Gustave Aimard
The Freebooters: A Story of the Texan War

CHAPTER XV.
A THUNDERBOLT

We will now return to the hacienda.

The Colonel and the Major-domo went down to the Patio, where they found assembled the one hundred and fifty men selected for the execution of the surprise, which the Colonel proposed to attempt on the rebel camp. Tranquil, according to the orders he had received, after assuring himself that Carmela was enjoying a sound and refreshing sleep, hastened to tell Loyal Heart and Black-deer what the Colonel expected from them. The two men immediately followed their friend into the Patio, where the soldiers were already assembled.

The Colonel divided his men into three detachments, each of fifty men: he took the command of the first, keeping the Canadian with him; Don Felix, having Loyal Heart for guide, had the command of the second; and the third, at the head of which was placed a captain, an old soldier of great experience, was directed by Black-deer. These arrangements made, the Colonel gave the order for departure. The detachments at once separated, and left the hacienda by three different gates.

The Colonel's plan was extremely simple; descend unheard to the rebels' camp, enter it, and fire it on three different sides; then, profiting by the disorder and tumult occasioned by this surprise, rush on the rebels with shouts of "Viva Mejico!" prevent them rallying or extinguishing the fire, massacre as many as possible, and afterwards effect an orderly retreat on the hacienda.

At the moment when the Mexicans left the hacienda, the same thing happened to them as to the insurgents, who left their camp at the same moment, that is to say, they were suddenly enveloped in thick darkness. The Colonel bent down to Tranquil, and said to him good-humouredly —

"This is a good omen for the success of our expedition."

The Jaguar was saying the same thing to White Scalper almost simultaneously.

The three detachments silently descended the hill, marching in Indian file, and taking the greatest care to stifle the sound of their footsteps on the ground. On coming within a certain distance of the Texan entrenchments, they halted, with one accord, to take breath, like tigers, which at the moment of leaping on the prey they covet, draw themselves up, in order to take a vigorous impetus. The soldiers wheeled, so as to present a rather extensive line; then each lay down on the sand, and at the signal, muttered in a low voice by the guides, they began crawling like reptiles through the tall grass, cutting passages through the bushes, advancing in a straight line, and clearing obstacles, without thinking of turning them.

We have said that White Scalper, no doubt with the intention of causing the Larch-tree garrison to feel greater security, and persuade them that all was quiet in camp, had objected to the Apache sentries being aroused, for he considered their vigilance quite unnecessary, – not supposing for a moment that the Mexicans would dare to leave their lines of defence and take the initiative in a sally. The direction the old man had given to the detachment he guided, by drawing it away from the approaches of the fortress, had also favoured the Colonel's plans, which, without that, would have been, in all probability, foiled.

Still, the Canadian hunter was too prudent and accustomed to the tricks of Indian war not to assure himself previously that there was no trap to apprehend. Hence, on arriving about fifteen yards from the breastworks, he ordered a halt. Then, gliding like a serpent through the shrubs and dead trees that covered the ground at this spot, he pushed forward a reconnoissance. Loyal Heart and Black-deer, to whom he had given detailed instructions how to act before leaving the hacienda, executed the same manoeuvre. The absence of the scouts was long, or, at least appeared so to all these men, who were so impatient to bound on the enemy and begin the the attack. At length Tranquil returned, but he was anxious and frowning, and a gloomy restlessness seemed to agitate him. These signs did not escape the Colonel's notice.

"What is the matter with you?" he asked him. "Are the rebels alarmed? Have you noticed any signs of agitation in their camp?"

"No," he replied, with his eyes obstinately fixed before him, as if he wished to pierce the gloom and read the mysteries it contained. "I have seen nothing, noticed nothing; the deepest calm, apparently, prevails in the camp."

"Apparently, do you say?"

