This was what actually occurred.
Spanish system lacks many sterling elements that make the German and British armies so thorough in their duties.
Roderic after a miserable tramp through mud and water finally brought up at the city gates an hour before midnight.
There he met with an apparent obstacle, since in Moorish fashion no one was allowed to find ingress or egress during the period between sunset and sunrise.
This he had been aware of ere landing, and all his plans were shaped with an utter disregard for the edict of the governor-general.
Avoiding the gates discreetly he made his way along the dilapidated wall that marked what had once been the land defense of the city.
It was now in decay, like many other antiquated battlements connected with Spain's possessions throughout the world—relics of bygone days when muzzle loading guns marked the highest epoch in the art of war.
Of course this guarding of the gates was more or less of a big sham, since the people of San Juan could go and come in scores of other places.
And Roderic remembered this fact.
When by turning this way and that he finally surmounted the difficulty, and found himself among the houses near the barracks of the troops in the eastern end of the city, he felt as though he deserved congratulations on account of his good generalship.