is words.

"Saint-Prosper," he said, "I suppose the boys on the other side are
going up all the time? I promised our troops the honor of pulling down
that flag. I'm a man of my word; go ahead and take the batteries
and"--stroking his long gray goatee--"beat Pillow to the top."

A word; a command; they rushed forward; not a laggard in the ranks;
not a man who shirked the leaden shower; not one who failed to offer
his breast openly and fearlessly to the red death which to them might
come when it would. Unwaveringly over rocks, chasms and mines, they
followed the tall figure of their leader; death underfoot, death
overhead! What would courage avail against concealed mines? Yet like a
pack of hounds that reck naught while the scent is warm, they pressed
forward, ever forward; across the level opening, where some dropped
out of the race, and over the ramparts! A brief struggle; confusion,
turmoil; something fearful occurring that no eye could see in its
entirety through the smoke; afterwards, a great shout that announced
to the palace on the mount the fate of the intermediary batteries!

But there was sharper and more arduous work to come; this, merely a
foretaste of the last, fierce stand of the besieged; a stand in which
they knew they were fighting for everything, where defeat meant the
second conquest of Mexico! From the batteries the assailants had
captured to the foot of the castle seemed but a little way to them in
their zeal; no one thought of weariness, or the toil of the ascent.
But one determination possessed them--to end it all quickly; to carry
everything before them! Their victory at the redoubt gave them such
sudden, wild confidence that castles seemed no more than ant-hills--to
be trampled on! Instinctively every man felt sure of the day and
already experienced the glory of conquering that historic hill; that
invincible fortress! Over the great valley, so beautiful in its
physical features, so inspiring in its associations, should hang the
stars of the North, with the stars of heaven!

The scaling ladders were brought up and planted by the storming party;
the first to mount were hurled back, killed or wounded, to the rocks
below, but others took their places; a lodgment was effected, and,
like the water bursting over a dike, a tide of besiegers found
ingress.

Under a galling fire, with shouts that rang above the noise of rifles,
they drove the masses of the enemy from their guns; all save one, not
a Me