*CHAPTER XXIII*
*The Fight in the Ruins*
Mines and Countermines--In the Cellars--Burrowing--Y Mines--AnUnderground Enemy--The Foe Within--Planning a Surprise--At Dawn--Acrossthe Barricades--In the Enemy's Works--A Bird's-eye View--Through theWall--Sword versus Bayonet--Shut Out--A Mob Leader--Too much Zeal--NotProven
Jack walked downstairs abstractedly, and was only brought to himself bythe sudden realization that he had almost collided with a personentering at the door. Looking up with a murmured apology, he saw thatthe visitor was a burly priest, in long cassock and broad sombrero whichroofed a round jovial face. The priest was equally apologetic, and eyedJack curiously, stopping in the doorway and turning round to gaze afterhis retreating figure. Outside, Jack found Pepito perched on a stonepost. He sprang to the ground when he saw his master.
"Well, imp," said Jack, "sticking to me as usual, eh?"
"Si, Senor. Senor knows the fat padre?"
"No. Do you?"
"A friend of the Busno Don Miguel," replied the boy.
"Indeed! How do you know that?"
"I saw them talking at the door of the great big house over there."
He pointed to the Franciscan convent on the other side of the road.Jack looked thoughtful; he wondered whether this was the PadreConsolacion of whom he had heard, and was half-minded to turn back andmake his acquaintance. That he had been seen in consultation with Miguelwas somewhat disturbing. But, on second thoughts, he decided that hehad already been long enough away from his command at Santa Engracia,and he hastened his steps in that direction, anxious to see how thingshad been progressing there in his absence.
When he left the Casa Alvarez, two hours before, he had giveninstructions for the commencement of operations by which he hoped tobeat the French at their own game. From what he had learnt from DonCristobal he saw that the mistake up to the present had been the waitingfor the explosion of the French mines, the result being that the enemygained positions from which it usually proved impossible to dislodgethem. The only means of keeping them effectually in check was topractise countermining, not in the hand-to-mouth manner in which it hadhitherto been attempted, but systematically, with a longer outlook, witha regard to ultimate developments rather than to the immediate repellingof attack. During his interview with the foreman that morning he hadexplained his ideas, and learnt that, so far as the man's limitedexperience went, there was no practical obstacle to theiraccomplishment.
The French, as he had seen, had been for some days past working steadilythrough the three parallel blocks of buildings that ran from the SantaEngracia direction towards the Plaza Alvarez. They had made equalprogress in all three blocks. The limit of destruction was marked bythe Casas Vega, Tobar, and Vallejo, the first two being at the end oftheir blocks immediately facing the Casa Alvarez, separated from eachother by a narrow lane, while the last was separated from the Casa Tobarby the street running into the plaza. These three houses were stillstanding, but it was obvious that they would form the next points ofattack, and it was highly probable that even now the enemy had begun tocut galleries towards them.
Jack had made up his mind to anticipate the attack. Before leaving inthe morning he had learnt from the foreman, whose name was Pulgar, thatthe work of mining underground could usually be heard from a distance ofabout forty feet. From this he calculated that, if the French began towork from their side immediately after their last attack, there would betime for his own men to drive a short gallery beneath the wall of eachof the three houses before there was any risk of their operations beingheard by the enemy. He had therefore left instructions for a hole to becut beneath the farther party-wall of each house, where it adjoined thehouse last demolished. He told Pulgar to see that the digging was doneas quietly as possible, and to be on the alert to catch the slightestsound of the approach of the French miners in the opposite direction.
"Well, how are things getting on?" he asked of Don Cristobal, onarriving at his post after his interview with Juanita.
"Excellently," was the reply. "Pulgar has kept the men at work withoutrelaxation."
"In shifts, I suppose?"
"Only one man can work at each tunnel, so he gave each man half an hour;then his place was taken by another. Here is Pulgar himself."
"You are doing capitally, I hear, hombre," said Jack. "How far have themen got?"
"The tunnels are nearly three feet long by this time, Senor. It takesabout an hour to cut away a foot."
"Any sound of the French?"
"None, Senor."
