The author of the whole coup d'etal seams to have
been General Huerta, who was forthwith proclaimed provisional President. The rebels joined forces with the disloyal Federalists, and the Madero rfgiute fell without further resistance. It is thought that General Huerta had convinced himself that the rebels were too strong for President Medea-ea-and that what the populace wanted was an end of the rebellion and the earliest possible opportunity to resume business, which had been utterly disorganized. In this respect he seems to have judged aright, for in the streets, which had been empty for days and had been swept by rifle fire and shrapnel, he was acclaimed as a hero by enormous crowds. On Wednesday morning Senor Gustavo Madero was executed. It is said that he was allowed " fugitive law " ; in other words, he was allowed to run a few steps in a nominal attempt to escape before he was shot. The whole incident reads like some story of the early Renaissance in Italy. The luncheon episode would have delighted Caesar Borgia and would have been carefully weighed in his political scales by Machiavelli.
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