e. Their
gallant leader was shot dead in the charge. But the enemy could afford
to lose the battery. From the tops of the _azoteas_, from the Casa Mata
and the Molino, a deadly shower of balls was rained crosswise upon the
assailants. Part of the reserve was brought up; and Dunn's guns and the
Mexican battery were served upon the buildings without much effect at
first. Lieutenant-Colonel Graham led a party of the Eleventh against the
latter; when within pistol-shot a terrific volley assailed him, wounding
him in ten places. The gallant soldier quietly dismounted, pointed with
his sword to the building, cried "Charge!" and sank dead on the field.

As fiercely raged the battle at the other wing where Duncan and M'Intosh
had driven in the enemy's right toward the Casa Mata. M'Intosh started
to storm that fort, and, in the teeth of a tremendous hail of musketry,
advanced to the ditch, only twenty-five yards from the work. There a
ball knocked him down; it was his luck to be shot or bayoneted in every
battle. Martin Scott took the command, but as he ordered the men forward
he rolled lifeless into the ditch. Major Waite, the next in rank, had
hardly seen him fall before he too was disabled. By whole companies the
men were mowed down by the Mexican shot; but they stood their ground. At
length some one gave the word to fall back, and the remnants of the
brigade obeyed. Many wounded were left on the ground; among others
Lieutenant Burnell, shot in the leg, whom the Mexicans murdered when his
comrades abandoned him. After the battle his body was found, and beside
it his dog, moaning piteously and licking his dead master's face.

At the head of four thousand cavalry, Alvarez now menaced our left.
Duncan watched them come, driving a cloud of dust before them, till they
were within close range; then opening with his wonderful rapidity, he
shattered whole platoons at a discharge. Worth sent him word to be sure
to keep the lancers in check. "Tell General Worth," was his reply, "to
make himself perfectly easy; I can whip twenty thousand of them." So far
as Alvarez was concerned, he kept his word.

On the American right the fight had reached a crisis. Mixed confusedly
together, men of all arms furiously attacked the Molino, firing into
every aperture, climbing to the roof, and striving to batter in the
doors and gates with their muskets. The garrison never slackened their
terrible fire for an instant. At length Major Buchanan, of the F