"Oh, Excellency!" he said, reproachfully, "How is it possible that you, who have hitherto been so kind to us, could have had the thought of committing such an act of cruelty?"
The General burst out laughing.
"Do you imagine I would have done it?" he said, with a shrug of his shoulder.
The merchant struck his forehead with a gesture of despair.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, "We were idiots."
"Hang it, did you have such a bad opinion of me? Caramba, Señor, I do not commit such acts as that."
"Ah," the merchant said, with a laugh, "I have not paid yet."
"Which means?"
"That now I know what I have to expect. I shall not pay."
"Really, I believed you cleverer than that."
"Why so?"
"What? You do not understand that a man may hesitate to execute thirty persons, but when it comes to only one man, who, like yourself, has a great number of misdeeds on his conscience, his execution is considered an act of justice, and carried out without hesitation?"
"Then, you would shoot me?"
"Without the slightest remorse."
"Come, come, General, you are decidedly stronger than I am."
"You flatter me, Señor Lionel."
"No, I tell you what I think; it was cleverly played."
"You are a judge."
"Thanks," he answered, with a modest smile. "To spare you the trouble of having me executed, I will execute myself," he added, good temperedly, as he felt his coat pocket.
He drew out a pocketbook crammed with Bank of England notes, and made up the sum of two thousand piastres, which he laid on the table.
"I have now only to thank you," the General said, as he picked up the notes.
"And I you, Excellency," he answered.
"Why so?"
"Because you have given me a lesson by which I shall profit when the occasion offers."
"Take care, Señor Lionel," the General said, meaningly; "you will not, perhaps, come across a man so good-natured as myself."
The merchant restored the portfolio to his pocket, bowed to the General, and went out. It was three o'clock; all had been finished in less than an hour; it was quick work.
"Poor scamps, after all, those gringos," the General said, when he was alone; "oh, if we had not to deal with mountaineers and campesinos we should soon settle this population."
"General," said an aide-de-camp, as he opened the door, "Colonel Melendez asks whether you will deign to receive him, in spite of the late hour?"
"Is Colonel Melendez here?" the General asked in surprise.
"He has this instant arrived, General; can he come in?"
"Of course; show him in at once."
In a few minutes the Colonel appeared.
"Here you are at last," the General cried, as he went to meet him; "I fancied you were either dead or a prisoner."
"It was a tossup that one of the two events did not happen."
"Oh, oh! Then you have something serious to tell me."
"Most serious, General."
"Hang it, my friend, take a chair and let us talk."
"Before all, General," the Colonel remarked, "do you know our position?"
"What do you mean?"
"Only, General, that you may possibly be ignorant of certain events that have happened."
"I think I have heard grave events rumoured, though I do not exactly know what has happened."
"Listen, then! The Libertad corvette is in the hands of the insurgents."
"Impossible!" the General exclaimed, bounding in his chair.
"General," the young officer said, in a mournful voice, "I have to inform you of something more serious still."
"Pardon me, my friend, perhaps I am mistaken, but it seems to me highly improbable that you could have obtained such positive news during the pleasure trip you have been making."
"Not only, General, have the insurgents seized the Libertad, but they have also made themselves masters of the Fort of the Point."
"Oh!" the General shouted, as he rose passionately, "this time, Colonel, you are badly informed; the Fort of the Point is impregnable."
"It was taken in an hour by thirty Freebooters, commanded by the Jaguar."
The General hid his face in his hands, with an expression of despair impossible to render.
"Oh! It is too much at once," he exclaimed.
"That is not all," the Colonel continued, sharply.
"What have you to tell me more terrible than what you have just said?"
"A thing that will make you leap with rage and blush with shame, General."
The old soldier laid his hand on his heart, as if wishful to arrest its hurried beating, and then said to the Colonel, in a tone of supreme resignation
"Speak, my friend; I am ready to hear all."
The Colonel remained silent for some minutes; the despair of the brave old soldier made him shiver.
"General," he said, "perhaps it would be better to defer till tomorrow what I have to say to you; you appear fatigued, and a few hours, more or less, are not of much consequence."
"Colonel Melendez," the General said, giving the young officer a searching glance, "under present circumstances a minute is worth an age. I order you to speak."
"The insurgents request a parley," the Colonel said, distinctly.
