It was late that night when Ned said good-by to his father, and it was like pulling teeth to let him go, but there was no help for it, as the sailing of the supply-ship could not be delayed. Ned was once more alone in Mexico, and it took all his enthusiasm for his expected army life to reconcile him to the situation. Perhaps there was not a great deal of sound sleeping done, in the hammock that swung in the little room in the Tassara mansion, but at an early hour next morning he was on his way to hunt up the camp of the Seventh Infantry and the tent of Lieutenant Grant. This was accomplished without much difficulty, and almost immediately Ned made a discovery. His probable coming had, of course, been reported to the colonel commanding the regiment, and that officer's common-sense remark was:

"Unenlisted orderly, eh? Yankee boy that can speak Spanish, and that knows every corner of this miserable city? Just what we want. I'm glad old Fuss and Feathers sent him to us. He is the greatest general in the world. Send your scout right here to me. I've errands for him."

Therefore, the next chapter in Ned's Mexican experiences was that he found himself sent out, soldierlike, upon a long list of duties, for which he was peculiarly well prepared by knowing where to find streets and houses which were as yet unknown to the rank and file of the gallant Seventh. The men, on their part, soon came to regard him as a soldier boy, like themselves, and he had a fine opportunity for learning, from day to day, the processes by which General Scott was organizing his force for his intended march across the sierra, on the road he had selected for reaching the city of Mexico. It was soon to be plainly understood that, whenever that army should march, it would do so as a sort of human machine, ready to perform any military work which its commander might require of it.



CHAPTER XVII.

THE MOUNTAIN PASSES

"Grant," said Captain Lee, "what did Crawford say to you about that Cerro Gordo road? I want to know all I can."

"Well, Captain Lee," replied Grant, "here he is, to speak for himself. He says he came down that trail in midwinter. He studied it, too, because his friend, General Zuroaga, told him it was built by a Spanish fellow by the name of Cortes."

"Good!" said Lee. "Seems to me I've heard of him somewhere, but who is Zuroaga? Tell me about him, Crawford. Does he know anything?"

By this time, Ned had become pretty well acquainted with Lee and a number of other officers, and with their free, open-hearted way of dealing with each other. He could tell, therefore, without any restraint or bashfulness, all that was necessary concerning his distinguished Mexican friend and benefactor.

"I see," said the captain. "He is one of their many revolutions. All right. But I wish old man Cortes hadn't left his road so narrow and steep as they say it is. Tell me all you saw, Crawford. I have other accounts, but I want yours. Look at this map and answer my questions."

He held in his hand what purported to be a very rough sketch of the highway from the city of Jalapa to the city of Mexico. It also pretended to give a fair idea of the section of that road which crossed the mountain spur known as Cerro Gordo.

"From there to there," said Lee, "how is it?"

"Crooked as a rail fence," replied Ned. "It isn't like that at all. It's a zigzag, with rocks on one side and ravines on the other."

"Just as I supposed," said Lee. "Now, mark the zigzags on this other paper, as well as you can remember them."

They were sitting in Grant's tent, in the camp of the Seventh Regiment, and the entire advance-guard of the army was encamped in like manner, waiting for orders from General Scott to climb the mountains before them. Ned took the crayon handed him, and he really appeared to do pretty well with it, but he explained that the rough weather and the condition of his pony had compelled him to dismount and come part of the way down the mountain on foot, so that he had more time for making observations.

"If they put cannon on a breastwork on that road," he said, "they can blow anything in front of them all to pieces."

"Grant," said Lee, "that's just what they can do. Santa Anna has posted his artillery at Crawford's zigzags, and that Cerro Gordo position cannot be carried in front. It is perfectly unassailable."

"What on earth are we to do, then?" said Grant. "Our only road to Mexico seems to be shut and bolted."

"I don't know about that," said Lee. "There are others, if we chose to try them. But the general has ordered me, with an engineer party, to go out and find if there is not some way for getting around Santa Anna's obstructions. I want you to let Crawford go with me."

