ava road was crossed, and the light troops of the enemy were
brushed from the neighbouring hills. They retired sullenly under
shelter of their heavy guns, and within the walls of the city.

On the morning of the 12th the investment was complete. Vera Cruz lay
within a semicircle, around its centre. The half circumference was a
chain of hostile regiments that embraced the city in their concave arc.
The right of this chain pitched its tents opposite the isle of
Sacrificios; while five miles off to the north, its left rested upon the
hamlet Vergara. The sea covered the complement of this circle, guarded
by a fleet of dark and warlike ships.

The diameter hourly grew shorter. The lines of circum-vallation lapped
closer and closer around the devoted city, until the American pickets
appeared along the ridges of the nearest hills, and within range of the
guns of Santiago, Concepcion, and Xjuoa.

A smooth sand-plain, only a mile in width, lay between the besiegers and
the walls of the besieged.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

After tattoo-beat on the night of the 12th, with a party of my brother
officers, I ascended the high hill around which winds the road leading
to Orizava.

This hill overlooks the city of Vera Cruz.

After dragging ourselves wearily through the soft, yielding sand, we
reached the summit, and halted on a projecting ridge.

With the exception of a variety of exclamations expressing surprise and
delight, not a word for awhile was uttered by any of our party, each
individual being wrapped up in the contemplation of a scene of
surpassing interest. It was moonlight, and sufficiently clear to
distinguish the minutest objects on the picture that lay rolled out
before us like a map.

Below our position, and seeming almost within reach of the hand, lay the
City of the True Cross, rising out of the white plain, and outlined upon
the blue background of the sea.

The dark grey towers and painted domes, the Gothic turret and Moorish
minaret, impressed us with the idea of the antique; while here and there
the tamarind, nourished on some azotea, or the fringed fronds of the
palm-tree, drooping over the notched parapet, lent to the city an aspect
at once southern and picturesque.

Domes, spires, and cupolas rose over the old grey walls, crowned with
floating banners--the consular flags of France, and Spain, and Britain,
waving alongside the eagle of the Aztecs.