168 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



intervened between us and their fire, or all our 

 troubles about the brig and everything else would 

 have been at an end. Already upwards of twenty 

 balls had struck the old broken wall. Shot and 

 shell were flying in every direction, the smoke was 

 stifling, the uproar . indescribable. It was so dark 

 with the smoke and dust from the fallen houses, that 

 we could not see an arm's length before us. The 

 captain asked two or three soldiers who were hurry- 

 ing by, where the battery was ; but they were in too 

 great haste to answer, and it was only when the smoke 

 cleared away a little, that we discovered we were not 

 twenty paces from it. Eeady seized my arm, and 

 pulling me with him, I the next moment found my- 

 self standing beside a gun, under cover of the breast- 

 works. 



The battery consisted of thirty, twenty-four, and 

 thirty-six pounders, served with a zeal and courage 

 which far exceeded anything I had expected to find 

 in the patriot army. The fellows were really more 

 than brave, they were foolhardy. They danced rather 

 than walked round the guns, and exhibited a con- 

 tempt of death that could not well be surpassed. 

 As to drawing the guns back from the embrasures 

 while they loaded them, they never dreamed of such a 

 thing. They stood jeering and scoffing the Spaniards, 

 and bidding them take better aim. 



It must be remembered that this was only three 

 months after the battle of Ayacucho, the greatest 



