Excerpt from Or, the American Volunteers: A Tale of the Mexican War Who does not remember Friday, the 10th of July, 1846. The heat of that day fell with scathing effect upon the gay city of New-Orleans. As the sun rose above the horizon, its first rays seemed to cast a burning veil over the city, which, as it ascended higher in the blue ether, and gained the meridian, became absolutely intolerable, suspending all business in the streets, and forcing the residents of the crescent city to retreat under cover, with few exceptions; and those melting beneath the suns fierce beams, were taken home to bear the penalty of their temerity by almost immediate death. But those who were sitting in their own splendid mansions, surrounded by all the luxuries of wealth, received not a breath of air to cool the fevered brow; but were sitting listlessly endeavoring to kill time by some trifling employment, or walking back and forth from room to room, in the impatient hope of inhaling a breath of what was not to be gained. Having lingered through many hours in the delusive hope of a change in the atmosphere, the impatient watchers observed a small black cloud rising in the west, which spread rapidly, occasionally emitting from its dark bosom brilliant flashes of lightning, followed by hoarse peals of thunder, and in the space of five minutes it had covered the heavens like a pall; and the rain began to descend in torrents, while the vivid lightning, and menacing roll of the thunder, accompanied by violent wind, presenting such a contrast to the burning light, and almost death like silence of a few moments before, struck an emotion of awe into every bosom. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.