Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/207

Rh retire from their advanced position. They had been constantly engaged for eight hours, and needed both rest and food to enable them to continue the attack.

Meanwhile General Worth had not been idle. In the morning of the 23rd, he sent a detachment to take possession of the gorge near Santa Catarina, and had designed to move forward into the city under favor of the ensuing night; but on hearing the heavy firing upon the opposite side of the town, he organized two columns of attack, who were ordered to press on to the first plaza, keeping under cover as much as possible, to get hold of the ends of the streets beyond it, and then, entering the houses, to break through the longitudinal sections of the walls with picks and bars, and work their way from house to house. The light artillery followed the columns in sections and pieces to support the movement.

All day long the work proceeded. Step by step, slowly, but surely, the Americans won their way into the city. The solid masonry yielded before their ponderous blows. The inhabitants were stricken as with a panic. For years Monterey had defied the arms of Spain; but here were soldiers who mocked at every obstacle, and overcame every difficulty. Begrimed with dust and smoke, imagination pictured them as beings from another world. As they sprang, like magic, through the firm walls of the apartments where pale-faced women had retired for shelter, shriek upon shriek rent the air, and only ceased when those who uttered them were assured, in friendly tones, that there were wives and daughters by the firesides of those dark warriors, who waited for their coming, and whose purity and innocence were not forgotten even in the wild excitement of that hour, by those who esteemed and