University of California Berkeley 
 
/ r *f*9'*7* 
 
- 
 
WILD LIFE; 
 
 01, 
 
 ADVENTURES ON THE FRONTIER. 
 
 ari iajjs of l\t fean 
 
 BY 
 
 CAPT. MAYNE REID. 
 
 Ott or (< THB HUNTERS' FEAST," ' SCALP HUNTERS," "WAB TRAIL,'* " 
 
 WHITE CHIB?," "QD1DROON," "OSCIOLA," MO. 
 
 SEAUTIfULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH ORIGINAL DESIGNS, 
 ENGRAVED BT N. ORR. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 ERT M. DE WITT, PUBLISHER, 
 
 18 7&iMORT STREET. 
 
ENTBRXH according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 
 I10JJEKT M. DE WITT, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the Dibtnct Court of t'he United States for the Southern District of 
 
 New York. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 MM 
 
 Big BUI P., 5 
 
 Family Quarreli, 13 
 
 The Departure, . . N 21 
 
 Death of the Betrayed and Betrayer, . . . . .29 
 
 An Old Acquaintance, < 86 
 
 "Feeling" the Way, . . 60 
 
 The Enemy Overtaken, 68 
 
 Davis the Half-breed, 78 
 
 A Mexican War Horse, 87 
 
 The Dancing Bear, 104 
 
 The Prairie Scout, 116 
 
 The Maniac Horseman, .". . . . . . . .121 
 
 A TraihV Party, .......... 128 
 
 Bill Johnson " Stumped," 133 
 
 Death of the Traitor, . . 144 
 
 " Fixin'" a Yaller Belly, 158 
 
 The Night Attack, . . .170 
 
 Mustangs, 186 
 
 A Prairie Scamper, . . . 198 
 
 The Peril The Rescue, 210 
 
 A Dangerous Deliverer, 213 
 
 The Self-Accused, " 221 
 
 The Gambler's Story The Murder, 236 
 
 Trial by a Texan Jury, .243 
 
 The Execution, 252 
 
 The Attack The Repulse, . . 259 
 
 The Dead Alive, 2G9 
 
 Brothers and Sisters, . . .289 
 
IV 
 
 KflM 
 
 The Last Adventure of a Coquette, . . . ... . .299 
 
 The Death of Cordova, 309 
 
 The Husband's Ruse, . . ? 319 
 
 The Wounded Guerrilla, 326 
 
 The Unknown Artist, . . . . . , ,. . . 334 
 
 Wanita, 338 
 
 Scouting near Vera Crux, ... 850 
 
 Mexican Jealousy, . v , 858 
 
 A Campaign in Texas, ....... 864 
 The Escaoe. ...-,.. ,895 
 
WILD LIFE; 
 
 on, 
 ADVENTURES ON THE FRONTIER, 
 
 THOSE who dwell amid the strife and busy turmoil of large 
 cities know but little of the powerful interest excited in the 
 breasts of hardy, strong-minded, but unsophisticated men who, liv 
 ing at a distance from direct communication with the busy world, 
 suddenly hear of some great and potent discovery of which they 
 also long to avail themselves. To the feelings thus awakened in 
 my younger days, and shared in by many of my companions, is 
 the public indebted for the following narration of events which 
 are set down as a record of the incidents occurring to one whose 
 life has teemed with adventures of no ordinary character. 
 
 As the reader will find a certain vein of affection for my boy 
 hood's home running through the strata of these pages, it is well 
 to inform him that I was born in one of the most sunny spots of 
 a most lovely state. Even now my heart bounds with a quicker 
 pulse at the mention of daring, brave, noble Kentucky ! celebrated 
 alike for the hardihood of her sons and the beauty of her daugh 
 ters. But at the time of the opening of the scenes of this book. 
 I was too young to appreciate the latter, and aimed only to 
 emulate the former. I as well as others yearned for the life 
 beyond the confines of our secluded valley, and sighed for a par 
 ticipation in those deeds of which now and thtn a rumor reached 
 ur ever-attentive ears. 
 
How we envied the caicless buoyancy of the released stage- 
 passenger, happy in the prospect of refreshment and rest, and 
 caught at aciy snatches of intelligence of the outer world his 
 gay loquacity might let fall ! But above all, if he came from 
 some distant country like Texas and Mexico which were then 
 the enchanted lands of our dreams we watched him with awe 
 and wonder, hung upon his words with a feverish and devouring 
 credulity, treasuring everything as " food for parlance " with our 
 secret thoughts. 
 
 It was thus there came back suddenly into our midst a young 
 man whom I remembered well from my earliest childhood ; but 
 whom, since his unaccountable departure years before, we had 
 almost learned to consider as among the dead " who make no sign." 
 He was not a person to be thought of for his own sake, for he was 
 a harsh, ignoble, gawky brute, with desperately freckled face, 
 hirsute hands, and huge, matted masses of fiery red hair. As a 
 "big boy," alias a grown-up young man, he had been the 
 dreaded tyrant of the village school ; for, as he seemed incapable 
 of acquiring even the rudiments of learning, he took a sort of 
 stolid and malignant pleasure in torturing those whose perceptions 
 were quicker than his own. Many a savage blow and ruffianly 
 insult did we have to endure from him uncomplainingly ; for, 
 when brought to account, the wretch, with an abject cunning, 
 would unblushingly lie himself free. It caused a general 
 feeling of relief to us all, when the young man's father, wearied 
 with his hopeless stupidity, at last took him from school and 
 placed him with a merchant, to learn, if possible, how to retail 
 " dry goods." But even this experiment upon his availability 
 proved a failure. 
 
 The fellow was in heart, soul, and body, a ruffian : though 
 the story went, that even he, uncouth as he was, had suc 
 cumbed to the tender passion. The sentimental spinsters of 
 the village declared, with a sigh, that it was for unrequited 
 love of one of their venerable order, who was only twenty years 
 older than himself, that the inconsolable swain had mysteriously 
 made away with himself; while others, who looked at facts through 
 an atmosphere something less rosy-tinted, hinted rather at a 
 bereaved cash drawer with which he had been too familiar. At 
 
11 events, he certainly disappeared between sun and sun without 
 explanation, and where he went few took interest enough in him 
 to inquire ; while the tough " specimen of the antique," to whose 
 obdurate cruelty his evanishment was said to be owing, wa 
 forthwith installed by her sympathizing sisters of the " virginal " 
 into the romantic dignity of a heroine who, by the power of her 
 charms, had " killed her man ! " 
 
 For her own part, she looked the character admirably; 
 kept her secret, whatever it was, locked in her own breast; 
 and became thinner, more austere, wrinkled, and religious 
 with each day, until at last she threw herself into the frosty 
 embrace of a church elder of sixty, to make amends for a 
 wasted life in nursing a canting dotard into the grave for his 
 mone^f. This was a man whom I have often known to strip up 
 his nether garment half way up the leg to exhibit with sanctimo 
 nious ostentation great cushion-like callosities, which had grown 
 upon the knees from his incessant use of them in offering up long 
 prayers in places to be heard of men. 
 
 But as we were saying, the red-haired swain returned into our 
 midst, after an absence of years, quite as unexpectedly as he had 
 gone forth. Nobody knew him at first except myself, and my 
 recognition of his identity was quickened by the memory of 
 aversion. I knew at a glance those hated lineaments and that 
 awkward figure, though the first were now defaced by the white 
 seam of a hideous scar across the yellowish blur of one continued 
 freckle, and the last had been knit together into a rude and 
 massive compactness of outline which expressed great strength 
 and even activity. As he descended from the stage, you first 
 caught through the darkening twilight the gleam of precious 
 metals about his person, and heard the rattle of arms. 
 
 When he strode into the full light of the bar-room, we saw that 
 his dress and accoutrements were what seemed to my sensitive and 
 unsophisticated fancy then, strange, fierce, and splendid beyond 
 anything I had deemed possible out of the " Arabian Nights," 
 but which I only recognise now as a vulgar attempt at the 
 perfection of the ruffian coxcombry of the frontier. He wore 
 about his neck an immense guard-chain of gold, the links of 
 which were coarsely wrought, and as large as " the little fingei 
 
of a maid." The monstrous brooch in his coarse shirt boson 
 was a virgin mass of the same material, roughly wrought into a 
 rague resemblance of that vile and ludicrous reptile, the horned 
 frog, which is nearly peculiar to the plains of Texas. The 
 handles of the pistols at his belt seemed to be of solid silver, s* 
 was that of the huge bowie-knife which protruded from his bosom. 
 The buttons of his coat, which was a sort of English shooting 
 jacket, werfe of large silver coins of Mexico ; while his pants, which 
 were of black-dressed buckskin which looked like velvet, were 
 slashed down the outside seam to show the red cloth drawers 
 beneath, with a row of smaller silver coins on either edge, 
 which were connected by a link an inch in length, and of the 
 same precious metal. He wore the Mexican sombrero upon his 
 head, with the broad band of variegated head-work peculiar to it, 
 and over his arm, for it was warm weather, the gaudy serape 
 was thrown. Altogether, it was to me a before unimagined 
 picture of foreign magnificence and formidable show. 
 
 The callow youth by some miracle had suddenly sprung into 
 a stalwart and formidable manhood, for I could not now realize 
 the length of time since he had disappeared ; and since he had 
 thus come again from some far country with such a gorgeous 
 display of wealth upon his person, it seemed as if I had on. T y 
 been asleep a little while, and lived through the sudden transi 
 tions of some wild dream of eastern enchantment. What could 
 it mean ? Had this 'rough brute been favored by the Genii, and 
 found Aladdin's Lamp again ? 
 
 The articles of dress and accoutrement which are so well 
 known now, were strange to every one then ; for Texas 
 was an odd foreign name, just then beginning to be fre 
 quently spoken, with no very clear or definite ideas of distance 
 or locality attached to it ; and Mexico was the " earthlj' 
 Paradise" of the Geographies the golden, glorious, but inac. 
 cessible home of conquered Montezumas and Spanish grandeiu. 
 The red-haired ruffian strutted to and fro, jingling his chains and 
 enjoying largely the looks of gaping, reverential surprise, with 
 which he was regarded by the crowd of men and boys. At last, 
 in a coarse insolent voice he began to question those around con. 
 earning certain citizens of the place, inquiring whether they 
 
9 
 
 were dead yet, and where they lived now. I had known hint 
 from the first, and when he mentioned his father's name, in spita 
 of the awed repulsion felt towards him, the pent-up excitement, 
 which had now reached the explosive intensity in my little breast, 
 burst forth, and I shouted or rather screamed aloud, 
 
 " Boys, it's big Bill P. !" and then there was a general roar of 
 instantaneous recognition. The wretch, with a hideous attempt 
 at a smile, which only turned the coarse, stiff lips wrong side 
 out, and showed great yellow fangs like those of a butcher's 
 bull-dog, stepped towards me, saying, 
 
 " Damn you, Ruffles,* what did you tell for !" and stretched 
 out his coarse hand to clutch my ear, with the same brutal 
 gesture I had learned so long ago to dread. The novelty of the 
 scene, the recollection of my old hate, everything combined, had 
 wrought me up to a pitch of uncontrollable nervous excitement, and 
 with the blood almost starting from my face, I burst forth into yells 
 of rage, and struck at him in blind fury, without knowing what I 
 did. He at first seemed as if he were going to annihilate me with 
 a savage blow, but then something like shame appeared to 
 restrain him, and he merely seized both my hands in one of his, 
 and held me helpless as an infant in his vice-like grasp until the 
 paroxysm had in some measure expeoded itself. He now re- 
 leased me, and with a hyena chuckle complimented me upon my 
 " pluck," as he called the nervous spasm of wonder, fright, and 
 hate, which had so over-mastered me for the moment. 
 
 However, the immediate result was not very serious, for ever 
 after this incident the ruffian appeared to have taken an uncouth 
 sort of patronizing liking to me. He first attempted to coax me 
 by the offer of presents, which, singular as the objects were to me. 
 I rejected with disdain ; but when he proposed to talk to me of his 
 adventures and tell me of what they had been, then my unconquer 
 able curiosity concerning such subjects overcame my loathing 
 gradually, and we became almost good friends, while I sat for 
 hours and listened to him. 
 
 He had been away to the remote and unknown country of 
 
 A nick-name by which I was known at the time we went to fchool 
 together ; given to me because I wore ruffles, while the other boyi worr 
 plain collars, or as often none at all. 
 
10 
 
 Texas, and wonderful indeed were the narrations which h 
 had to give concerning its Mexican rancheros, traders, and 
 robbers ; concerning its fierce wild tribes of lance-bearing 
 Indians on their swift horses, their long black hair, " stream 
 ing to the winds, bedizened with circlets and bunches of dyed 
 feathers ; its innumerable buffalo and wild horses, in great herds, 
 pouring over* flowery plains like dark, thundering rivers over 
 flown ; its ferocious beasts the bear, the puma, cougar, hyena, 
 and leopard cat ; and of his few countrymen, its more ferocious 
 settlers, in their first deadly collisions with the bloody cowardice 
 of the base soldiery of Mexico. 
 
 Though he was ignorant and rude, yet he had seen every- 
 thing vividly; and with a graphic skill that was entirely 
 unconscious, but which I have often noticed to be possessed 
 by such men of rude, adventurous lives, he always seized upon 
 the salient points of hts picture, and gave you, perhaps in 
 two words, or at most in a sentence, those features which define 
 it to you at once show it to be unlike anything else. Thus, 
 though his lips were stiff, his enunciation slow, his language mean, 
 studded with horrid blasphemies and a mongrel' slang, part Mexi 
 can, American, and Indian, yet somehow he managed to give me a 
 strikingly real description of everything concerning which he spokc^ 
 though this may have been owing, in a great measure, to the eager 
 and pertinacious curiosity with which I followed up his least sug 
 gestive word with close questioning, until I had drawn out from 
 him, to the satisfaction of my own mind, all that was necessary to 
 the full elimination of the object or scene. 
 
 Thus, though his mind was void of fancy to the bleakness of 
 a " Cimmerian waste," yet I obtained from him a warm and 
 glowing picture of the tropical productiveness of this new land ; 
 of its rich and yellow fruits ; of its vast flower- robed prairies ; 
 of its mighty forest tangles, draped with long, grey, drooping 
 moss, matted and wreathed with long vines that hung their snake- 
 like garlands in fierce colored clusters of poisonous bloom " i j the 
 sick air ;" of its. cotton "tree," with huge boles ; of its marvellous 
 productiveness in all grains ; and last, its untold and unimagin. 
 able wealth in the precious metals and stones ; its gold and silver 
 mines, far to the north and west, among the mountains, to reach 
 
11 
 
 which you must pass over arid plains, to fight your way 
 through the country of ferocious Indian tribes. Here I failed tt 
 obtain that sort of strict definiteness of outline which I had suc 
 ceeded in drawing out in other cases. 
 
 There was plenty of gold there, for he showed me his uncouth 
 brooch, which had been wrought by a frontier blacksmith from a 
 large lump of the virgin ore, obtained by himself from a Mexican, 
 or rather Spanish- trader of the Rio Grande, who professed that 
 he obtained it, with other lumps and bars which I was permitted 
 to handle, from high up the valley of " the Great River," in traffic 
 with tribes of peaceful Indians who seemed to have much gold 
 among them. Other unwrought specimens of silver he showed 
 me, which he said he had picked up, during a solitary trapping 
 excursion, among the mountains north-west of San Antonio de 
 Bexar. Other lumps of gold had been obtained, while he Was a 
 trapper, in trading with the roving Indians of the plain, who all 
 pointed to the north-west as the direction whence it came ; yet he 
 could give me no clear idea of localities, and seemed to think this 
 gold region so remote and difficult of approach, that the time would 
 hardly ever come when white men would reach it to possess its 
 treasures. 
 
 There must have been between one and two thousand dollars 
 worth though, to my simplicity, there seemed to be far more 
 of these precious metals which he thus exhibited to me, 
 mostly in the crude state in which they had been obtained by him 
 one way or another during his wild and multifarious wanderings 
 by mountain, river-side, and plain. With the recklessness cha 
 racteristic of the desperate adventurer, he seemed to be quite in- 
 different to the value of the glittering store with .which he thus 
 dazzled my boyish vision ; and would frequently, with almost child- 
 ish carelessness, offer me pieces that seemed to me of such value, 
 that I drew back in astonishment and dread from the dangerous 
 temptation. Of course my youthful and impressible fancy greatly 
 exaggerated the munificence of these reckless proffers; but then, 
 when in addition I frequently saw the youngej* children of hi., 
 father's family, and even the little negroes playing about the floor 
 of the house with some of the smallest of these lumps, which he 
 rould throw to them, and probably never think of afterwards, UB 
 
12 
 
 less brought bacK to him by the older members of the family, thii 
 very careless disregard of what other men are so careful of, 
 excited me still more. 
 
 Young as I was, it is not surprising it appeared to me a 
 matter of wonder that he must be amazingly sure of his resources 
 before he could be so inexplicably indifferent; that he must 
 know for a certainty where and how he would be able easily 
 to replace the treasures he was thus throwing about the house 
 like common pebbles; and then as a necessity I could but 
 come to the conclusion that he had not told me all he knew 
 that there must be something behind all this yet to reveal. It 
 could not be but there was a covert motive in this seemingly studied 
 vagueness of speech as to the manner in which he had obtained 
 these metals, and as to the localities of the different deposits from 
 which they had been obtained by others. 
 
 Doubtless he chose to keep such information to himself, for his 
 own benefit and that of his immediate family. Who could blame 
 him, supposing this to be true ; for as he was only a private ad 
 venturer, and not a public officer receiving pay of the government 
 for the express purpose of making such discoveries by survey for 
 the public benefit, he was not bound to make any disclosures 
 but such as he chose. 
 
 It will have been perceived that my first impressions with 
 regard to Texas and gold-mines were of a nature not to be 
 readily dismissed. They were thus invested to me with all 
 that gorgeous and indefinite romance which fired the Spanish 
 chivalry in the days of the New World discovery and con. 
 quest. My warm and restless fancy seized upon all the 
 details which could be drawn from this man, and made them 
 a portion of its " life estate" of day dreams ; and many 
 deeds of high enterprise and desperate venture worthy of Cas- 
 tilian knighthood, did I see and win through half-clouded eyes in 
 this romantic and wonderful land of strange virgin loveliness and 
 boundless wealth. P. did not stay long, but returned, taking with 
 him two of his brothers, to be followed, in time by the whole 
 family. But we shall come again to this man's history before 
 we get through with our narrative ; for the present it must giy 
 way to other details. 
 
18 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FAMILY QUARRELS. 
 
 IT was a savage and remarkable race these P.'s. Th 
 patriarch of them all was an old man of eighty years when I can 
 first remember him. For fifteen years he seemed to me un 
 changed. His tall slender form remained slightly bowed, and" 
 his thin white hair I never could discover grew any thinner ; nor 
 did his old eyes to the last look any more bleared and watery, 
 nor were the deep seams in his face cut any deeper. I never 
 saw him but with an undefined feeling of curious awe ; for with 
 his six gigantic sons around him, he always reminded me of an 
 old thunder-blasted oak that the storms since had spared, to lift its 
 bowed and splintered head amidst the rank and overtoppling forest 
 of its shoots, which, while they kept off the blessing of the sun's 
 rays, would not let it even decay beneath their chilling shadows ; 
 and so it was with the poor old man, his heart and life seemed 
 both " astonied" by the horrible ingratitude of his brutal boys. 
 He was a very quiet man, and had a subdued and absorbed look, 
 but was a fierce and pitiless hater withal. He seemed to live for 
 and upon hate ; it had become " a kind of nutriment !" and most 
 fearful of all, hate for his own offspring ! He was at desperate 
 feud with all of them except one. They frequently threatened 
 each other's lives ; and curses so awful and bitter as he would let 
 fall upon their grey heads, it is well that men do not often hear. 
 Their ages ranged from thirty-five to sixty ; and yet, strange to 
 tell, their heads were all, with a single exception, prematurely 
 whitened. They were greatly above the medium size, and some 
 
 2 
 
14 
 
 of them were of very imposing forms, though the face* of most of 
 them were blotched by debauchery. All these men were at 
 desperate enmity with each other likewise, and these unnatura 1 
 dissensions resulted finally in a dreadful tragedy. 
 
 The man of most wealth and acknowledged standing and ability 
 among them was the father of Bill P., of whom I first spoke. He 
 was at deadly enmity with the father and all the other brothers. He 
 was a man of fine presence, with a face expressing great suavity, 
 with intellectual astuteness, yet he was known to be and dreaded 
 as a man of bloody and vindictive passions. In a street fray he had 
 once cut a man almost literally to pieces, inflicting some twenty 
 wounds upon him with a long knife, and with such rapidity that 
 the bystanders had no time to realize that the man was hurt be 
 fore he fell dead, killed as many times over as there were wounds, 
 if such a thing be possible, for any one of them was mortal. 
 Those were rude times, and his wealth -and the plea of self-de 
 fence were sufficient to release him. Nor was this all ; for it wag 
 rumored that he had fought duels with fatal results. 
 
 Yet in spite of these dark shadows upon his life, he was 
 not only one of the most influential persons in the country, 
 but one of the most universally respected and beloved; and 
 the population was as good as any in Kentucky, or the south- 
 west. His mind was of a very commanding order ; he was 
 extraordinarily active, public-spirited, and benevolent the liberal 
 and kind father of an unusually large family for he had 
 married young, and his wife had borne him eighteen children, 
 all but one of them boys. He was reputed one of the 
 best masters in the country; just but lenient as a public 
 officer, he was universally approved and even admired for im 
 partiality, and he would accept no office for either its honors or 
 emolument, but, as it seemed, for the practical good he could 
 accomplish through its means. How, then, could he be otherwise 
 than highly popular and influential in these comparatively new 
 social conditions, in which such common attributes of good 
 citizenship are necessarily so highly esteemed ? Indeed, I have 
 no hesitation in saying that had good citizenship been entitled to 
 a civic crown, it would certainly have been unanimously awarded 
 to this man, in spite of all the past. His character was most dew 
 
15 
 
 dedly contrasted with that of his.brothers, who were dissipated and 
 turbulent men. I have said that he was at feud with all his 
 brothers ; but there was one, the youngest, who died before I can 
 remember, and whom he professed to love very much. He was 
 literally the " Benjamin the child of his old age," to the patriarch 
 who loved him deeply. 
 
 He must have been the only redeeming spirit among them, 
 for it was always said of him that he was the genius and orator 
 of the family.; and the proof of his being a man of some parts 
 existed at the time of his early death in a considerable fortune, 
 which had been legitimately amassed at the bar, in his pro 
 fession as advocate or pleader, in criminal cases. He had an 
 only child, a daughter, then very young; and she, upon his death 
 bed, he left in charge of this elder brother John D. P., along 
 with her whole fortune in trust for her benefit. As this child 
 grew up along with his own daughter, no stranger could have 
 discovered, or even suspected, that she was other than his own 
 child, unless the difference of features had suggested something. 
 Indeed, although we were constantly playmates as children, I did 
 not know this fact until we were all nearly grown up ; and one 
 chief and standing topic of praise of this " model-citizen," common 
 throughout the country, was this seemingly entire adoption on his 
 part of the little orphan, and tender faithfulness to his beloved 
 brother's holy trust.' The people forgave him for hating those 
 that were alive in consideration of his truth to him that was dead, 
 and found many ingenious excuses for his want of sympathy with 
 such dissipated men, in the creditable fact that he himself was a 
 strictly sober man. So although nobody ever knew what had 
 become of the little orphan's property, and though some few ene 
 mies the other brothers particularly intimated pretty roundly 
 that there was something very mysterious and inexplicable in the 
 business, the public raised the hue and cry of indignant rebuke 
 at any imputation upon the honor of their favorite, and would 
 not hear of the possibility that he would not honestly and strictly 
 render up an account of his trust when the child came of age. 
 
 Perhaps there never was witnessed a more striking instance ol 
 the unanimity of puWic sentiment in favor of any one man tnan 
 this afforded. " He has lived among us since his boyhood,'' the* 
 
16 
 
 would say, " and we should know the man by this time ? nearly 50 
 years. We know he is vindictive when wronged, and that hia 
 anger is very dangerous when roused ; but then he is courteous 
 and peaceful when not assailed, strictly orderly and honorable in 
 his dealings ; in a word, the general tenor of the man's life gives 
 the lie utterly to any such foul insinuations away with them !" 
 
 His accusers were literally obliged to hide their heads from the 
 storm. There was my uncle-^than whom a man of more clear- 
 souled honor and stern integrity never breathed God's blessed air, 
 who had been his partner in business for twenty years he would 
 at any time have defended him against such imputations as 
 promptly and as fiercely as himself. There was my father, a 
 just, dignified, God-fearing, honorable man, who had been for the 
 same length of time his family physician and intimate friend ; 
 and yet, who seldom had his habitual equanimity so promptly 
 ruffled, as upon the occasion of any insinuation against the 
 character and motives of this extraordinary person. By the way, 
 my mother always detested him without knowing why, and would 
 only visit his house when he was away from home, although she 
 loved his meek and gentle wife. 
 
 These two men were equally esteemed with himself, and 
 of the same social rank ; they had possessed the very best 
 opportunities for sounding the depths of his nature, and yet we 
 shall see that they, along with a majority of the men 'of their 
 class, continued long, through the most astoundingly terrible 
 developments and events, to be- his closest friends and warmest 
 defenders. When I come to think of all the patient and diabolical 
 subtlety of this man's nature, when once the temptation of gold, 
 of unbounded wealth, was presented to him, I feel myself shudder 
 and sicken with a hopeless feeling of distrust of all mankind, and 
 every " outward seeming." 
 
 His son had now returned, as I have related, and brought 
 back with him the stories and the palpable evidences of 
 enormous wealth to be obtained in Texas. The model citizen 
 appeared to pay little attention to these stories, which he pre 
 tended to regard as the wildest and most improbable romance ; 
 he was too much absorbed in his grave duties as father, 
 roaster, and public officer, to have leisure for such trifling 
 
17 
 
 To be sure, when one of his boys, then just verging upon man. 
 hood, exhibited some restlessness and anxiety to adventure in thai 
 direction, he did not oppose his wishes, but invested a consider 
 able sum for him in sheep, which were then bringing large prices 
 along the new Red River Settlements, and sent him off to trade 
 for himself. Mark you, it was not to Texas that the young man 
 was sent so the excellent father said ! 
 
 Everybody thought it was very natural that he should want 
 to get such a loose-jointed, coarse booby out of his sight, as 
 this " Kit*' or Columbus was. This fellow, "Kit," was a far 
 baser wretch than his brother, for he was as pusillanimous as the 
 other was ruffianly, and was thought to be admirably well dis 
 posed of, as a sheep-drover. In eight or ten months he returned, 
 having been, as it was rumored, very successful. At all events, 
 an immense flock of sheep was this time purchased in a great 
 hurry, for a return trip. To pay for these, the model citizen 
 drew heavily upon the credit of the firm of which my uncle was 
 his partner. Thus matters went on for another year, and in the 
 meantime it began to be noticed that he was gradually selling 
 off all his property except his negroes. The excuse for this was, 
 that the vicissitudes of this new trade rendered heavy outlays 
 constantly necessary, and people only thought that it was nobody's 
 business but his own. 
 
 Not so with one of his brothers, Matthew, or Mat, as he 
 was called, who openly accused him of an intention to get all 
 his property out of the country, and thus defraud his orphan 
 niece. As usual the whole country was indignant, but this 
 time Mat would not be silenced by the hue and cry, and con 
 tinued pertinaciously to proclaim aloud the evidences of his 
 brother's intended villany ; for he said, " the girl is now nearly 
 come of age, and as he has used up her estate, and has no inten 
 tion of making any restitution, see he is every day selling off 
 some portion of his lands, and preparing to run away to Texas ! 
 It is in Texas where he has been opening a plantation for 
 years past, instead of Arkansas, as he pretends ! See, he sends 
 off eight or ten negroes every year * to help to drive the sheep,' 
 as he says, but in reality to get them out of the country, for we 
 
 all know that none of them have ever come back yet !" 
 
 2* 
 
18 
 
 These were very serious charges, and in spite of the genera* 
 confidence, the eyes of the public began to be turned upon the 
 character of these proceedings. This annoyed the model citizen, 
 and in the coolest manner possible he resolved to put a stop to it, 
 as it was interfering with his purposes. He went to work 
 accordingly, to enrage his brother Mat to the highest possible 
 degree of fury, that he might take him at advantage. Mat was a 
 drunkard, and abused his wife. John now all at once inter 
 fered, to " protect" her, as he called it, and directed public 
 attention from his own movements, to the brutality of his brother, 
 which his interference only made more notorious, of course. 
 This, as he expected, drove Mat into an ungovernable fury, 
 and he repeatedly threatened John's life. 
 
 This, in the eyes of the law, is justification of murder. When 
 this point had been attained securely by the repeated drunken 
 blustering of the harmless sot about the streets of the town, the 
 model citizen one day put a great blunderbuss of a holster pistol, 
 heavily loaded with buck-shot, into his pocket, took a pinch 01 
 snuff, and walked out of the store on to the street ; as he walked 
 down it, his brother Mat was sitting engaged in some maudlin 
 gossip, near a door on the side-walk ; as he came opposite he 
 stopped, Mat looked up, and seeing that hated brother with the 
 deadly glare of Cain in his eye stand before him, sprang in a 
 flurried manner to his feet, and commenced fumbling confusedly 
 in his pockets behind him. The model citizen deliberately drew 
 his blunderbuss, and the frightened sot commenced retreating ; but 
 no, the inexorable fate was upon him, and that terrible brother, 
 with cool and steady aim, fired at his head. The poor wretch 
 ,spun round and round, blindly staggered a few steps inside the 
 door, and fell sweltering in his blood. The model citizen returned 
 his big pistol to his pocket, took out his silver snuff-box, rapped 
 it twice, as usual, took a pinch, and walked back to his store with 
 his usual business step. 
 
 The people were wild with horror at this monstrous crime, 
 thus committed with business-like deliberation in the broad day 
 light, and in the open street. Women sickened and fell down in 
 swoons ; men grew white as death, and shivered with loathing 
 dread. The thing was too infernal too hideous to be realized ! 
 
19 
 
 t could not possibly be that the pistol was loaded that the blood 
 aey pointed at with shaking fingers on their street, was blood 
 bed by the hand of a brother ! Horror ! horror ! horror ! Can 
 : be ? Is he dead ? was whispered from one to another, by pale 
 ps of shuddering men that gathered about the house, while the 
 lodel citizen was sitting in a careless posture upon the counter 
 f his own store, and with bland and smiling face, relating the 
 ircumstances of the appalling murder ; for he and every one 
 Ise outside of the house into which Mat staggered, supposed the 
 mn must be dead of course. 
 
 I have witnessed many bloody deaths, and much suffer- 
 ig, but I shall forgef everything else before the memory 
 f that day can pass from me. It fell like a bolt from 
 
 cloudless sky, and astounded me into a new realization of 
 le dreadful possibilities of life ! God of heavens ! what an 
 wful crime it seemed to me f It nearly took my breath to 
 link of it; and when there was a rumor came out into the 
 ;reet from my father, who was ministering in his professional 
 apacity to the wretched victim, that he was not dead, and that 
 lere was even a possibility of his surviving, my chest was 
 eaved with long-drawn breathings, and I once more dared to 
 )ok up to heaven, without fear that it was falling upon the earth 
 > blot it out for such a crime. I felt as if the good God had 
 pared the earth in preventing this unnatural sin I 
 
 Inexpressibly great was the astonishment of all those who had 
 witnessed the deed, when the physicians announced that they did 
 ot consider the wounds as fatal, immediately at least ; that there 
 fas a probability of the man's surviving for a considerable time 
 -it might be years ! And strangely enough, it turned out that 
 le deadly and infernal malignity of the intended murderer had, 
 i some measure, defeated his own purpose. He had intended to 
 hoot his brother full in the face, and as his face shrank to one 
 icte before the deadly tube, this dogged purpose followed in 
 inconscious aim, the first mark, until, when the pistol exploded, 
 nly the side of the face was presented ; and although that was 
 rushed almost into a jelly by the shot, and the principal bones 
 Token, they slanted off from the brain, which was not fully pene- 
 rated by any of them, though one or two were thought to be 
 
20 
 
 tying against its membraneous covering, and would, of course 
 continue to constantly endanger his life. 
 
 But enough of these revolting details, which must by this 
 time seem somewhat irrelevant to the subject matter of oui 
 book ; but a little patience will show that they are not so by an} 
 means. As a literal detail of actual events which I have long 
 yearned with the feeling that it is a sort of duty on my part t( 
 give to the public, they will also be found to constitute a con 
 sistent part of that personal reminiscence of motive and experi 
 ences, which I from the first proposed to give, and which have 
 led me to such strong convictions with regard to the existence o 
 vast and undeveloped resources of mineral wealth, within th( 
 unexplored interior of our Continent ; the road to which, anc 
 even through or over which, lies within the boundaries o 
 Texas. 
 
CHAPTER HI. 
 
 THE DEPARTURE. 
 
 Bur to continue the outlines of my narrative. Not the least 
 ^markable part of this extraordinary affair is, thai so soon as the 
 eople were relieved of that burden of horror which had weighed 
 pon them in the thought of Mat's actual death, a great reaction 
 mnediately occurred in the feeling towards their favorite, the 
 lodel citizen. At first there had been great danger of the 
 xcitement finding a vent in some act of prompt and summary 
 engeance ; but then, as the man was not killed at all, it altered 
 le case materially. 
 
 Murmurs of partial exculpation began to be heard, and in 
 ic course of a day or two many of our best citizens began 
 > express openly the opinion that there were many things 
 fhich went to excuse the act. First, it was insisted that he 
 vidently did not intend to kill his brother, as was plain enough 
 rom the manner in which he had aimed ; but only to teach him a 
 ound lesson by mutilating him somewhat. A stopper was 
 infortunately put upon this charitable construction when it leaked 
 iut, that the only time when his equanimity had appeared at all 
 uffled, had been when the news came to him while he still sat on 
 he counter, by this time talking indifferently with his partner 
 i pon business subjects, that his brother was not killed. He 
 tarted slightly, and said in a tone of hearty vexation, " Damn 
 lim, it's a pity !" then resumed the subject of his conversation 
 vith my uncle. 
 
 This was a right hard pill for his admirers to swallow ; 
 
22 
 
 and yet such was the blind confidence in the man's in. 
 tegrity, of all who thought they knew him best, that there 
 .seemed to be a resolute purpose among them to find him guiltless, 
 though there was a party far stronger in numerical strength 
 which still regarded him with implacable sternness, and were 
 determined to visit upon him the utmost vengeance of the law. His 
 defenders, now that poor Mat was out of immediate danger, opened 
 furiously upon his reputation, which was bad enough, for drunken 
 ness and brutality to his wife. He evidently intended to have 
 murdered John, if John had not shot him ; he had threatened his 
 life time after time in public places, and but the day before 
 had sworn to shoot him the next time he saw him in the street : 
 that at the very time when John shot him, he was endeavoring 
 to extricate a pistol, which had got entangled in his coat-pocket 
 behind, with the intention of putting his repeated threats into 
 execution then, and that John had only been too quick for him, 
 &c., &c., &c. It was thus the evidence they brought forward 
 on the trial ran, going to make it out a clear case of self-defence, 
 and therefore in any result justifiable. 
 
 But it was upon his trial that the extraordinary subtlety, tact, 
 and intellectual force of this man's nature became most strikingly 
 apparent. He employed no counsel, but defended his own cause, 
 standing alone amidst a strong array of the best forensic talent of 
 the country on the other side. The case excited immense in 
 terest, and there was a great crowd collected from far and near 
 to hear it through several days. The victim, who was by this 
 time able to get out, was there, with face muffled in bandages, 
 confronted with his intended murderer. Though a man of coarse 
 nature, he would have been a rather noble-looking brute but for 
 his habits of vulgar excess. Confinement and suffering had re 
 moved many of these marks ; and now with his glossy black hair 
 the single exception among them and the livid pallor of those 
 portions of his face which could be seen, he offered a striking 
 contrast with the grey hair and ruddy faces of the other brothers 
 who were gathered eagerly in and about the bar. He was evi 
 dently cowed and terrified at the sight of John, and it took some 
 time for his heavy nature to regain self-command. The fratri 
 cide, with his bland, indifferent gaze as he turned it slowly about 
 
23 
 
 h^n, measured his victim over his spectacles while taking a pinch 
 of snuff, and then quietly addressed himself to the arrangement 
 of his papers. 
 
 As the case progressed, the opposing lawyers, who had ex. 
 pected easy work in making out their case, when they found 
 themselves opposed by a man who was not known to have made 
 law a study, and certainly never practised it in the courts, 
 began to find that they had been reckoning without their host. 
 In a very little while judge, jury, and ^ audience" at least became 
 convinced that he knew as much about law as the whole of them, 
 for he met them promptly in all the " low dodges" of special 
 pleading, as well as upon precedent and general principles. When 
 the examination of the more important witnesses came on, he 
 showed that he had been rather indulging in a slight gladiatorial 
 display of intellectual prowess with the lawyers for the purpose 
 of infusing into them a little wholesome respect, than been really 
 in earnest as yet. 
 
 Now the surprising abilities of the man came out for the first 
 time in his life perhaps in their true light. In the cross-question 
 ing of these witnesses he made his case without the necessity of 
 pleading, in spite of the common sense of court, jury, and public. 
 He had never intended to play the advocate for his own cause, as 
 he knew that would place him at disadvantage, but saw that he 
 must succeed in producing the necessary effect at this point, or 
 never. And he did produce it. These principal witnesses that 
 stood in his way were the intimate personal friends of his brother, 
 and mostly like himself dissolute and unprincipled men. He 
 knew them thoroughly, and the general public knew little, 
 though there was suspicion, 
 
 He first made it evident to themselves that he had pos 
 sessed himself of many facts with regard to their past history 
 which they supposed it impossible for him to be informed of, 
 and the publicity of which would be anything but desirable. 
 He then gave them to understand by the most subtle indi. 
 cations, the meaning of which was for the most part apparent 
 only to themselves, that having it in his power he intended to 
 make them " own up" to these things or forswear themselves, and 
 be driven out of court into the penitentiary. This discomposed 
 
24 
 
 and frightened the fellows, wno, with everybody else, had now 
 become so thoroughly impressed by the unexpected resources ol 
 legal acquirement he had already displayed, that they were pre. 
 pared to expect anything from him. They lost confidence in 
 themselves ; even when they were telling the plain, straightfor 
 ward truth, with the quiet threatening of his cold grey eyes upon 
 them, searching their consciousness to its very depths, they 
 became confused and, what he intended they should become, 
 inconsistent. 
 
 In this way he served the three most important witnesses of 
 the complaint, until they had involved themselves with themselves 
 and each other to such a hopeless degree, that it was not consi 
 dered necessary to argue the case ; and the judge, after a short 
 charge, sent out the jury, who returned in a few hours with a 
 verdict of acquittal so plain a case of justification in self- 
 defence had it been made out to them. There was a general 
 rejoicing at the verdict, for the public were for the time as much 
 impressed as the jury and court had been ; and I have frequently 
 since heard men of high legal attainments acd general intelli 
 gence express the opinion that this defence fully equalled if not 
 surpassed in cunning and intellectual astuteness that of the 
 famous Eugene Aram. 
 
 The cases are not unlike so far as the absolute criminality, 
 and the cool, inexorable subtlety of the criminals is concerned. 
 Mat died within the second year after receiving his wounds, 
 as his physician said he probably would on the trial, of the 
 dropping in of the shot which could not be extricated upon 
 the brain through its abraded membranous covering, so that 
 John was a fratricide in deed, which is worse than the crime 
 of Eugene Aram. Then by this time it became perfectly evi 
 dent that this murder was only a part of a long and deliberately 
 planned scheme of villany even more unnaturally monstrous if 
 there be such a possibility than fratricide itself. Poor Mat, by 
 his pertinacious accusations, had unfortunately placed himself in 
 the way of the success of this scheme, and his murder was 
 determined upon as deliberately as if he had been some trouble 
 some wild vermin that by foraging upon his hen-roost interfered 
 with his enjoyment of the luxury of fresh eggs for breakfast 
 
25 
 
 The rruth then became evident, though it had always existed 
 in reality, that the wretched Matthew was only formidable to 
 John, or to anybody else, through his tongue ; that John did not 
 choose to have public attention attracted to his operations in 
 this way, and so became suddenly officious in interfering between 
 Mat and his wife, whom he now took occasion to protect and carry 
 home with him because she had been beaten ; though it was noto 
 rious that this same thing had been repeated over and over again 
 for years past ; that he knew his brother perfectly in doing this, 
 as it caused him to commit himself in his drunken ravings by 
 threats of personal violence so openly made as to furnish him 
 justification in the letter of the law for murdering him to stop his 
 mouth ; that it was John who stopped in the street before his 
 brother, as if to invite attack, and that if the frightened and 
 bloated boaster did have a pistol in his coat pocket, and was 
 attempting to draw it, a man of John's astonishing coolness must 
 have seen perfectly that there was neither any danger of his get 
 ting the pistol out of his pocket, nor of using it to any effect if he 
 did. 
 
 But why stop there, if it was not with the purpose to kill 
 him in the first place, and then why follow up his shuffling and 
 shrinking retreat with his relentless aim^ if death was not the 
 determination ? The pistol was found in the wounded man's 
 pocket, but it was so entanged in the lining by the lock that it 
 could never have been extricated without tearing away the whole 
 skirt. 
 
 All these facts, as well as the devilish petulance of the remark, 
 " Damn him, it's a pity !" went comparatively for nothing on 
 the trial, and before the cool, subtle, imperative intellect of this 
 strange man. But when the facts which followed in deliberate 
 out astounding succession had time to settle with their legitimate 
 impressions into the mind of the public, then the scales fell from 
 ill eyes, and men realized what a hideous lie his life had been 
 '.hroughout. The friends who had been nearest to him before, 
 now, by an inexplicable process of self-delusion, convinced 
 themselves that it was he who had been the injured party 
 throughout, and clung to him with a deeper and more affeo 
 
 3 
 
26 
 
 tionate confidence than eve.' before. This did not move for 
 an instant the inexorable purpose of the man with any symptoms 
 of relenting, but rather, from the sense of security it; afforded, 
 seemed to precipitate his action. 
 
 He had now, by repeated drafts upon the firm, not onlj 
 abstracted his own share , of the capital, but considerably 
 infringed upon that of my uncle. Having announced his 
 purpose to make one more trading venture heavier than all 
 the rest, and which was to be the last, he proceeded to 
 make very large investments in stock in such a way that 
 the cash payments falling upon the firm, my poor, confiding 
 uncle was compelled to meet them by disbursing what few 
 thousands there were left in his control. He did this, however, 
 without a murmur, and in the face of the avowed fact that the 
 negroes were now nearly all gone, and the rumor that a cash sale 
 of the homestead plantation was in negotiation. The rumor ho 
 did not believe, as this friend and partner of twenty years had 
 not mentioned any sue!) thing to him ; and as for distrusting him, 
 he would distrust his own soul first ! 
 
 Honorable man ! He was very far from lacking astuteness ; 
 indeed was remarkable for his shrewd and searching insight of 
 character, and "for his bitter and uncompromising scorn of 
 meanness and falsehood : yet how fatally was he blinded in 
 this case ! 
 
 As the preparations for this great trading expedition were 
 brought to a close, symptoms of a new hue and cry from 
 all the other brothers united began to be heard. They 
 demanded, as the orphan girl was now of age, that John D. P. 
 should make restitution of her property at once, before leaviag 
 the country, with all his own property as well as that of his 
 partner. Things had progressed so far now that he cared very 
 little for what they said : he merely answered contemptuously 
 that he should make the restitution when it suited his convenience, 
 and that furthermore, lie was not about to leave the country at 
 all ; that he merely intended to accompany his son Kit part of 
 the way to Arkansas, until his stock were broken to the road, and 
 then he should return to answer all charges in proper person, as 
 
27 
 I 
 
 they had lately had good evidence of his willingness to do ! This, 
 satisfied my uncle perfectly, as well as the community, and again 
 the obstreperous brothers were frowned into silence. 
 
 Thus he started with his great droves of stock, accompanied as 
 usual, for the first day's drive, by my uncle, my father, and many 
 of his friends, who rode with him in advance as a sort of triumphant 
 escort of honor intended to exhibit to his enemies the unshaken 
 confidence and respect of the man whom they so pertinaciously 
 traduced. Along with my cousin Frank, a noble, high-spirited, 
 handsome fellow, some four years older than myself, I formed one 
 of the body-guard. The scene made a powerful impression upon 
 me : sometimes at a long stretch of the road I would look back 
 upon an immense herd of 7 or 8,000 hogs filling its whole breadth 
 for more than a mile ; then, in the rear of these, the white and 
 close-wedged masses of several thousand sheep; and then, far 
 behind these, I would catch a glimpse of the dark phalanxes of 
 mules coming into sight for a moment as they wound along the 
 hillsides. It was a great four-footed army, that seemed as if it 
 must sweep the granaries of the land as it passed through ; and, 
 together with the twenty negroes and the hired white drivers in a 
 still greater number, struck me as a most imposing exhibition of 
 the enterprise and daring of one man. For all this tide of living 
 creatures was to be controlled and guided over every obstruction, 
 and most of the way through a new country, more than a 
 thousand miles before the ostensible market could be reached. 
 Certainly much that was surprising, much even of grandeur was 
 to be perceived in the character of South-western enterprises in 
 those days ! 
 
 The first day's progress was only some eight or ten miles, 
 when we reached a large caravansary, or country tavern, 
 standing at a great crossing of three or four different routes. 
 Here the animals were all penned, with the view of separating 
 them into three detachments the next morning, when they would 
 each take a different route leading in the same general direction, 
 that provender for so large a number might be insured by distri 
 bution over a wider surface. We were to return that evening to 
 town, and I shall not soon forget the parting between my uncle 
 and this man. The last moments were passed in rapid but not 
 
28 
 
 in the slightest degree flurried recapitulations of those small items 
 of business purport which, having been left unprovided for in the 
 hurry, required at least temporary adjustment during his intended 
 absence of a few weeks. These my uncle listened to with that 
 strict attention characteristic of the scrupulously honorable man 
 receiving ever so small a charge from a friend, because he 
 intends to fulfil it to the letter. On the features of both men 
 equally there was that profound and happy repose which comes 
 of the security of entire trust, and disarms a parting of 
 all bitterness. They looked and spoke like men who were 
 only separating, as they had done, with short intervals, each 
 day for twenty years, to go to their respective houses 
 for the night, and return again to meet in the morning. 
 My uncle Frank was a few years the youngest, and it was 
 an amiable pleasantry of his to keep his partner con 
 stantly reminded of the fact, so at parting he shook him by 
 the hands and said slily, " Take care of yourself, John ; remem 
 ber you are growing old !" " Good bye, Frank ; remember me 
 to the missus !" * 
 
 A jocose mode of designating the matron of a family common in the 
 South, and derived partly from chivalric associations and partly from negro 
 dan* 
 
20 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DEATH OF THE BETRAYED AND BETRAYER 
 
 THUS these two men parted for ever on earth ! witr. a fami 
 liar and affectionate jest on either side a jest that embodied all 
 that there had been of uninterrupted kindliness and mutual con 
 fidence between them for many long years ! Yet, when I came 
 to think over this scene afterwards, the only thing in the manner 
 of the traitor which at all expressed anything like consciousness 
 on his part, was that he took a pinch of snuff immediately on 
 lelting fall the hand of the friend he was betraying just as he 
 did after shooting his brother Mat ! 
 