"To parley with me?" the General answered, with an almost imperceptible tinge of irony in his voice. "These Caballeros do me a great honour. And what about, pray?"
"As they think themselves capable of seizing Galveston, they wish to avoid bloodshed by treating with you."
The General rose, and walked sharply up and down the room for some minutes. At length he stopped before the Colonel.
"And what would you do in my place?"
"I should treat," the young officer replied, unhesitatingly.
CHAPTER III
THE RETREAT
After this frankly expressed opinion there was a rather lengthened silence, and the Colonel was the first to resume the conversation.
"General," he went on, "you evidently know nothing of the events that have occurred during the last four and twenty hours."
"How could I know anything? These demons of insurgents have organised Guerillas, who hold the country and so thoroughly intercept the communications, that out of twenty spies I have sent out, not one has returned."
"And not one will return, be assured."
"What is to be done, then?"
"Do you really wish for my advice, General?"
"On my honour, I desire to know your real opinion; for you are the only one among us, I fancy, who really knows what is going on."
"I am aware of it. Listen to me, then, and do not feel astonished at anything you may hear, for all is positively true. The information I am about to have the honour of communicating to you was given me, by the Jaguar himself, scarce three hours back, at the Salto del Frayle, whither he invited me to come to converse about some matters in no way connected with politics."
"Very good," the General remarked, with a slight smile. "Go on, I am listening to you with the deepest attention."
The Colonel felt himself blush under his chief's slightly ironical smile; still he recovered himself, and continued
"In two words, this is our position: while a few bold men, aided by a privateer brig under the American flag, carried by surprise the Libertad "
"One of the finest ships in our navy!" the General interrupted, with a sigh.
"Yes, General, but unhappily it is now an accomplished fact. While this was taking place, other insurgents, commanded by the Jaguar in person, got into the Fort of the Point, and carried it almost without a blow."
"But what you tell me is impossible!" the old soldier interrupted with a burst of passion.
"I tell you nothing that is not rigorously true, General."
"The vague rumours that have reached me, led me to suppose that the insurgents had dealt us a fresh blow but I was far from suspecting such a frightful catastrophe."
"I tell you nothing that is not rigorously true, General."
"The vague rumours that have reached me, led me to suppose that the insurgents had dealt us a fresh blow but I was far from suspecting such a frightful catastrophe."
"I swear to you, on my honour, as, a soldier, General, that I only tell you the most rigid truth:"
"I believe you, my friend, for I know how brave and worthy of confidence you are. Still, the news you give me is so frightful, that, in spite of myself, I should like to be able to doubt it."
"Unhappily, that is impossible."
The General, suffering from a fury which was the more terrible as it was concentrated, walked up and down the room, clenching his fists, and muttering broken sentences. The Colonel looked after him sadly, not dreaming of offering him any of those conventional consolations which, far from offering any relief to pain, only render it sharper and more poignant. At the end of some minutes, the General succeeded so far in mastering his emotion as to draw back to his heart the annoyance he felt. He sat down again by the Colonel's side, and took his hand kindly.
"You have not yet given me your advice," he said with a ghost of a smile.
"If you really insist on my speaking, I will do so, General," the young man answered, "though I am convinced beforehand that our ideas are absolutely similar on this question."
"That is probable. Still, my dear Colonel, the opinion of a man of your merits is always precious, and I should be curious to know if I really agree with you."
"Be it so, General. This is what I think: we have but insufficient forces to sustain an assault effectively. The town is very badly disposed toward us: I am convinced that it only wants an opportunity to rise and make common cause with the insurgents. On the other hand, it would be a signal act of folly to shut ourselves up in a town with an issue, where we should be forced to surrender an indelible stain for the Mexican army. For the present, we have no succour to expect from the government of Mexico, which is too much engaged in defending itself against the ambitious men of every description who hold it continually in check, to dream of coming effectively to our assistance, either by sending us reinforcements, or carrying out a diversion in our favour."
"What you say is unfortunately only too true; we are reduced to reckon on ourselves alone."
"Now, if we obstinately shut ourselves up in the town, it is evident to me that we shall be compelled eventually to surrender. As the insurgents are masters of the sea, it is a mere question of time. On the other hand, if we quit it of our free will, the position will be singularly simplified."
"But, in that case, we shall be compelled to treat with these scoundrels?"
