By evening the Juarists had been repulsed at all points and driven back, but the victory proved barren in results. Lopez, for some reason, took no part in the action, while Marquez either would not or did not know how to follow up the advantage he had gained. As for Miramon, he distinguished himself a few days later. It had been planned to surprise the Juarists early on the morning of the sixteenth, and Miramon was chosen to lead the attack, from which great things were hoped. But the whole scheme fell through because—that general overslept!—a neglect of duty difficult to understand in these days. When he did at last awake it was broad daylight, and all thought of a surprise had to be abandoned. On the twenty-first of March another council was held and an important decision arrived at. This was to send one of the generals back to the city of Mexico with full authority from the Emperor to act as he thought best. He was to dismiss the present ministry and form a new one, to obtain more funds, and, in any case, to return with aid to Querétaro without delay. Marquez, for whom the place was getting much too warm by this time, had no difficulty in obtaining the appointment—a simple means of escaping the trap into which he had led his sovereign. Still trusting the traitor implicitly, Maximilian left it entirely to him whether to bring only a part of the troops from Mexico or the whole garrison. It was arranged that Marquez, with one thousand horsemen, was to make his way through the hills to the south, while Miramon, to divert the enemy’s attention, made a sortie in the opposite direction. The plan was kept so secret that even Miramon had no suspicion of the real purpose of his expedition. This time he did not oversleep but successfully surprised the enemy at four in the morning, returning with twenty-two carts full of provisions and war material, sixty oxen, and some two hundred sheep and goats. Meanwhile Marquez and his troopers had passed through the enemy’s lines unnoticed, leaving the imperialists the poorer by one thousand of their best men—no small loss to a garrison already so reduced.