CHAPTER XXVIII
The possession of San Francisco would decide the fate of the city. Thatvast edifice, situated in the middle of the Coso, gave an incontestablesuperiority to the side which occupied it. The French began cannonadingit very early, with the intention of opening a breach for the assault;and the Saragossans transferred thither the greater part of theirforces to defend it. As the number of soldiers was now greatlydecreased, a large number of leading citizens, who until then had notserved except as aids, took up arms. Cereso, Sas, La Casa, Pidrafita,Escobar, Leiva, Don Jos? de Montoria,--all these good patriots hastenedto be among them.
In the narrow entrance of the Calle de San Gil, and in the archway ofCineja, there were cannon to restrain the enemy's advance. I was sentto serve these pieces, with other soldiers of the Estremadura regiment,because there were scarcely any artillerymen left. When I took leave ofAugustine, who remained in the San Francisco in the face of the enemy,we embraced, believing that we should never see each other again.
Don Jos? de Montoria, finding himself in the barricade of La Cruz delCoso, got a gunshot in the leg, and had to retire; but leaning againstthe wall of a house next to the arch of Cineja, he kept on fightingfor some time, until he brought on a hemorrhage, and at last findinghimself very faint, he called me, and said to me,--
"Se?or de Araceli, something is in my eyes. I cannot see anything.Curse this blood, how fast it runs out when it is most necessary tokeep it. Won't you lend me a hand?"
"Se?or," I said, running to him, and holding him up, "it would bebetter for you to retire to your lodging."
"No, here is where I want to be. But, Se?or de Araceli, if I keep onbleeding, where the devil is all this blood going? It seems to me asif my legs are stuffed with cotton. I am falling to the ground like anempty bag."
He made tremendous efforts of endurance, but almost lost consciousness,more from the serious nature of his wound, than merely from loss ofblood, after being without food and sleep, and in such trouble duringthese past days. Although he begged us to leave him there against thewall, so that he should not miss a single detail of the battle, wecarried him to his lodging, which was also in the Coso, at the cornerof the Calle del Refugio. The family had been installed in an upperroom. The house was all full of wounded, and the numbers of bodiesdeposited there very nearly obstructed the entrance. It was difficultto get through the narrow doorway and the rooms within, because the menwho had gone there to die, crowded the place, and it was not easy todistinguish between the living and the dead.
Montoria said, when we entered there, "Don't carry me upstairs, boys,where my family is. Leave me here below. Here I see a counter whichjust suits my purpose."
We put him where he said. This lower story was a shop. Several of thewounded and victims of the epidemic who had died that day were underthe counter, and many of the sick were lying upon the infected groundon pieces of cloth.
"Let us see," he said, "if there is any charitable soul who will try alittle to stop the gap where the blood comes out."
A woman came forward to care for the wounded man. It was MariquillaCandiola.
"God bless you, child," said Don Jos?, seeing that she was bringinglint and linen to bandage him. "Enough for now that you patch up thisleg a little. I don't believe there are any bones broken."
While this was going on, some twenty peasants came into the house tofire from the windows upon the ruins of the hospital.
"Se?or de Araceli, are you not going on firing? Wait a moment until Iget up, for I don't seem able to walk alone. I command you to fire fromthe window. That's a good shot. Don't let them have time to breatheover there at the hospital. Look here, lass, make haste! Haven't you aknife? It would be a good thing to cut off this piece of flesh that'shanging. How goes it, Se?or de Araceli? Are we going to win?"
"It's going all right," I answered from the window. "They are fallingback at the hospital. San Francisco is a bone that is a little hard topick."
Mariquilla, meanwhile, was looking fixedly at Montoria, and followinghis instructions in caring for him with much solicitude and deftness.
"You are a jewel, child," said my friend. "It seems to me that I canscarcely feel your hands upon my wound. But what makes you look at meso much? Does my face look like a monkey's? Let's see, is it finished?I will try to get up. But I am not able to sit up. What sort of weakwater is this in my veins! Porr--I was going to say--I don't seem ableto correct that bad habit! Se?or de Araceli, I don't do very well withmy soul. How goes the battle?"
"Se?or, a thousand marvels! Our valiant peasants are working wonders!"
Here a wounded officer was brought in for whom a ligature was wanted.
"Everything goes as we would desire it to go," he said to us. "Theywill not take San Francisco. Those in the hospital have been repulsedthree times. But the most wonderful thing, se?ors, took place besideSan Diego. I saw the French gain the orchard joining the house LosDuendes, where they were met by the bayonets of those brave soldiers ofOrihuela commanded by Pino-Hermoso, who not only dislodged them, butthey say killed a lot of them, and took thirty prisoners."
"I wish to go there! Viva the battalion of Orihuela! Viva the Marquisof Pino-Hermoso!" exclaimed Don Jos? de Montoria, with tremendousfervor. "Se?or de Araceli, let us go there! Lift me up. Isn't there apair of crutches there? Se?ors, my legs have given out. But I will gothere in spirit. My heart is there. Good-bye, child, beautiful littlenurse. But what makes you look at me so? Do you know me? I think I haveseen your face somewhere, but I don't remember where."
"I also have seen you once, only once," answered Mariquilla, tactfully,"and God grant you do not remember me!"
