This sentry was stationed at the entrance of a guard-room, in which some fifteen soldiers were sleeping. The post was carried, without a blow, by the insurgents, who bound the soldiers, and took possession of their arms. The expedition was going on famously; but unluckily, while the scene we have referred to was taking place in the guard-room, the sentry in the passage, who had been neglected, succeeded in loosing his bonds and giving the alarm. The position had become serious. "Come," the Jaguar said quickly, "it seems as if we shall have a fight of it. Well, several of you are now armed: comrades, remember my orders--no quarter!" The insurgents, not at all anxious to be besieged in the guard-room, where it would have been easy to overpower them, then went out. At the moment when they appeared in the passage, they perceived some thirty soldiers, at the head of whom three officers in uniform marched, coming boldly to meet them. "Fire!" the Jaguar thundered, "and then forward!" Ten muskets were discharged, the three officers fell, and the Texans rushed ferociously on the soldiers. The latter, terrified by this furious attack, and seeing their leaders dead, offered but a weak resistance; after a few minutes of hand-to-hand fighting, sustained rather to save the military honour than in the hope of conquering the assailants, they asked leave to capitulate. The Jaguar ordered a suspension of fighting, and ordered the garrison to lay down their arms, which they readily did. During the short fight, the Texans had lost eight men killed at the bayonet point. The fort of the Point, which was supposed to be impregnable, had been surprised by twenty-five men only armed with daggers. But these twenty-five fought for a holy and great idea--they were resolved to conquer or perish. The Jaguar had accomplished the task which had been allotted to him in the vast plan conceived by the Texan insurgents, and the capture of the fort must inevitably lead to the surrender of the town, if El Alferez succeeded in making himself master of the _Libertad_ corvette. We have seen how, on his side, that Chief had behaved, and what result he had achieved. CHAPTER XXIII. EL SALTO DEL FRAYLE. The expeditious way in which the Jaguar had gained the capture of the castle, by firing, without any previous summons, on the Commandant of the garrison and his officers, was, perhaps, not strictly loyal, or recognized by the military code; but we must not forget that the Jaguar and his men were placed without the pale of the law by the Mexicans, that they were regarded as wild beasts, and a considerable reward offered for their heads.