Boys of the Light Brigade: A Story of Spain and the Peninsular War

by Herbert Strang

  *CHAPTER XXVIII*

  *The Last Fight in Saragossa*

  The Last Muster--The Fougasse--A Forlorn Hope--Spiking the Guns--A Racewith Death--A Sally--Solicitude--Jorge Arcos Volunteers--To the BitterEnd--A Bolt from the Blue--The Last Sacrifice--The Courage ofDespair--Truce

  At the Casa Alvarez a stern fight was in progress. On the preceding daywhat Jack had foreseen had at length come to pass: the French had oncemore brought guns to bear on his position. Warned by their previousexperience, they blinded their batteries in such a way that theirgunners were protected from the muskets of the Spaniards on the roofs.They cleared a space at the end of the ruined block of which the CasaVallejo formed a part, and there placed two guns; another was mounted atthe end of the street between that house and the Casa Tobar; a fourth atthe end of the street in which the Vega barricade was erected. It wasclear to Jack that he could not hope to prevent the enemy from gaining afooting in the houses; all that he could do for the present was to awaitdevelopments, and act as the need of the moment dictated.

  But, to be prepared for emergencies, he rapidly constructed, beneath thefloor of the Casa Vallejo, a fougasse--a shallow mine in the form of atruncated cone, with its axis inclined towards the point of attack.Over this he piled some tons of brickwork and stones which, in theexplosion, would be hurled many yards to the front and flanks. Withthis, and the as yet unexploded Y-shaped mines beneath the Casas Tobarand Vega, he hoped to destroy the French who would rush the houses whenthe bombardment ceased, and thus to enable his men to retake thepositions they must lose.

  He had only 200 men now with him, and many of these were on their lastlegs. But when the rumour spread through the quarter that the Frenchwere preparing to make a serious attack, some fifty poor wretches,scarcely able to crawl, staggered from their squalid lodgings, andbegged to be allowed to take part in the defence. They were a pitifulsight, gaunt and haggard, with ague-stricken limbs and fever-lit eyes.They were incapable of hand-to-hand fighting; many of them were too weakeven to lift their muskets to their shoulders; but they could firemuskets rested on window-sills and through loopholes, and Jack, gladlyas he would have spared them, was too hard-pressed to reject any aid,however slight. A score of women came forward, offering to load musketsfor the men, and thus save time. Among them Jack recognized the lady hehad seen as he came with Tio Jorge to take over his command. Heremembered her attitude of frenzied grief; he recalled the fiercecommand she had laid upon her little boy. The child was no longer withher; the little fellow had died of fever a few days before. The poorcreature had now lost father, brothers, husband, and son, and had comewith the wild fury of a mad woman to wreak vengeance on the enemy.

  About ten o'clock in the morning the French opened fire with all theirguns upon the Casa Vallejo and the barricades. Jack made what reply hecould from the roofs and windows, but the batteries were so wellscreened that the fire of his men was almost wholly ineffectual. Greatgaps were soon made in the wall of the house and in the barricades, andseeing that the attempt to hold the latter in the face of thebombardment would entail a useless loss of life, Jack withdrew his menbehind the Casas Vega and Tobar, and held them in readiness to rush intothe houses when his mines had exploded. After two hours' bombardmentthe four guns ceased fire. Immediately afterwards three parties ofFrench dashed forward in headlong charge. The Spaniards, who, on thecessation of the bombardment, had sped back to their posts, met theenemy with dauntless front. The Frenchmen in the streets fell rapidlyunder a hot fire from the roof and windows of the Casa Tobar and fromthe advanced barricades, but, seeing the hopelessness of continuedresistance to the overwhelming numbers opposed to him, Jack withdrew hisforces again, and sent word to the men stationed at the mines to lighttheir matches in readiness for firing the trains. With exultant shoutsthe enemy, for the most part Poles and voltigeurs, swarmed into thehouses. Jack gave the word first at Vallejo. The fougasse exploded witha terrific crash. It was this explosion which had interrupted TioJorge's conversation in the cafe. But though not a Frenchman was leftalive in the house, the places of the dead were instantly filled bytheir furious comrades, who were only kept from rushing across thestreet towards the Casa Alvarez by the concentrated fire of theSpaniards there posted.

  A few minutes later the French in Tobar and Vega met with a like fate.Jack had exploded in each case one of the arms of his Y-shaped mines,and for the time both houses were cleared of the enemy.

