Not even the execution of Hidalgo, the good priest who sought to free the people of Mexico from the terrible slavery in which the church held them, created the same fervor. The mad rabble and the church fanatics were too ignorant to realize the awfulness of their deed. They believed what they had been told by the church, that whoever advocated freedom of thought must die. And few were the tears shed when, in the year of 1810, the life of the great and noble Father Hidalgo was taken in Chihuahua. At least, it was the few who shed tears. Don Francisco R. Cantu y Falomir had been known as a quiet, law-abiding citizen, very wealthy and eccentric. It was generally known that he prided himself upon the fact of his blue Mexican blood, and persisted in signing Falomir, his mother’s maiden name, to his own surname, as was the custom in Mexico up to the close of the nineteenth century. Yet no one ever dreamed that he nursed any ill-will against the law of the land of his birth—against the United States of America. Everyone seemed to think that he had a right to his peculiarities, and while Chihuahuans smiled when the name Don Francisco R. Cantu y Falomir was spoken they were always ready to point out this wealthy, aristocratic and eccentric citizen to visitors in Chihuahua and obtain an introduction to him for them, if possible. It was not strange that the citizens of Chihuahua wondered that their fellow-citizen, thought to be quiet and law-abiding, and the priest, well known in the city for his many charitable deeds, were behind the bars on a charge of treason. The calm of the early morning, produced by reading the full account of the charges and the arrest of these two well-known citizens, in the great _Chihuahuan_, was now giving way to noisy discussions of them, by small and large crowds of citizens of all classes, assembled on the street corners, and in public and private houses. At nine o’clock the jail in which the two offenders of law were held was almost surrounded by what looked to be the rabble of the entire country. The great and progressive city of Chihuahua had never had such a large crowd of ungainly and suspicious looking creatures assemble since it became a part of the great Republic of the United States of America. From whence had they come and for what purpose? were the questions propounded on every side by the uninitiated. At first no particular attention was paid to the miserable looking beings hanging around the jail. But as their number increased so rapidly, although they seldom spoke and made no disturbance, the number of police usually on beat near the jail was doubled, and a company of one hundred soldiers were stationed close by. The rabble questioned no one, and no one questioned the rabble. The police and soldiers kept their eyes riveted upon them, but as they only _looked_ suspicious, and did nothing, they were allowed to remain and no arrests were made.