means of defense. This, of course, meant pestilence. The president
resolutely declared that, should arms fail, the people must prolong the
defense of the capital with their "teeth and nails"; and although there
was no practical response among the people, a general and very genuine
uneasiness pervaded the whole community.

It was a Mexican custom on Good Friday to burn Judas in effigy on the
Plaza Mayor. Judas was a manikin made in the shape of the person who
happened to be most unpopular at the time. It was quite admissible to
burn Judas under different shapes, and sometimes these summary autos da
fe were multiplied to suit the occasion and the temper of the people. At
the same time, rattles were sold on the streets, and universally bought
alike by children and adults, by rich and poor, to grind the bones of
Judas, and the objectionable noise--second in hideousness only to that
of our own sending off of fire-crackers on the Fourth of July--was
religiously kept up all day. In the year of our Lord 1863 Judas was
burned in Mexico on the Plaza Mayor under the shapes of General Forey,
Napoleon III, and last, but not least, M. Dubois de Saligny, who
especially was roasted with a will amid the wild execrations of the
populace.

President Juarez had bent his whole energy upon the raising of an army
of relief. He succeeded in getting together some ten thousand men, the
command of whom he gave to General Comonfort. This had been no easy
task. A general leva had been ordered, and all were mustered into the
army who could be provided with arms. Of uniforms there was, of course,
no mention. It was a supreme and desperate effort.

A convoy of supplies for the relief of General Ortega was also prepared,
which it was hoped General Comonfort might succeed in throwing into the