d be about us; and Tizoc's hope was that when the horror of
darkness, ever appalling to barbarians, should be lifted, and when our
coming should afford a firm centre to rally around, our army might
regain the courage and steadiness which it had lost in the terror and
bewilderment of a night surprise.

But he quickly found that this hope was doomed to disappointment. Only a
little beyond the gate of the Citadel we came upon a flying body of
Tlahuicos--though no pursuers were in sight beyond them--and these were
so completely demoralized that they took our company for a detachment of
the enemy, and with wild cries fled away from us down a side street and
so disappeared. "What do you think of your friends now?" Rayburn asked
Young, grimly. But Young's only answer was to curse the vanished
Tlahuicos for cowards.

A moment later the whole street in front of us was filled with a howling
mob of our men, and these came surging towards us with the evident
intention of seeking safety in the Citadel. Tizoc saw at a glance the
hopelessness of trying to rally a rout like this until the terrified
creatures, fleeing like sheep from a pack of wolves, had been given rest
for a while in some safe place where their courage might return to them.
Being once within the Citadel they would be for a time wholly out of
danger; for even should the enemy try to set scaling-ladders in place,
and so break in upon us there, it would be an easy matter for a few
determined men to hold the walls until some sort of order had been
restored among our broken forces. Tizoc therefore promptly wheeled our
little force aside into an open space, and so made a way for the
struggling crowd to sweep past us. We noted, as the stream of
terror-stricken men flowed by, that their officers were not with them;
from which Tizoc drew the hopeful augury that the officers, being all
trained soldiers, had drawn together into a rear-guard that sought to
cover this wild retreat. And presently we found that Tizoc was right in
his inference, for soon the crowd began very perceptibly to grow
thinner, and the sound of loud cries and the rattle and clashing of arms
rang out above the tumult, and then there came around a turn in the
street, a little beyond where we had halted, a compact body of men who
were falling back slowly, and who were laying about them most valiantly
with their swords. Our party gave a yell, by way of putting fresh heart
into these gallant fellows, and Tizoc q