Page:Into Mexico with General Scott (1920).djvu/94

 eight-inch Paixhan shell guns, for direct fire into the walls. Wait till that Battery Five opens. It's point-blank range of the walls on this side."

"Is the army all 'round the city?"

"Yes, siree, boy. The First Division has the right of line, starting at the beach. That's ours. Patterson's Third Division Mohawks have the center. They're the Voluntarios. Twigg's Regulars of the Second Division have the left, reaching to the beach on the other side of the city. We've got the Mexicanos cooped up. They can't sneak out."

It was a great sight—those bursting shells and those bounding solid shot, some of which ricochetted to the dunes and rolled hither thither. Now and then shell fragments flew past, and an occasional long-range shell burst behind. The soldiers appeared to enjoy the view. They seemed to know what was coming; they all had been under fire before, and every few moments a shot or shell might be seen sailing above the smoke.

"Look out, boys! There's a bomb—a thirteen-inch, from the castle!"

"Here comes a solid shot. Lie low."

"There's an eight-inch, again."

Suddenly a lull occurred in the shouts and jokes. The men stiffened as they lay poking their heads up. A brilliant group of officers were riding along the shallow trench or road at the inside base of the sand hill parapets. The foremost was a very large man, broad shouldered and erect and towering high upon his horse. He had a square, stern, wrinkled face, smooth shaven except for grey side-whiskers of regulation trim; wore a plumed