had been
slung about the neck of one of the soldiers lying dead there; which
draught, with the comfort that the cool wet bandage about my head gave
me, brought back to me so much of my strength that I was able presently
to sit up and look around.

Truly, a more ghastly sight than that which my eyes then rested upon I
never saw. The gate-way of the Citadel was a very shambles. Piles of
dead men lay all around me; and the prodigious number of the enemy lying
slain there testified with a mute eloquence to the desperate fashion in
which our handful of men had fought. Over the rough pavement, down the
slope towards the lake, there flowed a stream of bright red blood that
in places shone a brilliant vermilion where it was touched by the
glintings of the sun. Among the dead I did not see Tizoc's body, and for
this I was glad. Half a dozen of the enemy stood by us as a guard; but
these suffered us to minister to each other, evidently feeling that no
great amount of caution was necessary in dealing with three badly
wounded men. Indeed, these guards, in their way, manifested a kindly
feeling for us; for when they perceived that our gourd of water was
empty one of them picked up another full gourd from amid the dead and
handed it to us. From inside the Citadel there still came a tumult of
fierce sounds which gave proof that though the battle--if it could be
called a battle--was ended the work of killing still was going on; but
these sounds sensibly diminished while we lay there waiting to know what
fate would come to us, and we concluded, therefore, that there remained
no more rebels to be slain.

Rayburn was seated upon the ground at no great distance from me, his
back propped against the wall. As he saw that I was looking towards him,
and had again my wits about me, he greeted me with a very melancholy
smile. "It's been a pretty cold day for us, Professor," he said, "and
there's no great comfort in knowing that it's partly our own fault that
these fellows have laid us out. I didn't give them credit for such good
tactics; and even with the bad watch that we kept I don't see how they
managed to get their men round on the other side of our camp. Well, it
must please them to know how straight we walked into the trap that they
set for us, like the pack of fools that we were."

"You won't ketch me joinin' in any more Indian revolutions, anyway,"
Young put in. "I did think I could bet on those Tlahuicos, an' they've
just gone back