Calleja was vigorously putting down the
revolution on all sides. As a last hope the chiefs hastened towards the
United States borders with such men and money as they had left, proposing
there to recruit and discipline another army. But before reaching the
frontier they were overtaken by their pursuers, being captured in a desert
region near the Rio Grande.
The captives were now taken under a strong escort to Chihuahua, where they
were tried and condemned to death. Allende, Aldama, and Jiminez were shot
on the 26th of June, and Hidalgo paid the penalty of his life on the 27th
of June, 1811. Thus, in the death of its chiefs, ended the first struggle
for independence in Mexico. The heads of the four chiefs were taken to
Guanajuato and nailed to the four corners of the stronghold which they had
taken by storm in that city. There they remained till the freedom of
Mexico was won, when they were given solemn burial beneath the altar of
the sovereigns in the cathedral of Mexico. The Alhondiga de Grenaditas,
the building to which their heads were attached, is now used as a prison,
but its walls still bear the spike which for ten years held Hidalgo's
head.
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