The sun had risen in all his glorious majesty, and hung over the eastern
horizon like a wall of glowing fire; and its bright rays danced merrily
along the lake of Teseneo--over the glittering domes of Mexico--past the
frowning battlements of Chapultepec, and lit, in all their glorious
effulgence, upon, the blood-stained field of Molino del Rey.
The contest was over--the sound of battle had died away, save an
occasional shot from the distant artillery of the castle, or the fire of
some strolling riflemen.
I was standing beside the battered remains of the mill door, above which
the first footing had been gained upon the well-contested wall, and
gazing over the plain, now saturated with the blood of my
fellow-soldiers, which that morning waved green with flowing grass, when
I heard a low and feeble wail in the ditch beside me. I turned towards
the spot, and beheld, with his right leg shattered by a cannon ball, a
voltiguer lying amid the mangled. He had been passed by in the haste of
gathering up the wounded under the fire from the castle, and the rays of
the burning sun beat down with terrible fervor upon the wounded limb,
causing heavy groans to issue from his pallid lips, and his marble
countenance to writhe with pain.
"Water, for God's sake, a drink of water!" he faintly articulated, as I
bent over him.
Fortunately, I had procured a canteen of water, and placing it to his
lips, he took a long, deep draught, and then sunk back exhausted upon
the ground.
"The sun," he murmured, "is killing me by its rays; can not you carry me
into the shade?"
"I can procure assistance, and have you taken to the hospital."
"No, do not, my sands of life are most out. An hour hence, I shall be a
dead man. Carry me into the shade of the mill, and then, if you have
time to spare, listen to my dying words, and, if you are fortunate
enough to return to the United States, bear me back a message to my
home, and to anoth--" he paused, and motioned me to carry him into the
shade. I did so, and the cold wind which swept along the spot appeared
to revive him, and he continued:
"You, sir, are a total stranger to me, and, from your uniform belong to
another corps, and yet I must confide this, the great secret of all my
recent actions, and the cause of my being here, to you. Would to God
that I had reflected upon the fatal steps I had taken, and I should now
have been at my home, enjoying the society of kind friends, instead of
dying upon the gory field, and in a foreign land. My father was a
wealthy man, in the town of G----h, in the state of Virginia, and moved
in the best society of the place. I had received an excellent education,
had studied law and was admitted, in the twenty-fourth year of my age,
to practice at the bar. I had early seen and admired a young lady of the
place, a daughter of an intimate friend of father's, and fortunately
the feeling was reciprocated, and we were engaged to be married. The war
in Mexico had been in existence some twelve months, and many flocked to
the standard of their country. It so happened, that about this time, a
recruiting office had been opened in the town, and several of my young
friends had enlisted to go and try their fortunes on the plains of
Mexico. One night there was a grand party in the place, in honor of
those who were about to depart for the seat of war, and both myself and
Eveline were at the hall. Among those who were assembled at that evening
was Augustus P., a talented young man, and accomplished scholar, gay and
lively in his manners, free and cheerful in his disposition, and a
universal favorite with the fair sex. He had been for some time paying
his addresses to Eveline, as I deemed, in rather too pointed a manner.
As the party had assembled in the long hall, and the dance was about to
commence, I asked for her hand for the first set."
'It is engaged,' she replied, as I thought, rather tartly.
'To whom, if I may be so bold as to inquire?' I demanded.
'To Augustus P.,' was the immediate reply.
I smothered my rising indignation the best I could, and proudly
returned the smile of malignant joy my rival gave me.
'Perhaps I can engage it for a second set,' I calmly replied.
'Mr. P. has engaged it for the entire evening,' she pettishly replied,
and rising and taking his hand they took their station upon the floor.
I remained thunderstruck and rooted to the spot, until I saw the eyes
of my hated rival fixed upon me, and, throwing off the spell that bound
me, I assumed a proud, cold look. As I swept by the dancers, Eveline
paused for a moment when just beside me, and, bending close to her ear,
I whispered, 'Eveline, farewell forever.'