"Yes; for it is impossible that this calm can be real, for most of the Texan insurgents are old hunters, accustomed to the rude fatigues of a desert life. I can just understand that, during the first part of the night, they might not notice the gross neglect of the Apache sentries; but what I cannot in any way admit is, that during the whole night not one of these partisans, to whom prudence is so imperiously recommended, should have got up to make the rounds and see that all was in order. Above all, I cannot understand this of the Jaguar – that man of iron, who never sleeps, and who, though still very young, possesses all the wisdom and experience which are usually the appanage of men who have passed middle life."

"And you conclude from this?"

"I conclude that we should, perhaps, do better by not continuing this reconnoissance further, but return at full speed to the hacienda; for, unless I am greatly mistaken, this gloomy night covers some sinister mystery which we shall see accomplished ere long, and of which we may fall the victims, unless we take care."

"From what you say to me," the Colonel made answer, "I see that you rather give me the expression of your own personal opinions than the result of important facts you may have seen during your reconnoissance."

"That is true, Colonel; but, if you will permit me to speak so, I would observe that these opinions emanate from a man for whom, thanks to his experience, the desert possesses no secrets, and whom his presentiments rarely deceive."

"Yes, all that is true; and, perhaps, I ought to follow your advice. My resolution has possibly been premature, but now, unfortunately, it is too late to recall it. Withdrawing is an impossibility, for that would prove to my soldiers that I was mistaken, which is not admissible. We must, at any cost, accept the consequences of our imprudence, and push on, no matter what happens. Still, we will redouble our prudence, and try to accomplish our scheme without incurring too great a risk."

"I am at your orders, Colonel, ready to follow you wherever you may please to lead me."

"Forward, then, and may Heaven be favourable to us!" the young officer said, resolutely.

The order was whispered along the line, and the soldiers, whom this long conference had perplexed, and who were afraid they should be obliged to turn back, received it joyfully, and advanced with renewed ardour. The ground that separated them from the breastwork was soon covered, and the entrenchments were escaladed ere a single Apache sentry had given the alarm.

Suddenly, from three different points of the camp an immense flame shot up, and the Mexicans rushed forward, shouting "Viva Mejico!" as the insurgents, who, hardly awake yet, ran hither and thither, not understanding these flames which surrounded them, and these terrible yells which sounded in their ears like a funereal knell.

For nearly an hour the contest was a chaos; smoke and noise covered everything else. According to the American custom, most of the insurgents had their wives and children with them: hence, from the first moment the fight assumed gigantic and terrible proportions. The country was covered with a confused medley of startled women, who called to their husbands or brothers, Apache horsemen galloping among the terrified foot soldiers and overthrown tents, from which rose the cries of children and the groans of the wounded. All around the camp an immense line of smoke bordered the flames kindled by the Mexicans, who bounded forward like wild beasts, uttering fearful yells. All these united sounds formed a chorus of inexpressible horror, whose echo extended to the extreme verge of the horizon as sad and mournful as that of the rising tide. Such are the fearful results of civil wars: they let loose and aggravate all the evil passions of man; the latter forget every human feeling in the hope of attaining the object they desire, and incessantly push onward, not caring whether they stumble over ruins or wade through blood.

Still, when the first feeling of surprise had passed, the insurgents began gradually rallying, in spite of the incessant efforts of the Mexicans, and the resistance was organized to a certain extent. Colonel Melendez had gained his object, the success of his plan was complete, the losses of the Texans in men and ammunition were immense; he did not wish, with the few troops he had under him, to advance further into a blazing camp, where they walked under a vault of flames, running the risk of being struck at each moment by the ruins of the powder magazines, which exploded one after the other with a terrible noise.

The Colonel took a triumphant glance at the ruins piled up around him, and then ordered the retreat to be sounded. The Mexicans had allowed their ardour to carry them in every direction; some, in spite of the repeated warnings of their Chief, were already too far off for it to be possible for them to fall in directly. These must be waited for, therefore.

