They mount the ramparts, and they man the walls, Resolved to keep the climbing foe at bay, The hot-mouthed cannon hurl a thousand balls, A thousand swords flash forth to wound and slay. Down in the fosse the planted ladder falls, And smoke sulphurous spreads its veil of grey; Like incense from an altar up it rolls, To tell the war-god that a thousand souls Are to his honour sacrificed this day. Oh, Mars! Oh, red Bellona! he or she, Though fallen your shrines, we bend yet 'neath your yoke; Born later than the Greeks, we seem to be Not much more civilised than were those folk, Instead of spears, and shields, and cutlery, Revolvers, rifles, guns, spit fire and smoke. For ye, blood-thirsty pair, we yet retain Our ancient love, and hence on battle plain With myriad victims we your names invoke. The siege of Janjalla lasted five days, and during that period the town was completely invested by the troops of Xuarez. As had been foreseen by him, the _Columbus_, acting as a decoy, had drawn away the ships of the Junta from protecting the harbour, and that same night Xuarez, under cover of darkness, landed four thousand troops from his transports. By an inconceivable oversight on the part of the engineers, the city walls were unprovided with search-lights and electric apparatus, so Don Hypolito was enabled to land boat-load after boat-load of men without hindrance. By dawn six thousand men were encamped on the beach, under the very guns of the forts. Had Xuarez attacked the capital, he would have been easily repulsed, for in Tlatonac all the latest inventions for defence were to be found. Krupp's guns pointed from the forts, powerful electric lights swept the harbour, and the bed of the ocean in front of the sea-line was one vast mass of torpedoes. The flower of the Cholacacan army were behind the walls, armed with the latest invented rifles, and altogether a siege of the capital would have lasted months. Don Hypolito, however, was too crafty to waste his time so fruitlessly, and artfully attacked the Republic in her weakest part. Janjalla was but ill defended by walls and cannon and but ill garrisoned with capable men. By throwing on the devoted town an overwhelming mass of troops he could hope to capture it within a few days. Then making it his head-quarters, could gradually advance along the plain towards the capital, eating up a town at every twenty miles. He was already master of Acauhtzin in the north, and if he could only reduce Janjalla and the four inland towns, he would be in complete command of the whole inner country. Then, besieging Tlatonac by land and sea, he could starve the capital into surrender.