Les scalpeurs blancs. English. Page 7

  CHAPTER V.

  BEFORE THE BATTLE.

  John Davis recovered almost immediately.

  "Ah, ah!" he said, "Then it is you, my master?"

  "It astonishes you to meet me here."

  "On my honour, no. Your place, in my opinion, is wherever a snare islaid; hence nothing is more natural than your presence."

  "It is wrong, John Davis, for a man to take advantage of his weakness toinsult people, especially when he is ignorant of their intentions."

  "Ah, they appear to me tolerably clear at this moment."

  "You might be mistaken."

  "I do not believe it. However, I shall soon be certain."

  "What are you doing?"

  "As you see, I am dismounting."

  In fact, the American leapt from his horse, drew his pistols from theholsters, and walked toward the monk with a most quiet step andthoroughly natural air.

  "Why do you not go, as I advised you to do?" Fray Antonio continued.

  "For two reasons, my dear Senor. The first is, that I have no orders oradvice to receive from you; the second, because I shall not be sorry tobe present at the pretty little act of scoundrelism you are of coursemeditating."

  "Then your intention is--"

  "To defend my friend, by Heaven!" the American exclaimed, warmly.

  "What! your friend?" the monk said, in amazement: "why, only a minuteago you were trying to take his life."

  "My dear Senor," Davis remarked, ironically, "there are certain remarkswhose sense you unhappily never catch. Understand me clearly: I am readyto kill this gentleman, but I will not consent to see him assassinated.That is clear enough, hang it all!"

  Fray Antonio burst into a laugh.

  "Singular man!" he said.

  "Am I not?" Then turning to his adversary, who still stood perfectlyquiet, he continued: "My dear Colonel, we will resume, at a later date,the interesting interview which this worthy Padre so untowardlyinterrupted. For the present, permit me to restore you one of thepistols you so generously lent me; it is undoubted that these scampswill kill us; but, at any rate, we shall have the pleasure of settlingthree or four of them first."

  "Thank you, Davis," the Colonel answered, "I expected nothing less fromyou. I accept your proposition as frankly as you make it."

  And he took the pistol, and cocked it. The American took his place byhis side, and bowed to the stranger with mocking courtesy.

  "Senores," he said, "you can charge us whenever you think proper, for weare prepared to sustain your charge bravely."

  "Ah, ah!" said Fray Antonio, "Then you really mean it?"

  "What!--mean it? The question seems to me somewhat simple; I suppose youthink the hour and place well chosen for a joke?"

  The monk shrugged his shoulders, and turned to the men who accompaniedhim.

  "Be off!" he said. "In an hour I will join you again, you know where."

  The strangers gave a nod of assent, and disappeared almostinstantaneously among the trees and shrubs. The monk then threw hisweapons on the ground, and drew so near to the men as almost to touchthem.

  "Are you still afraid?" he said; "It is I now who am in your power."

  "Halloh!" Davis said, as he uncocked his pistol, "why, what is themeaning of this?"

  "If, instead of taking me as a bandit, as you did, you had taken thetrouble to reflect, you would have understood that I had but one object,and that was, to prevent the resumption of the obstinate fight which mypresence so fortunately interrupted."

  "But how did you arrive here so opportunely?"

  "Accident did it all. Ordered by our Commander-in-chief to watch theenemy's movements, I posted myself on the two roads, in order to takeprisoner all the scouts who came in this direction."

  "Then you do not owe either the Colonel or myself any grudge?"

  "Perhaps," he said, with hesitation, "I have not quite forgotten theunworthy treatment you inflicted on me; but, at any rate, I have givenup all thoughts of vengeance."

  John Davis reflected for a moment, and then said, as he offered him hishand, "You are a worthy monk. I see that you are faithful to the pledgeof amendment you made. I am sorry for what I did."

  "I will say the same, Senor," the Colonel remarked; "I was far fromexpecting such generosity on your part."

  "One word, now, Senores."

  "Speak," they said, "we are listening."

  "Promise me not to renew that impious duel, and follow my example byforgetting your hatred."

  The two men stretched out their hand with a simultaneous movement.

