That afternoon almost all the efforts of the French were directed
against the suburb from the left of the Ebro. They assaulted the
Monastery of Jesus, and bombarded the Church of the Virgin del Pilar,
where the greater number of sick and infirm had found refuge, believing
that the sanctity of the place offered them greater security than any
other spot.
In the centre of the city, we did not work much that day. All our
attention was concentrated upon the mines, and our efforts directed
to giving the enemy evidence that, before consenting to be blown up
ourselves, we would discuss blowing them up, or at least flying upwards
together.
At night both armies seemed given over to peaceful repose. The rough
blows of the pick were no longer heard in the subterranean galleries. I
sallied forth; and near San Diego I found Augustine and Mariquilla, who
were talking quietly together, seated sedately upon the doorstep of the
house los Duendes. They were very glad to see me; and I joined them,
sharing the scraps of bread of which they were making their supper.
"We have nowhere to stay," said Mariquilla. "We were in a portico in
the Organo alley; but we were driven out. Why is it that so many people
detest my poor father? What harm has he done them? We took refuge
afterwards in a corner of the Calle de las Urreas, and were driven out
of there too. We sat down afterwards under an arch in the Coso, and all
those who were there fled away from us. My father was furious."
"Mariquilla of my heart," said Augustine, "let us hope that the siege
will soon be finished by some means or other. I hope that God will let
us both die, if living we may not be happy. I do not know why, among so
many misfortunes, my heart is full of hope; I do not know why I have
such happy thoughts, and think constantly of a cheerful future. Why
not? Must everything be dreadful and unfortunate? The troubles of my
family have been very great. My mother neither receives nor desires to
receive any consolation. Nobody is able to get her away from the place
where the bodies of my brother and my nephew are; and when by force we
take her to ever so great a distance, she immediately begins to drag
herself along over the stones of the street to try and return. She and
my sister and my sister-in-law are pitiable to see, refusing to take
food, and in their prayers deliriously confusing the names of all the
saints. This afternoon we have at last contrived to carry them to a
sheltered spot where we obliged them to get a little repose, and to
take a little food. Mariquilla, how sadly God has dealt with my people!
Have I not reason to hope that at last He will pity us?"
"Yes," said Mariquilla; "my heart tells me that we have passed the hard
part of our life, and that now we shall have peaceful days. The siege
will soon be finished; because, according to what my father says, this
holding out can be only a matter of days. This morning I went to the
Pilar; when I knelt before the Virgin, it seemed to me that our holy
Lady looked at me and smiled. Then I came out of the church, my heart
was beating with a keen delight. I looked at the sky, and the bombs
seemed to me like toys; I looked at the wounded, and it seemed to me
that they were all healed; I looked at the people, and could almost
believe that they all felt the same happiness which was overflowing my
bosom. I do not know how it is with me to-day, I am so happy. God and
the Virgin have surely taken pity on us; and this beating of my heart,
this joyous restlessness, without care for what may happen, must mean
good fortune after so many tears!"
"All that you say is true," said Augustine, holding Mariquilla lovingly
to him. "Your presentiments are laws; your heart, one with the divine,
cannot be deceived. Listening to you, it seems to me as if the troubles
that crush us melt away in the air, and I breathe with delight the
breath of happiness. I hope that your father will not oppose your
marrying me."
"My father is good," said Mariquilla. "I believe that if his neighbors
in the city had not worried him so much that he would have been kinder.
But they cannot bear the sight of him. This afternoon he was badly
maltreated again in the cloister of San Francisco, and when he joined
me in the Coso he was furious, and swore that he would be revenged.
I tried to quiet him, but all in vain. They drive us away from
everywhere. He doubled up his fists, and angrily threatened those who
were there near us. Afterwards, he ran away and came here. I thought
he was coming to see if they had destroyed this house, which is ours.
I followed him. He turned towards me as if frightened at hearing my
footsteps, and said to me, 'Stupid meddler, who told you to follow me?'
I answered nothing; but seeing that he advanced to the French lines,
as if he meant to cross over, I tried to detain him, and said to him,
'Father, where are you going?' Then he answered, 'Do you know that my
friend who served last year in Saragossa, the Swiss Captain Don Carlos
Lindener, is in the French army? I am going to see him. I remember that
he owes me a certain amount.' He made me stay here, and went on. I am
afraid that if his enemies know that he crossed over into the French
lines, they will call him a traitor. I do not know whether it is the
great affection that I have for him, but he seems to me incapable of
such action. I am afraid though that there is something wrong, and for
this reason I long for the end of the siege. Is it not true that it
will soon be finished, Augustine?"
"Yes, Mariquilla, it will soon be finished, and we will be married. My
father wishes me to marry."
