THE ASSAULT.
At the frightful discharge which greeted them, and scattered death in
their ranks, the guerilleros fell back with horror; surprised by those
whom they calculated on surprising, prepared to plunder but not to
fight, their first thought was flight, and an indescribable disorder
broke out in their ranks.
The defenders of the hacienda, whose number had considerably increased,
took advantage of this hesitation to send a shower of bullets among
them. Some resolution must be formed, however, either to advance under
the bullets, or give up the expedition.
The proprietor of the hacienda was rich, as the guerilleros were aware;
for a long time past they had desired to seize this wealth, which
they coveted, and which, whether rightly or wrongly, they supposed to
be hidden in the hacienda; it cost them a struggle to give up this
expedition so long prepared, and from which they promised themselves
such magnificent results.
Still the bullets constantly scattered among them, and they did not
dare to pass the breach. Their chiefs, even more interested than they
in the success of their projects, put an end to any hesitation, by
resolutely arming themselves with pickaxes and crowbars, not only to
enlarge the breach, but also to completely throw down the wall, for
they understood that it was only by a sudden eruption that they could
succeed in overthrowing the opposition which the defenders of the
hacienda offered them.
The latter continued to fire bravely, but most of their shots were
thrown away, as the guerilleros were working under shelter, and were
very cautious not to show themselves in front of the breach.
"They have changed their tactics," the count said to Dominique, "they
are now engaged in throwing down the wall, and will soon return to the
attack; and," he added, taking a sorrowful glance around, "we shall be
conquered; for the men who accompany us are not capable of resisting a
vigorous attack."
"You are right, friend, the situation is serious," the young man
answered.
"What is to be done?" the majordomo asked.
"Stay, I have an idea," Dominique suddenly said, striking his forehead;
"you have gunpowder here?"
"Yes, thank heaven, there is no want of that; but what is the use of
it?"
"Have a barrel brought here as speedily as possible, I answer for the
rest."
"That is easy."
"In that case go."
The majordomo ran off.
"What do you intend to do?" the count asked.
"You shall see," the young man replied, with flashing eyes; "by Heaven,
a glorious idea has occurred to me. These brigands will probably seize
the hacienda, and we are too weak to resist them, and it is only a
question of time for them; but, by Jupiter, it shall cost them dearly."
"I do not understand you."
"Ah," the young man continued, in a state of feverish excitement; "ah,
they wish to open a wide passage; well, I undertake to make it for
them; wait a while."
At this moment the majordomo returned, bringing not one, but three
barrels on a truck; each of these barrels contained about 120 pounds of
gunpowder.
"Three barrels!" Dominique exclaimed, joyously; "All the better: in
this way each of us will have his own."
"But what do you intend doing?"
"I mean to blow them up, by heaven!" he exclaimed. "Come to work!
Imitate me!"
He took a barrel and unheaded it; the count and Leo Carral did the same.
"Now," he said, addressing the peons, who were startled by these
sinister preparations; "back, you fellows, but still continue to fire,
and keep them on the alarm."
The three men remained alone with the count's two servants, who refused
to abandon their master. In a few words Dominique explained his plan
to his companions. They raised the barrels, and gliding silently
behind the trees, approached the grotto. The besiegers, occupied in
destroying the wall inside, and not daring to venture in front of the
breach, could not see what was going on outside. It was therefore an
easy task for the five men to reach the very foot of the wall the
guerilleros were demolishing, without being discovered. Dominique
placed the three powder barrels so as to touch the wall, and on these
barrels, he, aided by his companions, piled all the stones he could
find. Then he took his mechero, drew out the tinder match, from which
he cut off about six inches, lit it, and planted it on one of the
barrels.
"Back! Back!" he said, in a low voice; "The wall no longer holds! See
how it is bulging. It will fall in a moment."
And, setting the example, he ran off at full speed. Nearly all the
defenders of the hacienda, about forty in number, with don Andrés at
their head, were assembled at the entrance of the huerta.
"Why are you running so hard?" the hacendero asked the young men; "Are
the brigands after you?"
"No, no," Dominique replied; "not yet; but you will soon have news of
them."
"Where is doña Dolores?" the count asked.
"In my apartments with her women, and perfectly safe."
"Fire, you fellows!" Dominique shouted to the peons.
The latter recommenced a tremendous fire.
"Raimbaut," the count said, in a low voice; "we must foresee
everything. Go with Lanca Ibarru, and saddle five horses: mind one of
them is a side-saddle. You understand me, do you not?"
