Mexico, which from the western outskirts of the town overlooked the whole country below. Tacubaya itself was a kind of summer resort for Mexico City; a number of English gentlemen and wealthy city merchants lived here in great style, with villas and out-door baths and large gardens, enclosed by walls.
The slope of the hill fronted the capital. After duties Jerry and Hannibal and the other First Division men paid considerable attention to that view from the slope, for many of the city defenses were clearly outlined.
To the north, directly in front of Tacubaya, on the Tacubaya road to the city and only one-half a mile distant by air, there was a huge mass of grey rock, connected with the city walls by two short roads. The rock mass was fortified from bottom to top by breastworks, and fringed at its base by a long wall and embankment. On the flat crown, about one hundred and fifty feet up, there was a great stone building—the Military College of Mexico. The rock fell away steeply on the south and the east sides. The engineers said that it was as steep on the north side. The west side had a more gradual slope, covered with cypress trees. The name of the rock was Chapultepec—or in English, Grasshopper Hill.
At the foot of the west slope—the timbered slope—there was a long group of stone buildings, with flat roofs and one or two towers. At night red flames seemed to issue from one of the roofs, as if the place was being used as a foundry, casting guns and solid shot. The place was called El Molino del Rey—the King's Mill; and according to the people in Tacubaya, it was indeed an old mill and a foundry.
