The most lawless of them were law-abiding in comparison with any kind of victorious Mexicans.

Americans protected private property, they honored women, they observed the sanctity of every man's home; "and, as for being heretics, that was an affair for the saints and the priests; the comfortable benefits of the Holy Catholic Church, had not been vouchsafed to all nations." Political changes are favorable to religious tolerance, and the priests themselves had been sensible of a great decrease in their influence during the pending struggle.

Prominent Mexicans had given aid and comfort to the Americans in spite of their spiritual orders, and there were many men who, like Lopez Navarro, did not dare to go to confession, because they would have been compelled to acknowledge themselves rebels.
When the doctor and Dare and Luis reached the Plaza, the morning after the surrender, they found the city already astir.

Thousands of women were in the churches saying masses for the dead; the men stood at their store doors or sat smoking on their balconies, chatting with the passers-by or watching the movements of the victorious army and the evacuation of the conquered one.
Nearly all of the brave two hundred occupied the Plaza.

They were still greatly excited by the miraculous ecstacy of victory.