"O Lieutenant Grant!" eagerly exclaimed Ned, "General Zuroaga told me there was another place as good for a road as that is."

"Go along, of course," said Grant. "I'd give a month's pay to go with you. Anything but this sleepy camp."

Ned was ready in a minute, but he found that he was not expected to carry with him any other weapon than his machete.

"Take that," said Captain Lee. "It will do to cut bushes with. I believe I'll carry one myself. We shall have a few riflemen, but we must be careful not to do any firing. We must scout like so many red Indians."

Ned had formerly been on the wrong side of the army lines. During all the long months of what he sometimes thought of as his captivity among the Mexicans, he had been occasionally worried by a feeling of disgrace. He had felt it worst when he was a member of the garrison of Vera Cruz, and on such remarkably good terms with the rest of the garrison and its commander. So he had been exceedingly rejoiced when General Scott battered down his walls and compelled him to surrender. It had been a grand restoration of his self-respect when he found himself running errands for the officers of the Seventh, but now he suddenly felt that he had shot up into full-grown manhood, for, with a bush-cutting sword at his side, he was to accompany one of the best officers in the American army upon an expedition of great importance and much danger.

It was still early in the day when Captain Lee's party, all on foot, passed through the outer lines of the American advance, at the base of the mountain. All of them were young men, as yet without any military fame, and there was no one there who could tell them that their little band of roadhunters contained one commander-in-chief and one lieutenant-general of the armies of the Southern Confederacy, and one commander-in-chief and four major-generals, or corps commanders, of the armies of the United States. It was not by such subordinates as these that General Santa Anna was assisted in his engineering or other military operations. That day, however, and for a few days more, he felt perfectly sure of his really well-chosen position among the rocks and chasms of the Cerro Gordo.

The engineering party was well aware that its movements might possibly be observed from the heights beyond, as long as it remained in the open, therefore it wheeled out into the fields as it went onward, and was soon lost to view among woodlands.

"Now, Crawford," said Captain Lee, "recall and tell me, as well as you can, all that Zuroaga told you about his proposed new road."

Ned proceeded to do so, but, at the end of his recollections, he added:

"Well, the general said it would cost a pot of money to do it, now, and that Cortes had no gunpowder to throw away. He could not have done any rock-blasting."

"Our difficulty about that is as bad as his was," replied the captain. "We can have all the gunpowder we need, but we can't use any of it, for fear of letting his Excellency, General Santa Anna, know what we are up to. As for the cost of a new road, there is no government in Mexico that will think of undertaking it. It would cost as much, almost, as a brand-new revolution."

There was a great deal of hard work done after that, searching, climbing, and bush-cutting, and Ned wondered at the ready decisions made here and there, by the engineers. It seemed to him, too, that Captain Lee and other officers paid a great deal of deference to a young lieutenant by the name of McClellan. A small force of riflemen was with them and a party of sappers and miners, but there had not been a sign of military opposition to the work which they were trying to do. Nevertheless, it began to dawn upon Ned's mind that sometimes picks and spades and crowbars may be as important war weapons as even cannon. That is, there may be circumstances in which guns of any kind are of little use until after the other tools have been made to clear the way for them.

Night came, and the entire reconnoitring party camped among the cliffs of Cerro Gordo, but at about the middle of the next forenoon all the officers gathered for a kind of council. They were not yet ready to send in a full and final report, but they had formed important conclusions, and at the end of the council Ned was called for.

"Crawford," said Captain Lee, "take that despatch to Captain Schuyler Hamilton, or whoever else is on duty at General Scott's headquarters. In my opinion, this Zuroaga road will do, after we shall have made it, and we can climb around into the rear of the Mexican army. If so, all their batteries in the old road are but so many cannon thrown away."