 But now, to cut a long story short, a month passed, and then 
 was no return of the " model citizen." My uncle was not ij> 
 the slightest degree shaken by all the taunting clamors which 
 now rose afresh around him. He had still a thousand or two 
 in unbroken credit left, and continued to supply, without stint, 
 the necessities of the wife of his partner and her large family, 
 with quite as conscientious scrupulousness as if he had just 
 received from him a" reiterated injunction to that effect by the 
 last mail, accompanied by a satisfactory explanation of the 
 causes of delay. 
 
 Though months and months still passed, and no such word of 
 confirmation or consoling came from his partner, and the sneering 
 clamors grew more and more obstreperous about his ears, he 
 still went steadily on in the sublime assurance of his trust, 
 and ministered equally to the wants of his partner's helplest 
 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 family, with those of his own, out of what remained to him yet 
 of funds and credit. 
 
 A year had now passed. His eastern credit was gone for 
 ever. My uncle was a hopeless bankrupt ! Still his faith would 
 not give way, though his buoyancy in some measure did. He 
 had written several letters to John, and in that wild country they 
 might miscarry ! he would certainly either answer him satis 
 factorily or return himself soon. Indeed he expected him every 
 day, and should not be surprised any minute to see him come 
 in, with his old look of friendship, bringing in his hands the 
 means of retrieving their lost credit. In the meantime he would, 
 so long as a cent remained, meet the expenses of his family as 
 well as those of his own ! 
 
 But when it now came to light that the man who cultivated the 
 Homestead Plantation, as it had been thought at first, merely upon 
 shares, was the real owner, and showed the evidences that he 
 had purchased it for cash, and demanded of the old and helpless 
 wife of the model citizen that she should vacate the premises, 
 then a full realization of the terrible blow came to my uncle ! 
 God of heaven ! Betrayed and beggared ! The whole crushing 
 truth came down upon his strong and manly head, like an 
 avalanche of sorrow, and he never lifted his bowed neck agaifc 
 
 Had the fiendish fratricide turned that assassin pistol upon his 
 heart, and sent a ball right through its centre, he could not have 
 cut him down more suddenly. In full health apparently he 
 walked heavily to liis house, laid himself down upon his bed, and 
 in a few hours he was found to be dying I 
 
 What an awful sight was that ; a strong man dying of a 
 broken heart ! Not one atom of his round, full, powerful frame 
 had been wasted ; his flesh was firm, and the veins full of blood 
 as ever ; his face, not even paled by the present sickness, wore 
 the usual ruddy flush of perfect health, and yet to see him lie 
 there gasping for breath ! while above the horrifying stillness, 
 that fearful stertorous breathing which indicates the approach of 
 death, grew thicker and hoarser with each moment, and the 
 soft pink flush of life faded slowly before the thick, purplish hue 
 that crept surely and icily up from the deader ed extremities. 
 
31 
 
 My God I it was the most dreadful sight ever witnessed ! Not 
 that death itself is so appalling ; not that it is so unusual to see 
 men who appear to be in full health lie down and die ; but that 
 the cause seems so dreadful ! to die of too much truth, and 
 faith, and honor ! To die of what should make us live for 
 ever! It seems that falsehood, hate, and shame should kill 
 men ; that they should die of their sins, of their perversions, and 
 not of what is most holy and harmonious in them ! And yet it 
 was so with my poor uncle ; he had cast everything upon one die, 
 and it had turned out to be a loaded one ! He had been swindled 
 out of all that was dearest to him in life his good name, the 
 means of supporting his family, whom he proudly loved more 
 than life, and the closest friend of his life beyond that family. 
 All were gone ! The sky grew black, he could not see nor 
 feel the. sun, his will and his strength went out from him into 
 " the void of midnight !" He had no wish nor power to live ; his 
 senses were benumbed by the stunning weight that had fallen 
 upon him. Since the fire flew from his eyes beneath the shock 
 no more light had come. His senses would not go out to things 
 of sense again ! He was weary, and could not get up ; he felt 
 drawn downwards as if through the bed and through the floor 
 towards the embrace of earth ! her cold bosom would be 
 soothing to his tired and fevered limbs ! Ah, piteous fate ! The 
 wife of his youth, whom he had loved with such a steadfast 
 love, transfixed those fair and delicate daughters, the spring 
 flowers rooted in the deep strong soil of his heart, pale, drooping 
 with the weight of tears ; that noble son, with his proud eagle- 
 face bent low in stern and tearless sorrow ; that curly-headea 
 artist-boy that sobs out wildly ; and the little one "that wails, it 
 knows not why. Sad scene ! Shall I ever forget its piteous 
 and mournful details ? He died ! The strong man died ! and 
 we who loved could but look on him with helpless meanings. 
 
 Oh, the curse of that proud and stricken widow, when poverty 
 bore hard upon her helpless self and delicately-nurtured daugh 
 ters and young boys. It did not fall scatheless upon the hoary 
 villain's head ! The stern and bitter curse of her eldest-born 
 followed him in retribution, though he could never follow him 
 in person; for his fierce nature, which orly "subscribed to 
 
32 
 
 tender objects," was moved by the wail of the helpless to stay bjr 
 them with his strength until they grew strong ! To the earth's 
 end he would have followed the wretch so soon as he dared to 
 leave his poor mother; he had sworn it in the depths of his 
 heart and soul, and he was not a man to forget friend or foe. 
 But the just God, who had said "vengeance is mine," vindicatec 
 his own laws before this time came. 
 
 The facts, as they afterwards came to light, are about these , 
 It appears that Columbus, or Kit, with his abject cunning, had 
 at once, by a sympathetic intuition, detected through the indif 
 ferent seeming of his father the strong awakening of avarice in 
 his nature, caused by*the golden display made by his eldest son 
 Bill P. on his return from Texas. Cunning Kit ministered to 
 this, and on each return from his trading expeditions in that 
 direction brought back stories more than corifirmatory of what 
 had fallen from his honester brother concerning the mineral 
 wealth of this new country. The inordinate lust, for gold which 
 had for so many years been partially controlled and kept in 
 subjection by the " duties, rules, observances" of his social 
 position now, fostered subtly, broke forth like a deeply-smoul 
 dered fire, to flame along the hell-charred surface of passions 
 that seemed to have long ago gone out. All " the sacrednesses," 
 beneath the sanctified restraints of which his devilish nature had 
 so long evidently chafed with the silent endurance of great 
 strength, now burnt out, like tinder before the lurid flash of this 
 infernal fire. His mind and his passions glowed at once with the 
 red, baleful heat ! He was unhumanized in such a hideous way 
 that nothing human could realize him; hence the impossibility 
 for his friends to understand his motives. They could not 
 realize that he now deliberately purposed to go to this golden 
 land, with all the wealth he could carry thither, to add to the 
 countless hoards that he should' be thus enabled to collect there, 
 that might build him a shining palace to his god, Momus, and all 
 the hideous, unholy passions that are attendants on his train, with 
 whom the fierce decadence of his life might be subsided in the 
 hot and horrid orgies of unnatural lust ! No ; they could not 
 realize all this in that calm, placid, and unhurried bearing. They 
 could not realize that the snow upon his head cooled down tha 
 
33 
 
 crust of volcanic brain, while .he went on to plot the defrauding 
 of one brother's orphan in his charge, by sending her property 
 out of the country under false pretences ; to plot the murder of 
 another brother, because he was directing public attention to 
 this purpose, and do that murder coolly in the public streets ; to 
 draw" from time to time upon the capital of his mercantile house 
 until he had abstracted every cent, not only of his own share, 
 but as well that of his nearest and dearest friend that faithful 
 partner, who had stood by him so long and trustingly ; to desert 
 the wife of his first and earliest choice, who had borne him 
 eighteen children, and been the ever loving, patient, wise, and 
 thrifty helpmate of forty years, without the slightest provision for 
 her support and that of her -young and helpless family; and 
 resist appeal after appeal that reached him, either to send for 
 her, or release her and his young children from a dependence 
 upon the cHarity of those he had 'most deeply wronged. No, I 
 say, they could not realize all this, but yet it proved to be so, 
 every word of it. 
 
 Whether the monster ever realized his horrid dreams of golden 
 magnificence in any degree through those indefinite and impenetra 
 ble regions said to be gold bearing, or otherwise, I am not fully 
 prepared to say ; but it is certain that he possessed and settled an 
 immense plantation on the Brazos, a few miles back from Co 
 lumbus or Brazoria, where, for a number of years, he realized 
 all that his devilish avarice would demand in the way of legiti 
 mate production from the soil in cultivating the long, fine fibred, 
 and gigantic cotton of that region. 
 
 When the Texas revolution came on he consistently acted the 
 traitor to save his ill-gotten wealth, and was treated with contempt 
 by the stern and chivalric men who really led that movement. 
 Houston was a mere man of straw, as he has been throughout his 
 life ; but even he could not help cursing with corn-whiskey 
 pathos, the treacherous planter who buried his weapons, his 
 available property, and his gold, for fear they should be used by 
 the Texan patriots against the Mexican power, which he favored.' 
 But, the struggle past, this fact was not forgotten, though passed 
 . over. 
 
 The Model Citizen now went on for several years rejoicing in 
 
34 
 
 his strength, and swiftly accumulating riches, when there came 
 *o be, through negotiation, an arrangement between the sovereign 
 State of Texas and the confederated Union, by which such debts 
 incurred before running away to Texas from the States, might be 
 collected in Texas, on proper exchange of official certifications. 
 Now came the time of vengeance. To escape his creditors at 
 the East and in Kentucky, the wary villain was compelled to 
 make over all his property to his precious and promising son Kit. 
 The creditors were defrauded, but the pleasant part of it is, that 
 Kit held on to this ", conveyance in trust," and chose to interpret 
 it literally, and the result was, that he gradually encroached upon 
 his excellent father under the shield of this conveyance until at 
 last he turned him bowed, broken, and sick to death with the 
 protracted struggle, out of the plantation house into the open air, 
 and left him entirely to the mercenary sympathies of the coarse and 
 lecherous mulatto slaves who had formed his Harem heretofore. 
 
 They took him to a distant hovel on the outskirts of the planta 
 tion, and there they so tormented him with the hellish provocations 
 of unnatural lust, that to this day it remains uncertain whether 
 they starved the hideous wretch to death, or wore out his life in 
 monstrous tortures ; certain it is that when they came back to the. 
 worthy son with the news of his father's death he coolly rewarded 
 them, and when I visited him years afterwards these slaves still 
 ranked as the aristocratic families of the plantation ! 
 
 God had avenged his outraged laws ! the abused and ne 
 glected father the deserted wife the beggared orphan the 
 murdered brother the ruined and broken-hearted friend all 
 all had been avenged ! and his own son too the low and sneak 
 ing villain, had been the instrument of retribution ! How sublime 
 Jie justice! he too in turn is made to realize what he had 
 .aught his own hoary-headed father. 
 
 ** How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is, to have a thankless child." 
 
 Ah, what a horrid death it was ! Starved and taunted by 
 the brutal creatures of his own senile lusts thus turned upon 
 him ! I have been < much happier since I heard this fearful 
 story ; it has strengthened my faith in God. I walk the earth 
 with a calmer feeling of confidence, and hope, and trust; for 
 
now I know that even here, in this life, he will not permit his 
 laws to be too hideously outraged with impunity. And now, too, 
 that I have given all these facts to the public, do I breathe more 
 freely ; they weighed upon me like a guilty conscience, while I 
 remained silent, and I felt' irresistibly impelled, even at the risk 
 of being charged with irrelevancy, to dedicate these monsten 
 to the world's scorn. I feel better now. 
 
80 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 i 
 
 AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 
 
 IT matters not to explain how or why, when I reached man- 
 hood, I came to go to Texas. If the general cause is not already 
 sufficiently explained, it is very certain that I cannot take the time 
 now to do it. Suffice it that I did go, and that I must now trans 
 late myself to the Frontier to take up the thread of my narrative 
 The following details, written at another period of my life, must 
 come in to fill the necessary interval between what is now writ 
 ten and that when the more immediate purpose of the book is 
 resumed. 
 
 Now the career of this same Bill P., who is earliest mentioned 
 as having been the first to return from adventurings in Texas to 
 my native town, and my own, come again into connexion under 
 very different circumstances. I was alone on my way to San 
 .Antonio, before reaching which, some eighteen miles, I expected 
 to find the Rancho of this man now promoted, through hard- 
 earned honors of the bloodiest battles of the Texan ^Revolution, 
 to a colonelcy by Houston. 
 
 Many a time in the twilight had I sat upon the steps of his 
 father's mansion, and listened in breathless ragerness to his 
 curious tales ! for all about Gold mines, Mexicans, and Southern 
 Indians was, as we have said, vague to us then. Much of our 
 restless passion for adventure took its origin, and grew into our 
 life, under the stimuli of these strange stories of his. Now that 
 I found myself, after infinite vicissitudes, approaching the house 
 of this man who had exerted so strong an influence upon my 
 boyish imagination, I unconsciously began recurring to the child 
 
37 v ** 
 
 ish conjurations his recitals had called up. What fantastic images 
 were they which then sometimes filled my heated fancy, of a coun 
 try where such scenes could occur of a people capable' of deeds 
 so savage as he described ! I recalled those pictures vividly 
 enough now, for here was the reality to contrast them with. The 
 lights and shadows were strong and deep, in good earnest, which 
 had composed them and it was amusing to compare them with 
 the truth around me. Then in morbid moods I had before me a 
 dim twilight region of prairies waving with dark-colored poison 
 ous flowers ; rocks that glittered with veins of gold, gaping in 
 ruvines ; and vast arid plains piled around with shaggy hills, with 
 bronzed, gaunt figures, bloody and fierce, gliding to and fro ; while 
 the red gleam of fire showed now and then, the work of death they 
 revelled in, lighting up the hideous, grim, and grotesque action of 
 their ferocious joy, : and now, I could not help smiling, as I lifted 
 my eyes to look around upon as beaming and cheerful a landscape 
 as ever the clear sunlight flooded. 
 
 It was the very ideal of harmonious repose silence audible in 
 beauty where all the pulsings of great Nature seemed to be 
 chordant with, and led by the loud throb of my own heart. 
 Though it was January, the scene was surprisingly pleasant ; 
 the rolling prairie I traversed was relieved of monotony by little 
 islands, or motts, as they are called, of the evergreen live oak, 
 scattered clustering here and there. The grass, though slightly 
 browned, was just sufficiently so to afford a sober contrast to the 
 intense glistening green of the oak leaves, whose tints were 
 heightened by the silvery frost-work of long moss, which set 
 them off. The air was of that peculiar transparency Italy 
 boasts, and seemed to be light itself, not a medium while 
 through it the herds of deer, though a mile off, were defined with 
 startling minuteness, even to the detail of their careless repose, 
 or the gestures of surprise in the pricked ear and quick stamp of 
 a fine foot upon the sod, and hasty grouping, as the stranger 
 came in view. The tall snowy cranes gesticulated, with lithe 
 thin necks, their wonder, and stalked with slow stately steps 
 towards each other ; seeming, as they clustered on the ridge of 
 the prairie undulations, to be weaving strange figures against the 
 iky, with their restless necks crossing, .as they ejaculated their 
 
 4 
 
38 
 
 odd solemn croak. The sand-rats, their tails stuck straight in 
 the air with fright, shot into their hurrows, and then turned 
 round, poking their striped noses out to peep. The little grass- 
 sparrow flitted with a sharp chirp before me, while the sagacious 
 hawk, which had been floating over head all the morning, 
 watching till I should frighten up these little gentry, would dip, 
 with a quick sough of wings, at the doubly-frighted wretch, which 
 would drop like a stone in the long grass. This calm life it 
 was delicious ! 
 
 The many pleasant sights and pleasant sounds the bright and 
 gay repose of being they sank into and pervaded my whole 
 life with an exquisite sense of joy and peace. Nature's God, in 
 this most glorious woof 
 
 " Of the garment that we know him by," 
 stood revealed in everything, 
 
 " From the small breath 
 Of all new buds unfolding from the meaning 
 Of Jove's large eyebrow, to the tender greening 
 Of April meadows," 
 
 here was a holy revelation that filled me with love and 
 worship. 
 
 I could not realize that this soft picture had ever been, or 
 could ever be, defaced by those harsh discords the fatal spirit of 
 humanity carries with it always. But a little time was to illus 
 trate to my experience that, indeed, " we know not what a day 
 may bring forth" that even in this wide merry sunshine, in 
 these cool delightful shadows, Death and Fear could show their 
 ghastly faces that, " alternating Elysian brightness with deep 
 and dreadful night," life everywhere, in cities and on plains, 
 whirls on the same. 
 
 This man, whose house I was approaching, was to exhibit to 
 me a new phase of character. Nurtured in civilization, he had 
 abjured the brotherhood of community as tame and sickly, 
 wedding himself, body and scul, to ferocious strife. So strangely 
 had the unnatural circumstances of his position operated upon his 
 temper, that life itself was no longer a pleasant consciousness to 
 
Him, without the eternal necessity of struggling with death in a 
 hundred forms, and the half savage exultation of the thought 
 that he purchased from hour to hour, his right to live, with his 
 own prompt heart and steady arm. I myself "had begun to feel 
 something of that haughty swelling of the veins that answering 
 of the heart, in hot flushings to the brow which familiarity with 
 danger, and the necessity of self-reliance produces ; and I felt a 
 sort of yearning to trace in this man, whom I remembered with 
 the freshness of my own present age upon him, the stern lines of 
 these new feelings, legitimately hardened and deepened by the 
 habit of many years. 
 
 The faint trail I had been following now brought me suddenly 
 upon rather a fine scene a " bottom prairie," as it is termed, 
 sloped from the last undulation of the upland on which I stood 
 down to the banks of the San Antonio river. The mesquit-grass, 
 covering this basin, was a fresher green than the upland grass ; 
 while the mesquit-timber, a gnarled and scrubby growth, differed 
 much from the grand live oak, and was destitute of moss. Facing 
 me, and on the immediate bank of the river, were three stockade- 
 houses, or lesser " ranches." 
 
 I rode up to the middle one, conscious that there was something 
 about it, I could not tell what, that attracted me as bearing a more 
 American air. I was not disappointed ; a white man came to the 
 door. It could be no one but Col. P. ; but little altered. As I 
 climbed the five or six blocks which served for mounting the 
 picket, and advanced to his door, I had time for a good look, and to 
 recall the past. He was the same thick-set, uncouthly-gaited, 
 burly-looking monster; the great brush of fiery hair standing out 
 ' horrent" above a face, the skin of which seemed now to be one 
 entire dark/reckle, except where the paler seam of that large scar 
 marked it across the cheek. His eye, a whity-grey, was cordial 
 enough in its expression, and so was the bear-squeeze of his huge 
 hand; but there was a peculiarity about his lips I instantly 
 remembered they were so stiff and double as to render it impos 
 sible for him to smile easily, and the abortive grin he got up con 
 veyed no expression of pleasantness, but only reminded me of a 
 mastiff over a bone. 
 
 Since my boyhood I have the same instinctive aversion to 
 
40 
 
 men who laugh in pain from whom joy comes forth in travail. 
 That had been one cause of my hatred to him then. There 
 was no time for analysing instincts ; for, as soon as I made 
 myself known, the colonel dragged me into the house, pouring 
 out a string of his sort of welcomes exclamations of surprise, 
 and questions; "What -the devil brought you all the way out 
 here by yourself? You've chawed the apron-string like a wolf's 
 cub, I see, and cut ! I thought, my youngster, when you used 
 to sit with your chops stretched, listening to me that time I went 
 in to the States, talk about Gold mines and Indians, you 
 meant to give the old ones trouble some day ! Didn't come 
 all the way by yourself ? " looking fixedly at me. " Didn't 
 you see the Comanches ? wan't you scared some ? Rubbed 
 off the gooseberry by this time ! done chawing salad, aint you ? 
 But what brought you here ? cut a stick, eh ! left in a jiffy ?" 
 
 " No, no !" said I ; " old fellow, stop ! and I'll tell you. It 
 was that same love of deviltry and dislike of the babyisms of home 
 which made you leave it, that has sent me here now ! I came 
 to see some fun ! I am tired of the tame way they live in 
 Kentucky ?" 
 
 " Like you all the better ! Fudge ! who'd live on pap always ? 
 Give you man's meat here : rough country, rough doings, but it 
 doe? make men ! We live, sure enough, here ! No sickening 
 squirts can come it out here ! Lord ! what would a spindle-legged, 
 strapped thing, coateed and cloth'd, do here, where we have a 
 skrimmage every week ? First Mexicans, then Indians, come on. 
 Brush the Yellow-Bellies. Then the Copperheads come sneaking 
 down. They kill my horses, the villains ! kill my hogs. Just 
 about rows enough going on to keep a man's blood up, and prac 
 tice plumb. Get the green out of your eye as quick as you can, 
 and I'll make a good shot of you. We call it good shooting 
 when they don't kick ! Did a sweet thing the other day, over 
 yonder by some deep gullies. v Had missed a hog every week or 
 8O suspected some of those straggling- thieves of Mexicans. Was 
 sitting at the door one evening, fixin' up ' sixshooter,' and I saw 
 a streak of smoke over there among the trees. Thinks I, maybe 
 that's another hog. So I travelled over there, Indian fashion; 
 and there they were two ragged Yellow-Bellies happy as 
 
41 
 
 while they cut up my white sow. Their fire was right on the 
 edge of the gully, and they looked like two monkeys in a 
 tickling match, they were so happy. Thinks I, mighty plea 
 sant surprise I'll give" you. Bang ! One tumbled over stiff for 
 I hit the back of his head ; and the other I think I laughed 
 out loud, it was done so quick ! Did you ever see a turtle slide 
 off a slick rock where he had been sunning ? or a spring-frog 
 take the-mud ? I tell you it was nothing to the way that Mexican 
 flirted himself off the bank into the gully. It beat all the quick 
 fingering I ever saw. By the time I got there he was out of sight, 
 for these gullies are fifty feet deep, some of 'em, and very twisti- 
 fying. I took the flint and steel out of the dead one's pocket they 
 never have anything else worth taking kicked out the chunks, 
 and took up my hog, and left him there for the wolves." 
 
 So he rattled on, stringing incident upon incident of his wild 
 life with a ferocious sort of gusto, that full of the spirit of such 
 scenes as I imagined I was I could not help acknowledging to 
 myself a sort of cold revulsion creeping upon me a chill shud 
 der, as I recognised in his rattling, rambling talk, the character 
 of incidents which were to make up the ideal of " fun" I had 
 foolishly risked so much to realize. There was brutality rather 
 than the expected romance in it all. 
 
 But as dinner now made its appearance, I had no leisure for 
 further cogitation. I had made the plunge, and " sink or swim, 
 live or die," came back to me from school-boy days. Our fron 
 tier meal of beef, sauced with appetite and the " grease" of fried 
 pork, and seasoned to scalding heat with " chile," with milk to 
 neutralize its blistering, effects upon our throats, and thin Mexican 
 cakes, called " tortillias," was brought in by the colonel's Mexi 
 can " woman." She was liisjiflh for he only kept them so long 
 as it suited his most autocratic pleasure and was rather pretty, 
 with Indian features, olive complexion, and coarse black hair ; her 
 large black eye wearing that bright animal flash upon the iris 
 peculiar to the lower orders of Southern women. She seemed 
 very good-natured and humble, and obeyed her despot as though 
 she were a part of the " joints and motives" of his body, and 
 equally subject to his will. 
 
 Two Peons the lowest grade of Mexican population, and 
 
42 
 
 slaves to the right of life and limb made up what remained of 
 the household, except an old crone, mother of the " woman," 
 whom I had scarcely noticed, crouched with those same animal 
 eyes, undimmed, gleaming from a dark corner of the room. 
 They all waited at a respectful distance until we got through ; 
 and straightway, before we were fairly seated in the other room 
 I on a buffalo robe, the colonel on a stoolthe tongues of the 
 quartette were suddenly loosed in a torrent of gibberish ; the key- 
 note carried in a loud, insolent tone by one of the Peons, a little, 
 shrivelled, sharp-faced knave, whom I had noticed with difficulty 
 restraining himself in our presence. 
 
 The colonel told me the fellow was " bragging." " He's the 
 greatest coward that ever bent grass," said he ; " but he can brag 
 the knot off a musquit limb, and that's tough a little ! But it's 
 the way with all the ' Yellow-Bellies ;' they beat the world brag 
 ging, and let their women whip 'em." 
 
 We took a look at the premises. They were surrounded by 
 a high picket-fence of mesquit logs, set on end as close as the 
 timber would permit including a cow-pen and all about two 
 acres. The house, a long square, built as the fence, except a 
 plaster of moss and mud filling the interstices, and a covering of 
 bulrushes. The colonel said his was like all the other small ran- 
 chos of the country of which there were two in view, above and 
 below us ; one inhabited by a common " ranchero," with his forty 
 or fifty hangers-on, the other by a young American renegade, 
 who, though he had once been respectable, the colonel thought had 
 disgraced himself, as he indignantly expressed it, " by marrying 
 a dirty drab of a Mexican woman. Marry 'em, indeed ! To 
 disgrace the name of Texan, and his family, by marrying the 
 sluts !" 
 
 " Good," said I, " Colonel ; the holy Catholic Church had 
 nothing to do in banns and fees between you and your five 
 women, I suppose ?" " Church, indeed ! I trouble the pudding- 
 paunched priests occasioh-ally for a little ' black mail,' when they 
 happen to trouble me by putting themselves across my way, 
 but never about women." " Frontier morals, Colonel ? " 
 " Yes !" (with one of those stiff grins), " l we do as we daie* 
 here, and six-shooter is my license, certificate, aid deed." 1 
 
43 
 
 learned further, ijiat about a mile and a half up the rivei 
 on the other sile, was the Rancho of Madame Cavillo, on a 
 much grander scale than these. " She is the most perfect old 
 she-devil," said the Colonel, " that ever you heard of. There 
 isn't a man or woman old enough in the whole country to more 
 than guess at her age. She locks like an apple left on the tree 
 all winter, in the face ; but I tell you, the Mexicans fear her 
 worse than they do the priests. She's got the fire of seven 
 thunder-snags in her yet isn't afraid of anything but priests, and 
 is very rich. She has seven thousand head of cattle and horses 
 nobody can tell how much land or how many silver mines 
 she owns, though she doesn't work them much ; and she has 
 near five hundred Peons about her, too. She hates me, and is 
 afraid of me. She's gone now to confessional across the Rio 
 Grrande she does this once a year to wash the blood off. She 
 takes two or three hundred men for a guard. I think she will 
 be back in a day or two, and she will give a grand Fandango 
 always does this when she returns. I shall have fun, if this 
 cursed nephew of her's, Agatone, doesn't return." 
 
 His expression of gossiping good-humor changed to one of sin 
 gular ferocity as he mentioned that name. Suspecting some 
 thing in the wind, I inquired further. " Who is this Agatone ?" 
 " He commands a band of fifty or sixty cut-throats, who are 
 always stealing and murdering from here to the Rio Grande. 
 The little shrivelled villain ! (from between his set teeth) I owe 
 him a few good turns. He has been trying a long time to as 
 sassinate me ha ! ha ! ha !" And he doubled himself down in 
 a sort of spasm in bringing forth this rasping laugh. " Ha ! ha ! 
 ha ! it would have done yer stomach good to see me pick one 
 of his men off that bluff!" pointing as he spoke to the steep bluff 
 bank on the other side of the river. 
 
 " It was a good shot ! I was standing somewhere about here : 
 you see the villains swam over during the night, and lay upon 
 their bellies behind the low thorn bushes you see. there at the 
 bottom of the yard, waiting until I should come out in the 
 morning. It happened I went to a fandango that night and 
 danced until nearly day ; so as I did not make my appearance, 
 about ten o'clock they began to think I was not at home, and 
 
44 
 
 concluded to leave ; just as they were jumping in to swim, my 
 woman came to the door and saw them she came yelling in to 
 me. I had just awoke sprang out with sixshooter in my hand 
 by the time I got here, one of them had reached the top, saw 
 me and dodged. The other was scrambling in a hurry, catching, 
 as he climbed, at the vines that hung over the bluff's edge I let 
 drive at him ! ha! ha! it was beautiful to see him first spring up- 
 then let go and kicking against the bluff leap right off in the 
 air. Lord ! what a yell he gave and such a pretty face he 
 made, I see it now turned towards me wrinkled with fright and 
 hate as he went down into the water ! Ooh !" sucking in his 
 breath, " it was delicious ! if it only had been Agatone, I should 
 have fainted !" slapping me with a heavy hand, in his ecstasy, 
 upon the shoulder " My boy, ain't such things worth living 
 for? ha!" 
 
 I can't say my assent to the Colonel's idea of the " greatest 
 happiness principle," was quite so much from the heart as he 
 could have desired, but he pleased me ; the excitement of loathing 
 while I studied such a monster, from the very novelty of the 
 thing, had a strange charm for me. This soul-moving relish of 
 his in talking of death this dwelling with fond appetite upon the 
 revolting detail of cold murders, filled me with something like 
 that restless half-pleasant awe, the ghost- stories, the " raw-head- 
 and- bloody-bones " of winter-night legends, used to bring to my 
 childhood. 
 
 It was perfectly new to me and astonishing, and I determined 
 to study this man, and see more of the circumstances which could 
 have so ossinVJ his nature. After supper, he recurred for the 
 first time to old associations and mutual friends. 
 
 Here I was again stumped, for my reading and experience 
 heretofore had taught me, and I certainly expected to find 
 no exception in this case that no man, however monstrous the 
 development of his passions, however hardened and distorted5 
 would be found insensible to the gentle memories of innocence, 
 and childhood, and early love ; that these- ever loved, fresh and 
 gentle wooers, these spring airs of the desert past would always 
 find in the scathed soil some germ with life enough to wake in 
 bloom. 
 
45 
 
 I had always clung by this, for it is a ppetty and hopeful 
 sentiment ; but in this man I could see not the slightest emotion, 
 while I eagerly tried to call 'it out, in dwelling upon homestead 
 scenes on a mother, sisters, faithful friends aye ! even the old 
 love and there I hoped I saw some lighting up, but it was faint : 
 the same coarse, careless tone being resumed, in an instant, aftel 
 a slight quaver of what might have been called tenderness. 
 
 Had there been any. necessity for the man's acting a part with 
 me, I should not have been surprised at this insensibility, but 
 there was not the slightest ; he never dreamed of " acting 5 '" in his 
 life he was too stolid and coarse for that, and indeed evidently 
 wearying of the subject, he turned off and brought out the darling 
 of his heart, " six-shooter," and then all his soul came into his 
 manner at once, as he dilated upon her merits the wonderful 
 feats accomplished by her in his hands and those of others. 
 
 Soon after, in spite of all the novelty and excitement of the 
 circumstances I found myself surrounded by, I was coiled upon 
 my buffalo-robe and sound asleep. 
 
 The next day a jfbung Texan whom I had known in the settle 
 ments came out to join us. He had waited in Bexar to hear 
 some positive news of a negro boy, to recover whom as a runa 
 way from the plantation on the Brazos, he had come out to Bexar. 
 The boy had been taken in that neighborhood, and made his 
 escape in a very daring manner. Some Mexican traders came 
 in, who reported him safe enough on the other side of the Rio 
 Grande. The Texan had never seen a Comanche fight, though 
 familiar enough with fights of every other character. He looked 
 forward to one as to the pleasant realization of a long-anticipated 
 joy, and even the savor of the smoking dinner the " woman" had 
 prepared, seemed only to share his attention while he eagerly ques 
 tioned the Colonel as to the probability of seeing one. " Oh !" said 
 he, " you need not be in a fidget, for if you stay here many days, 1 
 promise you shall have enough to stay your stomach." During 
 the evening the by-play of several characteristic and amusing 
 adventures occurred, but we mtist defer them to the more 
 important action of our narrative. 
 
 The next morning, while we were discussing breakfast, Antone 
 
46 
 
 came rushing in, his copper face a creamy white from fear, 
 screaming, " Los Indios ! Los Indios !" The Colonel turned 
 over the board table as he sprang for " six-shooter,' 7 leading the 
 way for the stiles. There was a long train of cavalry in sightj 
 with banners flying, very slowly descending into our little 
 "bottom prairie." 
 
 The moment the Colonel saw them, without saying a word, he 
 turned and launched a furious kick at the ill-starred Antone, 
 which sent him a somerset off the blocks. " What's the matter, 
 Colonel ?" " The cowardly blackguard," growled he, " to come 
 bleatkig ' Los Indios !' and getting a man's stomach up for a 
 fight, when it's nobody but Madame Cavillo and her curs, whom 
 one has no fair excuse for sh,ooting at ! Faugh ! I shan't be able 
 to finish my breakfast. The white-livered calf!" I had felt my 
 heart jump to my throat at the sight of the troop, for my eye was 
 not yet sufficiently trained in making. those prompt distinctions 
 frontier life render necessary, or, in the Colonel's words, " the 
 green was not out of it yet," for I certainly thought they were 
 Comanches, and had begun to experience that all-overish sort of 
 sensation that curious mixture of choking eagerness, curiosity, 
 and half-conscious dread which the near approach of certain battle 
 brings to every one ; and the truth is, if it must be confessed, a 
 very considerable feeling of relief as of oppression taken from my 
 lungs, when I heard the Colonel's explanation. 
 
 The Texan, though, whose associations had given something 
 of a braggadocio tone to his character, delighted the Colonel by 
 chiming in with his abuse of the unfortunate Peon, and making 
 boisterous demonstrations of a disposition to wreak his disappoint 
 ment too, after the same fashion, upon the wretch's already black 
 and blue body ; but he suddenly recovered his nimbleness, and 
 took himself off, grumbling that. " Los Indios " might cut all their 
 throats next time, and he'd neither give the alarm, nor, what 
 was still more dire, bring his puissant arm to their defence. 
 Garracho !" 
 
 The troop passed near enough for us to see the old dame herself 
 indistinctly. She was a squatty figure seemed very old and 
 Was borne in a sort of litter, carried by four horsemen, whc 
 
47 
 
 appear sd most obsequiously careful not to jostle her dangerous 
 repose. Her followers were most of them dressed in white cotton 
 pants the full sailor fashion ; and wore no coats the " serape," 
 or blanket-cloak, of varied and gaudy colors, answering, as it 
 always does, in place of that garment. They carried long, rusty 
 muskets on their shoulders, and wore their cast-iron " Toledo " 
 under the left thigh, next the saddle " a curious place to wear 
 the sword, by-the-by," said I to the Colonel. " Oh," he 
 answered, " it's well enough to keep such a miserable frog-sticker 
 where it can't be got at ; bad as it is, they might be expected to 
 use it sometimes, if they wore it any other way. The only use 
 they ever make of their long swords is to cut up game this they 
 do with amazing dexterity. If you first kill a bear or deer, a 
 Mexican will unhinge it for you so quick with that awkward 
 hackle, you can hardly realize that it is done." 
 
 There were a few dirty streamers bearing Romish devices, 
 flaunting in the breeze above the old woman. They had now 
 reached the Mexican rancho above us, and halted for an instant 
 opposite, to return salutes. It had not pleased her despotic 
 humor to do us that honor, for which there was at least one 
 very good reason that we had not made the overture. For 
 between her and the Colonel there was that smothered, snarling 
 civility, that you see between two great bull-dogs, who having 
 been compelled to meet, after a deliberate survey of each other's 
 proportions, come to the conclusion that nothing is to be gained 
 by a fight, and merely uncover their teeth to show they are not 
 afraid, and pass on, looking back and growling louder as they get 
 more space between them. 
 
 But they made up for our silence at the other rancho. The 
 shouts of men, women, children, and barking of " mongrel whelps 
 of low degree " and every other degree, indeed joined with 
 the cracking and squibbing of bad powder and worse guns, made 
 up the sort of "jubilee of discord" the Mexicans delight in, as 
 the expression both of joy and grief. And, of a truth, it would 
 have been hard to tell which was meant to be exhibited in this 
 case ; for it 's very certain they would have made the same 
 demonstration, had it been the scalp of the old Senora the cavalcade 
 
48 
 
 were bringing home. The only question is, whether the rejoicing 
 of their gratified hate would have been more sincere in that case, 
 than the rejoicing of their stomachs now in anticipation of the 
 expected feast and " fandango," which was to celebrate her 
 arrival. 
 
 This idea served to bring to the Colonel some consolation for 
 his bitter disappointment in a " Fi^ht." " We shall have it about 
 three nights from this," said he, " und such a feast of chickerones, 
 coffee-drinking, and general-up-side-down, and * turn your part 
 ners' of a cavaulting match you never heard of, as it will be." 
 " Good as grass-burrs," said the Texan, " I'm there." " But 
 what do you mean by a ' feast of chickerones,' and by 'grass- 
 burrs ?'" said I. 
 
 " Ha ! ha !" laughed the Colonel, " you're a perfect pea-vine 
 yet you're so tender and green ! Poor fellow! don't know what 
 a chickerone-feast is ? Better not go to buffalo range yet 
 couldn't make the old bulls believe there was any harm in you ; 
 they'd all take after you to get a juicy bite ; you'd be eaten up 
 lock, stock, and barrel ! Why, man, chickerones are crack 
 lings, and are one of the greatest delicacies the Mexicans know! 
 When they kill a hog, they cut him up in small pieces; boil 
 diem for the lard until they are crisp ; then strain and let 'em 
 e;et cold, and they wouldn't give a handful of them for all the 
 figur-eed sweetnin* doings they have at a ball in New Orleans. 
 The old woman always has 'em by tubfulls at her Fandangos ; 
 and a Mexican with a fist full of these, a tin cup full of coffee, 
 and a * tortillia,' is too happy to brag even; and as for- grass- 
 burrs if you hadn't on them thick boots, you'd have learnt 
 what they were quick enough in this ' bottom.' I think them 
 boots are spoiling you they're interfering with your education ; 
 you'd better give 'em to me. Come, off with 'em, my boy ; you're 
 from old Kentuck ; I feel an interest in having you learn fast ; 
 moccasins are good enough to commence life with. You'll 
 have to feel your way then, and you'll be sure to know it next 
 time." 
 
 1 had noticed the Colonel casting longing eyes upon my stout 
 double-soled waterproofs, and concluded it would be just as well 
 to propitiate him by making a surrender at once ; so I told him 
 
43 
 
 he should have them so soon as he would procure me a stout pair 
 of moccasins. And off he went to get them, forgetting he had 
 not told me what grass-burrs were ; but I soon learnt, to my 
 heart's content. 
 
50 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FEELING" THE WAT 
 
 THE next morning, at daybreak, stretched upon my buffalo- 
 robe, on the floor, I was indulging in a pleasant dreamy sort of 
 snooze', half asleep and half awake, conscious, to some degree, of 
 what was going on about me for I heard the Texan and the 
 Colonel get up and go out, and the Mexicans were sauntering 
 about the room. But yet I had not opened my eyes ; for delight 
 ful images were glancing to and fro inside the lids home, and 
 pleasant faces of those I loved and, somehow or other, I knew 
 if I opened them all these must disappear, and disagreeable 
 realities would take their places. But, gramercy ! I opened them 
 quick enough as the Colonel came bouncing into the house 
 followed by the Texan, and the Mexican women screamed that 
 infernal cry of" Los Indies !" 
 
 I turned over lazily on my couch, and asked, in a care-less 
 tone for I was anxious not to appear green " Another of 
 Antone's alarms, I suppose, Colonel ?" " No ! by blood ! boy, it's 
 in earnest this time !" dragging down " six-shooter." " Up with 
 you, if you want to save ^our ^orse and see the fun !" There 
 was a savage glee in the ma~ s face as he said this, which 
 convinced me there was something to pay this time ; and as he 
 and the Texan rushed out, I sprang to my feet. 
 
 " My gun ! where is it ?" just occurred to me" that cursed 
 Antone !" I bolted out of the front door ; he was climbing the 
 steps, with my gun in his hand ; two or three long strides, I had 
 reached them ; I mounted ; there he was below me, the gun to 
 his face, aimed towards the zenith. He fired away " Garracho ! 
 
51 
 
 Los Indies ! Garra " I broke into his expletives just there, as h 
 was in the act of firing the other barrel, with a blow on the side 
 of his head that sent him reeling. Jerking my gun from hia 
 hands, I started at full speed after the Colonel and the Texan, 
 who had a hundred yafds the start of me. 
 
 The morning was misty, and, about four or five hundred yards 
 sff, I could see, indistinctly, men on horseback, galloping to and 
 fro. This was the enemy, nearly a quarter of a mile off, whom 
 the stupid wretch of a Peon had wasted one of my precious loads 
 at or, rather, at the place where the moon might have been. 
 Behind me were the dismal yells of the Mexican women and 
 men ; before me the terrible war-whoop of the Comanches a 
 most uncouth and indescribable sound. The mist brooded very 
 low, and 1 could only distinguish ahead, as I strained every nerve 
 to catch up with my friends, a hurrying crowd of horses without 
 riders, and mules and horses, with riders dark, half-naked men, 
 with long lances, plunging here and there all " confusion worse 
 confounded," into a whirling, rushing mass. 
 
 The Colonel and Texan stopped, side by side, about three 
 hundred yards from our starting point ; and, as I joined them 
 almost at the same instant, I saw there was an excellently good 
 reason for it A party of eight Comanehe warriors had suddenly 
 wheeled from out this chaos I have described, and, with a simul 
 taneous burst of that infernal whoop, came thundering on at full 
 speed, as if they intended to ride us down. 
 
 " Steady, boys !" said the Colonel ; " wait till they get in about 
 thirty paces, and then choose your man !" On they came ; they 
 were tall, lean, sinewy men, with dark bronzed skins naked, 
 except the breech-clout and a cape of buffalo-robe over the 
 shoulders ; their long hair, done into plats with a bunch of rich 
 feathers tied to them, was streaming on the air behind while the 
 chief, who led, was distinguished by his crown of eagle feathers, 
 and an appendage, some two yards in length, of gaudy colored 
 feathers, sailing out from its rear. They rode as if they and their 
 pied and beautiful horses were one some of them with their 
 long lances in rest, just as the " Peers of Charlemagne" must have 
 carried them others clashing them against their broad white oval 
 shields of buffalo hide, folded many times holding their bowi 
 
52 
 
 strung in the same hand while the feathered tips of the full quivef 
 showed above the left shoulder. Howling yet more terribly 
 they were nearly within the thirty paces still the same headlong 
 gait. 
 
 Our little platoon was levelled quicker than thought they 
 wheeled -we fired down went the horse of the chief upon his 
 knees a clear cavaulet into the air, that mighty personage 
 was thrown, his eagle-feathered crown sailing one way, he 
 another. But he lit upon his feet, and, with inconceivable agility, 
 sprang upon his horse again and followed his retreating warriors. 
 I was nearest to him, and rushed at him ; but he was too nimble 
 for me. I might have shot him but, fury ! that contemptible 
 coward ! my other load was gone. I had no time, however, for 
 regrets. A fter galloping back a short distance stooping at the 
 same time behind the bodies of their horses, to avoid our shot 
 they charged in the same way again, and were received by the 
 Colonel and Texan with another broadside. I was loading my 
 gun as fast as possible I had snatched up the powder-horn as I 
 ran out of the house, not seeing the shot-bag, which I discovered 
 round the waist of the beastly Peon, and had not time to dis 
 engage it. 
 
 The Texan, like myself, in the flurry had secured only part of 
 his ammunition, which was fortunately the shot-bag ; so we made 
 a hasty exchange. I poured the shot down without measuring ; 
 now for a. cap; I felt for my pocket where they were usually 
 carried Oh, curses ! I discovered for the first time that I had on 
 nothing but my drawers and shirt, and was in my bare feet to 
 boot ! Pleasant predicament this three hundred yards from the 
 house no caps to fire with, and those infernal devils determined 
 to have our scalps. " Texas, have you got any caps ?" " No, 
 d n it! Yes, here's one," taking it from his pocket. I 
 snatched it eagerly, and was just in time, for the Comanches 
 by this time reduced to six, as two of them, evidently severely 
 hurt, were supporting each other off the field came rushing upon 
 is again with louder whoops and greater confidence than ever ; 
 for they were accustomed to the double-barrel guns, and thought 
 they were sure of us now, as our charges were out. 
 
 So on they came this time within about wenty paces, turning 
 
One fierce tawny rascal was standing erect in his stirrup, as he came on, in the 
 very act of launching his spear at him, when the cool veteran deliberately drew a 
 \>ead upon him, and fired. PAGE 53. 
 
53 
 
 loose their arrows at us, one of which I felt slide through the 
 muscles of my arm, and a sharp imprecation from the Texan told 
 that he too had been pricked. The Colonel stood unmoved, 
 reminding me of FitzJames : 
 
 " This rock shall fly 
 From its firm base as soon as I !" 
 
 One fierce tawny rascal was standing erect in his stirrup, as 
 he came on, in the very act of launching his spear at him, when 
 the cool veteran deliberately drew a bead upon him, and 
 fired. The warrior reeled it struck him on the naked ribs, 
 and I saw the big red stream bubble out as he wheeled, and., 
 galloping back some fifty paces, pitched head-foremost from his 
 horse. 
 
 " That fellow's got it, anyhow ! See, his lance did not reach 
 me T" said the Colonel, between a shout and a laugh. There 
 was the lance, sure enough, still quivering, a few paces in front 
 of him. But it was no laughing matter to the Texan and myself, 
 for, after a great deal of swearing, he had finally convinced him- 
 self that he had given me the only cap he had. He, too, had left 
 his ! A pretty scrape our hurry had got us into : loads in our 
 guns, and no caps to fire them with ! 
 
 A reinforcement from the main body had met the retreating 
 Comanches. The one who had fallen had turned himself upon 
 his back, and holding up his arms, a mounted warrior galloping 
 on each side of him had seized them, and they were dragging 
 him between them towards the main body, who were still bent on 
 herding together, and driving off our horses and mules. 
 
 These two parties had been sent with the charitable design of 
 taking our scalps while we were robbed of our horses. Embold 
 ened by the reinforcement, in an inconceivably short time they 
 were charging upon us again, with still greater fury from the 
 sight of their wounded braves, several of whom were still in the 
 party, as I could tell from the blood smeared upon their limbs. 
 
 It was an awful moment, as that grim, hideous crowd came 
 rushing on to overwhelm us. inevitably, as it seemed to me. 
 What could we do ? The Texan and myself were " hors dii 
 combat." The Colonel had only two more loads ! We clubbed 
 
 5* 
 
54 
 
 our guns in desperation. The Colonel coolly stepped out in front 
 of us. He did not let them get so close this time. He fired. 
 They all stopped short. The foremost man, with a quick move 
 ment, dropped his bow and clapped his hand upon his side, the 
 other hand pointing with his lance at the Colonel ; he looked back, 
 speaking very loudly and rapidly to his friends. The Colonel fired 
 his last and sixth shot, without taking his gun from his face. A 
 warrior sprang up, convulsively, from his saddle. The whole 
 party, shaking their lances in the air, with the most unearthly 
 yell it was ever my fortune to hear, scattered as if a grenade 
 had exploded among them. Throwing their weapons from them, 
 and bending low over their horses' necks, they plied heels and 
 arms, urging them on with frantic energy and, as far as I could 
 heaf, their hoarse voices were repeating the same word (a strange 
 sound, of which I can give no idea in our letters), which the 
 Colonel said meant " The Conjurer." 
 