"Very well. Another four feet will finish these. But we mustn't stopat that. We can't hope to keep the enemy back altogether by oneexplosion at those walls. It would delay them, certainly, and doconsiderable damage; but we'll have to prepare to give them much moretrouble farther back."
"I had thought of that, Senor."
"Well, I think we'll go and have a look at the cellars. Come along.Bring your measure with you; we shall require that, and a candle."
Descending to the cellars of the Casa Alvarez, Jack found that they ranalong the walls on the west and north sides of the building, at adistance of ten feet below the surface of the ground. They formed aseries of arched rooms leading one from the other, with small openingsfor ventilation giving on the patio.
"Dark musty places these!" said Jack. "Judging by the appearance ofthem, they haven't been used for a century. There's not even a bottleof wine to be seen, let alone a rat. Ah! I spoke too soon; sh-h-h!"
A rat had just scurried along the wall into its hole in the corner.
"I have been thinking over things," resumed Jack, "and I shall be gladof your opinion of the plan I have partly formed. Our object, ofcourse, must be to hold the French in check as long as possible; but ifthey succeed in occupying the two houses opposite, and the Casa Vallejo,we shall be very hard put to it to defend the plaza and this house.They outnumber us. It is quite likely that, in spite of all we can do,they will eventually succeed in obtaining a lodgment in these threehouses or their ruins. I propose, therefore, to plan our defence on theassumption that they will do so. This house in which we now stand willbe our fort, and we should arrange so that we can do the enemy as muchdamage as possible from this spot."
"That is reasonable, Senor," said Don Cristobal.
"Well, the greatest damage we can do will be done by mines like theirown--either to destroy their mines before they have time to explodethem, or to drive the enemy back when they have exploded their mines andseized the houses. To do that effectually we require to drive at leasttwo galleries from these cellars under each house. But the Casa Vallejois too far away. We haven't men enough, and it would take too long, tocut a gallery from here right across the plaza and street and under thathouse. The Casas Vega and Tobar are much nearer, and I see nothing toprevent us from cutting the galleries under them."
"In addition to the short tunnels already being cut under theparty-walls?" asked Don Cristobal.
"Oh yes! You see my aim? The short tunnels are to delay their attackon those houses; the longer tunnels I propose are to check their advanceon this house when they have captured the others."
"But why two long galleries, Senor?" asked Pulgar.
"Because, after we have fired one, the French will come on in greaterstrength again, thinking we have done our worst, and the explosion ofthe second will have a shattering effect on them in every way."
"An excellent idea, Senor!" said Don Cristobal, "but our men are not toostrong, and it would cost immense labour to drive two galleries. It isforty feet across the plaza between this and the houses opposite; youmust allow for several feet of tunnel in each house if you want to sparethe walls facing us--"
"Eight feet at least," interrupted Jack. "I don't want to destroy thehouses entirely."
"Well, that makes ninety-six feet of tunnelling for each house, and allthe earth to be carried back as it is dug out. You will work your mento dea
th, Senor."
Jack considered. For the moment he envied some friends of his who hadcommissions in the Engineers. "They would have mugged up all this sortof thing in their books," he said to himself. How could he achieve hispurpose without running the risk Don Cristobal had pointed out? Hestood for a time unconsciously tapping the stone floor with his foot ashe thought over the problem.
"I have it!" he exclaimed suddenly. "It's a case of letter Y--you see?Drive one gallery half-way; then two branching out from it like the armsof a capital Y. It won't save time, but it will save labour, and wecan't afford to knock the men up."
"That is it, Senor," said Pulgar, rubbing his hands.
"Then I will get you to arrange with the men so that they take turn andturn about. And by the way, two short tunnels must be cut between theCasa Vallejo and the house next it on this side--the Casa Hontanon, isit not? Those houses are not so capable of defence as this is, but wemust do what we can to beat the enemy there also."