"I thought so for an instant; but I believe we can easily avoid that misfortune."
"In what way? speak, speak, my friend."
"The flag of truce the insurgents send you, will not arrive at the cabildo till nine in the morning; what prevents you, General, evacuating the town, ere he makes his appearance?"
"Hum!" said the General, growing more and more attentive to the young man's remarks. "Then you propose flight to me?"
"Not at all," the Colonel retorted; "remember, General, that the position is admitted, that in war, recoiling is not flying. If we render ourselves masters of the country by leaving the town to the insurgents, by this skilful retreat we place them in the difficult position in which we are today. In the open plains, and through our discipline, we shall be enabled to hold our own against a force four times our strength, which would not be possible here; then, when we have obtained those reinforcements Santa Anna will probably himself bring us ere long, we will re-enter Galveston, which the insurgents will not attempt to defend against us. Such is my opinion, General, and the plan I should adopt, had I the honour to be Governor of this State."
"Yes," the General answered, "the advice you offer would have some chance of success, were it possible to follow it. Unluckily, it would be madness to reckon on Santa Anna's support: he would allow us to be crushed, not perhaps of his own will, but compelled by circumstances, and impeded by the constant obstacles the Senate creates for him."
"I cannot share your opinion on that point, General; be well assured that the Senate, ill-disposed though it may be to the President of the Republic, is no more desirous to lose Texas than he is. Besides, under the present circumstances, we must make a virtue of necessity; it would be great madness for us to await here the enemy's attack."
The General seemed to hesitate for some minutes, then, suddenly forming a determination, he rang a bell. An aide-de-camp appeared.
"Let all the general officers assemble here within half an hour," he said. "Begone."
The aide-de-camp bowed, and left the room.
"You wish it," the General continued, turning to the Colonel; "well, be it so. I consent to follow your advice. Besides, it is, perhaps, the only chance of safety left us at this moment."
In Europe, where we are accustomed to see great masses of men come in contact on the field of battle, it would cause a smile to hear the name of army given to what, among us, would not even be a regiment. But we must bear in mind that the new world, excepting North America, is very sparely populated; the inhabitants are scattered over immense districts, and the most imposing regular forces rarely attain the number of five or six thousand men. An army is usually composed of fifteen to eighteen hundred troops, all told, infantry, cavalry, and artillery. And what soldiers! ignorant, badly paid, badly armed, only half obeying their Chiefs, whom they know to be as ignorant as themselves, and in whom they naturally have not the slightest confidence.
In Mexico, the military profession, far from being honoured as it is in Europe, is, on the contrary, despised, so that the officers and soldiers are generally blemished men to whom every other career would be closed. The officers, with a few honourable exceptions, are men ruined by debt and in reputation, whose ignorance of their profession is so great, that one of our sergeants could give them lessons. As for the soldiers, they are only recruited among the leperos, thieves, and assassins. Hence the army is a real scourge for the country. It is the army that makes and unmakes the Governments, which succeed each other with perfectly headlong rapidity in Mexico; for, since its pretended emancipation, this unhappy country has witnessed nearly three hundred pronunciamentos, all organised in the army, and carried through for the benefit of the officers, whose only object is to be promoted.
Still, what we say is not absolute. We have known several Mexican officers, highly educated and honourable men; unluckily their number is so limited, that they are impotent to remedy the evil, and are constrained to put up with what they cannot prevent. General Rubio was undeniably one of the most honourable officers in the Mexican army. Still, we have seen that he did not hesitate to plunder the very persons whom his duty obliged him to protect against all annoyance. My readers can judge by this example, selected from a thousand, what tricks the other Generals play.
The corps d'armée placed under the command of General Rubio, and shut up with him in Galveston, only amounted to nine hundred and fifty officers and men, to whom might be found at a given signal some three hundred lanceros scattered in little posts of observation along the coast. Though incapable of effectually defending the town, this force, well directed, might hold in check for a long time the worse armed, and certainly worse disciplined insurgents.
The General had rapidly seen the value of the Colonel's advice. The plan the latter proposed was, in truth, the only practicable one, and hence he accepted it at once. Still, it was necessary to act with vigour; the sun was rising, and the coming day was Sunday; hence it was important that the army should have evacuated the town before the end of mass, that is to say, eleven in the morning, for the following reason: