se I had chanced to strike him that blow.
However, from the way in which they went cutting and slashing about
them, it was evident that neither Rayburn nor Young were troubled with
any compunctions of this nature. They were only too glad, apparently, to
get a chance to whack away at any of the Priest Captain's
representatives; and they made such use of their opportunity that the
Aztlanecas fighting with us cried out in admiration of their prowess and
their strength. Fray Antonio was more sorely tried than any of us during
this passage, for I knew that his flesh greatly longed to take part in
the fighting, and that only the strong spirit which was within him
subdued the flesh and so held his hands.

With a final rush we succeeded in forcing the enemy through the narrow
opening in the rampart, and so down the steps beyond; but as we pursued
them across the next terrace, keeping close at their heels so that they
might not have time to form again, many of our wounded fell out from the
ranks and dropped by the way--and we had left behind us a dozen or more
of our dead on the ground where the fight had been.

Our tactics of rapid pursuit of the force that we had defeated served us
well at the next rampart; for the men whom we pursued and we ourselves
came to it almost in one body, and thus threw into such confusion the
fresh force that was waiting for us that, without any long fighting
about it, we drove right through them and went on downward; and in the
same dashing fashion we carried the rampart beyond. However, when those
men whom we had pushed aside from our path so easily got over their
surprise at being so lightly handled, they formed in our rear and came
hurrying after us; the result of which was that as we approached the
last of the ramparts that we had to pass through, where was gathered the
largest body of men that we had yet encountered, we found ourselves
fairly wedged in between two bodies of the enemy and outnumbered four to
one. Here, too, the passage through the rampart had been closed by the
metal bars that were in readiness for that purpose. Setting these in
place was no real barrier to our passage, for, being intended to close
the portal against assailants from below, the fastenings which held them
were on the side nearest to us. But to remove them it was necessary that
we should fight our way through the crowd--with no possibility of
driving the enemy before us, as we had done upon the upper terraces,
si