"I shall not forget your kindness," said Montoria. "You seem to bea good girl, and very pretty, that's sure. I am very grateful, mostgrateful. But bring those crutches or a stick, Se?or de Araceli. Giveme your arm. What is this which goes back and forth before my eyes? Letus go over there and drive the French out of the hospital."
Dissuading him from his rash idea of going out, I started alone, whenI heard an explosion so loud that no words have power to describe it.It seemed as if the whole city had been thrown into the air by theeruption of an immense volcano from beneath its foundations. All thehouses trembled. The sky was obscured by an immense cloud of smoke anddust, and along the whole length of the street we saw pieces of wallfalling, and shattered fragments, and beams, roofs, tiles, showers ofearth, and all sorts of things.
"Holy Virgin del Pilar, save us!" exclaimed Montoria. "It seems as ifthe whole world has blown up."
The sick and the wounded were crying out, believing that their lasthour had come. We all commended ourselves to God.
"What is it? Is Saragossa still in existence?" one asked.
"Are we blown up too?"
"This terrible explosion must have been in the Convent of SanFrancisco," said I.
"Let us run over there," cried Montoria, trying to make strength ofhis weakness. "Se?or de Araceli, did they not say that all precautionshad been taken to defend San Francisco? Isn't there a pair of crutchesanywhere here?"
We went into the Coso, where we were immediately assured of the factthat a large part of San Francisco had been blown up.
"My son was in the convent," said Montoria, pale as the dead. "My God,if thou art resolved upon his death also, may he die for his country atthe post of honor."
The loquacious beggar of whom I made mention in the first pages nowapproached us, walking laboriously upon his crutches, and seeming in avery bad state of health.
"Sursum Corda," I said to the patriot, "give me your crutches. You aredoing no good with them."
"Do me the kindness to let me keep them to get to that doorway," saidthe cripple, "and then I will give them to you. I do not wish to die inthe middle of the street."
"Are you dying?"
"It seems like it. I am burning with fever. I was wounded in theshoulder yesterday, and nobody has taken out the ball. I feel that I amgoing. Your honor may have the crutches."
&nb
sp; "Have you come from San Francisco?"
"No, sir, I was in the Arch del Trenque. There was a cannon there. Wehad been firing a great deal. But San Francisco has been blown intothe air when we least expected it. The whole part to the south and thewest came to the ground, burying many people. There has been treachery,people say. Adios, Se?or Don Jos?. Here I stay. My eyes are gettingdim. My tongue thickens. I am going, but the Virgin del Pilar willprotect me. And here your honor has my oars."
With them Montoria got on slowly towards the scene of the catastrophe.But we had to go around by the Calle San Gil, because we could not getthrough directly. The French had ceased firing upon the convent fromthe hospital; but, assaulting by San Diego, they quickly occupied theruins, which we could not dispute with them. The church and the towerof San Francisco remained standing.
"Eh, Father Luengo," said Montoria, calling to the friar of that name,"what is it? Where is the Captain-General? Has he perished in theruins?"
"No," replied the friar, stopping. "He is with officers in the Plazuelade San Felipe. I can announce the safety of your son Augustine to you,because he was one of those who were occupying the tower."
"Blessed be God!" said Don Jos?, crossing himself.
"All the part at the south and the west has been destroyed," proceededLuengo. "I do not know how they have been able to mine in that place.They must have placed the mines under the chapter house. We had notmined there, believing that it was a safe place."
An armed peasant who had come up said:
"Yes, and we had the next house, and the French, having possessionof parts only of Santa Rosa and San Diego, could not readily approachthere."
"As far as that is concerned," said an armed priest who had joined us,"it is supposed that they have found a secret passage-way between SantaRosa and the house los Duendes. Being in possession of the cellars ofthat, they could, by digging a short gallery, get under the chapterhouse, which is quite near."
"It is now known," said a captain of the army. "The house los Duendeshas a large cellar of which we knew nothing. From this cellar therewas undoubtedly a communication with Santa Rosa. The house formerlybelonged to the convent, and served it as a storehouse."
"Well, if this communication exists," said Luengo, "I understandperfectly who has discovered it to the French. You know that when theenemy was repulsed in the orchard of San Diego some prisoners weretaken. Among them was Candiola, who during these past days has oftenvisited the French camp, and last night went over to the enemy."
"It must be so," said Montoria; "because the house los Duendes belongsto Candiola. The damned Jew knew very well the passage-ways and hidingplaces of that building. Se?ors, let us go to see the Captain-General.Is it believed that the Coso can still be defended?"
"Does it not have to be defended?" said a soldier. "After all, it isonly a trifle which has happened, a few more dead. We will try toregain the church of San Francisco."
We all looked at that man who spoke so serenely of the impossible. Thesublime terseness of his expression of perseverance seemed like a jest,and in that epoch of the incredible, similar jests were wont to end inreality.
Let those who hesitate to give credence to my words open the history,and they will see that some few dozens of men, wasted, famished,barefooted, and half-naked, some of them wounded, held out all thatday in the tower. Not content with holding it, they went out over theroof of the church, opening here and there many places in the roof, andpaying no attention to the fire directed upon them from the hospital,they began to throw hand-grenades upon the French, obliging them toabandon the church when night came. All of the night was passed inattempts by the enemy to regain it; but they could not accomplish ituntil the following day, when the riflemen on the roof retired, passingto the house of S?stago.
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