The Rifle Rangers Read Free Page B

gradation of the thermal line. I am looking, as it were, from the pole to the equator!
    I am alone. My brain is giddy. My pulse vibrates irregularly, and my heart beats with an audible distinctness. I am oppressed with a sense of my own nothingness-an atom, almost invisible, upon the breast of the mighty earth.
    I gaze and listen. I see, but I hear not. Here is sight, but no sound. Around me reigns an awful stillness-the sublime silence of the Omnipotent, who alone is here.
    Hark! the silence is broken! Was it the rumbling of thunder? No. It was the crash of the falling avalanche. I tremble at its voice. It is the voice of the Invisible-the whisper of a God!
    I tremble and worship.
    * * *
    Reader, could you thus stand upon the summit of Orizava, and look down to the shores of the Mexican Gulf, you would have before you, as on a map, the scene of our "adventures."
    * * *
    Note 1. Anahuac is Mexico.
    Note 2. Jornada is a day's journey.
    Note 3. Pescador is a fisherman.
    Note 4. Vomito is yellow-fever.
    Note 5. Mexico is divided into three regions, known as the "hot" (caliente ), "temperate" (templada), and "cold" (fria).
    Note 6. Carbonero is charcoal-burner.
    Note 7. Arriero is mule-driver.
    * * *
    After tattoo-beat on the night of the 12th, with a party of my brother officers, I ascended the high hill around which winds the road leading to Orizava.
    This hill overlooks the city of Vera Cruz.
    After dragging ourselves wearily through the soft, yielding sand, we reached the summit, and halted on a projecting ridge.
    With the exception of a variety of exclamations expressing surprise and delight, not a word for awhile was uttered by any of our party, each individual being wrapped up in the contemplation of a scene of surpassing interest. It was moonlight, and sufficiently clear to distinguish the minutest objects on the picture that lay rolled out before us like a map.
    Below our position, and seeming almost within reach of the hand, lay the City of the True Cross, rising out of the white plain, and outlined upon the blue background of the sea.
    The dark grey towers and painted domes, the Gothic turret and Moorish minaret, impressed us with the idea of the antique; while here and there the tamarind, nourished on some azotea, or the fringed fronds of the palm-tree, drooping over the notched parapet, lent to the city an aspect at once southern and picturesque.
    Domes, spires, and cupolas rose over the old grey walls, crowned with floating banners-the consular flags of France, and Spain, and Britain, waving alongside the eagle of the Aztecs.
    Beyond, the blue waters of the Gulf rippled lightly against the sea-washed battlements of San Juan, whose brilliant lights glistened along the combing of the surf.
    To the south we could distinguish the isle of Sacrificios, and the dark hulls that slept silently under the shelter of its coral reef.
    Outside the fortified wall, which girt the city with its cincture of grey rock, a smooth plain stretched rearward to the foot of the hill on which we stood, and right and left along the crest of the ridge from Punta Hornos to Vergara, ranged a line of dark forms-the picket sentries of the American outposts, as they stood knee-deep in the soft, yielding sand-drift.
    It was a picture of surprising interest; and, as we stood gazing upon it, the moon suddenly disappeared behind a bank of clouds; and the lamps of the city, heretofore eclipsed by her brighter beam, now burned up and glistened along the walls.
    Bells rang merrily from church-towers, and bugles sounded through the echoing streets. At intervals we could hear the shrill cries of the guard, "Centinela! alerte!" (Sentinel, look out), and the sharp challenge, "Quien viva?" (Who goes there?)
    Then the sound of sweet music, mingled with the soft voices of women, was wafted to our ears, and with beating hearts we fancied we could hear the light tread of silken feet, as they brushed over the polished floor of the ball-room.
    It was a tantalising