A SKETCH IN THE TROPICS. 167 



irritated by the noise of the firing, the flashes of the 

 guns, and perhaps more than anything by the captain's 

 bad riding, became more and more unmanageable, and 

 at last taking the bit between his teeth, started off at 

 a mad gallop, closely followed by myself and the 

 orderly, to whose horses the panic seemed to have 

 communicated itself. The clouds of dust raised by 

 the animals' feet, prevented us from seeing whither 

 we were going. Suddenly there was an explosion 

 that seemed to shake the very earth under us, and 

 Eeady, the orderly, and myself, lay sprawling with 

 our horses on the ground. Before we could collect 

 our senses and get up, we were nearly deafened by a 

 tremendous roar of artillery close to us, and at the 

 same moment a shower of stones and fragments of 

 brick and mortar clattered about our ears. 



The orderly was stunned by his fall ; I was bruised 

 and bewildered. Ready was the only one who seemed 

 in no ways put out, and with his usual phlegm, ex- 

 tricating himself from under his horse, he came to our 

 assistance. I was soon on my legs, and endeavouring 

 to discover the cause of all this uproar. 



Our unruly steeds had brought us close to the new 

 battery, at the very moment that the train of a mine 

 under the houses in front of it had been fired. The 

 instant the obstacle was removed, the artillerymen 

 had opened a tremendous fire on the fort The 

 Spaniards were not slow to return the compliment, 

 and fortunate it was that a solid fragment of wall 



