CHAPTER VI.
THE LAST ASSAULT.
The lanceros posted behind the entrenchments had received the pirateswarmly.
The general, exasperated by the death of Captain Aguilar, and perceivingthat with such enemies there was no quarter to be expected, had resolvedto resist to the last, and to kill himself rather than fall into theirhands.
The Mexicans, reckoning the peons and guides, in whom they scarcelydared to trust, amounted to only seventeen, men and women included.
The pirates were at least thirty.
The numerical disproportion was then great between the besiegers and thebesieged; but thanks to the strong position of the camp, situated on thesummit of a chaos of rocks, this disproportion partly disappeared, andthe forces were nearly equal.
Captain Waktehno had not for an instant deceived himself with regardto the difficulties of the attack he meditated--difficulties almostinsurmountable in an open assault; therefore he had depended upon asurprise, and more particularly upon the treachery of the Babbler. Itwas only from having been carried away by circumstances, and beingfurious at the loss Captain Aguilar had caused him, that he hadventured upon an assault.
But the first moment of effervescence over, when he saw his men fallingaround him like ripe fruit, unrevenged, and without gaining an inchof ground, he resolved not to retreat, but to change the siege into ablockade, hoping to be more fortunate during the night by some bold_coup de main_, or, in the end, certain of reducing the besieged sooneror later by famine.
He believed himself certain that they would find it impossible to obtainsuccour in the prairies, where there were none but Indians, hostile tothe whites, whoever they might be, or trappers and hunters, who caredvery little to intermeddle in affairs that did not at all concern them.
His resolution once taken, the captain put it in execution immediately.
He cast an anxious look around him; his situation was still the same;notwithstanding their almost superhuman efforts to climb the abruptascent which led to the entrenchments, the pirates had not gained asingle step. The moment a man showed himself openly, a ball from aMexican carbine sent him rolling down the precipice.
The captain gave the signal for retreat; that is to say, he imitated thecry of the prairie dogs.
The combat ceased instantly.
The spot, which an instant before was animated by the cries ofcombatants and the continued report of firearms, sank suddenly into thecompletest silence.
Only, as soon as the men had paused in their work of destruction, thecondors, the vultures, and urubus commenced theirs.
After pirates, birds of prey! that is according to the order of things.
Swarms of condors, vultures, and urubus came hovering over the deadbodies, upon which they fell uttering sharp cries, and made a horriblecarnage of human flesh, in sight of the Mexicans, who did not dare toleave their entrenchments, and were forced to remain spectators of thishideous banquet of the wild creatures.
The pirates rallied in a ravine, out of reach of the fire, and countedtheir numbers.
Their losses were enormous; out of forty, nineteen only remained.
In less than an hour they had had twenty-one killed, more than half oftheir whole band.
The Mexicans, with the exception of Captain Aguilar, had neither killednor wounded.
The loss the pirates had sustained made them reflect seriously upon theaffair.
The greater number were of opinion it would be best to retire, and giveup an expedition which presented so many dangers and so few hopes ofsuccess.
The captain was even more discouraged than his companions.
Certes, if it had only been to gain gold or diamonds, he would, withouthesitation, have resigned his projects; but a feeling more strong thanthe desire of wealth influenced his actions, and excited him to carrythe adventure through, whatever might be the consequences to him.
The treasure he coveted--a treasure of incalculable price--was DonaLuz, the girl whom he had, in Mexico, rescued from the hands of hisown bandits, and for whom he entertained a violent, boundless,characteristic passion.
From Mexico he had followed her step by step, watching, like a wildbeast, for an opportunity of carrying off his prey, for the possessionof which no sacrifice was too great, no difficulty insuperable, and nodanger worthy of consideration.
Therefore did he bring into play upon his bandits all the resources thatspeech gives to a man influenced by passion, to keep them with him,to raise their courage, and to induce them to attempt one more attackbefore retiring and definitely renouncing the expedition.
He had much trouble in persuading them; as generally happens in suchcases, the bravest had been killed, and the survivors did not feelthemselves at all inclined to expose themselves to a similar fate. Bydint, however, of persuasions and menaces, the captain succeeded ingetting from the bandits the promise of remaining till the next day, andof attempting a decisive blow during the night.
This being agreed upon between the pirates and their chief, Waktehnoordered his men to conceal themselves as well as they could, but,above all, not to stir without his orders, whatever they might see theMexicans do.
The captain hoped, by remaining invisible, to persuade the besiegedthat, discouraged by the enormous difficulties they had met with, thepirates had resolved to retreat, and had, in fact, done so.
