re wont to gambol before the Aztec Sybarite, Montezuma;
where "Malinche's shade" is still seen to flit amid the grove, seeking
her gallant lover, Cortez; and where, at a less remote period, Yankee
linemen strewed the ground with Mexican corpses, until the spreading
trees were covered to the knees with blood-stained clay.

While gazing down the crystal reservoir, we resolved, in emulation of
the Indian monarch, to test its virtues, and, in a moment, we were
plunging and splashing in the icy water. It was, apart from the
associations connected with brown Indian divinities, the very seventh
Heaven of a bath; but whether we sullied the pellucid clearness of the
aqueduct's tribute, or detracted from the cooling fragrance of the
celestial mint-juleps drained in town, we never had leisure to enquire;
and indeed without caring a drop about the matter, we mounted our tall
steeds, broke branches from the legendary tree, and passing through the
kingly forest and meadow beyond, entered the deserted walls of Molino
del Rey.

As I have heretofore observed, this building fills the south side of the
square--a sort of irregular barrack of two stories, and some eight
hundred feet in length. Directly fronting this structure, at the
distance of a few hundred yards, standing upon a very slight swell of
the plain, is what was termed the _Casa mata_--a small redoubt--ditched
and flanked by trenches, standing angularly in the direction of the
windmill. It was the spot where our troops suffered severely, where many
undaunted soldiers fell, under a murderous fire of artillery and
musketry; and where, after being repulsed, the Mexicans left their
entrenchments, and put the wounded and dying to death in cold blood.
This was the reason why so small a number of prisoners were taken at the
storming of Chapultepec!

Leaving Molino del Rey, we made a short tour of the environs, and
returned again by the main Paseo! It was the hour when most frequented.
There were but few ladies, and they not of the handsomest. Lots of queer
antique coaches went rumbling along, and vastly neat cabs and stylish
barouches whirling past them--while showy, spirited Mexican barbs,
covered with gold and silver trappings were capering and prancing, five
hundred steps to the minute--then an American General and staff would
sweep by, elegantly mounted on high-mettled chargers, the small horses
of the natives appearing like pigmies in comparison--and again along the
grassy roa