Les scalpeurs blancs. English.
CHAPTER XIX.
A PAGE OF HISTORY.
The Jaguar was mistaken, or rather flattered himself, when he said thatthe defeat of Cerro Pardo had caused but an insignificant loss to therevolutionary party; for Galveston, too weak to attempt resistance tothe attack of the Mexican army, surrendered on the first summons, anddid not even attempt a useless demonstration. Still, the young Chief wasrightly astonished that General Rubio, an old experienced soldier, andone of the best officers in the Mexican army, had not attempted tocomplete his victory by definitively crushing his enemies, and pursuingthem to the death. General Rubio really intended not to give those hehad beaten breathing time, but his will was suddenly paralysed byanother more powerful than his own.
The facts that then occurred are so strange, that they deserve to bedescribed in their fullest details. Besides; they are intimately relatedto the facts we have undertaken to narrate, and throw a new light oncertain events connected with the revolution of Texas, which are butlittle known.
We ask our reader's pardon; but we must go back once again, and returnto General Rubio, at the moment when the Texans, broken by ColonelMelendez' charge, and understanding that victory was hopelessly slippingfrom their grasp, began flying in every direction, without trying todefend themselves longer, or keep the ground they held. The General hadstationed himself on an eminence whence he surveyed the wholebattlefield, and followed the movements of the various corps engaged. Sosoon as he saw the disorder produced in the enemy's ranks, he understoodthe advantage he could derive from this precipitate flight, by closelypursuing the fugitives up to the Fort of the Point, where he couldcertainly enter pell-mell without striking a blow. But haste was needed,not to give the enemy time to re-form a little further on, which thechiefs who commanded them would not fail to attempt, if but an hour'srespite were granted them.
The General turned to an aide-de-camp by his side, and was just going tosend Colonel Melendez orders to start all his cavalry in pursuit of theTexans, when a platoon of a dozen lancers suddenly appeared, commandedby an officer who galloped at full speed to the spot where the Generalwas, making signs and waving his hat. The General looked in surprise atthis officer, whom he knew did not belong to his army. A minute later hegave a start of surprise and disappointment, took, a sorrowful glanceat the battlefield, and stood biting his moustache and muttering, in alow voice,
"Confound this saloon officer and sabre clunker! Why did he not remainin Mexico? What does the President mean by sending us this gold plumagedspringald, to make us lose all the profits of the victory?"
At this moment the officer came up to the General, bowed respectfully,drew a large sealed envelope from his breast, and handed it to him. TheGeneral coldly returned the salutation, took the letter, opened it, andlooked at it with a frown; but almost immediately he crumpled the letterup passionately, and addressed the officer, who was standing motionlessand stiff before him.
"You are the aide-de-camp of the President General of the Republic?" hesaid, roughly.
"Yes, General," the officer answered, with a bow.
"Hum! Where is the President at this moment?"
"Four leagues off at the most, with two thousand troops."
"Where has he halted?"
"His Excellency has not halted, General, but, on the contrary, isadvancing with forced marches to join you."
The General gave a start of anger.
"It is well," he continued, presently. "Return at full gallop to hisExcellency, and announce to him my speedy arrival."
"Pardon me, General, but it seems to me that you have not read thedespatch I had the honour of handing you," the officer said,respectfully, but firmly.
The General looked at him askance.
"I have not time at this moment to read the despatch," he said, drily.
At the period when our history takes place, General Don Antonio Lopez deSanta Anna was thirty-nine to forty years of age; he was tall and finelybuilt; he had a lofty and projecting forehead, rounded chin, andslightly aquiline nose, large black eyes, full of expression, and aflexible mouth, which gave him an air of remarkable nobility, while hisblack and curly hair, which formed a contrast to the yellowish tinge ofhis complexion, covered his temples and his high-boned cheeks. Such,physically, was the man who, for thirty years, has been the evil geniusof Mexico, and has led it to infallible ruin by making himself the causeor pretext of all the wars and revolutions which, since his firstassumption of power, have incessantly overwhelmed this unhappy country.
We must now ask our reader's pardon, but we must talk a little politics,and describe cursorily the facts which preceded and led to thedenouement of the too lengthy story we have undertaken to narrate.
If the Mexicans had gained an important advantage over the Texans, inanother portion of the revolted territory they had experienced a check,whose consequences must prove immense for them. The Mexican General Coswas besieged in the town of Bejar by the Texans; the latter, with thatwant of foresight so natural to volunteers of all countries, believingthat they had only a campaign of a few days, had laid in no provisionsor winter clothing, though the rainy season was at hand, hence they werebeginning to grow discouraged and talk about raising the siege; when ElAlferez, that mysterious personage we have come across several times,went to the General in Chief and pledged himself to compel the Mexicansto capitulate, if three hundred men were given him.
The young partizan's reputation for intrepidity had long been famedamong the Texans, and hence his offer was accepted with enthusiasm. ElAlferez performed his promise. The town was captured after four terribleassaults; but the young Chief, struck by a bullet in the forehead, fellin the breach, with his triumph as his winding sheet. A fact was thenascertained which had hitherto been only vaguely suspected:--El Alferez,the daring and formidable partisan, was a woman. General Cos, his staff,and one thousand five hundred Mexicans laid down their arms, and allfiled, in the presence of the handful of insurgents who had survived theassaults and the corpse of their intrepid Chieftain, which was clothedin feminine attire, and seated in a chair covered with the flags takenfrom the vanquished. The Mexicans left the territory of the NewRepublic, after pledging their word of honour not to oppose therecognition of independence.
