n too great haste to
answer, and it was only when the smoke cleared away a little, that we
discovered we were not twenty paces from it. Ready seized my arm, and
pulling me with him, I the next moment found myself standing beside a gun,
under cover of the breastworks.

The battery consisted of thirty, twenty-four, and thirty-six pounders,
served with a zeal and courage which far exceeded any thing I had expected
to find in the patriot army. The fellows were really more than brave, they
were foolhardy. They danced rather than walked round the guns, and
exhibited a contempt of death that could not well be surpassed. As to
drawing the guns back from the embrasures while they loaded them, they
never dreamed of such a thing. They stood jeering and scoffing the
Spaniards, and bidding them take better aim.

It must be remembered, that this was only three months after the battle of
Ayacucho, the greatest feat of arms which the South American patriots had
achieved during the whole of their protracted struggle with Spain. That
victory had literally electrified the troops, and inspired them with a
courage and contempt of their enemy, that frequently showed itself, as on
this occasion, in acts of the greatest daring and temerity.

At the gun by which Ready and myself took our stand, half the artillerymen
were already killed, and we had scarcely come there, when a cannon shot
took the head off a man standing close to me. The wind of the ball was so
great that I believe it would have suffocated me, had I not fortunately
been standing sideways in the battery. At the same moment, something hot
splashed over my neck and face, and nearly blinded me. I looked, and saw
the man lying without his head before me. I cannot describe the sickening
feeling that came over me. It was not the first man I had seen killed in
my life, but it was the first whose blood and brains had spurted into my
face. My knees shook and my head swam; I was obliged to lean against the
wall, or I should have fallen.

Another ball fell close beside me, and strange to say, it brought me
partly to myself again; and by the time a third and fourth had bounced
into the battery, I began to take things pretty coolly--my heart beating
rather quicker than usual, I acknowledge; but, nevertheless, I began to
find an indescribable sort of pleasure, a mischievous joy, if I may so
call it, in the peril and excitement of the scene.

Whilst I was getting over my terrors, my companio