Page:Into Mexico with General Scott (1920).djvu/311

 He made his way to the castle stairs, and dismounting went inside through the portico.

"Come on," Hannibal bade. "Let's go on up."

They followed in with the cheering men. The roof of the castle was flat. General Scott had taken position here, and was examining the country below with his glass. It was a stirring view to all. To the right or east there was a broad smooth road, divided through the middle by a many-arched aqueduct or stone conduit for water, connecting the east foot of the hill with the city wall; to the left there was another broad road, with aqueduct, diverging northeast for the city wall farther in the north. This was the longer road, say a mile. And both roads were jammed with the Mexican troops retreating from Chapultepec in two red and blue and yellow and green currents, with the darker blue of the American reserve swirling on, after an interval, in pursuit.

The roads were dotted with smoke bursts of gunfire from batteries in action. The angle between the two roads likewise was dotted with islands of smoke, where other Mexican batteries essayed to stay the American columns by flank fire.

"Those are our fellows on that north road," Hannibal asserted. "There's your First Brigade, I'll bet; 'Leventh and Fourteenth of the Third Division, too. They're making for the San Cosme gate. Some of Quitman's troops are following up on that Belen gate road. Must be the Smith brigade of the Second."

"I'm going down to my regiment," Jerry ex