The Boy Soldier; Or, Garibaldi's Young Captain — page 365: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE BOY SOLDIER; OR, GARIBALDIS YOUNG CAPTAIN. 359 ee stroying the mills, storehouses, bridges, &c., Caspar slowly retired, having captured several hundred stands of arms, some prisoners, much ammunition, stores, &c. “For while he had attracted the enemy’s attention by fighting, and driving in their advance, his troopers were scouring the country in all directions, seizing waggons, and vast quantities of commissary stores, &c., unprotected. * As he retired behind the woods, scouts came in and reported the enemy endeavouring to cut off our retreat. “But by expedition and coolness we soon de- scended the mountains, and, reaching the main _ road, oecupied the point crossing a hill, and placed our pieces in position ready for a determined fight. « For although few, the men were truly desperate, and, to use their own expression, ‘spoiling for a ght.’ ‘The enemy perceived the strong position, and ayer eatimabing our force, retired without firing a shot, ‘While bivouacked that night, a courier came dashing towards us, and brought the stirring news that Bazaine, with a heavy force, was marching to cut off Escobedo. “The latter had hastily retreated, bag and baggage, ten miles; we must immediately follow him as best we could. “Tf the enemy had really entered, a courier would inform us of it on the road, and give time to branch off towards Matamoras to get under pro- tection. ‘This indeed was startling news. “The men had travelled much and were ex- cessively weary. “T decided not to call them up for a few hours, but gave them rest. : “Towards twilight all were quietly awakened and informed of the state of things. “The men good-humouredly arriving at the con- clusion that we had better ‘up stakes and dust’ out of the neighbourhood in ‘a mighty big hurry.’ “Our waggons were sent out of the way by a road leading south-east, with directions to halt at a certain point for further orders. ‘We marched through villages like shadows—all were abed, and not a dog barked—and continued at a great pace towards Matamoras, “Towards evening we halted on a large hill over- looking the town, and received orders to keep to the woods and proceed on to our brigade. : “The rain fell in torrents, and the roads were awful, as all roads in Mexico are at this reason. “When within a mile of our resting-place a courier brought orders to halt for the night, and proceed to Matamoras at break of day. _ “With much swearing and grumbling at Esco- bedo’s idea of strategy, the order was obeyed, and - foot-sore, and dirty, and shoeless, we pitched tents on our old camping-ground, one of the companies being detailed to hold the mudwork on the hill, called by the dignified term of ‘ Fort Escobedo,’ though it had no guns, and was not pierced for any. This company, together with the other three, detailed men to picket at the river as usual, and were instructed to wait until further orders. “ First from one place, then to another, up and down hills, over mountains, moving away during the night from one place, and returning next day— everlastingly on the move—thus we live out here. “Tf this eternal marching through mud, rains, and snow, means ‘strategy,’ Hscobedo possesses - more of it than our whole army put together. | ‘‘ We first moved here, next day moved back, ina few days moved back again, thence from one place to another, until at last I began to imagine we were commanded by some peripatetic philosophical madman, whose /orte is pedestrianism, “With little or no baggage, we are a roving, hungry, hardy lot of fellows, and are not patronized at all by parsons or doctors. “‘ The latter have a perfect sinecure, and I would wager that all the medical stores in our department don’t amount to more than a dozen doses of blue mass. “In fact, we don’t want medicines, and have not time to get sick. ** Up one mountain and down another. “ Now watching this ‘pass,’ next night watching some ‘ gap,’ or ‘ford,’ or ‘ bridge.’ ‘In fine, we seem to do nothing else than ‘ gap’ it, ‘ford ’ it, ‘ bridge ’ it, ** But there is no such thing as ‘passing’ it, for we are but few, and every man must stick to his post or the general will very quickly want to know the reason why, “He may be a very fine old gentleman, and an honest,good-tempered, industrious man,butI should admire him much more in a state of rest than con- tinually seeing him moving in the front, “And such a dry old stick, too ! ** Asto uniform, he has none. ‘* His wardrobe isn’t worth a dollar, and his horse *“ the only valuable and presentable feature about im. * And don’t he keep his aids moving about ! ‘‘ Thirty miles’ ride at night through the mud is nothing of a job; and if they don’t come up to time, I’d as soon face the devil, for he takes no ex- cuses when duty is on hand. “‘ He is about 45 years old, medium height,strongly built, solemn and thoughtful, speaks but little, and always in a calm, decided tone. ‘‘ From what he says there is no appeal. ‘‘ He seems to know every hole and corner of this country as if he made it, or at least designed it for his own use, “He knows all the distances, al] the roads, even to cowpaths through the woods, and goat-tracks along the hills. “He sits his horse very awkwardly, although, generally speaking, all Mexicans are fine horsemen, and has a fashion of holding his head very high, and chin up, as if searching for something sky- wards. ‘Yet although you can never see his eyes for the cap peak drawn down over them, /i¢ sees everything and nothing escapes him. ‘‘ His movements are sudden and unaccountable, ‘‘ His staff don’t pretend to keep up with him. “Consequently, he is frequently seen alone, poking about in all sorts of holes and corners, at all times of night and day. ‘‘] have frequently seen him approach in the dead of night, and enter into conversation with sentinels, and ride off through the darkness without saying ‘God bless you,’ or anything civil to the _ officers. “The consequence is, officers are scared, and the men love him. “ He was a student in France, but never remark- able for any brilliancy. ‘; What service he bas seen was in Texas, where he served as lieutenant of artillery. ‘© At one of the battles there, his captain was about to withdraw the guns, because of the loss suffered by the battery, and also because the range was too great. 1 teeta sss! 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