Ahead of the Army Part 20

"I guess it'll be an all-day's job," thought Ned, as he and one of the engineer officers reached the first steep declivity. "Hullo! they are unhitching those artillery horses. What's that for?"

He was soon to know, for strong men took the places of the animals, and the guns were hauled up and over the mountain by human hands. It was severe work, but it was done with eager enthusiasm, and a few hours later Ned was able to shout:

"Hurrah! Here we are, right in behind them. Hurrah for General Scott!"

Anything else that he might have felt like saying was drowned in the wild cheering which arose from thousands of soldiers, for there was no longer any need for silence or secrecy. That part of the Mexican army which had been posted beyond the head of the pa.s.s was taken utterly by surprise. Its commanders were for the moment unable to imagine whence had come this numerous body of United States infantry, which appeared so suddenly upon their unprotected flank. They therefore retreated, and the Mexican army was cut in two, so that all of it which had been stationed in the pa.s.s itself was caught as in a trap, and compelled to surrender.

These trapped prisoners were about three thousand in number, and Ned kindly remarked concerning them:

"Oh, but ain't I glad we didn't have to kill 'em! We didn't catch old Santa Anna himself, though. They say the Mexicans made him President for the battle of Angostura. I guess they wouldn't have done it if they had waited till now."

Whether or not he was correct in that calculation, the road to the city of Mexico seemed now to be open, unless the unfortunate republic could provide its President with another army. As for the American commander, his troops had more faith in him than ever, and with better reasons for it. It was afterward said that General Scott's written orders for the battle of Cerro Gordo, and for others which followed, would answer very well for full reports of them after they were won.

The whole American army, except the garrison of Vera Cruz and small parties posted here and there along the road, had now escaped from the _tierra caliente_ and the yellow fever. Immediately after the battle of Cerro Gordo, it marched on to the old city of Jalapa, among the mountains, where its quarters were cool and comfortable. Not many miles beyond Jalapa begins the great central tableland of Anahuac, and it was needful that the road leading into it should be taken possession of before the remnant of Santa Anna's army should rally and construct barriers at positions from which it might prove difficult to drive them.

"If they do," thought Ned, when he heard that matter under discussion by the soldiers, "I hope General Scott'll send for me and the other engineers. I'd like to trap some more prisoners."

He was not to have any such chance as that, but he was not to be idle altogether,--he and his engineers and his army. The division to which he and the Seventh Regiment belonged, under the command of General Worth, was shortly ordered on in the advance, to take and hold a strong position, known as the town and castle of Perote, and here there was indeed a long delay which was not engineered by the military forces of Mexico. The politicians and particularly the Congress of the United States had interfered very effectively on behalf of President Santa Anna. They had spent so much time in debates upon the legislation required for the gathering of fresh troops that the terms of enlistment of about half of the soldiers under Scott were expiring. It was of no use for him to move forward with a steadily vanishing army, and he was compelled to wait for months at and about Perote, until the new men could arrive and take the places of those who were going home.

"I guess I won't enlist," thought Ned, as that idea came again and again into his mind. "Neither mother nor father would wish me to do so. But I'm getting to be an old soldier, after all, and I won't leave the Seventh till it gets into the city of Mexico."

Whether it ever was to accomplish that feat was only to be determined by hard fighting, and there came a day, the 7th of August, 1847, when the division of General Worth, then encamped at Puebla, received orders to go forward. The entire army was to move, and General Scott had about as many soldiers with him as when he had landed at Vera Cruz in the spring.

"Hurrah for the city!" shouted Ned, when the news reached him. "I want to make a morning call at the Paez house."

CHAPTER XVIII.

SEnOR CARFORA TRAPPED

"I never saw anything finer than this," said Ned, aloud, as he slowly turned his telescope from one point to another. "It is the old battle-ground of Cortes, when he and his Spaniards and Tlascalans took the city of Mexico. It was called Tenocht.i.tlan, then."

He was standing upon a granite ledge, on the slope of the mountains south of the city, and below him the nearest objects of interest were the white tents of the American army, encamped there while negotiations for peace were going forward between the United States government and Santa Anna. These were not progressing well, for the invaders were demanding more than any Mexican government could be ready to grant. Not only was Texas itself demanded, but with it also all the vast Territories of California, New Mexico, and Arizona.

"Here we are," said Ned again, "but it has taken us two weeks of awful fighting to get here. There isn't any use in disputing the pluck of the Mexicans. Away yonder is Churubusco, and over there is Contreras. Didn't they fight us there! General Scott and his engineers laid out the battles, but I was with the Seventh everywhere it went. I'll have loads of yarns to spin when I get home, if I ever do."

Battle after battle had been fought, and the Americans had paid dearly for the long delay in the arrival of their reinforcements. All that time had been employed by the Mexican President, with really splendid energy, in raising a new army and in fortifying the approaches to the city. It was almost pitiful to see with what patriotism and self-sacrifice the Mexican people rallied for their last hopeless struggle with superior power. It was not, however, that they were to contend with superior numbers, for the forces under Santa Anna were at least three times those under General Scott. The difference was that the latter was a perfect army led by a great general, while the former were not an army at all and had very few capable officers.

Ned had apparently gazed long enough, and he now made his way down the rugged slope. He did not halt until he reached the door of his own tent, and there he was met by his friend and supervisor somewhat tartly.

"Well! You are back, at last, are you? I didn't know but what you'd run away. You may come along with me to-night. You may try and see your friends. The provision train I am to take in will get out again about daylight. You may stay there one day, and come away with a train that will run in to-morrow night, but you'd better wear your Mexican rig, if you don't mean to have your throat cut."

