The Freebooters: A Story of the Texan War

  CHAPTER XIII.

  THE SIEGE.

  While all this was going on, the hunters, as we mentioned before,resumed their journey, so soon as the Apaches disappeared. The night wasclear, and the hunters marched in Indian file, that is to say, one afterthe other; still, through a prudential motive, Carmela was placedpillion-wise behind Tranquil, while Singing-bird rode with Black-deer.

  The Canadian had whispered a few words to Lanzi and Quoniam, upon whichthe two men, without replying, dug their spurs in, and started at agallop.

  "When you have ladies with you," Tranquil said, with a laugh to LoyalHeart, "it is necessary to take precautions."

  The hunter, however, did not ask him for any explanation, and the fourmen continued their march in silence. During the whole night nothingoccurred to disturb their journey; the Apaches kept their wordfaithfully, and had really withdrawn. Tranquil had not for a momentdoubted their promise. At times the hunter turned to the maiden, andasked her with ill-disguised anxiety if she felt fatigued, but Carmelaconstantly replied in the negative. A few minutes before sunrise, hebent down to her for the last time.

  "Courage," he said, "we shall soon arrive."

  The girl attempted to smile, but this long night spent on horseback hadcrushed her; she could not even find the courage to answer, soannihilated was she, and Tranquil, anxious for his daughter, hurried on.Still in the sunbeams, whose warmth caressed her, the maiden feltnewborn, her courage returned, and she drew herself up with a sigh ofrelief. The journey, then, became more gay; for each, on this muchdesired appearance of day, had forgotten his fatigue and the emotions ofthe past night. Two hours later they reached the base of a hill, halfwayup which was a natural grotto.

  "Our friends are expecting us there," said Tranquil.

  A few moments later, the little band entered the grotto on horseback,without leaving any traces of its passage. This grotto, like many othersin that country, possessed several entrances, and through thispeculiarity it often served as a refuge to the wood rangers, who, beingthoroughly conversant with all its windings, could easily escape fromthe search of any enemies who might have followed their trail. It wasdivided into several compartments, without visible communication witheach other, and formed a species of maze, which ran with inextricablewindings under the whole of the hill. On the prairie the name of theJaguar's grotto had been given it.

  The two hunters, sent forward by the Canadian, were seated by anenormous fire of heather, and quietly roasting a magnificent haunch ofvenison, as they silently smoked their pipes. Although they must havebeen waiting a long time for their friends, on the arrival of Tranquiland his comrades they contented themselves with a slight bow, and didnot evince the slightest desire to know what had occurred since theirdeparture, for these men had lived so long on the desert, that they hadgrown to assume all the Indian habits. Tranquil led the two females intoa grotto a considerable distance from the principal one.

  "Here," he said in a gentle whisper, "you must speak as little aspossible, and as low as you can, for you never know what neighbours youmay have; pay great attention to this piece of advice, for your safetydepends on it. If you require me, or have an inclination to join us, youknow where we are, and it is an easy matter for you to come; good-bye."

  His daughter caught him by the arm for a moment, and whispered in hisear. He bowed in reply, and went out. When the two females foundthemselves alone, their first impulse was to fall into each other'sarms. This first emotion past, they lay on the ground with that feelingof comfort which is experienced when you have sighed during a longperiod for a rest, the want of which you greatly feel. At the expirationof about an hour, Tranquil returned.

  "Are we going to start again?" Carmela asked hurriedly, with anill-disguised agitation.

  "On the contrary, I expect to remain here till sunset."

  "Heaven be praised!" the maiden exclaimed.

  "I have come to tell you that breakfast is ready, and that we are onlyawaiting your presence to begin our meal."

  "Eat without us, my dear papa," Carmela answered; "at this moment wehave more need of sleep than anything else."

  "Sleep if you like; I have brought you, however, male clothing, which Imust ask you to put on."

  "What, father, dress ourselves as men?" Carmela said in surprise, andwith a slight repugnance.

  "You must, child--it is indispensable."

  "In that case I will obey you, father."

  "Thank you, my daughter."

  The hunter withdrew, and the two young women soon fell asleep. Theirsleep lasted a long time, for the sun was beginning to sink beneath thehorizon, when they awoke, completely recovered from their fatigue.Carmela, fresh and rosy, felt no effects of the long sleeplessness ofthe preceding night; and the Indian girl, stronger, or more hardened,had not suffered so much as her companion. The two girls then began,while chattering and laughing, to prepare everything necessary for thedisguise the hunter had recommended them.

  "Let us begin our toilette," Carmela said gaily to Singing-bird.

  At the moment when they were removing their dresses, they heard thenoise of footsteps near them, and turned like two startled fawns,thinking that Tranquil was coming to see whether they were awake yet;but a couple of words distinctly pronounced, caused them to listen, andstand quivering with emotion, surprise, and curiosity.

  "My brother has been a long time," the voice had said, which seemed tobelong to a man standing scarce three paces from them; "I have beenexpecting him for two hours."

  "By Heaven, Chief, your remark is perfectly correct; but it wasimpossible for me to come sooner," another person immediately answered,whose strongly pronounced accent proved to be a foreigner.

  "My brother will speak without loss of tune."

  "That is what I intend doing,"

  At this moment Tranquil came up. The young women laid the forefinger ontheir lips, recommending silence; the hunter understood what this meant,and advanced on tiptoe to listen.

  "The Jaguar," the second speaker continued, "desires most eagerly that,in accordance with the promise you made him, you should join his armywith your warriors."

  "Up to the present that has been impossible."

  "Blue-fox!" Tranquil muttered.

  "I warn you that he accuses you of breach of faith."

  "The Pale Chief is wrong; a Sachem is not a chattering old woman whoknows not what he says. This evening I shall join him with two hundredpicked warriors."

  "We shall see, Chief."

  "At the first song of the mankawis, the Apache warriors will enter thecamp."

  "All the better. The Jaguar is preparing a general assault on the fort,and only awaits your arrival to give the signal of attack."

  "I repeat to my brother that the Apaches will not fail."

  "Those confounded Mexicans fight like demons; the man who commands themseems to have galvanized them, they second him so well. There was onlyone good officer in the Mexican army, and we are obliged to fightagainst him. It is really most unlucky."

  "The Chief of the Yoris is not invulnerable. The arrows of the Apachesare long--they will kill him."

  "Nonsense," the other said ill-temperedly; "this man seems to have acharm that protects him. Our Kentuckian rifles are wonderfully true, andour marksmen possess a far from common skill; but no bullet can hithim."

  "While coming to this grotto, Blue-fox raised the scalp of a Chief ofthe Yoris."

  "Ah!" the first speaker observed with indifference.

  "Here it is; this man was the bearer of a necklace."

  "A letter, by Heavens!" the other exclaimed anxiously; "What have youdone with it? You have not destroyed it, I trust?"

  "No, the Chief has kept it."

  "You did well. Show it to me, perhaps it is important."

  "Wah! It is some medicine of the Palefaces; a Chief does not want it; mybrother can take it."

  "Thanks!"

  There was a moment's silence, during which the hearts of the threehearers might have been heard beating
in unison, so great was theiranxiety.

  "By Jove!" the white man suddenly burst out; "A letter addressed toColonel Don Juan Melendez de Gongora, Commandant of the Larch-tree, byGeneral Rubio. You were in luck's way, Chief. Are you sure that thebearer of this letter is dead?"

  "It was Blue-fox who killed him."

  "In that case I feel confident, for I can trust to you. Now, this iswhat you must do: so soon as----"

  But while speaking thus, the two men had withdrawn, and the sound oftheir voices was lost in the distance, so that it was impossible to hearthe termination of the sentence, or guess its purport.

  The two women turned round. Tranquil had disappeared, and they wereagain alone. Carmela, after listening to this strange conversation, ofwhich accident allowed her to catch a few fragments, had fallen into aprofound reverie, which her companion, with that sense of proprietyinnate in Indians, was careful not to disturb.