  But Jack had long since seen that, unless he could deal them a harderblow than any he had recently been able to strike, he must inevitably beswamped by superior numbers. Even though the explosions should slay ahundred of the French to every ten of his own men, the former could becontinually replaced, while a loss to him was irreparable. He couldhold the enemy in check for the moment, but a time must come when hisgallant little force must be overwhelmed and annihilated--unless hecould effect some diversion.

  His greatest danger came from these formidable batteries, to which hecould make no effective reply. Under cover of their fire the Frenchcould at any time repeat the rush across the street by which they hadcarried Tobar. Was there no way by which the guns could be silenced?

  During the two hours' bombardment Jack had spent many anxious minutes inthinking out this problem. What were the chances? The explosion of thefougasse, followed by that of the Y mines, would not only deal immensedestruction, but would also, he hoped, have a tremendous moral effect.Could he not make a rush for the guns while the French were demoralizedand at sixes and sevens? Would there be time to spike them? Ought he todiminish his little force even by the minimum number of men necessary toperform the feat? He now had no more than 180 men all told. TheFrench, he computed, had numbered nearly 700 at the beginning of theday. Could he, with, say, 50 men, hope to penetrate their ranks andreturn in safety?

  "It must be tried," he said to himself, and from that moment bent allhis energies to ensure the success of his daring scheme. Before firingthe Y mines he collected his whole disposable force, and, amid abreathless silence, addressed them.

  "Hombres," he said, "there is one thing for us to do. The French gunsmust be spiked. I will lead the way. I want fifty men to follow me.It will be dangerous, perhaps fatal work. Who will volunteer, forSaragossa and Spain?"

  Every man held out his hand. Jack felt proud of the unswervingpatriotism and courage of his troops. The trouble was, not to accept,but to refuse their offers. He quickly selected fifty of the strongest.Ten of these he sent to find long nails and hammers, and they soonreturned, bearing tools of all sizes and shapes. The rest were armedwith muskets and bayonets. Jack gave as many as he could pistols inaddition.

  "Now, hombres," he said, "when the mines explode, the French in thehouses will be destroyed, and those behind them dismayed. We must seizethat very moment to rush into the Casa Vega. I shall go first. Youmust follow close upon me as rapidly as you can. I intend to make forthe guns. We shall spike them. We shall then rush back through theruins and the houses beyond the Casa Vallejo and take the French therein the rear. Don Cristobal will still defend his barricade. Antoniohere will hold the rest of you in readiness to sweep upon the French inVallejo and the street. If I am overcome, and you cannot hold thesecond barricades, retreat to the Casa Alvarez and fight to the death."

  The Spaniards were eager to start, and almost too impatient to wait forthe explosion. When that occurred, the larger debris hurled into theair had scarcely reached the ground before Jack, followed by his devotedfifty, dashed through the dust that was swirling in vast eddies from theruins. Entering the Casa Vega by a low side doorway, almost suffocatedby the pungent fumes and the clouds of dust, they scrambled through theruins, springing over stones and beams, broken furniture, burningdraperies, every man taking his own course and trying to avoid impedinghis comrades. A few seconds brought them to what had been theparty-wall of the house. Bearing to the left, Jack dashed into thecharred ruins of the adjoining house, t
hrough the midst of a fewFrenchmen who, injured but not killed by the explosion, were crawlingpainfully away. A glance to the right!--he saw that the next clearingwas still held by the force supporting those who had rushed the houses;but they were in no sort of order, having scattered to seek shelter fromthe beams and stones that had descended upon them as from the crater ofa volcano. A glance in front!--across the narrow street, in the wreckedhouse nearest the gun, Jack saw in an instant that he had a moreformidable foe to reckon with. The French there, some 150 in number,had not been affected materially by the explosion; but it had taken themby surprise, and for the moment they were at a loss what they should do.Before they could realize what was happening, a band of fifty fierceyelling Spaniards, led by a young officer with sword in one hand andpistol in the other, was among them. A score fell at the first onset;the rest scattered to right and left of the Spaniards, and by the timethey had collected their wits, and perceived how small was the partyengaged in this desperate sortie, Jack and the first of his men werealready engaged with the gunners. The onslaught was so sudden, and Jackwas so intent on the work in hand, that he was scarcely conscious ofwhat happened until afterwards. One of the gunners, in the urgency ofthe moment, picked up a linstock and raised it as a kind of club. Jacksprang straight at him, toppled him over by the mere force of hisimpact, and came upon another gunner, whose smoking musket showed thathe had just fired. Him Jack cut down; the others meanwhile fell to thebayonets of the Spaniards. The gun was reached. Jack sped past, whilea burly Catalan, with two strokes of his huge mallet, drove a nail intothe vent. Then the whole party, diminished by half a dozen who hadfallen, swept on across the street towards the spot where stood the twoguns that commanded the Casa Vallejo.

