Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/416

396 storming columns successfully forced their way forward. Building after building and square after square were gained, the Mexican artillery causing little harm to the sheltered men as they worked their way through the inner walls of the houses. But the rifles of the Texans were plied from house-top and window with fatal effect. By night the Mexicans had been gradually driven back to the great plaza, and the assailants, leaving a covered way in their rear, had reached to within a square of it. Meanwhile Major Munroe arrived with the ten-inch mortar, which had been of little service on the eastern side, and it was placed in position in the plaza de San Antonio, near the cemetery. By sunset it was ready, and the range having been soon obtained, the artillerists dropped the shells with great precision into the principal plaza. When darkness set in the more active operations ceased; but Worth, determined to hold his position, continued during the night his preparations to follow up the assault on the following morning, and the roof of a large building, which towered over the principal defences, was mounted with two howitzers and a six-pounder. But at dawn a flag of truce was sent in, and a suspension of arms asked for. The last shot had been fired; the siege of Monterey was ended.

Early in the morning of the 24th, Colonel Francisco R. Moreno appeared in Taylor's camp, the bearer of a communication from Ampudia offering to evacuate the town, taking wvith him all the arms and munitions of war, and asking for a suspension of hostilities. The proposal was rejected. Taylor