  In the meanwhile, time slipped away, the gloom grew denser in thegrotto, for night had set in; the two young women, afraid to remainalone in the obscurity, were preparing to rejoin their companions, whenthey heard the sound of footsteps, and Tranquil entered.

  "What!" he said to them, "Not ready yet? Make haste to put on yourmasculine attire, for every minute is an age."

  The girls did not allow this to be repeated; they disappeared in anadjoining compartment, and returned a few minutes later, entirelydisguised.

  "Good," the Canadian said, after examining them for a moment; "we aregoing to try and enter the Larch-tree hacienda. Now follow me, and beprudent."

  The eight persons left the grotto, gliding along in the darkness likephantoms.

  No one, unless he has tried the experiment, can imagine what a nightmarch on the desert is, when you are afraid each moment of falling intothe hands of invisible enemies, who watch you behind every bush.Tranquil had placed himself at the head of the little party, who marchedin Indian file, at times stooping to the ground, going on his hands andknees, or crawling on his stomach so as to avoid notice.

  Do?a Carmela, in spite of the extraordinary difficulties she had tosurmount, advanced with admirable courage, never complaining, andenduring, without seeming to notice them, the scratches of the roots andbrambles, which lacerated her hands, and caused her atrocious suffering.After three hours of gigantic effort in following Tranquil's trail, thelatter stopped, and had them look around them. They raised their heads,and found themselves in the camp of the Texan insurgents. All aroundthem, in the moonbeams, they could see the elongated shadows of Indiansentries, leaning on their long lances, motionless as equestrianstatues, who were watching over the safety of their Paleface brothers.The young women felt a thrill of terror run over their persons at thissight, which was not of a nature to reassure them.

  Fortunately for them, the Indians keep very bad guard, and mostgenerally only place sentries to frighten the enemy. On this occasion,as they knew very well, they had no sortie to apprehend on the part ofthe Larch-tree garrison, the sentinels were nearly all asleep; but theslightest badly-calculated move, the merest false step, might arousethem, for these men, who are habituated in keeping their senses alive,can hardly ever be taken unawares.

  At about two hundred yards at the most from the adventurers were theadvanced works of the Larch-tree, gloomy, silent, and apparently, atleast, abandoned or plunged in sleep. Tranquil had only stopped to lethis comrades fully understand the imminent danger to which they wereexposed, and urge them to redouble their caution, for, at the slightestweakness, they would be lost. After this they started again. Theyadvanced thus for one hundred yards, or about half the distanceseparating them from the Larch-tree, when suddenly, at the moment whenTranquil stretched out his arms to shelter himself behind a sandhill,several men, crawling in the opposite direction found themselves face toface with him. There was a second of terrible anxiety.

  "Who goes there?" a low and menacing voice asked.

  "Oh!" he said; "We are saved! It is I--Tranquil the Tigrero."

  "Who are the persons with you?"

  "Wood rangers, for whom I answer."

  "Very good; pass on."

  The two parties separated, and crawled in opposite directions. The bandwith which the hunters exchanged these few words was commanded by DonFelix Paz, who, more vigilant than the Texans, was making a round of theglacis to assure himself that all was quiet, and no surprise need befeared. It was very lucky for Tranquil and his companions that theJaguar, in order to do honour to Blue-fox, had this night intrusted thecamp guard to his warriors, and that, confiding in the Redskins, theTexans had gone to sleep, with that carelessness characteristic ofAmericans; for, with other sentries than those through whom they hadglided unseen, the adventurers must infallibly have been captured.

  Ten minutes after their encounter with Don Felix, which might haveturned out so fatally for them, the hunters reached the gates, and atthe mention of Tranquil's name a passage was at once granted them. Theywere at length in safety within the hacienda, and it was high time thatthey should arrive; a few minutes longer and, Carmela and her companionwould have fallen by the wayside. In spite of all their courage andgoodwill, the girls could no longer keep up, their strength wasexhausted. Hence, so soon as the danger had passed, and the nervousexcitement, which alone sustained them, ceased, they fell downunconscious.