"Who is your father? What is his name? Is it not time yet to tell me
that?"
"You shall know it another time. My father is one of the principal
personages in Saragossa, and much beloved. Why wish to know more?"
"Yesterday I tried to inquire. I was curious. I asked several people I
know that I met in the Coso, 'Do you know what gentleman it is who has
lost his eldest son?' But so many are like that, that they only laughed
at me."
"I will reveal it to you in good time, and when in telling it to you I
can give you good news with it."
"Augustine, if I marry you, I wish that you would take me away from
Saragossa for several days. I want for a little time to see other
houses, other trees, other scenes. I wish to live for some days in
places where these things are not, among which I have suffered so much."
"Yes, Mariquilla, my soul," exclaimed Montoria, quite carried away; "we
will go wherever we please, far away from here, to-morrow even; no, not
to-morrow, for the siege will not be raised. Day after to-morrow, in
short, sometime, when--God wills it."
"Augustine," added Mariquilla, in a sleepy voice, "I wish that, after
we return from our journey, that we might rebuild the house where I
was born. The cypress-tree is still standing."
Mariquilla's head drooped forward, showing that she was half overcome
with sleep.
"Do you want to go to sleep, you poor little thing?" my friend said to
her, taking her in his arms.
"I have not slept at all for several nights," replied the girl, closing
her eyes. "Anxiety, sorrow, and fear have kept me awake. To-night
weariness overcomes me, and I am so peaceful now that it makes me wish
to go to sleep."
"Sleep in my arms, Mariquilla," said Augustine; "and may the peace that
now fills thy soul not leave thee when thou wakest."
After a little while, when we thought her sleeping, Mariquilla, half
asleep and half awake, said,--
"Augustine, I do not wish my good Doña Guedita to leave me; she took
such good care of us when we were first engaged. You see now I was
right in telling you that my father was in the French camp to collect
his bill--"
Then she spoke no more, and slept profoundly. Augustine sat upon the
ground, holding her on his knees and in his arms. I covered her feet
with my cloak.
Augustine and I were silent, so that our voices might not disturb the
sleep of the young girl. The place was deserted enough. Just back of us
was the Casa los Duendes, close by the Convent of San Francisco, and
opposite the college of San Diego, with its orchard surrounded by high
mud walls which opened upon irregular and narrow alleys. Through these
marched the sentinels who had been relieved, and the platoons going
to the picket lines or coming from there. The truce was complete, and
this repose signified a great battle on the following day. Suddenly the
silence permitted me to hear muffled blows under us, in the depths of
the earth. I understood that the French miners had reached this point
with their picks, and told Augustine what I imagined it must be. He
listened attentively; then he said to me,--
"That seems indeed like mining. But how did they come here? The
galleries that they made from the Jerusalem were all cut off by
ourselves. How would they be able to take a step without meeting our
men?"
"This noise indicates that they are mining from San Diego. They have
a part of that building. Until now they have not been able to reach
the wine-cellars of the Convent of San Francisco. If, by bad luck,
they have discovered that the passage from San Diego to San Francisco
is easy by the way under this house, it is probable that this is the
passage that is being opened now."
"Run this instant to the convent," he said to me. "Go down into the
cellar, and if you hear the noise, tell Renovales what is going on. If
anything happens, call me, and I will follow."
Augustine remained alone with Mariquilla. I went to the San Francisco,
and going down into the cellar met, together with other patriots, an
official of the engineers, who, when I had expressed my fears, said to
me,--
"They would not be able to get here by the galleries under the Calle de
Santa Engracia from the Jerusalem and the hospital, because our mine
has made theirs useless, and a few of our men will be able to keep
them back. Under this edifice we control the underground chambers of
the church, the wine-cellars, and the other cellars which lead towards
the cloister at the east. There is a part of the convent which has not
been mined, at the west and south; but, there are no cellars there, and
we did not believe it worth while to open galleries, because it is
not probable that they would approach us from the two sides. We hold
the next house; and I have examined it underground, and found that
the cellar was almost joined to those of the chapter house. If they
controlled the house los Duendes, it would be easy to carry explosives
and blow up all the southern and western part; but that house is ours,
and from it to the French positions opposite San Diego and Santa Rosa
is a long distance. It is not probable that they will attack us in
that place, and I do not know that there is any existing communication
between the house and San Diego or Santa Rosa which would permit them
to advance without making it known."
We remained talking over this matter until morning. At break of day
Augustine came, very happy, and saying that he had found a lodging for
Mariquilla in the same place where his family was established. Then we
prepared for a strong effort that day, because the French, who already
held the hospital, or rather its ruins, threatened to attack the San
Francisco, not by the underground way, but in the open, and by the
light of the sun.