172 The Rough Riders 



troopers were devoted to him, would follow him 

 anywhere, and would do anything he said; but 

 when men get firing at night it is rather difficult to 

 stop them, especially when the fire of the enemy in 

 front continues unabated. When he first reached 

 the trenches it was impossible to say whether or not 

 there was an actual night attack impending, and he 

 had been instructing his men, as I instructed mine, 

 to fire low, cutting the grass in front. As soon as 

 he became convinced that there was no night attack, 

 he ran up and down the line adjuring and command- 

 ing the troopers to cease shooting, with words and 

 phrases which were doubtless not wholly unlike 

 those which the Old Guard really did use at 

 Waterloo. 



As I ran down my own line, I could see him 

 coming up his, and he saved me all trouble in stop- 

 ping the fire at the right, where the lines met, for 

 my men there all dropped everything to listen to him 

 and cheer and laugh. Soon we got the troopers in 

 hand, and made them cease firing ; then, after a while 

 the Spanish fire died down. At the time we spoke 

 of this as a night attack by the Spaniards, but it 

 really was not an attack at all. Ever after my men 

 had a great regard for Ayres, and would have fol- 

 lowed him anywhere. 



I shall never forget the way in which he scolded 

 his huge, devoted black troopers, generally ending 