Ned's heart gave a great thump of pride as he took that carefully folded and sealed up paper. To carry it was a tremendous honor, and he was not half sure that it did not make him, for the time being, a regular member of General Scott's corps of military engineers. He hastened back to the Jalapa highway, and the first advanced post that he came to furnished him with a pony. Then he galloped on to the camps and to the general's headquarters, as if he had been undergoing no fatigue whatever. He seemed to himself, however, to have seen hardly anything or anybody until he stood before Captain Hamilton, and held out that vitally important despatch. Even then he did not quite understand that it was almost as important as had been the surrender of Vera Cruz. But for that surrender, the American expedition would have been stopped at the seashore. But for this feat of the engineers, it would have been disastrously halted at the foot of the Cerro Gordo pass. One minute later, Ned's heart jumped again, for he heard the deep voice of the general himself commanding:

"Hamilton, bring Crawford in. He seems to know something."

Whether he did or not, he could answer questions quite bravely, and he could tell a great many things which had not been set forth in the brief report of the engineers. Probably they had not felt ready to say or assert too much until they had done and learned more, but Ned was under no such restriction, and he thoroughly believed in what he still regarded as General Zuroaga's road. That is, if somebody like Cortes, for instance, could and would afford the necessary amount of gunpowder to blast away the rocks which he had seen were in the way.

"That will do," said the general, at last. "You may go, Crawford. Captain Hamilton, we have beaten Santa Anna!"

There may have been a slightly arrogant sound in that confident assertion, but it was altogether in accord with the positive and self-reliant character of General Winfield Scott. He had unbounded faith in his own mental resources, and, at the same time, he had perfect confidence in the men and officers of his army. It was, therefore, less to be wondered at that they on their part entertained an almost absurd respect for their martinet commander.

Orders went out immediately for putting all the force which could be employed upon the construction of the mountain road. Much of the work would have to be performed at night, to keep it secret, and the Mexicans, behind their impassable entrenchments on the old Cerro Gordo pass, had no idea of the hidden plans of their enemies. Santa Anna himself may have believed that his antagonist had given up the hope of ever reaching the city of Mexico by that route. The new one, by which he did intend to reach it, grew rapidly to completion, and Ned Crawford obtained from his friend Grant repeated permissions to go and see if Captain Lee wanted him, and then to come back and report progress to his own camp.

"Lieutenant Grant's a man that hardly ever says anything," said Ned to himself, "but he's a prime good fellow, and I like him. He says he isn't much of an engineer, though, and he couldn't build that road."

Such a road it was, too, with bridges over chasms, where the builders had to climb up and down like so many cats. Even after it was said to be complete, it was fit for men only, for not even the most sure-footed mule could have passed over it. It was finished on the 17th of April, and on the following day General Scott issued his orders for all the various parts of the coming battle of Cerro Gordo. Strong bodies of infantry were to engage the Mexican front, and keep Santa Anna's army occupied, while the engineers piloted another and stronger column to the real war business of the day. Ned had managed to get himself tangled up with this climbing force, if only to see what use was to be made of his and Zuroaga's new road. The morning came, and even before the sun was up some of the troops were moving.

"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 pass 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 pass 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 Tenochtitlan, 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 pass 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?"



"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 Tassaras."

"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 passed 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.

"Colonel Tassara!" exclaimed Ned. "I knew you were wounded, but are you not getting well?"

"Senor Carfora!" quickly interrupted Senorita Felicia. "He was hit in the leg by a bullet at Angostura. He had a bayonet wound, too, and they thought he would die, but they made him a general—"

"I am getting better, Carfora," said General Tassara, courageously, "but I can do no more fighting just now. I sincerely wish that there might not be any. The plans of Santa Anna—"

"Tassara!" exclaimed Zuroaga. "What we heard is true. He is utterly ruined. But the peace terms are rejected by all the government we have left, and our city defences must soon go down as did those at Cerro Gordo, Contreras, and Churubusco. We are to hear more about those affairs from Senor Carfora. He was an eye witness of them."

"Oh, my dear young friend," said Senora Tassara, "were you with the American army in all those battles?"

"No, not exactly," said Ned. "I was with General Morales at Vera Cruz. Then I came on with General Scott all the way from the seacoast to this place. He has troops enough now, and he will fight his way in. I'm real sorry about it, too, for no more men need to be killed."

