the command of the regiment,
which he afterwards received.

Traverse Rocke fought like a young Paladin. When they were marching
into the very mouths of the cannon they were vomiting fire upon them,
and when the young ensign of his company was struck down before him,
Traverse Rocke took the colors from his falling hand, and crying
"Victory!" pressed onward and upward over the dead and the dying, and
springing upon one of the guns which continued to belch forth fire, he
thrice waved the flag over his head and then planted it upon the
battery. Captain Zuten fell in the subsequent assault upon Chapultepec.

Colonel Le Noir entered the city of Mexico with the victorious army,
but on the subsequent day, being engaged in a street skirmish with the
leperos, or liberated convicts, he fell mortally wounded by a copper
bullet, and he was now dying by inches at his quarters near the Grand
Cathedral.

It was on the evening of the 20th of September, six days from the
triumphant entry of General Scott into the capital, that Major Greyson
was seated at supper at his quarters, with some of his brother
officers, when an orderly entered and handed a note to Herbert, which
proved to be a communication from the surgeon of their regiment,
begging him to repair without delay to the quarters of Colonel Le Noir,
who, being in extremity, desired to see him.

Major Greyson immediately excused himself to his company, and repaired
to the quarters of the dying man.

He found Colonel Le Noir stretched upon his bed in a state of extreme
exhaustion and attended by the surgeon and chaplain of his regiment.

As Herbert advanced to the side of his bed, Le Noir stretched out his
pale hand and said:

"You bear no grudge against a dying man, Greyson?"

"Certainly not," said Herbert, "especially when he proposes doing the
right thing, as I judge you do, from the fact of your sending for me."

"Yes, I do; I do!" replied Le Noir, pressing the hand that Herbert's
kindness of heart could not withhold.

Le Noir then beckoned the minister to hand him two sealed packets,
which he took and laid upon the bed before him.

Then taking up the larger of the two packets, he placed it in the hands
of Herbert Greyson, saying:

"There, Greyson, I wish you to hand that to your friend, young Rocke,
who has received his colors, I understand?"

"Yes, he has now the rank of ensign."

"Then give this parcel into the hands of Ensign Rocke, with the
request, that b