"Are we going to fight, general?" I asked eagerly.
"Hullo, Crawford! I've been so busy that I've lost sight of you lately. Well, I hardly know. Perhaps the viceroy would be better able to tell you; he knows more about it than I do."
"I don't think he'll abandon his strong position just to give us a better chance, sir," remarked Plaza.
"Perhaps not," replied the general. "But you mustn't think he's in clover up yonder. His men are as hungry as ours, and that's saying much. If it is a fight, however, 'twill be a fight to the finish, and the Hussars of Junin won't be missing!"
"Take us with you, sir!"
"That's just what I've come to see the colonel about. I intend to get all the regiment together and use it as a battering-ram."
"He thinks the Royalists will attack," said Alzura, as the general passed on. "He has heard something important, you may depend. And why shouldn't they? they're two to one, and have no end of guns."
"I like his idea of using all the regiment," laughed Cordova. "Nearly a half of the third squadron are mounted on baggage mules; their horses are all dead."
"They must get fresh ones from the enemy," I suggested.
"Come," said Plaza; "there's nothing more to see here." And we returned to the tent.