corners, it recalls the feudal castles of the middle ages. The extensive wings constitute the military schools.
The castle is fitted up and decorated in a manner worthy of its present occupants, having been frescoed by Casarin, a pupil of Meissonier. The wood work in the President's room is of ebony inlaid with gold. The walls of the drawing-room are covered with satin damask, while the carpet alone cost $2,000. Beyond all question it can be surpassed by few, if any, royal residences in the world.
Three hundred and fifty handsome, manly young fellows receive, in the Academy at Chapultepec, a scientific and military education, free of all charges. It was my pleasure, on one occasion, to witness the drilling of these young cadets; and I must say that they went through their evolutions with an ease and familiarity that would have reflected credit on our own cadets of West Point.
Passing Montezuma's spring and the grand old tree under which he sat, at a short distance and in full view is Molino del Rey, where another sanguinary battle was fought. Within stone's-throw stands the monument which a generous people permitted our government to erect to the memory of the soldiers who fell there.
On the eastern and most inaccessible part of the hill is where the American forces stormed the fortress. At this point stands a beautiful monument, on which I read the following inscription: "To the Memory of the Scholars of the Military School, who died like heroes in the North American invasion 13th September, 1847."
Every day in the year the students tenderly lay upon it fresh flowers and green garlands in honor of their dead compatriots.
Before the battle the cadets formed a sacred compact between themselves never to surrender save in death. Their ages were from fourteen to eighteen years. But they fought like heroes—first one, then another taking the flag, until, still standing and fighting, the last of the gallant forty-eight surrendered his young life in defense of his country.
The climate, of which so much has been written, is exceptionally agreeable, yet difficult to describe. If one can conceive the delights
