As soon as Natzmer’s letter reached Walker, he sent the order to obey the command of Jerez, and to withdraw the whole American force from Leon to Nagarote. The designs of Rivas and Jerez were now apparent to everybody; and they had, on their arrival at Chinandega, gone so far as to send a commissioner to invite the troops of Carrera into the State, and to urge their immediate approach to Leon. Jerez had given the order to Natzmer, supposing it would not be obeyed, thereby hoping to make the movement against the Americans turn on their disobedience to a lawful authority. But Walker was not disposed to have the coming struggle occur on any such issue. He determined to have the contest made on more formal grounds. Not knowing, either, how far the defection of the native leaders had spread, he was anxious to concentrate his force scattered on a long line from Leon to Castillo; therefore military no less than political reasons led him to await with Jaquess at Nagarote the arrival of Natzmer and Anderson, and then to march with the united force toward Granada. A number of the native residents about Leon and some families accompanied the Rifles to Nagarote, and among them were D. José Maria Valle and D. Mateo Pineda. The latter was a man of rare truth and fidelity for a Central American—in fact, his virtues would make him remarkable in any country. With a name so pure that it has escaped the malice of his enemies during all the civil disturbances of Nicaragua, he stands almost a solitary example, in that distracted land, of spotless faith and unshaken loyalty. He has required no defence save his high honor and stainless character to protect him from the persecutions of political enemies; and if other proofs were lacking of the devotion the Americans in Nicaragua yielded to right and justice, they might find ample evidence in the single fact that Mateo Pineda adhered to their fortunes in each extremity of good and evil. When the Rifles reached Nagarote they, with the Rangers and the new infantry battalion, took up the line of march for Masaya. At Managua they found the commandant of the post, José Herrera, firm in his faith to the Americans, and he remained true until death, in spite of a brother’s efforts to seduce him from the path of military duty, being executed by the allies, under the sentence of a court-martial some time afterward, for his adhesion to the Americans.