Pulgar at once set off to arrange with the workmen, while Jack proceededto organize the garrisoning of the houses. Except for a few shellsthrown over the ramparts nothing had been done by the French since theexplosion of the previous evening. The barricades in the streets andlane were held by men of the Valencia regiment; Jack selected other menfrom the same regiment, and some of the best of the guerrilleros, andthus formed three companies of twenty men each to garrison the threecasas, Vega, Tobar, and Vallejo. Fifty men were held in reserve in theCasa Alvarez.
As the day wore on, Jack found that the tunnelling proceeded morerapidly than he had expected. Working on a more definite plan thanhitherto, the men saw that their chances of seriously checking theFrench advance were much greater, and dug and carried with a doggedperseverance that gave Jack a new respect for the Spanish character. Bythe evening the short holes under the party-walls nearest the Frenchwere ready for the charges. Thinking it advisable to see for himselfwhat had been done, Jack crawled through one of the tunnels with alighted candle, feeling the oppression of the dank confined air. He sawby the dim light that the sides and roof were roughly shored up withtimber, and that, as he had wished, there was a slight slope upwards, sothat the head of the tunnel was only about four feet from the surface.At the end he listened for the sound of the French miners, who, heguessed, were approaching, but hearing nothing concluded that they werenot as yet so far advanced with their work.
Returning to the rear end of the tunnel, he arranged for a heavy chargeof powder to be placed in position with the fuses. When this had beendone it was time to "tamp" the tunnels--fill them up again with earth toa distance greater than the depth of the mines below the surface. Thiswas necessary, or when the explosion took place it would exhaust itsforce along the open tunnel instead of in the upward direction intended.But Jack decided not to do any tamping until he was sure that the Frenchhad driven their galleries so close to his own that the explosion of hisown mines would destroy the enemy's. If he found that the Frenchtunnels were to the right or left of his own, so far away that hisexplosion would not greatly affect them, he would have to await theFrench explosion and then use his own mines to repel the attack on thebuildings that would instantly follow.
Late at night Antonio the guerrillero, who had been one of the mostenthusiastic of the workers, reported that at the farther end of theshort tunnel into the Casa Vega he had heard the faint sound of picks.Jack instantly crawled into the tunnel to listen for himself.Undoubtedly the man was right. Giving orders that men should take turnsto watch all through the night at the tunnel head, he went to bed aftermidnight, tired out with the day's exertions.
Before he fell asleep his mind ran over the strange events with whichthe last two days had been crowded. In particular he reflected on thestory he had heard from Juanita, and could not help wondering at theextraordinary mischances which had befallen her affairs. The letterconfided to Palafox must have contained instructions in regard to theproperty which old Don Fernan had preserved somewhere for his daughter,and had been written as a precaution in case anything happened to histrusted servant Jose. Some perverse fate seemed to have decreed thatJose should die and the letter be lost simultaneously. And then histhoughts turned to Miguel. His story about the projected marriage wasclearly a sheer fabrication; but it showed what his intentions were. Hemeant to take advantage of Juanita's orphaned condition to coax orcajole her into a marriage, and thereby to secure the property which heknew must be hers. It seemed improbable that he could have learnt whereher father had stored his wealth; it might be that he supposed Juanitaknew. His sudden nocturnal appearance in Saragossa, with a story ofoverpowering a sentry, was in itself very suspicious. Could he beplaying a double game? At any rate Jack felt that he must be on hisguard, on behalf of Juanita as well as himself; that Miguel would nothesitate to injure him he had now little doubt.
These thoughts, however, were banished by the important work of the nextday. At dawn he learnt that hour by hour during the night the approachof the French had been more distinctly heard. All that morning he paidfrequent visits to the Vega tunnel, and about eleven o'clock he feltsure, from the direction and the proximity of the sounds, that theFrench miners had arrived at a point in a line with the head of hisgallery. The mining continued; it would take them between six and sevenhours to reach the wall. Leaving Don Cristobal in charge, withinstructions to keep as vigilant a look-out as ever, Jack went to seehow the Y-shaped mines from the cellars of the Casa Alvarez wereprogressing, and then made a general round of the district. Severaltimes during the day he had heard the sound of explosions in other partsof the city, but had been too busy to enquire about what was happening.He learnt now, however, that a block of houses twenty yards nearer theCoso, in the direction of the Franciscan convent, had been carried bythe French, by which means they had extended their attacking front bynearly three times that distance. He heard also that trenches had beenopened against the Jesus Convent, in the suburb of San Lazaro, acrossthe river. It was evident that the enemy were at last arranging for adetermined attack in that quarter, where they had done little since theearly days of the siege. The possession of San Lazaro would enable themto harass the whole north side of the city, the only portion thathitherto had been immune, and where, consequently, the greater part ofthe stores was collected and the mass of the fever-stricken inhabitantshuddled together.
