Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/536

516 back and kept in check till artillery could be brought up. With this and the musketry, so lively a fire was thereupon opened from the barricade and houses as to completely sweep the road, and prevent even the placing of cannon at the abandoned works near the junction. To push onward seemed impossible; but Worth ordered the brigades of Clarke and Garland into the buildings which lined the road on either side, and made them hew their way through the walls with pick and crowbar. When the men were sufficiently advanced for a flank fire, a howitzer was hoisted to a roof and brought to bear upon the barricade, compelling its evacuation. Some of the retreating troops penetrate during the confusion into the city, but Santa Anna appears in time to rally, and returning with them to the gate he atones somewhat for his previous neglect by prompt dispositions and aid. The assailants mine their way with impunity, however, maintaining from windows and azoteas a fusillade of terrible volume and accuracy. By five o'clock they have burrowed their way almost to the gate fortress, unseen yet not noiseless, for midst the din and excitement can be heard the dull thud of battering beams, with the cracking of timber and the crumbling of walls. Now a light gun is advanced to the captured barricade, at a run through the bullet shower, and then pours against the gate the responsive roar of three pieces, one located as if in mockery upon San Cosme church. While attention is thus centred on the front, the roofs of the adjoining buildings suddenly heave with a living mass. The next moment comes a withering discharge from a line of rifles on either flank, under cover of which storming parties rush at a signal from their retreats. So rapid is the movement and such the onslaught from different sides that the works are scaled and lines formed before the defenders recover from the shock. The reserve, however, is still prepared to