  Jack Leads a Forlorn Hope]

  The few seconds occupied by the tussle about the first gun had given thegunners at the other two time to form up. At the same time the Frenchbehind Jack had recovered from their surprise and were swarming upon histrack. Would he have time to complete his work? A few bullets patteredon the jagged remnants of walls still standing; but the French were toomuch afraid of hitting their own men to fire volleys, and those who didshoot were too flustered to take good aim. Amid a din of shouting, Jackdashed into the ruins on the far side of the street. Some two-score menwere there drawn up ready to receive him. Fortunately they were on theFrench side of the epaulement that had been thrown across the ruins.Had they occupied the other side they could have held their assailantsat bay long enough for the reserves to come up from the direction ofSanta Engracia and take them in the rear.

  In a moment the two bands met. The French were outnumbered, but for afew seconds they held their own around the guns. Then the Spaniardsclosed about them, and with their backs to the epaulement the valiantgunners fell, to the last man.

  The first gun was quickly spiked. At the other a gallant pair ofFrenchmen caused a momentary delay by their desperate defence. But theywere in turn overpowered, and fell covered with wounds. A nail wasdriven home, and the hazardous exploit was complete.

  But the peril was only just beginning. The sortie had been so suddenand impetuous that even if the French had been thrice as numerous thechances were on the side of the assailants. But they had now had timeto rally. Sixty yards of ruins lay between the breathless Spaniards andthe Casa Vallejo, which was strongly held by the French. Jack hopedthat the diversion from the Casa Alvarez would keep these sufficientlyemployed; it was a race between him and the French who were now comingup from the rear of their position. For an instant he thought ofretaining a few of his men and attempting to check the pursuit while theremainder ran on and stormed the French in Vallejo. But he saw in aflash that this exposed him to the danger of being headed off by theenemy, who would make greater speed along the comparatively clear streetthan he could make through the ruins. Without a moment's hesitation hebade his men run for their lives. That he was right was proved at once.Stalwart Poles and little voltigeurs were swarming along the roadway;Jack could see them through the gaps in the ruined walls, and hear themas they dashed along out of sight parallel with his own men. Would theyoutrun him? Would they succeed in joining hands with their countrymenin Vallejo, and meet him in such force that his own gallant band, nowdiminished by half, would fall a helpless prey to them?

  There broke out at this instant, ahead of him, a pandemonium of cries,which seemed too great to proceed even from the mingled horde of Frenchand Spanish in Vallejo. The foremost of his men were now at grips therewith the enemy. He dashed into the house, and found a desperate combatin progress there, but was surprised to see no Frenchmen upon his flank.He had expected to find those who had rushed along the road now pouringinto the house through the gap in the walls. But the French in thehouse were engaged on two sides; on one side by Jack's own party, on theother by the second sortie-party, under Antonio's command. That was notall. Amid the din Jack heard the stentorian voice of Jorge Arcosshouting words of encouragement to his men and of obloquy to the French;immediately afterwards the bellow of Tio Jorge echoed through the ruins.Jack understood now what had so suddenly checked the French in thestreet. How the great mob-leaders had come upon the scene he knew not;it was sufficient that they had come in the nick of time. They hadevidently manned the nearest barricade, and, battered as that had been,it was good enough yet to afford a strong defence. With a sense ofrelief Jack threw himself into the midst of the fray; in a few momentsthe French in Vallejo were accounted for. Emerging into the street,Jack saw his bulky friend chasing the French back towards the spikedgun. The sudden sally over the barricade, when they least expected it,and when their ranks were in the disorder of pursuit, had been too muchfor the enemy. They gave way before Tio Jorge's impetuous rush; then,as Jack, with a feeling of elation that once more the enemy were foiled,arrived at the barricade, he heard Jorge Arcos shout to his men toretire, and they came pelting back, followed by a few wild shots fromthe discomfited French.

  "Viva la Espana! Viva Saragossa! Viva el Senor Ingles! Viva TioJorge!"

  The air rang with the jubilant shouts of the Spaniards, panting,dishevelled, many of them utterly exhausted. A strange calm succeededthe turmoil. Scarcely a live Frenchman was now to be seen; the groundwas strewn with dead, and with wounded whom Jack did not dare to remove.He knew that the lull could only be temporary; the French wouldundoubtedly send for reinforcements. After their successive checks theywould not be content until they could bring absolutely crushing force tobear upon the obstinate defenders. The crisis was still to come, andJack, after warmly congratulating Tio Jorge and Jorge Arcos, as well asAntonio, on the brilliant success they had done so much to bring about,returned to the Casa Alvarez to concert means of meeting the mostformidable attack of all.

  Before he reached the house he saw a girl flying towards him, hermantilla streaming behind.

  "Oh, Jack, Jack," she cried, "I thought you would be killed!"

  "Juanita!" he exclaimed. "But you should not be here. It is no placefor you. You ought not to have run into danger. Come back with me atonce."

  "I came to help. I will help! Tia Teresa died last night; I have noone now. I can do something. And you--you are hurt! Oh, Jack, you arecovered with blood! Come, come, at once, let me do something for you."

  "I didn't know it," said Jack simply. He brushed his hand across hisbrow; it was smeared with blood. Looking at his coat he saw bloodtrickling through a rent in the sleeve. "It's nothing," he said. "Idon't feel a scratch. If you must help, Juanita--and it is brave ofyou,--why, there are many others who need attention more than I."

  "You first, Jack. Come at once; I insist! How can you lead your men ifyou are blinded with blood? Jack, you are doing grandly; it issplendid!"

  "You are right, Senorita," put in Tio Jorge, who had come up with them."All the men say the English Senor is a hero, and, por Dios! the Frenchwill never get the better of him."

  By this time they had reached the house, where Juanita insisted onbathing and binding up Ja
ck's wounds before she attended to any of theothers. Jorge Arcos had been slightly wounded in the dash across thebarricade, and afterwards Jack remembered, with a strange glow, theroughly-expressed gratitude of the savage innkeeper as Juanita tenderlyassisted him.

  While she went about on her errand of mercy, Jack consulted with hislieutenants. The new-comers recognized him unhesitatingly as theirleader, and declared that they would remain with him and support him tothe utmost of their power. None doubted that the next fight would bethe most terrible of all; it was only a question how long an intervalwould elapse before it came. The Spaniards had lost some forty mensince the morning; they were all on the verge of collapse; only DonCristobal's men, who had been unmolested at the Vega barricade, were forthe moment fit for active work.

  To ascertain the movements of the French, Jack went with Tio Jorge andJorge Arcos to the roof of the Casa Hontanon, that adjoined the emptyshell of Vallejo. From that coign of vantage they could overlook thewhole district. After a time they saw in the distance a compact body ofsome 200 men approaching through the ruins from the direction of theFranciscan convent. With great difficulty they were dragging a gun overthe heaps of obstacles. It must have been taken from one of thebatteries now mounted near the Coso. Slowly they approached; nearly anhour elapsed between their first appearance and the placing of the gunat the end of the street facing the Tobar barricade, on the same spotwhence the spiked gun had been withdrawn.

  As soon as the gun was fairly in position, a renewal of the bombardmentof the barricade was commenced, and the sound of heavy shots showed thatan attack was being simultaneously made on the Vega barricade.

  "We can't hold Vallejo any longer," said Jack. "We shall be cut offfrom support."

  "Not so, Senor," said Arcos at once. "I will hold it with twenty men.If the French capture it, our flank will be at their mercy."

  "But if the French attack in force you cannot escape."

  "Caramba, Senor! What does that matter? A man must die, and I vow I'drather die fighting for Saragossa than of fever in the cellars--or ofrage in a French prison."

  "You are a true son of Spain, hombre," exclaimed Jack, and the gleam inArcos's eyes showed that he wished for no higher praise. "Thebarricades, now--it is useless to attempt to repair them?"

  "Si, Senor," replied Tio Jorge, "but we can fill up the breaches withsacks and baskets of earth, if we push them out from the sides of thestreet."

  "Very well. Will you see that that is done?"

  Tio Jorge instantly departed on his errand. Arcos had already gone toselect his twenty men for the perilous post in the ruins of Vallejo.

  At half-past three in the afternoon the French cannonade suddenlyceased. Jack had placed his men in position, but as he saw that nearlya thousand men were being launched against scarcely more than twohundred, he felt that even the desperate valour of his patriotic troopscould not prevail against such odds. But it never occurred to him, orto a single member of his gallant force, that there was any alternativeto the one simple course--to hold on to the end. Palafox had entrustedhim with the defence of that quarter; he would defend it to the lastgasp, and he knew that no British officer in the same situation wouldhave come to any other conclusion.

  The attack had begun. In the two streets the French were rushing tenabreast at the barricades. In the ruins approaching Vega and Vallejotheir formation was necessarily broken, but they swept forward with adash and a courage which Jack, remembering their former failures, couldnot but regard as magnificent. The front ranks seemed to melt awayunder the fire of the defenders, who, well disciplined by their longexperience, fired calmly and with deadly accuracy, wasting no powder,and watching the French advance in seeming unconcern. But though theenemy fell by scores, there was no halting now. They swarmed up to andthrough the breached barricades, and ran a race with death towards thegrim skeletons of the shattered houses. For a few seconds there was atense silence; the majority of the defenders had discharged their piecesand were either reloading or preparing to repel with the bayonet. Thenthe opposing forces met; there was a sudden babel of noise, steelclashing against steel, pistols cracking, men shouting fiercely in theirseveral tongues, and some crying out in the agony of death. The streetwas narrow; for a time the French could make but little impression onthe unbroken front opposed to them, but Jack, from his post on the roofof Hontanon, saw that it was now a question of the most desperate closefighting. As soon as the head of the attacking column was lost to viewbeneath him, he hurried down to take his part in the tremendousstruggle.

  It was as he had feared. As soon as the French swarmed over the Vallejobarricade, the Casa Vallejo and its garrison became completely isolated.At the moment of his arrival a furious fight was proceeding at the innerbarricade. The French charge, led by a gigantic Polish officer, haddriven the Spaniards behind their last defence and threatened todislodge them from that. Jack at once summoned twenty men from thereserve stationed at the Casa Alvarez, and with them threw himself intothe breach, where, amid fragments of beams, displaced sacks and basketsof earth, and the debris of part of the wall of Vallejo thrown down bythe explosion of the fougasse, a stern hand-to-hand fight was beingwaged. It was almost impossible, in the turmoil and rush, todistinguish friends from foes, but in the centre of the human whirlpoolthe huge form of the Polish officer was conspicuous. He was wielding alarge bar of iron, which he had picked up among the ruins, and even atthat moment Jack marvelled at the man's immense strength. Disdainingthe blows aimed at him by men who looked mere pigmies beside him, he wasstep by step forcing a way through the barricade towards the open spacefronting the Casa Alvarez. Jack, with his reinforcements, had arrivednot a moment too soon. As he pushed through towards the spot where thedeadly iron, wielded with as much ease as though it had been a malaccacane, rose and fell with fatal regularity, the onward rush of the Frenchwas stayed for a moment. Another second would have brought the twoleaders together; but Jack was not yet to cross weapons with the Pole.At the very instant when they came within striking distance there was aterrible crash; Pole and Englishman started instinctively. A huge massof masonry had fallen from Vallejo upon the outer barricade, into themidst of the crowded ranks of the Frenchmen, of whom a score at leastwere buried beneath the ruins. Even above the clash of weapons, theshouts of the combatants, and the groans of the wounded, a shrillmocking voice could be heard exulting in the deadly effect of theavalanche, and raining frantic curses upon the French. In the moment ofsurprise the enemy gave way. Glancing up, Jack saw the figure of themadwoman, the demented Dona Mercedes Ortega, giddily poised upon ajagged corner of masonry that threatened every instant to follow therest into the street below. The poor creature had seen from the CasaAlvarez that the outer wall of Vallejo had been so breached that a pushwould precipitate it into the street upon the barricade. Escaping fromJuanita's detaining hand, as Jack afterwards learnt, she had crept fromthe roof of the Casa Hontanon on to the wall of Vallejo; had leapt frompoint to point of the uneven summit, reached the corner overlooking thestreet, and with the strength of frenzy had pushed the masonry down,working more havoc among the enemy than had been wrought by many anelaborately-prepared mine.

  While she stood on her precarious eminence, wildly gesticulating in herinsane triumph, there was the report of a musket from down the street.She swayed for a brief moment upon the crumbling wall, uttered oneheart-rending shriek of "Juanino!" and fell lifeless upon the ruinsbelow.