"I think the gringos are just terrible," said Felicia, as she came over and sat down by Ned. "I want to hear about them. I do hope they won't be defeated now, though, for if they are nobody can guess who will be Emperor of Mexico when they are driven away."

"She is not so far wrong," said Tassara, sadly. "The future of our country is all in the dark. Please let us hear your report."

Pablo, of course, had not followed his superiors into the parlor, and all who were there were free to discuss the situation. The morning sun was looking in at the windows when all of the talk was finished. Ned had learned that only the family and a few trusted servants remained in the house, but he would have eaten his breakfast with even a more complete sense of security from any emissaries of the military authorities if he had known how much they had upon their hands that day, the 4th of September, 1847. There had already been a sharp correspondence between the commanders of the two armies, and now General Scott himself declared the armistice at an end. All the angry patriotism of the Mexican people arose to meet the emergency, and every possible preparation was rapidly made for the last desperate struggle in defence of their capital. It was as if the idea prevailed that, if this American force now here could be defeated, the United States would give the matter up, instead of sending more troops to the assistance of their first insufficient battalions.

"Senor Carfora," said Senorita Felicia, "you must not go out of the house. I do not want you to be killed."

"That is so," added her father. "As the affair stands now, they would surely regard you as a spy. You would be shot without a trial. All is confusion. I fear that even General Zuroaga is safe from arrest only among his own men. The army is the government. This nation needs a change."

"General Tassara," said Ned, "isn't our army bringing one?"

"The war is promising a great deal," replied Tassara, gloomily. "It has already delivered us from King Paredes and Santa Anna and from half a dozen other military usurpers. Moreover, all the lands which the United States propose to take away will be rescued from any future anarchy and will be made some use of. They will be lost to Mexico forever within one week from to-day, for we cannot hold the city."

General Zuroaga had quietly disappeared. Very soon, the Tassara family went to their own room. Then not even the servants could tell what had become of Senora Paez. Ned Crawford did not at all know what to do with himself. He walked around the rooms below; then he went out to the stables and back again, but he was all alone, for Pablo and the Oaxaca men had gone to their regiment. He went up to the library and had a one-sided talk with the man in armor, but it did not do him any good, and he did not care a cent for all the books on the shelves. They could tell only of old wars, fought long ago, and here was a real war right on hand, that seemed to be wandering all around the house.

During all the long, hot days of the armistice, a kind of dull quiet had appeared to brood over the city and its forts and over the camps and entrenchments of the besiegers. It had been something like a thundercloud, which was all the while growing blacker and hanging lower, and before the end of the first day of renewed hostilities the anxious watchers in the city houses could hear something which sounded like distant thunder. It was the occasional roar of a gun from one or another of the batteries on either side, as a warning of the more terrible things which were about to come, and more than once Ned groaned to himself:

"Oh, how I wish I were out there, with Lieutenant Grant and the Seventh. This is worse than being shut up in Vera Cruz. I didn't have any regiment of my own, then, but now I belong in General Scott's army."

Evening came at last, and all of the family was gathered behind the lattices of the parlor windows, to watch the detachments of soldiers march past, and to wonder where they were going. General Zuroaga was not there, but there had been a message from him that there would be a great battle in the morning, for the Americans were moving forward.

"We are in greater numbers than they are," muttered General Tassara. "But we have no General Scott, and we have no officers like his. Almost all that we really have is courage and gunpowder, and these are not enough to defeat such an attack as he will make. The city is lost already!"



CHAPTER XIX.

THE STARS AND STRIPES IN TENOCHTITLAN

"What a roar it is! And so very near! I hope General Scott will not bombard this city, as he did Vera Cruz. It would be awful to see bombshells falling among these crowds of people!"

The American commander had not the slightest idea of doing anything of the kind, but there had been almost continuous fighting in the days following the termination of the armistice. Perhaps the hardest of it had been at Molino del Rey, and the defences there had been carried by the assailants. There appeared now to be but the one barrier of the Chapultepec hill between them and a final victory.

