iddle of the street,
hurled a white flag in front of us, and then dived headlong under the
porch of a house. The next instant, as though at a signal, a hundred
citizens, each with a white flag in both hands, ran from cover, waving
their banners, and gasping in weak and terror-shaken tones, "Vivan los
Americanos."

We tried to pull up, but the ponies had not yet settled among themselves
which of us had won, and carried us to the extreme edge of the town,
where a precipice seemed to invite them to stop, and we fell off into the
arms of the Porto Ricans. They brought us wine in tin cans, cigars,
borne in the aprons and mantillas of their women-folk, and demijohns of
native rum. They were abject, trembling, tearful. They made one
instantly forget that the moment before he had been extremely frightened.

One of them spoke to me the few words of Spanish with which I had an
acquaintance. He told me he was the Alcalde, and that he begged to
surrender into my hands the town of Coamo. I led him instantly to one
side. I was afraid that if I did not take him up he would surrender to
Paget or to Jimmy. I bade him conduct me to his official residence. He
did so, and gave me the key to the _cartel_, a staff of office of gold
and ebony, and the flag of the town, which he had hidden behind his
writing-desk. It was a fine Spanish flag with the coat of arms
embroidered in gold. I decided that, with whatever else I might part,
that flag would always be mine, that the chance of my again receiving the
surrender of a town of five thousand people was slender, and that this
token would be wrapped around me in my coffin. I accordingly hid it in
my poncho and strapped it to my saddle. Then I appointed a hotel-keeper,
who spoke a little English, as my official interpreter, and told the
Alcalde that I was now Military Governor, Mayor, and Chief of Police, and
that I wanted the seals of the town. He gave me a rubber stamp with a
coat of arms cut in it, and I wrote myself three letters, which, to
insure their safe arrival, I addressed to three different places, and
stamped them with the rubber seals. In time all three reached me, and I
now have them as documentary proof of the fact that for twenty minutes I
was Military Governor and Mayor of Coamo.

During that brief administration I detailed Titus and Breckenridge to
wigwag the Sixteenth Pennsylvania that we had taken the town, and that it
was now safe for them to enter. In order t