Augustine and I were silent, so that our voices might not disturb the sleep of the young girl. The place was deserted enough. Just back of us was the Casa los Duendes, close by the Convent of San Francisco, and opposite the college of San Diego, with its orchard surrounded by high mud walls which opened upon irregular and narrow alleys. Through these marched the sentinels who had been relieved, and the platoons going to the picket lines or coming from there. The truce was complete, and this repose signified a great battle on the following day. Suddenly the silence permitted me to hear muffled blows under us, in the depths of the earth. I understood that the French miners had reached this point with their picks, and told Augustine what I imagined it must be. He listened attentively; then he said to me,—
"That seems indeed like mining. But how did they come here? The galleries that they made from the Jerusalem were all cut off by ourselves. How would they be able to take a step without meeting our men?"
"This noise indicates that they are mining from San Diego. They have a part of that building. Until now they have not been able to reach the wine-cellars of the Convent of San Francisco. If, by bad luck, they have discovered that the passage from San Diego to San Francisco is easy by the way under this house, it is probable that this is the passage that is being opened now."
"Run this instant to the convent," he said to me. "Go down into the cellar, and if you hear the noise, tell Renovales what is going on. If anything happens, call me, and I will follow."
Augustine remained alone with Mariquilla. I went to the San Francisco, and going down into the cellar met, together with other patriots, an official of the engineers, who, when I had expressed my fears, said to me,—
"They would not be able to get here by the galleries under the Calle de Santa Engracia from the Jerusalem and the hospital, because our mine has made theirs useless, and a few of our men will be able to keep them back. Under this edifice we control the underground chambers of the church, the wine-cellars, and the other cellars which lead towards the cloister at the east. There is a part of the convent which has not been mined, at the west and south; but, there are no cellars there, and we did not believe it worth while to open galleries, because it is not probable that they would approach us from the two sides. We hold the next house; and I have examined it underground, and found that the cellar was almost joined to those of the chapter house. If they controlled the house los Duendes, it would be easy to carry explosives and blow up all the southern and western part; but that house is ours, and from it to the French positions opposite San Diego and Santa Rosa is a long distance. It is not probable that they will attack us in that place, and I do not know that there is any existing communication between the house and San Diego or Santa Rosa which would permit them to advance without making it known."
We remained talking over this matter until morning. At break of day Augustine came, very happy, and saying that he had found a lodging for Mariquilla in the same place where his family was established. Then we prepared for a strong effort that day, because the French, who already held the hospital, or rather its ruins, threatened to attack the San Francisco, not by the underground way, but in the open, and by the light of the sun.
CHAPTER XXVIII
The possession of San Francisco would decide the fate of the city. That vast edifice, situated in the middle of the Coso, gave an incontestable superiority to the side which occupied it. The French began cannonading it very early, with the intention of opening a breach for the assault; and the Saragossans transferred thither the greater part of their forces to defend it. As the number of soldiers was now greatly decreased, a large number of leading citizens, who until then had not served except as aids, took up arms. Cereso, Sas, La Casa, Pidrafita, Escobar, Leiva, Don José de Montoria,—all these good patriots hastened to be among them.