Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE ROMANCE OF BANKING 301the former dictator), who were both aspirants for the Presidencyand had been imprisoned by Madero's orders. The twopolitical ex-prisoners placed themselves at the head of a bodyof troops who had been won over to their cause, and marchedon the national palace, where they were received with machinegunfire and Reyes was killed. Felix Diaz then captured thearsenal several blocks away. This was in turn besieged andbombarded, and for ten days the streets of the city were abattle-field, in which the numbers killed mostly civilianswere variously estimated at from 1,500 to 14,000, the smallerfigure being nearer the mark. The fighting was ended bytreachery, Huerta, the commander of the Maderista troops,making a compact with Felix Diaz and arresting PresidentMadero. By a political "double shuffle," embracing two orthree nominal "resignations," Huerta seized the reins of powerand declared himself President. The next evening, Maderoand the former Vice-President, Suarez, were killed in anautomobile in the open street, while being transferred from thepalace to the penitentiary.Inasmuch as its office occupied a prominent position inthe business section of Mexico City, the bank was within thedanger zone during the Decena Tragica. The streets werealternately in the possession of various factions, and bothsides showed a very embarrassing willingness to turn theirrifles on foreigners. In this way several of the members ofthe staff had narrow escapes. Mr. William Hogg, who hadrecently arrived to make an inspection and relieve the managerduring the latter's absence on furlough, took up his quartersin the manager's house. He was awakened early one morningby a heavy explosion, and not knowing the cause, he andanother member of the staff who was sharing the house withhim got up and went downstairs to the sitting-room for safety.Later on they returned to bed again. On making an investigationthe following morning, they found that a three-inchshell had hit the coping of a building across the street, and thatthe shot it contained had scattered all over the front of their