With gloves of steel,

And they drank the red wine through the helmet barred.'

THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL.

LAST Summer the wild and lonely banks of the Upper Arkansas beheld for the first time the passage of an army. General Kearny on his march to Santa Fe, adopted this route in preference to the old trail of the Cimanon. When we came down, the main body of the troops had already passed on; Price's Missouri regiment, however, was still on the way, having left the frontier much later than the rest; and about this time we began to meet them moving along the trail, one or two companies at a time. No men ever embarked upon a military expedition with a greater love for the work before them than the Missourians; but if discipline and subordination be the criterion of merit, these soldiers were worthless indeed. Yet when their exploits have rung through all America it would be absurd to deny that they were excellent troops. Their victories were gained in the teeth of every established precedent of warfare; they were owing to a singular combination of military qualities in the men themselves. Without discipline or a spirit of subordination, they knew how to keep their ranks and act as one man. Doniphan's regiment marched through New Mexico more like a band of free companions than like the paid soldiers of a modern government. When General Taylor complimented Doniphan on his success at Sacramento and elsewhere, 1

VOL. XXXIII.

the Colonel's reply very well illustrates the relations which subsisted between the officers and men of his command:

I don't know any thing of the manoeuvres. The boys kept coming to me, to let them charge; and when I saw a good opportunity, I told them they might go. They were off like a shot, and that's all I know about it.'

The backwoods lawyer was better fitted to conciliate the good will than to command the obedience of his men. There were many serving under him, who both from character and education could better have held command than he.

At the battle of Sacramento his frontiersmen fought under every possible disadvantage. The Mexicans had chosen their own position; they were drawn up across the valley that led to their native city of Chihuahua; their whole front was covered by entrenchments and defended by batteries of heavy cannon; they outnumbered the invaders five to one. An eagle flew over the Americans, and a deep murmur rose along their lines. The enemy's batteries opened; long they remained under fire, but when at length the word was given, they shouted and ran forward. In one of the divisions when midway to the enemy a drunken officer ordered a halt; the exasperated men hesitated to obey.

'Forward, boys, for God's sake!' cried a private from the ranks; and the Americans rushed like tigers upon the enemy; they bounded over the breast work. Four hundred Mexicans were slain upon the spot and the rest fled, scattering over the plain like sheep. The standards, cannons and baggage were taken, and among the rest a wagon laden with cords, which the Mexicans, in the fulness of their confidence, had made ready for tying the American prisoners.

Doniphan's volunteers, who gained this victory, with others equally remarkable, passed up with the main army; but Price's soldiers whom we now met, were men from the same neighborhood, precisely similar in character, manners and appearance. One forenoon as we were descending upon a very wide meadow, where we meant to rest for an hour or two, we saw a dark body of horsemen approaching at a distance. In order to find water, we were obliged to turn aside to the river bank, a full half mile from the trail. Here we put up a kind of awning, and spreading buffalo-robes on the ground, Shaw and I sat down to smoke beneath it.

'We are going to catch it now,' said Shaw; 'look at those fellows, there'll be no peace for us here.'

And in good truth about half the volunteers had straggled away from the line of march, and were riding over the meadow toward us. 'How are you?' said the first who came up, alighting from his horse and throwing himself upon the ground. The rest followed close, and a score of them soon gathered about us, some lying at full length and some sitting on horseback. They all belonged to a company raised in St. Louis. There were some ruffian faces among them, and some haggard with debauchery; but on the whole they were extremely good looking men, superior beyond measure to the ordinary rank and file of an army. Except that they were booted to tho

knees, they wore their belts and military trappings over the ordinary dress of citizens. Beside their swords and holster pistols, they carried slung from their saddles the excellent Springfield carbines, loading at the breech. They inquired the character of our party, and were anxious to know the prospect of killing buffalo, and the chance that their horses would stand the journey to Santa Fe. All this was well enough, but a moment after a worse visitation came upon us.

'How are you, strangers, whar are you going and whar are you from?' said a fellow, who came trotting up with an old straw hat on his head. He was dressed in the coarsest brown homespun cloth. His face was rather sallow from fever and-ague, and his tall figure, though strong and sinewy, was quite thin, and had besides an angular look, which together with his boorish seat on horseback, gave him an appearance any thing but graceful. Plenty more of the same stamp were close behind him. Their company was raised in one of the frontier counties, and we soon had abundant evidence of their rustic breeding; dozens of them came crowding round, pushing between our first visitors and staring at us with unabashed faces.

'Are you the captain?' asked one fellow.

'What's your business out here?' asked another.

'Where do you live when you're at home?' said a third.

'I reckon you're traders,' surmised a fourth; and to crown the whole one of them came confidentially to my side and inquired in a low voice, What's your partner's name?'

As each new comer repeated the same questions, the nuisance became intolerable. Our military visitors were soon disgusted at the concise nature of our replies, and we could overhear them muttering curses against us, not loud but deep. While we sat smoking, not in the best imaginable humor, Tête Rouge's tongue was never idle. He never forgot his military character, and during the whole interview he was incessantly busy among his fellow soldiers. At length we placed him on the ground before us, and told him that he might play the part of spokesmen for the whole. Tête Rouge was delighted, and we soon had the satisfaction of seeing him talk and gabble at such a rate that the torrent of questions was in a great measure diverted from us. A little while after to our amazement, we saw a large cannon with four horses come lumbering up behind the crowd; and the driver who was perched on one of the animals, stretching his neck so as to look over the rest of the men, called out:

Whar are you from and what's your business?'

The captain of one of the companies was among our visitors, drawn by the same curiosity that had attracted his men. Unless their bold, intelligent faces belied them, not a few in the crowd might with great advantage have changed places with their commander.

Well, men,' said he, lazily rising from the ground where he had been lounging. its getting late, I reckon we had better be moving.' 'I sha' n't start yet any how,' said one fellow who was lying half asleep with his head resting on his arm.

'Don't be in a hurry, captain,' added the lieutenant.

- Well, have it your own way, we wait awhile longer,' replied the obsequious commander.

At length however our visitors went straggling away as they had come, and we to our great relief, were left alone again.

No one can deny the intrepid bravery of these men, their intelligence and the boid frank: ess of their character, free from all that is bean and sort. Yet for the moment the extreme roughness of their manners, b.f inclines one to forget their heroic qualities. Most of them seem without the least perception of delicacy or propriety, though among them individuais may be found in whose må bers there is a plain courtesy, while their features bespeas a gallant spirit equal to any enterprise. The bravery of the Missourians is not exclusively their own; the whole American nation are as ferriess as they; but in roughness of bearing and fierce impetuosity of spirit they may bear away the palm from almost any riva

Na o one was more relieved than Delorier by the departure of the volunteers; for dinner was getting co der every moment. He spread i will whitened buffalo-hide upon the grass, placed in the mille the juicy hump of a fat cow, ranged around in the tin plates and cans, and then acquainted us that all was ready. Ite Rouge, with is ESL Locity & such occasions, was the fist to take his set. In is farmer capacity of steamboat ciers, be had learned to prefix the nonorary 2 ser to every boy's name, whether of high or low degree;

- Gary was Mr. Garney, Henry was Mr Henry, and even Delinet, ka tie frt time in his life, beard himet siired as Mr.

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the rest of us by t time bad taken our seas

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The tempest & waris raged with such fany that ALLIG