  Tranquil raised Carmela in his arms, and carried her to the interior ofthe hacienda; while Black-deer, who, in spite of his apparentinsensibility, adored his squaw, hurried up to restore her to life.

  The unexpected arrival of Tranquil caused a general joy among theinhabitants of the hacienda, who all had a deep friendship for this man,whose glorious character they had had so many opportunities ofappreciating. The hunter was still busied with his daughter, who wasjust beginning to recover her senses, when Don Felix Paz, who hadfinished his rounds, entered the cuarto, with a message from the Colonelto the Canadian, begging the latter to come to him at once.

  Tranquil obeyed, for Do?a Carmela no longer required his assistance--themaiden had scarce regained her senses, ere she fell into a deep sleep,the natural result of the enormous fatigue she had endured duringseveral days. While proceeding to the Colonel's apartments, Tranquilquestioned the major-domo, with whom he had been connected for severalyears, and who had no scruples about answering the hunter's queries.

  Matters were far from being well at the Larch-tree; the siege wascarried on with an extraordinary obstinacy on both sides, and with manystrange interludes. The insurgents, greatly annoyed by the artillery ofthe fort, which killed a great many of them, and to which they could notreply, owing to their absolute want of cannon, had adopted a system ofreprisals, which caused the besieged considerable injury. This simplesystem was as follows: The insurgents, who were mostly hunters, wereexceedingly skilful marksmen, and renowned as such in a country wherethe science of firing is carried to its extreme limits. A certain numberof these marksmen sheltered themselves behind the epaulments of thecamp; and each time a gunner attempted to load a piece, they infalliblyshot away his hands.

  This had been carried so far, that nearly all the gunners were _hors decombat_, and it was only at very long intervals that a gun was firedfrom the fort. This isolated shot, badly aimed, owing to theprecipitancy with which the men laid the gun, through their fear ofbeing mutilated, caused but insignificant damage to the insurgents, whoapplauded, with reason, the good result of their scheme.

  On the other hand, the fort was so closely invested, and watched withsuch care, that no one could enter or quit it. It was impossible forthose in the fort to understand how it was that the adventurers hadmanaged to slip in after traversing the whole length of the enemy'scamp. We must state, too, in order to treat everybody with justice, thatthe adventurers understood it less than anybody.

  The garrison of the hacienda lived, then, as if they had been roughlycut off from the world, for no sound transpired without, and no newsreached them. This situation was extremely disagreeable to theMexicans; unfortunately for them, it was dai
ly aggravated, andthreatened to become, ere long, completely intolerable. ColonelMelendez, since the beginning of the siege, had proved himself what hewas, that is to say, an officer of rare merit, with a vigilance nothingcould foil, and a trustworthy bravery. Seeing his gunners so cruellydecimated by the Texan bullets, he undertook to take their place,loading the guns at his own peril, and firing them at the insurgents.

  Such courage struck the Texans with so great admiration, that althoughit would several times have been easy for them to kill their daring foe,their rifles had constantly turned away from this man, who seemed tofind a delight in braving death at every moment. The Jaguar, whileclosely investing the fort, and eagerly desiring to carry it, had givenperemptory orders to spare the life of his friend, whom he could notrefrain from pitying and admiring, as much for his courage as for hisdevotion to the cause he served.

  Although it was near midnight, the Colonel was still up; at the momentwhen the hunter was brought to him, he was walking thoughtfully up anddown his bedroom, consulting from time to time a detailed plan, of thefortifications that lay open on a table.

  Tranquil's arrival caused him great satisfaction, for he hoped to obtainfrom him news from without. Unfortunately, the hunter did not know muchabout the political state of the country, owing to the isolated life heled in the forests. Still, he answered with the greatest frankness allthe questions the Colonel thought proper to ask him, and gave him thelittle information he had been enabled to collect; then he told him thevarious incidents of his own journey. At the name of Carmela the youngofficer was slightly troubled, and a vivid flush suffused his face; buthe recovered, and listened attentively to the hunter's story. When thelatter came to the incident in the grotto, and the fragment ofconversation he had overheard between the Apache Chief and the Texan,his interest was greatly excited, and he made him repeat the story.

