"Not guilty!" "Not guilty!" "Not guilty!" were the hearty responses
of the court.
The acquittal was unanimous. The verdict was recorded.
The doors were then thrown open to the public, and the prisoner
called in and publicly discharged from custody.
The court then adjourned.
Traverse Rocke threw himself upon the bosom of his friend,
exclaiming in a broken voice:
"I cannot sufficiently thank you! My dear mother and Clara will do
that!"
"Nonsense!" said Herbett laughing; "didn't I tell you that the Lord
reigns, and the devil is a fool? This is only the beginning of
victories!"
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE END OF THE WAR
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front,
And now instead of mounting barbed steeds,
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Ten days later Molina-del-Rey, Casa-de-Mata, and Chapultepec had
fallen! The United States forces occupied the city of Mexico,
General Scott was in the Grand Plaza, and the American standard
waved above the capital of the Montezumas!
Let those who have a taste for swords and muskets, drums and
trumpets, blood and fire, describe the desperate battles and
splendid victories that led to this final magnificent triumph!
My business lies with the persons of our story, to illustrate whom I
must pick out a few isolated instances of heroism in this glorious
campaign.
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