besieged city. He utterly failed, however; and his raw recruits having
been routed at San Lorenzo* by General Bazaine (May 8), further
resistance became hopeless. Puebla was lost. General Ortega faced the
situation with a dignity worthy of his courageous defense of the town.
He spiked his guns, blew up his magazines, disbanded the garrison, and,
with his officers, surrendered on May 19.

* San Lorenzo is a village and hacienda through which the main road to
Puebla passes about sixty-six miles from Mexico.

The news fell like a knell upon the capital. As far as we were
concerned, there seemed to be just then only a choice of evils. Either
the government would await in Mexico the impending issue, and we must be
exposed to all the unspeakable horrors of which Puebla had just been the
scene, or the President and his administration would abandon the city,
and an interval must follow during which we must be left exposed to mob
law, or, should Marquez first take possession of the city, perhaps to
pillage and bloodshed.

Meanwhile Congress had indefinitely adjourned, after conferring full and
extraordinary powers upon Juarez. The president issued a proclamation
announcing his firm resolve to continue the war. After this he prepared
to leave the city and to retire to San Luis.

That night, while sitting in our drawing-room, we heard the dull, steady
tramp of men marching, otherwise noiselessly, down the Calle de San
Francisco toward the plaza; and looking out of the window, we saw the
debris of the defeated Liberal army making its way through the city. A
strange, weird sight they presented in the moonlight--these men whose
sole equipment consisted of a musket and a cartridge-box slung over