For more than a month after the incidents related, were we of the
invading army compelled to endure a semi-seclusion, within _cuartels_
neither very clean nor comfortable.
We should have far preferred the _billet_; and there were scores of
grand "casas" whose owners richly deserved it.
But the thing was out of the question. To have scattered our small
force would have been to court the rising we had reason to apprehend.
Our division-general had the good sense to perceive this; and, against
the grumbling of both officers and men, insisted upon his injunction--to
stay within doors--being rigorously observed.
To me the situation was irksome in the extreme. It gave too much
leisure to brood over my bitterness. An active life might have offered
some chance of distraction; but inside a barrack--where one grows
ennuyed with always seeing the same faces, and tired of the everlasting
small talk--even the ordinary routine is sufficiently afflicting. What
was it in the heart of a hostile city? What to me, suffering from the
humiliation I had experienced?
Only for the sake of excitement did I desire to go out on the streets.
The Calle del Obispo had lost its attractions for me; or, rather should
I say, they were lost to me. As for visiting the Callecito de los
Pajaros, I am sorry to record: that my wounded _amour propre_ was more
powerful than my sense of gratitude. I felt more inclined to shun, than
seek it.
A month, and there came a change. The streets of La Puebla were once
more free to us--by night as by day.
It was caused by the arrival of three or four fresh brigades of the
American army: now concentrating to advance upon the capital.
The tables were turned, and the hostile Poblanos were reduced--if not to
a state of friendship, at least to one of fear.
They had cause. Along with our troops came a regiment of "Texas
Rangers"--the dread of all modern Mexicans--with scores of nondescript
camp-followers, by our enemies equally to be dreaded.
Still more to be feared, and shunned, by the citizens of Puebla, was a
band of _regular robbers_, whom General Scott--for some sapient purpose
of his own--had incorporated with the American army, under the title of
the "Spy Company"--the name taken from the service they were intended to
perform.
They were the band of captain--usually styled "colonel"--Dominguez; an
ex-officer of Santa Anna's army, who for years had sustained himself in
the mountains around Perote, and the _mal pais_ of El Pinol--a terror to
all travellers not rich enough to command a strong escort of Government
"dragones."
They were true highwaymen--_salteadores del camino grande_--each mounted
on his own horse, and armed with carbine, pistol, lance, or long sword!
They were dressed in various fashions; but generally in the picturesque
_ranchero_ costume of _jaqueta, calzoneros_, and broad-brimmed
high-crowned hats; booted, spurred, sashed, laced, and tassel led.
On the shoulders of some might be seen the _serape_; while not a few
were draped with the magnificent _manga_.
On joining us they were a hundred and twenty strong, with recognised
officers--a captain and a couple of "tenientes," with the usual number
of "sarjentes" and "cabos."
So close was their resemblance to the _guerilleros_ of the enemy, that,
to prevent our men from shooting them by mistake, they had been
compelled to adopt a distinguishing badge.
It consisted of a strip of scarlet stuff, worn, bandlike, round their
sombreros--with the loose ends dangling down to the shoulder.
The symbol naturally led to a name. They were known to our soldiers as
the "Red Hats"--the phrase not unfrequently coupled with a rude
adjunctive.
Outlawed in their own land--now associated with its invaders--it is
scarce necessary to say that the Red Hats were an object of terror
wherever they had a chance of showing their not very cheerful faces.
And in no place more than La Puebla; that had given birth to at least
one-half of them, and to all of them, at one time or another, shelter
within its gaols!
Now returned to it under the _aegis_ of the American eagle, there was a
fine opportunity for the Red Hats to settle old scores with _alcaldes,
reyidores_, and the like; and they were not backward in availing
themselves of it.
The consequence was, that the Poblanos soon laid aside their bullying
tone; and were only too well pleased when allowed to pass tranquilly
through their own streets.
I was one among many other officers of the American army who felt
disgust at this association with _salteadores_--solely an idea of our
superannuated commander-in-chief, since celebrated as the "hero" of
Bull's Run.
Endowed with a wonderful conceit in his "strategical combinations," the
employment of the Spy company was one in which he felt no little pride;
while we regarded it as a positive disgrace.
The act might have been allowable under the pressure of a severe
necessity. But none such existed. In the anarchical land invaded by us
we could have found spies enough--without appealing to its cut-throats.
It is not to be denied that Dominguez and his robbers did us good
service. Faithfulness to our cause was a necessity of their existence.
Outlawed before--now doubly estranged by their treason--they were hated
by their countrymen with an intensity beyond bounds; and, wherever
caught straying beyond our lines, death was their certain doom.
In several skirmishes, into which they were drawn with their own
guerilleros, they fought like very tigers--well knowing that, if taken,
they had no mercy to expect.
On their side the _lex talionis_ was practised with a loose hand; so
loose that it soon became necessary to restrain it; and they were no
longer allowed to go scouting on their own account. Whenever their
services were required, they had to be performed under the eye of an
officer of mounted rifles or dragoons, with a troop of these acting in
concert.
But the terror originally inspired by them continued till the end of the
campaign; and the sight of a Red Hat coming along the street was
sufficient to terrify the women, and send the children screaming within
doors.
In no place were our red-handed allies held in greater detestation than
in the city of La Puebla--partly from the striking resemblance borne to
them by a large number of its population, and an antipathy on this
account; partly from old hostilities; and, perhaps, not a little from
the fact of our having there, more than elsewhere, permitted them to
carry out their proclivities.
There was a sort of tacit consent to their swaggering among the
Poblanos; as a punishment to the latter for the trouble, which _their_
swaggering had caused to us.
It was only for a time, however; and, when things appeared to be going
too far, the good old Anglo-American morality--inculcated by the
_township school_--resumed its sway over the minds of our soldiers; and
the Red Hats were coerced into better behaviour.