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Updated: June 6, 2025
General Alvarez, commanding the Mexican cavalry, was held in check by the voltigeur regiment under command of Major E.V. Sumner, and Duncan's battery. The fight was continued obstinately and bravely by the Mexicans from the roofs of houses. The main force of the enemy, having been driven toward Chapultepec, were rallied by General Peña Y. Barragan, and made an advance.
The bombardment was renewed early on the morning of the 13th. Four companies of the voltigeur regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph E. Johnston, were instructed, on the cessation of firing, to move rapidly under cover of the wall and enter the inclosure at its opening.
Meanwhile the flames burst forth anew, and amid the crackling of the burning timbers and the dense smoke of the lighted thatch, the fight went on. "Vandamme! Vandamme!" cried several voices, in ecstasy; "here come the grenadiers!" And, true enough, the tall shakos peered through the blue cloud. "Hurrah for the Faubourg!" shouted a wild voltigeur, as he waved his cap and sprang forward.
"With the light cavalry brigade, in front; I saw him pass here two hours since." "And how looks he, François?" "A little stooped, or so, more than you knew him; but his seat in the saddle seems just as firm. Ventrebleu! if he 'd been a voltigeur, he 'd be a good man these ten years to come."
And first of all it was certain that I could not get back. Long before I could pass the lines it would be broad daylight. I must hide myself for the day, and then devote the next night to my escape. I took the saddle, holsters, and bridle from poor Voltigeur, and I concealed them among some bushes, so that no one finding him could know that he was a French horse.
At last I heard the sound of a voice at some distance off; then, a few minutes after, the hurried step of feet, and a voltigeur came up, breathless with haste: "The Russians were in motion towards the right. Our advanced posts could hear the roll of guns and tumbrels moving along the plain, and it was evident their columns were in march."
Voltigeur went confidently forward, and I was very content to sit upon his back and to peer about me, avoiding every light. For three hours we advanced in this cautious way, until it seemed to me that I must have left all danger behind me. I then pushed on more briskly, for I wished to be in the rear of the whole army by daybreak.
Were I in that saddle I should be better off than when I started. Even Voltigeur could not compare with this magnificent creature. To think is to act with me. In one instant I was down the ladder and at the door of the stable. The next I was out and the bridle was in my hand. I bounded into the saddle. Somebody, the master or the man, shouted wildly behind me. What cared I for his shouts!
"The cuirassier is clad in steel; His massive sword is straight and strong: But the voltigeur can charge and wheel With a step, his bayonet is just as long. "The artillery-driver must halt his team If the current be fast or the water deep: But the voltigeur can swim the stream, And climb the bank, be it e'er so steep.
In a minute or two he came back and lifted Agatha down. "It's the trace broken. I had to make the holes with my knife, and the string's torn through," he said. "Voltigeur got it round his feet, and, as usual, tried to bolt. Anyway, we'll make the others pull up and take you in." They went back to the trail together, and reached it just as Hastings reined in his team.
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