 " Hurrah for * six-shooter,' " said the Colonel, patting the piece 
 affectionately ; " Howel's game over again ; she saved our scalps, 
 certain !" and running eagerly to the Comanche, who had fallen 
 from his horse, and was feebly endeavoring to drag himself erect 
 again by the help of a stout shrub, he drew his knife, and throw, 
 ing himself upon the bleeding wretch, planted some half-dozen 
 stabs in his body, and then, as if the blood upon his hand had 
 entirely maddened him forgetting he had no other load in his 
 gun he set off at a tremendous rate, in pursuit of the retreating 
 Indians. 
 
 This was downright lunacy. He shouted to us to come on, but 
 I answered, " In the name of common sense, what good can we 
 do, but lose our scalps if they should turn at bay ? we've got 
 nothing to shoot with we are throwing away our lives stupidly ! 
 Let's go back and get our caps, and you your other cylinder, and 
 then follow them." 
 
 I had as well undertaken to remonstrate with a starved tiger, 
 that had taken one lap of warm blood. He kept on at the top of 
 his speed, shaking the bloody knife over his head, and hoarsely 
 shouting, " Come on if you are not a coward !" Had I been a 
 little older, I should not have regarded this taunt ; but as it was, 
 it stung me to the quick ; and though, at every step, the grass- 
 
55 
 
 burrs I was to " learn about in this bottom'* were touching me to 
 the quick too, through the bare soles of my feet, I kept shouting 
 on after this roused and frantic wild beast of a man. 
 
 In this silly race, we had soon left the house half a mile in the 
 rear, and nothing but the desperate fright of the Indians, at the 
 conjuration of shooting six times, saved us from being slaughtered 
 like three blind brutes. When we mounted to the upland prairie, 
 we paused. Crazy as the Colonel was, he perceived the enemy 
 were out of our reach. A half-mile off, on an opposite ridge, we saw 
 the main body had halted. They were very coolly transferring 
 their saddles from their own horses to our fine " American" ani 
 mals, while the party who had been engaged in the attack upon 
 us were still going at full speed, in every direction, over the wide 
 plain. 
 
 The party on the hill seemed, from their gestures, to be very 
 much astonished at this manoeuvre ; and after taking a long look 
 at their flying comrades, sprang upon their horses, and urging 
 their ill-gotten booty into a run, were soon out of sight behind the 
 ridge. 
 
 I had thrown myself upon the grass, utterly exhausted, so soon 
 as I had joined the Colonel, and an examination of my poor feet 
 proved to me most conclusively, that what he had said about my 
 never forgetting my way when I had once felt it, was most true ; 
 for never shall I forget that race, and those grass-burrs. They 
 are vile triangular seeds of the grass, hard as pebbles ; each of 
 the corners armed with a keen thorn. The ground is thickly 
 strewn with them, and at every step I had taken, a half-dozen Oi 
 so had been imbedded in my skin, " like quills upon the fretful 
 porcupine," on a small scale at least ; they showed their serried 
 heads, thick as they could stand, all over the cushions of my 
 heels and toes, and such blistering torture as it cost me, is incon 
 ceivable. 
 
 The Colonel was coughing violently, bringing up large clots of 
 blood. I thought at first he had ruptured an important blood 
 vessel, and was half inclined, in my spleen, to be rejoiced at it, 
 since his stupid ferocity had brought about all this torture of mine 
 for it was as bad as walking over coals, and I shrank as from 
 a hot ordeal from the idea of walking back to the house and had 
 
56 
 
 almost endangered his own life by his mole-eyed and headlong 
 fury. I was more than half consoled as I saw him spitting the 
 red foam from his lips. But this was nothing to the real peri he 
 had exposed all our lives to. I felt no sort of pity fc r him as I 
 saw him sink pale and frightened on the grass for this fierce 
 animal, though while the glow was on him he was a very fiend 
 in battle, yet shrank with deeper appalment from death in any 
 other form, than even timid men would have done. 
 
 The Texan was blowing like a porpoise swearing now at his 
 own carelessness and mine in forgetting the caps and spoiling his 
 fun ; and then, grinding his teeth, and stamping about in impotent 
 rage, as he saw a tall warrior mounted upon his horse, and dash 
 ing him to and fro on the ridge, seemingly for our benefit, and to 
 try his gait. I thought he would go into a fit. As the Indian 
 galloped off, he shook his clenched fist, and howled imprecations 
 and threats after him. 
 
 The Colonel recovered his spirits as the blood ceased to rise, 
 and springing to his feet as the pleasant conviction came to his 
 relief, that he was not born to die so unmartial a death, insisted 
 that we should return instantly and try if we couldn't raise horses 
 at the Mexican Ranchos above us, to pursue the Indians. " They 
 have carried off all that were loose on the prairie," said he, " but 
 the Mexicans generally keep their best riding horses inside the 
 picketing, and we were fools for not keeping ours there !" 
 
 I saw the torturing walk was not to be avoided by simply 
 dreading it, so I girded up my loins and off we started the 
 Colonel rallying us all the way most unmercifully for our ridicu 
 lous verdancy, in coming off without our ammunition. Had there 
 been any buoyancy left in me, I might have retorted emphatically 
 the charge of verdancy upon his preposterous helter-skelter 
 sally ; but my poor, suffering feet, now that a revulsion of ex- 
 citement had come on, engrossed all my attention. 
 
 Just think of walking a half-mile with naked feet over pin 
 points, and you may form some faint idea of how entire the ab 
 straction and pre-occupation of my wits must have been though, 
 strictly speaking, not gone " a wool gathering," it was much more 
 sprightly employment, that marking the sharp pang as each 
 particular thorn pierced to the quick. 
 
57 
 
 Adam, in his fig-leaved innocence, making his first experimenta. 
 acquaintance with a " Hornpipe," in a casual introduction to a 
 u Yellow-jacket's nest," could have made no more vivid display 
 of " gymnastics''* on the " light fantastic toe," than I did through 
 that weary distance. Now, I would select a thick, cool, green- 
 looking tuft of grass.- Ah ! that will b6 a pleasant cushion for 
 my burning soles ! and the spring I would make to reach it would 
 only drive the prickles in deeper. Now the tumulus above the 
 burrow of a sand-rat promised at least to be crumbling and soft. 
 That's the bright thought ! They won't at least go so deep. So with 
 a hop, skip, and jump, my feet would sink in two or three little 
 pyramids fire and stings ! worse than ever ; over my instep up 
 to my ancles, all the most delicate parts of the skin were pierced 
 by multiplied red-hot points wheugh ! I fairly gasped as I 
 brushed the big drops from my face ! Is there no alleviation ? 
 
 " Ah, those bare patches of sand that shimmer so merrily in 
 the sun ! There can't be any harm in them they look so smooth 
 and nice. The fairies, " Bonny little Folk," they swept them clean 
 to be for stepping-stones across this gulf of " Needles," to such 
 beguiled unfortunates as myself bless the kind " wee people" 
 from my heart ! Another jump ; curse the " Uncannie Fiends !" 
 these infernal triangles were the sole invention of your ingenious 
 malice ! You hid the points there thick as the grains of sand to 
 tempt me to my torture ! I almost fancied I could hear the little 
 villains clap their hands and shout in mocking glee ! Oh, despe 
 ration ! Setting my teeth with a surly grit of defiance at my 
 imaginary tormentors, off I set at the top of my bent, regardless 
 of everything but getting to the Ranch not even stopping to de 
 cide whether the coarse neigh of laughter which followed me was 
 an ebullition from the " Uncannie Fiends," or the Colonel and 
 Texan ! 
 
58 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE ENEMY OVERTAKEN 
 
 THIS was by no means the last of my experiei oe in " grass 
 burrs" nor, indeed, was I free from it for weeks afterwards. 
 When I arrived at the house I found it all deserted. The 
 Mexican women, half frightened to death, had run down the back 
 way to the river, and plunging in, swum across, led by valorous 
 Antone, and all had scampered off to Madame Cavillo's Rancho. 
 
 When my two friends arrived they went to work forthwith to 
 melting lead in an old iron spoon to mould bullets, while I, seated 
 on a buffalo-rug, was digging away with a long needle to grub 
 out some few at least of the most troublesome thorns from my 
 feet, when a loud shout from the other side of the picket brought 
 us all to the door. 
 
 The first object that met my view was the long sharp nose 
 and shrivelled face of Sir Braggadocio Antone. The rascal was 
 brandishing a rusty musket over his head, and pointing it in the 
 direction the Indians had retreated, was rattling away a torrent 
 of bloody threats and dire imprecations. What could it mean ? 
 He must have somebody to back him ! and stepping out to mourn 
 the blocks, from which he nimbly retreated as he caught my 
 angry eye, we saw his heroic talk was backed sure enough by 
 about twenty Mexicans, pretty well mounted, and armed, as usual, 
 with nondescript utensils that might have served to generate the 
 mould in some " Old Curiosity Shop," of specimens of the pro- 
 gress of firearms since their invention. 
 
 As the enemy were by this time several miles off, they looked 
 amazingly fierce twirling their moustaches and slapping their 
 
59 
 
 thighs with prodigious emphasis every man, as soon as we 
 came in view, setting out at the top of his voice, in an indepen. 
 dent recitative of his individual claims to the character of a 
 ferocious warrior, backing them with multiplied instances on this, 
 that, and the other battle-field in which he had proven it to all 
 the world by the most unheard-of deeds of valor. 
 
 But they were all obliged to succumb to Antone. He was in 
 ais glory his loud, shrill, cracked voice gradually rose to the 
 undisputed ascendant, the din and gabble around him subsiding 
 into a breathless and open-mouthed attention, as, leaping into 
 his saddle and spurring his horse into the execution of sun 
 dry lofty curvets in front of the valiant band, he launched into 
 such an eloquent and voluble expatiation upon his own deeds of 
 frantic heroism his voice strained almost into a screech, one 
 hand still whirling his musket over his head, and the other, when 
 he could spare it from his bridle, sawing the air with such furious 
 illustrative emphasis, that his peers were fairly overawed, and 
 listened in respectful silence, their eyes dilated and mouths gap 
 ing in wonder at his terrific deeds and threats ! 
 
 We three stood gazing at him for a moment in silence, which 
 was broken by a shouting effort at a laugh from the Colonel, in 
 which we both joined most heartily. The knave slunk back for 
 a little time at this, while we jumped down among them and 
 were instantly absorbed, every man for himself, in eagerly plead 
 ing and threatening, and offering bribes the most extravagant to 
 these warriors, to be permitted a participation with them, through 
 their horses, in the promised glories of the fight. But " nada !" 
 " no, hai !" no ! no ! no ! they were too greedy of glory to share 
 it ! too jealous of the honor of their fathers to permit the white 
 man to dim the escutcheon they inherited by participation in dan 
 gers, they as guardians of the frontier were called upon to meet. 
 Here Antone interposed again 
 
 " Can we not ourselves exterminate the whole nation of Co- 
 manches ? What do we want with your help ? What will this 
 insignificant band be in our hands ? We'll sweep them down 
 like a great wind ! You stay at home ! I'll bring you back 
 your horses ! I'll bring you back a dozen scalps that I will take 
 with my single ar " 
 
60 
 
 Here his oration was cut short by a heavy polt dealt him from 
 the rear by the Texan, which nearly sent him from his saddle. 
 He very suddenly placed thirty paces between himself and an 
 other such disagreeable parenthesis, and standing erect in his 
 stirrups, without fear of interruption, kept on in a still loudei 
 voice. 
 
 The Texan was foaming he offered them twenty times tho 
 value of their horses. " Nada !" " 111 give it to you then to 
 take me up behind !" No answer. " Curse you yellow-bellied 
 villains, Pve a great notion to shoot you from your saddles and 
 take your horses anyhow !" 
 
 This threat he looked so capable of putting into execution, that 
 these doughty champions of the glory of the Montezumas thought 
 it best to get out of his way, and as the Indians were no doubt 
 by this time too far off to be caught, there was less danger 
 in that direction. Off they hurried, leaving us in no enviable 
 mood. 
 
 The Texan was about to fire his gun after them, but I knocked 
 it up. He and the Colonel then started in a long trot, determined 
 to be in at the fight at any rate. These two wild beasts seemed 
 to have no sort of idea what common sense or common prudence 
 meant ; the scent of blood was on the winds, and that was 
 enough for them ; and like any other fierce brutes, they obeyed 
 the instincts of their training and followed it in rabid fury. In 
 spite of the ridiculous experience of our late chase they were 
 now on one still more preposterous. The Comanches at the very 
 least were six miles off, and yet they expected to keep up with 
 mounted men going at full speed, and they on foot. " Rouse 
 the Hyrcanian tiger in his lair," 
 
 Shake her week-old whelps 
 Kicking and mewing by the placid nose 
 Of a Nemaean lioness sleeping, 
 
 if you like the sport and want to see a reasoning animal 
 " splurge " in comparative safety ; but I advise you by all means 
 to stand aside when a strong human specimen of the cat tribe, 
 used to blood-lapping, has once dabbled his chops in it fairly. 
 T lese animals are not brave, but simply ferocious. Like a bull 
 
61 
 
 with a red cloth shaken at him, foaming and blind they plunge 
 straight ahead, be it over a hundred-feet precipice into a quagmire, 
 or what not, it is all the same ; there is but one idea, one hand at a 
 time. " I smell the blood of an" Indian or Mexican, that's enough. 
 And I am compelled to acknowledge that although I felt to the 
 utmost how silly this was, I could not divest myself, in addition 
 to the fear of being taunted with cowardice, of a feeling of ad 
 miration for this sort of unreckoning, headlong passion. It was 
 imposing to my unsophisticated appreciation. What is more, the 
 chivalry of companionship in danger most imperiously demands 
 of one to stand by your comrade through thick and thin, right 
 or wrong, and do your reasoning afterwards about the prudence 
 or imprudence of the steps which led to the scrape first see him 
 through it, then you may abuse him. 
 
 This was my logic as I pulled on a pair of boots, and in spite 
 of the torture set off at the best speed I could make after my 
 friends. I found some eight or ten Mexicans who had lost their 
 horses, straggling along a quarter of a mile in their wake, and 
 finding it was utterly impossible to catch up with them, I called 
 these fellows around me and endeavored to keep them in a body 
 to make a show at least, for I did not expect them to fight, of 
 course. I was passing over the same ground on which a few days 
 before I had felt my heart overflow to the good God, as I looked 
 out on the smiling beauty of the scenes his beneficent care had 
 framed in calmest harmonies to move the souls of men to peace 
 ful joy, and hope, and adoration. Now, what a contrast ! 
 Bloody passions were careering on the chase of death ! Deeds 
 of savagery had been and were being enacted, making hideous a 
 silence, the repose of power and love ! the presumptuous work 
 of that, same wrathful, sacrilegious spirit, which in the Titan 
 Allegory dared, of old, to 
 
 "pluck 
 
 The misty crests of mountains by the hair, 
 In battle with the gods :" 
 
 and here I was the identical sentimentalizer of that poetic hour 
 dragging my " weary length along," so far as I could judge, 
 about in the stupid innocence of a calf led to slaughter. The 
 
 6 
 
62 
 
 scene was the most preposterously serio-comic that ever I wit 
 nessed. 
 
 As we approached a clump of timber, after about an hour's 
 walk, who should break suddenly upon our astonished view but 
 puissant Antone, tearing towards us as if he and his horse were 
 stark mad with fright ! We heard his voice long enough before 
 he reached us. The slave was so terribly alarmed that we 
 could scarcely understand a word he said his enunciation was 
 paralysed with fear ; and the " valiant Mars " of a little while 
 back -now with his teeth chattering, and eyes almost bursting 
 from their sockets, looking back over his shoulders as if all the 
 " grizzly troop of Acheron " were in pursuit of him was the 
 most lamentable image of panic that can be conceived. We 
 gathered from him, at last, that the Mexicans had caught up with the 
 Comanches much sooner than tbey expected, no doubt ; that they 
 had slaughtered and scalped every mother's son of them, except 
 himself ; and that he, after holding the whole troop at bay for 
 " Holy Virgin knows how long," had at last condescended to 
 retreat and bring back the news. 
 
 Although I felt confident he was lying monstrously, I was no 
 little alarmed. Making all due deductions, I supposed the vain- 
 glorious fools had come upon the Comanches suddenly, too close 
 for a back out, and they had given them a tremendous drubbing, 
 scattering them, and probably killing the greater part ; for I 
 knew perfectly well when they started, that they neither could 
 nor would fight, and that this would be the result if they chanced 
 to stumble upon the Indians. 
 
 The Colonel and Texan were both out of sight. Antone had 
 seen nothing of them had no doubt they too were scalped ; for 
 the Indians were in hot pursuit, and " nothing but the lightning 
 speed of his horse had saved him !" The best proof that there 
 was some reality in the fellow's alarm, was, that no persuasion 
 could induce him to stay with us another instant, but preferring 
 even to risk the ride alone back to the Rancho he kept on at the 
 same rate. 
 
 Now I felt, most painfully, how unutterably stupid our whole 
 day's management had been. Had we stopped to reason an in- 
 slant we might have foreseen this result to a certainty. But now 
 
68 
 
 this miserable, headlong flurry had scattered those of us who 
 could fight miles apart, over a wide prairie, to be cut to pieces in 
 detail by the Indians pursuing the Mexicans back ; and, what 
 was still more, almost the whole population of the three Ranchos 
 were scattered along for a mile out in the direction we came, in 
 the eager and foolish hope to be the first to greet the conquering 
 warriors returning. 
 
 It would be glorious sport for the Comanches to pick up these 
 stragglers with their long lances as a farmer tosses turnips with 
 a pitchfork. And, besides, what was I to do myself? The 
 miserable beings with me were only in the way, and would at 
 tract, by their numbers, the attention of the Indians, when one 
 might stand a chance of escaping. It was with great difficulty I 
 could keep them from starting helter-skelter over the plain after 
 Antone. I resolved at once that they should stay with me, for 
 their running could avail nothing to themselves, as the Indian? 
 would catch them, of course, before they could get back to the 
 Rancho. Determined to make the best of circumstances, I drew 
 them after me into the timber, made them throw themselves flat 
 upon the ground, and quietly awaited what might turn up. 
 
 We were kept in suspense but a few minutes, when I saw a 
 mounted Indian making towards us from the direction of the bat 
 tle-field, and fast as his horse could bring him. It was with 
 great difficulty I could keep my heroes quiet. Though the man 
 was a half-mile off, they raised their guns to fire at him, intend 
 ing then to make a run for it any how. 
 
 I saw there was no room for trifling, as by this time a consi 
 derable troop were in view, and this fellow I supposed to be a 
 scout : so I just gave my ragamuffins to understand that I would 
 favor them with the contents of " double-barrel," instead of the 
 Indian, if they didn't lie still and pass their fusees over to me. i 
 knew that if I let them keep their guns, fire they would in their 
 fright, and be just as apt to hit me as the Indians. After some 
 little grumbling, they did as I commanded. I intended to do all 
 the firing that was to be done myself, arid they were so benumbed 
 with fear that they were glad enough to leave it all to me. 
 
 The Indian by this time was pretty close to us. He bore a 
 icalp on the top of his lance, at the sight of which my heroet 
 
04 
 
 groaned and crossed themselves, feeling the tops of their heads to 
 be sure that theirs were at home. I was in the very act of firing 
 at *he man for I was resolved he should not pass, and he was 
 within twenty paces of me, and evidently a regular bred Indian 
 I had my finger on the trigger, when one of the Mexicans 
 sprang to his feet with a cry of joy, and rushed out to meet him. 
 Here was a poser which should I fire at ? the Indian or treach 
 erous Mexicans, for they were all on their feet and around him 
 now. 
 
 It occurred to me as best to hold on a minute, for I had all 
 their guns any way, and see what it meant. I was safe enough, 
 so far as they were concerned ; but what this sudden coalition 
 with the Indian might portend was more than I could conjecture, 
 especially when I saw them all start off, shouting, towards the 
 distant party. 
 
 During the indecision, the critical moment had passed for an 
 explanation, since the Mexicans were out of reach, and the Indian 
 had dashed on. At first glance this may look like bad general 
 ship in me, but the truth is, I understood the language very 
 imperfectly. From what I knew of the Mexican character, it 
 seemed impossible they would have dared to do this if there had 
 been treachery in it ; yet that fellow who went by was certainly 
 a genuine Indian. What could it mean ? Were they stark crazy 
 to run out on the open prairie to meet a party of Indians, and offer 
 them their scalps ? That single Indian evidently belonged to a 
 victorious party ! was it some of the friendly tribes who had hap 
 pened into the fight and turned the current ? But Antone said he 
 was the only one left alive ! Oh ! but he lies of a surety ! What 
 in the thunder can it mean ? I suppose in. any event it means 
 that my scalp will go pretty shortly to join the Colonel's and 
 Texan's on the end of their lances. 
 
 Pretty predicament my foolish love of adventure has got me 
 into ! Glorious fate to be pinned like a skewered goose to one of 
 these live oaks by half a dozen lances, and left here to be eaten up 
 piecemeal the sand-rats nibbling away my toes the ravens and 
 that dirty Mexican eagle " boging" away at my eyes that have so 
 often, "in fine phrensy rolling," pierced the long aisles of coming 
 ,tme, and recognised my own image nroned among the great, 
 
65 
 
 and these curls which I have nursed so affectionately, glossy 
 beneath a myrtle crown, the Muse's gift How will they look 
 now clotted with blood ! each separate hair singing in the gale 
 upon the end of a long, greasy lance, or stuck Jn the dirty belt ol 
 a lousy warrior ? Oh, Apollo ! thou " of the plectrum and the 
 bow !" what a fate ! I had plenty of time for pleasant cogitations 
 such as these, before this perplexing mystery was cleared up. 
 
 After waiting here alone, in no very pleasant mood, some twenty 
 minutes, I peeped from my hiding place in the " mott." My late 
 treacherous allies had, by this time, joined the approaching party. 
 Shouts of triumph rent the air, and I could see their " sombreros" 
 sailing above the heads of the horsemen. 
 
 " ' Jupiter ! take my cap, and thank thee,' " 
 
 thought I ; " you're in a gay humor, my friends ! Mexicans 
 never rejoice so obstreperously, but when some formidable enemy 
 has been slain; and it is very certain that they consider the 
 Colonel such an one. They fear him more than they do the 
 Comanches even, and I suppose they have recognised his fiery 
 scalp on its * airy perch ' at the top of a lance. Well, the- only 
 way left is to sell my own scalp dearly as I can." 
 
 I stepped back and examined my Mexican artillery. " Still 
 imagination in bottomless conceit" would fail to compass the 
 whole vexatious truth that stared me in the face from that survey. 
 The vile fusees, as far as I could see, were not merely useless, 
 but greatly more dangerous to myself than to any foe not close 
 enough to have the benefit of their bursting. I threw them down 
 from me in indignation. Why, the powder was as coarse as 
 
 o. 1 shot the grains crumbling to pieces not one in a dozen 
 being entire ; the barrels, nearly all, with flaws in them, and 
 coated thick with rust, inside and out. The locks defy all de 
 scription the flints, most of them, fragments of pebbles ; some 
 not loaded at all others loaded half-way to the muzzle. 
 
 I addressed myself to the examination of faithful and sturdy 
 " double-barrel," and determined to trust all to it. When the 
 shouts seemed to be very close, I cautiously advanced to the edge 
 9f the timber for another look. It now occurred to me for the 
 
 6* 
 
66 
 
 first time, that the party had been a very long while getting te 
 where I was concealed. They moved moie like a funeral pro* 
 cession than like a victorious war party, and the triumphant 
 shouts had now changed to a dolorous howl, most like that the 
 wolves raise of a cloudy night, when in squads out on the prairie 
 they sit on end, their noses pointed upwards, " complaining to the 
 moon" of her uncertain light. There's the flaring " Serape," 
 too, and the white cotton dress of the Mexicans : I wonder if the 
 Indians have stripped the clothes from the poor rascals after kill 
 ing them all, as Antone said, and decked themselves out in them ? 
 And there are the long lances in their hands. Mexicans don't 
 carry lances, and they've got some half-dozen scalps on them r 
 What does it all mean ? 
 
 I never was so inextricably puzzled in my life. The party 
 were now within a short distance. They moved at a very solemn 
 pace the cavalry in double file the two in front bearing lances 
 with that ominous hairy pendant still dripping blood. Just be 
 hind them two others had a dead body between them ; next to 
 them two others again, with lances, and the same addendum. 
 Then came another corse borne by a single man before him ; hold 
 ing the hand of the body, which was that of a grey-haired old 
 man, rode a stout young fellow bleeding from the neck like a 
 stuck ox ; behind them two more lance-bearers ; then followed 
 several wounded men supported in their saddles ; then, all mixed 
 in together with the remainder of the troop, came the straggling 
 herd of my quondam warriors. 
 
 Last of all " amazement duplicate !" came the Colonel and 
 Texan. I could scarcely believe my own eyes ! but there they 
 were in the flesh there cbuld be no shadow of a doubt their 
 scalps safe on the top of their heads. There was a broad grin 
 on the Colonel's face, and the Texan haw ! haw'd ! his coarse 
 glee, though they seemed to drag themselves along with great 
 difficulty, from fatigue. This set me at rest ; there was plainly 
 no great danger, at least, however strange the affair still seemed. 
 So I sprang from my hiding-place and ran to meet them. My 
 sudden appearance caused some confusion among the troops, who 
 were evidently panic-stricken and ready to run at anything. The 
 Colonel greeted me with a jeering shout : 
 
67 
 
 " Haw ! haw ! Kentuck, we were just laughing at you. That 
 was a high caper of yours, taking the guns away from the poor 
 Yellow-Bellies ! Not so bad though, old fellow. Don't be 
 discouraged : you'll make a Texan some of these days yet. 
 Were you soft enough to expect to shoot with the things after you 
 got 'em ? Pleasant time you've had. Hasn't your hair turned 
 white ? Antone scared you, did he ? Pity you hadn't shot the 
 rascal ; the first gun that was fired, he broke !" 
 
 " Well, but stop, for heaven's sake tell me what it all means ! 
 Who was that Indian that staved by me ?" 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! it was that Indian scared you, was it ? He is a 
 renegade of the Tonquoways ; the tribe were all killed some time 
 ago but him and seven or eight others ! He does look a little like 
 a Comanche, sure enough. He was going to announce the vic 
 tory, as these fools call it, at the Ranches. He's a ' high 
 particular' of the old hag's, and lives with her ; you didn't know 
 it ? Between him and Antone, you've had enough to make a 
 fellow feel ticklish ! You thought Texas and me were murdered, 
 and that your time was to come next, did you ?" 
 
 " Yes ; I thought you were gone cases to a certainty ! But did 
 you get into the fight at last ?" 
 
 " No, d n it ; we've had our race for nothing. They've got 
 his horse for Texas, though !" 
 
 " And ours are gone, I suppose ?" 
 
 " Yes, clear enough." 
 
 " But what do these dead and wounded men mean ? These 
 creatures didn't make a fight of it, surely, did they '?" 
 
 " Fight of it, indeed ! You'd as well talk of a flock of sucking 
 doves fighting with hawks, as of these fellows making anything 
 of a fight with Co'manches ?" 
 
 " Well, how was it ?" 
 
 " Curse their stupid whinings, they deafen me ! Come, let's 
 fall back a little, and I will tell you all about it. That Indian 
 you saw is the only brave man they had, and he told me the 
 whole story. You see, the cowardly asses, after Texas had 
 scared them as you saw, tore off on the trail of the Indians, think 
 ing, I suppose, that they were far enough out of their reach. So 
 long as they had nothing before them but the tracks, they 
 
68 
 
 Brimful of blood and thunder ! They frightened the cranes and 
 deer made the prairie-hens scurry away a little quicker and 
 further than usual and the partridges whirr! whirr! more 
 suddenly in their faces from the grass. This was about the 
 amount of damage done, until they galloped into the timber on 
 the ' Medina.' 
 
 " You know that's a dry Creek, with a water-hole here and there 
 every eight or ten miles on its course. As they came through at 
 full speed on the other side of the skirt of woods, they found 
 themselves right in the camp of the Comanches ! The main body 
 of the Indians hurried together the mules and horses they had 
 stolen from us, and started them off at full tilt over the prairie. 
 The Mexicans drew up their horses stock still in a squad, They 
 were completely stupefied at finding themselves face to face with 
 a foe they dreaded mortally. After the Indians had got their 
 plunder fairly under way, about six of them wheeled out of the 
 crowd, and turned to punish their impudent pursuers. 
 
 " They have always held the Mexicans in such contempt, that 
 they never think of stopping to count them before a fight, but 
 rush right among them, it matters not what the disparity of num 
 bers may be. There were two young chiefs, brothers, leading 
 this war party, who have been very famous in the border-fights. 
 The Mexican women scared their babies to sleep with the names 
 of these two braves, so notoriously formidable were they. They 
 were mounted upon your horse and the Texan's, and felt unusu 
 ally spunky, because their steeds were taller than those of their 
 followers. So they came staving down upon the poor Mexicans 
 with lances in rest, and rode clear through them, bearing down 
 man and horse. Some fire or six Mexicans, out of the whole 
 number of twenty, tasted the sod at this charge ; their comrades 
 remaining perfectly passive not pulling a trigger or raising an 
 arm. 
 
 " The Comanches, as soon as they could gather up their head 
 way, turned and charged upon them again. By this time the 
 Mexicans had remembered that they had guns ; and, pulling 
 trigger desperately in the direction of the Indians, they actually 
 ihot two of their horses. The horses fell, and the warriors 
 instantly rushed at two of the Mexicans, and dragged them from 
 
I 
 
 their horses by the leg, and then, after knocking them on the head 
 with the butts of their own guns, jumped into their saddles. 
 
 " In the meantime Antone, without attempting to fire his gun, 
 ihrew it down and started, shrieking, over the prairie. The fore 
 most one of the young chieftains, in this second charge, ran his 
 lance through the body of a Mexican, and bore him clear over 
 his horse's rump on its point, and, dropping him, galloped on. 
 His brother, who followed him, drove his lance into the breast of 
 old Callistro (the frosty-haired old carcase they are lugging ahead 
 there), and while he was extracting it, his son who, for a won 
 der, had some manhood in him lifted himself in his saddle and 
 struck, with all his might, a long thin-bladed knife he wore, into 
 the back of the Comanche. The knife doubled up like a piece of 
 tin on the shoulder-blade of the Indian. He had extricated his 
 lance from the body o the father, and wheeling in his saddle, 
 drove it into the neck of the son, bearing him to the ground, and 
 dashed on. 
 
 " The Indian that scared you, happening to remember that he 
 had an American pistol, fired it at the chief as he was galloping 
 off, and, by accident, striking him in the back part of the head, 
 tumbled him from the horse of Texas, dead enough. His brother, 
 who was hurrying on before, galloped away with the rest of his 
 friends, thinking all was safe, and intending to rejoin the main 
 body, who were now a quarter of a mile off; when the Mexicans, 
 regaining their courage as the enemy got further off, shouted 
 after them, tauntingly, Come back, you cowards, and get the 
 body of your comrade ! J 
 
 " You know it's a sacred point with these fellows never to 
 leave a corse of their braves with an enemy. The young chief 
 heard the taunt and stopped his horse, while the others of his 
 company kept on ; and pausing for an instant, he shook his lance 
 above his head, and swore, I suppose in his own tongue, that he 
 would regain it or die. Without calling his friends back, he 
 charged alone upon an enemy he scorned too much. The 
 Mexicans were still standing in a passive bewildered group ; and 
 as this single man came thundering back towards them, they sat 
 in stupid inaction upon their horses, undetermined whether they 
 must run or wait to be killed. 
 
" The gallant young chieftain rushe|d his horse right into the 
 midst of them, and springing to the ground, threw his arms round 
 the body of his brother, and lifting it as a sort of shield in front 
 of him, commenced backing towards your horse, which he had 
 been riding. Your horse happened not to be so well trained as 
 his own, and instead of waiting for him, broke off for the main 
 body. So the daring young fellov/ was left, alone and on foot, a 
 half mile from his clansmen, who had not missed him, and were 
 going ahead. 
 
 " Now was the time for Mexican valor ! and the cowardly 
 rascals charged upon this single man with most ferocious daring. 
 He fought like a tiger, still holding on to the body of his brother, 
 while he let fly his arrows and plied with quick thrusts his lance 
 among them, and would probably have succeeded in driving 
 them back, had not our Indian by this time loaded his pistol 
 again, and shot him in the breast. He fell back with his brother's 
 body upon him, and the war-whoop on his lips !" 
 
 " Well, but, Colonel, according to your account, these two 
 young Comanche knights were the only men killed. Where did 
 these heroes get all their scalps from ?" 
 
 " Oh, they are the scalps of the men we shot. The Mexicans, 
 after the Indians were out of sight, saw one of their ' Buzzard 
 Eagles' flying about a gully near the scene of the fight, and on 
 examining it found four bodies covered up side by side in the 
 dirt. They dragged them out and took off their scalps, hoisted 
 them on the ends of their lances, and are parading them as part 
 of their own trophies. They are going to tell their people at the 
 Ranchos that they killed them, and such bragging lies as they 
 will bluster out, you cannot conceive of. There never was a 
 happier national emblem chosen before than they have selected. 
 This Mexican Eagle is a dirty cowardly creature, that feeds 
 upon carcases, and will hardly attack a live rabbit a perfect 
 buzzard ! And there is such close affinity between their habits 
 and the Mexican character, that I don't wonder at their hoisting a 
 carrion-bird upon their national standard. There is a fitness in 
 the thing that is really beautiful ! ' 
 
 "The Indians had stopped to hide their dead here,and this is the 
 way it happened that these fellows stumbled upon them very 
 
71 
 
 much to their own dismay, for when they le/t us they had not the 
 slightest expectation of catching up with the Indians. They 
 merely wished to make a sputter and have something to brag 
 about to .heir women and children of what terrible things they 
 would have done if they had only found the enemy. I am sorry 
 these two young chiefs were killed in a fight with such dastardly 
 knaves, for they were worthy of a better death. If we had killed 
 them it would have been well enough ; but to die by accident at 
 the hands of an enemy they scorned too much to count, was 
 a hard fate for brave men. 
 
 " I have fought with two parties commanded by these young 
 warriors, and they were the most daring Comanches I ever saw. 
 They have been following the Santa Fe boys that started from 
 Austin several months ago, and I think they must have cut 
 off several of their parties. Didn't you notice they had a number 
 of articles of American clothing among them ? They had shirts 
 and waistcoats all put on the wrong way. The Tonquoway says 
 one of those we killed had a cotton shirt tied by the sleeves 
 around his waist. That expedition is doing badly, I haven't 
 a doubt, for this whole party fought better, and showed less fear 
 of our guns than I have ever known them. I can only account 
 for it on the ground that they have been successful while hanging 
 about the skirts of that party in cutting off and killing a number 
 of them, whom they have stripped ; and this unusual success has 
 overcome, to some degree, the wholesome terror of our guns we 
 frontier marksmen had inspired them with. Why, I have known 
 a single Texan to keep at bay fifty Comanches, by merely 
 raising his rifle to his face every time they came too close. 
 It has been a point of tactics with them I never knew a deviation 
 from before never to risk the loss of a warrior by charging down 
 upon a man armed with a rifle, until he has fired it off. 
 
 " A single individual has often escaped from large bodies 
 of them by reserving his fire, threatening them with it whenever 
 they ventured near enough for their arrows to take effect. They 
 always wheel and dash back when a rifle they believe to 
 be loaded is presented at them, and the man, if he is cool and 
 collected, will keep them off until he reaches the timber, when 
 the Comanches will give it up as a bad ob, for they never follow 
 
72 
 
 an armed man into the woods. They have an unconquerable 
 horror of the brush. I'll give you an instance of this. 
 
 " About three years ago an old fellow, a regular backwoods 
 man, named Andrews, and myself, were skirting up the San 
 Antonio, ' still hunting.' In this sort of a hunt, as you know, 
 we go on foot, trusting entirely to our knowledge of their habits 
 for discovering the deer, who come in from the prairies, regularly, 
 about eleven o'clock, to drink. 
 
 " We saw a fine herd out on the prairie, who, from their 
 regular gait, were evidently going to water. The course they 
 were pursuing we saw would bring them within gun-shot of a 
 ' mott 7 of timber about half a mile from us ; to reach it we had to 
 cross this distance of open prairie. We accordingly started 
 across, and about half way a party of at least a hundred 
 Comanches showed themselves ; they had been concealed on the 
 other side of the * mott,' and as soon as we were far enough from 
 the timber, they rushed at us. We stopped. They galloped 
 around us in a circle of about two hundred yards at first, then 
 closed up gradually until they got close enough to send their 
 arrows at us. I fired. A warrior reeled in his saddle, and two 
 others took him off. They instantly dashed out of reach of out 
 bullets. Andrews reserved his fire, while I loaded. 
 
 " We kept retreating towards the timber we had left, and they 
 closed round us again. This time Andrews fired, and as soon as 
 he did it, they, thinking both of our charges were out, came upon 
 us in a body, within twenty paces, at full speed ; but they had 
 made a slight mistake, and I gave them a blizzard that sent one 
 of them to * kingdom come.' 
 
 " We had a deep gully to cross just before we reached the 
 timber, and as we were both walking backwards, with our faces 
 to the Indians, we did not perceive it until Andrews, whose gun 
 was loaded, pitched backwards into it. I had barely time to get 
 my powder down my rifle, when the Indians, seeing this, came 
 yelling at me. I thought the game was up with me, but I stood 
 firm, and fired my blank load at them. They wheeled back, as 
 usual, and I jumped down the gully. I had one arrow sacking 
 in my shoulder when I picked myself up, and Andrews, who had 
 jy this time climbed the other side of the gully, shouted that they 
 
73 
 
 
 
 were off for good ; and when I got on the top, I saw them going 
 at full tilt, two hundred yards off. The crack of my rifle saved 
 us that time to a certainty. 
 
 " But their success with the Santa Fe boys has spoiled all such 
 games as this now, and we shall have some hard fighting with 
 them hereafter. I see by to-day's experience, as the old woman 
 said about skinning her eels, that they are getting * used ' to 
 being shot." 
 
 Here the Colonel was interrupted. The foremost of the 
 stragglers from Rancho had by this time met our troops, and they 
 were greeted by a prolonged, dolorous yell, that was taken up by 
 one squad after another, until the mournful echoes swelled back 
 in one general burst from what seemed to be the united voice of 
 the whole population of all the Ranches together. 
 
 These semi-barbarous people express every character of 
 sentiment in most uncouth exaggerations. It is impossible 
 to conceive anything more unpleasantly sad and monotonous 
 than this lengthened and simultaneous wail quaver on quaver 
 still higher, and mounting, from voices of every tone and pitch, 
 of every sex and age, until the very heavens rang again with 
 their wild moans. It was a strange scene, and, for the life of me, 
 I could not help being impressed with the belief that it was 
 all sincere. 
 
 As we approached the Rancho of the old Senora, they came 
 pouring out to meet us, of all ages and conditions, from the " blue 
 meagre Hag," with the shrill " piping treble " of her screech, to 
 the " freckled whelp, Hag-born, ;: with the richer cadence of its 
 blubbering grief, tearing their long, .coarse hair, and tossing their 
 limbs into the most grotesque expression of sorrow for one minute, 
 as they looked upon the dead and bleeding heroes, and in another, 
 as the lance-bearers would wave before their eyes the gory and 
 dripping scalps, bursting into an exulting shout, laughing like 
 Bedlamites amid their tears. The scene was most ludicrously 
 comic 'for one instant, then " pitiful ! 'twas wondrous pitiful !" the 
 next. The chivalrous warrior Mexicans themselves bore all with 
 marvellous stoicism, only giving vent now and then to a grunted 
 sob, but evidently striving most manfully to deport them with 
 martial sternness, and awe the squalling children and women 
 
74 
 
 oy their valorous endurance. They held their faces stiffly 
 turned towards the horizon, their eyes set in savage abstraction, 
 as if they were bent upon looking down some fierce foe from the 
 clouds. 
 
 All this was entirely becoming gallant and ferocious warriors j 
 and the women and children shuddered as they looked upon this 
 savage abstraction, that seemed to say, " Oh that an enemy 
 would show himself, that we might eat him !" But their outrd 
 and almost frantic demonstrations of passionate feeling actually 
 inspired me with a comparative respect for these creatures. My 
 sympathies were specially enlisted for the young man who had 
 been wounded in the defence of his father, and who, regardless 
 of it, still clung with such filial affection to the lifeless body. 
 
 This seemed to me an exhibition of traits common to humanity, 
 I was neither prepared for nor expected to see in the Mexican 
 character. I felt myself irresistibly drawn towards this man, 
 from the very novelty of the thing. A Mexican obeying the 
 impulses sacred to manhood ! It was a phenomenon not to be met 
 with every day ; and as I happened to possess some surgical 
 knowledge, I determined to do all that I could to save the poor 
 fellow ; so I followed him to his hut. It was a part of the large 
 Rancho of the Senora Cavillo a continuation of the side of the 
 square court, facing upon the San Antonio River and was a sort 
 of burrow dug into the face of the bank, that looked more like a 
 large dutch-oven than anything else. 
 
 We had crossed the river and climbed the hill, and his 
 comrades were helping the exhausted man from his horse, when 
 his wife, a slight, remarkably fair, and beautiful Mexican woman, 
 came rushing out of her house, her long hair all dishevelled, and 
 shrieking frantically, threw herself upon his bleeding neck, 
 kissing his blue lips, and pouring out between each kiss such 
 pathetic wails of passionate grief as I never heard before ; and 
 following in the wake came all the " kith-and-kin," numerous 
 enough for a half-dozen generations, who tumbled themselves 
 " en masse " upon the poor man, " shrieking their dolors forth," 
 and kissing his feet, his fingers, and his clothes, with such 
 unreckoning eagerness, that they were actually smothering what 
 little life there was left out of the miserable wretch, when I rao 
 
To 
 
 in among them, and scattered right and left until I made a lane 
 for him to be borne through. 
 
 When we had succeeded in getting him into the house, all my 
 efforts were unavailing in keeping out the crowd ; and although 
 the man had lost blood enough already to make a horse faint, they 
 were jammed around him thick as they could press, everybody 
 questioning him about the fight, and he, while the blood gushed 
 at every word, answering game to the last in Mexican ex 
 aggerations of the terrific deeds of his party and himself. His 
 voice grew fainter and fainter, and even the national glory of 
 " bragging" faded gradually into articulations upon his lips, as he 
 sank down. I now interfered in earnest, and drove out all the 
 whining pack, and pinned down the " bull's-hide," that answered 
 for a door, upon them. 
 
 The man had been laid upon his bed ; and in returning to ex 
 amine the insensible body, I stumbled upon a " sombrero" which 
 was lying upon the floor. I kicked the hat aside without thinking 
 of it particularly, when, at the same moment, the Colonel lifted 
 the " hide," and stepped in. 
 
 " Ah !" said he, " you think, I suppose, that this fellow's wife, 
 who is making such a whinneying there, is the most afflicted and 
 virtuous dame that can be conceived, don't you ?" 
 
 " Yes she seems to be in earnest with her grief." 
 
 " Ha, ha ! you've got a heap to learn yet about Mexican 
 character ! You see that man's hat there on the floor ? Well, 
 that belongs to a young Mexican, who had been in here with the 
 wife of this ' spike-buck' that lies there nearly dead ; and when 
 they heard us coming, the scamp jumped up and hustled in such 
 a hurry that he left his ' sombrero' behind, and this huzzy ran 
 out to meet her husband, as if she were distracted with grief. 
 You musn't take things as they seem to be with these Mexicans !" 
 
 " But, Colonel, I am going to do what I can to save this man, 
 any how." 
 
 " Yes, yes ! well enough ! He did amazingly for a Mexican, 
 in fighting for his father. He's not accountable for the treachery 
 of his wife." 
 
 On examining his wounds, I found that one of the small arteiies 
 tf the neck had been severed by the lance ; it was still bleeding 
 
76 
 
 very freely, and now to stop it was the question. An old shrivelled 
 woman, who had persisted in remaining, brought me some " bone- 
 dust," and gabbled away in a long dissertation upon its curative 
 powers and positive infallibility in such cases. As I had no in- 
 strument for taking up the artery, I saw at once that the only 
 chance for saving the man was to hold my finger upon it steadily 
 and patiently until a reunion of the parts occurred ; so driv 
 ing the old woman and her " yarbs" and " bone-dust" from the 
 room, in spite of her obstreperous cries that I was going to murder 
 the poor man, I stretched myself upon the bed beside him, and 
 with my finger upon the bleeding orifice, determined to try what 
 gentle and constant pressure would do towardfe supplying the defi 
 ciency of surgical instruments ; and there I lay by that insensible 
 body, fending off the obstreperous hypocrisy of his wife and 
 friends with one hand, while the other was steadily pressed upon 
 the"stubborn wound. 
 
 The extravagant howls of grief gradually, as the night ad 
 vanced, died away, and all was heavy silence except the deep 
 breathing of the wounded man, and an occasional interlude of 
 "toowhit! toowhit! toowhoo!" from the gloomy woods on the 
 opposite side of the river. This was a singular position of mine. 
 
 The low squalid hut was dimly lit by a lamp on the earth ; on 
 pallets of goat-skins, strewed about the floor, lay the snoring rela 
 tives ; while the wife, seated on a stool by the fire, was rocking 
 herself to and fro, accompanying this now and then with sudden 
 bursts of grief, that died off into a low monotonous wail, and then 
 into silence again. So the long hours dragged on, while I, 
 wearied, but sleepless, watched over this man's swoon. Towards 
 day the bleeding was checked, and he showed some signs of life. 
 I was gratified by this, but had to defend him stoutly from potions 
 the women insisted upon cramming down his throat, that were no 
 doubt equal to the cabalistic concoctions into which the " wart of 
 toad and egg of newt" entered in the witches' caldron. 
 
 I fought them off successfully, and after getting him quiet 
 again I walked out into the open air, to stretch my limbs once 
 more after the painful restraint of nearly twelve hours in one posi 
 tion. Day was just beginning to break, and heavy mists hung an 
 
77 
 
 almost impalpable curtain over everytning the peculiar stillnem 
 of that hour reminded me of those lines of Keats : 
 
 " And obstinate silence 
 Came heavily again," &c. 
 
 ^y 
 
 As I was in the act of stepping out from behind the hut, I saw 
 indistinctly through the fog, two men splendidly mounted, stand 
 ing near the great gate of the Rancho, and conversing with the 
 old madam, in low, eager tones. They were dressed in dark 
 cloaks, with pistols in front of them in holsters, and the " Toledo" 
 swinging from their belts. They had a silver band around their 
 " sombreros," and the white gleam of the rich metal shewed it 
 self from various parts of their handsome outfit from the handles 
 of their stilettoes and heavy horseman's pistols, from the peak of 
 their saddles, and their splendid bridle-bits. Altogether they 
 were formidable and showy-looking men, and I felt no sort of dis- 
 pos'tion to interrupt their business with the old woman by showing 
 myself, especially as I was unarmed. I drew myself back and 
 kept perfectly quiet, endeavoring to catch as much of their talk 
 as I could. It was but little I could gather, though it was suffi 
 cient to convince me that it was Agatone himself (the Colonel's 
 great enemy), and one of his lieutenants. 
 