This plan was not at all unskilful, and it, in fact, produced almost allthe results which its author expected.
The glowing fires of the setting sun gilded with their last rays thesummits of the rocks and the trees; the evening breeze, which wasrising, refreshed the air; the great luminary was about to disappear onthe horizon, in a bed of purple vapours.
Silence was only disturbed by the deafening cries of the birds of prey,that continued their cannibal banquet, quarrelling with ferociousinveteracy over the fragments of flesh which they tore from the deadbodies.
The general, with a heart deeply moved by this spectacle, when hereflected that Captain Aguilar, a man whose heroic devotion had savedthem all, was exposed to this horrible profanation, resolved not toabandon his body, and, cost what it might, to go and bring it in, inorder to give it sepulture,--a last homage due to the young man who hadnot hesitated to sacrifice himself for him.
Dona Luz, to whom he communicated his intention, although perfectlysensible of the danger, had not the heart to oppose it.
The general selected four resolute men, and scaling the entrenchments,he advanced at their head towards the spot where the body of theunfortunate captain lay.
The lanceros left in the camp kept a watchful eye upon the plain, readyto protect their bold companions with energy, if they were interruptedin their pious task.
The pirates concealed in the clefts of the rocks did not lose one oftheir movements, but were most careful not to betray their presence.
The general was able, therefore, to accomplish unmolested the duty hehad imposed upon himself.
He had no difficulty in finding the body of the young man.
He lay half prostrate at the foot of a tree, holding a pistol in onehand and his machete in the other, his head elevated, his look fixed,and a smile upon his lips, as if even after death he still defied thosewho had killed him.
His body was literally covered with wounds; but, by a strange chance,which the general remarked with joy, up to that moment the birds of preyhad respected it.
The lanceros placed the body upon their crossed guns, and returned tothe camp at quick march.
The general followed at a short distance from them, observing andwatching every bush and thicket.
But nothing stirred; the greatest tranquillity prevailed everywhere;the pirates had disappeared, without leaving any other traces but theirdead, whom they appeared to have abandoned.
The general began to hope that his enemies were really gone, and hebreathed a sigh, as if relieved from an oppression of the heart.
Night came on with its habitual rapidity; all eyes were fixed upon thelanceros
, who bore back their dead officer, but no one remarked a scoreof phantoms who glided silently over the rocks, drawing, by degrees,nearer to the camp, close to which they concealed themselves, keepingtheir ferocious looks fixed upon its defenders.
The general caused the body to be placed upon a bed prepared in haste,and taking a spade, he insisted upon himself digging the grave in whichthe young man was to be deposited. All the lanceros ranged themselvesaround him, leaning on their arms. The general took off his hat, andfrom a prayer book read with a loud voice the Service of the Dead, towhich his niece and all present responded.
There was something grand and impressive in this simple ceremony, in themidst of the desert, whose thousand mysterious voices appeared likewiseto modulate a prayer, in face of that sublime nature upon which thefinger of God is traced in so visible a manner.
This white-headed old man, piously reading the office of the dead overthe body of a young man, little more than a boy, full of life but a fewhours before, having around him that young girl, and these sad, pensivesoldiers, whom the same fate, perhaps, threatened soon to overtake, butwho, calm and resigned, prayed with fervour for him who was no more;this noble prayer, rising in the night, accompanied by the moanings andthe breezes of evening, which passed quivering through the branches ofthe trees, recalled the early times of Christianity, when, persecutedand forced to hide itself, it took refuge in the desert, to be nearer toGod.
Nothing occurred to disturb the accomplishment of this last duty.
After every person present had once again taken a melancholy farewellof the dead, he was lowered into the grave, enveloped in his cloak; hisarms were placed by his side, and the grave was filled up.
A slight elevation of the sod, which would soon disappear, alone markedthe place where reposed for ever the body of a man whose unfamed heroismhad saved by a sublime devotedness those who had confided to him thecare of their safety.
The mourners separated, swearing to avenge the dead, or that failing, todo as he had done.
Darkness was now spread over all.
The general, after having made a last round, to satisfy himself that thesentinels were steady at their posts, wished his niece a good night, andlaid himself down across the entrance of her tent, on the outside.
Three hours passed away in perfect quiet.
All at once, like a legion of demons, a score of men silently scaledthe entrenchments, and before the sentinels, surprised by this suddenattack, could attempt the least resistance, they were seized andslaughtered.
The camp of the Mexicans was invaded by the pirates, and in their trainentered murder and pillage!