The Boy Soldier; Or, Garibaldi's Young Captain — page 256: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

250 “This despatch admits of no delay, Count; we must decide on immediate steps. What do you propose ?”’ : ; ‘Give me five hundred of your Mexicans, with two cannons, and I will guarantee to hold the enemy in check for at least half a day, quite suffi- cient time for you to reach and march into the city.” ““ Agreed |’? said Frank. ‘We must march at once then,” said the Count. Call a council of war,” “TJ will,” said Frank. In less than fifteen minutes all the officers, both English and Mexican, were assembled in Frank’s tent, who explained the nature of the despatches he had received, and of the Count’s noble offer. It was unanimously agreed upon that the Count should take command of five hundred men, and protect the march of the main body. In less than an hour all the troops were on the march quietly and ord Frank, with the main body on the right hand toad, leaving the Count in the flank and rear with his fiye hundred Mexicans. During the night Frank eontinued his forced march with all speed, but the roads were miserably bad and the waggons could gs¢arcely get along through the sand. During the following morning, however, loud reports of distant fire-arms weré heard, and the booming of cannon, which convinced Frank that the brave old Count was making a stout resistance, and felt determined to protect the march of the main body. These sounds of distant warfare continued until. late in the afternoon, and then suddenly ceased. Night came, but with it no tidings of the brave old Count, with his five hindred Mexicans and the two guns, r Capt. Frank felt uneasy, and sent out scouts who reported that the Count had behaved like a hero, but had to contend against great odds, and was defeated with heavy loss. True it was not one of the five hundred returned to tell the tale, and it was not until the next morn- ing that a flag of truce messenger brought in full tidings of the whole affair, with a letter from the Count, who briefly spoke of the disastrous combat in the following terms :— “ French Camp, DEAR FRANK,—This note will be explained by one of my men who is paroled. ‘‘ Suffice it to say that I boldly marched out with my small force to repel the enemy, but soon found myself almost surrounded and cut to pieces. They were thousands to our hundreds, and had many pieces of cannon, “ At first I did not perceive any enemy in front of me but two battalions of hireling Mexicans, who were fighting under the French flag. “These my men attacked with great fury ; and had they not been instantly reinforced, we should have annihilated them, As it was, we marched out of the wood boldly to meet them ; but had not gone more than a quarter of a mile when we were assailed in flank and rear by the French. “We have saved your whole command, perhaps, | from destruction, though well-nigh destroyed our- selves, for I hear it said over 7,000 men were sent out to intercept your march. “We fought the two battalions of Mexican hirelings bravely enough, and right well did my _ men behave themselves; but the two battalions of | the enemy that were near me had been joined by the French general himself, with about 300 horse- THE BOY SOLDIER; OR, GARIBALDI’S YOUNG CAPTAIN. RG aa eee men, who charged me several times as I commenced to retreat. ‘“T repulsed them, but with the loss of one gun broke down, and my own horse mortally wounded, though it still kept on. “ But the remainder of their troops now coming up, I found further progress impossible, and drew up ina fine open space to receive them, ‘“‘ Here I made a short speech to the men, “ Ttold them we were trying to avoid a thing which none of us could escape—that was death |! “ That come when it would—aid as such was the case—it became us to meet it and die like soldiers. Thus resolved, we allowed the enemy to come within fifty yards, when we gave them a volley and charged, ‘‘Those in our front gave way, and we captured their light guns. ‘“‘ As those on the flank, however, galled us with their cannon, I threw myself into a square and sought to regain the wood, now only abouta stone’s throw from us. ‘But fate had decided against us. « They pressed us so close on all sides ‘that my men began to lose their coolness. ‘“ We were charged again and again, and lost three of the guys we had captured. “ Still, with the one left, I kept moving on and got clear of the Mexican hirelings, who had got a little sickened, and showed less disposition to chase. ay “But the French kept charging, and my men civing up very fast. be oy “T still had some three hundred good soldiers and my gun left ; but a party of horse pressed us s0 hard that I moved on with one hundred men, and stopped them; but when I looked back I found only ten had followed me, the rest had turned back and joined the gun. “JT fell and became insensible immediately, and after my fall my brave but unfortunate fellows met the same fate, “J do not believe that fifty men out of the five hundred escaped the field untouched. “‘Tt was about three in the afternoon when I fell, and I did not regain my senses for a long time; I then remembered what had happened, for several other wounded soldiers were lying near me, and I crawled under a tree to shelter me from the sun, . ‘‘Two more of my battalion crept near me, the, one with a leg shot off below the knee, the other with a spear wound through his body. “We were dying of thirst, and in this state we remained the whole of the day. But, alas! night came on, but neither death or assistance for which the frantic wounded sighed, _ “The night was very chilly, and so dreadful did it appear to me: that I almost vowed if I survived I would have nothing more to do with soldiering ; the wounded on all sides crying. out for water, the jackals tearing the dead, and coming nearer and nearer to see if we were ready for them, “We only kept them off by making noises’ and throwing stones at them. “Thus passed this long and terrible night. “Warly next morning we espied a man and an old woman who came to us and gave us some water, and to every wounded man she gave a piece of ei from her basket and a drink from her water- pot. “To us she gave the same, and I thanked heaven and her, “T asked the woman where she lived, and she * GComicboo (©)