  "That is well," he continued, "I am happy to see you act thus. Now letus separate. You, Colonel, will mount and return to camp--the road isfree, and no one will try to oppose your passing. As for you, JohnDavis, please to follow me. Your long absence has caused a degree ofalarm which your presence will doubtless dissipate. I had orders to tryand obtain news of you."

  "Good-bye for the present," the Colonel said; "forget, Senor Davis, whatpassed between us at the outset of our meeting, and merely remember themanner in which we separate."

  "May we, Colonel, meet again under happier auspices, when I may bepermitted to express to you all the sympathy with which your frank andloyal character inspires me."

  After exchanging a few words more, and cordially shaking hands, thethree men separated. Colonel Melendez set off at a gallop in thedirection of the rancho, while the monk and Davis started at an equalpace in exactly the opposite direction. It was about midnight when theColonel reached the main guard, where an aide-de-camp of the General waswaiting for him. A certain degree of animation appeared to prevail inthe rancho. Instead of sleeping, as they might be expected to be doingat so late an hour, the soldiers were traversing the streets in largenumbers; in short, an extreme agitation was visible everywhere.

  "What is the matter?" the Colonel asked the aide-de-camp.

  "The General will tell you himself," the officer answered, "for he isimpatiently expecting you, and has already asked several times for you."

  "Oh, then, there is something new."

  "I believe so."

  The Colonel pushed on ahead, and in a few minutes found himself beforethe house occupied by the General. The house was full of noise andlight; but so soon as the General perceived the young man, he left theofficers with whom he was talking, and walked quickly toward him.

  "Here you are at last," he said; "I was impatiently expecting you."

  "What is the matter then?" the Colonel asked, astounded at thisreception, which he was far from expecting, for he had left the camp soquiet, and found it on his return so noisy.

  "You shall know, Senores," the General added addressing the officers inthe room: "be kind enough not to go away. I shall be with you in aninstant. Follow me, Colonel."

  Don Juan bowed, and passed into an adjoining room, the door of which theGeneral shut after him. Hardly were they alone, ere the General took theyoung man affectionately by one of his coat buttons, and fixed on him aglance that seemed trying to read the depths of his heart.

  "Since your departure," he said, "we have had a visit from a friend ofyours."

  "A friend of mine?" the young man repeated.

  "Or, at any rate, of a man who gives himself out as such."

  "I only know one man in this country," the Colonel replied distinctly,"who, despite the opinions that divide us, can justly assume thattitle."

  "And that man is?"

  "The Jaguar."

  "Do you feel a friendship for him?"

  "Yes."

  "But he is a bandit."

  "Possibly he is so to you, General; from your point of sight, it ispossible that you are right. I neither descry his character, nor condemnhim; I am attached to him, for he saved my life."

  "But you fight against him, for all that."

  "Certainly; for being hurled into two opponent camps, each of us servesthe cause that appears to him the better. But, for all that, we are notthe less attached to each other in our hearts."

  "I am n
ot at all disposed to blame you, my friend, for our inclinationsshould be independent of our political opinions. But let us return tothe subject which at this moment is the most interesting to us. A man, Isay, presented himself during your absence at the outposts as being afriend of yours."

  "That is strange," the Colonel muttered, searching his memory; "and didhe mention his name?"

  "Of course; do you think I would have received him else? However, he isin this very house, for I begged him to await your return."

  "But his name, my dear General?"

  "He calls himself Don Felix Paz."

  "Oh," the Colonel exclaimed eagerly, "he spoke the truth, General, forhe is really one of my dearest friends."

  "Then we can place in him----"

  "Full and entire confidence; I answer for him on my head," the youngofficer interrupted warmly.

  "I am the more pleased at what you tell me, because this man assured methat he held in his hands means that would enable us to give the rebelsa tremendous thrashing."

  "If he has promised it, General, he will do so without doubt. I presumeyou have had a serious conversation with him?"

  "Not at all. You understand, my friend, that I was not willing, till Ihad previously conversed with you, to listen to this man, who after allmight have been a spy of the enemy."

  "Capital reasoning; and what do you propose doing now?"