"Yes, my lord."
"You will lead these horses to the door which is at the end of the
huerta. You will wait for me there with Lanca, both well armed. Go."
Raimbaut went off at once, as quiet and calm as if nothing
extraordinary were occurring at the moment.
"Ah!" said don Andrés with a sigh of regret; "If Melchior was here he
would be very useful to us."
"He will be here soon, señor, you may be sure," the count remarked,
ironically.
"Where can he be, though?"
"Ah! Who can tell?"
"Ah! Ah!" Dominique exclaimed; "Something is going on down there."
The stones, vigorously assailed by the repeated blows of the
guerilleros, were beginning to fall outwards. The breach was rapidly
entered, but at last a whole piece of wall fell in one mass into the
garden. The guerilleros uttered a loud shout, threw down their picks,
and seizing their weapons, prepared to rush forth. But suddenly a
terrible explosion was heard; the earth quivered as if agitated by
a volcanic convulsion; a cloud of smoke rose to the sky, and masses
of ruins, raised by the explosion, were hurled in all directions. A
horrible cry of agony rang through the air, and that was all: a deadly
silence brooded over the scene.
"Forward! Forward!" Dominique shouted.
The injury caused by the mine was terrible. The entrance of the
passage, completely destroyed, and filled up with masses of earth and
heaped-up stones, had not permitted one of the assailants to pass. Here
and there the disfigured remains of what had been a moment before men,
emerged from the middle of the fragments. The catastrophe must have
been awful, but the passage kept the secret close.
"Oh! Heaven be praised! We are saved!" don Andrés exclaimed.
"Yes, yes," the majordomo said; "if no other assailants arrive from
another quarter."
Suddenly, as if in justification of the remark, loud cries were heard
blended with shots, and a vivid flame, which rose from the outhouses of
the hacienda, lit up the country with a sinister gleam.
"To arms! To arms!" the peons shouted, as they ran up in alarm. "The
guerilleros! The guerilleros!"
And they speedily saw, by the red glow of the fire which was devouring
the buildings, the black outlines of some hundred men, who hurried up,
brandishing their weapons, and uttering yells of fury. A few paces in
advance of the bandits advanced a man, holding a sabre in one hand, and
a torch in the other.
"Don Melchior!" the old gentleman exclaimed, despairingly.
"By heaven! I will stop him!" Dominique said, taking aim at him.
Don Andrés darted at the gun, which he threw up.
"It is my son!" he said.
The shot passed harmlessly through the air.
"Hum! I fancy you will repent having saved his life, señor," Dominique
coldly replied.
Don Andrés, dragged away by the count and Dominique, entered his
apartments, all the issues to which his peons hastily barricaded, and
then kept up a sustained fire from the windows on the besiegers.
Don Melchior had an understanding with the partisans of Juárez.
Reduced, as the majordomo had very correctly told the count, to a state
of desperation by the speedy marriage of his sister, and the inevitable
loss of the fortune of which he had so long entertained the hope of
being sole heir, the young man forgot all moderation, and, under
certain conditions accepted by Cuéllar, though with, the intention of
not fulfilling them, he had proposed to the latter to surrender the
hacienda to him; and all the measures had been taken in consequence.
It was then arranged that a portion of the cuadrilla, under the orders
of resolute officers, should attempt a surprise by the secret passage,
which the young man had previously made known. Then, while this
troop was operating, the other of the cuadrilla, under Cuéllar's own
orders, and guided by don Melchior, would silently scale the walls of
the hacienda on the side of the corrals, which the inhabitants would
doubtless neglect to defend. We have related the success of this double
attack.
Cuéllar, though he was still ignorant of it, had lost one half of his
cuadrilla, who were buried under the ruins of the grotto. With the
men left him he was at this moment waging an obstinate fight with the
peons of the hacienda, who, knowing they had to deal with the band of
Cuéllar, the most ferocious and sanguinary of all Juárez' guerilleros,
and that this band never granted quarter, fought with the energy of
desperation, which renders strength tenfold as great. The combat
lasted some time. The peons, ambushed in the apartments, had lined the
windows with everything that came to hand, and fired under cover at
the assailants scattered about the courtyards, on whom they entailed
considerable losses. Cuéllar was furious, not alone at this unforeseen
resistance, but also at the incomprehensible delay of the soldiers of
his cuadrilla who had entered by the grotto, and who should have joined
him long ere this. He had certainly heard the noise of the explosion,
but as he was at the time at a considerable distance from the hacienda,
in a direction diametrically opposed to that where the explosion took
place, the noise had reached his ears indistinctly, and he had paid no
further attention to it; but the inexplicable delay of his comrades at
this moment, when their help would have been so valuable, was beginning
to cause him lively anxiety, and he was on the point of sending one
of his men off to hurry the laggards, when suddenly shouts of victory
were raised from the interior of the buildings he was attacking, and
several guerilleros appeared at the windows, brandishing their weapons
joyously. It was owing to don Melchior that this decisive success was
obtained. While the main body of the assailants attacked the buildings
in front, he, accompanied by several resolute men, stepped through a
low window, which in the first moment of confusion they had forgotten
to barricade like the rest. He had entered the interior, and suddenly
appeared before the besieged, whom his presence terrified, and on whom
his comrades rushed with sabres and pistols.