 In a few moments they wheeled and galloped off through the 
 mist, while I went in to get my gun, and started hastily off for the 
 Colonel's Rancho, determined to advertise him as soon as possible 
 of this ominous visit, which I foresaw must portend some further 
 bloody work. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DAVIS, THE HALF-BREED. 
 
 AFTER a hurried walk, I reached the Rancho. The first 
 object that met my eye there convinced me that a new arrival 
 had occurred during the night. A horse was standing at the 
 picket blocks, rigged off in a style so peculiar as can only be 
 conceived of on this frontier. There was something taken from 
 all parties to compose .this characteristic equipment. The bridle, 
 lariat, quirt, and buffalo-robe had belonged to some Comanche 
 warrior, who had bitten the 4 dust before the unerring rifle of 
 perhaps their present Downer. The silver-mounted saddle had 
 once been honored by the seat of some tinsel-bearing braggadocio 
 of Santa Anna's regular officials. The blanket was American, 
 probably from the packs of the Santa Fe traders. The half- 
 gallon water-gourd" looked like a " big-bellied bottle," with a 
 second one, a little larger, hitched to its bottom by the neck, and 
 all made fast by a transparent raw-hide, fitting like wax, drawn 
 over them both. I thought it was a double glass-bottle, in reality, 
 until examination showed me that it was a complete gourd. The 
 raw-hide cover was marked with sundry curious hieroglyphics, 
 which showed that it came from some Indian village towards the 
 Rocky Mountains. The steed himself was a regular vicious- 
 looking, pied, skew-ball of a mustang. " And the owner of this 
 eccentric paraphernalia ! he must be an ' out-and-outer P a real 
 ' wild boy !' and this horse is foamy and blown he must have 
 been running for it ! Some more news from the Comanches, I 
 expect ! I'll call the Colonel out, and tell him about that fellow, 
 Agatone, first, before I go in to see this man, for he may not be 
 the right sort of character to tdik before." 
 
79 
 
 I saw the Colonel, at this moment, step, yawning and stretch- 
 ing, lazily to the door. He was just in the act of greeting me 
 with his usual loud jeering welcome, when I made a quick ges 
 ture of caution, and beckoned him out. He caught his breath 
 instantly, and stepped quietly behind the house. 
 
 I followed him, and having communicated my news in a 
 whisper, he almost turned black in the face, and champed his 
 teeth heavily, like a wild 'boar, at hearing that his mortal enemy 
 had been so near, him and escaped. He seized me, with the 
 grip of a grizzly bear, by the arm, and hurried me into the cow- 
 pen at a safer distance from the house ; and between the low, 
 smothered growl of curses to the name of Agatone, he questioned 
 me eagerly as to every point in regard to the appearance of the 
 men, the length of time since they started, the direction they 
 took, &c., until, being satisfied in this respect, he grew a little 
 more self-possessed, and thanked me for coming so soon to let 
 him know. " For," said he, " I hav'n't a doubt the wolfish 
 sneak has a camp somewhere close at hard, and all his pack 
 with him. I must go over to the old madam's and start the 
 Tonquoway on his trail ; for, although she likes the Indian, he 
 likes me better, and hates Agatone more. He will find out 
 where they are camped, and bring me back the news ; .and 
 then !" he fairly trembled as he clutched his knife. " But I am 
 glad you called me out as you did ; for that d d mongrel crea- 
 <?ure in the house, there I wouldn't have him to hear this for a 
 horse !" 
 
 " Who is he, Colonel ?" 
 
 " Why, the devil only knows, for nobody else claims him ! 
 He's a half-breed Mexican and white. His name is Davis. He's 
 a thieving, cut-throat rascal, that lives between both parties, and 
 on both. He has been all through Mexico, California every, 
 where, indeed ! knows everybody, and has plundered every 
 body Americans, Mexicans, Indians, and all ; and every one 
 hates him, and feels uneasy while he is about ; for he is such a 
 lying, treacherous villain, that there is no telling when you are 
 safe where he is. He has been living, until the -last month or 
 iwo, down yonder, at the Rancho of that poor fool of a Texan 
 lieutenant I told you about, that married a Mexican woman, and 
 
80 
 
 has been making a spike buck' of him ; and he, poor sneak, 
 hasn't had the manhood to drive him off. He went away of 
 himself, a short time since, on some treacherous expedition, and 
 I hoped he was gone for good, when he came staving up here 
 this morning, all in a sweat, with the news that there is a large 
 camp of Comanches, about fifteen miles off, on the Medina. He 
 says they chased' him, but I doubt it. I am afraid there is some 
 treachery in it. I don't like him and Agatone being in the 
 neighborhood at the same time. I expect, for one, that we shall 
 have to tie him up and shoot him ! But I must go ! You walk 
 in as if you had just come, and be cautious how you talk before 
 him." 
 
 So we parted, he setting off speedily for the Rancho, while 1 
 stepped carelessly into the house. There were two men sitting 
 at the table with the Texan, who introduced me in a characteristic 
 manner, merely saying, as he nodded from me to a tall, stout, 
 sunburnt young American, who had rather a soft look out of his 
 large, meaningless, flaring eyes, " Kentuck, this is the lieutenant ! 
 and this man," nodding at the other man, " is Davis ! Sit down, 
 or you'll have nothing left here to eat. The ' woman ' will have 
 to cook more for the Colonel. Did you see him as you came 
 along?" 
 
 " Yes, I saw him going towards the upper Ranchos." 
 
 "Did your pet Mexican die? haw, haw! You were nicely 
 set to work, to go to all that trouble to save a filthy hog of a 
 Mexican from dying. Why, I had much sooner have stamped 
 his entrails out !" 
 
 " I have no doubt of it," said I, so soon as the laugh in which 
 the other two had joined would permit me to be heard ; " it would 
 be impossible for you to understand the interest I took in this 
 man." 
 
 " Yes, I have got no blarney in me to waste on a brute of a 
 Mexican." 
 
 " Nobody doubts your having too much of the brute in you, to 
 care for others, whether fellow brutes or men." I said this in 
 rather an excited tone, for I was provoked at the taunting coarse 
 ness of my reception. 
 
 The Texan sprang to his feet, and clutching at his belt, said, 
 
81 
 
 " Look here, Kentuck, I don't afiow people to talk to me in that 
 sort of a way, sir !" 
 
 The lieutenant here interposed, in a good-humored manner, 
 and soon restored a negative sort of peace, though the Texan was 
 surly about it for some time. 
 
 This was a very foolish display of sensitiveness on my part, 
 which a little further knowledge of the spirit of frontier life would 
 have saved me from. He did not mean anything more than a 
 coarse joke ; and my dignified flare-up was all " pearls before 
 swine " among such men, which I felt afterwards was a little 
 verdant, and out of keeping with the tone I should have preserved 
 under circumstances 1 had voluntarily thrown myself into. The 
 truth is, I was fagged and out of spirits, from the loss of the whole 
 night's rest, after the fatigues and suffering of the day before, and 
 oad little of the reckless buoyancy left, which was necessary to 
 carry me without difficulty through such scenes. I dwell upon 
 his little incident, because it was characteristic, and the reader 
 will see that I afterwards had some trouble about it. When we 
 were quieted again, and got to work upon our breakfast, I took a 
 good look at the new comers. 
 
 The lieutenant, as they called him, impressed me as a greasy, 
 easy, good-for-nothing sort of a somebody ; while Davis, who 
 was a thin, athletic person, with a pale, olive complexion, wore 
 upon his sharp face that keen, restless, knavish look, to be 
 in the presence of which, makes one feel fidgety. There was a 
 quick, incessant play of light about his eyes that reminded me of 
 a snake's tongue vibrating in strong sunshine. 
 
 The fellow was dressed in the extreme of a mongrel dandyism, 
 which seemed to be the result of an untiring effort to unite all the 
 exaggerations of all the costumes he had ever seen, and was more 
 of a hotch-potch than- even the equipage of his horse. His coarse, 
 black hair, plastered with lard into genuine " soap locks," a half. 
 yard in length, was sticking about his shoulders, over which was 
 thrown, with a most jaunty air, a full-circle cloak of coarse blue 
 cloth, lined down the fronts with flaming scarlet velvet, which 
 was so disposed as to show its every inch ; his neckcloth was a 
 coarse silk of the saiie gaudy color, and disposed in folds, the 
 amplitude of which would have laid the Broadway dandiei 
 
82 
 
 altogether in the shade j and, in point of jewelry, he could have 
 snapped his fingers at them too, so far as number was concerned, 
 at least : his smutty bosom was literally studded with pins and 
 brooches of every quality and size, from silver and tin foil, up 
 to pure gold. As he caught my eye upon him, mistaking its 
 expression for admiration, he jumped to his feet, and jerked up 
 his sombrero, banded two-thirds of the way to the top of its 
 sugar-loafed crown with red and white beads and setting it 
 pertly awry upon his stringy locks, with arms a-kimbo, under-lip 
 compressed, and eyebrows puckered into an expression of savage 
 pomposity, he strutted stiffly out to and fro in front of me. I could 
 scarcely avoid bursting into a hearty fit of laughter, as he recalled 
 the quaint description of an " Old-Time Euphuist," or trans 
 cendental coxcomb : 
 
 Resplendent glistening 
 Like Juno's witless Bird, he ruffled, when 
 Beneath the opening portcullis of Morn 
 He strutted back and forth the mimic Argus 
 Of his wide tail outspread, that he might sun 
 The tasselled glories of his shiny head 
 Within its hundred eyes ! 
 
 Oh, it was rich ! I screwed my face into an expression of 
 *atense admiration. This went to his heart, and stepping in 
 jront of me, with a lordly wave of his hand, that fairly glistened 
 with rings of every metal and size, he addressed me with a loud 
 nasal twang to his insolent voice : 
 
 " Seftor Kentuck ! I have been a great traveller ! Prodigious 
 traveller ! I have seen the world, Senor, like a brave man ! I have 
 walked over bars of gold ! and have tasted all there is in it a gal 
 lant man dare taste ! Yes, Senor, from the ' Pulque ' and the 
 * Noyau J of the dirty ' Rancho * of * Dobeys ' and logs, to the flash 
 ing wines in the marble mansion on the ' Hacienda ' of a Don ' - 
 from the dirty calabash of a naked Indian, to a silver bowl in the 
 palaces of Montezuma I have drank till I could touch it with my 
 finger ! and this ain't all either ; the Sefioras have loved me in all 
 these places ! I have sucked the nectar from the yellow flowers in 
 jny way from * Tierra Calliente,' where they melted to a look, and 
 died away to my touch, up to ' Tierra Fries/ where their frozen 
 
83 
 
 bosoms could thaw to no other glance than mine ! and, in the great 
 Mexico itself, they crowded around me with such eagerness that 
 they almost tore my splendid clothes to tatters, and I had to draw my 
 stilttto so, to keep them off!" and suiting the action to the word, 
 he whipped it out and flourished it with wonderful rapidity before 
 our eyes. " Yes, Seflo " 
 
 " Yes," interrupted Texas, jumping to his feet, " you beat 
 thunder and alligator swallowing all hollow ! You'll die off into 
 a long jackass bray- pewter drops cotton velvet glass beads 
 and all, if you don't stop. Blast me, you are worse than a 
 Mexican !" 
 
 This seemed the climax of contempt, according to his ideas of 
 the force of expletives, and he paused for breath, looking at the 
 fellow with the most ludicrous expression of contempt. 
 
 Davis had paused at the interruption, his hand still holding the 
 stiletto in the air. He had listened, at first, with an expression 
 of blank astonishment, that anybody should dream of interrupting 
 so musical a flow of eloquence ; but when he heard his finery 
 talked about in such disrespectful terms, his eyes fairly blazed 
 again with malignant ferocity, and there was a very devil's 
 venomous passion in his whole air as he stood for an instant 
 gazing at the Texan after he got through ; then, quickly as 
 the spring of a wild cat, threw himself convulsively at his 
 unarmed breast. The stiletto must strike him full in the throat ! 
 I sprang towards them, but a stronger arm was upon him before, 
 me. Sooner than I could think, he was lying prostrate and 
 stunned against the opposite side of the house, and the Colonel, 
 with his knee upon his breast, was wrenching his weapon from 
 his hand, when the lieutenant and myself together, succeeded 
 in arresting his arm. 
 
 " Damn it, let go, boys ; we will have to kill him yet, 
 anyhow !" 
 
 The Texan here interposed, and we dragged the Colonel off 
 backwards. 
 
 " If there's any killing, I'll do it myself!" said the Texan, as 
 he sprang with his heavy boot-heels upon the chest of the 
 prostrate wretch. Leaving the Colonel to recover his feet, we 
 ran to him and jerked him off, telling him the man was dead 
 
84 
 
 already. We succeeded after great difficulty in quieting them, 
 as they saw that the man yet lay perfectly still. I threw some 
 water in his face, and in a little while he began to stir, and was 
 shortly on his feet again, for he was only stunned : he staggered 
 out of the door, and vomited a quantity of blood that had been 
 started by r the Texan's heels, while he stood laughing at him and 
 enjoying the "-fun," as he called it. 
 
 The man came sullenly into the house after a while, half- 
 doubled up, and seeming effectually cowed ; his head muffled in 
 a bandage ; his finery all bedraggled ; his vain-glory all gone ; 
 looking as I have seen a dung-hill cock, which had been caught 
 stealing dough in the kitchen, and been thoroughly ducked in the 
 slop-tub by the angry old black cook, and which, shaking the 
 bran and filth from its eyes and stringy feathers, would slink, 
 with a doleful air, to hide its diminished head in a corner from 
 the gaze of its dames, till its glory was replenished. 
 
 Could some of those " Yellow Flowers," the neotar from whose 
 lips he had sucked, have seen him then ! the gay ideal of their 
 voluptuous dreams, skulking in a corner, the " shine " rubbed 
 off, and gore and dirt smeared in its place ; his baubles trampled, 
 and those sleek, flowing locks, clotted and confused beneath the 
 ties of that most flaming of cravats ; would he not have realized 
 to them, 
 
 " Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf, 
 Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lathe, 
 Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper 1" 
 
 Gentle " Yellow Flowers !" your fortunate stars have spared 
 you this rude shock, and peacefully their mellow beams may rain 
 on your warm brows the dew of visions ; and in them you may 
 still undoubting see that glowing form, with all the gallant show 
 unmarred, that left its impress on your hearts ! Blissful igno 
 rance ! and perhaps all you will hear of this will be the story of 
 a triumph, when, on some sad-eyed eve, you sit beneath the 
 moss-hung oak, sighing with the breeze for lack of warmer sighs, 
 
 " To take the amorous echo up," 
 you shall hear an answer to your hearts in his exulting shout a* 
 
85 
 
 he comes careering across the plains upon his sweltering steed, to 
 dash the gory trophies of his vengeance at your feet ! 
 
 Even now he seems to be forging the silent thunder of revenge ! 
 I can perceive that the malignant fiend has not been exorcised by 
 any means, with all the truculent efforts of these two rugged 
 " clerks of the green- wood," who have taken the matter in hand ; 
 for as he sits crouched in the corner, I can see the red light of 
 hate direly gleaming from his eyes, like two burning coals from a 
 dark hearth, as he watches the movements of his late assaulters 
 about the room. I shall look for terrible results ere the ghost of 
 his honor be appeased ! 
 
 And now, fair daughters of the North, how do you fancy this 
 " Mercutio" of the sunny South ? At the bare recital of this 
 Protean versatility of attraction, will you not own the " soft 
 impeachment ?" Come, no coy airs ; confess it frankly ^-at even 
 the rough sketch of a hero so exquisitely "just the thing" that 
 the delicious fluttering tumult at your hearts has waked " the 
 silent war of lilies and of roses" in a Parthian fight, careering 
 up from your warm bosoms, over your " silver cheeks," and 
 breaking in red spray beneath the azure veiling of your temples ? 
 Acknowledge that you are desperately taken, not for my sake, 
 but for the sake of the dandies at home j for how can they sur- 
 vive it, should I, in pursuance of my duty as the nearest repre 
 sentative of this gallant Mexican " Euphuist," be compelled to 
 assign you " a local habitation" in the " Tierra Fries," that arctic 
 realm of " frozen bosoms ?" You are difficult enough of assault 
 now, and home dandies have not the fiery glance of our " Euphu 
 ist" to thaw icebergs ! and furthermore, upon this same dreadful 
 penalty, dare not institute unfair comparisons between him and 
 our "domestic manufacture." For though my client 
 
 " Cannot sing, 
 
 Nor lieel the high lavolt, nor sweeten talk, 
 Nor play at subtle games fair virtues all 
 To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant," 
 
 I.e. " Corinthians" of Broadway ! though he may not be pos 
 sessed of " the still and dumb discursive devil" that lurks in these, 
 yet his is a matchless fling at a " fandango," and he can swing 
 
80 
 
 the dark-eyed daughters of the Sun, 1 to the merry click of the 
 Castanet, with most voluptuous grace, through many a tangled, 
 quaint, and winding measure, which they, with all the aid of 
 " dancing shoes with nimble soles," would have found it impossi 
 ble to foot it through. We must leave him in eclipse for a little 
 while, to go on with our story. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A MEXICAN WAR HORSE. 
 
 now came another scene of ludicrous bluster and confu 
 sion. A Mexican scout had returned and reported a'large body 
 of Indians camped on the Medina ; thus confirming the report 
 brought in by Davis. We must go and rout them ; but how to 
 get there was the puzzle ! The Texan had recovered his horse, 
 but the Colonel, myself, and the Lieutenant had none. We could 
 not get them of the Mexicans, and should we have to foot it the 
 fifteen miles ? 
 
 While we were debating this perplexing question every man 
 talking to himself and all together the remnant of yesterday's 
 "party galloped up. They had concluded by this time that it was 
 best to have us along ; not that they could not exterminate the 
 enemy to-day as they had yesterday by their unassisted valor ! 
 No ; forbid it, shades of Montezumas, Aztecs, and Castilians all ! 
 By their united glories they needed not our arms ! But they 
 pitied us, seeing that we would go if we had to walk ; and felt a 
 generous sympathy kindle in their warrior breasts at witnessing 
 our ardor ; so that they had brought led-horses for us. 
 
 And there was Antone again the brazen knave bragging 
 with as obstreperous impudence as ever ; though he kept a little 
 back and a slArp eye about him this time, for the Texan but 
 this only made it necessary for him to talk the louder. As his. 
 character of privilege as boaster and spokesman-general seemed 
 to be conceded, even the bloody veterans of yesterday sat quietly 
 and listened while he made speeches for therji, expressing in super* 
 grandiloquence the sense they entertained of their own magnani* 
 
88 
 
 mous generosity, in thus furnishing us gratuitously with the means 
 of sharing with them on equal terms the flowering laurels they 
 were about to gain. 
 
 After this peroration, they opened their ranks, and led out for 
 our admiration the steeds they had brought us. Oh Mars ! hadst 
 thou belonged to the mythology of Mexico, they would have made 
 thee all legs ! The horses they rode themselves were nimble and 
 active animals, while those they offered us were the veriest 
 starved, worn, ulcerated, miserable anatomies that can be con 
 ceived looking as though their legs could hardly totter under the 
 raw and wretched sack of bones which made up their shrivelled 
 bodies. It appeared that they were three pack-horses the Coman- 
 ches had left behind them as useless in their passage through our 
 " bottom." I turned off in angry despair, while the Colonel and 
 Lieutenant selected the two best, determined to make the most 
 of it. 
 
 Just at this moment, a Mexican woman came running to us with 
 the information that she had noticed a number of wolves prowling 
 about a low thicket, a few hundred yards off. The Comanches 
 had passed through it as they were approaching to attack us the 
 morning before, and she supposed they had left a dead body there, 
 for the wolves looked so bold and eager as they always do where 
 a human body is concerned that she had been'afraid to go her 
 self to see what it was, but that they were tearing and fighting 
 over something on the ground she could distinguish very plainly. 
 We determined to leave the dispute about the horses and see what 
 this meant. 
 
 The Mexicans charged with headlong rashness and shouts down 
 upon the thicket, and five or six wolves actually scurried out, with 
 tails between their legs, looking a good deal frightened. They 
 were so much exhilarated at this success, that they kept on after 
 the wolves to let off their surplus valor in imagining them Indians 
 flying before their arms, while we went into the thicket, where a 
 most revolting sight met our view. A spot, several yards in cir 
 cumference, was trampled into a black, bloody mire, strewed with 
 white hair, torn clothes, and the fragments of what we saw had 
 been the body of an American boy. There was the head torn by 
 the neck out from the shoulders, one-half the faoe eaten away, 
 
A spot several yards in circumference, was trampled into a black, bloody mire 
 strewed with white hair, torn clothes, and the fragments of what we saw had been 
 the body of an American boy. PAGH 88. 
 
89 
 
 and the marks of ravenous teeth scratched in white lines across 
 the skull ; here, the bare ribs ; there, the legs torn from their 
 sockets and stripped of flesh, except one on which a stocking still 
 remained ; and when it was pulled off, there was the pale foot 
 with its livid nails," entire and the flaxen hair, clotted into locks, 
 as the bloody brutes had shaken its tangles from their fangs, clung 
 about the bones and to the shrubs around, whose broken twigs and 
 red stains bore witness to the wild struggle that had so dismem 
 bered it. 
 
 I was absolutely sickened by the horrid sight, and even the rude 
 men around me were subdued and touched ; even the Colonel's 
 voice sank into low tones of something like sadness, as he ordered 
 a Mexican to bring a mattock ; and we went reverently to work 
 according to his directions, to gather up the scattered fragments 
 and heap them together for the grave. By turns we took the 
 mattock and silently dug away at the rude hole. That he was an 
 American boy was all we knew, and this was enough for our sym 
 pathies. That he had been killed by the Comanches we were 
 convinced from parts of his clothing, in which we could discover 
 plainly the cut of a lance head, and this was enough to occupy 
 us with stern thoughts of vengeance. 
 
 The hasty grave was finished, and the bones laid decently in 
 such order as we could into it, and the dirt, wet with his own 
 blood, thrown in upon them. Dust to dust, poor boy ! yours was 
 a hideous fate indeed ! We then collected logs from every direc 
 tion, and heaped them in a great pile upon the grave, to keep the 
 wolves from digging the bones up with their paws, and turned to 
 go back all parties more thoroughly sobered than I should have 
 thought it possible for such men to be. 
 
 A Mexican from the madam's rancho, and on foot, here joined 
 us ; he told us that the Comanches had done a great. deal of mis 
 chief before they reached us. In addition to a number of other 
 murders, they had come suddenly upon a man by the name of 
 Black, who lived some twenty miles off, when he was ploughing 
 in the field. He was holding tha plough-handles, while his son, 
 about thirteen years of age, drove the oxen. The Indians were 
 nearly on him before he saw them. He seized his little son by 
 the hand and ran for life towards the house, where his rifle was. 
 
 8* 
 
90 
 
 The Indians were so close upon him, that in the hurry the 
 little boy fell and broke the hold of his father's hand ; he looked 
 back, and saw that if he stopped an instant to regain him, their 
 lances would be into him they were already standing in their 
 stirrups to launch them so he kept on, hoping to get his rifle in 
 time to rescue him. He sprang into his house, and one of them 
 was in such eager pursuit that, before he could check his head 
 way, his horse ran its head into the door, and had nearly pitched 
 its rider head-foremost into it. Before he could recover himself, 
 Black had dashed out his brains with his rifle. He then sprang 
 into the saddle of the Indian, maddened with a father's agony as 
 he saw the rest of the party making off at full speed with his 
 child for only the single one had followed him after he dropped 
 his boy. One of them, lifting the boy on the point of his lance 
 by the clothes, had set him behind another, and they then had 
 wheeled and cleared out, seeing, probably, what would be the 
 result of the affair with Black. 
 
 The poor man saw they had greatly the start of him, but he 
 gave chase alone with the desperation of frantic hope ; and 
 frantic it proved to be, for they outstripped him far enough, and 
 he soon lost sight of them. He then turned and made for Bexar, 
 to get Hays's Rangers, in the hope that he should be able to in 
 tercept them before they reached the hills. 
 
 "Ah !" said the Colonel, " this is the son of poor Black we have 
 just buried ! A most unfortunate man he has been ! This .is 
 the second son he has had killed within the year, and is the last 
 of his family. He's a brave man, but has been foolish in always 
 living where nobody else would dare to live ; he was living in 
 just such a place when his other boy was killed. 
 
 " Black had a very fine horse, and the boy was riding it after 
 cattle, when one of Agatone's, men, who had been lurking about 
 to steal it for several days, waylaid the boy, shot him, and took 
 the horse. When he was going to live in this place, I tried to 
 persuade him not, but to come and live nearer to me ; but he 
 would do it ! He's a strange, wild sort of man. They say 
 his wife, that he loved very much, was killed by the Mexicans, 
 tnd that Agatone had something to do with it, and the poor fel 
 
91 
 
 iOW has been a little cracked ever since ! but I don't pity a man 
 much who would let the death of a woman crack his brain !" 
 
 Faugh ! I felt as if I could ram the butt of my gun into his 
 mouth for the utterance of so coarse a thought ; but I remem 
 bered the scene at breakfast with the Texan, and held my peace. 
 Such a commest was sacrilegious, upon a story which, uncon 
 sciously to him, was a most touching one. I felt a deep and 
 sadder interest f9r the man at once. Such a grief was that of a 
 strong nature haunting him out from all social ties, to live in the 
 constant presence of dangers which appalled other men, that he 
 might dedicate his solitary life to past memories and vengeance. " 
 Truly was it a piteous fate to see thus cut off, one after another, 
 the only living bonds between that love and the deep oblivion of 
 death ! This man is an instance among many others, of the 
 strange, passionate eccentrics to be jnet with on this frontier. 
 
 " But, Colonel," said I, " if this be the son of Black, why 
 should the Indians have brought him all this distance to kill him, 
 if they intended to do it ?" 
 
 " Oh ! they didn't intend to do it when they brought him off; 
 they don't often kill white children when they can get them away. 
 They adopt the boys, and make warriors of them, and value 
 them very highly, for a number of their most distinguished war 
 chiefs were stolen in this way ; but for the girls they care little : 
 they take them if it is convenient, and if it isn't, they seldom kill 
 them. They don't make wives of them, but merely slaves. 
 They have so great contempt for the Mexicans, though, that they 
 usually kill them man, woman, and child. They never per 
 mit a white boy to be rescued ; and if there is any probability of 
 this, they invariably kill him. 
 
 " I suppose the way this thing happened was, that the Indian 
 with the boy behind him was in the rear, and the boy hearing 
 the guns, and thinking that friends were near, jumped off and 
 attempted to run for it, and the Indian struck his lance into him 
 and left him. It is a settled point with them always to do this ; 
 for they consider that if the boy escapes them, he will become a 
 white warrior ; but if they kill him, it is one future enemy out 
 of the way !" 
 
92 
 
 1 had afterwards an opportunity of seeing this savage trait 
 more clearly illustrated. The whole party were now assembled 
 at the blocks of the picketing, armed and mounting, " in hot 
 haste," for the Indian fight ; and when everybody else was un< 
 der way, I found myself beside the most disconsolate, wo-begone 
 looking beast that ever it was my fortune to put eyes upon. 
 Rosinante was an over-fed, high-conditioned steed compared with 
 him. A starved buzzard would have scorned to pick his lean 
 ribs, and a hungry wolf's tooth could have hardly scraped any 
 thing but hair, hide, and tendon from his hams ; and there was 
 a great disgusting sore on his back. But what was I to do ? 
 My feet were still too tender and full of thorns to think of walk 
 ing. My pride would not permit me to stay behind, and the only 
 resource left was to make the best of this wretched creature. 1 
 felt my conscience twinge me hard as the poor animal groaned 
 when I mounted the saddle. The Lieutenant came back and 
 gave me a " quirt," assuring me that there was a wonderful out- 
 come in all these horses, and that I had only to ply it well to 
 make my steed do all I wished that I could easily keep up until 
 we got to the Comanche camp, and then I could win a horse 
 for myself. 
 
 This all chimed so well with my own wishes, that 1 commenced 
 plying the heavy whip upon the sounding ribs of my steed ; and 
 as his unexpectedly brisk movement brought me up with the 
 company very soon, I began to conceive that his miserable 
 looks were all a deception, and to feel entirely merciless, as 1 
 conceived he had been playing " possum " with me in assuming 
 them. The whole of this I was very anxious to believe, and 
 that the saddle, though it rested upon that huge sore on his back, 
 did not h-urt him in reality, but that somehow or other he had got 
 used to it. 
 
 Pardon me, gentle reader, for this cruel sophistry ! But you 
 must consider that, in this frontier life, all depends upon your 
 being positively in it, when a fight occurs, for nobody takes the 
 trouble to consider the "impossibility of your getting there. If 
 you are not there your reputation suffers. I felt all this, though 
 I felt, too, every lash I gave the poor horse cut into my con. 
 cience. But after going a few miles, neither laihing nor any. 
 
98 
 
 thing else would avail, for out of a walk he could not nor would 
 net go. 
 
 The Colonel and all parties, who had been rather laughing at 
 my ridiculous position before, now seriously advised that I should 
 go back, as it was plain the horse could not hold out. But I was 
 excited, and determined to go on and see this affair out at any 
 rate ; so I turned my poor steed loose when I found he could not 
 answer to the heaviest strokes I gave him, and determined to keep 
 up on foot. 
 
 Several of them, seeing that go I would, proposed that I- should 
 " ride and tie " with "them in turn. I was now comparatively 
 comfortable, and had time to survey the party more critically. 
 Antone, bearing aloft a Comanche lance, rode valorously at the 
 head of the party, and, much to my astonishment, next to him 
 came Davis our "Euphuist ;" who had rejuvenated his glories, 
 and looked as splendid and gay as ever; and, like his peer 
 Antone, carried simply a lance for his weapon scorning, no 
 doubt, in his chivalry, to take advantage of superior knowledge 
 in fighting the poor barbarians with his own weapons. He and 
 Antone seemed to be engaged in a bragging match, from the loud 
 ring of their voices. Next to them followed the Mexicans, eager 
 for the fray. 
 
 Thinking it about time we should be approaching the Medina, 
 I took advantage of this gallant confidence, to secure my turn on 
 horseback, of one of the heroes, who had promised me that I 
 should ride his horse. But as we approached a portion 
 of the road, skirted on each side by thick and scrubby under 
 growth, which prevented our seeing far, and the timber before 
 us began to thicken and look tall like that bordering upon a 
 stream, I began to notice that the nimble horses of the Mexicans 
 grew suddenly amazingly sluggish, and I perceived myself to 
 be passing them one after another, although my horse was walk 
 ing slowly ; and when at last there was a cry ahead of us, 
 " There they are !" I came near to being run over and trampled 
 by the sagacious and politic Antone hurrying back to bring up 
 the lagging rear. He was pouring out eloquent and voluble ex- 
 hortations to them to remember the glories of their ancestry, and 
 deport themselves worthily of their high descent ; while Davi% 
 
94 
 
 on the other side, was gesticulating furiously, and talking louder 
 than Antone, though a little ahead of even, him, in his anxiety to 
 bring up the very last of the dastardly loiterers ; and when they 
 got clear to the rear, they took up their positions there lances 
 in rest seemingly determined that no coward should fly, but 
 back upon their points. My Mexican became now very clamor 
 ous for his horse : this I took occasion to quietly disregard. 
 
 Seeing things so well secured in the rear, and finding myself, 
 by this sudden change of the order of march, pushed on to the 
 front with my three friends, I looked out with some curiosity, not 
 to say anxiety, upon our perspective. We were about two 
 hundred yards from the narrow skirt of timber on the creek, and 
 between the trunks of the trees I could see all the indications of 
 a large encampment, in dark, half-naked men hurrying their 
 horses together from the prairie, while others were hastily 
 mounting. The Colonel gave the command to halt, and ordered 
 us to see to our guns for an instant, and then raising himself ir. 
 his stirrup, shouted, " Come, boys, let's into 'em !" 
 
 We were about fifty paces from the timber, which was about 
 the same distance in width, and we had to charge through it, 
 before we were upon the enemy, who were gathered in a 
 confused mass a little distance beyond it. On we went, helter- 
 skelter ; and when we came through, all glowing with the ardor 
 of battle, what was our astonishment to see the Colonel, who led 
 us, draw up his steed suddenly, and shout to a warrior, who came 
 galloping to meet him, with a grin of delight on his sooty face, 
 " Why, how are you, Castro ? We had like to have been into 
 you, old fellow ! we thought you were all Comanches !" 
 
 And who was Castro ? And what nation were they of this 
 swarthy troop with whom the Colonel had so unexpectedly 
 claimed acquaintance ? It was, indeed, a wild-looking crew. 
 The dark, gaunt, fierce-eyed fellows, came crowding eagerly 
 around us ; some of them not fully mounted, clinging on by one 
 leg and hand, as they spurred their horses into the rush ; others, 
 not mounted at all, dragged their unwilling steeds by the lariat 
 bending forward low, in the hurry ; while those fairly up, shook 
 their bows and lances, tossing their arms in strange gyrations, and 
 
95 
 
 galloped to us from every direction, clamoring their salutation! 
 to the Colonel with all their lungs. 
 
 Jt was a savage welcome, with a vengeance ! noisy, extrava 
 gant, grotesque ! The appearance of their camp was quite in 
 keeping. For thirty or forty paces on all sides, the ground was 
 strewed with heaps of buffalo-robes, coils of raw-hide lassoes, 
 bridles, bows, quivers with their arrows half emptied out, shields, 
 skins filled with parched wheat, moccasins, bead pouches, fringed 
 leggins, quirts, horse-tails, and every other conceivable sort of 
 quaint, barbarous fixture. 
 
 The warriors themselves were not the least curious part of the 
 scene their persons naked to the clout and leggins, with 
 bright ornaments of silver, in bands, around the wrists and neck 
 crescents, stars, and curious devices, pendent from their ears 
 and from their platted hair, making the "darkness visible" 
 of their sooty skins, more emphatic by the contrast. Most 
 of them rode what are called " paint horses ;" that is, the 
 mustang, spotted with all the deeper colors on a milk-white 
 ground. 
 
 And as I looked around upon this hideous, yelling mass, 
 swaying to and fro about us their gay feathers, long lances, 
 white shields, dark bodies, and gleaming eyes tossed and mingled 
 in the strangest confusion by the plunging of their mottled steeds, 
 it realized perfectly to me one of those vague dreams of wild and 
 savage romance, which had been haunting my brain since 
 childhood : 
 
 " And thousand iiintasies 
 Begin to throng my memory 
 Of calling shapes and beckoning shadows dire." 
 
 It was soon demonstrated that we had something more than 
 " beckoning shadows" to deal with in this case ; for they almost 
 trampled us under foot man and horse in the first place, and 
 then they nearly dragged us from our seats in their unreckoning 
 eagerness to have us get down and partake of their hospi 
 talities. 
 
 I had by this time become so much hardened to miracles, that 
 I quietly submitted to everything that turned up ; though I was 
 
96 
 
 in the most perfect ignorance all the while what it meant. Not 
 so with the Texan. He had his gun almost to his face when the 
 sudden recognition took place ; and though he did not quite pull 
 the trigger, he held it still in the position for firing turning his 
 head quickly from side to side, with a chafed, bewildered look, 
 as the Indians dashed up on every quarter. He could not stand 
 the puzzle any longer, and, with a furious oath, shouted to th 
 Colonel 4 
 
 " Tell me who these black devils are, or I'll let into 'em *" 
 
 " Li pans, man ! They are the Lipans our friends ! Castro, 
 and all of J em, are old cronies of mine ! Keep your thunder for 
 another time ! Look at them Mexicans, will you ?" 
 
 We turned our heads. There they were the blood-stained 
 veterans ! about a hundred yards off just rallied from the flight 
 they had commenced Antone and Davis now at the head again ! 
 Here they come ! They see there is to be no fight, and their 
 valorous captains are leading them down with fierce shouts, 
 clattering their weapons as though they intended chopping us to 
 mince-meat. Nobody stirred to stop their headlong career, as 
 they expected ; so they were under the disagreeable necessity of 
 halting very suddenly themselves, some ten paces off, to ask the 
 meaning of it all. This was done in a very savage, threatening 
 manner, by their two ferocious leaders ; both blustering and 
 growling at once, determined to make us all feel, by their surly 
 obtuseness in understanding any explanation of the thing, how 
 much we had escaped in being able to ward off their terrible 
 exterminating charge. Castro and his warriors looked at them 
 for a moment in contemptuous silence. The chief then turned to 
 us with a grin. 
 
 " Booh ! booh !" said he ; " who them scare ? The rats in the 
 sand ?" 
 
 We all burst into a hearty laugh at this ; while the Mexicans, 
 seeing their sputter was " no go," came crowding in among us 
 with obstreperous expressions of delight. Even the Achillean 
 wrath of Antone and Davis was appeased at last ; changing, by 
 slow and dignified degrees, from a scowl to a grin. They were 
 Boon launched each for himself into a formal oration : in which 
 they congratulated Castro upon the lucky escape he had made in 
 
He even forgot his old enemy, the Texan, so intensely was he absorbed in bearing 
 down poor Castro to the very earth by the torrent of his eloquence ; when, suddenly, 
 a lance from that same merciless hand was so sharply thrust Into his posterior, that 
 the pain caused him to make a convulsive spring which carried him over his horse's 
 head, and landed him most ignominiously on his nose, in the kurrow of a sand-rat, 
 amidst a simultaneous roar of laughter, in which even the stoical warriors joined. 
 PAGE 97. 
 
97 
 
 giving the explanation just in time to save himself and party from 
 being overwhelmed by the hot-headed impetuosity of their 
 heroes. They shook before his eyes the lances which had 
 been taken from the rash and unlucky Comanches, and showed 
 how they had been bent like reeds before the tempest-track of 
 the wrath they had provoked. They were then winding up by 
 Impressing upon him, in reiterations, the high sense of gratitude he 
 ought to entertain and express towards the " Blessed Virgin," for 
 her rnercy in permitting him to come under the shadow of their 
 formidable power as allies; not leaving him and his nation exposed, 
 as the wretched and outcast Comanches were, to the tornadoes of 
 Mexican ire ! This rather capped the climax of any display I 
 had yet witnessed of the surprising powers of Master Antone. 
 
 Just picture to yourself the tall, erect, and martial form of the 
 Indian warrior; and then, a few paces in front of him, the shrivelled 
 figure of Antone, standing in his stirrups, leaning forward, in his 
 eagerness, over the horse's neck ; his hat off, his lean, yellow 
 face upturned, his chin and long sharp nose pointing to the 
 zenith, his little black eyes glowing, his wide mouth clattering 
 like a mill-clapper, every sentence 
 
 " A bombast circumstance, 
 Horribly stuffed with epithets of war," 
 
 enforced by his rapid gesticulation ; changing the lance' from one 
 hand to the other ; now making it sing again, as he whirled it in 
 the air ; now striking it fiercely against the saddle. He even 
 forgot his old enemy, the Texan, so intensely was he absorbed in 
 bearing down poor Castro to the very earth by the torrent of his 
 eloquence ; when, suddenly, a lance from that same merciless 
 hand was so sharply thrust into his posterior, that biting a 
 word in two the pain caused him to make a convulsive spring 
 which carried him over his horse's head, and landed him most 
 ignominiously on his nose, in the burrow of a sand-rat, amidst a 
 simultaneous roar of laughter, in which even the stoical warriors 
 joined. 
 
 Davis retreated very suddenly ; and as the chop- fallen knave 
 gathered himself up, sputtering the blood and sand from his mouth, 
 
 9 
 
98 
 
 and slunk off to the water to repair damages, he was followed by 
 reiterated peals. I thought Texas would go into actual con 
 vulsions : he slid from his horse and rolled upon the grass in a 
 perfect spasm of merriment ; and the Colonel^ I think, approached 
 nearer to the verge of a genuine laugh, than I ever saw him 
 before or afterwards. The Indians enjoyed it highly, though 
 laughing is not a national amusement with them ; but they 
 entered into the whole spirit of the thing ; for they were brave, 
 shrewd men, and felt, perhaps, a more unmitigated contempt for 
 the Mexicans than even we did. 
 
 The hubbub of merriment subsided, we yielded to the solici 
 tations of Castro and dismounted. Buffalo-rugs were spread on 
 the ground, and we were very promptly seated in comfort, and 
 feasting with these men we had been so near a fatal collision with 
 a few moments before. They had built no fires, for fear the 
 smoke might betray them to the Comanches, of whose presence 
 in the country they were aware. Our repast was light, simple, 
 and nutritious ; such as the southern Indians always carry with 
 them on their expeditions. It consisted merely of dried beef and 
 venison pounded up fine, that it might occupy as little space as 
 possible in their packs, and Mexican wheat, parched and then 
 coarsely ground between two stones. This last we mixed with 
 water from the river and drank. This food is highly nutritious, 
 and easily carried ; and the Indians will endure immense hard 
 ships, for a long time, on it alone. The necessities of their wild 
 helter-skelter lives have taught them to settle down upon the two 
 articles, of all others, used by man for food, which analytical 
 chemistry has taught us to contain the greatest amount of 
 alimentary matter compressible into the smallest space. 
 
 It is a curious fact that men will endure a greater amount of 
 fatigue, and for a greater length of time, on this than on any 
 other known diet. The hunters, trappers, and Indians, all agree 
 in asserting {his, and my experience goes to confirm it. The 
 meal, which had been dispatched in rather formal silence, being 
 finished, Castro arose, as the politicians say, to define his position. 
 He was a fine-looking fellow, straight as the stem of a palm ; his 
 limbs exquisitely developed. There was*a light and elegant finish 
 about his whole frame, that I scarcely ever saw approached an 
 
99 
 
 expression of bounding elasticity that cannot be conveyed. His 
 face was after " the high old Roman fashion," his forehead broader 
 and better developed than I ever noticed an Indian's before ; and 
 the circlet of eagle's feathers set back upon it, the flash of his 
 large black eye, and the play of his wide, thin nostril, gave to his 
 whole air a fierce alertness and wild magnanimity, which would 
 have consummated the poet's ideal of nature's tameless chivalry 
 a nursling of the sun and storms a knight-of the sea-like waving 
 plains quick in the chase and battle as the grey-hawk's arrowy 
 stoop merciless, strong, and terrible in beauty as the glossy 
 panther. He was much distinguished, too, above his tribe, by the 
 richness of his ornaments, which were of pure silver, banded, 
 and hung upon his dusky skin in great profuseness. Tufts of 
 red-stained horse-hair, and scarlet feathers, set off his lance, and 
 bow, and belts, one of which last crossed his swelling chest and 
 sustained the full and gaily decorated quiver behind : another 
 around his waist bore the long hunting-knife, and held in its 
 place, the most unpoetical and ineuphoneous " breech-clout ;" 
 and to this was attached, by thongs, the leggins, which came up 
 .o his knees, the white buckskin of which they were made, marked 
 with angular figures in red and black paint, and cut into a wide 
 fringe behind ; again, to these were attached the moccasins, 
 made of the same material, neatly fringed, and worked with beads, 
 by the fingers of some dusky maiden. At his feet lay his bow, 
 and the oval shield made of skin from the necks of buffalo bulls, 
 tanned to a shining, white surface, bearing, like the shields of all 
 other knights, his coat of arms, painted in strange hieroglyphics, 
 that told the story of his feats. 
 
 fiis warriors, to the number of sixty, accoutred in something 
 like the same style, though much less handsomely, were grouped 
 around us in grave silence, looking up to his face with respectful 
 attention, when, with a graceful though stately nod to the Colonel, 
 he commenced : 
 
 " Brodder ! the big war-chief," nodding to us, "and white 
 brodders! Lipans are strong braves ! they no forget ! So much 
 times," holding up the fingers of both hands, " the grass has been 
 Dale. Castro and his braves know the big war-chief. He very 
 much brave ; his heart much full of blood his hand very red. 
 
100 
 
 He strikes like the Great-Spirit fire ! the Comanch fal J the Mexi. 
 can fall many papooses weep. He learn Castro much to fight. 
 Castro he now big war-chief, too. The Comanch take your horse ! 
 Castro will take his scalp ! The big war-chief must have his 
 horse ; Castro will bring it ! The trail is on the grass. Lipans 
 see sharp. They are ravens. Many hours they are gone. 
 Lipans are swift. They are long-eared rabbits run more long 
 than wolves ! Comanch has much good horse. Lipan horse run 
 like wild goose fly. Go sleep ! Castro will bring you scalos 
 all you horse ! So much," holding up 'four fingers, " times the 
 sun go, the big war-chief and white brodders see Castro! Co 
 manch big cowards ! Lipans hate cowards ! Damn ! Castro 
 will whip Comanch ! Lipans can whip squaws !" 
 
 The warriors sprang to their feet at the conclusion of this 
 oration, and danced, and yelled, and clattered their lances against 
 their shields for a few moments, and then suddenly scattering, 
 every man to his horse, in an incredibly short time they were all 
 mounted, everything in its place, and ready to be off. 
 
 Tlie Colonel shool^hands with the young chief, saying, " Castro 
 is brave he has fought by my side ! The Lipans are like white 
 warriors ! Good-bye ! Go it, my fine fellow, you are game and 
 no mistake !" 
 
 We gave them three cheers, which they answered with the 
 war-whoop, and scurried off at full speed over the plain and 
 a wild, light-heeled, fierce-hearted crew were they ! Antone 
 and Davis galloped along with them for a half-mile, making more 
 fuss and fierce demonstrations than any warrior of them all ; but 
 after they had wounded the inoffensive air by a sufficient number 
 of ferocious thrusts at some phantom foe, to convince the Indians 
 how severely they would deal with one of flesh, they wheeled 
 out of the crowd, and came galloping back to us with all the con 
 scious bearing of heroes. 
 
 We now set out for home the Texan grumbling that he had 
 been disappointed in a fight ! the Mexicans swaggering about 
 what they would have done that is, Antone and Davis being 
 mouthpieces of the common sentiment ! while the Colonel and 
 myself jogged along very cosily together he in his usual gossip, 
 ing mood, and I a good listener ! 
 
101 
 
 " The Lipans," said he, " were once a formidable nation. 
 They have held a desperate feud with the Comanches since 
 the flood, for all I know ; and after we came here to take 
 possession of the country, we found them one of the most un 
 manageable tribes in it. We had some furious fights with 
 them. Between the Texas rifles and the lances of the Comanches, 
 they had been thinned out amazingly, though they were still so 
 troublesome that the boys got together at last to exterminate them 
 tear them up root and branch ! Though at the time there was a 
 sort of truce between us, the boys crept on their camp, near 
 Labaca Bay, one morning about daybreak, and firing upon it, 
 then went into a regular wholesale slaughter of men, women, and 
 children. They fought like devils as soon as they got their eyes 
 open for they were sleeping like logs when the Texans fired on 
 them. But it all wouldn't do, and they were killed the whole 
 of them, but these sixty warriors and a few women who made 
 their escape. The Comanches got wind of it, and hoping to wreak 
 on this weakened remnant the vengeance they had been waiting 
 for, upon the tribe, they pressed them so hard that the wretched 
 creatures came to us for protection. They swore to be our fast 
 friends for ever, if we would save them from extermination ! We 
 drove off the Comanches, and since that time the Lipans have 
 been faithful and very useful to us. It was like a cur licking 
 the hand that beat him ; but they knew there was a greater chance 
 of mercy for them, with us, than with their old enemies. 
 
