"
"Let it, then, be Castle Meal," said le Bourdon; "surely, if any one
is to be defended and fortified in this way, it ought to be the
women. You may easily palisade that hut, which is so much stronger
than this, and so much smaller."
With this compromise, the work went on. The corporal dug a trench
four feet deep, encircling the "castle," as happy as a lord the
whole time; for this was not the first time he had been at such
work, which he considered to be altogether in character, and
suitable to his profession. No youthful engineer, fresh from the
Point, that seat of military learning to which the republic is even
more indebted for its signal successes in Mexico, than to the high
military character of this population-no young aspirant for glory,
fresh from this useful school, could have greater delight in laying
out his first bastion, or counter-scarp, or glacis, than Corporal
Flint enjoyed in fortifying Castle Meal. It will be remembered that
this was the first occasion he was ever actually at the head of the
engineering department Hitherto, it had been his fortune to follow;
but now it had become his duty to lead. As no one else, of that
party, had ever been employed in such a work on any previous
occasion, the corporal did not affect to conceal the superior
knowledge with which he was overflowing.
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