About six o'clock he was recalled to the Casa Vega by the news that theFrench gallery had reached the wall and the tunnelling had ceased. Itwould take them some four hours, Jack conjectured, to tamp their mine;when that was done they would no doubt retire from the tunnel, and itwould then be safe for the Spaniards to tamp their mine in turn. Ifthey started to do so earlier, the sound would betray them. At teno'clock all sounds from the French end had ceased; then Jack, afterallowing a short interval, set his men to perform the tamping. Workingwithout relaxation, they completed the task by two in the morning.Within four or five hours the French would explode their mine beneaththe wall.
The first thing Jack did on being awakened by Pepito half an hour beforedawn was to enquire whether any sounds of the French progress had beenheard in the Casas Tobar and Vallejo. In the former he learned themining had been heard for several hours; in the latter there had been nosounds at all. Satisfied that immediate work would only be required inthe Casa Vega, he proceeded to get his men into order.
His plan, carefully thought out on the previous day, was to withdraw hisgarrison from the Casa Vega, leaving only one man to fire the mine;otherwise a large number would be uselessly sacrificed. The inrush ofthe French after the explosion of their mine was to be the signal forthe firing of his own, and that in turn the signal for a sortie of thewhole of his available force. By this means he hoped to drive theFrench back to such a distance that he could discover and blow up thegalleries they were driving into the Casa Tobar, and probably into theCasa Vallejo also.
It still wanted some minutes of dawn when his motley force was drawn upin the plaza behind the wal
ls of Vega and Tobar. It numbered only 350men in all--some haggard burghers of the city, some rugged guerrillerosfrom the country districts, a few regulars from General Fiballer'sValencian regiment, a few of Palafox's grenadiers. All bore signs ofthe stress and toil of the past few weeks; but all were animated by onespirit of indomitable resolution. Fifty of the best marksmen were atonce picked out to garrison Tobar and Vallejo and harass the French withmusketry-fire from the windows. Eighty good men were drafted as areserve. This left 220, of whom 120 were told off to make the mainsortie over the barricade in the street between Tobar and Vallejo, while30 were appointed to guard the shorter barricade across the lane betweenTobar and Vega. The remaining 70 were ordered to march to the upperside of the Casa Vega and make a demonstration at the barricade erectedin the street there.
Jack had resolved to lead the principal sortie in person, and he devotedspecial attention to the organization of his band. Ten of the men wereordered to carry bags of powder to blow up the French galleries intoTobar and Vallejo, if the sortie party were able to push home theircharge. Another ten were given short ladders and mats to assist therest across the barricade, which was of timber, some twelve feet inheight, and studded at the top with sharp nails. It had beenconstructed so hastily, and with so little idea of the possibility of asortie, that it formed almost as formidable an obstacle to the Spaniardsas to the French.
The sortie party beyond the Casa Vega was entrusted to Don Cristobal,the reserve to Pablo Quintanar, the chief of the guerrilleros. This manwas very much dissatisfied with the post allotted him; he grumbled andprotested that he deserved a more prominent part in the operations, butJack had a vague distrust of the fellow, and somewhat curtly refused toalter his arrangements.
All was now ready. In the chill foggy dawn the men waited at theirseveral posts for the expected explosion. Sounds floated across theriver from the French lines: the blare of bugles, the rat-tat of drums,occasionally the loud call of bustling officers. Jack began to wonderwhether the French would wait until their galleries into Tobar andVallejo were ready, and then spring the three mines simultaneously. Butthe anxious period of waiting was at length ended. About an hour afterdaybreak there was a dull roar; the whole district seemed to tremble;there was the crash of falling stones and timber, a cloud of smoke anddust from the Casa Vega, and with a shout the French rushed into theruined building beyond, to make good their position there.
