Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/306

260 were torn from their fastenings, and casements and lattices shivered in pieces. Stone walls and barricades afforded no shelter. Wailing and lamentation were heard in every quarter of the town. Fathers were stricken down upon their own thresholds, and mothers smitten at the fireside, as they leaned over the helpless offspring who clung to them, in vain, for protection. Stout manhood and decrepit age, the weak and the strong, fell dead together. Late on the night of the 24th the consuls of Great Britain, France, Spain, and Prussia, united in a memorial to General Scott, praying him to grant a truce to enable the neutrals, and the Mexican women and children, to escape from the scene of havoc around them. All this suffering had been foreseen by the American commander; the inhabitants had been forewarned; and the blockade had been left open up to the latest hour, to allow the neutrals to withdraw. The opportunity offered had not been improved, and he informed the memorialists, in reply, that no terms could now be listened to, unless they were to be accompanied by an unconditional surrender.

The Americans suspended their fire but for brief periods. The guns in the city and castle were also in constant activity, though they did little execution. A few shot entered the embrasures of the batteries, and threw clouds of sand into the trenches and over the: men serving the pieces; but the casualties were very few in number. On the morning of the 25th, battery number 4 was in readiness, with four twenty-four pounders and two eight-inch howitzers, and its deep-toned thunder was soon added to the din.

During the siege, parties of Mexican rancheros and light troops were frequently seen lurking in the