The three detachments formed in a semicircle, firing on the insurgents, who profited by the moment of respite chance afforded them to become constantly more numerous. They then noticed the small strength of their assailants, and rushed resolutely upon them. The Mexicans, now united, wished to effect their retreat, but at each instant their position became more difficult, and threatened to become even critical. The Texans, who were still the more numerous, with rage in their hearts at having allowed themselves to be thus surprised, and burning for vengeance, vigorously pressed the Mexicans, who, compelled to retreat inch by inch, and keep a front constantly to the enemy, were on the point of being outflanked, in spite of the heroic resistance they opposed to the assailants.

Colonel Melendez, seeing the danger of the position, collected forty resolute men, and placing himself at their head, rushed on the insurgents with an irresistible impetuosity. The latter, surprised in their turn by this vigorous attack, which they were far from expecting, recoiled, and at length fell back some hundred yards to reform, closely pursued by the Colonel.

This lucky diversion gave the main body of the Mexicans time to gain ground, and when the Texans returned to the charge with fresh ardour, the propitious moment had passed, and the Mexicans were definitively protected from any assault.

"Viva Dios!" the Colonel said, as he rejoined his company; "the affair was hot, but the advantage remains with us."

"I did not see the Jaguar during the whole action," the Canadian muttered.

"That is true," the young man replied, "and is most strange."

"His absence alarms me," the hunter said sadly; "I should have preferred his being there."

"Where can he be?" the Colonel remarked, suddenly turning thoughtful.

"Perhaps we shall learn only too soon," the Canadian replied with a shake of the head, foreboding misfortune.

All at once, and as if chance had wished to justify the hunter's sad forebodings, an immense noise was heard in the hacienda, amid which could be distinguished cries of distress, and a well-sustained musketry fire. Then, a sinister glare rose above the Larch-tree, which it coloured with the hues of fire.

"Forward! Forward!" the Colonel cried; "The enemy have got into the fort!"

At the first glance, the young officer understood what had taken place, and the truth at once struck his mind. All rushed toward the hacienda, inside which an obstinate contest seemed to be raging. They soon reached the gates, which, fortunately for them, still remained in the hands of their comrades, and rushed into the patio, where a horrible spectacle offered itself to their sight. This is what had happened.

At the moment when White Scalper prepared to break in the door with the lever, the clamour made by the Mexicans in firing the camp, reached the ears of the Texans assembled in the grotto.

"Rayo de Dios!" the Jaguar shouted; "What is the meaning of that?"

"Probably the Mexicans are attacking your camp," the old man quietly answered.

The young Chief gave him an ugly look.

"We are betrayed," said John Davis, as he cocked a pistol, and pointed it at the old man.

"I am beginning to believe it," the Jaguar muttered, all his suspicions coming back.

"By whom?" the White Scalper asked with a smile of contempt.

"By you, you villain!" the American answered roughly.

"You are mad," the old man said with a disdainful shrug of his shoulders; "if I had betrayed you, should I have led you here?"

"That is true," said the Jaguar; "but it is strange, and the noise is unceasing. The Mexicans are doubtless massacring our companions; we cannot abandon them thus, but must hurry to their assistance."

"Do nothing of the sort," the Scalper sharply exclaimed. "Hasten, on the contrary, to invade the fortress, which I doubt not is abandoned by the greater part of its defenders; your companions, so soon as they have rallied, will be strong enough to repulse their assailants."

The Jaguar hesitated.

"What is to be done?" he muttered with an undecided air, as he bent an enquiring glance on the men as they passed round him.

"Act without loss of a moment," the old man eagerly exclaimed, and with a vigorously dealt stroke he broke in the door, which fell in splinters to the ground; "here is the way open, will you recoil?"

"No! No!" they shouted impetuously, and rushed into the gaping vault before them.

This vault formed a passage wide enough for four persons to march abreast, and of sufficient height for them not to be obliged to stoop; it rose with a gentle incline, and resembled a species of labyrinth, owing to the constant turns it took. The darkness was complete, but the impulse had been given, and no other noise was audible save that of the panting breathing of these men, and their hurried footsteps, which sounded hollow on the damp ground they trod. After a twenty minutes' march, which seemed to last an age, the Scalper's voice rose in the gloom, and uttered the single word, "Halt!" All stopped.