Then came a terrible interval of suspense, even more trying to thenerves of the Spaniards than the long wait for the French explosion.When would they hear the answering explosion? Had the gallant fellowwho had offered to fire the train perished before his work was done?Jack wondered, waited anxiously. Second after second slipped by; hecould hear the ticking of the watch in his vest pocket. At last when,unable to endure the uncertainty longer, he was about to rush into thecasa himself, a deafening noise like a thunderclap close at hand checkedhim. The French mine, acting immediately upon the wall and at aconsiderable depth below-ground, had spent most of its force on the wallitself. But Jack's mine, having only a few feet of earth above it, andbeing heavily charged, exerted its destructive effect in all directions.It blew to fragments the ruins of the house adjoining the Casa Vega,brought down what remained of its roof, shattered the remnants of thewalls on either side, and filled the air for a hundred yards around withdust and debris, a few of Jack's men, even in the plaza behind, beinginjured by objects that were shot clean over the houses. Jack, from hisposition, could not see the extent of the damage; but the fact that theexplosion had actually occurred left him in no doubt that the French inthe ruined house beyond the Casa Vega must have been annihilated, and inthe ruins, where they had but slight protection, they must have sufferedheavy loss.
But he hardly waited to estimate the effect of his successful coup.Immediately after the explosion he gave his men the order to advance;they dashed from cover and began to swarm over the barricades. At thelast moment Jack sent a man with orders to barricade as far as possiblethe newly-made breach in the Vega wall. Then, with Antonio at his side,he led the charge. The dust was still falling in clouds as they came tothe Tobar barricade. So sudden was the unexpected event, and so swiftlydid the Spaniards move, that their manoeuvre was not discovered by theFrench until the greater number had crossed and, headed by Jack andAntonio, charged down the street. But within fifty paces a shot rang outfrom beyond the ruined house on their left; it was followed immediatelyby a scattered fire, and amid yells of rage and pain many of Jack's menfell. The French were firing from the half-dismantled houses they hadrushed a few days before, which, being somewhat remote from the scene ofthe explosion, and sheltered by the ruins of the house adjoining theCasa Tobar, had not suffered like the rest of the French position.Nothing daunted by their losses, the Spaniards pressed on with shouts of"Nuestra Senora del Pillar! A la cuchillo!" Don Cristobal meanwhilehad swept round the upper barricade. The ruins beyond the houses latelyburnt were carried with a rush. Drums were heard beating not far away;there were loud shouts in French and the hurried tramp of feet. It wasclear that the enemy, not anticipating danger at this point, had drawnaway their troops in the direction of the Franciscan convent; they hadexpected that under cover of the explosion the Casa Vega would becaptured, as a score of houses in the same quarter had been rushedbefore, by a handful of disciplined men. No plans had been made to meetso unexpected a movement of retaliation; for a moment the battle was tothe Spaniards.
But Jack knew well that he durst not attempt to push his attack far. Hehad given orders to Antonio, who had led a small body to the assault ofa house to the left, where the street bent inwards from the ramparts, toblow up the head of the gallery into the Casa Vallejo, then to retiretowards that house, recross the barricade, and take up a position behindit. To cover these movements, Jack directed a party of his men to keepup a hot fire on the house at the bend of the street, from which someFrench marksmen had swept the front of the attacking force. Within afew minutes he heard a sharp report. At the same time Antonio's mencame streaming back towards Vallejo and over the barricade. One of theFrench galleries was evidently accounted for.
Meanwhile Jack's own position had been hotly assailed in front. Theruined houses on the right of the street were now full of Frenchmen, whocharged again and again across the debris up to the party-wall, only tobe driven back by the men stationed there, under such cover as theirregular remnants of the broken walls afforded. There was no time tobarricade the gap; it was only a question of time before the French mustbreak through in overwhelming numbers. Don Cristobal had occupied theruins adjoining the Casa Vega, but he was now ordered back across hisbarricade, from which he could protect the flank of Jack's force when itbecame necessary to withdraw it.