A hand was on Ned's shoulder, and a trembling voice said to him:

"Oh, Senor Carfora! Where have you been? I'm so frightened! Are those cannon coming right on into the city?"

"No," said Ned, "but I have been out all day. I went almost everywhere, and it seems as if the city were full of wounded men. The soldiers are crowding in. Oh, how I wish I knew how things are going!"

There was a sound of sobbing behind them, and in a moment more the arms of Senora Paez were around Felicia.

"My darling! My dear little girl!" she exclaimed. "Senor Carfora, too! The end has come. The Americans have stormed Chapultepec, and the city is at their mercy. Alas, for me! General Bravo was taken prisoner, and my beloved old friend, Zuroaga, was killed at the head of his regiment. We shall never see him again!"

Ned felt as if somebody had struck him a heavy blow. He could not say a word for a moment, and then he whispered:

"Poor General Zuroaga! Why, I had no idea that he would be killed!"

That is always so after a battle. Those who read the lists of the killed and wounded expect to find the names of other people's friends there, and not the names of those from whom they were hoping to hear an account of the victory.

"Felicia," said the senora, "your father and mother are in their room. Do not go there just now. You must not go out again, Senor Carfora. You have been running too many risks. Talk with me for awhile."

Whether or not he had been in any danger, it had been impossible for Ned to remain in the house during an entire week of military thunder storm, and he had ventured out almost recklessly. There had, indeed, been so much confusion that little attention had generally been paid to him, and he had even gone out through the gates to use his telescope upon the distant clouds of smoke and the movements of marching men. He had seen, therefore, the steady, irresistible advances of the American troops, and he had almost understood that to General Scott the capture of the city was merely a matter of mathematical calculation, like an example in arithmetic.

He went into the parlor with Senora Paez and Felicia, and there they sat, almost in silence, until long after their usual bedtime, but the sound of guns had ceased, for the siege of Mexico was ended.

It was during that night that General Santa Anna, with nearly all that was left of his army, marched silently out of the city, and the last remnants of his political power passed from him as the American troops began to march in, the next morning. Of all the negotiations between the remaining Mexican authorities and General Scott, Ned Crawford knew nothing, but there was disorder everywhere, and it would have been more perilous than ever for a fellow like him to have been caught in the streets by any of the reckless, angry men who swarmed among them. On the evening of the 14th of September, nevertheless, he was standing in the Paez piazza with Senorita Felicia, and he saw a column of soldiers coming up the street.

"Senorita!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Look! Our flag! Our men! Hurrah! Those are the colors of the Seventh! It is my own regiment, and if there isn't Lieutenant Grant himself!"

"Do not go!" she said. "Do not leave me!" but she was too late, for he had darted away, and in a moment more he was greeted with:

"Hullo, Ned! I'm glad you didn't make out to get killed. I knew you couldn't get out, and I'd about given you up. Is that where you live?"

"It's the house I told you of," said Ned. "They are the best kind of people—"

"Go back there, then," commanded the lieutenant. "Your father is out among the hospitals just now, taking care of the wounded, but I want to know where to send him. I'll see you again. I must go on to my post."

Back he ran to the piazza, and even Felicia was compelled to admit that her friend Senor Carfora's own regiment was splendid, as its close ranks swung away in such perfect order.

"But," she said, "you might have been killed, if you had been with them, and I am glad you did not have to kill any of our people."

"So am I," said Ned, "now that it is all over. I guess this is the end of the war. But how I shall miss poor General Zuroaga!"

Rapidly and prudently, General Scott was occupying the city and restoring order. With such wisdom and moderation did he perform his duties as military governor that almost immediately the previously distressed inhabitants began to regard the arrival of the United States army as a positive blessing. At the same time, it was obvious to everybody that months might be required for the necessary peace negotiations. A new and firm Mexican government would have to be established, and much difficult legislation would be called for on the part of the Congress of the United States, since that body was to appropriate large sums of money in payment for the territory to be acquired from Mexico.