 " Indians hate where their fathers hated hotter than devils. 
 Castro was a youngster then but he's got the heart of a white man 
 in him. He saw me in a fight with the Comanches once, and came 
 to me and wanted me to tell him the charm that would make him 
 fight like me. He wouldn't believe it when I told him there was no 
 conjuration about it, and wouldn't leave me for six months after, 
 night or day. Every fight we had, he kept by my side, watching 
 every movement I made, thinking I had concealed the spell from 
 him, and determined to find it out. He would go wherever I did, 
 it mattered not what the danger was ; and I have frequently been 
 amused to see how closely he would watch me. In the hottest 
 of a fight instead of attending to his own defence his eyes 
 wo lid be curiously observing the slightest thing I did, and imitat- 
 
 9* 
 
102 
 
 fog it then, himself. When he met with Captain Hays of Bexar 
 who is the most daring and successful ranger we ever had on 
 the frontier I thought the fellow would go crazy with delight. 
 [Ie almost worships him ! and for a year or two, he never left 
 him : and the boys used to say, it was nip and tuck between Jack 
 as they called Hays and Castro, who would do the most fool 
 hardy things. His tribe soon selected him their war-chief, as the 
 old chief, his father, Was now getting too stiff to lead them. And 
 though he never found out the secret of the ' spell,' as he thought 
 it was, yet in the search for it he became one of the most bold 
 and headlong warriors I have ever known. 
 
 " The boys tell a good story about him ! Every rash thing Hays 
 did and he did a plenty of J em Castro would forthwith do 
 something just as rash, and a little more so if possible. He was 
 along with Hays and his party of ten Rangers, on an expedition 
 to the Rio Grande once, and they very unexpectedly came in 
 view of a troop of eighty Mexican cavalry. There seemed to 
 be no chance for it but to fight, great as the difference in number 
 was, or be taken ; and such an idea never, for once, entered into 
 Hays' calculations. 
 
 " The Mexican Colonel rode out some distance in advance of his 
 men, and very insolently ordered Hays to surrender. The par 
 ties were about three hundred yards apart. Hays coolly turned 
 to his men, and said, ' Sit still, boys, I'll fix that chap !' They 
 were so accustomed to his odd ways that they obeyed, and let him 
 ride on alone, to meet the Mexican officer. The officer thought 
 he was coming for a parley, and approached him off his guard. 
 It happened that Hays was riding a wild young horse that was 
 not accustomed to firing. He forgot this, though, and supposing 
 it was his old horse, when he got in about eighty paces of the 
 officer, jerked his rifle suddenly to his face, and tumbled him off. 
 The young horse, desperately frightened, ran off with him, and 
 carried him like a streak clear through the Mexican line. They 
 were so much astonished at the rapidity of the thing, and the fall 
 of their leader, that they did not attempt to interrupt him, and he 
 passed through unhurt. Castro, when he saw this, instantly put 
 spurs to his horse for he thought it was a bravado feat, arid was 
 determined ' >t to be laid in the shade. So all alone he came 
 
103 
 
 charging down upon the Mexicans too ; but they had by this time 
 somewhat recovered from their stupor, and gave him a little hotter 
 reception than Hays had met though they were most thoroughly 
 confounded by this new mode of fighting. They closed around 
 Castro, who fought like a wild-cat, and soon unhorsed him, with 
 a half dozen wounds; and, but that the Rangers, just in time, 
 dashed in to his rescue, he would have been cut to pieces. 
 
 " The Mexicans never got over the confusion these two extraor 
 dinary sallies produced, and were badly whipped. After they 
 got through tying the prisoners, Hays stumbled upon Castro, lying 
 bruised, bleeding, and almost insensible, under the feet of their 
 horses. He stooped by him, thinking he was mortally wounded, 
 and took his hand affectionately. Castro opened his eyes, and 
 seeing who it was, said, smilingly, as he. closed them again, 'Ah, 
 Captain Jack ! you be too much brave for poor Castro ! he no go 
 through the hell like you !' 
 
 " It was a Jong time before the brave and simple-hearted fellow 
 got over it, and when he did get well, he merely answered the 
 joke tha*. was current about the affair, saying, * The white chief 
 no more shall beat Castro for the laugh.' }: I was much delighted 
 with the story of this gallant knight cf the " Order" of Nature. 
 
104 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE DANCING BEAR. 
 
 WHEN we reached home, we found a ragged, tow-headed boy, 
 who looked as if he might have been white once, and who had 
 been sent as page d'amour I suppose by the old Madame Ca- 
 villo, to request the honor of the presence of her dear friend the 
 Colonel, and his friends, at her grand fandango, to be given that 
 night. The Colonel was in great glee in anticipation of this frolic. 
 Very much to my astonishment, he endeavored to dissuade me 
 from going. 
 
 " My boy," said he, " you are too imprudent ! You will get 
 into a row over there, if you go ! It's going to be a ticklish even 
 ing. The old woman wants a quarrel with me any how, and if 
 there are too many Americans there, she will make that an ex. 
 cuse." 
 
 " I like that coming from you," I said, laughing. " It sounds 
 rather funny to hear you preaching prudence, after what you did 
 yestorday." 
 
 " Well ! well ! " said he, with a grin ; " but I arn in earnest ! 
 I have especial reasons for thinking that it will be the safest for 
 all parties that you and Texas shouldn't go there to night. I 
 wish you would stay ; your feet are too sore to dance, any how." 
 
 This was true ; I was too much used up to enjoy the thing, 
 and felt half disposed not to go at any rate. But Texas swore 
 bluntly that go he would ; though the Colonel continued to remon 
 strate and persuade, he was not to be moved. I thought there' 
 was something odd about this excessive anxiety to have us stay 
 
105 
 
 behind ; but I was too much worried to think about it especially, 
 and threw myself.upon my buffalo robe for a nap. 
 
 I was waked by the glare of a light in my face. On looking 
 up, I saw it was caused by the boy who brought the message from 
 old madam. This boy was a singular animal. The Colonel had 
 told me concerning him that his parents, who had been frontier 
 people, were both killed while he was quite small, by the Co- 
 manches, and he taken prisoner ; that after keeping him among 
 them for a year or so, the Indians had brought him back with 
 them on an expedition against this settlement; that the boy, in a 
 very daring style, had jumped down from behind the warrior who 
 had charge of him in the midst of a fight, and made his escape by 
 running to the Rancho of Madam Cavillo, although riddled by 
 half a dozen arrows in the effort; that since, he had lived a sort 
 of jackal-life, from house to house, owned by no one, kicked and 
 cuffed on all sides, mocking and stealing from everybody the 
 Mexicans hating him because he was white, and the whites who 
 had ever seen him taking no interest in him, because of his wild, 
 curious habits, and a character for faithlessness. He lived, in a 
 word, "a vagabond upon the face of the earth." 
 
 The night had set in very dark, and he had built a fire to roast 
 some meat by, which he had pilfered from the Colonel's pork- 
 barrel. It was a sketch for the pencil of Cruikshank that boy 
 with his " unkempt hair his looped and windowed raggedness," 
 crouching over the flickering blaze, one hand before his face, to 
 protect it from the heat, the other holding a great slice of fat 
 pork to toast on the end of a sharp sti^k ; and in the entire ab 
 straction of his task his thick and flabby lip fallen upon his 
 chin, and dripping with saliva while the dense and gloomy sha 
 dows rose and fell, and leaped and danced about him, from the 
 uncertain flame. I watched him for a few minutes, and then 
 called him " John !" He sprang to his feet with a sneaking, 
 guilty look, and endeavored to conceal his theft, until be found 
 it wae of no use ; then putting an impudent face upon the mat 
 ter, he broke out into a loud and shrill laugh. 
 
 "Ha ! ha ! old Red-head wanted yef to stay to-night to keep his 
 things from being stealed by his woman did he ? 
 
106 
 
 " ' Snake baked de hoe-cakg 
 Set de frog to mind it 
 Frog went to sleep 
 Lizard come and stole it. 
 
 * Ha ! ha ! ha ! went to sleep, Mr. Frog, did you ?" 
 
 He accompanied this elegant ditty with a Jim Crow sort of 
 shuffle, and psalmody whine through his nose. 
 
 " What do you mean, you scamp, by his woman wanting tc 
 steal his things !" said I a good deal amused by this cute fashion 
 of getting out of a scrape. 
 
 " Lor ! ain't you hearn yit ? Why, he went and tuck her by 
 the hair and dragged her out'en her old dad's house, and he wool- 
 ed her, and he larruped her, and he stomped her ! He licked her 
 nasty, now I tell you ! May-be he warn't in a rarin tarin tan 
 trum ! and all just because the yaller slut got scairt and sworn 
 'cross the river when the Injuns corned ! He's a regular bustin* 
 old devil ! When he gits a guine, thar's sumph : en to pay, sure 
 as fallin' off a log ! He was afeared she and her kin-folks would 
 come stealin' away her things to-night, and take his'n with 'em. 
 That's the reason why he was a beggin' you to be tired, and stay 
 here to-night. He ! he ! you ain't sharper nor a fox's nose, any 
 how! 
 
 " Frog went asleep 
 Lizard come and stole it. 
 Bring back my hoe-cake, 
 You long-tailed nannie !' " 
 
 He was in the act of bouncing out of the door, with this chorus 
 on his lips or in bis nose, rather when I intercepted him. 
 
 " Not so fast, my bright boy ! I want you to show me how to 
 get across the river. I shall go up to the Rancho !" 
 
 " Well, won't you tell old Red-head about the hog- meat, and 
 git me licked ?" 
 
 " Never mind about the meat ; but if you don't show me right, 
 about getting over that log, I shall have to lick you myself!" 
 
 " You catch a skunk afore you eat him don't you ?" said he 
 with a saucy grin. 
 
 The rascal seem&d to be a perfect Flibbertigibbet ; and, as J 
 
107 
 
 knew it would be impossible to find the crossing place, dark as it 
 was, without his piloting, I propitiated him with a present of 
 tobacco, got my gun and side arms, and we were off in a minute 
 he dancing with all sorts of antics before me flourishing his 
 chunk of meat over his head, between the mouthfuls he tore off 
 from it, mumbling out snatches of curious rkyme imitations of 
 the wild sounds of the wood and prairie. 
 
 The night was dark enough anywhere, but when we descended 
 ,to the last bank of the river, where the timber was very tall and 
 heavy, it was the blackness of darkness ; the huge trunks of the 
 cotton woods themselves could not be distinguished near the 
 ground. The heavy ripple of the deep, rapid stream, was loud 
 and threatening it seemed \ o me right at our feet, and I felt all 
 the time as if the next step would take me into it. I was guided 
 only by the sound of the boy's step and his voice, which he took 
 care should be loud enough, and strange enough, too, to wake 
 hollow, screeching, and every other sort of echo, in multiplied 
 reverberations. A huge owl flapped its damp wing close by my 
 .ear, and answered him in a hoot so stunningly loud, that my heart 
 fairly jumped again. The boy laughed and shouted 
 
 " The Injun says too-whoo ! too-whoo ! 
 The old owl says too-whoo ! too-whit ! 
 Hunter, watch ! he is fooling you ! 
 Arrows are keen, as well as wit !" 
 
 The chorus to this curious snatch Was taken up in hootings and 
 screeches, on every side, until it seemed to me that the voods 
 were alive with owls the gloomy shadows literally torn and 
 quaking with the discord of pipes of every calibre, and the rattle ! 
 rattle ! snap ! snap ! of angry beaks. The wolves, too, put in as 
 choristers, and the boy led off again 
 
 ' The red wolf says, whoo ! ooh ! whoo ah ! 
 The Injun says, whoo ! ooh ! whoo !-*-oo ! 
 Though Injun miss'd the figure thar, 
 Look-out ! His arrow is more true ! " 
 
 His imitations of the voices of the animals were so complete, 
 lhat they answered him the waves of sound swelling louder, 
 
108 
 
 more prolonged, until there was a very tempest of dolors, pouring 
 from a hundred howling, hooting, screeching throats, that was 
 positively infernal. I felt oppressed and restless. There was 
 something awful in these moaning, hideous articulations of the 
 deep night coming as they did, in multiplied, rebounding echoes, 
 through the wide and forest-tangled jaws of darkness ! And this 
 imp of the wilds who was leading me ! There was nothing in 
 his reckless deviltry at all calculated to make me feel more com 
 fortable ; and when he shouted " Here's the log ! look sharp !" 
 I was altogether doubtful whether he did not intend to play me 
 some elfish trick. It was a perilous passage almost as bad 
 as Mahomet's Hair Bridge to the Seventh Heaven. It was a 
 single and very slim tree, fallen across the river, and that, too, 
 at a very steep angle ; and how to pass it, in this Egyptian gloom, 
 rather puzzled me ! 
 
 " You've got to take it coon- fashion on all fours," said my 
 guide. " Hang close with your claws !" 
 
 It looked like a hazardous game indeed ! crawling through the 
 intense blackness on my hands and knees up that narrow and 
 trembling bridge above the fierce rush of the deep, fretful cur- 
 rent. I made the venture ; and you may conceive how foolish I 
 felt, suspended over the mad waters, the laugh of that strange boy 
 commingling with their eager turbulence. I managed to get 
 across, though, at last, and when I looked back, could faintly dis 
 tinguish his grotesque figure, leaping and swinging above the 
 angry chaos. We climbed the hill and were soon at the Rancho. 
 It would be difficult for an American to realize the characteristics 
 of the odd scene that met my view. 
 
 Passing through the great gate, I was introduced to the square 
 open court an area of about a quarter of an ticre the low 
 stone houses, on its four sides, lit by rushlights and resounding 
 with music. In the middle of the court itself was a great fire, 
 over which swung a mighty kettle of coffee ; near it stood 
 tubs of " chickerones" and women, with long hair hanging 
 loose upon their shoulders, were snatching " tortillas" from the 
 hot stones as they became done, and heaping them in piles around. 
 There were at least five hundred Mexicans crowding, shouting, 
 and jabbering and feasting, in the open space the men in white 
 
109 
 
 cotton shirts, loose trousers, and the " Serape" the women in 
 striped " robesos" of the same material thrown like a veil ovei 
 their heads. Every one men, women,, and children holding 
 in one hand a tin cup, which was replenished occasionally from 
 the kettle of coffee and in the other a tortilla and chickerones. 
 
 The presence of my sprightly guide among them was very 
 suddenly apparent from the increased confusion and hubbub. I 
 elbowed my way through the dense, noisy throng, to a low, long 
 room, from which the sounds of revelry seemed to proceed most 
 obstreperously. I succeeded, after a good deal of trouble, in esta 
 blishing my position just inside the door, and there a most comi 
 cal scene presented itself. 
 
 The most conspicuous figures among a crowd of dancers, were 
 the Colonel and old Senora Cavillo. He in a blanket coat his 
 pantaloons stuck into the tops of the long clumsy boots I had 
 given him was stamping it through the " Jarabo" (a country 
 dance), dragging after him the old Senora, who flung out with 
 amazing vivacity her lean and slippered shanks : her parchment 
 face wrinkled with affectionate simpers, and her keen little black 
 eyes leering most lovingly at her gay Lothario. I thought she 
 meant to kiss him she gazed so passionately at him ! She 
 looked the Venus of an infernal revel ! 
 
 Close behind this exquisite couple came Texas, bouncing and 
 curveting till his head almost touched the ceiling, dragging after 
 him a thumping Mexican damsel. Davis was there, too, " the 
 glass of fashion and the mould of form" the focus of all attrac 
 tion killing and gorgeous as ever ! But I was most amused 
 at the Lieutenant. His wife who was really a very pretty wo 
 man seemed to be perfectly victimized by the transcendent at 
 tractions of Davis ; while the poor husband stood gloomily in a 
 corner a just impersonation of the "green-eyed monster," 
 watching their billing and cooing with a despairing, vindictive 
 look. 
 
 I was astonished to hear such fine music for the Mexi 
 cans have some stirring and fantastic airs among their national 
 music. Their dances are singularly mazy and complicated- 
 some that I witnessed were very graceful, but the favorite fan 
 
 dan go is a most listless, monotonous, thump-e-te*thump of the feet 
 
 10 
 
110 
 
 of a single couple placed opposite to each other, while the rest of 
 the company are mere " lookers-on in Verona." It is associated 
 with old Mexican superstitions. The women were costumed in 
 a style in which antiquated American fashions and semi-barbarous 
 Mexican tastes were oddly blended. The Mexican dandies were 
 all of them arrayed with the same bastard whimsicality. 
 
 On the whole,, it was a curious, grotesque scene. Attracted 
 l>y a sudden commotion in the crowd outside, I turned my head. 
 Standing close to me, in the faint light, were two men wrapped 
 in dark cloaks ; the silver gleam of the stiletto and pistols 
 showed through the darkness, and a dangerous light of sharp 
 fierce eyes glistened beneath the broad shade of their " som 
 breros." I felt instantly that there was fear in this sudden 
 apparition. The^ looked like the two horsemen of the morning 
 before. I stepped to the Colonel and whispered my suspicions. 
 
 " I thought so," said he. 
 
 And almost prostrating the old Senora in his hurry, he rushed 
 out, six-shooter in hand ! But the two strangers had taken the 
 hint, and were already swinging open the great gate. He fol 
 lowed them, prostrating everything in his way. I attempted to 
 follow, but the multitude of Peons outside interfered, until the 
 gleam of my long knife above their heads made them give way. 
 I got through just in time to see the Colonel fire through the 
 darkness after two men on horseback, who were clattering away 
 down the hill. 
 
 It would have amused one had there not been something in 
 its exhibition too strong and fierce to be laughed at to witness 
 the unavailing, champing, foaming fury of the Colonel, as the 
 retreating figure of his enemy was lost in the darkness. He 
 fired his gun twice after him, even when he was far enough out 
 of view. Then stamping and shouting, he dashed the butt of his 
 precious " six-shooter" against the ground, to the evident peril of 
 its integrity. 
 
 He was rushing back, swearing he intended to make his way 
 to the old Senora, and speak his mind to her, in no very 
 measured terms, about harboring and encouraging a villain like 
 Agatone, to the peril and annoyance of her neighbors, when the 
 great gate of the court was slammed heavily in his face, and the 
 
Ill 
 
 bolts drawn. He dashed his broad shoulders against it like a 
 mad buffalo, and bellowed and roared in his baffled wrath, about 
 as musically as that animal would have done, when, in its blind 
 fury, it had crushed its horns against some sturdy oak, behind 
 which its subtle assailant the hunter had glided. But it all 
 would not arail ! The massive gate was no more to be moved 
 than would the strong oak have been. And after expending his 
 strength in what the western men call " rearing and charging," 
 until he was perfectly exhausted, he listened to my entreaties, 
 and consented to start for home. The 'man was dreadfully 
 excited, and staggered as we descended the hill. 
 
 The night had been very dark when I came over j but 
 " glimpses of the moon" visited us now, occasionally, through 
 rifted clouds, which, in vast, gloomy, and ragged masses, were 
 careering as if possesseol by the winged life of fear they fled 
 across the heavens silently from some weird foe. There has 
 always been something awful to me in the noiseless hurrying of 
 these black mighty phantoms. Haste ! haste ! faster ! faster I 
 they seem to say, as one huge shape rushes upon another, and 
 yet no sound ! The ear expects it ; you listen for the crash ! 
 But no ! your heart beats very loud ; there is no voice from that 
 great driving chaos ! The silent majesty of motion ! the mute 
 power that whirls, through burning mazes, the fire-dance of stars, 
 is seen and felt in the sublimity of such a scene. 
 
 When we were a short distance from the house, I heard the 
 quick patter of feet pursuing. Before I could look behind, the 
 boy, John, throwing himself rapidly past in a bounding somerset, 
 was standing face to face a few paces in front of us. 
 
 " Get out of my way !" growled the Colonel furiously, striking 
 at him. " You hell-cat ; you skunk ; you muskrat ! you smell 
 of Mexicans ; and if you are white, that only makes it worse ! 
 A white boy to let his carcase to be kicked and cuffed about 
 like a slunk pig, by the Mexicans ! You ought to go and starve 
 with the wolves first ! I'd pick a buzzard's bones with my 
 teeth rather ! Don't get in my reach, or I'll stamp you into tho 
 earth !" 
 
 The boy, who seemed desperately afraid of the bear in hia 
 
112 
 
 urly mood, by leading and rolling together, down the hill, ha( 
 ilaced himself far enough out of reach in an instant. 
 
 " But, Kurnal," he said, from his safe position, in cowed 
 whining accents, " I jist corned to tell yer " 
 
 " You lie, you bat ! You have lied to me and to the Mexican 
 both ! I don't want to hear you. Clear out, I say !" And h< 
 jerked his gun up to his face. 
 
 The woods fairly trembled to his angry roar. The boy, quid 
 as lightning, threw himself on the ground, and rolling off thi 
 last bank, the next moment we heard the splash of his struggling 
 with the dark rapid waters. 
 
 "Colonel, the boy will drown. See what your stupid ange 
 has done !" 
 
 " Drown ! There's no hope of that ; you'd as well talk oi 
 drowning a mink. I wish there was some chance for it !" 
 
 By this time I had reached the bank the boy had been standing 
 on, and which overlooked the bed of the river. By the fain 
 light on the ripples, I could distinguish a small, black object 
 about thirty paces below me, which seemed to be moving rapidl] 
 down the middle of the current. With a splash, it instantlj 
 disappeared under the water, as I came in view ; and though 
 ran down the edge of the stream for some distance, and called t< 
 him eagerly, I could hear and see nothing more. I felt some 
 what alarmed for the boy's life ; for the river, besides being deej 
 and swift, was full of sharp snags. 
 
 The Colonel called after me with a jeering " Haw ! haw 
 you are throwing away trouble and shedding sweat for nothing 
 I tell you, you green-horn, a hundred men couldn't drown hin 
 in that river !" 
 
 I stopped to wait till he should come up ; for the log we wen 
 to cross on was some distance further down. Just before he 
 joined me, I thought I could distinguish the sound of snapping 
 twigs on the other side, but the gloom under the heavy foresi 
 was too impenetrable to distinguish anything. I said nothing 
 about it, thinking it might be some wild animal, and we walkec 
 on. I remonstrated angrily with him about the brutal impolicy 
 of his treatment of the boy, for he evidently had something of 
 importance to communicate ; but I might as well have spent my 
 
us 
 
 oreath to the trees ; for he seemed to have forgotten the very 
 existence of John, and I could get nothing out of him but threats 
 and curses about Agatone and old Senora Cavillo. 
 
 We had now arrived at the log. I have before spoken of this 
 perilous passage ; and going down it from this side was worse 
 than climbing it from the other. We stopped, and the Colonel, 
 who was accustomed to the passage, proposed to go first and show 
 me how to cross. While we stood for a moment to sling our 
 guns upon our backs, we were startled by a stealthy rustle and 
 cracking in the woods beyond. The moon had just thrown a 
 pale gleam of light upon our figures and upon the log. We 
 both stepped instantly back into the shade and listened breath 
 lessly. The low howl of a wolf very close to us swung dismally 
 out on the stillness. We drew our breaths again ; at the same 
 moment we heard a voice which I recognised for John's, and 
 which seemed to be some distance off, singing : 
 
 " The red wolf says, whoo-ooh ! whoo-ah ! 
 
 The robber says, whoo-ooh ! whoo-ooh ! 
 Look out ! look out ! a trigger's thar ; 
 Look out ! it will be pulled on you !" 
 
 1 suspected what the warning meant at once, and endeavored 
 to stop the Colonel, who was hurrying towards the log again, 
 with the exclamation, " Pish ! it's nothing but a wolf and that 
 cursed boy again !" but it was too late. Just as he stepped into 
 the moonlight, a long phizz-ziz and a bright flash, from the dense 
 shadows on the other side, were followed by a heavy thumping 
 report, such as a Mexican escopet always makes. The Colonel 
 sprang back with the exclamation, " Ha ! it blowed, did it !" 
 while I, who was somewhat prepared by my previous suspicions, 
 fired instantly at the flash ! 
 
 The Colonel started down the log at a run, but the same 
 drizzling rain which had dampened the powder of the assassin 
 and made the gun hang fire, had made the log slippery ; and his 
 headlong leaps had carried him more than half across the trem 
 bling bridge, when his foot slipped and he was plunged into the 
 water. I followed without an instant's reflection, and with, 
 perhaps, more instinctive caution, and reached the other side in 
 
 10* 
 
114 
 
 safety. The Colonel shouted to me, sputtering the mud and 
 water from his mouth, " Follow that fellow I'm safe, or will be 
 when I get out !" It occurred to me that he was quite able to 
 take care of himself, so I followed at full speed in the direction 
 of the retreating footsteps. It was too late though, and after 
 nearly knocking the side of my face off against a tree, and 
 having my head almost jerked from my shoulders by thorny vines 
 it was impossible to guard against in the dark, I halted pretty 
 much out of breath, and nothing the wiser for my chase, though 
 something the worse, for I could feel hot drops trickling down my 
 neck, and the sting of the sharp thorns that had been dragged 
 across it. 
 
 After a short time I heard the Colonel approaching, plunging 
 and tearing through the bushes like a worried bear through cane- 
 brakes. By the time he reached me, he was pretty well done 
 up ; the sudden ducking had very thoroughly cooled him off, and 
 he now began to feel the bruises he had received, and the.reaction 
 of the various excitements of the evening, and for a little while 
 was comparatively tame. Jt now occurred to me, for the first 
 time, to wonder what had become of Texas. I asked the Colonel 
 what he thought of it. He answered me, between his long 
 pantings, " Pooh ! never mind Texas !" Three or four pants 
 and a long-drawn breath " That cursed Agatone !" pant 
 " thought he had me !" Panting " Too much occupied with 
 hugging that fat " Long breaths again "Set him thereto 
 plug me on that log, did he !" Still louder and hoarser, catching 
 his breath "Ooh ! I could tear him with my teeth !" A longer 
 pause " Texas wouldn't hear the guns, and don't know anything 
 about it. I must stop and rest !" Down he dropped upon a log. 
 " If that gun hadn't blowed, I'd 'av been a gone'er, sure ! Why 
 didn't you hit !" 
 
 " I did my best, you know." 
 
 " Yes, yes ; but why wa'n't your best better ?" 
 
 " You are unreasonable as usual, man. It was all guess-work, 
 in the dark !" 
 
 " Yes, he'll come out as soon as he gets tired of the dance, and 
 the girl, and the liquor. You and he must start to-morrow at 
 day-break and bring Hays. We'll hunt Agatone this time to 
 
115 
 
 the death, or I'll leave the country! No I won't 111 catch him 
 We can't help catching him ; Hays and the Bravo are perfec 
 bloodhounds. I'll follow him across the Rio Grande but I'll have 
 him ! I'll kill my horse ! I'll walk till my feet give out then 
 I'll crawl on my knees across the desert prairie and chaw snails 
 to live on but I'll have him ! Hell ! I'll hunt him into its 
 black jaws but I'll lap his heart's blood !" And, calling down a 
 terrible imprecation on his own head if he didn't do all this, he- 
 sprang to his feet and said, abruptly, 
 
 "Come on." 
 
 There was something . absolutely imposing in the tameless 
 cataract of passion this man's nature exhibited ; and had it not 
 been so thoroughly bestialized, it would have been almost 
 ublime. 
 
116 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE PRAIRIE SCOUT. 
 
 WE reached the house without another word being spoken 
 between us. We were astonished to see, through the chinks, the 
 blaze of a cheerful fire. As we entered, the figure of a very tall 
 personage met us. I heard a drawling voice say, 
 
 " How are yer, Kern ?" 
 
 " Bill Johnson ! Blood and blazes ! Glad to see you, old 
 fellow ! What brought you here ? Just the boy I wanted !" 
 
 " Oh, jest sneakin' around ! Anything er stirrin' ?" 
 
 "I tell you, boy, yes; I have just taken a pop at Agatone. 
 One of his men took one at me down on the log. Did you hear 
 the gun ?" 
 
 " Jest as usual ; one er them yaller stinks can't hit a bluff-side ! 
 I hearn the gun thought thar were sumthen out. Who is this ?" 
 turning to me. 
 
 " Oh, that's Kentuck ; we're going to make something of him ; 
 he tands powder well, but wants a heap of practice." 
 
 " He I he ! gin us your feelers, Kentuck ; we'll work the 
 buttermilk outen yer ! Glad yer come ! From old Tennersee 
 myself, and them's close sisterine yer know. Turn that meat, 
 thar, Kern ! You keeps mighty triflin' fires ; but you poor 
 creatures where live in houses can't have a fire like men 
 ought'er. Squat yourselves, boys, and make yerselves at home 
 while* I'm er'eatin' ; I ain't tuck nothin' since yester' evenin', 
 and then I tuck it raw dry, 'cause a fire wa'n't safe !" 
 
 " Fresh signs ?" asked the Colonel, as he stooped and cut 
 a great slice from the venison nam which was spitted before the 
 fire. 
 
117 
 
 " I could 'er almos smelt 'em !" said Bill, as he went through 
 the same manoeuvre. 
 
 " I found yer coffee, Kern, though yer does keep it in a cussed 
 sly place. Mexicans bad, are they ? Mighty bad thing having 
 people living 'bout, jest ter thieve." 
 
 But the Colonel's jaws were loo busy by this time for further 
 talk, and he merely nodded his head. Bill, who had now, too, 
 cut off a slice of meat weighing about a pound from the ham, and 
 passed it on, with a significant look, to me, then seized upon the 
 quart-cup of coffee which was simmering hot, and commenced in 
 solemn silence his meal. 
 
 Now, amidst the deep stillness, broken only by the doleful sound 
 of the voices of night without, and the crashing of their heavy 
 grinders, let us take a good look at Bill Johnson the boy, as the 
 Colonel called him. And a rough seeming customer was he 
 worth taking a second look at especially if you felt any tempta 
 tion to cross his track. He was upwards of six feet four in 
 height ; an angular, loose-jointed figure, that looked as if it had 
 been thrown together by a pitchfork, and did not care whether it 
 stayed thrown together or not ; his bones, though, were 
 prodigiously massive, and his hand felt to me like lead. There 
 was not the sixtieth part of a grain of surplus flesh upon him. His 
 tendons, muscles, and even veins, were as rigorously defined as if 
 they had been cut in granite. Upon his wide, massy shoulders 
 was set a very small head, with a fleece of close-curled black 
 hair. His features were small and well shaped, with a full, 
 frank black eye ; his skin, stretched so tight as it was over the 
 bones, reminded me, in color and consistence, of a drum-head. 
 He was dressed in a black, greasy buckskin suit, " a world too 
 wide," which appeared as though it had weathered a thousand 
 itorms, and kept pace with the progressive tanning of his own 
 cuticle. 
 
 In a word, sun and winds, perils by flood and field, and 
 starvation, altogether, had hardened the man into a perfect whale 
 bone state ! He had lain aside his wolf-skin cap and bullet, 
 pouch, and in the belt of his hunting shirt were stuck two or three 
 knives of different sizes and lengths, and a brace of long rifle- 
 pistols. The charger of alligators' teeth hung at his breast, 
 
118 
 
 along with the coiled wire tube-picker. Of beard he had none 
 whether he had plucked it out, as the Indians do, or never had 
 one, I cannot tell. But such as he is this was Bill Johnson, the 
 guide, hunter, trapper the man who knew, as well as, he knew 
 " Old Sue," his rifle, every peak along the chain of tne Rocky 
 Mountains who visited Astoria merely as a pleasure-jaunt to see 
 the boys, and hug his old friends the grizzly bears who 
 luxuriated his summers at the Steamboat Springs, with his head 
 upon the lap of his Delilah a captured Blackfeet squaw ! who 
 took Santa Fe as " mine inn" on his way to spend the winter on 
 the pampas of California who was proof against wind and hail, 
 and all tornadoes, and joyed 
 
 " On the snow-wreath to battle with the wolf;" 
 
 whose hide could glance the arrow of a Souix whose eye would 
 see the Condor first, and rifle bring it from its icy peaks 
 whose spring was agile as the long-fleeced goat's whose foot was 
 tireless as the Huron runner's who could outstarve the raven, 
 and look greasy where the jackalls died whose fist could crush 
 a puma's skull whose stab was quicker than the thought of 
 death whose hate was greedy as an eagle's maw whose face 
 was mild and simple as a country boy's whose heart was frank 
 as any maiden's, and quite as free of guile who worshipped God 
 unconsciously in daily walk and converse with his grandeur, yet 
 would have laughed at all religions ! 
 
 Such was Bill Johnson ; and so are many others of those 
 majestic natures, whose souls grow like the shadows of the moun 
 tain ridges they walk beneath " wild above rule or art" rugged 
 but sublime ! And yet that man's hand was red, and many 
 a ruthless blow of retributive vengeance it had struck. Society 
 would shudder at the bare recital of many a deed he had smiled 
 in doing. Yet while in your " fenced cities" you have the 
 gallows your huge castellated prisons, your houses of discipline, 
 your narrow cells where, shut from the free air and holy sun, the 
 wretched sinner against your laws must tell the weary seconds on 
 through years, until the inward light goes out and death strikes 
 twice you should not find fault with these men, to whom " con 
 science is as for a law ;" you have given the n none ; and 
 
lid 
 
 since the systems you boast of, and have framed in pride, offer you 
 no alternative but to make justice an executioner, blame them 
 not if, as they have no ideal incorporation on which to throw 
 the blame to which they can say, "on your shadowy head 
 be the blood of this man ; we wash our hands of it " they 
 should more honestly take the retribution into their own hands, 
 and each man for himself be the executioner of its stern 
 law. 
 
 You cannot judge of the fierce wrongs which heat their 
 strong passions to the fever-thirst for blood and vengeance. It 
 is a battle for life for ever on these desolate wilds, of man 
 to man, eye to eye, and foot to foot. Yet they have a code 
 though a relentless and martial one it be written in the con- 
 stitution of their natures, and the circumstances of their position. 
 
 " Trust me each state must have its policies 
 Kingdoms have edicts cities have their charters 
 And even the wild outlaw, in his forest walks, 
 Keeps yet some touch of civil discipline." 
 
 By this code they are most sacredly bound. This common 
 law of conscience and of individual rights needs no wily coun 
 sellor to distort its meaning and confound its sense ; but each 
 one, with the majesty of nature looking down upon him from 
 her eternal hills, and under the broad gaze of the great eye of 
 heaven, manfully and stoutly, of his own responsibility, inter 
 prets for himself, and is his own executive ! 
 
 " Ye'r goin' to see after him some, in the mornin', Kern ?" 
 For the bone was picked pretty clean by this time. 
 
 " I tell you we are, Bill ! The boys will bring Hays and ten 
 men ; and now we've got you, I wouldn't take a hundred mules 
 for the chance !" 
 
 " I don't care, but Til be thar. Yer know, Kern, thar's sum- 
 then between us ; it's time it war fixed don't like such things 
 ter stand long ; but they don't spile much in my keepin ? . 
 A.gatone run'd agir ther wrong sawyer when he run d agin 
 Bill Johnson!" 
 
 " That he did, Bill." 
 
 " But who'r yer goin' ter send on the trail, at day-break ?" 
 
120 
 
 " Oh, the Tonquoway ! you know him." 
 
 " He'll do. Let's quile up." . 
 
 And with the word he spread his buffalo-robe on the floor, and 
 said, as he threw himself upon it 
 
 " Don't like this 'ere sleepin' twixt walls ! Too close can't 
 breathe free ! kinder strangulate's a man ! Don't see how yer 
 can stand it, Kern !" 
 
 " Oh, a man can get used to a heap o' things, Bill !" 
 
 We were all soon stretched upon our respective pallets, and J 
 was nearly asleep, when Bill, who had been tossing from side to 
 side, sniffing, drawing long breaths, and seeming to be very 
 restless, suddenly jumped to his feet, took up his blanket, and 
 walked out of the door, grumbling and muttering as he went : 
 
 " Cussed hole ! 'nough to smother a ground-hog ! Wouldn't 
 sleep thar fer a hundred beaver pelts !" 
 
 I nearly burst my sides with restrained laughter at the idea of 
 a man's fearing he'd be " strangulated" in a log-house, with both 
 doors open, or rather with no door at all. But I fully appre 
 ciated Bill's uneasiness after six or eight months' tour on the 
 prairies,,and recollect being obliged to do the same thing the 
 first time I slept in a house afterwards. A sense of suffocation 
 came over me as soon as I lay down though the room was very 
 open ; and after trying in vain to sleep for several hours, I was 
 obliged to take my blanket, and go out to sleep under a tree ! 
 Nothing less than the fanning of the strong wings of the moun 
 tain wind, laden with the perfume of the flowery plains, can 
 lull to sleep the.se spoiled luxurious chil iren of the wi'da. 
 
121 
 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE MANIAC HORSEMAN 
 
 JUST before day we were waked by the arrival of Texas, who 
 made his appearance, accompanied by quite a characteristic 
 retinue. It consisted of the lieutenant, his wife, and Davis. The 
 woman, very drunk, was mounted on horseback, and was with 
 difficulty held in her seat by the husband, who walked on one 
 side and Davis on the other. On the shoulder of this last per 
 sonage her hand was caressingly rested, while she leaned over 
 his face gabbling and stammering idiotically her maudlin affec 
 tion. 
 
 I had noticed at the fandango a bottle filled with a clear, pale 
 liquor, which I ascertained to be common American whiskey; 
 the movements of which, along with those of the small tin cup 
 accompanying it, had appeared to excite a high degree of interest 
 on the part of the females present. These warm-blooded dames 
 had preferred " whiskey," as the more volatile and fiery drink, to 
 the " Pulque," their national beverage. I observed the men to 
 drink but seldom, while the women kept the cup and bottle con 
 stantly active among them. Indeed, it is proverbial to those 
 familiar with the general characteristics of the lower and middle 
 classes of a Mexican population, that the women are more loose 
 and licentious than the men. It is not at all astonishing, there 
 fore, that the race should be so miserably degenerate. 
 
 The most hideously revolting object I know of is a drunken 
 woman. Man may brutalize himself very far may be prepared 
 even to sell his " birth-right ;" but so long as God's signature of 
 " angel" signed in the calm purity of woman's brow appeals to 
 him mute and untarnished, he is safe there is everything to 
 
 11 
 
122 
 
 hope for him. But to think of a nation whose women are inos* 
 lecherous, most debauched ! need we be surprised at anything 
 in such a people ? And a beautiful woman as this was ! To 
 see her lolling her tongue simpering with dripping lips blink- 
 ing and leering her open shame upon this tinselled miscreant 
 with dark large eyes that might have won back a soul even into 
 him, had they been lit with the soft, lustrous flame of innocent 
 
 jy f 
 
 Oh, what a mansion have the vices got, 
 Which for their habitation chose out thee !' 
 
 But sentiment is all thrown away upon this Mexican slut. 
 My cheeks fairly burned, though, to think that the miserable 
 wretch, her husband, was an American, who had drawn the 
 milk of an honest woman, and was yet alive, though so immea 
 surably sunk so base a dastard as to play meek second to a 
 scene like this. Yet this fellow could fight Mexicans and 
 Indians, and was called a man on this frontier. Her domination 
 over the brute was so complete, that she compelled him quietly 
 to submit to seeing her lavish upon Davis those caresses he had 
 sacrificed his position among his countrymen to buy. I hoped 
 tii. singular passiveness might be traced to some cause more 
 honorable to his manhood, at least ; for this person had once 
 held a station of dignity in one of the governmental institutions 
 at home, and had received the diploma of one of our oldest 
 colleges. I was fain to hope that, perhaps, accident, growing 
 out of some wild frontier scene, had placed him thus inex 
 plicably in the power of the "Euphuist" anything, rathei 
 than believe such infamy on the part of a countryman voluntary 
 Crime and license can strangely distort humanity. 
 
 This agreeable trio passed on to the Rancho of the lieutenant, 
 which was a half-mile below on the river. The Texan was in a 
 very surly and stupid mood the consequence of the over-night's 
 excesses and we could get but little out of him concerning 
 what occurred at the old dame o Rancho after our hasty departure. 
 A muttered fragment now and then was all we could get such 
 M " There was the devil to pay when \cou left ! why didn't 
 
123 
 
 you kill Agatone ? had as much trouble as if you had Ola hag 
 like a she wild-cat ! Pretty friends you ! left me among five 
 hundred Yellow Bellies. Had to bleed some break a few heads 
 let me alone then," &c. 
 
 I concluded he had a rough time of it among them all, ex- 
 asperated as they must have been ; but his surly coolness 
 seemed to regard the idea of keeping any number of Mexicans at 
 bay with so much stolid indifference, that I forbore to question 
 his incommunicative humor any further. When he heard it 
 had been determined we should start to Bexar at once for Hays, 
 he was furious, and swore at first that he would not go. A mule 
 nad been provided for me, and I had mounted to start alone, when 
 he called to me gruffly to wait and he would go with me. He 
 joined me in a few minutes without his gun. My gun was in the 
 house, and I called to the Colonel to bring both his and mine with 
 our holsters, when the fellow snappingly swore that " he would 
 not be troubled with a gun there was no danger he warn't 
 afraid warn't a-going to be troubled with lugging a gun between 
 here and Bexar!"* I was annoyed by this insinuation my boy 
 ish pride took fire at once ; and although I knew this proposition 
 to be the result of the present splenetic mood, yet feeling a little 
 spleened myself, I determined to see him through on his own 
 terms, and merely said, " Very well, sir as you choose." 
 
 The Colonel, to my astonishment, simply because he was too 
 lazy to go and bring the weapons for us, encouraged this silly re 
 solution by saying, " Yes, go along there is no danger now 
 the Comanches have been driven from the country, and you're less 
 likely to see them now than at any other time." We turned to 
 go, when Bill Johnson shouted . after us, " Boys, I never parts 
 from old Sue myself, no how ner goin' nowhar; no tellin' 
 what'll turn up best ter keep yer eye skinned, and be always 
 ready !" I saw the good sense of this warning it was too late 
 though. The stupid whim of Texas had carried the day, and we 
 must abide the issue ; and a sufficiently ridiculous issue it was ! 
 
 We had scarcely gone half the distance, when we met one of 
 those itinerant Jesuit priests who are to be stumbled upon in the 
 most out-of-the-way places in Mexicothe Far West and North 
 rho gave us the comfortable information, that the whole country 
 
124 
 
 between us and Bexar was filled with Comanches, who wera 
 scalping and slaying the Mexicans right and left. This was 
 something of a poser. The benevolent priest, in a very impres 
 sive manner, urged us to return to the Colonel's Rancho, and of- 
 fered us the protection of the valiant cohort of dirty, ragged, half- 
 armed Mexicans who accompanied him as a body-guard. 
 
 I saw and felt at once the entire absurdity of attempting to pro 
 ceed under such circumstances, and was about to accept the offer 
 so courteously conveyed, when Texas, in the insane and silly 
 spirit of braggadocio, characteristic of himself and his country, 
 and for the purpose of throwing the odium of what might be con 
 strued into " a back-out" upon me, insinuated pretty roundly that 
 he " did not care for the Comanches wanted to 'get on to Bexar 
 would go back if I was afraid," &c. 
 
 This was low spite, the result of a lingering reminiscence of 
 the " breakfast scene," for which I instantly determined to punish 
 him severely ; for I knew that these wild, ruffianly fellows who 
 have been accustomed to depend upon their guns for everything; 
 seldom stirring out without them, are always dread-fully panic 
 stricken when they find themselves in imminent danger and 
 disarrned ; so turning my mule abruptly, I merely said, " Come 
 on, sir: I intend to be in Bexar in the shortest possible time." 
 He grew white as a sheet at this unexpected turn, and dashed 
 past me at desperate speed. The old priest, who perceived there 
 was some boyish pique at the bottom of this madness, waved his 
 hand as I looked back, in sad adieu. 
 
 Never did two youngsters repent more heartily of a silly whim 
 than we did of thfs before reaching Bexar. So soon as we had 
 leisure enough to realize the predicament we had placed ourselves 
 in, our imaginations at once assumed the reins ; and we had 
 forthwith populated every clump of trees and thicket of under 
 brush with legions of Indians. I conjured more in one half-hour 
 out of the trunks of innocent trees than I had seen in all my 
 life ; and when we suddenly came upon the body of a Mexican 
 they had scalped a short time before, I verily believe my hair 
 would have stood on end had not the feeling of terror which was 
 possessing me been somewhat diverted and alleviated by a glance 
 
125 
 
 *t the wild work it was making with the Texan's face. It was 
 absolutely convulsed. Had 
 
 " Harpies and hydras all the sooty fiends 
 'Twixt Africa and Ind" 
 
 been flapping their scaly pinions about his ears, he could not 
 have looked more desperately frightened. 
 
 I was greatly comforted and relieved at this sight, and forgot 
 in a great measure my own burden in revelling over the agonies 
 with which he bore his. The case was bad enough, certainly. 
 We, on an open plain, entirely unarmed, when such work as this 
 was going on around us ! The predicament was too much for 
 Texas at last ; and in a whining voice he proposed that we should 
 turn aside, and stop at some Mexican Ranches several miles off 
 until night set in. I was sufficiently relieved at having this 
 proposition come from him, not to render it necessary for him to 
 repeat it. Off we started at a killing pace, and, as we neared 
 the Ranchos, had the gratification of nearly losing our scalps at 
 the very gate. The Indians were driving in a party of Mexicans 
 before their lances, and bat for a rush, such as only desperate 
 men could have made, by which we were enabled to dash in pell- 
 mell with "the Mexicans, we should have been shut out, and paid 
 for our rashness with our blood on the very lintels of the door of 
 safety. In addition, we had to run the risk of being shot by the 
 frightened people inside, who, astounded by our sudden appear 
 ance, took us for Indians, and were banging at us through 
 windows and port-holes with their rusty fusees on every side, 
 fortunately for us, with their usual bad aim. We could get no 
 arms from them, and were fain to wait till night set in, dark, cold, 
 and stormy, and the'n creep out and make our way with fluttering 
 hearts, chattering teeth, and otherwise in a most pitiable plight, 
 to Bexar, where we arrived about midnight. 
 
 Late as it was, we found the Rangers up and collected in 
 Johnston's bar-room, for a carouse. They received us merrily, 
 and greeted the account of our lugubrious adventurings with 
 shouts of laughter. They had been in pursuit of the Comanches 
 at the summons of the half-frantic Black ; and in the effort to 
 intercept had missed the party, concerning which we gave then 
 
 11* 
 
126 
 
 first the information in possession of the reader. When they 
 heard the fate of the poor boy, they sobered down instantly, and 
 deep curses and stern mutterings were heard through the room in 
 place of boisterous laughter. 
 
 " Poor Black !" said Hays ; " his is a hard case ; he has been 
 like a madman ever since he joined us ; I am afraid this will 
 make him one sure enough. Castro will pay them fellows off in 
 full ; he'll receipt 'em." We then told him about the affair at 
 the fandango, and of the arrival of Bill Johnson. 
 
 " Hah ! Bill is there ? He's worth a dozen common men ! 
 Agatone will have to look sharp. There's Bill, Black, and the 
 Colonel, all splendid trailers ; either would give his right hand 
 for a fair shot at that fellow ! Boys, we'll go at day-break .' 
 Some of you let Black know. He's at Navarro's." 
 