"All right, sir," said Ned. "I'll run the risk."

"I might not let you," said Grant, "if you were an enlisted man, but you may learn something of value to them and to us, too. Get ready!"

The fact was that Ned and his army, commanded for him by General Scott, were in a somewhat peculiar position. An armistice had been declared while the negotiations were going on, and while, at the same time, the power of Santa Anna was crumbling to pieces under him. It had been agreed, on both sides, that all military operations should temporarily cease, and that American army-trains of wagons might come into the city, with armed escorts, to obtain supplies. After some unpleasant experiences with the angry mob of the city, it had been deemed best that the trains should come and go in the night, when the unruly Mexican soldiers were in their quarters, and the too patriotic citizens were in their beds. Ned had several times asked permission to accompany a train, and it had been refused, but it was now explained that this train would like to have one more man with it who could talk Spanish. When, however, an hour or so later, he reported for duty, Lieutenant Grant remarked to him:

"Well, yes, you can talk it and you can look it, but you can't walk it.

Don't step off so lively, if you mean to pa.s.s for a Mexican."

"Hold on, Grant," said another officer, standing near them. "Don't you think the Mexicans have been lively enough since we left Perote? I've had to step around a good deal myself on their account."

"Just so," said Grant. "But that's while they're fighting. When they're at anything like work, though, it's a different kind of movement. Don't walk fast, Ned, or they'll shoot you for a gringo."

It was nearly midnight when the supply-train, commanded by Lieutenant Grant, entered the city, and an hour was consumed in obtaining the supplies and getting them into the wagons, for not a pound of anything had been made ready for delivery. No true-hearted Mexican really wished to sell provisions to the enemies of his country.

"Lieutenant, may I go now?" asked Ned, as the last wagon prepared to move away. "There isn't a patrol in sight, and the Paez place is within a few squares from this."

Grant replied only by a wave of the hand, for at that moment he had become engaged in a sharp controversy with the one Mexican officer who was present on duty for his own side. He had been fairly polite, but he had not pretended to be pleased to see gringos in Mexico. Therefore, it was almost without express permission that Ned slipped away from his train and his escort upon his exceedingly perilous errand.

The streets were dark and deserted, for the heavy-hearted people had nothing to call them out of their houses at that hour. Nevertheless, Ned was feverishly on the alert, and, almost without his knowing it, his machete had jumped out of its sheath, ready for whatever might turn up.

"Halt!" suddenly came from a deep voice at his right, as he stealthily turned a street corner, and a tall form stepped out of the near shadows to stand in front of him.

Ned saw the long, bright blade of a lance pointed at his bosom, and there seemed but one thing left for him to do. The holder of the lance was beyond his reach, even if he had wished to strike him, but the lance itself was not. All the strength he had in him seemed to go into the sudden blow with which he severed the wooden shaft, an inch or so behind its fitting of sharp steel.

"Diablos!" exclaimed the astonished Mexican, as he struck back a heavy blow with the cudgel which remained in his hand.

Ned parried as well as he could with his machete, but there was some force left in the stick when it reached his head, and down he went. He had made a discovery at that very moment, however.

"Pablo!" he exclaimed, just as a second Mexican sprang toward him with a long knife in his hand.

"Senor Carfora!" loudly responded Pablo. "Hold back your knife, Manuelo!

It is one of our own men. O Santos! My lance! I have no other weapon. I told them it was of the soft wood. How are you here, senor?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: NED SAW A LONG, BRIGHT BLADE OF A LANCE POINTED AT HIS BOSOM]

"To see Senora Paez and General Zuroaga," said Ned. "Is he in the city?"

"Hush! Be careful, Senor Carfora!" said Pablo, as Manuelo almost reluctantly sheathed his too ready long knife. "We were waiting here for him. He has been to the palace, to meet General Bravo. Our regiment has already joined the army, but he is not yet sure about Santa Anna and some other men. It is a dark time, senor!"

"Now, Pablo," said Ned, "there isn't much to tell about me. I was captured when Vera Cruz surrendered. I was with General Morales. I got in to-night, and I have a great deal to say to the general and Senora Paez and the Ta.s.saras."

"Zuroaga is here now," said a low, cautiously speaking voice behind him.

"Put up your sword, Carfora, and come along with me. I want to see you more than you do me. I must know the latest news from General Scott's army. Pablo, it was of no use. Santa Anna would make no terms with me, but his day is nearly over. Bravo's government has rejected the treaty offered by the United States, and we are to fight it out to the bitter end. The gates have been shut, and there will be no more sending out of supplies. I think the war will begin again to-morrow."

"Oh, dear me!" thought Ned. "There goes all my chance for getting out again until after our army has captured the city. How my head does ache!"

The rap from Pablo's lance-staff had not really injured him, however, and all three of them walked on till they reached the Paez place without saying another word. Here it was at once evident that they, or, at least, the general and Pablo, were waited for. The front door opened to admit them, and shut quickly behind them as they pa.s.sed in.

"Senora Paez," said Zuroaga to a shadow in the unlighted hall, "the armistice is ended, but I shall command my Oaxaca regiment in the fighting which is now sure to come. Let us all meet in the parlor and hear from Senor Carfora the American account of these lost battles."

"Carfora?" she exclaimed. "Is he here? Oh, how I do wish to hear him! I believe we have been told altogether too many lies. Our troops do not half know how badly they have been beaten, nor what is the real strength of the American army."

They walked on into the parlor, and here there were lights burning, but Ned was not thinking of them. He was gazing at the pale face of a man in uniform and on crutches, who came slowly forward between a woman and a young girl, with a mournful smile upon his face.