d the enemy in check should they come before the work
was finished--and very strong as well as very brave men must the man
have been who would have ventured to attack him as he occupied that
position of overpowering advantage--while the other two cast off from
the windlass the chains by which the water-gate was operated, and
dropped them over the wall into the lake; and as the gate itself was
jammed and wedged fast by the fragments of the boat, this throwing down
of the chains made the raising of it a serious undertaking that well
might require a day or more to accomplish.

As the chains fell with a splash, and we comprehended the thoroughness
of the work that these three were doing, our people burst forth into
yells again; and a perfect roar went up from them when, the gate being
closed and the apparatus for raising it being entirely disabled, Rayburn
sprang from the outer edge of the parapet into the lake, and Tizoc and
Young instantly followed him. In truth, a more gallant feat of arms had
not been essayed, nor carried to a more triumphant conclusion, since the
Roman gate was held by Horatius; and in my admiration of it I shouted
until the muscles of my throat were strained and aching. Our boat
already was near the wall--having pulled in that the soldiers aboard of
it might spear such of the enemy as came up to the surface alive--and we
had the three out of the water and safe among us in very short order;
and then we pulled away towards the other boats with all possible
speed--for the wall now was manned by the enemy, and they were beginning
to make things unpleasantly hot for us with the heavy stones which they
heaved over the parapet, that our boat might be sunk by them, and by a
rapid discharge of darts. Luckily, none of the stones struck us, and
because of the rapid way that we were making, only two of our men were
struck with the darts. So, on the whole, we came out of this encounter
very well; for these two men killed in our boat were all that we lost,
while of the enemy at least forty were drowned or speared. However, we
owed our light escape mainly to the fact that the enemy, having armed
hurriedly, and expecting only to fight with us at close quarters, had
with them neither bows nor slings--but for which fortunate fact it
scarcely is possible that a single man in our boat would have come off
alive.

[Illustration: THE LEAP FROM ABOVE THE WATER-GATE]

Dripping wet though they were, I fairly hugged Rayburn a