Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/216

200 not to give battle, but effect a retreat under cover of a show of resistance. Calleja, undeterred by the difficulties presented by the enemy's position, commenced the attack with three columns of infantry, on the morning of the 7th of November. For some twenty minutes the royalists pushed on, exposed to the sluggish fire of the insurgents, whose cannon-balls flew high above their heads. Unscathed they reached the foot of the steep on which the enemy was posted, but when the stormed columns had scaled the heights, the foe had fled. Meanwhile Calleja had marked the disorder in the revolutionary ranks, caused, as he supposed, by his well directed fire; and thereupon ordered the cavalry on his right flank to attack the enemy's left, which could only be done by a long detour.

Doubtless it would have pleased him—as he affirmed that he did — to commit great slaughter by his cavalrymen who pursued the enemy two and a half leagues over the hills and through the glen; but the truth is, they did not kill a hundred. He lost, however, only