  "Hearing him; he told me enough for me, in the prevision of what ishappening at this moment, to have everything prepared for action at amoment's notice; hence no time will have been lost."

  "Very good! We will listen to him then."

  The General clapped his hands, and an aide-de-camp came in.

  "Request Don Felix to come hither, Captain."

  Five minutes later, the ex-Major-domo of the Larch-tree hacienda enteredthe room where the two officers were.

  "Forgive me, Caballero," the General said courteously as he advanced tomeet him, "for the rather cold manner in which I received you; butunfortunately we live in a period when it is so difficult to distinguishfriends from enemies, that a man involuntarily runs the risk ofconfounding one with the other, and making a mistake."

  "You have no occasion to apologise to me, General," Don Felix answered;"when I presented myself at your outposts in the way I did, Ianticipated what would happen to me."

  The Colonel pressed his friend's hand warmly. A lengthened explanationwas unnecessary for men of this stamp; at the first word they understoodeach other. They had a lengthened conversation, which did not terminatetill a late hour of the night, or rather an early hour of the morning,for it struck four at the moment when the General opened the door of theroom in which they were shut up, and accompanied them, conversing inwhispers, to the _saguan_ of the house.

  What had occurred during this lengthened interview? No one knew; not asyllable transpired as to the arrangements made by the General with thetwo men who had remained so long with him. The officers and soldierswere suffering from the most lively curiosity, which was only increasedby the General's orders to raise the camp.

  Don Felix was conducted by the Colonel to the outermost post, where theyseparated after shaking hands and exchanging only one sentence--

  "We shall meet again soon."

  The Colonel then returned at a gallop to his quarters, while Don Felixburied himself in the forest as rapidly as his horse could carry him. Onreturning to camp, the Colonel at once ordered the boot and saddle tobe sounded, and without waiting for further orders, put himself at thehead of about five hundred cavalry, and left the rancho.

  It was nearly five in the morning, the sun was rising in floods ofpurple and gold, and all seemed to promise a magnificent day. TheGeneral, who had mounted to his observatory, attentively followed with atelescope the movements of the Colonel, who, through the speed at whichhe went, not only got down the hill within a quarter of an hour, but hadalso crossed, without obstacle, a stream as wide as the Rio Trinidaditself. The General anxiously watched this operation, which is soawkward for an armed body of men; he saw the soldiers close up, andthen, at a sign from the leader, this column stretched out like aserpent undoing its rings, went into the water, and cutting the ratherstrong current diagonally, reached the other bank in a few minutes,when, after a moment of inevitable tumult, the men formed their ranksagain and entered a forest, where they were speedily lost from sight.

  When the last lancero had disappeared, and the landscape had becomequite desolate, the General shut up his glass, and went down again,apparently plunged in serious thought. We have said that the garrison ofGalveston consisted of nine hundred men; but this strength had beenraised to nearly fourteen hundred by calling in the numerous small postsscattered along the coast. Colonel Melendez had taken with him fivehundred sabres the General left at the rancho, which he determined onretaining at all hazards as an important strategical point, two hundredand fifty men under the orders of a brave and experienced officer; andhe had at his disposal about six hundred and fifty men, supported by abattery of four mountain howitzers.

  This force, small as it may appear, in spite of the smile of contempt itwill doubtless produce on the lips of Europeans accustomed to the shockof great masses, was more than sufficient for the country. It is truethat the Texan army counted nearly four thousand combatants, but themajority of these men were badly-armed peasants, unskilled in themanagement of the warlike weapons which a movement of revolutionaryfanaticism had caused them to take up, and incapable of sustaining inthe open field the attack of skilled troops. Hence, in spite of hisnumerical inferiority, he reckoned greatly on the discipline andmilitary education of his soldiers, to defeat this assemblage of men,who were more dangerous through their numbers than for any other reason.