 The thing was settled as coolly as if it had been a fox-chase 
 we were going upon ; and we separated to get a few hours' 
 sleep. We were up before daybreak ; and in about half an hour 
 the yawning, drowsy members of the party, who came straggling 
 in through the lanes, and meeting us at the corners of the streets, 
 were all collected on the bank of the river, and ready to start. 
 Looking over the party, which consisted of eight Americans, 
 Hays remarked, " Black is not here !" 
 
 It was a raw, misty morning, and at the moment we turned to 
 the sound of a horse's feet, and saw a dim figure emerging from 
 one of the lanes of the suburb, and which was approaching us at 
 full speed. " There he is !" and in another instant a rider, muffled 
 in a coarse green blanket, with a wolf-skin cap drawn down over 
 his eyes, dashed through our party, and without speaking a word 
 plunged into the water at the ford. " Poor fellow, he's wild this 
 morning !" said Hays, in a low voice, as we all followed him into 
 the water. In perfect silence the man lashed and urged his horse 
 up the bank, and when we reached the top we could see him 
 going at full speed over the plain, sitting stiffly in the saddle, with 
 his chin fallen upon his breast and his rifle lying balanced across 
 the pummel before him. In a short time he was out of view 
 though we were in a brisk gallop. 
 
 In about an hour, at a short turn of the trail, among the 
 thickets, we came close upon him. sitting in the same rigid 
 
127 
 
 position, while his horse crept along at a snail's pace. As we 
 clattered by him, he roused himself an instant, urged his horse 
 into the same headlong speed, and before he again passed out of 
 sight hi? figure seemed once more frozen in the seat. No word 
 had passed. There was something inexpressibly mourn f\, and, 
 to me, exciting in this strange ride. That stricken, fitful man 
 seemed madly flying before us, as if we personated to him the 
 shades of his ^murdered family, chasing him with wails for 
 vengeance ; shades that he felt could not be laid ever again, but 
 with blood f The whole party were chilled ind saddened by it, 
 and as no time was lost in conversation, we were at the Rancho 
 before I realized that half the distance had been gone over. 
 
128 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 A TRAILIN' PARTY 
 
 THEY were an ready and met us ; the Colonel, with the grin 
 of " a belly-pinched wolf," who had caught the scent of slaughter 
 on the air, and Bill with a smothered chuckling, " He ! he ! Glad 
 yer came, boys ! Kern's blooded him !" 
 
 "Who; Agatone?" 
 
 " Yes ! Tonque's found whar he laid down jest er little er the 
 Jye-stuff about !" 
 
 " We'll get him, .Bill, won't we ? 
 
 " Can't tell, Captain Jack cussed sly varmint, that Agatone ! 
 He's tuck to water, and the Tonque lost him !" 
 
 "Oh, we'll bring him out of that, Bill! Come, boys all 
 ready ?" 
 
 " All ready !" 
 
 I saw Black sitting on a log by his horse, his head bowed jn 
 his knees, his rifle across his lap. When he heard this, he 
 sprang to his feet, and at one bound was in the saddle and away. 
 
 We were off at a canter ; the Tonquoway and Bill leading 
 after Black, who kept on far ahead ; the Indian on horseback 
 and Bill, who scorned a horse, swinging those massive limbs of 
 his along with marvellous ease in huge, rapid strides. It was a 
 most picturesque scene, that party, mounted on horses of all sizes 
 and colors ; the Colonel had by this time obtained a very good 
 one for me ; our costume a singular blending of civilized back 
 woods and Mexican taste ; our arms gleaming in the sunshine 
 and our steeds curvetting and plunging over the wave-like undu. 
 lations of the ocean meadows. 
 
129 
 
 We had progressed in this way over a lovely region for about 
 two hours, when, just as we were getting among the hills, and 
 the scenery becoming wilder, we unexpectedly found ourselves 
 drawn up on a bluff bank of the San Antonio river. Here the 
 trail was lost. When we descended to the water's edge, there 
 were evidences on this side of a camp, and the tracks led from it 
 to the water ; but there were no traces on the other side of their 
 coming out. This puzzled all parties the more, as the banks of 
 the river were bluff and very high on both sides for a number of 
 miles above and below, and the gorge just at this point was the 
 only place where it could be crossed. Bill said the " varmint J> 
 must, have been turned 4p an otter, and that there was some sly 
 hole in the bluffs he had swum to and hid in. We crossed and 
 scattered up and down on both sides of the river, to look for 
 the trail ; but after an hour's search we all met again, and 
 concluded we were nonplussed in that quarter, at least. This 
 gorge opened into a deep winding valley, flanked on either hand 
 by knolls, forming an irregular ridge covered with live oak. Bill 
 thought that, " unless Old Harry had flew'd away with him, he 
 must leave a sign across this here ditch !" which, by the by, 
 was from a half-mile to a mile in width ; so the orders were tc 
 stretch our line from foot to foot of the ridges and breast it up the 
 valley. 
 
 The spies went on ahead, while we breasted up the valley 
 Black, in his moody, headlong, silent way, accompanying them. 
 The only incident for several hours was the pulling down of a 
 fine buck, in full view of us, by two large wolves. They had 
 been running the gallant animal, I suppose, for many hours, and 
 when he broke suddenly into the valley they were but a few 
 paces behind, and so intent as not to notice us. Their tongues 
 were all out, and they ran very slow. We stopped. One of the 
 wolves seized his haunch : he wheeled and plunged heavily at 
 them with his fore-feet and antlers. They avoided his charge, 
 and one of them rushed at his throat ; in an instant he was down 
 and killed. The men were very anxious to shoot, and tho 
 Colonel and Hays tried :o prevent them j but bang ! bang ! went 
 two guns, and the wolves tumbled over. 
 
 We were getting fired, and had despaired of finding th* 
 
130 
 
 Mexicans, and discipline, never at any time much regarded, was 
 at an end. We were riding very slowly, waiting for the spies, 
 who were still on ahead, when I, utterly worried out by the 
 fatiguing slowness of our progress, galloped off in advance ; and 
 seeing, some distance further, a very remarkable-looking knoll, 
 covered with cedars, which rose abruptly from the centre of the 
 valley, I made for it alone, with the intention of enjoying the 
 view from the top and joining the party as they passed. My 
 horse climbed the steep sides with difficulty, and when I reached 
 the top, a more paradisaical view never burst upon. the eye of 
 mortal than this which rewarded my trouble and risk. As I 
 stood gazing enraptured over it, my eye was attracted by some 
 object moving on the comb of the opposite ridge, just where it 
 was defined clearly against the sky. I felt my heart jump, and 
 on looking steadily I could clearly distinguish the outline of a 
 horseman wearing the Mexican sombrero, who seemed to be 
 endeavoring to screen himself behind a tree from objects below 
 that he was trying to get a good look at. 
 
 There was something even in the distant outline that reminded 
 me of the cloaked figures at the fandango. I understood the 
 whole thing in an instant. The Mexicans had outwitted us, and 
 our whole course had been watched by their spies, of whom this 
 was one. The cedars concealed me, and my resolve was taken 
 in an Instant. I descended on the side opposite, and happily met 
 our party just rounding the hill on that side. My news was told 
 and the action instantaneous. We were out of sight of him now, 
 and he would wait our coming out on the other side of the hill. 
 
 Hays, who now waked up and showed what he was, with the 
 Bravo and myself, plunged under cover of the bush at the foot of 
 the ridge, where the dry bed of a stream ran, and rode back with 
 the intention of crossing the valley when we were high enough 
 up to be out of his view ; and then mounting the ridgy he was 
 MI, to come up on the other side, while the rest of the party rode 
 ilowly and carelessly ahead as they had been doing before. He 
 thought that if we got the spy hemmed in and frightened, he 
 would dash right for his camp and lead us in. 
 
 The manoeuvre was admirably carried put. The fellow 
 suspected nothing, but cautiously crept after the a dvancing party, 
 
131 
 
 who laughed, and talked, and sang with the best possible affecta 
 tion of unconsciousness. His chuckling consciousness of sue. 
 cessful cunning was most unpleasantly broken in upon when we 
 shouted, which was to be the signal to the other party, and he 
 ?aw himself inclosed on both sides and no chance to run for it, 
 but the top of the ridge, which kept him in full, view of each. He 
 broke off, though, at his speed, the two parties keeping parallel 
 with him. The object was not to catch him at once ; but after 
 Jesting our speed sufficiently to see that we could close with him 
 when we pleased, we held up, and let him think he had some 
 chance of escape ; believing he would make for camp if we gave 
 him play. 
 
 Hays was right, as usual ; and in a little after we had fallen 
 back, he left the ridge suddenly and made across the plain, on the 
 side we were, towards a blue and hazy line of timber. 
 
 " There's the camp, in them woods !" said Hays, joyfully. 
 " Go to the top of the ridge and beckon to the boys, Kentuck !" 
 
 I complied. They were just v hesitating what to do, when, 
 seeing my gestures, with a shout they took the hill. Now we 
 had it. The fellow had got a half-mile the start, and it wouldn't 
 do to let him get in before us and give the alarm. 
 
 " We must close up and go in on his heels !" 
 
 A single figure was perceived galloping down from the ridge 
 after us, with tremendous speed. He soon joined us : it was 
 Black. The raven had scented the slaughter from afar ! He was 
 coming to meet us, and had turned the spy from the ridge. 
 
 Our horses were strained to the top of their mettle. There 
 was no more shouting ; every faculty was wrought into the 
 intensity of the exciting chase. We were all in a body now, and 
 our pace began to tell in lessening the half-mile ; the woods we 
 were making for began to grow more distinct, and by the time 
 the trunks stood out separately, we were within a hundred yards 
 of him. Now the lash flew, and every nerve was strained. 
 
 " Look there," said the Colonel, pointing to a flock of buzzards, 
 perched upon a tree ; " that shows their camp ! We've got 'em 
 at last !" 
 
 And with a savage oath he jerked his hat from his head, put it 
 under his seat, and looked at his gun. With a stunning whoop 
 
132 
 
 for we now saw their horses, which had been turned loose 
 to graze Black, who was ahead, fired at the poor spy, for 
 we had got all out of him we wanted ; and trampling over his 
 writhing body, we swept like a thunder-gust through a line of 
 bushes into an open space surrounded by thickets. There 
 were about fifty men springing from the ground, where they had 
 been lying, and in every attitude and expression of fright, 
 surprise, and consternation some stopping to fire at us, others 
 running on their hands and feet, rolling and plunging into the^ 
 bushes. 
 
 I remember seeing Black throw himself over his horse's head 
 among them first, and like a frantic wild beast strike right and 
 left with his long rifle-barrel, crushing in a skull at every blow, 
 and then disappear raging through the bushes in pursuit of three 
 or four huddled and scrambling wretches. 
 
 It was, throughout, a terrible and rapid scene : the ring of 
 rifles and roar of the Mexican musket the dismounting the 
 clubbed guns the fight hand-to-hand the scream for mercy, 
 smothered in the death-groan the crashing through the brush 
 the pursuit every man for himself with his enemy in view the 
 scattering on every side the sounds of battle dying away into a 
 pistol-shot here and there through the wood, and a shriek the 
 collecting again, and the shouts of laughter as one man after 
 another would come panting into the clear place with the trophies 
 of his slain, or without them, as it happened. 
 
 Black came tumbling out, covered with gore and sweat his 
 eyes glaring wildly his dripping knife in one hand his rifle- 
 barrel, bent and smeared with brains and hair, in the other his 
 pistols still in his belt, untouched. He threw himself sullenly 
 upon the grass, his head resting on the body of a dead Mexican 
 jerked the wolf-skin cap down over his swarthy brow, and in an 
 instant was as still and silent as the corpse. Nobody spoke to 
 him, and the reckless, unseasonable mirth was for an instant 
 checked, as we all turned silently and looked at him. 
 
 The Colonel was the last to come back, and came with bloody 
 hands, foaming and stamping with rage, for Agatone had not beea 
 found, and had probably escaped ! 
 
133 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 * 
 
 BILL JOHNSON <' STUMPED." 
 
 WE lost sight, in the headstrong action of the incidents last 
 described, of our long-sided friend, Bill Johnson. So soon as all 
 were assembled, we missed him, and some one shouted 
 
 " Where's Bill, the old coon, gone to ? He wan't born to be 
 killed by a Mexican, sure !" 
 
 " Ah !" said the Colonel, " don't fash your brains about Bill. 
 He's up to a thing or two. Warrant you he's nosing the right 
 trail. He came out after Agatone !" 
 
 At the name of Agatone, Black sprang half erect, and shouted 
 hoarsely 
 
 " Leave me ! leave me ! I tore out all their hearts, but could, 
 not find his !" then, muttering inaudibly to himself, fell back. 
 All paused a moment. 
 
 " Didn't he go out with the spies ?" asked the Bravo, in a low 
 voice. 
 
 " No !" said Hays. " He never left the river, but struck off 
 through the woods, up the bank. He went for another look. 
 Bill didn't feel easy 'bout our losing that trail yesterday. It was 
 strange, boys, wan't it ? These were his fellows, but Agatone 
 wan't here. Bill will tell the tale about him." - 
 
 " Yes," muttered the Colonel ; " if he'd have been under a 
 leaf here, I'd have found him. I killed two of the rascals that 
 looked like him, anyhow !" 
 
 " Colonel, you mean to make a coffee-cup of his skull, don't 
 you ?" said the Bravo, laughing. 
 
 * Hell ! no ; I'll save it to put a ball through once a week, to 
 keep my hand in." 
 
13 
 
 " ft will beat the skull Hamlet talked to, in eyelet-holes,' all 
 hollow, then !" laughed Fitzgerald. 
 
 Here one of the men sprang forward, with an exclamation of pain 
 rubbing the calf of his leg, from which the blood was streaming. 
 We had all been grouped near the body of a Mexican, who 
 seemed to be dead. His hand clutched a bloody knife the last 
 spasm waon him, and the death-rattle in his throat, when we 
 turned ; he had made one dying blow for vengeance. 
 
 " That d d yaller-belly is playing possum," said the Colonel. 
 "Kill him!" 
 
 " He won't play possum any more," said the Bravo, quietly 
 drawing a bead on him with his pistol, which he fired, and blew 
 out the smoke as coolly as if he had been practising at a mark. 
 
 The Colonel turned him over with his foot. The man was 
 dead before the shot. 
 
 " There, Bravo ! you've lost a load ! Jim," said he to the 
 wounded man, " split his shirt off, to tie up that scratch with." 
 
 So these hard men talked, and joked, and laughed, as if death 
 were a bridegroom, and his seeming in the body of a Mexican a 
 merry masking ! 
 
 We found, on comparing notes, that thirteen Mexicans had 
 been killed, but no prisoners taken ; for it was war to the knife 
 with these robbers. The dense thicket around their camp had 
 favored the escape of the rest. We collected together their 
 horses, and the plunder they had left behind. The escopets the 
 men broke and threw away ; the saddles, and indeed all the 
 horse equipments, were very handsome, and the party valuec 
 them exceedingly. All the frontier Americans prefer Mexicar 
 horse-furniture to their own. It is the most complete and admir 
 able I have ever met with, and is the only point in which the 
 Mexicans excel, except in the use of the short knife and the lasso. 
 These things, and the horses, were distributed by lot, after having 
 been divided into as many equal shares as there were men, reserv 
 ing one a-piece for Bill and the spies. When Black was called 
 upon to choose, he merely shook his head and groaned. Each man 
 had stripped the person of his enemy as he fell of whatever was 
 valuable to him, and thea left him for the buzzards and wolves. 
 Several of the men had been slightly wounded, but hats and 
 
135 
 
 horses suffered more than our bodies y for the Mexicans, as usual, 
 shot everywhere else but in the right place. Amid a great deal 
 of loud talking and merriment, at the expense of the marksman 
 ship of the poor wretches, the ghastly ceremonial of " casting lota 
 for the garments of the slain" was got through with at last ; and 
 with the price of blood gathered together in transportable order, 
 we started on our return, and could hear the sharp snarling and 
 see the battles of the wolves over the dead before we were two 
 hundred yards off. I do not wonder that superstition has chosen 
 these vile animals as the favorite agents of her most horrible 
 legends. There is a sneaking malignity about the tawny front, 
 
 " Whose downward eye still looketh for a grave," 
 
 mingled with a fell sagacity leading them with almost infallible 
 certainty in the wake of slaughter, which is very well calculated 
 to awake strange associations in those who observe them on their 
 native wilds. 
 
 It was impossible for me to get rid of the idea that they must 
 have beer, glaring out upon us, with their green and charnel eyes, 
 from the dark thickets, as we rode past that morning, and read 
 with wizard shrewdness in our flashing arms and on our brows, 
 through all the mockery of merriment, that human passions were 
 forth upon the chase of death, and that they grinned their white 
 tusks and lapped their thirsty jaws in fierce exulting over the 
 feast of blood to come, and slunk, and watched, and crawled 
 upon our trail, and sent the jolly tidings round to all their hungry 
 brothers, that they might be in at the revel ! How they must 
 love the man of blood I Sure it was in recompense for this thej-- 
 came that night in bands around our camp, to lull our drearr 
 with pleasant roundelays, and wailed such horrid choruses as 
 
 " Blue meagre hag, nor stubborn ghost, 
 Nor goblin, nor swart fairy of the mine," 
 
 heard ever yet resound, that they might foot it by, beneath the 
 " visiting moon," or the black, dripping arches of deep caverns ! 
 
 Black had long since left us, galloping off by himself. We 
 had ridden several hours on our return, and were beginning to 
 
136 
 
 near the gorge where we had crossed the river, when Hays, 
 pointing suddenly towards the sky, said 
 
 " Look, boys ! there is news !" 
 
 I looked, and could see nothing but a thin column of smoke that 
 shot up to mingle with the clouds. 
 
 " How is that news ?" I asked. 
 
 " Ha, ha ! Kentuck," said Fitz, " you're a poor benighted 
 being. As yet, you ' see through a glass darkly,' and a green 
 one at that. Don't you know that is what the old saying, f I 
 smoke you,' for ' I understand,' * I've found you out,' comes from ? 
 That's a telegraph, sir ! sent up, I suppose, by Bill, to let the 
 Colonel know that he has caught his ' otter ! ' " 
 
 " But how can you know it is Bill ?" 
 
 " Oh," says Hays, " we've seen Bill's smoke too often not to 
 know it as well as we know his long tracks, or his whoop." 
 
 " Yes," said Fitz,-" Bill's a great artist at getting up smoke. 
 He'll smoke you the Mexicans or Comanches good news or 
 bad news by throwing on an armful of green moss to make a 
 very black column when the c Old Harry' himself is to pay in 
 person, or simply a handful when it's only one of his y^ung ones 
 out, or dry sticks when he would merely say, * Here I am !' It's 
 well to keep your * gaze turned heavenward' when Bill is scout 
 ing for Comanches ; for when he discovers them he sends up a 
 dark puff that lasts about ten seconds, and looks like a whiff 
 from the sulphur-pipe of ' the gentleman in black.' He says it 
 don't do to favor the Comanches by smoking long, for the'r 
 glimpsers is tarnal keen !" 
 
 We soon rounded an angle of the valley, which brought us in 
 sight of the river from the top of its shelving bank,. About half 
 way down to the water, on a projecting rock, the gaunt, leather- 
 clad figure of Bill was stretched. He was leaning on his elbow, 
 with his gun between his legs, and slowly dropping dry sticks 
 into a small fire that burned before him. He was on his feet in 
 an instant as the sound of our horses' feet reached his ears. We 
 galloped down the hill, with cheerings and shouts, and were soon 
 dismounted around the old fellow everybody talking, and no 
 body listening. Perfectly unmoved, Bill looked round upon us 
 all with a stare of something like astonishment, that anything 
 
137 
 
 could possibly happen in the world Worth talking so fast about ; 
 for the party, anticipating fun from his disclosures and manner 
 of making them, had thrown off the impassiveness common to such 
 men, for a mischievous motive. 
 
 " Pish, boys !" said he at last ; " ye'r jest like a litter er otter 
 pups slid'n down a bank, ter ker-slowsh in the water ! I'm 
 'shamed er ye. If I'd er killed Old Wooden-leg I wouldn't er 
 made all this kerousin' tu it !" 
 
 " Well, but, Bill," laughed Fitz, " what's become of the otter 
 yer went after ? We've got our pelts where's yours, old wolf- 
 dog ? You've no right to show your teeth !" 
 
 " Yes, where's the fur, Bill ? where's the fur ?" was shouted 
 around him. 
 
 " I reck'n this ere'll count fur," said he, slowly drawing 
 from his bosom a gold cross-hiked Spanish stiletto. " I don't 
 stink up my fingers a skinning such varmints ! Here's the brush 
 ter show !" 
 
 " Colonel !" shouted the Bravo, " he's got him ! Now for your 
 coffee-cup !" 
 
 " Now for the eyelet-holes !" said Fitz. 
 
 " Blazes and hell ! you haven't killed him, Bill ?" growled the 
 Colonel, in an angry, disappointed voice. 
 
 " What's the matter now, Colonel ?" shouted every one, in as 
 tonishment. 
 
 " I wanted to do that myself," said he, sulkily. 
 
 " Nateral enough," said Bill. " But I can't say, Kern, as I 
 should er tied him to bring him in to ye ! I'd a kinder hankerin' 
 that way myself!" 
 
 " What ! didn't you get him at last ?" exclaimed several at 
 once. " Whose fine frog-sticker is that ?" 
 
 " Now, boys," said Bill, coolly taking his seat on the rock, 
 " if yer'll jest make yerselves easy, and don't bother me with 
 talking', I'll tell yer all about it the tarnalest strangest thing as 
 ever com'd in my knowin' !" 
 
 There was a general settling down on all sides at this. 
 
 " Out with it, old slow-track ! You nosed up Agatone, did 
 you, and he got away ?" said Fitz, mischievously. 
 
 12* 
 
138 
 
 " Thar ye go, yer Irish spread-mouth," said Bill. " Shut oj 
 your bone-trap, will ye ? 
 
 " Well," he continued, " I took on considerable 'bout losing 
 that ere trail last night. Thinks I Bill Johnson oughtn't ter be 
 flung out by such a little dried monkey. So I takes old Sue, and 
 snsaks off up the river, for I seed them tracks in the water was 
 goin' up stream. Thinks I, up one side and down the other, fur 
 enough, and I'll find his mark. So I went on up 'bout five miles, 
 till I passed all yer tracks whar ye made galloping up and down ; 
 then I look'd out spry. Thinks I, honey, but ye had a splather- 
 ation uv it, as Fitz, thar, says " 
 
 " Don't slander my English, Bill. Go on." 
 
 " Er wadin' all this way up that cussed river, where a decent 
 horse can't cross, 'cept 'casiorially. 'Bout a half-mile further 
 on, 1 seen some drift-wood tolerable near cross the river. Thinks 
 I, now yer begin to make figures whar I can count. Sure enough, 
 two horse-tracks were comin' out o' the water ! I foller'd 'em 
 awhile, till they stops and tramps 'round considerable ; then one 
 takes square off ter th' right t'other keeps up the bank. I follers 
 the one out, till I comes to a loose horse, hurt mightily behind 
 with a big ball, Kern, like six-shooter !" 
 
 The Colonel nodded, and Bill went on : 
 
 " I goes back to the bank, and tuck th' single track. 'Twas 
 on this side. I follers it 'bout a mile, when, what do ye think, 
 boys ! a trail comes in, straight from the Ranchos ; and they 
 stops there together considerable, for both their horses dunged, 
 and it war both the same age ; and there war a man's track on 
 the ground. Thinks I, swappin' double. That's Agatone ! It's 
 a little track got one of six-shooter's pills in him can't ride 
 alone ! But who th' darnation war that feller who struck 
 in?" 
 
 " Colonel," said Hays quietly, " wasn't Davis about when we 
 left your Rancho ?" 
 
 " Yes. I wanted to kill him the day he come, but the boya 
 wouldn't let me !" 
 
 Nothing more was said, but a cold scowl settled upon the 
 faces of the men, and they gripped their rifles hard, till their 
 knuckles grew white ; while Bill went on with his story : 
 
139 
 
 " They kept on, Alongside. 1 followed till the trail war cornc 
 to Big-Bend bottom. I was sneakin' 'long through the thnber ; 
 when I heard men talk couldn't see 'em for the bushes ; and 
 there war 'twixt me and them a cussed swamp bayou with an 
 old log 'cross it. Thinks I, now for it ! Bill Johnson's here, 
 and old Sue ! So I takes the old log. It did look kinder 
 'spiciousj but there wa'n't no other way. Cudjump, I went, into 
 the black mud and green water ; the cantankerous log snarled 
 right in two. The fellers hearn it, and broke. I seen a glimpse 
 of fefti there war threeone ridin' behind. You kaow, boys, 
 I'm somethin' on my pegs. So I shook the stink off, and twod- 
 dled through them brush, a little particular. I don't mind horses 
 in runnin'. In 'bout a mile I glimpsed 'em ag'in. I seen whar 
 they were makin,' and headed 'em. Thar war but two goin' 
 like streaks through the trees. Old Sue winked at th' hinder 
 one, and he jumped astonishin', clean up out o j the saddle ! 
 T'other one had somethin' red on his cloak, and maybe he didn't 
 skoot t The feller had done kickin', as usual for old Sue, when 
 I got to him, and couldn't tell no tales. But he wa'n't 
 Agatone ! nor the other wa'n't for he war taller. Whar on 
 earth the little weasel-face could a' got to, is more nor I can 
 tell !" 
 
 This created considerable stir in the party, who drew long 
 breaths, and shifted their positions ; while Fitz interrupted him 
 maliciously with 
 
 " What, Bill ! haven't you got the green out of your eye yet ? 
 Why, they pushed him up a tree, to be sure !" 
 
 " Thar ye ar' ag'in, ye waw-mouthed bog-trotter ! May ye 
 be chased to death with a snake-skin to yer tail ! Don't ye know 
 Bill Johnson thunk o' all that ? I tuck this thingamy out o' his 
 bosom, and went back on the trail to where I took across. Thar 
 wa'n't no sign whar they had stopped close to a tree to shove 
 him up, nor no tracks whar he'd tuck the ground ! Bill Johnson 
 looked, and thar war no mistake ! Tarnation take me if I can 
 see any way he'i got off, 'less he flew! That old devil's 
 squaw, Cavillo, rid him off on her broomstick that's how il 
 war !" 
 
140 
 
 Bill said this with such solemn earnestness, that Fitz ano 
 myself burst into a loud laugh* 
 
 " Shet yer purtater-trap, will ye ? Kentuck, I thought ye war 
 better mannered ! It's no laughin' matter, boys. I tell ye, Bill 
 Johnson believes it. She looks kinder stewed, anyhow, as if all 
 the juice war dried up, drinkin' hot sulphur; and she's got evil 
 fire in her eyes; that's red like old Sue's mouth when she speaks. 
 Ain't it so, Kern ?" 
 
 " Yes ; and I'll ease her down to old Split-hoof's hug, some of 
 these days, so that she'll stay there ! Bill, this is a deuce of a 
 strange tale ! What do you think of it, Hays ?" 
 
 " I think so, too ! If it had been anybody else but Bill trailing, 
 I should have thought, with Fitz, that they had just stuck 
 Agatone up in a tree, among the moss, and galloped on. But 
 Bill looked, and if Bill is stumped, none of us could have done 
 anything. The little rascal's smart, sure ! He's thrown out the 
 best trailer ever I saw twice in twenty-four hours wounded, at 
 that ! But, Colonel, that red on the cloak proves it was Davis 
 that helped them. Bad business !" 
 
 " There now, Kentuck," said the Colonel to me, " if you hadn't 
 been so handy with your humanity, it would have saved us the 
 trouble of killing that cur now." 
 
 " But would have spoiled my fun," said the Bravo. " I've 
 a curiosity to see if I can't split a bullet on his sharp nose !" 
 
 " That's a new mark of yours, Bravo," said Fitz. " It's 
 snuffing the snuffers instead of the candle !" 
 
 A general guffaw followed this sally of Fitz, and \ve all rose 
 to start. The spies and Black now came galloping down the 
 hill, and Castro with them, and a moment after the Lipans were 
 around us. Castro was nearly out of his wits with delight at 
 seeing Hays and the Colonel. I was delighted, too, at the dig 
 nified modesty with which Hays received his extravagant 
 caresses. There was something fresh and touching to me in the 
 unsophisticated joy of this child of nature at meeting these men, 
 to whom he considered himself indebted for all his warrior- 
 training and reputation with his tribe. Hays, especially, he 
 seemed to look up to as a higher order of being, and with almost 
 
141 
 
 Oriental deference in his fondness. He wore two scalps at his 
 belt, and there were several others among his warriors, as well 
 as a number of wounded. Their persons, arms, and horses, all 
 showed that in the " four times sun go," which he said must 
 elapse before we saw him again, he had been at rough work. 
 The faithful fellow had been true to his promise about our horses, 
 and, with an exulting look at the Colonel and myself, he ordered 
 one of his braves to lead them to us. 
 
 I was right glad to get Sorrel again ; for passing strong is the 
 love one learns to bear the noble steed who has been the patient, 
 honest friend, the companioi 
 
 " His corporeal motion governed by my spirit" 
 
 through many a weary day of solitary peril. There is an 
 intuition of human thoughts and emotions about these animals, 
 that is most striking a prompt sympathy in the finer specimens 
 of them almost marvellous. Stormy passions in the rider dash an 
 electric inspiration through their big veins, and swell the pulsing 
 arteries to turgid throbbing light with fires as angry as their 
 large eyes, and all convulse the quivering muscles till they will 
 laugh with neighings in the hurricane of battle, and shake, like 
 beasts with fangs, fragments dripping from their bloody jaws 
 for that red wine makes them drunk, too, and mad ; and then, if 
 you be merry, how with pricked ear and airy capricoling his 
 light movement chimes your humor ; and when you are sad and 
 thoughtful, how sober, steadfast, and demure he stalks, with 
 measured tread, and drooping crest, and contemplative eye, 
 guarded, as though he feared to break the subtil thread you spun 
 to weave in woof of midnight, or of beams. Glorious animals, I 
 love them ! and have seen in them traits of courteous chivalry far 
 beyond the soul-girth or the ken of those who are their tyrants. 
 Sorrel recognised me. He* was evidently something the worse of 
 the wild companionship and usage of the few days past. Horses 
 never forget a considerate friend, which is more than can be said 
 of the animal which claims to be the nobler. I thought the joy 
 the Colonel exhibited on recovering his old favorite horse, quite a 
 redeeming trait in his character. 
 
142 
 
 It was promptly proposed by Hays to make thi new and unex 
 pected addition to our forces available in ferreting out the mystery 
 of Agatone's escape, and fixing, if possible, the proofs of his 
 treachery upon the miscreant Davis. Bill was to take them to 
 the trail, and it was hoped that their numbers and singular saga 
 city might be able to accomplish what even his unerring skill had 
 failed to do. Black was to accompany, them. 
 
 During all the foregoing scene, I had observed him sitting on 
 his horse, apart his bent and broken rifle resting across the 
 saddle before his hand, stiff with dry gore, clutching it convul 
 sively his chin resting upon his breast while now and then his 
 flaming, blood-shotten eyes would throw out a light from under 
 his thick brows, as he glanced suddenly at the scalp hanging at 
 Castro's belt, to be withdrawn as quickly while his hairy lips 
 would quiver with low mutterings. Castro, after giving us, in 
 picturesque language and actions, a short sketch of his fight with 
 the Comanches, which, it seems, had been a sharp one, set off, 
 under the lead of Bill, with all his warriors, up the river, while 
 we started on the direct route for the Colonel's rancho. 
 
 A sharp ride brought us in sight of it. A horse was standing 
 hitched to the picket ; and as we rode up to dismount, who should 
 make their appearance in the door but Antone and Davis ! the finery 
 of th*e latter somewhat bespattered to be sure, but he looking as imper 
 tinent and self-satisfied as ever. Hearing some one exclaim behind 
 me, " Jack, I will, by Heaven ; let me go !" I looked around, and 
 saw Hays struggling with the Bravo, who, with a pistol in his 
 hand, was evidently about to try the curious experiment of bullet- 
 splitting he had spoken of, forthwith, upon the nose of the uncon 
 scious-looking Davis. Hays was using all his strength to prevent 
 this endeavoring to induce him to put off his experiment until 
 Castro and Bill got in, as they would make the matter sure, and 
 then he could do as he pleased. After considerable difficulty, 
 he succeeded in getting him, reluctantly, to put up his pistol, and 
 forego, for a short time, the gratification of his curiosity. 
 
 Several of the men now approached the fellow, who seemed not 
 to have understood all this, and continued simpering and chatting, 
 in a very inquisitive mood, with regard to the success of the expe- 
 dition, to them as they advanced ; but tfhen one of them roughly 
 
143 
 
 seized him by the collar, and jerked him from the door nearly 
 upon his face, his mood was suddenly changed, and with all the 
 traitorous malignity of his nature, mingled with the startle of des 
 perate fright in his expression, he fought and struggled with a 
 vigorous rapidity that had almost won his release, when four or 
 five more of our party threw themselves upon him, and tied him 
 with a lariat. He now howled, and screamed, and gnashed his 
 teeth, till foam fell from his lips, and tossed his body to and fro 
 with the wildest demonstrations of frantic fear and fury ; but it 
 was of no avail. These men sat by and smiled ; and when he 
 threw his eyes around, after exhausting himself in his fruitless 
 efforts, with an imploring look, and read in those pitiless eyes the 
 certainty of his doom, he threw himself upon the ground, with a 
 shriek so keen, so shrill with utter despair, that it pierced to my 
 very marrow, and made me shudder, for months afterwards, when 
 I thought of it. 
 
 Master Antone had most unaccountably disappeared. The 
 men, meantime, were sitting around in groups, quietly chatting 
 and casting their eyes occasionally in the direction from which 
 Bill and the Indians were expected. It was but a short time till 
 Castro made his appearance on the hill. He was leaning over 
 his horse's neck, looking closely at the ground. The position in 
 following a trail carefully was familiar to all, and every man 
 sprang to his feet, and watched in breathless silence the result ; 
 for they all knew that Indians could track a particular horse 
 among fifty others. Castro did not look up for a moment ; and I 
 never saw such eager, fixed excitement upon the faces of men 
 before, as marked those of this group, while the Indian slowly but 
 directly approached us. When within five paces, he raised his 
 head, and fixing his eye upon the horse that had been standing 
 there before, and since we arrived, pointed his finger at him, and 
 said, " That him !" This was Davis's ho^se. 
 
144 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 DEATH OF THE TJl A I T R . 
 
 THERE was no member of the party who did not of course un 
 derstand at once, that Bill had led Castro and his Indians back to 
 the place where he had shot Agatone's lieutenant, and lost sight 
 of the man with the " red on his cloak," and that Castro had 
 taken his trail, and followed with unerring skill to the very spot 
 where the horse was hitched. The Indian's expressive gesture 
 and exclamation, " That him !" had settled the matter with re 
 gard to Davis and no further questions would have been asked, 
 but that every one was eager to hear whether any discovery had 
 been made concerning Agatone. Leaving Davis tied and stretch 
 ed upon the ground, on the inside of the picketing, the whole 
 party climbed the blocks, and eagerly crowded around Castro, to 
 hear his narrative. 
 
 There was a degree of mystery about the escape of the Bandit 
 Captain which intensely excited the curiosity of these men Da 
 vis was securely enough hampered, and they felt no apprehensions 
 with regard to him for Antone was gone, and there was nobody 
 in the house or yard. The Lipan warriors came galloping up, 
 one after another, each like a faithful sleuth-hound closely follow 
 ing the trail. Amidst all the clamors of questions, shouts, and 
 oaths, with which his ears were- assailed by the impatien 4 
 Rangers, Castro continued perfectly impassive. He sat quietly 
 in his saddle watching the arrival of his warriors. Each one, as 
 he came in, would gallop up to the chief, and, with low, quick 
 utterance and rapid gestures, seemed to be making his report 
 what it was none of us but Hays could understand. Perceiving 
 
145 
 
 .hat the stoical chieftain was not to be hurried, and that nothing 
 conclusive could be got out of him until his Braves had all ar 
 rived, the Rangers became silent too, and following the eye of 
 Castro, would watch each warrior as he appeared on the distant 
 ridge, until he galloped up into the circle, made his report, and 
 fell back among the crowd. The reason for this proceeding was, 
 that Castro had scattered his warriors singly, for miles, around 
 the place where Agatone had disappeared, with orders to $nd his 
 trail, and then report to him. The men were beginning to mut 
 ter and stamp with impatience when the last warrior appeared. 
 When he fell back Hays said, looking at the chief " Nothing 
 done, Castro ?" He bowed his head with an abashed, humbled 
 look, and shaking it slowly, muttered, " No ! no find ! Him much 
 medicine man ! Him conjur !" 
 
 "D n the Indians! Where's Bill Johnson!" shouted the 
 Bravo. 
 
 "Yes, where's Bill? Where's Bill? he's worth 'em all!" 
 said several at once. 
 
 Hays, who had been speaking in a low voice to Castro, now 
 turned and said, " Bill is out there yet. He says we must sur 
 round Cavillo's Rancho put some one to watch every trail lead 
 ing into it we'll catch him that way, my fellows !.. He'll be 
 sneaking in to-night !" 
 
 " Davis can tell," said some one, in a loud voice. 
 
 " Yes, he knows all about it," said Fitz " lets quirt him until 
 he tells." 
 
 " Yes, ! yes !" said several ; " that's got to be done, Captain. 
 We'll finish with him first !" and all together they rushed towards 
 the stiles to get at Davis, who lay in the yard. 
 
 " Don't spoil the edge of his nose, boys !" shouted the Bravo, 
 laughingly. The. high picket- fence had been between us and 
 where Davis lay. I was following the crowd a cold shudder 
 creeping over me, as I thought of the horrid scene which must 
 ensue ; for I knew he was to die, .and that with fearful tortures 
 when a confused roar of voices suddenly arose from those before, 
 and a general headlong scramble followed then came the shrill 
 shriek of a woman's voice, and as I climbed the blocks of the 
 picketing, I could hear, above the confused trampjing and cla 
 
 13 
 
446 
 
 mors, such exclamations as " Kill her !" " Pitch her into tho 
 river !" " She let him go !" " The Mexican slut !" " In with 
 her !" " No, no ! she's a woman !" &c. 
 
 I reached the top Davis had disappcj/sd. One of the men 
 was dragging a woman from her hiding-place in the low thicket 
 we have before mentioned as being in the back-yard of the Rancho, 
 near the river bank ; the rest of the party, with cries and oaths, 
 were running to the man's assistance, and with furious impreca- 
 tions laid hold of the voman, and in spite of her screams, were 
 dragging her towards the water, when a man whom I recognised 
 as the Lieutenant, sprang in among them to her "rescue. In 
 another instant the butt of a gun, laid, not lightly, across his fore 
 head, felled him like an ox. Some one shouted " There he is !" 
 and two guns were fired as a figure dodged quickly behind a tree, 
 on the top of the bluff bank on the other side of the river, and dis 
 appeared. 
 
 In the momentary pause Hays threw himself among the infu 
 riated crowd around the woman, and dragged her back as they 
 were in the act of plunging her into the water with her hands 
 tied. There was a fierce struggle. I had reached them by this 
 time, and taking up the shout of Hays, " Shame ! shame ! she isfi 
 woman I" " You are men, no murder !" was striking, pushing, 
 and tugging at his side, before I had time to think what it all 
 meant. She was a woman, and they were going to drown her, 
 was as much as I knew, or wished to knew. Fitz and the Bravo 
 came to our help. They let gc the woman as the Bravo shouted, 
 " They missed Davis ! He's in the woods ! Come, he'll get 
 away !" and jumping into the water held his gun up witii one 
 hand, and struck with the other for the bluff. Several followed 
 him, as all would have done, had not Hays leaving the woman 
 in my charge set off down the river bank, calling to them to 
 come with him to where the bank was less steep. 
 
 In the breathless hurry of the preceding incidents I had only 
 time to see and act, but now, having drawn my breath, I perceiv 
 ed in a moment what had occurred for having been Icjss exciteo 
 than the rest, I had been behind and somewhat in the dark. The 
 woman, who was shivering in an ague-fit of terror, I saw, wan 
 the Mexican wife of the Lieutenant. Antone had orobaoly ?n- 
 

 147 
 
 formed her what was going on. Piorrnted by her guilty passion, 
 she had crept up by the back w> y \rito the yard of the Rancho, 
 and while we were engaged with Castro 'ia3 cut the thongs from 
 the limbs of Davis, who ran and had jumped into the river. The 
 two guns were fired at him as he disappeared in the woods on the 
 other side. The foremost men had seen her stoop in the brush, 
 and perceiving at once that she had assisted Davis's escape, would 
 have drowned her in their fury. Her husband who was held in 
 great contempt, they had knocked down without ceremony when 
 he attempted to rescue her. 
 
 Feeling no particular sympathy for either of them, I merely 
 cut loose her hands, told her to se& to her husband, and then fol 
 lowed after Hays. I perceived at once that his had been the pro 
 per course, for the Bravo and his men were still struggling to climb 
 the slippery steep bank when I lost sight of them. When I caught 
 up with Hays, I found him and his men mounted behind Castro 
 and his warViors, who had galloped around the picketing to the 
 river. I mounted behind a greasy, half naked fellow, and they 
 pushed their horses into the stream. After a deal of scrambling 
 and splattering we reached the other bank, and stood upon the 
 firm sod. Hays sprang to the ground, and called to us to dis 
 mount. It was arranged that Castro's warriors should gallop on 
 in a body to cut off the fugitive's retreat to the Senora Cavillo's 
 Rancho ; while we in couples pushed our way into the thick 
 woods. We supposed that the object of both Davis and Agatcne 
 would be to get to Cavillo's Rancho once behind the strong gates 
 of which they might well laugh us to scorn. 
 
 The Indians on horseback would overtake Davis if he. made 
 directly for the Rancho ; if not, they were to spread out their line, 
 and watch while ve beat the bush. In this way we supposed we 
 should hardly fail to recapture him, as he had but little start. 
 Castro himself sent his warriors on, while he dismounted, and 
 along with Hays went to where the fellow had been last seen, to 
 take his track and follow it up ; but as this would be slow work WP* 
 went ahead, trusting to chance. Fitz and myself happened to be 
 coupled in the pursuit. For a time, as we penetrated the dense 
 underbrush, the different parties kept in view or at least in hear 
 ing of each other. Of course we pushed on as rapidly as the 
 
148 
 
 nature of the ground traversed would permit, and it was not long 
 before all other sounds than those of our own scrambles through 
 the vines and brush died away, and we were alone in the silence 
 of the deep woods. I felt little interest in the chase these men 
 were driving so eagerly. It made small difference to me whether 
 the Mongrel escaped or not. I did not wish to find him, indeed, 
 for I should probably be compelled to shoot him in cold blood a 
 feat I had no stomach for. But there was that in this primitive 
 Nature, wearing her century-calms upon her front, which could 
 not fail to overcome me with a spell to sink a nameless awe into 
 my being brooding in shadowy peace upon the tumultuous star 
 tle of excitement the passions had been subjected to during the 
 late incidents. 
 
 My heedless pace had gradually slackened for the mood of 
 dreams was on me and I sat down upon the trunk of a fallen 
 tree. The unpleasant realities of the wild unnatural life I was 
 leading had disappeared, and in delicious revelations the ideal 
 life of calm and holy peace came around me, and in the flushed 
 quiet of that lull, the beguiled Fancy danced with its own airy 
 creatures to the merry click of the Castanet a bright-eyed Wood- 
 chuck was sounding, as it sat familiarly on the other end of the 
 log. Texas, battle, blood, Mexicans, Indians, Davis, all were as 
 things that had been and were not, while my heart made music of 
 its blissful memories amidst these evening choristers. 
 
 Suddenly my blood rushed to the centres in a cold and shudder 
 ing revulsion, and I sprang to my feet as if a rifle-ball had struck 
 me. Could it be real ? The shrill yell of a human voice had 
 suddenly burst upon the stillness, and been as suddenly smothered. 
 There was a mortal agony in its tones ! I looked around. Fitz 
 had disappeared there was no one in sight. I perceived for the 
 first time that I was not far from the river bank. Again I heacd 
 that voice of death-like anguish stifled into a low plaining then 
 bursting out again into louder and wilder shrieks of despairing 
 terror. I had been entirely unmanned by the suddenness of the 
 thing ; but now the thought of some foul murder being done in 
 the dark woods nerved me in an instant, and I bounded off in the 
 direction of the sounds. I thought of Fitz but I had heard nc 
 gun it could not be. Now it was a grating burst of harsh 
 
A little below the level on which I was standing, the body of a man writhing in the 
 agonies of death, was suspended by the neck from the limb of a tree which leaned very 
 far over the last bank of the river. PAGE 149. 
 
149 
 
 unnatural laughter, with the sound of struggling feet, that guided 
 me as I ran then all was silence. I burst my way through a 
 chaparal thicket, and came out upon the old bank of the river 
 and, my God ! may my eyes never rest upon such another 
 scene ! 
 
 A little below the level on which I was standing, tne body of a 
 man (whom I immediately recognised from the clothes to be Davis) 
 writhing in the agonies of death, was suspended by the Jieck from 
 the limb of a tree which leaned very far over the last bank 
 of the river. It was moving slowly up, rising towards the limb, 
 while the rope grated harshly over the bark, and as I stept 
 forward I saw beneath the hairy and haggard face of Black, lit 
 with the wild glare of maniac ferocity. With set uncovered 
 teeth and swollen muscles, he was leaning back, tugging with the 
 furious energy of madness at the other end of the rope by which 
 he was slowly hoisting his victim. My blood felt as if it were 
 freezing with horror. My first impulse was to leap down the 
 bank upon Black, and rescue the poor wretch, when a hand upon 
 my arm and a voice arrested me. 
 
 " Well done ! he has saved us the trouble !" 
 
 It was Fitz. I was inexpressibly relieved for this terrible 
 concatenation of murder and madness had almost shaken my 
 reason too, and I felt the need of some one near me less deeply 
 excited than myself. Fitz took the matter with wonderful sang, 
 froid. 
 
 " I wonder how he happened over this way," he continued. 
 " Never heard of one man's hanging another alone before ! but 
 they say madmen have the strength of seven men in them !" 
 
 " For God's sake," said I, " let's cut him down ! it is too 
 dreadful I" 
 
 " Pshaw, man ! You're not case-hardened ! It had to be done 
 he'd as well do it as any one else !" 
 
 The maniac had by this time drawn the body up to the limb, 
 and bringing the end of the lariat several times around a small 
 sapling, he secured it there. Then perceiving us for the first 
 time, he broke into that infernal hideous laugh I had heard before ; 
 and pointing with his finger to the dangling corpse, commenced 
 leaping and tossing his body to and fro in the strangest gyration* 
 
 13* 
 
150 
 
 gnashing his teeth then laughing again, and shouting ii 
 broken sentences too incoherently for me to understand. 
 
