Dennis Wheatley - Unholy Crusade

After their visit to the Palace, while walking back down the steep streets, Adam brought the Monsignor's name into the conversation. Showing no trace of uneasiness, Chela at once responded by going into raptures about him. He was, according to her, everything that a good priest should be: wise, pious, tolerant, with a great understanding of the human heart and an untiring zest for fighting the battles of the oppressed who came to him with their troubles. All of which got Adam nowhere.

On their return they found the rest of the house party assembled round the pool, so they changed into bathing things and went in with them. Lunch was a cold collation taken in the garden where they helped themselves from a table carrying a score of delicacies which would have been sufficient to feed a whole platoon of hungry soldiers. The day then followed the pattern of Friday: more bathing and laughter, cocktails, a lengthy gourmet's dinner, then dancing until two o'clock in the morning.

On Sunday the routine differed only in that all the women and the three younger men went to Mass, leaving Adam and his host sitting together in the summer house over the pool.

After they had been talking for a while Adam, keeping his voice

casual, said, `All the people I have talked to here say it's most

unlikely there will be a change of government in the foreseeable

future. D'you agree about that, sir?'

Bernadino gave Adam a swift, sideways glance, masking it by

a pull on his cigar, then he replied, `I should say they are right. The government is far too firmly seated to be overthrown at all easily. But one never can tell. People often take their characteristics from the land in which they live. Mexico is a land of many volcanoes; like them its people are given to sudden violent eruptions.'

`There is something to be said for a government that keeps the peace,' Adam hazarded. `Even if it is a dictatorship.'

`I agree.' Bernadino nodded his white head. `Revolutions have been the curse of Mexico ever since she gained independence. Except during the thirty four years that old Porfirio Diaz was our President, hardly a year passed without either some ambitious General making a pronunciamiento or there being a tumulto, as we term riots, in Mexico City. As a youngster I can remember them, and they were quite alarming. In those days, and all through the past century, the streets were infested with hordes of beggars called leperos. Most of them were fake cripples. Any sort of excuse was good enough for them to throw away their crutches and rampage through the town in big mobs, looting, burning and murdering. For a day or two all decent people had to barricade themselves in their houses and have their firearms ready. At least our present government has put a stop to that sort of thing and has cleared the streets of such dangerous vagabonds.'

`You were saying, sir, that Porfirio Diaz succeeded in remaining President for thirty four years. How did he manage to do that?'

Bernadino gave a low laugh. `Because he had the sense to see on which side his bread was buttered. Like all these Generals, he came to power by inciting the Indians to revolt with the promise that the lands should be restored to them. Like all the others, he ratted on his promise. But, unlike them, he did not then try to rule only through his army. He made allies: the great landowners, such as my own family in those days; the Church and, shrewdest move of all, the Americans. With their help he pulled the country's finances out of the incredible mess they were in and encouraged foreign investment. What is more, he restored order throughout the whole country. For over half a century it had been plagued by hordes of bandits. Diaz enlisted all the gangsters in the cities, put them into smart uniforms and sent them out to clear the country up. They were called Rurales and had orders to shoot on sight, The Socialists, of course, paint him as a bloodthirsty tyrant who ground the faces of the poor; but that is not altogether true. For the first time since Independence, Mexico began to prosper and soon commerce was booming. Property and the lives of the law abiding were secure. The taxes were heavy but there was money to pay them, and even the poorest people fed better than they do now. That is why from the late seventies until 1910 is known as Mexico 's “Golden Age”.'

`Would you say that things were better here then than when Mexico was a Spanish colony?'

`Oh no, I would not say that.' Bernadino smiled and waved his cigar airily. `You British pride yourselves on having been the best colonial administrators the world has ever known except perhaps for the Romans. But I do not think you can rival Spain 's achievements in that field. We Spaniards I use the term because I am descended from one of Cortes' Captains, although as for many generations my forbears have been born here I am actually a Creole we Spaniards developed this country and ruled it for close on three hundred years. That is twice the length of time that the British were paramount in India. For three centuries our Viceroys, assisted by a Council called the Audiencia and wise decrees from the Council of the Indies that sat in Seville, kept the peace here, introduced every form of agriculture and bred vast herds of cattle. We also became the staging post for the enormous wealth in silks, spices, ivories and many other things that Spain imported from China and her possessions in the Far East. Under the Bourbon Kings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Mexico was one of the most prosperous and well governed countries in the world.'

`Why then,' Adam asked, `did the people revolt and drive the Spaniards out?'

Bernadino sighed. `It is a sad story; for from security and riches

it reduced the country to chaos, brigandage and poverty for the

best part of a century. I suppose the ideas emanating from the

French Revolution were the initial cause; but it was Napoleon

who upset the apple cart. You will doubtless recall that early in

the last century he imprisoned King Carlos IV and his heir

Ferdinand, then made his own brother, Joseph Bonaparte, King

of Spain. That caused a schism among the ruling caste here. Some

were for acknowledging the usurper Bonaparte; others supported

the imprisoned King and wished to establish a Regency until he

should be restored to his throne. Others again, particularly the

Careoles, who had always resented being ruled by Spaniards sent

out from Spain, urged that the time had come for Mexico to

throw off the Spanish yoke and declare herself a sovereign nation.

'There followed violent disputes, tumultos and sporadic civil war

that went on for several years. The result was that in 1810, when

the renegade priest Hidalgo led the masses in a rebellion, the

government was in no state to cope with it. Seeing their danger,

the Spaniards and the Creoles sank their differences and, in due course, defeated him. But it had started something that could not be stopped. From then on Mexico was desolated by almost ceaseless civil wars and, after her break with Spain, became the body on which a long line of unscrupulous dictators gorged themselves.'

When Bernadino ceased speaking he sat smoking in silence for a few minutes, then changed the subject and spoke to Adam about his plans. He said that now Adam had seen most of the sights in Mexico City, he must spend a few days in other places of interest. In recent years archaeologists had discovered no fewer than ten thousand sites scattered over Mexico where there were remains of the ancient civilizations. It would probably take a century to excavate them all, but in the past fifty years a number of the finest had been cleared of jungle and restored. Oaxaca was one centre from which some of the best could be visited and Merida, down in Yucatan, was another. Both could be reached with ease, as there were daily services of aircraft to them.