  The start from the rancho was effected with admirable regularity; theGeneral had ordered that the baggage should be left behind, so thatnothing might impede the march of the army. Each horseman, in accordancewith the American fashion, which is too greatly despised in Europe, tookup a foot soldier behind him, so that the speed of the army was doubled.Numerous spies and scouts sent out to reconnoitre in every direction,had announced that the Insurrectionary army, marching in two columns,was advancing to seize the mouth of the Trinidad and cover theapproaches to Galveston, a movement which it was of the utmostimportance to prevent; for, were it successful, the Insurgents wouldcombine the movements of the vessels they had so advantageously seizedwith those of their army, and would be masters of a considerable extentof the seaboard, from which possibly the Mexican forces would not bestrong enough to dislodge them. On the other hand, General Rubio hadbeen advised that Santa Anna, President of the Republic, had leftMexico, and was coming with forced marches, at the head of twelvehundred men, to forcibly crush the Insurrection.

  General Santa Anna has been very variously judged; some make him aprofound politician and a thunderbolt of war; and he seems to have thatopinion about himself, as he does not hesitate to say that he is theNapoleon of the New World; his enemies reproach him for his turbulenceand his unbounded ambition; accuse him of too often keeping aloof fromdanger, and consider him an agitator without valour or morality. For ourpart, without attempting to form any judgment of this statesman, we willmerely say in two words, that we are convinced he is the scourge ofMexico, whose ruin he accelerates, and one of the causes of themisfortunes which have for twenty years overwhelmed that ill-fatedcountry.

  General Rubio understood how important it was for him to deal a heavyblow before his junction with the President, who, while following hisadvice, would not fail, in the event of defeat, to attribute thereverses to him, while, if the Mexicans remained masters of the field,he would keep all the honour of victory to himself.

  The Texan insurgents had not up to this moment dared to measurethemselves with the Mexican troops in the open field, but the eventsthat had succeeded each other during the last few days with lightningspeed, had, by accelerating the catastrophe, completely changed theaspect of affairs. The Chiefs of the revolutionary army, renderedco
nfident by their constant advantages, and masters without a blow ofone of the principal Texan seaports, felt the necessity of giving uptheir hedge warfare, and consolidating their success by some brilliantexploit.

  To attain this end, a battle must be gained; but the Texan Chiefs didnot let themselves be deceived by the successes they had hitherto metwith, successes obtained by rash strokes, surprises, and unexampledaudacity; they feared with reason the moment when they would have toface the veteran Mexican troops with their inexperienced guerillas.Hence they sought by every means to retard the hour for this supreme anddecisive contest, in which a few hours might eternally overthrow theirdearest hopes, and the work of regeneration they had been pursuing forthe last ten years with unparalleled courage and resignation. Theydesired, before definitively fighting the regulars, that theirvolunteers should have acquired that discipline and practice withoutwhich the largest and bravest army is only an heterogeneous compound ofopposing elements, an agglomeration of men, possessing no consistency orreal vitality.

  After the capture of the fort a grand council had been held by theprincipal Texan Chiefs, in order to consult on the measures to be taken,so as not to lose, by any imprudence, results so miraculously obtained.It was then resolved that the army should occupy Galveston, which itsposition rendered perfectly secure against a surprise; that thefreebooters should alone remain out to skirmish with the Mexicans andharass them; while the troops shut up in the town were being drilled,and receiving a regular and permanent organization.

  The first care of the Chiefs, therefore, was to avoid any encounter withthe enemy, and try to enter Galveston without fighting the Mexicans. Thefollowing was the respective position of the two armies; the Texans weretrying to avoid a battle, which General Rubio was lodging, on thecontrary, to fight. The terrain on which the adversaries would have tomanoeuvre was extremely limited, for scarce four leagues separated thevidettes of the two armies. From his observatory the General couldclearly distinguish the camp fires of the rebels.

  In the meanwhile Colonel Melendez had continued to advance; on reachingthe cross where he and John Davis had fought so furiously on theprevious evening, the Colonel himself examined the ground with theutmost care, then, feeling convinced that none of the enemy's flankershad remained ambushed at this spot, which was so favourable for asurprise, he gave his men orders to dismount. The horses were throwndown, secured, and their heads wrapped in thick blankets to preventtheir neighing, and after all these precautions had been taken, thesoldiers lay down on their stomachs among the shrubs, with instructionsnot to stir.

