The
dark mask which had concealed it was suddenly jerked aside, and
Croghan cried:
"Fire!"
The match was applied. A clap of thunder, a sheet of flame, a hissing
sound of grape, shrieks and groans, and Fernando saw whole ranks mowed
down, as the white smoke arose for a moment hiding the prospect from
view. When the veil of battle blew aside, he saw such a scene of horror
as he had never before witnessed. At first a lane was perceptible
extending through the densest portion of the assaulting mass, marking
the path traversed by the shot; but as the distance from the gun
increased, and the grape scattered, this clearly defined line gave place
to a prospect of the wildest confusion. One third of those who had
entered the ditch lay there a shapeless, quivering mass. In many
instances, the dead had fallen on the wounded, and as the latter
struggled to extricate themselves, the scene resembled that depicted in
old paintings of the final judgment, where fiends and men wrestle in
horrible contortions. Groans, shrieks and curses more terrible than all
rose from that Golgotha. Lieutenant-Colonel Short was among the slain.
The few who retained life and strength, after the first second of
amazement, rushed from the post of peril, leaped wildly upon the bank,
and, communicating their terror to the rest of the column, the whole
took flight and buried itself in the neighboring woods; while such a
shout went up to heaven from the conquerors as had never been heard on
that wild shore before.
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