When he arrived within a few miles of the city he heard heavy firing, and as he drew nearer he recognized that the attack was being pressed in two quarters. Evidently General Carabaño had made a very rapid march from the broken culvert. On reaching the quay, he left José and Azito in charge of the hydroplane as before, and hurried along the deserted streets to the Town Hall. The Jefe was absent. He had taken the command against General Carabaño on the south-west, while Captain Guzman was engaged with Colonel Orellana on the south-east. Will hastened on to find the Jefe. He discovered him a short distance south of the town, on rising ground, his front protected by the walls of two or three gardens.
The Jefe was decidedly flurried. He had only three or four hundred men against a force which he estimated to number nearly eight hundred. Will wondered how so many had been squeezed into the train. They must have been packed like sardines. Three guns had been drawn to the spot and unlimbered behind the walls; but the Jefe, when Will told him that the steamer was coming down at full speed, explained with much vehemence that when his artillerymen tried to fire the guns they found that the powder was mixed with sand. Will was not surprised. Some official had no doubt made a little fortune out of the contract.
General Carabaño's attack had been twice rolled back, but he had now divided his force into two portions. One threatened the front of the Jefe's position, from the reverse slope of a hill about a quarter of a mile distant; the other was working through a small wood to the west, with the evident intention of taking the position in flank. Indeed, just after Will arrived, an enfilading fire broke out on the right, and began to thin the ranks of the men holding the gardens, for the wood through which the enemy was approaching was at a somewhat higher level, so that the defenders lost the protection of the wall running at right angles to their front. The position was already no longer tenable, and the Jefe, who had no great confidence in his men's steadiness, began to withdraw them by twenties behind barricades thrown up at the end of two streets leading towards the middle of the city. The retirement was hailed with loud shouts by the enemy, who, emboldened by their success, came pouring out of the wood, pressing the Government troops hard. The last of these to leave the gardens were closely followed by the main body of the enemy under General Carabaño himself. They came yelling forward right up to the barricades. Then, however, they were met by a galling fire from the men already in position; and the General's voice could be heard ordering them to scatter and take refuge in the gardens which had lately sheltered their opponents.