During three whole days, Ned went from camp to camp and from hospital to hospital, in search of his father, but Mr. Crawford had heard tidings of his son which satisfied him, and he stuck to his wounded soldiers. It was not, therefore, until the afternoon of the third day that Ned found a grand reception prepared for him in the parlor of the Paez mansion.

"Father!" he shouted, as he hurried in, after Felicia, at the door, had warned him of what was before him. "Hurrah! Here I am!"

What happened or was said next, he did not know until he felt himself somewhat roughly shaken by somebody, and was forced to exclaim:

"Hullo, Captain Kemp! Are you here, too? I declare!"

"Here I am," said the captain, "and I'm going to take you and your father back to New York on the ship that brought us. You have been in Mexico long enough."

Ned did not so much as have time to hurrah again before Senora Tassara came forward to say to him:

"That is not all, Senor Carfora. For the sake of my husband's health, and for other reasons, he and I and Felicia and Senora Paez are intending to spend our next winter in the United States. We have accepted your father's invitation to be passengers with you. What do you think of that?"

Ned could hardly say what he thought, but he tried to, and perhaps his best effort was made when he said to Felicia:

"Isn't it tip-top! I'll show you all over the city,—but I'm afraid you will get awfully seasick on the way. I did at first."

"She will have to run the risk of that," laughed her mother, but after Ned's long conference with his father was ended, she and Ned spent the rest of the evening in a discussion of the sights which were to be seen in the great city of the Americans.

"There would be no use in your remaining here now," Mr. Crawford had said to Ned. "My business with the army will run right along for a time, but nothing else can be done until all things are quiet and settled. Then we may try and find out what good your Mexican experience has done you."

Mr. Crawford went away at a late hour, but Ned was out of the house early enough the next morning. He had a strong notion in his head, and it led him to the grand plaza, to stand in front of the government building which had been the headquarters of so many different kinds of governments of Mexico. It was really a fine and costly affair, but the Mexican national banner was no longer floating from its tall flagstaff. Instead of it was a broad and beautiful Stars and Stripes, and it had never before appeared to Ned so very beautiful.

He was gazing up at that evidence that the city was in the hands of General Scott and his army, when a voice that he knew hailed him with:

"Hullo, youngster! That's our flag. Where's your friend Grant? Have you seen him?"

"Captain Lee!" exclaimed Ned. "Yes, I've seen him. He's all right."

"So I hear," said Lee. "And they say he distinguished himself at Molino del Rey. His regiment lost a number of men, too."

"Well," said Ned, "I wasn't with my regiment in these battles here, but I'm glad that my army has taken Mexico. Grant's a splendid fellow."

"My regiment! My army!" laughed Captain Lee. "All right; that's the way every American boy ought to feel. I guess you are right about Grant, too. He may be heard of again some day."

"Tell you what," said Ned. "When I get to New York, I mean to join one of our city regiments as soon as I can. Then, if there ever is another war, I'm going to join him. I'd like to serve under him."

"Good!" said Lee. "And then I may hear of Colonel Crawford, of Grant's Division, United States Volunteers. Good-by. Take care of yourself."

THE END.

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W. O. STODDARD'S BOOKS

AHEAD OF THE ARMY. Four illustrations by C. Chase Emerson. 12mo. Pictorial cover in color. Price, $1.00, net; postpaid, $1.15.

This is a lively narrative of the experiences of an American boy who arrives in Mexico as the war with the United States is beginning, is thrown into contact with such young officers as Lieutenant Grant and Captains Lee and McClellan, all of them destined to become famous later in American military history.

THE ERRAND BOY OF ANDREW JACKSON: A War Story of 1812. Illustrated by Will Crawford. Cloth, 12mo, $1.00, net; postpaid, $1.12.

This tale is of the War of 1812, and describes the events of the only land campaign of 1812-1814 in which the Americans were entirely successful.

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THE NOANK'S LOG: A Privateer of the Revolution. Illustrated by Will Crawford. 12mo, postpaid, $1.25.

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THE BALE MARKED CIRCLE X A Blockade Running Adventure

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THE END