At this moment it was no longer a fight but a horrible butchery. The
peons, in spite of their entreaties, were seized by the conquerors,
stabbed, and hurled through the windows into the courtyard. The
guerilleros soon poured through all the buildings, pursuing the
wretched peons from room to room, and pitilessly massacring them. They
thus reached a large drawing room, whose large folding doors were wide
open; but on arriving there they not merely stopped, but recoiled with
an instinctive movement of terror before the terrible spectacle that
was presented to them. This room was splendidly lit up by a number of
candles, placed in all the chandeliers and on the various articles
of furniture. In one corner of the room a barricade had been erected
by piling up the furniture: behind this barricade, doña Dolores had
sought shelter with all the wives and children of the hacienda peons,
two paces in front of the barricade, four men were standing erect with
a gun in one hand and a pistol in the other. These four men were don
Andrés, the count, Dominique and Leo Carral: two barrels of gunpowder
with the heads knocked out were placed near them.
"Halt," the count said in a jeering voice, "halt, I request,
caballeros; one step further, and we blow up the house. Do not pass the
threshold, if you please."
The guerilleros were careful not to disobey this courteous hint, for
at the first glance they recognized with whom they had to deal. Don
Melchior stamped his foot savagely on seeing himself thus rendered
powerless.
"What do you want?" he asked in a strangled voice.
"Nothing of you; we are men of honour, and will not parley with a
scoundrel of your stamp."
"You shall be shot like dogs, accursed Frenchmen."
"I defy you to put your threat in execution," said the count, as he
coolly cocked the revolver he held in his hand and pointed it at the
barrel of gunpowder by his side.
The guerilleros recoiled, uttering shrieks of terror.
"Do not fire, do not fire," they exclaimed; "here is the colonel."
In fact, Cuéllar arrived. Cuéllar is a frightful bandit, this statement
will surprise nobody, but we must do him the justice of stating that he
possesses unparalleled bravery. He forced his way through his soldiers,
and soon found himself standing alone in front of them. He bowed
gracefully to the four men, and examined them craftily, and while idly
rolling a cigarette.
"Well," he said gaily, "the affair you have imagined is most
ingenious, and I sincerely compliment you upon it, caballeros. Those
demons of Frenchmen have incredible ideas, on my honour," he added,
speaking to himself; "they never allow themselves to be taken unawares;
there is enough there to send us all to paradise."
"And in case of need we would no more hesitate to do it than we
hesitated to blow up your men, whom you sent as scouts through the
grotto."
"What," Cuéllar asked, turning pale, "what is it you are saying about
my soldiers?"
"I am saying," the count replied coldly, "that you can have their
corpses sought for in the passage, all will be found there, for all
have fallen there."
A shudder of terror ran along the ranks of the guerilleros at these
words.
There was a silence. Cuéllar was reflecting. He raised his head, every
trace of emotion had disappeared from his face, and he looked around
him as searching for something.
"Are you looking for a light?" Dominique asked him, as he advanced
toward him candle in hand: "Pray light your cigarette, señor."
And he politely held out the candle.
Cuéllar lit his cigarette, and returned the candlestick.
"Thanks, señor," he said.
Dominique rejoined his companions.
"So then," said Cuéllar, "you request a capitulation."
"You are mistaken, señor," the count replied coolly; "on the contrary,
we offer you one."
"You offer us?" the guerillero said with amazement.
"Yes, since we are masters of your life."
"Pardon me," Cuéllar said, "that is specious, for on blowing us up, you
will go with us."
"Hang it! That is precisely what we intend."
Cuéllar reflected once more.
"Come," he said a moment after, "let us not wage a war of words, but
come to the fact like men: what do you want?"
"I will tell you," the count answered.