  "Oh, that letter," he muttered several times, "that letter; what would Inot give to know its contents!"

  Unhappily, that was impossible. After a moment, the Colonel beggedTranquil to continue his story. The hunter then told him in what way hehad managed to cross the enemy's lines and introduce himself into thefort. This bold action greatly struck the Colonel.

  "You were more fortunate than prudent," he said, "in thus venturing intothe midst of your enemies."

  The hunter smiled good-temperedly.

  "I was almost certain of succeeding," he said.

  "How so?"

  "I have had a long experience of Indian habits, which enables me to makenearly certain with them."

  "Granted; but in this case you had not Indians to deal with."

  "Pardon me, Colonel."

  "I do not understand you, so be kind enough to explain."

  "That is an easy matter. Blue-fox entered the Texan camp this evening,at the head of two hundred warriors."

  "I was not aware of it," the Colonel said, in surprise.

  "The Jaguar, to do honour to his terrible allies, confided to them thecamp guard for this night."

  "Hence?"

  "Hence, Colonel, all the Texans are sleeping soundly at this moment,while the Apaches are watching, or, at least, ought to be watching overthe safety of their lives."

  "What do you mean by ought to be watching?"

  "I mean that the Redskins do not at all understand our manner ofcarrying on war, are not accustomed to sentinel duty, and so everybodyis asleep in the camp."

  "Ah!" said the Colonel, as he began once more, with a thoughtful air,the promenade he had interrupted to listen to the hunter's story.

  The latter waited, taking an interrogative glance at Don Felix, who hadremained in the room till it pleased the Commandant to dismiss him. Afew minutes passed, and not a syllable was exchanged; Don Juan seemed tobe plunged in serious thought. All at once he stopped before the hunter,and looked him full in the face.

  "I have known you for a long time by reputation," he said, sharply. "Youpass for an honest man, who can be trusted."

  The Canadian bowed, not understanding to what these preliminariestended.

  "I think you said the enemy's camp was plunged in sleep?" the Colonelcontinued.

  "That is my conviction," Tranquil answered; "we crossed their lines tooeasily for it to be otherwise."

  Don Felix drew nearer.

  "Yes," the young officer muttered, "we might give them a lesson."

  "A lesson they greatly need," the Major-domo added.

  "Ah, ah!" the Colonel said, with a smile; "Then you understand me, DonFelix?"

  "Of course."

  "And you approve?"

  "Perfectly."

  "It is one in the morning," the Colonel went on, as he looked at a clockstanding on a console; "at this moment sleep is the deepest. Well, wewill attempt a sortie; have the officers of the garrison aroused."

  The Major-domo went out: five minutes later the officers, stillhalf-asleep, obeyed their Chief's orders.

  "Caballeros," the latter said to them, so soon as he saw them allcollected round him, "I have resolved to make a sortie against therebels, surprise them, and fire their camp, if it be possible. Selectfrom your soldiers one hundred and fifty men, in whom you can trust;supply them with inflammable matters, and in five minutes let them bedrawn up in the Patio. Go; and before all, I recommend you the deepestsilence."

  The officers bowed, and at once left the room. The Colonel then turnedto Tranquil.

  "Are you tired?" he asked him.

  "I am never so."

  "You are skilful?"

  "So they say."

  "Very good. You will serve as our guide; unfortunately, I want twoothers."

  "I can procure them for your Excellency."

  "You?"

  "Yes, a wood ranger and a Comanche Chief, who entered the fort with me,and for whom I answer with my life; Loyal Heart and Black-deer.

  "Warn them, then, and all three wait for me in the Patio."

  Tranquil hastened to call his friends.

  "If that hunter has spoken the truth, and I believe he has," the Colonelcontinued, addressing the Major-domo, "I am convinced we shall have anexcellent opportunity for repaying the rebels a hundredfold the harmthey have done us. Do you accompany me, Don Felix?"

  "I would not for a fortune leave you one inch, under suchcircumstances."

  "Come, then, for the detachment must be ready by this time."

  They went out.