they were already doing.

We stood staring after the fugitives in perfect bewilderment, totally
unable to explain their apparently causeless panic. At last the report
of several rifles from the island of trees gave us a clue to the
mystery.

The infantry, whose left flank extended to the Salado, had pushed
their right into the prairie as far as the island of muskeet trees, in
order to connect their line with the dragoons, and then by making a
general advance, to attack us on all sides at once, and get the full
advantage of their superior numbers. The plan was not a bad one.
Infantry and cavalry approached the island, quite unsuspicious of its
being occupied. The twelve riflemen whom we had stationed there
remained perfectly quiet, concealed behind the trees; allowed
squadrons and companies to come within twenty paces of them, and then
opened their fire, first from their pistols, then from their rifles.

Some six and thirty shots, every one of which told, fired suddenly
from a cover close to their rear, were enough to startle even the best
troops, much more so our Mexican dons, who, already sufficiently
inclined to a panic, now believed themselves fallen into an ambuscade,
and surrounded on all sides by the incarnate _diabolos_, as they
called us. The cavalry, who had not yet recovered the thrashing we had
given them, were ready enough for a run, and the infantry were not
slow to follow them.

Our first impulse was naturally to pursue the flying enemy, but a
discovery made by some of the men, induced us to abandon that idea.
They had opened the pouches of the dead Mexicans in order to supply