The Rebel Chief by Gustave Aimard

The closing months of 18 -- had arrived. Political events were beginning to press on each other with such rapidity that the least enlightened minds already understood that they were hurrying towards an imminent catastrophe. In the South, the troops of General Gutiérrez had gained a great victory over the constitutional army commanded by General don Diego Álvarez (the same who at an earlier period presided at Guaymas over the court-martial that condemned to death our unfortunate countryman and friend Count Gaston de Raousset Boulbon). The carnage of the Pinto Indians had been immense: 1200 remained on the battlefield, and the artillery and abundant materiel fell into the hands of the victor.

But at the same period, there commenced in the interior a series of opposite events: the first was the flight of Zuloaga, that president who, after abdicating in favour of Miramón, revoked that abdication one day without knowing exactly why, without consulting anyone, and at the moment when it was least expected.