  The interruption was but momentary. At the instant when the haplessDona Mercedes fell, Jorge Arcos, desperately wounded, struggled from theruins of Vallejo, followed by half a dozen of his men, all showingterrible signs of the struggle they had made to hold the position. Whilea portion of Jack's force continued their gallant attempt to repel theFrench from the barricade, the rest swarmed into the house, only to bedriven out again with heavy loss by the enemy, who, backed by a largeforce in the ruins, had now an overwhelming superiority in numbers. Inthe street the gigantic Pole, swept away from bef
ore Jack, returned tothe attack at the head of a compact band of his compatriots, and theSpaniards, still fighting furiously, were driven back inch by inchthrough the gap in the barricade, their retirement being hastened byshots from the walls of the Casa Tobar, which, together with itsneighbour, the ruined Casa Vega, had fallen into French hands. Save forthe Casa Alvarez and the surrounding streets, the whole of the quartertowards Santa Engracia had now been captured, and Jack, extricatinghimself from the melee, saw that it was time to play his last card.

  "Senor," said Antonio, running up at this moment, "Don Cristobal sendsme to say that he still holds his barricade, but that he will not beable to do so for more than a few minutes longer."

  "You are the man I want, Antonio," replied Jack. "Run to the CasaAlvarez, send every man of the reserve to me, and go into the cellarsand fire the last of our mines. Don't wait; do it at once."

  Antonio, who was almost unrecognizable from his wounds, at once returnedto the house. Immediately afterwards the remnant of the reserve dashedout, and threw themselves into the fray with a vigour which for a momentchecked the enemy's advance. A few seconds later there came thedeafening crash which Jack expected. Huge fragments of the walls of thehouses were projected into the street, injuring a few of the Spaniardswho were still tenaciously defending the extremities of the innerVallejo barricade, but working fearful havoc among the French betweenthe two barricades and in the street beyond. Volumes of blinding smokepoured from the shattered houses, into which, at Jack's order, Antoniorushed with a party of men. He himself, calling on the rest of histroops to follow him, sprang through the barricade, leading an impetuouscharge against the distraught enemy. Even as he did so he heard thestrident voice of Santiago Sass behind him, urging on the men, andshouting Latin words of denunciation and triumph. Dismayed by theirrepeated failures, appalled at the apparent inexhaustibility of thedefenders' resources, the French were now giving way like sheep, inspite of all the exertions, example, and admonition of their officers.The big Pole, carried away in the rush towards the outer barricade,there turned and lifted his iron bar to deliver a crushing blow at Jack,who was just behind him. The fraction of a second occupied by hiswheeling round cost him his life. Before the blow could fall, Jackclosed with him and ran him through the body.

  Meanwhile the French in Vallejo, some of whom had been hurt by portionsof the flying masonry, had caught the infection of panic, evacuated theposition, and fled helter-skelter across the ruins. Jack saw the dangerof allowing his men to become widely scattered in pursuit. Stopping atthe outer barricade, he ordered his men to withdraw, in spite of thefrenzied imprecations of Santiago Sass, who would have thrown himselfsingle-handed against a host. The Spaniards retired slowly; they wereclearly indisposed to relinquish the pursuit, though all were well-nighspent, and some, indeed, when the excitement had subsided, dropped theirweapons and fell beside them on the ground. At length the whole of theforce was withdrawn behind the inner barricade.

  Jack stood there panting, wondering how long respite he would havebefore the French came on again, when he heard his name called frombehind, and, turning, saw Juanita running towards him.

  "Go back!" he cried; "for God's sake, go back, Juanita! This is noplace for you."

  "A white flag, Jack! a white flag!"

  "What do you mean?"

  "A man is coming round the corner of the street with a white flag. Isaw him from a window."

  "What! Another regiment coming to attack us!"

  "No, it is not a regiment. It is one man carrying a small white flag,and another, an officer, walking by his side. Oh, it must be a flag oftruce, Jack! See, there he is, turning the corner of the street."

  It was as she said. Above the epaulement protecting the French gun atthe end of the street a white flag was held aloft. A moment afterwardsthe Frenchman bearing it stepped into the street, and, accompanied by anofficer, began to approach Jack's position, picking his way among thedebris and the bodies of the slain.

  "I must go to meet him," said Jack. "Have you anything to match hisflag, Juanita? I've nothing fit to be seen."

  Juanita handed him her handkerchief. Tying this to a musket, Jack gavehis extemporized flag to one of his men, and walked down the street tomeet the Frenchman.