"Here we shall have to make our final arrangements," the Scalper continued; "but in the first place let me procure you a light, so that you may know exactly where you are."

The old man, who seemed gifted with the precious privilege of seeing in the darkness, walked about for some minutes in various directions, doubtless collecting the ingredients necessary for the fire he wished to kindle; then he struck a light, lit a piece of tinder, and almost immediately a brilliant flame seemed to leap forth from the ground, and illumined objects sufficiently for them to be distinguished. The Scalper had simply lighted a fire of dry wood, probably prepared beforehand.

The Texans looked curiously around them, so soon as their eyes, at first dazzled by the bright flames of the fire, had grown accustomed to the light. They found themselves in a very large, almost circular vault, somewhat resembling a crypt; the walls were lofty, and the roof was rounded in the shape of a dome. The ground was composed of a very fine dry sand, as yellow as gold. This room seemed cut out of the rock, for no sign of masonry was visible.

In the background, a staircase of some twenty steps, wide, and without bannister, mounted to the roof, where it terminated, and it was impossible to distinguish whether there were any trapdoor or opening. This trap doubtless existed, but time had covered its openings with the impalpable dust, which it incessantly wears off even the hardest granite. After attentively examining the vault by the aid of a blazing log, the Jaguar returned to the old man, who had remained by the fire.

"Where are we?" he asked him. Each curiously extended his ear to hear the Scalper's answer.

"We are," he said, "exactly under the patio of the hacienda; this staircase ends in an opening I will point out to you, and which leads into a long-deserted corral, in which, if I am not mistaken, the wood stores of the hacienda are now kept."

"Good," the Jaguar answered; "but before venturing into what may be an adroitly laid trap, I should like, myself, to visit the corral of which you speak, in order to see with my own eyes, and assure myself that things are really as you say."

"I ask nothing better than to lead you to it."

"Thank you; but I do not see exactly how we shall manage to open the passage of which you speak, without making a noise, which will immediately bring down on us the whole of the garrison, of which I am excessively afraid, as we are not at all conveniently situated for fighting."

"That need not trouble you; I pledge myself to open the trap without making the slightest noise."

"That is better; but come, time presses."

"That is true. Come."

The two men then proceeded to the flight of stairs. On reaching the top, the White Scalper thrust his head against the ceiling, and after several attempts a slab slowly rose, turned over, and fell noiselessly on its side, leaving a passage large enough for two men to pass together. White Scalper passed through this opening. With one bound the Jaguar stood by his side, pistol in hand, ready to blow out his brains at the first suspicious movement. But he soon perceived that the old man had no intention of betraying him, and, ashamed at the suspicion he had evidenced, he hid his weapon.

As the Scalper had stated, they found themselves in an abandoned corral – a sort of vast stall, open to the sky, in which the Americans keep their horses; but this one was quite empty. The Jaguar went up to a door behind which he heard the sound of footsteps and the clanking of arms, and assured himself that nothing was more easy than to burst this door open.

"Good," he muttered; "you have kept your word; thank you."

The Scalper did not seem to hear him; his eyes were fixed on the door with a strange intensity, and his limbs trembled, as if he had been attacked by ague. Without attempting to discover the cause of his old comrade's extraordinary emotion, the Jaguar ran to the opening, over which he bent down. John Davis was standing on the top step.

"Well?" he asked.

"All goes well. Come up, but do not make any noise."

The four hundred Texans then rose one after the other from the vault. Each, as he came out of the trap, silently fell in. When all had entered the corral, the Jaguar returned the slab to its place. Then, returning to his comrades, said in a low but perfectly distinct voice:

"Our retreat is now cut off; we must either conquer or die."

The insurgents made no reply; but their eyes flashed such fire, that the Jaguar comprehended that they would not give way an inch. It was a moment of terrible suspense while White Scalper was forcing the door.