Santa Anna received news of the defeat at Bejar while stationed at SanLuis de Potosi. Furious at the affront the Mexican arms had received,the President, after flying into a furious passion with the generals whohad hitherto directed the military operations, swore to avenge thehonour of Mexico, which was so disgracefully compromised, and finallyfinish with these rebels whom no one had yet been able to conquer. ThePresident organized an army of six thousand men, a truly formidablearmy, if we take into account the resources of the country in whichthese events occurred. The preparations, urged on by that vigourproduced by wounded pride and the hope of vengeance, were sooncompleted, and Santa Anna entered Texas, after dividing his army intothree corps, under the orders of Filisola, Cos, Urrea, and Garrey.After effecting his junction with General Rubio, to whom he had sent anaide-de-camp with orders to remain in his quarters and not risk a battlebefore his arrival, an order which the General received too late, thePresident determined to deal a decisive blow by recapturing Bejar andseizing on Goliad.
Bejar and Goliad are two Spanish towns; roads run from them to a commoncentre, the heart of the Anglo-American settlements. The capture ofthese two towns, as the basis of operations, was, consequently, of thehighest importance to the Mexicans. The Texans, weakened and demoralizedby their last defeat, were unable to resist so formidable an invasion asthe one with which they saw themselves menaced. The Mexican army carriedon a true war of savages, passing like a flood over this haplesscountry, plundering and burning the towns. The two first months thatfollowed Santa Anna's arrival in Texas were an uninterrupted series ofsuccesses for the Mexicans, and seemed to justify the new methodinaugurated by the President, however barbarous and inhuman it might bein its results. The Texans found themselves in a moment reduced to soprecarious a conditi
on, that their ruin appeared to competent meninevitable, and merely a question of time.
Let us describe, in a few words, the operations of the Mexican army.Before resuming our narrative at the point where we left it, we havesaid already that the Mexican forces had been divided into three corps.Three thousand men, that is to say, one moiety of the Mexican army,commanded by Generals Santa Anna and Cos, and well supplied withartillery, proceeded to lay siege to Bejar. This town had only a feeblegarrison of one hundred and eighty men, but this garrison was commandedby Colonel Travis, one of the greatest and purest heroes of the War ofIndependence. When completely invested, Travis withdrew to the citadel,not feeling at all alarmed by the numbers he had to fight. He wassummoned to surrender.
"Nonsense!" he answered with a smile; "we will all die, but your victorywill cost you so dearly that a defeat would be better for you."
And he loyally kept his word, resisting for a whole fortnight withunexampled bravery, and incessantly exhorting his comrades. Thirty-twoTexans managed to throw themselves into the fort, after traversing theentire Mexican army.
"We have come to die with you," the chief of this heroic forlorn hopesaid to him.
"Thanks," was all the answer.
Santa Anna, whose strength had been more than doubled during the siege,summoned Colonel Travis for the last time, saying there would be madnessin risking an assault with a practicable breach.
"We will fill it up with our dead bodies," the Colonel nobly answered.
The President ordered the assault, and the Texans were killed to thelast man. The Mexicans then entered the citadel, not as conquerors, butwith a secret apprehension, and as if ashamed of their triumph. They hadlost fifteen hundred men.[1]
"Oh!" Santa Anna exclaimed bitterly, "another such victory and we arelost!"
So soon as Bejar was reduced, attention was turned to Goliad. But hereone of those facts occurred which history is compelled to register, wereit only to stigmatize and eternally brand the men who have been guilty.Goliad is an open town, without walls or citadel to arrest an enemy, andColonel Fanni had abandoned it, as he had only five hundred TexanVolunteers with him. Compelled to leave his ammunition and baggagebehind, in order to effect his retreat with greater speed, he wassuddenly attacked on the prairie by General Urrea's Mexican division,nineteen hundred strong. Obeying their Colonel's orders, the Texansformed square, and for a whole day endured the attack of the foe withoutflinching. The Mexicans involuntarily admiring the desperate heroism ofthese men, who had no hope of salvation, implored them to surrender,while offering them good and honourable conditions. The Texans hesitatedfor a long time, for, as they did not dare trust the word of theirenemies, they preferred to die. Still, when one hundred and forty Texanshad fallen, the Colonel resolved to lay down his arms, on the conditionthat his soldiers and himself should be regarded as prisoners of war,treated as such, and that the American Volunteers should be embarked forthe United States at the charges of the Mexican Government. Theseconditions having been accepted by General Urrea, the Texanssurrendered.
Santa Anna, who was still at Bejar, refused to ratify the treaty; and byhis _express orders_, in spite of the prayers and supplications of allhis generals, he directed the massacre of the prisoners. The threehundred and fifty prisoners were murdered in cold blood, on a prairiesituated between Goliad and the sea. General Urrea, whom this infamoustreason dishonoured, broke his sword, weeping with rage. This horriblemassacre was the signal for a general upheaval, and all ran to arms;despair restored the energy of the Insurgents, and a new army seemed tospring from the ground as if by enchantment. General Houston wasappointed Commander-in-Chief, and on both sides preparations were madefor the supreme and decisive struggle.
[1] It was at this marvellous siege, better known as that of the Alamo,that Colonels Crockett and Bowie were killed.--L.W.