 Suddenly his mood seemed to change. Observing us steadily 
 for a rnoment, as we stood silently above him, he glanced quickly 
 up at the body and* muttered " They want it, Mary ! Hush ! 
 hush, honey ! they shant !" and slowly crouching his body, his 
 distended eyes fixed on us with that furtive burning light in them 
 peculiar to a panther about to spring, he crept cautiously along 
 the leaves on his hands and knees tow-ards us, keeping the trunks 
 of the trees interposed, as that animal would have done when 
 attempting a surprise. Even Fitz was terrified by this strange 
 manoeuvre, and with the instinct of the backwoodsman in all 
 circumstances of danger, cocked his rifle. The madman was 
 dragging after him his battered but heavy gun-barrel, which, 
 from the traces of fresh blood I saw upon it, had no doubt been 
 used first in disabling Davis, in the same way that it was now to 
 be used upon one or both of us. For the moment I was utterly 
 at a loss what to do, and found my hand involuntarily clutching 
 at the triggers of my own gun, as 1 watched the cold, sly, con 
 centrated ferocity with which this worse than wild beast was 
 nearing us for the deadly bound. The thought of shooting was 
 only a momentary thingr that would be worse than all the 
 horrors ! I whispered hurriedly to Fitz " Don't shoot ! club 
 your gun for Heaven's sake we can knock him down !" The 
 words had scarcely passed my lips before with a wild yell the 
 creature sprang towards us with his gun-barrel swung high in the 
 air. I was nearest to him, and remember a blow like the falling 
 of a tree upon me, which crushed down the parry I had attempted 
 with my rifle-barrel; and as I was. reeling in the fall, a dark 
 figure bounding past me from behind, a fiercer yell, and the 
 struggling of many feet and darkness rushed over my senses. 
 
 A Sombrero full of water dashed into my face brought 
 me to myself. Castro, who had just administered this 
 primitive^ but most effectual prescription for the cure of 
 obliviousness, was standing over me, grinning with plea 
 sure, though the blood was streaming down his forehead. Hays 
 stood by him bareheaded and panting. Fitz was reclining on the 
 leaves, looking very pale, and evidently badly hurt. The maniac, 
 
151 
 
 gnashing h.'s teeth and howling fearfully, lay stretched upon his 
 back, his limbs securely bound with a lariat. His face was 
 wretchedly disfigured, from the severe blows it had been neces 
 sary to inflict before he could be subdued. Hays told me that he 
 and Castro had been following the trail of Davis, and hearing the 
 strange noises Black was making, had set off in the direction of 
 them at a run, and had arrived just in time to see me fall, and 
 fortunately to save Fitz, who had nobly forborne to shoot until it 
 would have been too late, for he was staggering under the 
 tremendous blows which the madman was dealing at him. I 
 found that I was more stunned than seriously injured, and was on 
 my feet very soon ; the back of my head had been bleeding freely, 
 but the hurt was not severe. 
 
 It was now nearly dark, and Hays fired his rifle to 
 bring assistance.. We theji examined the scene of the novel 
 execution, a part of which I had witnessed. There were 
 evidences of a desperate struggle, and on cutting down the 
 body of Davis, we saw that he had received several blows of the 
 gun-barrel, which had no doubt partially disabled him, before even 
 the desperate strength of the madman could have been sufficient 
 to run him up unassisted. We came to the conclusion that Black, 
 who had shown symptoms of insanity some time before, had been 
 driven stark mad by the excitement of the affair with the Mexican 
 robbers ; and having in some way lost his horse during the search 
 for Agatone, had been wandering about since through the woods, 
 until chance brought him and Davis together ; and that having 
 heard Davis's name associated with Agatone's escape during 
 Bill's narrative, he had offered him up to appease the ghosts of 
 his murdered family. From all that had dropped from him, it was 
 evident the imagination that they were pursuing him, clamoring 
 for vengeance night and day that they might be permitted to go to 
 their graves in peace, had deranged him. That Fitz and myself 
 ftad suddenly appeared, to his distempered fancy, enemies who 
 came to rob his " Mary " of the victim he had sacrificed to her 
 restless manes, was clear enough, when we remembered what he 
 was muttering when he commenced so unexpectedly and 
 viciously to creep upon us. 
 
 Castro's warriors now came galloping up. They reported to 
 
152 
 
 him the fresh trail of a horse ridden at full speed, leading into 
 Jhe Rancho from this direction. We were singularly puzzled to 
 conjecture who this horseman could possibly be. It could hardly 
 be one of Agatone's men, escaped from the fray of the morning, 
 for we had taken all their horses. They had traced this rider 
 back to within a few hundred yards of where we were ; and 
 from signs which Indians and all experienced trailers read with 
 unerring precision, they were convinced that he had passed 
 within two hours. Hearing Hays' gun, they had dismounted, 
 and sent on three of their best trailers to keep the track while 
 they came to us. While we were discussing this curious item 
 of news with great interest and eagerness, a deep, prolonged 
 whoop, from the direction opposite to that by which the Indians 
 had approached, announced a new comer, and in another 
 moment the tall figure of Bill Johnson was ,seen indistinctly 
 through the faint twilight, parting the brush before his long strides. 
 At his heels came the three Indian trailers. 
 
 " Hurrah ! here's the old Otter-dog he's got the news !" 
 shouted Fitz, feebly. " How is it, Bill ?" " Who's that fellow 
 on the horse ?" " Got another brush to show, old boy ?" " Come, 
 fork over the news;'*' " Shell out, old ccor !*' &c., exclaimed one 
 and another as he strode into our midst. 
 
 Bringing the butt of his rifle carefully to the ground, he 
 crossed his hands over the muzzle, leaned his chin v.pon them, 
 and while his sharp black eyes twinkled rapidly over ihe scene 
 the rest of his face looked as if it had been cut in stone. The 
 broad moon, which had been up some time, streamed in suffi 
 cient light through the trees to enable him to see with tolerable 
 distinctness. 
 
 " Whar's the Kern ?" he drawled out, and then, in the same 
 breath, " Ye've been stringin' up that pole-cat thar, have yer ?" 
 
 " Black did it," said Hays. At this moment Bill's eye fell 
 upon the figure of Black, which lay writhing to and fro with 
 low moanings on the ground. He started as if a snake had 
 struck him, while his eyes flamed again. " Look here, fellers, 
 Bill Johnson don't stand this !" and before any one could inter- 
 pose or explain, he had drawn a knife from his belt, and with 
 
153 
 
 one long stride stood over Black, and was rapidly severing the 
 thongs which bound his limbs. 
 
 " Bill, for God's sake don't ! he's raving mad he'll knock 
 down right and left!" said Fitz rapidly, while the party scattered 
 on all sides. 
 
 " Tarnation !" roared Bill, furiously, as he assisted the mad- 
 man to his feet j " Yer white-livered younkers ! and these cow 
 hide strings 'nough to make a man like Jim Black rarein' tearin* 
 mad ? Tie a hunter like some chicken-stealin 7 sneak in the 
 States, will yer? just for hf,ngin' a man, too ! Pretty spot o' 
 work ! got any bull-neck Judges ; got any weazen faced lawyers 
 out here to swindle a man's rights away, have yer ? mad, is he ? 
 Try to serve Bill Johnson so if yer want to see somebody mad. 
 Who done this? Knock down as many as you please, Jim 
 Black ; Bill Johnson's here, and old Sue." 
 
 I heard the clicking of rifle-locks around me at 1 this. Bill 
 patted the madman heavily on the shoulder as he gave him this 
 last exhortation to avenge the indignity which it seemed he 
 hastily supposed had been put upon him. Black, who had been 
 standing in a sort of stupor, was thoroughly roused by the friendly 
 blow, and glaring his eyes in the face of his old comrade for a 
 moment, with a loud guttural shriek sprang suddenly at his 
 throat. Nobody interfered, and now the stern and powerful 
 hunter exhibited his finest traits. His iron fingers tore away the 
 frantic grasp of the madman from his throat ; then closing with 
 him he clasped him in the bear-hug of those long heavy arms. 
 
 Black was a very strong man at any time, and inflamed as all 
 his energies now were with the preternatuial fires of maniac 
 rage, it required the full exertion of all the huge strength for 
 which Bill was remarkable to cope with him. We looked on 
 with intense interest, for everybody present, like myself, was 
 uncertain and curious as to whether Bill's indignant and abrupt 
 course had been the result of sheer simplicity mistaking the 
 sense of the expression " madness," of a sagacious intuition of 
 the treatment proper in such a case, or confidence in his own 
 resources. For a moment or so the figures of the two men were 
 tossed to and fro in the uncertain light, linked and writhing in a 
 item, silent, and desperate struggle. It seemed to me that Bill's 
 
154 
 
 object was to quell and overbear the madman by the weight of 
 physical superiority without hurting him. I shuddered, when, 
 as they whirled by close to me, I perceived the cause of the 
 ominous silence of the madman. His teeth were clenched in the 
 shoulder of the Trapper, whose pale face as it gleamed past was 
 rigid and calm as ever. A sudden change came over the aspect 
 of the combat. The two figures were perfectly still for a moment 
 then that of Black gradually sank towards the ground. I 
 stepped close to them and saw that Bill, by the tremendous power 
 of his hug, had paralysed him by pressure on the spine. With 
 his back bending in, the grip of his teeth loosened as he sank 
 upon his knees. 
 
 At that moment, while Bill stooped over him, their eyes met. 
 The two figures seemed at once to be frozen into a deathlike 
 pause, while their eyes were riveted upon each other. It seemed 
 to me that those of Bill were emitting a keen and palpable flame 
 that steadily searched the depths of the brain beneath him. 
 There was something terrible and ghost-like in his white stony 
 face, lit with that calm weird light, heightened by a broad fleck 
 of the moon's rays that fell upon it through an opening m the 
 trees. I could scarcely breathe with the excitement half of 
 awe which fell upon me as I looked on this intense scene. The 
 glare of animal feroo;ty rapidly faded from the fascinated gaze 
 of the madman; the spasmoJic contraction of his features sub 
 sided his muscles were unstrung from their tension. 
 
 Bill, yet gazing steadily into his eyes, gently shook off his 
 grasp as he loosened his own hold, and then straightening himself, 
 lifted -him slowly up with him to hfs feet. Black's spell-led eyes 
 still followed th* face of his conqueror for an instant; he then 
 drew the back of his rough and gore-encrusted hand quickly 
 across them, and, bursting into tears, with a convulsive sob that 
 seemed to be tearing up the very foundations of his life, reeled to 
 one side and fell heavily to the earth. Not a few long breaths 
 were drawn by those around me the majority of whom were as 
 much terrified as astonished at this extraordinary denouement of 
 a most wonderful scene. 
 
 All had observed the mastery Bill's eyes had exhibited over 
 this, to them, mysterious distemper, and some regarded it as a 
 
155 
 
 supernatural display ; particularly Castro and his Indians, who 
 looked upon the Trapper with expressions, ludicrously mingled, 
 of awe, humility, and affright. Bill had ordered water to be 
 brought from the river, of which Black, who had fallen from 
 excessive weakness the collapse of his long excitement drank 
 with inconceivable eagerness. He seemed so subdued,,! hoped 
 for a moment that the spell had passed from off his soul ; but 
 there was the same incoherence and wandering evident as soon 
 as he was able to speak ; and when any of us came very near 
 him, the same disposition to injure us. Bill alone could control 
 him at a single glance from whose eye he became humble 
 again. I should not have been particularly astonished at the 
 simple fact that Bill's eyes, or the eyes of any other man of great 
 firmness, should have exerted this absolute power over a mad 
 man ; for that such a power had long been known to exist and 
 been used by occasional individuals in the treatment and man. 
 agement of lunatics, I was perfectly aware ; but what did 
 surprise me was, that this uncultivated Trapper, who had proba 
 bly never seen or heard of a medical book in his life, and as 
 probably never saw a madman before, should have seemed so 
 securely conscious of possessing this unusual power as to hav& 
 trusted to it calmly through a scene of so much peril. How 
 and where he could have picked up this knowledge, was a ques 
 tion I determined in my own mind to have settled on the first 
 opportunity. 
 
 In the meantime arrangements were made to return to the 
 Colonel's Rancho. The body of Davis was thrown into the river ; 
 Black was mounted upon the horse of a Lipan, the lariat of 
 which Bill held as he led off the party on the return. Hays, 
 Fitz, and several others of the Rangers who had joined us, were 
 discussing and accounting for the late scene with great earnest 
 ness, in their own way, as we walked on, some vowing it was 
 one thing, others another ; but most inclined to regard it with 
 superstition. Finding that no light was to be gained from them, 
 I determined to join Bill, who was moodily striding on alone, 
 and try whether I could draw him into a communicative humor. 
 It had occurred to me that the effect had been purely accidental. 
 But this view I was almost disposed to discaH on remembering 
 
156 
 
 Bill's steady and methodical management from the time h 
 catight the madman's eye. I had observed a trait of supersti 
 tion in his own character, and was not surprised when 1 found 
 him very mysterious and difficult of approach on the subject. I 
 soon perceived that he himself did not understand the origin of 
 the power, and it was only after a great deal of cross-questioning 
 and urging, that I could get a hint of the source from which he 
 had originally received the suggestion. 
 
 It appeared from what he let fall, that years ago, in one of his 
 trapping expeditions towards the head waters of the Platte, he had 
 met with three men two Americans and a half-breed Indian 
 whose sole occupation seemed to be that of catching mustangs. 
 These, after being captured, the Half-breed would render perfectly 
 tame in a few hours so much so that they would follow him 
 about the prairie, and come to him at his call. A wolf was cap 
 tured and tamed in as short a time, and as effectually. The 
 Half-breed had been very mysterious as to his mode of proceed 
 ing, and announced that he bewitched them but added, also, that 
 he could, for a " compensation" commensurate with the value of 
 the important secret, impart it to others. Bill had collected a 
 very valuable pack of beaver pelts, and so deeply had he been 
 interested and impressed, that without any hesitation he had offered 
 .them in exchange for the secret. This, after some demur, the 
 cunning Half-breed had agreed to, first binding Bill over to secresy 
 by the most fantastic rites and solemn oaths. Under these injunc 
 tions the secret had been communicated, and of course was Deyond 
 my reach. Bill said he had often tried the " spell," as he called 
 it, upon the wildest and most ferocious animals with perfect suc 
 cess when he could get them " cornered" long enough for it to 
 work. That he had been equally successful with men who had 
 the " tremblers" (delirium tremens) upon them after a spree. 
 
 I had often heard of these " wild horse tamers," as they are 
 called, and felt great curiosity with regard to them. It added not 
 a little to the interest I already felt in the character of my long- 
 sided friend, the Trapper, to find that he belonged to this myste 
 rious fraternity. Without having witnessed, as yet, any of their 
 feats, I had, under a theory of my own, been disposed to classify 
 them among the unexplained phenomena of mesmerism ; which 
 
157 
 
 last designation would, indeed, include all the apparent facts of 
 the embryo science. Bill had never heard of mesmerism, though, 
 and the suspicion that he had stumbled unawares upon the exist 
 ence of a physical law, of the nature of which he, in common 
 with its more learned advocates, was profoundly ignorant, had 
 crossed my mind more than once. It was interesting to have thua 
 traced it back to a seeming connexion, heretofore unsuspected, 
 with influences producing inexplicable effects in two classes of 
 well-known facts the taming of madmen and wild beasts. 1 
 had afterwards the opportunity of examining iwiw furious subject 
 with greater minuteness, and satisfying myself more definitely as 
 to the plausibility of my new tneory. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A Y ELLER BELLY . 
 
 WE met the Colonel with the Bravo and his party near the 
 raricho, returning bootless from their search pushed in another 
 direction. 
 
 The Colonel's sagacity had also discovered the trail of the 
 strange horseman which had so much puzzled us, though the 
 recollection of it had been for the time overcome by the late inci 
 dents. Without waiting to hear more of the details we had to 
 give than the simple intelligence that Davis had been hung by 
 Black which he seemed ^to consider a matter-of-course incident 
 he insisted upon Bill's report about Agatone, and explanation, 
 if he had any to give, of the tracks. 
 
 Bill proceeded in his quaint vernacular to inform us that he 
 had proceeded with Castro and the Indians to the place in Big 
 Bend Bottom, where he had at first seen the three men, of whom 
 the person supposed to be Agatone was riding behind one of the 
 others the Lieutenant, probably whom he shot. That here he 
 and Castro had taken their trail again and followed it with the most 
 minute care, examining evefry tree near the trunk of which it 
 passed, to see whether he had been pushed up into it to hide 
 among the long moss. The Indians were spread out on every 
 side to look for the traces, of his footsteps, so that every square 
 yard of the ground for some distance on both sides of the trail 
 had been carefully examined up to the point where he, by cutting 
 across, had intercepted the horsemen, and seen, to his astonish- 
 ment, that the man riding behind had disappeared. Here Castro 
 had taken Davis's trail, which he followed in to. the rancho, as we 
 
159 
 
 have detailed. His Indians he had sent back to teat the woods 
 in every direction again, with no better success than before. 
 
 " Arter the red-skins war gone," said Bill, " I squats upon er 
 old log for, boys, I tell you Bill Johnson war clean dumb- foun 
 dered ! This Agatone's gittin' away so cute tuck the shine out er 
 anything I know'd. Thinks I, whar is the little weasel got to ? 
 He cant've flewed, sure enough. Then I thunk of that half-an'- 
 half skunk an' wildcat Davis! what could er brought him out 
 here ? He come fer sumphin, sure ! I ups upon my pegs an* 
 made er bee-line for the place whar his trail come in to jine Aga 
 tone's. I tuck on it and follered it backwards er long time round- 
 er-boutin' an' twistifyin' as if he war lookin' for sumphin. It 
 brung me at last 'way 'round the bottom to a chaparal, jest in the 
 direction they were makin' for when Agatone sloped so surprisin'. 
 What der ye think, boys ! I found a place tramped whar a horse 
 had been standin' hitched since daybreak, maybe, till jest er while 
 before. If I'd er only been a leetle sooner, I'd er had him ! I 
 found his fresh tracks on the ground, an' whar the horse had 
 dunged when he started. It war warm. Maybe I didn't tare my 
 wool and cuss a little! He war off 'twarnt worth while ter 
 sweat. I tuck the back track of his little boots that war plain 
 enough, and may I be catawampussed, boys, but he'd been hid in 
 the moss up one er them live oaks I'd looked up inter twenty 
 times ter-day." 
 
 " But how the deuce did he get thar, Bill j you said you 'ooked 
 up all the trees V said Fitz, breathlessly. 
 
 " Ah ! that war the cunninnest trick that ever er Yaller-belly 
 war up ter yet. Them fellers war up ter trailin' they know'd 
 they had a trailer arter 'em too. I told yer we did look up all 
 x the trees whar ther trail led close to. Thar war a grape vine, 
 the bigness er my wrist, hangin' down a little way frum a limb 
 twenty feet out frum ther body of the tree. It war pretty high 
 up, too; a man sitting on er horse couldn't a reached it. The 
 little monkey must er stood up on ther horse's back behind the 
 feller I shot, and while ther horse war goin' at a gallop for the 
 bracks warn't broke, I look'd out sharp for that he grabbed the 
 grape vine and swung off, then eased himself*up on the limb and 
 bid in the moss !" ' 
 
160 
 
 " Hurrah ! by jingo, that beats Davy Crockett !" " Good I 
 Agatone will do !" " He's a keener !" were the exclamations 
 which here interrupted Bill's narrative. 
 
 The Rangers were too mucli of woodsmen themselves not to 
 appreciate and admire heartily so dexterous a game as this, 
 though played by an enemy to their own discomfiture. 
 
 " Then he must have laid close up there, that you nor the In- 
 dians could see him, Bill ?" 
 
 " Yes, thar war a heap er moss on ther tree ye might er walk 
 ed under a bar all day and not seed him!" 
 
 " He must have stayed there all day, too, until the Indians 
 came away, or they would have found his track ?" 
 
 " The cunnin' little rascal laid low an' kept dark 'till they 
 
 were all gone ; then he come down and skooted for ther horse." 
 
 " Yes, the infernal old hag sent Davis out thar with a fresh 
 
 horse for him, and the news that we were coming out to look for 
 
 him, that's how it was," muttered the Colonel. 
 
 " But how," suggested I, " could she have got the news that 
 his horse had been wounded by your shot that night ?" 
 
 " He must have had some fellows with him, and left them out 
 side the Rancho ; one of them, you know, shot at me on the log. 
 The others, I expect, were waiting for him out, and he sent one 
 of them back to tell her that night, Davis was to leave the horse 
 at the chaparal, but having the news about us, the traitor went to 
 look for him in the Bend, and that's what made his trail so round 
 abouting, as Bill says !" 
 
 " That war ther way it come." 
 
 "But, Bill, you followed the trail-of Agatone's horse up, didn* 
 you?" 
 
 , " For sartin I did ! I went back ter the chaparal, tuck it, and 
 war nosein' it up close when I hern the rifle Captain here fired. 
 Then I cum'd jam agin Castro's three red-skins, who war follerin' 
 it backwards." 
 
 " So he's housed, Colonel, you see, snug enough for to-night," 
 eaid Hays. 
 
 " Yes," growled he, V snug enough if I don't, burn ram out be. 
 fore morning. He slipped in just before Davis got away, I expect, 
 
161 
 
 and that in the broad daylight too. He won't get out again it 
 easy, or Fm mistaken." 
 
 " But where was Black all this time ?" asked I of Bill, as ht 
 was turning off. 
 
 "He tuck off through the woods soon as we left yer at 
 the ford ; didn't see him any more till I com'd whar these 
 green younkers had been insultin' his arms with their dirty 
 strings !" 
 
 Nobody who heard the last speech of the Colonel suspected 
 him, even remotely, of joking in the threats he let fall. He had 
 appeared so moodily absorbed since it had been made evident 
 that his enemy was near him almost within his reach with 
 cnly wooden walls interposed between them that it was hard for 
 ihose who knew him best to conjecture what his surly and 
 desperate hate might not do before morning. That he was fiercely 
 determined this night should settle the long account between 
 Agatone and himself at whatever risk, soon became clear enough. 
 He went aside with Bill and Hays, and held a long consultation. 
 We, in the meantime, despatched a hasty meal. They then 
 came forward and joined us. After all were through, the 
 Colonel picked up six-shooter, and seemed to be examining it 
 attentively, then raised his head suddenly as if a new thought had 
 struck him. 
 
 " Boys," said he, grinning hideously, " what do you say to a 
 whole-hog out-and-out frolic to-night ?" 
 
 " I'm for it," said one. 
 
 " I'm thar !" said Texas. " What is it, Colonel ?" 
 
 " Fellers, we must have Agatone, any how!" 
 
 " In course but how ?" 
 
 " Well, we can stampede the sheep-pen you know that's 
 outside the gate ; maybe they'll be fools enough to come out ; we 
 can make a rush at the gate then." 
 
 " She's too sharp for that, Colonel /" 
 
 With a rasping chuckle and vicious significant leer he merely 
 said, as he turned off, " I smell something burning maybe she 
 will !" 
 
 " Ha ! that's the game ! She'll burn blue ? won't she, Colonel ?" 
 was said by some one as they all rose to get their weapons, 
 
 14* 
 
162 
 
 without another syllable of comment upon this monstrous 
 position being considered as called for by these matter-of-fact 
 personages. The idea of setting fire to the houses of three or 
 four hundred unoffending human beings, that the insane hate of 
 three or four men might be gratified with the prospect of any 
 amount of indiscriminate slaughter, was too infernally rich not to 
 be revelled in by these chivalric pioneers of the blessings of 
 civilization and free institutions ! What were Mexican women 
 and children born for but to afford them the amusement of seeing 
 them roast ! This cool diabolicism, though it could not fail, under 
 any circumstances, to shock me, yet hatl at least the merit oi 
 novelty it was anomalous in my experience of life, and, so far 
 as curiosity went, attractive. Opposition I knew would avail 
 nothing, and merely subject me to suspicion and personal danger; 
 besides the companionship of peril which I had voluntarily offered 
 to share with them left me no choice but to see them through. 
 My probable compunctions and whatever of humanity I had left 
 on hand, ought to have been looked to before I had placed myself 
 in such relations. As it was, I made the most of a bad move, 
 and endeavored to look forward to the anticipated " barbecue of 
 Yellow Bellies," as some one jocosely called it, with as vividly 
 pleasurable sensations as I could summon. 
 
 .The fact unquestionably was, that this Rancho had long been 
 the greatest nuisance of this frontier. Pretending to be friendly 
 to. the Texans, the old Senora Cavillo had secretly aided and 
 encouraged the worst of the border depredators, and the storm of 
 vengeance for several years had been muttering upon her 
 horizon. The Texans had been too few in this region for some 
 time to attempt her destruction, and now that a number possibly 
 sufficient had been 'brought together, and that under circum 
 stances of so much immediate exasperation against her, there was 
 no telling what might be the result of this night's work. I had, 
 unconsciously perhaps, assimilated very much in my feelings 
 towards the Mexicans with the tone of those around me, 
 and that was characterized by the most deadly and unutterable 
 scorn. 
 
 The two races in this country have no sympathy in common 
 but that of hatred ; on the' one side the malignant assassin hate of 
 
163 
 
 coward and conscious inferiority on the other, the contemptuous 
 exterminating hate of domineering brutality secure in superior 
 energies, and as destitute of magnanimity as it is grasping. This 
 scorn is a very convenient sentiment, by the way, too often assumed 
 by natures having in them generous susceptibilities, as the 
 readiest mitigation, and higher name for any harsh outbreak ol 
 licentious passion upon inferiors. 
 
 It is hard for warlike men to 'display chivalry towards an 
 ignoble foe ; ordinarily courtesy calls forth courtesy, and so with 
 its opposite. It is thus on this frontier, that where true bravery 
 exists still, it has most frequently degenerated into a fierce 
 relentlessness, while mere qut-throat ferocity is as frequently 
 mistaken for the nobler virtue. There is little call for the higher 
 traits of the civilized soldier, and they are as little known as 
 valued. From the observation of such facts, I, as well, strongly 
 incline to doubt, whether with all the parade that has been so 
 popular with regard to the prodigies of Texan valor tha* 
 population would prove at all superior, if even equal to the 
 " corn-stalk militia" of any one of the older States upon an equal 
 field against an equal foe. They may very well afford to fight 
 Mexicans five to one as the boast is when not more than one 
 in that five can fire his gun without shutting his eyes ; besides, 
 the yet more important fact is, that the social virtues of which 
 the Texans have confessedly as yet had no overplus to boast, 
 are the truest and most certain incentives of heroism. The best 
 soldiers are the best sons, and father's, and citizens. They have 
 desperadoes enough, such as these men were, who feared neither 
 God nor man, it would seem ; but desperadoes are not always 
 the surest soldiers they are ever liable to being panic-stricken 
 when attacked on the blind side, or when called upon to meet 
 danger in any unsuspected or unusual way. 
 
 These are general observations which apply to a population in 
 which too many of the extremes meet for anything very consistent 
 to be looked for. The truth is; I was gradually becoming Texan 
 myself, under the rapid process of " case-hardening" to which 
 these men around me had been in turn subjected ; and that the 
 incrustation of habit was insensibly forming over the moral sense, 
 I became occasionally aware at such times as this, when I fcund 
 
1(54 
 
 myself so readily sophisticating so easily reconciled though 
 conditions absolutely horrifying in themselves were presented. 
 This consciousness would make me extremely restless then, and 
 even the recollection of it now makes me perhaps splenetically 
 uncharitable towards these men. The hate engendered through 
 years of mutual wrongs had not yet in my case been kindled into 
 a fierce devouring flame which made a hell at the heart and 
 madness in the brain ; yet this had been so with them, and with 
 consequences such as I have described, and shall proceed to show, 
 occurring within a few days! judge what the years of such a life 
 must have been ! 
 
 Black, who might have been a serious and unmanageable 
 incumbrance to a design requiring great secresy, had fortunately 
 fallen asleep, after devouring, Uke a famished wild beast, an 
 enormous meal. We set off in silence for the Rancho, accom 
 panied by Castro and his warriors on foot. They wer^ sent 
 ahead with orders to seize, without noise, any straggler they 
 might find, to prevent the alarm being given. The moon was 
 out very bright, but her rays penetrated feebly beneath the dense 
 umbrage of the forest as we approached the log-bridge of which I 
 have spoken. 
 
 We had nearly reached this difficult passage, when a sudden 
 commotion among the Indians announced that something had hap 
 pened. There was a scattering, crashing, and scrambling through 
 the thickets for a moment a stifled cry and they came out 
 dragging among them a prisoner ! Who should it be, trembling 
 in a mortal panic, but Master Antone, whose unaccountable dis 
 appearance after the capture of Davis had since been frequently 
 commented upon in no mincing terms. Indeed, every one sus 
 pected him of too warm a sympathy for the traitor, and friendship 
 for the old Senora ; and threats had been let fall' which now, it, 
 appeared, were to be executed. I saw there would be little 
 chance for him when Castro reported that he had heard him or 
 some one else run from a thicket close to the Colonel's Rancho, 
 wnen we came out, and that, suspecting he would make for the log, 
 he had intercepted him. This placed Sir Braggadocio under the 
 unpleasant imputation of having added the character of spy to his 
 many salient qualities. The proposition was made instanter to 
 
165 
 
 swing him up to the nearest limb. The Indians, first binding hii 
 mouth to keep him quiet, proceeded to halter him. I had witness 
 ed enough of such murders for one day, and was unwilling to sea 
 this harmless wretch lose his life so unceremoniously; though I saw 
 as well that the men were too fiercely roused to be entirely divert 
 ed from their purpose of vengeance. I proposed that we should 
 throw him off the log into the river, tighten and secure the rope 
 just sufficiently to keep his head above water, and leave him there 
 to drown at his leisure intending myself to come back and re 
 lease him so soon as I could get away from the party. The 
 novelty of Lhis proposition won for it success ; and with low hearty 
 chucklings of Daughter, which could hardly be restrained from 
 bursting into shouts, they dragged the miserable rascal to the log, 
 and, after securely swathing his mouth, plumped him off into the 
 water. Hays, who understood my motive, assisted me with great 
 zeal in adjusting the rope. The rapidity of the stream soon 
 brought him up on the surface of the water, at full length, below 
 the log. There we left him stretched his hands clenched des 
 perately on the rope, to prevent it tightening to suffocation around 
 his throat playing to and fro, like a hooked trout on the current, 
 the violence of which would now ana then take him clear under 
 suddenly, to bob up again as quickly a rather funny, but not 
 very dangerous predicament, s^ long as the strength of his arms 
 lasted. The knave fully deserved the punishment, severe as it 
 was, and we left him to the darkness and to the infinite agonies 
 of such suspense ! All but ITays and myself expected him to 
 drown of course, which would be inevitable so soon as his arms 
 gave out ; and the diabolical ingenuity of such a mode of tortur 
 ing to death gained me great applause, and entirely reinstated me 
 In the confidence of the Colonel, which had been greatly shaken 
 by my officious humanity on a former occasion. I was now pro 
 nounced worthy of Texas ! ! 
 
 When we were all over the log the Colonel proceeded to explain 
 more fully the plan of operation determined upon, and having 
 assigned each one his post, we commenced approaching the ran- 
 cho with the precaution necessary to insure against giving the 
 alarm. The time for making active demonstrations was fixed for 
 midnight ; until then we were to occupy separately certain loca- 
 
166 
 
 Kons which brought every side of the rancho under the eye of 
 some one, so that Agatone might be foiled in any attempt to 
 escape prematurely. We were then to draw up in two detach* 
 ments near the great gate on each side, and wait the result of the 
 intended manoauvre. The position assigned me was on the river 
 bank, near some huts outside the picketing. I was rejoiced at 
 this chance, for it gave me the opportunity I desired of creeping 
 back and rescuing Antone. 
 
 I waited until the men, who were cautiously moving off to their 
 different posts, had all disappeared. I then slid lower down the 
 bank, and was starting off noiselessly under its shadow, when, a 
 faint " whist !" sounded near me, suspended my steps. A.S 1 
 turned, a figure, emerging from the loose sand in which it had 
 been covered, sprang up, and showed me the cunning elfish face 
 of the boy John. He came close to me, and peering up into my 
 face with a saucy leer, whispered, . 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! ye'r gwine to help him worry the old cat some to- 
 night is ye ?" 
 
 The first thought which crossed my mind on seeing the 
 boy excited and anxious as I felt for the life of Antone, who 
 might give out any minute was not surprise that he should be in 
 such a place and so concealed, but that ha was the very person 
 to be sent to save the poor fellow. His size and dexterity would 
 enable him to reach the log much sooner than I could, without the 
 fear of giving the alarm. So catching him by the arm, I drew 
 him with me to a more shaded place, slipped a piece of money 
 into his hand, and hastily explaining the circumstances, promised 
 him more money if he would go and extricate Antone as quickly 
 as possible. He heard me through, and at my urgency bounded 
 off rapidly, saying " Never mind ; W.fx him for ye, boss !" 
 
 It was not until the creature was out of sight, that I thought 
 of the strange, vicious significancy of the look with which that 
 promise had been made. I had been too greatly flurried to think 
 of or observe anything but the getting him off in time for Antone 
 had now been in the water half an hour, and there was not a 
 moment to be lost. I instantly associated tha_ peculiar look 
 with a fact I had heard the Texan laugmng about namely, that 
 whi.e we were gone to Bexar after the Rangers, Antone had 
 
167 
 
 accused John to the Colonel of stealing from his pork barrel 
 which, it will be remembered, -was the truth and that this, toge 
 ther with other causes of exasperation, had gained for John a 
 most brutally severe beating at the hands of the Colonel ; recol 
 lecting, too, the boy's -reputation for malignancy, it at once flashed 
 upon me that he intended to make this the opportunity of a ven 
 geance, the extent of which it would be hard to conjecture. 
 
 I set off on the moment at my best speed, to counteract, if 
 possible, what might be the consequences of my inconsiderate 
 haste. My progress was slow enough for to prevent discovery 
 it was necessary to creep close under the 'jank next to the water's 
 edge and my hurry and impatience did not improve the rapidity 
 of my progress. Now slipping down the crumbling bank into 
 the water then wading through the slush and mire until I could 
 drag myself out by a bush, I succeeded at last in reaching a point 
 near the log, where I could safely ascend among the trees on 
 to firm ground. I paused a minute to listen, and could distin 
 guish the sound of heavy splashing and struggles in the water, 
 and a subdued guttural noise like smothered laughter, and now 
 and then a plunge as of some object falling. I stepped noiselessly 
 forward to where I could command a view of the log. The 
 figure of the boy lay crouched on the middle of the bridge. 
 Observing him a moment, I saw that he was holding on with his 
 feet, and one hand, while with the other he was thrusting a long 
 pole violently down at the hands and head of the wretched 
 Antone, evidently with the hope of breaking his despairing grasp 
 of the rope, or thrusting his head beneath the water. He accom 
 panied every blow with a hissing laugh and some such exclama 
 tions as 
 
 " It's me ! It's John ! he ! he ! I telled ye so I said 
 I'd fix you cussed Yaller Belly ! he ! he ! Let go, will ye, 
 honey! Tell old Red-Head on John agin? I'll spile them 
 blinkers for ye ! yah ! yah ! ha ! ha !" and the little fiend 
 eased himself up on thr- log to indulge a heartier burst of merri. 
 ment at his stfccess in having struck one of the eyes of the victim, 
 which were already almost bursting from their sockets, as they 
 upturned in the spasm of a mute imploring agony. 
 
 I had in the meantime been approaching him unobserved and 
 
168 
 
 at this moment stood over him, and saw that the pain caused by 
 this last savage expedient had compelled Antone to quit his hold 
 upon the rope, and in an instant it had tightened upon his throat. 
 Enraged beyond all restraint at the ferocious and unparalleled 
 deviltry of the young murderer, I, without any warning or con 
 sideration, struck him a violent blow which knocked him off the 
 log, and the swift stream instantly swept him out of sight. I then 
 laid my gun on the log, and, cutting loose the rope, with the end 
 in my hand sprang off into the water. I was a good swimmer, 
 and seizing the body of Antone made for the bank. The force 
 of the current swept me down a long distance, and, encumbered 
 as I was, I should hardly have succeeded in reaching the shore 
 with my burden, but that the favorable accident of my being 
 swept in reach of the twigs of a tree which leaned far over the 
 current, allowed me to drag myself and it out with great difficulty. 
 Loosening the rope, and tearing open his shirt, I found to my 
 relief that the heart still fluttered faintly and when I tore the 
 bandage from his mouth the water poured forth copiously. 
 
 It was several hours before the wretched Antone had suffi 
 ciently recovered for me to leave him. The fright, the drench 
 ing, and the blows he had received from the boy, united, had 
 almost annihilated what energies of life there were in hit 
 shrivelled carcase. With his crushed eye, and the ghastly saffron 
 of his face, he was a sufficiently unpleasing companion beneath 
 the glooms of that deep forest, which were only fitfully informed 
 with moonlight. I was glad enough when I saw him able to sit 
 up unassisted, and rose to leave him, for I could do nothing more 
 now. He was not strong enough to walk to the Rancho, leaving 
 out of the question the impossibility of his obtaining admission 
 there, even should he reach it. Besides, I had merely com 
 promised with my own conscience in saving the life of the mise 
 rable creature ; and now that had been accomplished, I felt no 
 special " yearning of the spirit" towards him, "vnich might keep 
 me at his side to comfort him in the darkness ; and ^ru y did It 
 seem to need a comforter. 
 
 When he saw that I was going to leave him he clung fia.ucio 
 ally to my limbs, and with the idiotic mouthings of his terror rev: . 
 a most dismal pleading for me to stay. It was time for me to U 
 
169 
 
 at my post, and for fear the rnoans of even this reptile humanity 
 might move me too much, I shook his clenched grip violently oft 
 and started hastily for the Rancho. His voice followed me as i 
 struggled through the dense brush for some distance. The 
 creature's feeble wits had been temporarily addled by the night's 
 work. Hideous as portions of it had been, and painful as those 
 sounds were, I remember just as they were dying away that I 
 burst into a hearty laugh as the ludicrous contrast presented 
 itself of valiant Sir Braggadocio Antone, in the glory of one of 
 his boasting feats, and the writhing, pitiable thing I had just left. 
 The nerves, when unstrung through scenes like these, grow 
 unnaturally impressible, and vibrate to strange humors. One 
 feels sometimes as though he would laugh though tottering on the 
 sheer brink of some red shaft to Tartarus. Curious problem ! 
 this monstrous trinity, Man part fiend, part angel, and part 
 brute. 
 
 Tt would require a strong reliance upon the evidence of things 
 unseen, to suppose any part of him could be developed in such a 
 life as that on this frontier, other than his fiend and brute 
 natures. 
 
170 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A NIGHT ATTTACK 
 
 I R&A:HED the log recovered my gun, and set off for my post 
 the ray I came along under the bank of the river. Mid- 
 night, I knew, was very near if not passed, and this was the 
 time for the attack upon the Rancho to commence. It would be 
 disgraceful for me to fail of being there at the crisis. I hurried 
 on regardless of mud and water, for the last few hours had suffi 
 ciently familiarized me with both. I soon gained a point where, 
 from the top of a bank, sheltered by the trees, I could command 
 a perfect view of the Rancho beneath the clear moonlight. The 
 intervening space was open, with the exception of a few scattered 
 trees. Its low, square bulk looked as dark as death ; not a 
 glimmer of light or the faintest sound came from it. The great 
 gate was in front of me. A little to the left, and separated by a 
 short interval, was the lower picketing of the sheep-pen a large 
 inclosure in which the immense flocks of sheep and goats belong 
 ing to such Ranches are collected at night. These creatures are 
 easily " stampeded" or frightened, and will make noise enough 
 to wake the seven sleepers, in the effort to escape. I saw the 
 figures of men stealthily gliding from tree to tree as they 
 approached the gate, or creeping around the Rancho picketing 
 beneath its shadows towards the same point ; so I was just in 
 time. 
 
 It occurred to me from the caution with which the men moved 
 that they had perceived evidences of alertness on the parf of the 
 people of the Rancho, which I had not suspected. According to 
 the plan of attack we were to lie in wait on each side of the 
 
171 
 
 gate, to be ready for a rush if it should be thrown open for th 
 shepherds to come out to quiet their flocks. Already the hoarse 
 oark of the shepherd dogs had announced to the silence that 
 something was wrong. This is a very noble and fierce race of 
 these animals, original in, and peculiar to, Mexico. They are 
 taken when young, and being nourished at the dugs of a she-goat 
 ever afterwards live with the flock, a foster-child and a protector. 
 Their deep-mouthed savage baying seemed now about to precipi 
 tate matters. The men threw themselves flat upon the ground, 
 while the crash of broken bars was followed by the sudden and 
 stunning clatter and ba-a-ing of near a thousand panic-stricken 
 animals. I took instant advantage of the confusion to glide over 
 the interval unnoticed, and take my place in the nearest party of 
 the Rangers. The dogs came through the broken bars along 
 with their maddened and rushing charge. They dashed upon us 
 at once. The men, who had been ordered not to fire, were pre 
 pared to dispose of this difficulty very quietly, and at a few 
 strokes of their long, heavy bowie knives, emphasized by a mut 
 tered curse or so, the most fierce of the gallant fellows wer 
 silenced. 
 
 A very large old white bitch sprang so suddenly at the Colo 
 nel's throat, that he had a severe struggle before he shook her off 
 with a cloven skull. He had been standing near the gate of the 
 pen, which he had broken the moment after throwing the wolf 
 skin among the flock which had caused the panic. The men 
 around me could scarcely suppress their 1 ughter while he was 
 engaged in this novel battle ; while he vho had been sufficiently 
 chafed before, was rendered wildly furicus by the startle of abso 
 lute danger from a quarter so unexpected. 
 
 In the meantime the people of the Rancho were aroused, as the 
 confusion of voices and hurrying to and fro of lights sufficiently 
 showed. The idea flashed through my mind that everybody 
 seemed to wake up very suddenly ; for, judging from the clamors 
 inside, every soul in the Rancho must have been astir in a few 
 minutes. Suddenly there was an entire lull of these sounds, and 
 we heard bolts and chains rattling at tho gate. The momen. 
 these sounds reached us, the Colonel bounded to the side of the 
 gate where it opened outwards. He said in a sharp, eager whis. 
 
172 
 
 per, " Ready, boys ! follow me ;" and then crouching close tt 
 the wall, I could see his dim figure against it bent in the attitude 
 for springing, and his eyes literally emitting flames in the con- 
 centration of his fury. We all shifted our positions in pre 
 paration for bounding quickly up. It was a pulseless pause. 
 There seemed to be some difficulty in getting the gate open, while 
 we forgot to breathe in watching the moment when it would 
 swing back. 
 
 This unaccountable stillness, so simultaneous, and only broken 
 now by the noise at the gate for the flock was far enough off 
 running like mad struck me as ominous, and it proved to be so 
 with a vengeance. Instead of the gate being thrown open, there 
 was a sudden commotion on the top of the high picketing just 
 over it ; and before we could think what it meant, a shower of 
 some fluid was suddenly plumped upon the heads of the Colonel 
 and those who were nearest him. A portion of it was spattered 
 upon me, and I felt that it was hot as lava. The convulsive 
 spring and the involuntary yell of agony which followed from 
 those upon whom this fiery benediction fell most bountifully, 
 bore witness to its singular fervency. Two or three figures 
 were visible for an instant on the top of the picketing, one of 
 which I thought was that of the old Senora. A shrill, taunting 
 laugh broke from it, which reminded me of all that would be 
 hideous in the quaverings of a dozen screech-owls united in one 
 prolonged scream ; while the arms were tossed wildly to and fro 
 for a moment, and, as we fired, it suddenly disappeared. It was 
 the old Jezebel beyond a doubt. We had been much too discom 
 fited and flurried ; it was uncertain whether we had hit any of 
 them ! The fact that that infernal laugh still continued to be 
 heard, even above the jubilant triumphing roar of the Mexicans" 
 inside, settled this doubt. We had been nicely overreached. 
 
 A rich scene was now presented. The Colonel was on the 
 ground rolling, writhing, and moaning with the pain, while others 
 of the party, in various postures, were making no less expressive 
 demonstrations. There was a strong smell of tallow in the air, 
 and the clothes of the unfortunates rapidly whitened as the fluid 
 cooled, until they looked like anticking ghosts in the moonlight. 
 
 " He, he !" chuckled Bill, who was at my side and had in t 
 
173 
 
 great measure escaped, " how hot it is, Colonel told you she war 
 kin to old split-foot !" 
 
 Nothing but his broad-brimmed hat and buckskins had saved 
 the Colonel from instant death ; as it was, between the exquisite 
 agony and his baffled rage, he was quite frantic. He howled out 
 a furious imprecation in answer to this quaintly-timed jest, and 
 rising, staggered towards Bill, as I thought, with the intention ol 
 striking him. He only seized him by the arm and shook him 
 violently, then thrusting his purple and distorted face close to that 
 of the Trapper, he said in a sharp whisper, while his lips were 
 perfectly rigid 
 
 " We'll try it on HER, Bill Johnson ! we'll roast her wont 
 we, Bill alive ?" 
 
 " Kern, it no use she wont burn but we'll try." 
 
 Bill said this in a stern, lowered voice, and with something 
 like an expression of hopelessness which struck me as caused by 
 the superstition which had taken hold on him with regard to the 
 old Senora. The men were clamorous such of them as had 
 been scalded with ungovernable rage ; and cries of " strike a 
 fire," " run for wood," " we'll burn it down," " bum 
 her up," &c., were 'followed by immediate action. There was 
 TO be no child's play now, I saw ; and, indeed, found myself as 
 excited as the rest, and justifying the most ferocious extremes of 
 retaliation. In the midst of the curses and clamors, the indomi 
 table Fitz shouted out to some of the tallow-coated sufferers who 
 were most obstreperous 
 
 " Boys, keep cool don't catch afire, you wick-ed fellows ; you 
 jio-d better keep yer light under a bushel to-night we shan't need 
 it, I judge." 
 
 " Yes, but we shall have a light now like a city set upon a hill 
 wont we ?" said the Bravo, laughing, while he struck fire with 
 his flint and steel. There was something very ghastly in this 
 pioiane wit, but it was sufficiently in keeping with the men and 
 '.he occasion. Hays, who had been severely scalded, and between 
 'he pain and the shame was more excited than he had ever been 
 known to become before, now went hurrying to and fro to organ 
 ise the measures for instant attack. Fragments of dried wood 
 and arms-full cf moss were brought from the fcrest close at hand, 
 
 15* 
 
174 
 
 and piled up against the gate, while the few little huts we have 
 spoken of as on the outside of the picketing which faced the river, 
 were stripped of everything they contained that was inflamma 
 ble. Boards, beds, cotton garments, &c., were thrown upon the 
 heap, in the coolest disregard of the wailings of their unoffending 
 owners. 
 
 With the greatest difficulty I managed to prevent them from 
 dragging the bed from under the poor wounded Mexican con 
 cerning my interest in whom I have detailed before. Women 
 and children were fluttering around the scene, making most dis 
 mal complainings. As these formidable preparations were now 
 completed, we had time to perceive that everything had become 
 still again in the Rancho. 
 
 " Fire it up, boys ! fire it up ! Where's any fire ?" 
 
 These hoarse words from the Colonel sounded startlingly dis 
 tinct in the sudden pause. 
 
 " Here it is !" said the Bravo, coming forward with a bundle 
 of blazing moss in his hand. 
 
 " Look sharp, Bravo," Bill sang out from behind. " The old 
 hell-cat's on hand above there !" 
 
 I looked quickly around. Bill was standing some distance in 
 the rear, on a knoll that commanded a better view of the top of 
 the picketing, and held old Sue in such a position as would ena 
 ble him to fire at the first movement he saw. At the same mo 
 ment a low titter was heard from above. 
 
