her spars.  There were eight in her foremasts alone.  It was a perfect miracle everything did not come by the board.  That gallant old fellow Parseval kept walking up and down the poop, rubbing his hands whenever a shot struck near him.  It was really a fine sight.  We waved our hands to each other, and I went and took up my position at the end of the line of frigates.  There I stayed, going to and fro under sail, amid a little racket of my own making.

There were hard times within the fort.  There had been several explosions already, and it occurred to me to load al my guns with shell and turn them on a sort of tower, called in fortification a cavalier, whence the fire was particularly lively.  I had very good gunners, but from my place as commanding officer I could not see where the shots took effect for the smoke.  My second officer who was forward, could judge better than me.  At the first shot he shouted to me “Good! in the cavalier.”  The second, “In the cavalier.”  The third, “In the cavalier.”  The fourth—­ nothing was to be seen.  A huge cloud of smoke white above, black below, rose from the fort, slowly to a great height above it.  When it cleared a little, driven by the wind, there was no cavalier at all.  The whole thing had blown up.  My crew shouted with delight, and the captain of one of the guns performed a brilliant hornpipe.  Was it my shells?  Or did the bombs from the bombship do the job?  Not one of my brave fellows on the Creole have the shadow of a doubt.  Every man has a right to his own opinion.

The fire slackened, and I went to take the admiral’s orders.  The fort surrendered during the night.  The garrison, two thousand strong, evacuated the place, and a convention was concluded with the general in command at Vera Cruz for the abstention of both sides from further hostilities.  We then occupied the fort, and the admiral gave me orders to moor the Creole under its walls, and together with Comte de Gourdon, commanding the Cuirassier, to put prize crews on board the vessels of the Mexican Navy lying there.  With the exception of one pretty corvette, the Iguana, which has been incorporated with our own navy, these prizes were not worth much.

The unlucky fort was in a terrible condition.  Shot and shell and explosions had destroyed everything.  A horrible smell rose from the numerous corpses buried everywhere under the rubbish.  Wherever battle had not done its work the most revolting filth reigned supreme, and all this under an equatorial sun and in the midst of the yellow fever.  The crew of the Creole was at once set to sanitary work, in company with the detachment of engineer sappers attached to the expedition.  We dug out the corpses and towed them out to sea, and several very meritorious instances of self-sacrifice occurred which were duly and publicly recognised by the admiral.

My aide-de-camp, M. Desfosses, had drawn up a little code of signals, by means of coloured shirts, with the house of our consul at Vera Cruz, in case of any emergency.  Within five days of the taking of the fort we learnt by these signals that the French subjects within the town were in great danger.  We immediately sent all our boats to the mole, which was thronged by a distracted crowd of men, women, and children, all of whom we received and transferred to the fort.