He was not to have any such chance as that, but he was not to be idle altogether,--he and his engineers and his army. The division to which he and the Seventh Regiment belonged, under the command of General Worth, was shortly ordered on in the advance, to take and hold a strong position, known as the town and castle of Perote, and here there was indeed a long delay which was not engineered by the military forces of Mexico. The politicians and particularly the Congress of the United States had interfered very effectively on behalf of President Santa Anna. They had spent so much time in debates upon the legislation required for the gathering of fresh troops that the terms of enlistment of about half of the soldiers under Scott were expiring. It was of no use for him to move forward with a steadily vanishing army, and he was compelled to wait for months at and about Perote, until the new men could arrive and take the places of those who were going home. "I guess I won't enlist," thought Ned, as that idea came again and again into his mind. "Neither mother nor father would wish me to do so. But I'm getting to be an old soldier, after all, and I won't leave the Seventh till it gets into the city of Mexico." Whether it ever was to accomplish that feat was only to be determined by hard fighting, and there came a day, the 7th of August, 1847, when the division of General Worth, then encamped at Puebla, received orders to go forward. The entire army was to move, and General Scott had about as many soldiers with him as when he had landed at Vera Cruz in the spring. "Hurrah for the city!" shouted Ned, when the news reached him. "I want to make a morning call at the Paez house." CHAPTER XVIII. SENOR CARFORA TRAPPED "I never saw anything finer than this," said Ned, aloud, as he slowly turned his telescope from one point to another. "It is the old battle-ground of Cortes, when he and his Spaniards and Tlascalans took the city of Mexico. It was called Tenochtitlan, then." He was standing upon a granite ledge, on the slope of the mountains south of the city, and below him the nearest objects of interest were the white tents of the American army, encamped there while negotiations for peace were going forward between the United States government and Santa Anna. These were not progressing well, for the invaders were demanding more than any Mexican government could be ready to grant. Not only was Texas itself demanded, but with it also all the vast Territories of California, New Mexico, and Arizona. "Here we are," said Ned again, "but it has taken us two weeks of awful fighting to get here. There isn't any use in disputing the pluck of the Mexicans. Away yonder is Churubusco, and over there is Contreras. Didn't they fight us there! General Scott and his engineers laid out the battles, but I was with the Seventh everywhere it went. I'll have loads of yarns to spin when I get home, if I ever do."