And both Herbert and Traverse hoped that the designs of their Colonel
would be still frustrated by the self-command and patience of the young
private.
Alas! they did not know the great power of evil! They did not know that
nothing less than Divine Providence could meet and overcome it.
They fondly believed that the malignity of Le Noir had resulted in no
other practical evil than in preventing the young soldier's
well-merited advancement, and in keeping him in the humble position of
a private in the ranks.
They were not aware that the discharge of Traverse Rocke had long ago
arrived, but that it had been suppressed through the diabolical cunning
of Le Noir. That letters, messages and packets, sent by his friends to
the young soldier, had found their way into his Colonel's possession
and no further.
And so, believing the hatred of that bad man to have been fruitless of
serious, practical evil, Herbert encouraged his friend to be patient
for a short time longer, when they should see the end of the campaign,
if not of the war.
It was now that period of suspense and of false truce between the
glorious 20th of August and the equally glorious 8th of September,
1847--between the two most brilliant actions of the war, the battle of
Churubusco and the storming of Chapultepec.
The General-in-Chief of the United States forces in Mexico was at his
headquarters in the Archiepiscopal palace of Tacubaya, on the suburbs,
or in the full sight of the city of the Montezumas, awaiting the issue
of the conference between the commissioners of the hostile governments,
met to arrange the terms of a treaty of peace--that every day grew more
hopeless.
General Scott, who had had misgivings as to the good faith of the
Mexicans, had now his suspicions confirmed by several breaches on the
part of the enemy of the terms of the armistice.
Early in September he despatched a letter to General Santa Anna,
complaining of these infractions of the truce, and warning him that if
some satisfactory explanations were not made within forty-eight hours
he should consider the armistice at an end, and renew hostilities.
And not to lose time, he began on the same night a series of
reconnaissances, the object of which was to ascertain their best
approach to the city of Mexico, which, in the event of the renewal of
the war, he purposed to carry by assault.
It is not my intention to pretend to describe the siege and capture of
the capital, which has been so often and eloquently described by grave
and wise historians, but rather to follow the fortunes of an humble
private in the ranks, and relate the events of a certain court-martial,
as I learned them from the after-dinner talk of a gallant officer who
had officiated on the occasion.