Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/691

Rh that Colonel Young, now in command, opened negotiations. But the terms offered being unconditional surrender, he proposed that they should cut their way through. This was opposed by one or two officers in a manner so insulting to his American pride that he swore to stay till the last. He inspired fresh determination among the besieged, so much so that when the royalists made their second assault on the fort, on August 15th, the women heartily joined in the fray with stones and rolling bowlders, and assisted to repulse the assailants with heavy loss. As Young stepped forward to watch the retreating foe, his head was taken clean off by a cannon-ball. He had kept his oath.

Lieutenant Bradburn now took command, and resolved to break through the lines. The attempt was made on the night of the 19th. A distressing fare well was-said to the ill and wounded, who with anguished looks and piteous appeals saw themselves abandoned to relentless butchery. Stealthily all who could walk pressed down the slope and were already gaining the level ground, when some timid females, who had unaccountably been allowed to precede the others, roused the attention of the enemy. A hellish scene ensued. The royalists rushed like blood-hounds on their victims, caring nothing whether their bullets struck women or their lances impaled children. The shrieks of the despairing mother, and the cries of the little ones whom she sought to shield, were drowned in the fierce shouts of the combatants. In their