ing their ammunition, kept
their posts with stern and silent determination. The night was spent
in casting balls, cutting patches, and completing the defences of the
building. In the morning the fight was renewed, and it was found that
the Mexicans had effected a lodgment in a part of the stables, which
were separated from the other portions of the building by an open space
of a few feet. The assailants, during the night, had sought to break
down the wall, and thus enter the main building, but the strength of the
adobe and logs of which it was composed resisted effectually all their
attempts.

Those in the stable seemed anxious to regain the outside, for their
position was unavailable as a means of annoyance to the besieged, and
several had darted across the narrow space which divided it from the
other part of the building, which slightly projected, and behind which
they were out of the line of fire. As soon, however, as the attention of
the defenders was called to this point, the first man who attempted to
cross, who happened to be a Pueblo chief, was dropped on the instant,
and fell dead in the centre of the intervening space. It appeared to be
an object to recover the body, for an Indian immediately dashed out to
the fallen chief, and attempted to drag him within the shelter of the
wall. The rifle which covered the spot again poured forth its deadly
contents, and the Indian, springing into the air, fell over the body
of his chief. Another and another met with a similar fate, and at last
three rushed to the spot, and, seizing the body by the legs and head,
had already lifted it from the ground, when three puffs of smoke blew
from the barricaded windows, followed by the sharp cracks of as many
rifles, and the three daring Indians were added to the pile of corpses
which now covered the body of the dead chief.

As yet the besieged had met with no casualties; but after the fall of
the seven Indians, the whole body of the assailants, with a shout
of rage, poured in a rattling volley, and two of the defenders fell
mortally wounded. One, shot through the loins, suffered great agony,
and was removed to the still-house, where he was laid on a large pile of
grain, as being the softest bed that could be found.

In the middle of the day the attack was renewed more fiercely than
before. The little garrison bravely stood to the defence of the mill,
never throwing away a shot, but firing coolly, and only when a fair mark
was pres