JOURNEY TO GUATEMALA. 



119 



by surprise, and being obliged to run, they might have 

 proved the most useful part of my equipment. My bed 

 was a long wooden bench, with my chamarra for a mat- 

 tress. In the dead of the night, and just as I had fallen 

 into a gentle slumber, I was awakened by the cry of, quien 

 vive ? harshly uttered by one of the sentinels. The offi- 

 cer, who had also heard it, was on his feet in an instant, 

 and ran out to ascertain the cause of alarm. Fortunate- 

 ly, there was none. The sentinel had challenged a man 

 who had approached him, but who proved to be one of 

 the dependents of the farm. Silence was now restored, 

 and those who had been disturbed once more composed 

 themselves to rest. I tried to do so likewise, but in vain : 

 sleep had completely fled from me. I walked out into 

 the open air, and stood for a few minutes contemplating 

 the scene around. The moon was coursing through the 

 light and fleecy clouds that partially overcast the sky, and 

 shedding a fitful radiance. On one side were the soldiers, 

 stretched upon the ground in groups ; on the other, the 

 horses, some of them perfectly still, as if sleeping, and 

 others trying to collect from the ground a few grains of 

 scattered provender. Here the piled muskets glistened in 

 the moon-beam, and there, the sentinel, pacing to and fro, 

 kept his solitary watch. A dark confused prospect of 

 wood and mountain was just discernible in the distance ; 

 and a perfect silence prevailed around, uninterrupted ex- 

 cept by the measured step of the sentinel, or the occasional 

 neighing of a horse. 



At day-break I was awakened by the beating of the 

 reveille. By sun-rise we had again taken up our march. 

 The road now led over a rocky, barren plain, and, by a 

 gradual ascent, to a mountainous ridge, after passing 

 which we descended into the valley of Jalpatagua. At 

 the town of this name we made a halt, as well for the pur- 

 pose of taking some refreshments, as of procuring fresh 

 horses for the cavalry ; for three or four of those we had 

 brought with us had broken down on the road, and their 