"Forward!" the Jaguar shouted.

All his comrades rushed after him with the irresistible force of a torrent that is bursting its dykes.

Very different from the Texans, whose camp had so easily been invaded, the Mexicans were not asleep, but perfectly awake. By orders of the Commandant, so soon as he had left the hacienda the whole garrison got under arms, and fell in the patio, ready, if need was, to go immediately to the aid of the expeditionary corps, still, they were so far from expecting an attack, especially in this manner, that the sudden apparition of this band of demons, who seemed to have ascended from the infernal regions, caused them extraordinary surprise and terror, and during some time there was an inextricable confusion.

The Texans, skilfully profiting by the terror their presence caused, redoubled their efforts to render it impossible for their enemies to offer any lengthened resistance. But, shut up as they were in a court without an outlet, the very impossibility of flight gave the Mexicans the necessary courage to rally and fight courageously. Collected round their officers, who encouraged them by voice and example, they resolved to do their duty manly, and the combat began again with fresh obstinacy.

It was at this moment that Colonel Melendez and the soldiers who followed him burst into the patio, and by their presence were on the point of restoring to their party the victory which was slipping from them. Unfortunately, this success arrived too late: the Mexicans, surrounded by the Texans, were compelled, after a desperate resistance and prodigies of valour, to lay down their arms, and surrender at discretion.

For the second time Don Juan Melendez was prisoner to the Jaguar. As on the first occasion, he was compelled to break his sword, conquered by fatality rather than by his fortunate enemy.

The first care of the Jaguar, so soon as he was master of the fort, was to give strict orders that the females should not be insulted. The conditions imposed on the conquered by the Chief of the Texan army were the same as he had offered them at the outset. The Mexicans, persuaded that the Texans were no more than half savage men, were agreeably surprised at this lenity, which they were far from expecting, and pledged themselves without hesitation to observe scrupulously the conditions of the capitulation. The Mexican garrison was to leave the hacienda at daybreak.

The preliminaries of the surrender had scarce been agreed on between the two leaders ere piercing cries were suddenly heard from the building occupied by the women. Almost immediately the White Scalper, who had been lost out of sight during the excitement of the combat, emerged from these buildings bearing across his shoulders a woman whose long hair trailed on the ground. The old man's eyes flashed, and foam came from his mouth. In his right hand he brandished his rifle, which he held by the barrel, and fell back step by step, like a tiger at bay, before those who tried in vain to bar his passage.

"My daughter!" Tranquil shrieked, as he rushed toward him.

He had recognised Carmela; the poor child had fainted, and seemed dead. The Colonel and the Jaguar had also recognised the maiden, and by a common impulse hurried to her aid.

The White Scalper, recoiling step by step before the cloud of enemies that surrounded him, did not reply a word to the insults poured upon him. He laughed a dry and sharp laugh, and whenever an assailant came too near him, he raised his terrible club, and the imprudent man rolled with a fractured skull on the ground.

The hunters and the two young men, recognising the impossibility of striking this man without running the risk of wounding her they wished to save, contented themselves with gradually contracting the circle round him, so as to drive him into a corner of the court, where they would be enabled to seize him. But the ferocious old man foiled their calculations; he suddenly bounded forward, overthrew those who opposed his passage, and climbed with headlong speed up the steps leading to the platform. On reaching the latter, he turned once again to his startled enemies, burst into a hoarse laugh, and leaped over the breastwork into the river, bearing with him the young girl, of whom he had not loosed his hold.

When the witnesses of this extraordinary act of folly had recovered from the stupor into which it threw them, and rushed on the platform, their anxious glances in vain interrogated the river – the waters had reassumed their ordinary limpidness. White Scalper had disappeared with the unhappy victim whom he had so audaciously carried off. To accomplish this unheard-of ravishment he had surrendered the Larch-tree hacienda to the Texan army. What motive had impelled the strange man to this unqualifiable action? The impenetrable mystery that enveloped his life rendered any supposition impossible.