of musquitoes that hovered over the camp of the grand army, and by the swarms of fleas that infested the castle. It might well be called a bloody war, for few escaped without bearing the scars of wounds and bloodletting.
While the besieging army was itself thus almost devoured, and had devoured all the eatables of the Pintos, symptoms of rebellion showed themselves at Mexico, to suppress which required the presence of Santa Anna. The generals of his army thought that they also might render more important services to the country in the streets of Mexico than in this inglorious war with bloody insects! A retreat was therefore sounded, and the country of the Pintos was evacuated. Thereupon rushed forth the little garrison from the clutches of the devouring insects, and issued a heroic proclamation, which was enough to frighten a whole army.
It is time to commence my itinerary across the mountains northward to the city of Mexico. My journey was by the same mule-path that Oriental