Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/108

 86 MEMOIR OF COLONEL TUPPER.

" Immediately on repulsing the cavalry, the batta- lions of Conception and Pudeto marched towards Ezaguirre's house. On arriving near it, the firing having now almost ceased, I saw General Prieto ride up a little to the left of my column to Colonel Rondisoni, and, as I then understood, gave himself up a prisoner of war. I soon after received an order to cease further aggression, and to recall the skir- mishers, which I immediately complied with.

"A small part of the enemy's infantry, about two hundred and fifty men, which still held together, was situated some ten paces on the other side of a wall close to us ; the soldiers were resting on their arms, and appeared, to all intents and purposes, to have yielded themselves prisoners of w r ar. We formed our corps in line along the wall, and I asked General Lastra's permission to disarm these troops, but he would not consent, saying it w r as useless to humiliate the enemy further."

Here the letter thus abruptly terminates without even a signature, owing to the writer having sailed so soon after from Valparaiso, and been doubtless busily employed in the intermediate time in consulting with General Freire, and in superintending the preparations for the conveyance of his battalion. This sudden termination is the more to be regretted, as the writer was evidently about to narrate, — what, however, is too well authenticated to admit of the slightest doubt, — the perfidious conduct of General Prieto, who, when he found that the battle was lost, rode up to Colonel Rondisoni, and endeavoured to obtain by stratagem what he could not by the force of arms. Taking the colonel by the hand, he declared that the contest was over, and that he was anxious to avoid the further

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