  General Rubio had himself effected a flank march, which enabled him toavoid the crossways; immediately after descending the hill, he marchedrapidly upon the river bank. We have said that the Rio Trinidad, whichis rather confined at certain spots, is bordered by magnificent forests,whose branches form on the bank grand arcades of foliage overhanging themangroves; it was among the latter, and on the branches of the foresttrees, about two gunshots from the spot where he had landed, that theGeneral ambuscaded about one-third of his infantry. The remainder,divided into two corps, were echeloned along either side of the road theInsurgents must follow, but it was done in the American fashion, that isto say, the men were so hidden in the tall grass that they wereinvisible.

  The four mountain howitzers crowned a small hill which, through itsposition, completely commanded the road, while the cavalry was massed inthe rear of the infantry. The silence momentarily disturbed wasre-established, and the desert resumed its calm and solitary aspect.General Rubio had taken his measures so well that his army had suddenlybecome invisible.

  When it was resolved in the council of the Texan Chiefs that theInsurrectionary army should proceed to Galveston, a rather sharpdiscussion took place as to the means to be adopted in reaching it. TheJaguar proposed to embark the troops aboard the corvette, the brig, anda few smaller vessels collected for the purpose. Unfortunately thisadvice, excellent though it was, could not be followed, owing to GeneralRubio's precaution of carrying off all the boats; collecting otherswould have occasioned an extreme loss of time; but as the boats theMexicans had employed were now lying high and dry on the beach, and theguard at first put over them withdrawn a few hours later, the Texansthought it far more simple to set them afloat, and use them in theirturn to effect the passage.

  By a species of fatality the council would not put faith in theassertions of John Davis, who in vain assured them that General Rubio,entrenched in a strong position, would not allow this movement to becarried out without an attempt to prevent it; so that the abandonment ofthe boats by the Mexicans was only fictitious, and a trap adroitly laidto draw the Revolutionists to a spot where it would be easy to conquerthem.

  Unfortunately, the mysterious man to whom we have alluded had alone theright to give orders, and the reasons urged by Davis could not convincehim. Deceived by his spies, he persuaded himself that General Rubio,far from having any intention of recapturing Galveston, wished to effecthis junction with Santa Anna before attempting any fresh offensivemovement, and that the halt at the rancho had been merely a feint toembarrass the rebels.

  This incomprehensible error was the cause of incalculable disasters. Thechiefs received orders to march forward, and were constrained to carrythem out. Still, when this erroneous resolution had been once formed,the means of execution were selected with extreme prudence. The corvetteand brig were ordered to get as near land as they could, in order toprotect, by their cross fire, the embarkation of the troops, and sweepthe Mexicans, if they offered any opposition. Flying columns were sentoff in advance and on the flanks of the army, to clear the way, bymaking prisoners of any small outposts the enemy might have established.

  Four principal chiefs commanded strong detachments of mountedfreebooters. The four were the Jaguar, Fray Antonio, El Alferez, and DonFelix Paz, whom the reader assuredly did not expect to find under theflag of the rebels, and whom he saw only a few hours back enter theMexican camp, and hold a secret conference with General Rubio andColonel Melendez. These four chiefs were ordered by theCommander-in-Chief to prevent any surprise, by searching the forests andexamining the tall grass. El Alferez was on the right of the army, FrayAntonio on the left, the Jaguar had the rear guard, while Don Felix,with six hundred sabres, formed the van. One word as to the guerillas ofthe ex-Mayor-domo of the Larch-tree hacienda. The men who composed hisband, raised on lands dependent on the hacienda, had been enlisted byDon Felix. They were Indios _mansos_, vaqueros, and peons, mostly halfsavages, and rogues to a certain extent, who fought like lions at theorder of their leader, to whom they were thoroughly devoted, but onlyrecognising and obeying him, while caring nothing for the other leadersof the army. Don Felix Paz had joined the insurgents about two monthspreviously, and rendered them eminent service with his guerillas. Hence,he had in a short time gained general confidence. We shall soon seewhether he was worthy of it.

  By a singular coincidence, the two armies left their camp at the sametime, and marched one against the other, little suspecting that twohours later they would be face to face.