At this juncture Jack felt the necessity of obtaining a view of thewhole position. He looked round for some point of observation. Througha large rent in one of the walls to his right he perceived the remainsof a staircase to the second story. Was there time to clamber up itbefore the French burst in? "I'll chance it," he said to himself.Ordering his men to stand firm, he ran across the narrow lane, throughthe wall, and began to ascend the staircase. It was a ricketystructure; its top had been blown away; it remained upright only byfavour of one or two stout joists which had been so firmly embedded inthe stone as to withstand the shock of the explosion when the party-wallwas cracked. Up he went. The stairs creaked under him; at every stepit seemed that the whole structure would fall with him. But at lengthhe reached a spot whence, through a hole in what had been once the wall,he could see for a considerable distance over the quarter occupied bythe French. To his left he saw the dreary waste of ruins through which,by patient mining and sudden rushes, the French had made their painfulway from the convent of Santa Engracia, which stood a woful spectacle ofdestruction some hundreds of yards distant.
Eastward he traced their progress through a series of dismantledbuildings, up to within a short distance of the Franciscan convent.Farther to the right
they had made yet deeper inroads into the city, andwere now almost within arm's-length of the Coso. Jack thought, with asudden pang, of the danger Juanita would soon be in, and decided that atthe earliest opportunity he must persuade her to change her quarters andretire northwards, loth as he was to see her in that fever-haunted spot.
Suddenly his eye was caught by a compact body of French, about 500 innumber, advancing at the quick step across the wide open space outsidethe Santa Engracia convent. They had evidently been hurried from theentrenchments beyond the walls. At the same time, glancing to theright, he saw another body of men issuing from some buildings near theCoso. Clearly no time was to be lost. Outnumbered already, he had onlyheld his own up to the present by having the advantage of the defensiveposition. But the position was not strong. If the French occupied theadjoining ruins in force there was scarcely an inch of cover for hismen. He must, therefore, at once blow up the head of the French galleryleading below the Casa Tobar, which he had been unable to do hithertofor fear of destroying his own men, and then withdraw his troops totheir original position. In face of the large French reinforcementscoming up, it would be as much as he could do to hold his own eventhere. Springing down the staircase, three steps at a time, one of thembreaking through and falling with a crash behind him, he hastened backto his men. He called up a little musketeer belonging to the Murciantiradores--one of the few survivors of that regiment--
"Hombre, run back to the Casa Alvarez; tell Pablo Quintanar to leave agap in the Vega wall wide enough to allow the passage of men in singlefile. Understand, in single file."
"Si, Senor," said the man, and bounded off.
Now Jack prepared with all possible speed to evacuate his advancedposition. He was delayed by the necessity of removing his wounded; forall this time the French had been firing into the houses, and, thoughtheir aim was bad, several shots took effect owing to the Spaniards'almost reckless exposure of themselves. Before he actually gave theorder to evacuate, the French, unaware of the reinforcements hasteningto their support, gathered themselves together for another charge. Theycame gallantly almost to the very muzzles of the Spanish muskets; thenthey recoiled before a terrible volley, and fell back in confusion.Seizing the moment, Jack ordered his men to retire towards the CasaVega.
Jack has a Narrow Escape]
"Leave the gap in the wall open for me," he said to one of the regulars;"I shall not be long behind you."
Then, catching up a burning rope, he hastened to the end of the Frenchgallery, where his men had laid a train of gunpowder connecting with aheavy charge. He had just time to set light to the train before a groupof three or four French soldiers dashed towards him through the ruins.His perilous task was done; he turned to follow his men, the enemy, notwaiting to fire, close behind him. As he was crossing the lane dividingthe Casas Vega and Tobar there was a loud explosion; the gallery hadblown up, and with it the head of the French column immediately behindhis pursuers. Only two men were now on his track. He glanced over hisshoulder, and judged that there was time to reach the gap in the wallbefore he could be overtaken. At this moment his foot slipped on a looseheap of fallen masonry; he fell headlong, and before he could recoverhimself, the foremost pursuer was upon him. Wriggling over instantly onhis side, he drew his pistol, and managed to snap it at the man when thepoint of his bayonet was within a foot of him. The ball hit the manfull on the forehead, and he dropped like a log.
