And so it ran around the entire circle. "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 Herbert 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. Herbert Greyson's division was a portion of the gallant Eleventh that charged the Mexican batteries on Molina-del-Rey. He covered his name with glory, and qualified himself to merit the command of the regiment, which he afterwards received. Traverse Rocke fought like a young Paladin. When they were marching into the very mouths of the cannon they were vomiting fire upon them, and when the young ensign of his company was struck down before him, Traverse Rocke took the colors from his falling hand, and crying "Victory!" pressed onward and upward over the dead and the dying, and springing upon one of the guns which continued to belch forth fire, he thrice waved the flag over his head and then planted it upon the battery. Captain Zuten fell in the subsequent assault upon Chapultepec. Colonel Le Noir entered the city of Mexico with the victorious army, but on the subsequent day, being engaged in a street skirmish with the leperos, or liberated convicts, he fell mortally wounded by a copper bullet, and he was now dying by inches at his quarters near the Grand Cathedral.