CHAPTER XIV.
CAPTURE OF MEXICO.
Preparations for a final attack on the City and its defences — Heavy Batteries planted — The Cannonade — Storming of Chapultepec — Advance of General Quitman to the Garita de Belén and the Ciudadela — Operations of General Worth on the San Cosmé Causeway — Flight of Santa Anna and his Army — Entrance of General Scott into the Capital — The Leperos — Quiet restored in the City — Change in the Mexican Administration.
Night and day the Mexicans labored to complete the fortifications of the Capital. The dull heavy sound of the mattock and spade, employed in digging ditches and throwing up breastworks, was continually heard. Men, women, and children, were constantly employed in the construction of additional defences. Alarm pervaded every breast, and was depicted on every countenance. Anxious groups were collected in the Plaza, and at the corners of the streets—each man eager to put forth the same inquiry, which rushed unbidden to his lips. Even those, who, with folded arms, had hitherto complacently regarded the progress of the war at a distance,—now that the banners of the beleaguering army could be discovered from their balconies and housetops, shared in the general feeling, that something must be done, and that promptly, to avert the impending danger. Letters had been addressed by the Secretary of State to the Governors of the states of Puebla and Mexico, calling for a levy en masse, to attack and harass the enemy, by every means which it was practica-
