The count drew himself up, unsheathed his sword, and brandished it over his head.
"You wish it?" he shouted.
"Yes, yes!"
"Well, then, forwards! Long live France!"
"Long live France!" the volunteers replied.
The battalion, formed in four companies, resolutely left its quarters, and proceeded at a quick step toward the Mexican barracks. Unfortunately, as we have said, a dissension had sprung up among the French. Many of them marched very unwillingly, being forced on by their comrades. The chief of the battalion, too, though personally very brave, was not the man suited to attempt a coup de main like the present one; and the count, through excess of delicacy, and in order to maintain unity of action, committed the fault of declining the command when offered to him by the officers and men.
The battalion proceeded toward the Mexican barracks by three different roads. But General Guerrero had made his arrangements long before. He had shut himself up in these barracks with three hundred troops of the line. The neighbouring houses were crammed with cívicos, while four guns commanded the only approaches. The Frenchmen only amounted to three hundred men, one half of them discouraged, while the Mexicans were nearly two thousand.
Still the action began vigorously on all sides at once. The first charge was admirable. The Mexican guns swept down the attacking party, and effected a frightful carnage. Still the French held their ground, and continued to advance, supported by the example of the count, who walked fifteen paces in advance of the column, with a rifle in one hand and a sword in the other, amid a hail-storm of bullets, shouting in his powerful voice,—
"Forward! forward!"
All at once, the chief of the battalion, who ought to have supported the attack on the right, seeing his company decimated by canister, lost his head completely, and fell back in disorder on the French quarters. The count tried in vain to rally the volunteers; disorder was beginning to spread among them, and all his efforts were powerless.