Riego was already asleep. As they seated themselves to the wretched
provision of the place, a distant and indistinct noise was heard. It
carne first on their ears like the birth of the mountain wind-low, and
hoarse, and deep: gradually it grew loud and louder, and mingled with
other sounds which they defined too well--the hum, the murmur, the
trampling of steeds, the ringing echoes of the rapid march of armed men!
They heard and knew the foe was upon them!--a moment more, and the drum
beat to arms. "By St. Pelagio," cried Riego, who had sprung from his
light sleep at the first sound of the approaching danger, unwilling to
believe his fears, "it cannot be: the French are far behind:" and then,
as the drum beat, his voice suddenly changed, "the enemy? the enemy!
D'Aguilar, to horse!" and with those words he rushed out of the hut. The
soldiers, who had scarcely begun to disperse, were soon re-collected. In
the mean while the French commander, D'Argout, taking advantage of the
surprise he had occasioned, poured on his troops, which consisted solely
of cavalry, undaunted and undelayed by the fire of the posts. On, on
they drove like a swift cloud charged with thunder, and gathering wrath
as it hurried by, before it burst in tempest on the beholders. They did
not pause till they reached the farther extremity of the village: there
the Spanish infantry were already formed into two squares. "Halt!" cried
the French commander: the troop suddenly stopped confronting the nearer
square. There was one brief pause-the moment before the storm.
"Charge!" said D' Argout, and the word rang throughout the line up to the
clear and placid sky. Up flashed the steel like lightning; on went the
troop like the clash of a thousand waves when the sun is upon them; and
before the breath of the riders was thrice drawn, came the crash--the
shock--the slaughter of battle. The Spaniards made but a faint
resistance to the impetuosity of the onset: they broke on every side
beneath the force of the charge, like the weak barriers of a rapid and
swollen stream; and the French troops, after a brief but bloody victory