eard that she is entering the lower harbor. She should have her
blue-jackets on shore in twenty minutes. Sir Julian and I think you
ought to wait for them."

The English Minister put a detaining hand on Clay's bridle. "If you
attack Mendoza at the Palace with this mob," he remonstrated, "rioting
and lawlessness generally will break out all over the city. I ask you
to keep them back until we get your sailors to police the streets and
protect property."

Clay glanced over his shoulder at the engineers and the Irish workmen
standing in solemn array behind him. "Oh, you can hardly call this a
mob," he said. "They look a little rough and ready, but I will answer
for them. The two other columns that are coming up the streets
parallel to this are Government troops and properly engaged in driving
a usurper out of the Government building. The best thing you can do is
to get down to the wharf and send the marines and blue-jackets where
you think they will do the most good. I can't wait for them. And they
can't come too soon."

The grounds of the Palace occupied two entire blocks; the Botanical
Gardens were in the rear, and in front a series of low terraces ran
down from its veranda to the high iron fence which separated the
grounds from the chief thoroughfare of the city.

Clay sent word to the left and right wing of his little army to make a
detour one street distant from the Palace grounds and form in the
street in the rear of the Botanical Gardens. When they heard the
firing of his men from the front they were to force their way through
the gates at the back and attack the Palace in the rear.

"Mendoza has the place completely barricaded," Weimer warned him, "and
he has three field pieces covering each of these streets. You and your
men are directly in line of one of them now. He is only waiting for
you to get a little nearer before he lets loose."

From where he sat Clay could count the bars of the iron fence in front
of the grounds. But the boards that backed them prevented his forming
any idea of the strength or the distribution of Mendoza's forces. He
drew his staff of amateur officers to one side and explained the
situation to them.

"The Theatre National and the Club Union," he said, "face the Palace
from the opposite corners of this street. You must get into them and
barricade the windows and throw up some sort of shelter for yourselves
along the edge of the roofs and drive the men behind that fen