramón displayed extreme self denial; not wishing to compromise the city of Mexico further, he resolved to abandon it on the same night. He therefore proceeded to the ayuntamiento, to whom he proposed to appoint a temporary President or Alcalde, who, through his previous relations with the triumphant party, would be able to save the city, and maintain order in it. The ayuntamiento unanimously applied to General Berriozábal, who generously accepted this difficult office. His first care was to request the foreign ministers to arm their countrymen, who would take the place of the disorganized police, and watch over and guard the general safety.
During this time Miramón made all his preparations for departure. Not being able to take his wife and children with him on a flight whose incidents might be sanguinary, he resolved to entrust them to the Spanish ambassador, by whom they were received with all the respect to which their unhappy situation gave them a claim. Had he wished it, Miramón would have gone away without having any violence to apprehend from Juárez' partizans. Naturally good-hearted, if he was regarded as a political adversary, no one hated him as a personal enemy. Propositions to escape alone had even been made him on several occasions, but with that chivalrous delicacy which is one of the noblest traits of his character, he refused, for he would not at the last moment abandon to the implacable enmity of their opponents certain persons who had fought for him and compromised themselves on his behalf. This feeling was assuredly honourable, and his adversaries themselves were constrained to admire this generous conduct.
Don Jaime de Bivar had spent a portion of the day with the general, consoling him as well as he could, and aiding him to gather together the scattered fragments—we will not say of his army, as it no longer existed—but of the different corps which were still hesitating which side to join. Count de la Saulay and the Duke de Tobar—for we will restore to Dominique the name that belongs to him—after keeping the ladies company for the whole evening, and talking with them about the strange events of the previous day, at length took their leave, feeling somewhat alarmed about the protracted absence of don Jaime, owing to the confusion that prevailed at the moment in the city; they had just reached home, and were preparing to retire for the night, when Raimbaut, the count's valet, announced López. The peon was armed as if for a dangerous expedition.