Rest,q,ration, of Royal Authority
31
tively. At the same time a special courier was dispatched posthaste to Monclova with a confidential report to Aranda to notify him of the pur- pose of the march northward, the route to be followed, and to request from him a detachment to meet the convoy at Bajan, the only watering place between Saltillo and Monclova.11 Turning of tlee tide. Fortune, however, had ceased to smile upon the Insurgents and the cause of independence. The messenger to Aranda rode hard and fast, but before he could deliver his important dispatch, he was intercepted by troops of Elizondo, who had been lying in wait. Shortly after dark on March 17, while Governor Aranda was jubilantly celebrating with his friends, the tireless Elizondo rode into Monclova with some two hundred men. He waited on the outskirts of the city until eleven, then overpowered the guards, surprised the merry-making Aranda, and quickly imprisoned him and his associates. A governing junta was as quickly organized. This body promptly elected Commandant Simon Herrera governor ad interim. Within a few hours, long before dawn, another provincial capital had witnessed a successful counterrevolution. Coahuila was again restored to legitimate government. Between the unsuspecting, fleeing leaders of the Revolution and the United States, their bright star of hope, now lay two provinces loyal to the cause of the King.u Tezas indispensable to 1'ltimate success. That same night, just as soon as Aranda and his associates were securely imprisoned and a governing Junta had been set up, Elizondo sent a fast rider to Texas to report the success of the coup d'etat just staged in Monclova. At the same time he made an urgen plea to the Junta of Bexar to send to the Rio Grande with- out delay every man it could arm and mount to help crush the rebels. The complete destruction of the Insurgents depended on Texas, he declared emphatically. It was in their hands to deliver the final blow that would put an end to the Revolution.u Elizondo was not the only one who held this view. Three days later, on the eve of the capture of the leaders at Bajan, Captain Menchaca sent a hasty message to the Junta of Texas, requesting aid in ridding the northern provinces of rebels. He praised the people of the province, as Elizondo had, for having been the first to overthrow the usurpers of 11 Carlos Maria Bustamante, C11adros Aistori&os, I, 117-118; Alam.in, o'}. cit., II, 167-174. llAlaman, o-j. cit., II, 174-175. UJgnacio Elizondo to the Governing Junta of Texas, Monclova, March 17 1 1811, Bexar ArcAiv1.t.
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