CHAPTER XIV.
SIEGE OF CUAUTLA.
1811-1812.
Doctor Cos Joins Rayon — The Revolutionary Press — Perplexity of Venegas — Bishop Campillo's Failure as a Mediator — Second Campaign of Morelos — Calleja Takes Zitácuaro — Destruction of the City — Reverses of Porlier — Arrival of Spanish Troops — Triumphal Entry of Calleja into Mexico — Jealousy of Venegas — Calleja Marches against Cuautla — Description of the City — Llano at Izúcar — Calleja Repulsed — Cuautla Invested — Sufferings of the Besieged — Morelos Evacuates the City — Calleja Returns to the Capital.
When Morelos returned to Chilapa, after the suppression of the conspiracy formed by Tabares and David, he found himself in a most favorable position to make at leisure and without interruption his preparations for another campaign. By the dispersion of the royalist troops sent against him, he held possession of the country about him. Protected from attack on the north by the river Mescala, and the deep pestiferous valley through which it ran, he was equally secure from molestation in the direction of Oajaca. The recent defeats of troops from that province had left it in alarm for its own safety, without either the inclination or means again to assume the offensive. During the next three months, therefore, Morelos devoted himself with untiring activity to the more thorough organization of his forces, and especially to the establishment of systematic order and harmony between castes, the correction of the abuses practised upon
