Page:Life in Mexico vol 1.djvu/376

356 18th.—There is a great scarcity of provisions in the centre of the city, as the Indians, who bring in everything from the country, are stopped. We have laid in a good stock of comestibles, though it is very unlikely that any difficulties will occur in our direction. While I am writing, the cannon are roaring almost without interruption, and the sound is anything but agreeable, though proving the respect entertained by Farias for "the lives, properties and interests of all." We see the smoke, but are entirely out of the reach of the fire.

I had just written these words, when the Señora, who lives opposite, called out to me that a shell has just fallen in her garden, and that her husband had but time to save himself. The cannon directed against the palace kill people in their beds, in streets entirely out of that direction, while this ball intended for the citadel, takes its flight to San Cosmé! Both parties seem to be fighting the city instead of each other; and this manner of firing from behind parapets, and from the tops of houses and steeples, is decidedly safer for the soldiers than for the inhabitants. It seems also a novel plan to keep up a continual cannonading by night, and to rest during a great part of the day. One would think that were the guns brought nearer the palace, the affair would be sooner over.

Late last night, a whole family came here for protection; the Señora with, nurse and baby, &c. She had remained very quietly in her own house, in spite of broken windows, till the bullets whizzed past her baby's bed. This morning,