Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/188

158 lances glowing with sunbeams, and their gay scarlet uniforms presenting a most brilliant appearance. The Mexicans were soon in great commotion, and fancying that General Taylor's army was about pouncing down upon them from the neighboring hills, retreated in haste towards Monterey, without firing a single gun.

It was not unusual, on the march from the Rio Grande, to behold the most decided evidences of terror and apprehension among the Mexican inhabitants, and more particularly whenever they caught sight of the Texan rangers, with their wide-brimmed sombreros shading the swarthy countenances whose ferocity was enhanced by their long beards and mustachios, — each man's belt garnished with revolvers, the deadly rifle slung over his shoulder, and, still fresh in his heart, the recollections of Salado and the Alamo. The husbandman would shrink behind the covert of muskeet bushes lining the roadside, while his wife and daughters, with their dark eyes half-veiled beneath the drooping lashes, and swimming with tears, and their clear olive complexions blanched in affright, would press their trembling lips to the glittering crosses suspended from their necks, and hurriedly murmur forth a fervent prayer to