This took place in the early hours of a Sunday. When day broke and the
countrymen of the neighboring parish came to early mass the news of the
night's event spread among them rapidly and caused great excitement. To a
man they took the side of Hidalgo, and before the day grew old he found
himself at the head of a small band of ardent revolutionists. They at once
set out for San Miguel le Grande, the nearest town, into which marched
before nightfall of the day a little party of eighty men, the nucleus of
the Mexican revolution. For standard they bore a picture of the Holy
Virgin of Guadalupe, taken from a village church. New adherents came to
their ranks till they were three hundred strong. Such was the movement
known in Mexico as the "Grito de Dolores," their war-cry, the _Grito_,
being, "Up with True Religion, and down with False Government."
Never before had an insurrection among the submissive common people been
known in Mexico. When news of it came to the authorities they were
stupefied with amazement. That peasants and townspeople, the plain workers
of the land, should have opinions of their own about government and the
rights of man was to them a thing too monstrous to be endured, but for the
time being they were so dumfounded as to be incapable of taking any
vigorous action.
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