Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/700

684 sallies and disastrous assaults. Mina had so effectually harassed the royalists as to reduce them to great stress both for food and ammunition, but after his capture reënforcements as well as supplies came flowing in, and the batteries soon made sad havoc with the exterior works of the fortress, raking also a vast extent of ground. All this, however, would not have availed much against a place so well manned and provisioned, at least for some time longer, had not the ammunition begun to fail. The object of the last sally had been to supply the deficiency, and this failing, it was resolved to evacuate the stronghold on the night of January 1, 1818, by the difficult pathway from the Panzacola, but the least guarded and therefore the only available exit. As at Sombrero, the men chivalrously encumbered themselves with the women and children, who would probably meet with no worse fate than lenient imprisonment if they remained behind, but the sick and wounded were abandoned to the well known mercies of a ruthless foe.

Unfortunately, the mistake had been made to stop the usual call of the sentinels, and this intended precaution served only to apprise the royalists that flight was intended. Hence, before half the garrison had passed the gate the movement was discovered, and in a twinkling, the signal being given, beacons blazed up along the passes and hilltops, illuminating the whole route. And now were repeated the terrible scenes presented at Sombrero, of scattering fugitives seeking the dark recesses of the woods and gulches; of a panicstricken throng at the ravine pass, struggling in different directions, some to escape the onslaught of the