cavalry, commanded by Colonel Amaral; and every one, collecting his remaining strength, prepared himself for the fight. The "Who goes there?" of the sentinel was the signal for assault. The resistance was weak and of short duration upon the walls, the guns of the fort scarcely firing at all. At half-past one in the morning we gave the assault; at two, we had won the trenches and the three or four forts which defended them, and which were taken at the point of the bayonet.

us.

Masters of all the trenches, masters of the forts, in the city, it appeared impossible it should escape Well, again that which seemed impossible was reserved for us. When once within the walls, when once in the streets of San José, our soldiers fancied all was done. The greater part of them dispersed, attracted by the bait of plunder. In the meantime, the Imperialists, recovered from their surprise, got together again in a fortified quarter of the city. We attacked them there, but they repulsed us. Our leaders sought everywhere for the soldiers to renew the attack, but they sought in vain; or, if they did fall in with a few of them, they were loaded with booty, or drunk, or with their guns broken or injured by driving in the doors of houses.

The enemy, on their side, lost no time. Several vessels of war that were in the port took a position, raking with their guns the streets in which we were. They applied for succour to Rio-Grande of the South, a city situated on the opposite shore of the mouth of Los Patos, whilst a single fort, which we had neglected to occupy, served them as a place of refuge. The principal of all the forts-that of the Emperor-which had cost us a glorious and murderous assault, was rendered useless by a terrible explosion of the powder-magazine, which killed a considerable number of our men. fine, the most glorious triumph was changed, towards mid-day, into a most shameful retreat, the bravest

In

weeping with rage and despair. Comparatively with our situation and our efforts, our loss was immense.

From that moment our infantry was but a skeleton. As for the small body of cavalry which had come with the expedition, it was of some service in protecting our retreat. The division returned to their quarters at Bella Vesta, and I remained at St. Simon with the marine. My troop was reduced to forty, officers and soldiers.

CHAPTER XXXIII,

ANITA.

THE motive of my departure for St. Simon had for its object, if not for its result, to superintend the building of some of those canoes, made of a single tree, by means of which I wished to open communications with another_part of the lake. But during several months that I remained there no trees appeared, and consequently no part of our project could be accomplished. The result was that, holding idleness in horror, as I could not occupy myself in boat-building, I busied myself with horses. There were at St. Simon a large number of colts, and with these I made horsemen of my sailors.

St. Simon was a beautiful and very spacious farm, although then abandoned and partly destroyed. It belonged to a Count de St. Simon, formerly an exile, I believe, whose heirs were likewise exiled as enemies to the Republic. I do not know whether he was in any way connected with the famous Count de St. Simon, the founder of that religion whose adepts had initiated me in cosmopolitanism and universal fraternity.

But, for the moment, as these St. Simons were our enemies, we treated their farm as fair conquest; that is to say, we took possession of the buildings to make quarters of them, and of the cattle for food. As

to our recreations, they consisted in breaking our colts, or rather the colts of Messieurs de St. Simon.

It was there my dear Anita presented me with our first-born. Instead of giving him the name of a saint, I gave him that of a martyr; he was called Menotti. He was born on the 16th of September, 1840. His coming into the world without accident was a real miracle, after the privations and dangers suffered by his mother. These privations and sufferings, of which I have not spoken, to avoid interrupting my narrative, must find a place at the point at which we have arrived; and it is for me an act of piety to make known—if not to the world, at least to the few friends who will read this journal*—the admirable creature I have lost.

Anita, as usual, had insisted upon accompanying me in the campaign we had just made, and which I have described. It may be remembered that, united with Seiranians, commanded by Colonel Oranah, we beat at Santa Vittoria, Brigadier Acunah in such a fashion that the enemy's division was completely destroyed. During this fight Anita remained on horseback amidst the fire, spectatress of our victory and of the defeat of the Imperialists. She was that day a Providence for our wounded, who, as we had neither surgeons nor ambulances, were dressed by ourselves, to the best of our ability. This victory replaced, for a moment at least, the three departments of Lages, Vaccaria, and Cima da Serra under the authority of the Republic; and I have already related how, at the end of a few days, we entered triumphantly into Lages.

But it was not the same with the fight of Caritibani. I have related how, notwithstanding the courage of Taxeira, our cavalry was broken, and how, with my sixty-three foot soldiers, I was surrounded by more than five hundred of the enemy's cavalry. Anita on that day witnessed some of the most melancholy inci

*It is useless to repeat, that this journal was only written for friends, and that it required the most earnest entreaties to induce Galibaldi to confide it to me.

dents of war. Submitting with regret to the part of a simple spectatress of the fight, she urged on the supply of ammunition, fearing the combatants would want cartridges. The fire we kept up, indeed, gave her reason to fear that if our ammunition were not speedily recruited, it would be exhausted. With this object she was approaching the principal place of the fight, when a score of the enemy's horse, pursuing some of our fugitives, fell upon our soldiers of the train. An excellent horsewoman, and mounted upon a superior horse, Anita might have fled and escaped them; but her woman's breast contained the heart of a hero. Instead of flying, she excited the soldiers to defend themselves, and was suddenly surrounded by the Imperialists. A man would have surrendered; but she, clapping spurs to her horse, and with a vigorous spring, passed through the enemy, receiving only one ball through her hat, which carried away some of her hair without even grazing her skull. She might perhaps have saved herself if her horse had not fallen, struck dead by another ball. She was obliged to surrender, and was presented to the enemy's colonel.

Sublime in courage amidst danger, Anita became still greater, if possible, in adversity, so that in presence of this staff, astonished at her courage, but which had not the good taste to conceal the triumph of victory before a woman, she replied with rough and disdainful haughtiness to some words which appeared to her to express contempt for the conquered Republicans, and fought as vigorously with her tongue as she had with arms.

Anita believed that I was killed. In this belief she requested and obtained permission to seek my body among the slain on the field of battle. For a length of time she wandered like a ghost about the ensanguined plain, seeking for what she dreaded to find, turning over the dead who had fallen with their faces towards the earth, and who, by their clothes or figure, she thought bore any resemblance to me.

The search was useless; it was for me, on the contrary, that fate reserved the anguish of bathing with my tears her icy cheeks; and when I had endured that supreme agony, I was unable to cast a handful of earth or a few flowers upon the grave of the mother of my sons!

As soon as she felt convinced I still lived, Anita had but one thought, and that was to escape. An opportunity was not long in presenting itself. Profiting by the intoxication of the victorious enemy, she passed into the house adjoining that in which she was kept prisoner, and where, without knowing her, a woman received and protected her. My cloak, which I had thrown off to give more freedom to my motions, had fallen into the hands of an enemy; she exchanged it for hers, which was handsomer and of greater value. Night came, Anita darted out into the forest, and disappeared. It required the heart at once of the lion and the gazelle, of this noble creature to risk herself thus. Only he who has beheld the immense forests which cover the summits of l'Espenano, with their secular pines, which seem destined to support the heavens, and which are the columns of that splendid temple of nature, the gigantic reeds which people the intervals of them, and which harbour ferocious animals and reptiles whose sting is death-only he can form an idea of the dangers she had to encounter, of the difficulties she had to surmount. Fortunately, the daughter of the American steppes knew not what fear was. It was twenty leagues from Caritibani to Lages, and that through impenetrable woods, alone, and without food! How did she do it?

knows

God

The few inhabitants of that part of the country that she might meet with were hostile to the Republicans, and as soon as they heard of our defeat, they armed and laid ambushes at several points, particularly in the picadas which the fugitives would take in the direction of Lages from Caritibani. In the cabacues,