Springing to his feet, Jack drew his sword in the nick of time to meetthe attack of the second pursuer. It was sword against bayonet, and ifthe latter had been in the hands of a British soldier, Jack, in spite ofhis skill as a swordsman, might have stood a poor chance. But thebayonet, as wielded by a Continental soldier, was not the sameformidable weapon, and it happened that his attacker was a Pole--one ofColonel Chlopiski's Vistula regiment, which, as Jack had already learnt,had proved the most troublesome of all the French troops since thecapture of Santa Engracia. Jack had more than once shown himself to bea swordsman of exceptional resource, and at this critical moment the oldFrench emigre who had been his fencing master in London, if he couldhave seen the duel, would have beamed with satisfaction. After a fewpasses Jack gave the Pole an opportunity to lunge; he eagerly seized it;his thrust was lightly parried, and the next moment Jack was in beneathhis guard.
As he hurried away, even in that breathless moment Jack could not helpfeeling some pity for his two gallant foemen who would see the Vistulano more. It was in the hope of freeing their country from the bondageof Russia that the Poles had allied themselves with Napoleon. They werenow purchasing their own freedom by assisting to enslave others.
Hastening across the ruins adjoining the Casa Vega, Jack saw terriblesigns of the havoc wrought by his mine. The attacking French force hadbeen a large one. It had perished to a man. But there was no time foranything but escape from the horde of French now rapidly approachinghim. Scrambling over charred beams, shattered brickwork, fragments ofhousehold furniture, and the dead bodies of the fallen enemy, he drewnear to the spot where the explosion of the French mine had blown alarge hole in the party-wall. It was here that Jack expected to findthe gap through which his men had preceded him into safety. But therewas no gap. The hole was completely closed up, and the obstruction wastoo strong to be won through, too high to clamber over. Nonplussed forthe moment, Jack turned to look for another means of escape, aware, ashe did so, of loud voices in altercation on the other side of thebarricade.
Bullets were now pattering on the brickwork, and the sound of scramblingfeet in the adjoining ruins showed that he had been seen by the French,and that they were making towards him. There was not an instant tolose. To his left, as he faced the French quarter, the ruins were openand exposed to fire from several directions; escape was impossible thatway. But on his right there still stood the remnant of what had been alath-and-plaster wall between two rooms. He caught at this chance ofeven temporary concealment. Bending low, he dodged along behind itsprecarious shelter till he came to a ruined window within a few feet ofthe barricade defended by Don Cristobal. The rattle of musketry couldnow be heard on all hands. Jack felt sure that his appearance at thewindow would be the signal for a hail of bullets from the opposite sideof the street, at the angle nearer the Coso where the French hadobtained a lodgment. But it was now or never, and he was just wrenchingaway a broken iron bar, to squeeze his way through, when his ears wereassailed by unexpected shouts from the street. To his amazement, he sawDon Cristobal's men come swarming over the barricade and rushing alongthe street towards the French. But it was not Don Cristobal who ledthem; the leader was a tall figure who rushed forward, sword in hand,with long robe tucked up, and bare arms, from which the sleeves had beenflung back over the shoulders. He was shouting in frenzied tones. Jackrecognized Latin phrases mingled with Spanish. It was the patriotpriest, Santiago Sass.
Wondering what had happened, Jack jumped into the street, safe now, forthe French were occupied with the rush of the headlong Spaniards. Therethey were, cutting their way through a large body of French troops,heedless of the pelting bullets from the surrounding houses, yelling,slashing, and, alas! many of them falling.
"What imbecile folly!" exclaimed Jack in his anger. The rash charge wasuseless, hopeless. All that he could do was to cover the inevitableretreat. Clambering over the barricade, Jack ran towards the CasaAlvarez, overtaking on the way Don Cristobal, who had hastened thitheron the same errand as himself.
"Men of the reserve," cried Jack, "follow me!"
Pablo Quintanar, their leader, was, strangely, not with them. Theydashed after Jack and Don Cristobal, and reached the barricade just intime. The Spaniards, all that were left of them, were streaming overit, broken and disheartened, pursued by bullets from the French. Last ofthem all came Santiago Sass, splashed with blood from head to foot,blood streaming from a wound on his brow.
"In te, Domine, speravi!" he cried breathlessly as he staggered over thebarricade.
Catching
him by the arm, Jack dragged the exhausted priest out of harm'sway, and then, ordering his men to hold the barricade, enquired of DonCristobal what was the meaning of the recent extraordinary movement. Helearnt that Santiago Sass, who was ever where danger was thickest, hadbeen passing the quarter, and, attracted by the noise of the explosions,had hastened, full of burning zeal, to the nearest barricade. There,finding Don Cristobal's force, as he thought, culpably inactive, andhearing musketry on all sides, he had jumped to the conclusion that theSpaniards were skulking, and, refusing to listen to Don Cristobal'sexplanation, had poured out upon them a torrent of invective andexhortation, called on them to follow him, and led them furiously overthe barricade. Such was his influence that not a man refused to obeyhis call.
Meanwhile the hot fire maintained by the reserve had driven the Frenchback. But they showed some disposition to come on in greater strengthand attempt the capture of the barricade. Santiago Sass, furious at thefailure of his ill-timed sortie, and still more with Jack for forciblyremoving him from the scene, began to vent his wrath upon him.
"Do not stay me!" he cried. "Cursed be any that flinches! Dominus virpugnator! Let us haste--"
"Senor Padre," interrupted Jack quietly, "you led a most gallant charge,but look--it has cost me some twenty good men."
He pointed to the corpse-strewn street. The priest looked, and wasevidently impressed. Gathering his skirts about him he sped awaytowards the Coso in search of more forlorn hopes to lead, the sound ofhis wild and whirling words being scarcely drowned by the noise of thebattle.
For the rest of that day French and Spaniards continued to occupy theirrespective positions. The former made no attempt at organized attack;they clearly dreaded the discovery of more mines. The Spaniards werenot strong enough to expel the enemy altogether. Thus, when nightfallagain put an end to the fighting, the situation was essentially the sameas it had been in the morning.
Reckoning up the results, Jack was able to congratulate himself onhaving accomplished all that he had hoped to do. The two Frenchgalleries towards the Casas Tobar and Vallejo were destroyed; the Frenchhad suffered very heavy loss in men. The explosion of their mine in theCasa Vega had not furthered their advance, and their work for three dayspast was rendered null. But their failure, Jack knew, would only nervethem to redoubled energy; he must be prepared for an even more strenuousattack on his position. All that he could do was to ensure that if thehouses must be captured it should be with a maximum of delay and loss tothe French.
As he went the round of his district, before proceeding to convey hisnightly report to Palafox, Pablo Quintanar, the guerrilla leader, cameup and made a complaint against his subordinate Antonio. He had beenattacked, he said, and nearly murdered by Antonio for refusing to reopenthe barricade thrown across the gap in the wall of the Casa Vega.
"Did you not receive my order?" demanded Jack.
"Your order was to hold the barricade, Senor."
"But you opened a gap to let in my men. I sent the order by one of theMurcian tiradores."
"Yes, indeed, and the men came through one by one, and when the last wasthrough I closed the barricade."
"And shut me out!"
Jack looked sharply at the man, but as usual was unable to catch hiseye.
"I waited for the Senor," he protested, "five, ten, twenty minutes; buthe did not come. What was I to think but that he was dead? If I hadknown--"
"You would have acted otherwise. Well, as you did make so unfortunatea--mistake, perhaps the less you say about Antonio's attempt to mend itthe better. Buenas noches, hombre!"
Jack turned on his heel, and, wondering what conceivable motive PabloQuintanar could have for doing him a hurt, set off for the CastleAljafferia.
Boys of the Light Brigade: A Story of Spain and the Peninsular War Page 26