 " That's she !" gnashed the Colonel, as he drew his six-shooter 
 up to his face. We all did the same with our guns. " Shoot a 
 little finger if you see it, boys !" 
 
 The reckless Bravo, who had not hesitated an instant, or even 
 looked up, was kneeling beside the pile applying the fire, when 
 suddenly three or four figures were jutted above the top profile 
 of the picket to be fired at by our whole platoon and disappear 
 as quickly. Before we had time to wink our eyes, a number of 
 figures appeared again, returned our fire, and sent down a new 
 shower of hoi water this time upon the Bravo. (They were 
 too cunning to try the inflammable tallow now.) The Co'onel'a 
 repeater was fired instantly again, and the shriek which followed 
 the second disappearance showed that it had been with effect. " No 
 
175 
 
 ffed skirts thai time, I leckonl" he chuckled, as he shifted tht 
 chambers of his piece. They had drawn our whole fire into 
 shan.s. 
 
 ' He ? he !" shouted Bill, as he loaded. " Boys, she's made 
 a tarnal pack o' pea-green fools of us. Half er ye hold fire next 
 time ! Listen how the witch-critter sniggers at us !" 
 
 Sure enough, that pleasant screech was S9unding in a sort of 
 spasmodic ecstasy behind the picketing. The Bravo, who was 
 mutely writhing in the " shirt of Nessus," which had been so 
 unceremoniously bestowed upon him, sprang to the small fire he 
 had kindled to light the moss by, and which was still burning 
 feebly, and gathering the scattered fragments in his najted fingers 
 proceeded to kindle the pile anew. They tried the manoeuvre 
 of the shams again, but with less success, for only two shots were 
 wasted at them. The skirmish now commenced in earnest. The 
 shifting and significant pantomime of from eighty to a hundred 
 heads and shoulders appearing here and there along the dim out 
 line of the picketing, to fire an old escopet at us quickly and dis 
 appear, gave us sufficient employment. Our rapid and dexterous 
 firing covered the Bravo effectually ; for no one on the picket 
 dared to expose his body by leaning forward far enough to bring 
 a gun to bear upon him so close below. They could only spring 
 up for a second, fire without aim, and dip down again ; and alert 
 as they were, the sharp cry or the groan which sometimes fol 
 lowed our shots told that they were suffering. 
 
 We kept them by the dread of our superior marksmanship so 
 effectually under cover, that though they wasted bad powder 
 enough, and many of us were standing openly exposed, their fire 
 did us little mischief. A shower of twigs cut down by some 
 erratic ball would now and then fall over us, or the dust would 
 be knocked up at our feet. But when the Bravo had succeeded 
 in setting fire to the heap, and the flames began to mount up 
 strongly, matters became more serious. It seemed to me that the 
 whole population of the Rancho made its appearance at once in 
 solid line of heads, and a perfect storm of curses, missiles, and 
 bullets were sent after his retreat. Quite severely wounded, he 
 took refuge in the sheep-pen, upon which we found ourselves 
 compelled to fall back for protection, with the loss of two men 
 
176 
 
 and several wounded. This was getting to be fierce work. EA en 
 Fitz forgot to be witty ! 
 
 " Boys, don't scatter yer fire," shouted the Colonel ; " thin 'zm 
 from over the gate '" 
 
 One platoon was sufficient to vacate the place for the moment ; 
 .but before we were ready to fire again they had thrown over more 
 water, and the fire appeared to be quite extinguished. We could 
 hear the shrill screams of the old Senora, directing, threatening, 
 and driving her cowardly people up to the defence. She was 
 perfectly aroused and desperate. We saw that her ferocious cun 
 ning was about to defeat us. She had inspired her imbecile people, 
 in spite of themselves, with something of her own spirit ; and as 
 the volume of steam and smoke from the smouldering fire rolled 
 up, there was a general burst of derision and defiance, above 
 which her own wiry treble shrilled in fitting accord. With all 
 our boundless contempt for the Mexicans, we were beginning to 
 find out that destroying a Rancho with over three hundred people 
 inside of it, and a high strong picketing around it, was no light 
 undertaking even for something less than a dozen Texans. 
 
 Castro and his warriors who, though they had no guns, might 
 have been of some assistance to us in causing a diversion had 
 been assigned, before the attack commenced, their positions at wide 
 intervals around the whole Rancho, with orders not to budge, 
 whatever might happen, until their chief had been sent for, so 
 that we were deprived of their agency. 
 
 In his stolid faithfulness, Castro would not have moved after 
 such a command from Hays, without his permission, if the Rancho 
 had been blown sky-high and we all along with it. The business 
 of his warriors was to watch for Agatone and to intercept his 
 escape ; and so much had the chief accustomed them to the des 
 potism of literal obedience that, unless a command had come 
 through him, personally, or through some understood sign or 
 watchword, they would have died in their tracks rather than 
 have stirred for any other duty than that he had appointed. 
 
 That a renewal of the attack upon the gate, and of the effort 
 to rekindle the fire, would be something worse than madness nearly 
 all felt but the Colonel. It seemed to be utterly impossible for. him 
 to realize that, as we had lost two men, and had several nearly dis- 
 
177 
 
 *blsd in the first attack, we should not be able to accomplish twice 
 as much with half the number in a second onset, when the whole 
 population of the Rancho had been roused to desperation in the 
 defence of theif hearth-stones. Entirely discomfited, we were 
 crouched behind the low fence of the sheep-pen, to consult as to 
 the steps next to be taken. The Colonel was sufficiently raving 
 and unreasonable for quite characteristically he swore that we 
 might, could, and would, get into the Rancho somehow, at any rate 
 that enter it we should, even if we used our craniums for batter 
 ing-rams, and were tilted in " head foremost." Several of the 
 men were likewise of opinion that, after such scalding indignities, 
 TEXANS would not only be able to demolish a contemptible Rancbo 
 at a blow, but that even if the " Planetary plague" of baleful 
 Mars " hung i' the sick air," by vengeful Jove ! had been the 
 offender, they would scale its high place and pluck its red hair, 
 to be trampled in the mire of their scorn. Such direful and ter 
 rific resolves were sufficiently in keeping with the extravagant 
 heroics of this Frontier life. 
 
 The only possible question left open for discussion was the 
 practicability of all this. The tame and cowardly sentiment that 
 everything they chose to purpose might not be accomplished, was 
 not to be endured in the utterance. These men had become se 
 accustomed to bearing down everything before them, that 
 absolutely nothing appeared to them impossible ; and I lost all 
 the ground I had gained in their confidence, when I attempted 
 to make them see the utter absurdity of any further attempts 
 upon the Rancho. The firing on both sides had ceased. 
 
 A very excited discussion was angrily proceeding as to the 
 course proper to be taken now, when it was all at once 
 Jiscovered that Bill Johnson was no longer in our midst. What 
 !iad become of him at such a crisis, when we needed every 
 energy of every member of the party who had been left 
 alive ? 
 
 " Bill knows what he is about," said Hays ; " we shall hear 
 from him presently." 
 
 Sure enough ; within two minutes the wild war-whoop of the 
 Lipans was sounded from the other side of the Rancho, and 
 following it instantly, a spire of flame shot up from the same 
 
178 
 
 quarter towards the zenith, illuminating the whole region with 
 great distinctness. The discomfited Rangers sprang to their feet, 
 and their answering yell had, in its electric burst, a savagery that 
 reminded me of famished wild beasts replying to the call of their 
 shagged brethren to a feast of blood. A diversion had been 
 suddenly made by Bill and Castro. 
 
 The wary trapper had perceived in time that all was lost in 
 front, and had glided away fortified with a watchword from 
 Hays to bring our Indian auxiliaries into action. The rush 
 which instantly followed on our part, and the scattering of the 
 heads which had been linked in that continuous line along the top 
 of the picket, caused a magical change in the aspect of affairs. 
 
 This new attack so unexpected and from the opposite quarter 
 ^ of course confounded the old Sefiora, and obliged her to separate 
 her defensive force. The Bravo, though wounded in such 
 a manner as would have entirely annihilated the combative 
 propensity in any other man, instantly staggered towards the pile 
 at the gate. He had only sufficient strength to reach it, and 
 throwing himself upon the ground or falling upon it he leaned 
 on his elbow, and in a few moments had kindled the fire anew 
 with the help of his flint and steel. 
 
 Our party threw in a close volley to cover this cool exhibition 
 of desperation, and though now reduced to five or six guns, it had 
 the effect of clearing the wall entirely. It was evident the 
 Mexicans were panic-stricken for the time how long this might 
 last we did not lose an instant in philosophizing about. The 
 others of those who had been hurt seemed, like the Bravo, to have 
 forgotten that anything had happened to them, and were quite as 
 alert with the ramrod and trigger as the most active of us. 
 
 I have quite a confused recollection of the occurrences which 
 followed for some half-hour after this; indeed, they were too 
 exciting, too hurried in my confused memory, for me to reproduce 
 them at all effectively. I can only recall here and there a frag, 
 mentary incident, which may assist others in apprehending what 
 were the consequences- of the darkened and frantic action of the 
 struggle which followed. 
 
 I find myself now looking back from the condition of a calmer 
 existence surprised, beyond expression, that my individuality 
 
179 
 
 and consciousness could have been so entirely overwhelmed in 
 this heady tumult. I remember the vindictive, exulting expres 
 sion of the raging Colonel's voice, when he said, with a strange 
 laugh, " Ha, ha ! we've got 'em at last, boys ! come on." 
 
 Before he said this, he had been silently tugging at one of the 
 heaviest picket-posts of the sheep-pen, and, having loosened it, and 
 swung it upon his broad shoulders, he then led the way towards 
 the now undefended gate. Though the fire the Bravo had 
 kindled was beginning to burn vigorously, I recollect that, in 
 entire disregard of its heat, he projected himself through the mids* 
 of it and threw the whole weight of his own immense strength 
 along with the battering-ram he had thus extemporized, against 
 the gate. 
 
 The man's strength was so preternaturalized by the concentra 
 tion of his fury, that though the gate was massive and strong, we 
 heard the planks crash, as it burst its way through, while he fell 
 from the rebound upon the burning pile, utterly helpless, and lay 
 there as if he had been shot, Several of us sprang forward, and 
 dragged him out of his perilous predicament by the heels. He had 
 nearly made a Hindoo sacrifice of himself, upon the altar of his 
 own headlong ferocity. The fire rushed through the fracture he 
 had caused, and in an instant the timbers of the gate were 
 blazing with a fierceness which scattered the crowd that had 
 rallied above in the effort to extinguish it. 
 
 Now the scene was demoniac : the frantic wail of the despair 
 ing Mexicans who saw that all was lost, and feared they were to 
 be burned up alive ; their ill-directed defence and grotesque 
 gestures, as they hurled into the air leaden and every other kind 
 of projectiles ; the lurid illumination of the two fires ; the rapid 
 movements and fierce exulting cries of our men, constituted <in 
 expressive epitome of the fiery tumult of a siege. I remember that 
 the gate burnt out with such singular rapidity, that it almost 
 seemed to have been made of paper, and through the red opening 
 we could see the square of the open court, filled with the confused 
 and swaying tumult of the population, maddened with panic, and 
 jtterly incapable of self-defence. 
 
 There was a momentary glimpse of the presiding genius of this 
 infernal saturnalia, in the form of the old Senora, which presented 
 
180 
 
 itself for an instant in the intense light of the opening, fip 
 squatty figure was quickened with the action of a hateful life 
 which the years seemed only to have intensified ; she was bu 
 half-clothed, and was tossing her skinny arms into the air ; hei 
 coarse, stiff, greyish hair, wild about her shoulders, while her 
 coppery face looked like a seamy blotch of crumpled parchment, 
 out of which two round coals were burning, white with fierceness. 
 1 shall never forget the wizard and supernatural aspect her 
 momentary appearance gave to the whole scene. The hate and 
 defiance of that look seemed to have a galvanic effect upon the 
 Colonel, who instantly rushed over the burning heaps and through 
 the opening around whic.1 ths flames were licking, calling upon 
 us to follow. This, of course, we did. 
 
 The Mexicans made a feeble attempt to drive us back, but the 
 raging aspect cf the Colonel, and the terror his name carried with 
 it, filled them with such a hopeless panic, that before we had time 
 to strike two blows, men, women, and children, with yells of 
 mortal fright,' were rushing pell-mell on every side some 
 towards the burning gate through which we came others into 
 the doors of the low huts ranged around the four sides of the 
 court. 
 
 All but the Colonel and one or two of the scalded men, ceased to 
 strike after the resistance had ceased. Hays and myself induced 
 the two men to hold their hands, but could do nothing with the 
 Colonel, who was perfectly mad and blind to everything but" the 
 one purpose of finding Agatone and the old Senora, and hewed 
 away at all, of whatever sex and age, who chanced to impede his 
 search. The men went down on their knees before him, clamor 
 ing for mercy, and without pausing to regard them an instant, he 
 would strike them to the ground with his foot, the handle of hi 
 knife, or the blade of it, just as it happened. He would rush 
 into one of the low huts, where men, women, and children were 
 piled upon each other in a corner, each trying to get to the 
 bottom, and hauling them out by the hair or the heels, he would 
 scatter them, like so many billets of ,wood, to and fro, over the 
 room, until he had examined every face, to see if those he hated 
 were among them. 
 
 Tn this search, he was actively assisted by the other members ol 
 
181 
 
 the party, and I cannot say with any particular regard to a 
 gentle etiquette on the part of any one cf us. The Mexicans 
 ivere perfectly passive, and abjectly submitted to being tumbled 
 about at our pleasure. But Agatone and the old Senora were 
 nowhere to be found, and fears that they had escaped were begin- 
 ning to be spoken. The very idea of such a thing seemed h. 
 inspire the Colonel with a sort of ubiquity of energy ; every 
 corner, hole, and cranny of the Rancho was dived into by him, 
 in an astonishingly short time ; everything that a good-sized 
 mouse, even, could have hid beneath, was turned over, yet 
 neither of the objects of his affectionate interest was *o he 
 found. 
 
 The fires, in the meantime, were rapidly subsiding of them 
 selves, for it is extremely difficult to burn down one of these 
 Ranchos. The picket is of heavy mesquit timber, the most 
 difficult wood to burn in the world ; the huts inside are built of 
 " dobies" (clumsy bricks dried in the sun), and are thatched with 
 the bulrushes of the salt-swamps of the country ; and they 
 are nearly as difficult to set on fire as the " dobies ;" so that when 
 the more inflammable timbers of the gate had burned out, the 
 flames and light went gradually down, leaving us in comparative 
 darkness. The fire, Bill and the Lipans had kindled, was still 
 throwing up a fitful light, though, for the reasons given, it spread 
 but little. We had all, but the Colonel, given up the search in 
 despair, and were standing in a group around a small fire, which 
 is Kept burning, night and day, beneath a huge kettle of tallow or 
 lard, which is always boiling over it, and from the capacious 
 depths of which the singular shower we had been first saluted 
 with, had come. The men, in spite of the excitement, fatigues, 
 and injuries contingent upon the late scenes, were joking each 
 other upon what had occurred, and passing around certain bottles 
 which their investigations had brought to light. 
 
 The disappointment of Bill and the Colonel since all the toil 
 and loss we had endured seemed to have amounted to nothing, 
 after the escape of their two enemies was just being laughed at 
 by Fitz, when the Colonel thrust his head from the door of one 
 of the huts on the side next the river, and shouting eagerly- 
 " Here, boy I've found their hole we'll catch J em yet" dis. 
 
 16 
 
182 
 
 appealed within it quickly. We all rushed into the hut. We 
 found him, with a lamp in his hand, stooping at a square hole in 
 the back part of the room, which seemed as if it had been cut 
 through the picketing, near the bottom. It had been concealed 
 by a bed and some skins, which he had dragged away. 
 
 " Ha, ha!" he chuckled, in an under tone of ecstasy, " we've 
 got 'em here's the burrow, boys !" and holding the lamp before 
 him, entered the dark passage without hesitation. It admitted 
 him, stooping slightly. We crowded after him with a reckless 
 curiosity, to see what this might lead to. No obstruction pre- 
 sentad itself, and we soon found ourselves standing in one of those 
 Dutch oven-like huts we have mentioned, as dug into the bank of 
 the river, on the outside of the picket. The wounded Mexican 
 was starting up, with terror in his face, from the bed I had res 
 cued for him. Frightened as he was, he was too weak to rise, and 
 fell back. The Colonel sprang at him, and shaking him furiously 
 by the arm, demanded, in the Mexican language, whether the 
 Senora and Agatone had passed out through this way. 
 
 The man muttered some confused answer, while we rushed 
 forward', and lifting the beef's hide which served for a door, 
 passed out into the open air, and stood upon the brink of the steep 
 bank of the river. The moon was quite bright, and the fires still 
 gave some illumination. We have observed that the river was 
 narrow. The first objects which met our eyes were two human 
 figures, just in the act of shaking the water from their garments 
 as they stepped rapidly across the narrow interval where the 
 light fell, between the edge of the water and the deep gloom of 
 the forest. " There they are !" said some one, quickly. This 
 was followed by the discharge of several pieces from our party, 
 but too late. The figures were lost beneath the shadows of the 
 forest. That shrill taunting laugh was the reply, and at the same 
 moment the Colonel, brushing past us, threw himself with a hor 
 rid blasphemy upon his lips, headlong down the steep bank into 
 the water. A deep mouthed-whoop from Bill, higher up the 
 river, told that his sharp vision had made the same discovery ; 
 and in a little while we could see the river dark with black ob 
 jects, which proved to be the heads of the Lipans, who were 
 swimming across in the pursuit. 
 
183 
 
 The sounds of pursuit soon died away, and as none of us ieit 
 like taking quite so steep a plunge-bath as the Colonel's gratui 
 tously, and as it appeared to us there were more than enough 
 already in the chase to accomplish its objects, we turned quietly 
 back and passed into the Rancho again. We very unhesitatingly 
 laid it under contribution for what amount of edibles and drink- 
 ables were found necessary, or rather, what we could get our 
 hands upon. It was now nearly day. We were all greatly ex 
 hausted ; the wounded men dreadfully so. No news was likely 
 to come from the chase very soon, and repose was to be had at 
 any risk. We accordingly took possession of the largest room 
 we could find, and barricading the entrances theretj, placed a 
 sentinel on duty, and threw our weary bones upon skin pallets. 
 
 We slept, sentinel and all, until late in the morning, when we 
 were suddenly roused by a tremendous thumping and clatter from 
 without. Springing to my feet, I saw that our sentinel, half 
 asleep, had undone the fastenings, and the Colonel, haggard with 
 exhaustion, and begrimed with dirt and wet, staggered into the 
 room, and threw himself upon the floor. The huge form of Bill 
 Johnson stalked in after him, dripping with water indeed, but 
 with his iron-face looking as fresh and kindly as if he had just 
 waked up, on some calm May-morning, from a pleasant sleep. 
 
 " Well, old boy, what's what ?" drawled out Fitz, who had 
 half risen, and now sank down lazily upon his elbow. " You did 
 it -up clean there in the bush, I suppose ?" 
 
 " Clean !" said Bill, as he set old Sue down in a corner with 
 careful tenderness. " I aint mighty clean, outen the mud and 
 stink er that river. But the way that wrinkly-faced hell-cat 
 done us out clean 's nothing to nobody ! Them two '11 do for 
 screamers, any dark night ! We never seen a glimpse uv 'em 
 after they got under, them black woods, till we seed 'em safe 
 enough in Navarro's Rancho, six miles over yonder, you know !" 
 
 " How could you have let 'em get away this time, Bill ?" 
 
 " I don't mind er horse runnin, when I knows a horse is in the 
 case, and can see which way he'll take. How could anybody 
 whar want too thick with Old Scratch, like she, have know'd they 
 had a horse waitin' in the bush ? I thunk she'd tuck to her broom- 
 itick till the crack o' day. Then I seed ther horse-trail, and 
 
184 
 
 followed it till we all corned to the Rancho, and thar she war, on 
 top er the picket, shakin* her scraggy claws at us and screechin 
 Kern let drive at her, but he war too mad, it didn't do ! She's 
 some, boys ! Bill Johnson says it ! Whar's sumphen to drink, 
 boys ?" 
 
 Seizing a bottle, he half emptied its contents at a single 
 draught, and passed it to the Colonel, who silently held up his 
 hand for it. 
 
 The strange old witch and her worthy and worshipful nephew 
 had thoroughly outdone and baffled us after all ! Texans, the 
 cream of frontier trailers, warriors, and desperadoes, outwitted 
 defeated by an old woman ! ! 
 
 We left the Rancho without doing it or its people any further 
 injury that evening, and returned to the Colonel's. Before sun. 
 down an express came from Bexar, recalling Hays and his Ran- 
 gers to their post immediately. The news of a large body of 
 Mexican troops from the Rio Grande actually on their way to 
 destroy the place, was sufficient to rouse these dauntless and ad 
 venturous men. They shook off their fatigue, and we were soon 
 in the saddle. No remonstrance could induce the Colonel to ac 
 company us. He had scarcely spoken since the scene we have 
 last described sullen and bowed, all his ferocious animality 
 seemed to have deserted him. We endeavored to make him see 
 that his resolve to remain in such a neighborhood alone, and sur 
 rounded by an infuriated swarm of enemies, would be to insure 
 his own murder. He went moping about like one who felt the 
 heavy shadows of his doom closing and weighing upon him. 1 
 looKed back within a short distance. He was sitting on the stile- 
 blocks of his Rancho his head leaning on his arm, and his fin 
 gers mechanically playing with the lock of his favorite six- shoot 
 er. This was the last I ever saw of this violent man. 
 
 Having now brought my Mexican adventures to a close, and I 
 hope gained the sympathy of my readers for my toils, and suffer 
 ings, and " moving incidents by flood and field," I hope still to 
 win their kind attention to some adventures which occurred in a 
 new fiV.d, fertile in all sorts of perils from all . sorts of causes. 
 With he present characters we shall have little more to do 
 than to ti&je the end of their respective careers, which we will 
 
19 
 
 do on a future occasion, merely remarking here, that should any 
 of my readers visit the scenes of which I have spoken, they must 
 not imagine that I have overwrought or too highly colored my 
 descriptions, either of the country or inhabitants. The great 
 influx of new settlers, bringing with them all their notions and 
 some of the appliances of more refined life, have so changed both 
 the character of the country and its localities, that, should I 
 now go over the same ground, even I might be tempted to dis 
 pute its identity. 
 
186 
 
 CHAPTER XV11T. 
 
 M UST ANGS. 
 
 READER ! Were you ever in a Texian prairie ? Probably not. 
 I have been ; and this was how it happened. I found myself one 
 fine morning possessor of a Tezas land-scrip that is to say, a 
 sertificate of the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company, in 
 which it was stated that in consideration of the sum of one thou 
 sand dollars, duly paid and delivered by Mr. into 
 
 the hands of the cashier of the aforesaid company, he, the said 
 
 was become entitled to ten thousand acres of Texian 
 
 land, to be selected by himself, or those he should appoint, under 
 the sole condition of not infringing on the property or rights of 
 the holders of previously given certificates. 
 
 Ten thousand acres of the finest land in the world, and under 
 a heaven compared to which our southern sky, bright as it is, ap- 
 peavs dull and foggy ! It was a tempting bait ; too good a one 
 not to be caught at by many in those times of speculation ; and 
 accordingly, our free and enlightened citizens bought and sold 
 tlieir millions of Texian acres just as readily as they did their 
 thousands of towns and villages in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and 
 Michigan, and their tens of thousands of shares in banks and rail 
 ways. It was a speculative fever, which has since, we may hope, 
 been in some degree cured. At any rate, the remedies applied 
 have been tolerably severe. 
 
 I had not escaped the contagion, and, having got the land 
 on paper, I thought I should like to see it in dirty acres ; so, in 
 company with a friend who had a similar venture, I embarked at 
 
187 
 
 Baltimore on board the Catcher schooner, and 5 after a three weeks 1 
 voyage, arrived at Galveston Bay. 
 
 Tli2 grassy shores of this Bay, into which the river Brazos 
 empties itself, rise so little above the surface of the water, to which 
 they bear a strong resemblance in color, that it would be difficult 
 to discover them, were it not for three stunted trees growing on 
 the western extremity of a long lizard-shaped island that stretches 
 nearly sixty miles across the bay, and conceals the mouth of the 
 river. These trees are the only landmark for the mariner ; and 
 with their exception, not a single object not a hill, a house, nor 
 so much as a bush, relieves the level sameness of the island and 
 adjacent continent. 
 
 After we had, with some difficulty, got on the inner side of the 
 island, a pilot came on board and took charge of the vessel. Tho 
 ir^t *.' ing he did was to run us on a sandbank, off which we got 
 "tfith .u small labor, and by the united exertions of sailors and 
 passengers, and at length entered the river. In our impatience to 
 land, I and my friend left the schooner in a cockshell of a boat, 
 which upset in the surge, and we found ourselves floundering in 
 the water. Luckily it was not very deep, and we escaped with a 
 thorough drenching. 
 
 When we had scrambled on shore, we gazed about us for some 
 time before we could persuade ourselves that we were actually 
 upon land. It was, without exception, the strangest coast we had 
 ever seen, and there was scarcely a possibility of distinguishing 
 the boundary between earth and water. The green grass grew 
 down to the edge of the green sea, and there was only the streak 
 of white foam left by the latter upon the former to serve a a line 
 of demarcation. Before us was a plain, a hundred or more miles 
 in extent, covered with long, fine grass, rolling in waves before 
 each puff of the sea-breeze, with neither tree, nor house, nor hill, 
 to vary the monotony of the surface. Ten or twelve miles towards 
 the north and north-west, we distinguished some dark masses, 
 whicn we afterwards discovered to be groups of trees ; but to our 
 eyes they looked exactly like islands in a green sea, and we sub 
 gequently learned that they were called islands by the people of 
 the country. It would have been difficult to have given thej'i a 
 
188 
 
 more appropriate name, or one better descrfuing fcLerp appear 
 ance. 
 
 Proceeding along the shore, we came to a blockhouse situated 
 behind a small tongue of land projecting into the river, and 
 decorated with the flag of the Mexican republic, waving in all ito 
 glory from the roof. At that period, this was the only building 
 of which Galveston harbor could boast. It served as custom-house 
 and as barracks for the garrison, also as the residence of the 
 director of customs, and the civil and military intendant, as head 
 quarters of the officer commanding, and. moreover, as hotel and 
 wine and spirit store. Alongside the board, on which was de 
 picted a sort of hieroglyphic, intended for the Mexican eagle, hung 
 a bottle doing duty as a sign, and the republican banner tj.rew it 
 protecting shadow over the announcement of " Brandy, "W hiskey, 
 and accommodation for Man and Beast." 
 
 As we approached the house, we saw the whole garrison assem 
 bled before the door. It consisted of a dozen dwarfish, spindle- 
 shanked Mexican soldiers, none of them so big or half so strong 
 as American boys of fifteen, and whom I would have backed a 
 single Kentucky woodsman, armed with a riding-whip, to have 
 driven to the four winds of heaven. These heroes all sported tre 
 mendous beards, whiskers and mustaches, and had a habit of knit 
 ting their brows, in the endeavor, as we supposed, to look fierce 
 and formidable. They were crowding round a table of rough 
 planks, and playing a game of cards, in which they were so deeply 
 engrossed that they took no notice of our approach. Their officer 
 however, came out of the house to meet us. 
 
 Captain Cotton, formerly editor of the Mexican Gazette, now 
 civil and military commandant at Galveston, customs-director, 
 harbor-master, and tavern-keeper, and a Yankee to boot, seemed 
 to trouble himself very little about his various dignities and titles. 
 He produced some capital French and Spanish wine, which, it is 
 to be presumed, he got duty free, and welcomed us to Texas. We 
 were presently joined by some of our fellow-passengers, who 
 seemed as bewildered as we had been at the billiard-table appear 
 ance of the country. Indeed the place looked so desolate and 
 uninviting, that there was little inducement to remain on terra 
 
189 
 
 firma, and it was with a feeling of relief that we once more found 
 ourselves on board the schooner. 
 
 We took three days to sail up the river Brazos to the town of 
 Brazoria, a distance of thirty miles. On the first day nothing bu* 
 meadow land was visible on either side of us ; but, on the second, 
 the monotonous grass-covered surface was varied by islands of 
 trees, and, about twenty miles from the mouth of the river, we 
 passed through a forest of sycamores, and saw several herds of 
 deer and flocks of wild turkeys. At length we reached Brazoria 
 which at the time I speak of, namely, in the year 1832, was an 
 important city for Texas, that is to say consisting of upwards 
 f'i thirty houses, three of which were of brick, three of planks, and 
 Jbe remainder of logs. All the inhabitants were Americans, and 
 '.he streets arranged in American fashion, in straight lines and at 
 right angles. The only objection to the place was, that in the wet 
 eason it was all under water ; but the Brazorians overlooked this 
 little inconvenience, in consideration of the inexhaustible fruitful- 
 ness of the soil. It was the beginning of March when we arrived, 
 and yet there was already an abundance of new potatoes, beans, 
 peas, and artichokes, all of the finest sorts, and most delicious 
 zlavor. 
 
 At Brazoria, my friend and myself had the satisfaction of learn 
 ing that our land-certificates, for which we had each paid a thou 
 sand dollars, were worth exactly nothing just so much waste 
 paper,' in short unless we chose to conform to a condition to 
 which our worthy friends, the G-alveston Bay and Texas Land 
 Conroany, had never made the smallest allusion. 
 
 It appeared that in the year 1824, the Mexican Congress had 
 passed an act for the encouragement of emigration from the United 
 States to Texas. In consequence of this act, an agreement was 
 entered into with contractors, or empresarios, as they call them in 
 Mexico, who had bound themselves to bring a certain number of 
 settlers into Texas within a given time, and without any expense 
 to the Mexican government. On the other hand the Mexican 
 government had engaged to furnish land to these emigrants at the 
 rate of five square leagues to every hundred families ; but to this 
 agreement one condition was attached, and it was that all settlerj 
 
190 
 
 should become Roman Catholics. Failing this, the validity of 
 their claims to the land wac not recognized, and they were liable 
 to be turned out any day at the point of the bayonet. 
 
 This information threw us into no small perplexity. It was 
 clear that we had been duped, completely bubbled, by the rascally 
 Land Company ; that, as heretics, the Mexican government would 
 have nothing to say to us j and that, unless we chose to become 
 converts to the Romish Church, we might whistle for our acres, 
 and light our pipes with the certificate. Our Yankee friends at 
 Brazoria, however, laughed at our dilemma, and told us that we 
 were only in the same plight as hundreds of our countrymen, who 
 had come to Texas in total ignorance of this condition, but who 
 had not the less taken possession of their land, and settled there , 
 that they themselves were among the number, and that, although 
 it was just as likely they would turn negroes as Roman Catholics, 
 they had no idea of being turned out of their houses and planta 
 tions ; that, at any rate, if the Mexicans tried it, they had their 
 rifles with them, and should be apt, they reckoned, to burn pow 
 der before they allowed themselves to be kicked off such an al 
 mighty fine piece of soil. So, after awhile, we began to think, 
 that as we had paid our money and come so far, we might do aa 
 others had done before us occupy our land, and wait the course 
 of events. The next day we each bought a horse or mustang, as 
 they call them there, which animals were selling at Brazoria for 
 next to nothing, and rode out into the prairie to look for a conve 
 nient spot to settle. 
 
 These mustangs are small horses, rarely above fourteen hands 
 high, and are descended from the Spanish breed introduced by the 
 original conquerors of the country. During the three centuries 
 that have elapsed since the conquest of Mexico, they have in 
 creased and multiplied to an extraordinary extent, and are to be 
 found in vast droves in the Texian prairies, although they are now 
 beginning to become somewhat scarcer. They are taken with 
 the lasso, concerning which instrument or weapon I will here 
 say a word or two, notwithstanding that it has been often de 
 Bcribed. 
 
 The lasso is generally from twenty to thirty feet long, \ery 
 
191 
 
 fc-zible, and coirposed of strips of tw;tfu>d ox-hide. One end u 
 fastened to the saddle, and the other ; which forms a running noose, 
 held in the hand of the hunter, who, thus equipped rides out into 
 the prairie. When he discovers a troop of wild horses, he man- 
 ceuvres to get to windward of them, and then to approach as 
 near as possible. If he is an experienced hand, the horses seldom 
 or never escape him, and as s<>on as he finds himself within twenty 
 or thirty feet of them, he throws the noose with unerring aim over 
 the neck of the one he has selected for his prey. This done he 
 turns his own horse sharp around, gives him the spur, and gallops 
 away, dragging his unfortunate captive after him, breathless, and 
 with his windpipe so compressed by the noose, that he is unable 
 to make the smallest resistance, arid after a few yards, falls head 
 long to the ground, and lies motionless and almost lifeless, some 
 times indeed badly hurt and disabled. From this day forward, 
 the horse which has been thus caught never forgets the lasso ; the 
 mere sight of it makes him tremble in every limb ; and, however 
 wild he may be, it is sufficient to show it to him, or lay it on his 
 neck, to render him as tame and docile as a lamb. 
 
 The horse taken, next comes the breaking in, which is effected 
 in a no less brutal manner than his capture. The eyes of the 
 unfortunate animal are covered with a bandage, and a tremendous 
 bit, a pound weight or more, clapped into his mouth ; the horse- 
 breaker puts on a pair of spurs six inches long, and with rowels 
 like penknives, and jumping on his back, urges him to his very 
 utmost speed. If the horse tries to rear or turns restive, one 
 pull, and not a very hard one either, at the instrument of torture 
 they call a bit, is sufficient to tear his mouth to shreds, and cause 
 the blood to flow in streams. I have myself seen horses' teeth 
 broken with these barbarous bits. The poor beast whinnies and 
 groans with pain and terror ; bu*b there is no help for him ; the 
 spurs are at his flanks, and on he goes full gallop, till he is ready 
 to sink with fatigue and exhaustion. He then has a quarter of 
 an hour's rest allowed him ; but scarcely does he begin to recover 
 breath, which has been ridden and spurred out of his body, when 
 he is again mounted, and has to go through the same violent pro 
 cess as before. If he breaks down during this rude trial, ho it 
 
either knocked on the head or driven away as useless; but if .*:e 
 holds out, he is marked with a hot iron, and left to graze on the 
 prairie. Henceforward, there is no particular difficulty in catcL- 
 ing him when wanted ; the wildness of the horse is completely 
 punished out of him, but fior it is substituted the most confirmed 
 vice and malice that it is possible to conceive. These mustangs 
 are unquestionably the most deceitful and spiteful of all the 
 equine race. They seem to be perpetually looking out for an op 
 portunity of playing their master a trick ; and very soon after I 
 got possession of mine, I was nearly paying for him in a way that 
 I had certainly not calculated upon. 
 
 "We were going to Bolivar, and had to cross the river Brazos. 1 
 was the last but one to get into the boat, and was leading my horse 
 carelessly by the bridle. Just as I was about to step in, a sudden 
 jert, and a cry of "mind your beast !" made me jump on one side, 
 and luckily was it that I did so. My mustang had suddenly 
 sprung back, reared up, and then thrown himself forward upon 
 me with such force and fury, that, as I got out of his way, his fore 
 feet went completely through the bottom of the boat. I never in 
 my life saw an animal in such a paroxysm of rage. He curled up 
 his lips till his whole range of teeth was visible, his eyes literally 
 shot fire, while the foam flew from his mouth, and he gave a wild, 
 screaming neigh that had something quite diabolical in its sound. 
 I was standing perfectly thunderstruck at this scene, when one of 
 the party took a lasso and very quietly laid it over the animal's 
 neck. The effect was really magical. With closed mouth, droop 
 ing ears, and head low, there stood the mustang, as meek and 
 docile as any old jackass. The change was so sudden and comical, 
 that we all burst out laughing ; although, when I came to reflect 
 on the danger I had run, it required all my love of horses to pre 
 vent me from shooting the brute upon the spot. 
 
 Mounted upon this ticklish steed, and in company with my 
 friend, I made various excursions to Bolivar. Marion, Columbia, 
 Anahuac, incipient cities consisting of from five to twenty houses. 
 We also visited numerous plantations and clearings, to the owners 
 of some of which we were known, or had messages of introduction; 
 but either with or without such recommendations, we always found 
 
198 
 
 a hearty welcome and hospitable reception, and it was rare that 
 we were allowed to pay for our entertainment. 
 
 We arrived one day at a clearing, which lay a few miles off the 
 way from Harrisburg to San Felipe de Austin, and belonged to a 
 Mr. Neal. He had been three years in the country, occupying 
 himself with the breeding of cattle, which is unquestionably the 
 most agreeable, as well as profitable, occupation that can be fol 
 lowed in Texas. He had between seven and eight hundred head 
 of cattle, and from fifty to sixty horses, all mustangs. His plan 
 tation, like nearly all the plantations in Texas at that time, was 
 as yet in a very rough state ; and his house, although roomy and 
 comfortable en'Ough inside, was built of unhewn tree-trunks, in 
 true backwoodsman style. It was situated on the border of one 
 of the islands, or groups of trees, and stood between two gigantic 
 sycamores, which sheltered it from the sun and wind. In front, 
 and as far as could be seen, lay the prairie, covered with its wav 
 ing grass and many-colored flowers ; behind the dwelling arose a 
 cluster of forest trees in all their primeval majesty, laced, and 
 bound together by an infinity of wild vines, which shot their ten 
 drils and clinging branches hundreds of feet upwards to the very 
 top of the trees, embracing and covering the whole island with a 
 green network, and converting it into an immense bower of vine 
 leaves, which would have been no unsuitable abode for Bacchus 
 and his train. * 
 
 These islands are one of the most enchanting features of Tex- 
 ian scenery. Of infinite variety and beauty of form, and unri 
 valled in the growth and magnitude of the trees that compose 
 them, they are to be found of all shapes circular, parallelograms, 
 hexagons, octagons some again twisting and winding like dark- 
 green snakes over the brighter surface of the prairie. In no park 
 or artificially laid out grounds, would it be possible to find any 
 thing equalling these natural shrubberies in beauty and symme 
 try. In the morning and evening especially, when surrounded 
 by a sort of veil of light-greyish mist, and with the horizontal 
 beams of the rising or setting sun gleaming through them, they 
 offer pictures which it is impossible to get weary of admiring. 
 
 Mr. Neal was a jovial Kentuckian, and he received us with 
 
 17 
 
194 
 
 the greatest hospitality, only asking in return all the news we 
 could give him from the States. It is difficult to imagine, with 
 out having witnessed it, the feverish eagerness and curiosity with 
 which all intelligence from their native country is sought after 
 and listened to by these dwellers in the desert. Men, women, 
 and children, crowded round us ; and though we had arrived in 
 the afternoon, it was near sunrise before we could escape from 
 the inquiries by which we were overwhelmed, and retire to the 
 beds that had been prepared for us. 
 
 I had not slept very long, when I was roused by our worthy 
 host. He was going out to catch twenty or thirty oxen, which 
 were wanted for the market at New Orleans. As the kind of 
 chase which takes place after these animals is very interesting, 
 and rarely dangerous, we willingly accepted the invitation to ac 
 company him, and having dressed and breakfasted in all haste, 
 got upon our mustangs and rode off into the prairie. 
 
 The party was half a dozen strong, consisting of Mr. Neal, 
 my friend and myself, and three negroes. What we had to do, 
 was to drive the cattle, which were grazing on the prairie in 
 herds of from thirty to fifty head, to the house, and then those 
 which were selected for the market were to be taken with the 
 lasso and sent off to Brazoria. 
 
 After riding four or five miles, we came in sight of a drove of 
 splendid animals, standing very high, and of most symmetrical 
 form. The horns of these cattle are of unusual length, and, in 
 the distance, have more the appearance of stags' antlers than 
 bulls' horns. We approached the herd first to within a quarter 
 of a mile. They remained very quiet. We rode round them, 
 and in like manner got in rear of a second and third drove, and 
 then began to spread out, so as to form a half circle, and drive 
 the cattle towards the house. 
 
 Hitherto my mustang had behaved exceedingly well, cantering 
 freely along, and not attempting to play any tricks. I had 
 scarcely, however, left the remainder of the party a couple of 
 hundred yards, when the devil by which he was possessed began 
 to wake up. The mustangs belonging to the plantation were 
 grazing some three quarters of a mile off; and no sooner did my 
 
beast catch sight of them, than he commenced practising every 
 species of jump and leap that it is possible for a horse to exe 
 cute, and many of a nature so extraordinary, that I should have 
 thought no brute that ever went on four legs would have been 
 able to accomplish them. He shied, reared, pranced, leaped for 
 wards, backwards, and sideways ; in short, played such infernal 
 pranks, that, although a practised rider, I found it no easy mat 
 ter to keep my seat. I began heartily to regret that I had 
 Drought no lasso with me, (which would have tamed him at once.) 
 and that, contrary to Mr. Neal's advice, I had put on my Ameri 
 can bit instead of a Mexican one. Without these auxiliaries, all 
 my horsemanship was useless. The brute galloped like a mad 
 creature some five hundred yards, caring nothing for my efforts 
 to stop him ; and then, finding himself close to the troop of mus 
 tangs, he stopped suddenly short, threw his head between his 
 fore-legs, and his hind feet into the air, with such vicious vio 
 lence, that I was pitched clean out of the saddle. Before I well 
 knew where I was, I had the satisfaction of seeing him put his 
 fore-feet on -the bridle, pull bit and bridoon out of his'mouth, 
 and then, with a neigh of exultation, spring into the midst of the 
 herd of mustangs. 
 
 I got up out of the long grass in a towering passion. One 
 of the negroes who was nearest to me came galloping to my as 
 sistance, and begged me to let the beast ran for awhile, and that 
 when Anthony, the, huntsman, came, he would soon catch him. 
 I was too angry to listen to reason, and I ordered him to get off 
 his horse, and let me mount. The black begged and prayed of 
 me not to ride after the brute ; and Mr. Neal, who was some dis 
 tance off, shouted to me, as loud as he could, for Heaven's sake 
 to stop that I did not know what it was to chase a wild horse 
 in a Texian Prairie, and that I must not fancy myself in the 
 meadows of Louisiana or Florida. I paid no attention to all 
 this I was in too great a rage at the trick the beast had played 
 me, and, jumping on the negro's horse, I galloped away like'mad. 
 
 My rebellious steed was grazing quietly -with his companions, 
 and he allowed me to come within a couple of hundred paces of 
 him 5 but just as I had prepared the lasso, which was fastened t< 
 
196 
 
 the negro's saddle-bow, he gave a start, galloped off some dis 
 tance further, and I after him. Again he made a pause, and 
 munched a mouthful of grass then off again for another half 
 mile. This time I had great hopes of catching him, for he let 
 me come within a hundred yards ; but, just as I was creeping up 
 to him, away he went with one of his shrill neighs. When I gal 
 loped fast, he went faster ; when I rode slowly, he slackened his 
 pace. At least ten times did he let me approach him within a 
 couple of hundred yards, with little or no prospect of getting hold 
 of him. Itr was certainly high time to desist from such a mad chase, 
 but I never dreamed of doing so ; and indeed the longer it lasted, 
 the more obstinate I got. I rode on after the beast, who kept 
 letting me come nearer and nearer, and then darted off again with 
 his loud laughing neigh. It was this infernal neigh that made 
 me so savage there was something so spiteful and triumphant 
 in it, as though the animal knew he was making a fool of me, and 
 exulted in so doing. At last, however, I got so sick of my horse- 
 hunt that I determined to make a last trial ; and, if that failed, 
 to turnback. The run-away had stopped near one of the 
 islands of trees, and was grazing close to its edge. I thought 
 that if I were to creep round to the other side of the island, and 
 then steal across it, through the trees, I should be able to throw 
 the lasso over his head, or, at any rate, to drive him back to the 
 house. This plan I put in execution rode round the island, 
 then through it, lasso in hand, and as softly as if I had been 
 riding over eggs. To my consternation, however, on arriving at 
 the edge of the trees, and at the exact spot where, only a few 
 minutes before, I had seen the mustang grazing, no signs of him 
 were to be perceived. I made the circuit of the island, but in 
 vain the animal had disappeared. With a hearty curse, I put 
 spurs to my horse, and started off to ride back to the plantation. 
 Neither the plantation, the cattle, nor my companions, were 
 visible, it is true : but this gave me no uneasiness. I felt sure 
 that I knew the direction in which I had come, and that the 
 island I had just left was one which was visible from the house, 
 while all around me were such numerous tracks of horses, that 
 
197 
 
 the possibility of my having lost my way never occurred tc me, 
 and I rode on quite unconcernedly. 
 
 After riding for about an hour, however, I began to find the 
 time rather long. I looked at my watch. It was past one o'clock. 
 We had started at nine, and, allowing an hour and a half to have 
 been spent in finding the cattle, I had passed nearly three hours 
 in my wild and unsuccessful hunt. I began to think that I must 
 have got further from the plantation than I had as yet supposed 
 
CHAPTER XIX, 
 
 4 PRAIRIE SCAMPER. 
 
 IT was towards the end of March, the day clear and warm, just 
 like a May-day in the Southern States. The sun was now shining 
 brightly out, but the early part of the morning had been somewhat 
 foggy ; and, as I had only arrived at the plantation the day before, 
 and had passed the whole afternoon* and evening indoors, I had 
 no opportunity of getting acquainted with the bearings of the 
 house. This reflection began to make me rather uneasy, particu 
 larly when I remembered the entreaties of the negro, and the loud 
 exhortations Mr. Neal addressed to me as I rode away. I said 
 to myself, however, that I could not be more than ten or fifteen 
 miles from the plantation, that I should soon come in sight of the 
 herds of cattle, and that then there would be no difficulty in find 
 ing my way. But when I had ridden another hour without seeing 
 the smallest sign either of man or beast, I got seriously uneasy. 
 In my impatience, I abused poor Neal for not sending somebody 
 to find me. His huntsman, I had heard, was gone to Anahuac, 
 and would not be back for two or three days ; but he might have 
 sent a couple of his lazy negroes. Or, if he had only fired a shot 
 or two as a signal. I stopped and listened, in hopes of hearing 
 the crack of a rifle. But the deepest stillness reigned around, 
 scarcely the chirp of a bird was heard all nature seemed to be 
 taking the siesta. As far as the eye could reach was a waving sea 
 of grass, here and there an island of trees, but not a trace of a 
 human being. At last I thought I had made a discovery. The 
 nearest clump of trees was undoubtedly the same which I had 
 
199 
 
 pointed out to my companions soon after we had left the house. 
 It bore a fantastical resemblance to a snake coiled up and about 
 to dart upon its prey. About six or seven miles from the plan 
 tation we had passed it on our right hand, and if I now kept it 
 upon my left, I could not fail to be going in a proper direction. 
 So said, so done. I trotted on most perseveringly towards the 
 point of the horizon where I felt certain the house must lie. One 
 hour passed, then a second, then a third; every now and then I 
 stopped and listened, but nothing was audible, not a shot nor a 
 shout. But although I heard nothing, I saw iomething which 
 gave me no great pleasure. In the direction in which we had 
 ridden out, the grass was very abundant and the flowers scarce ; 
 whereas the part of the prairie in which I now found myself pre 
 sented the appearance of a perfect flower garden, with scarcely a 
 square foot of green to be seen. The most variegated carpet of 
 flowers I ever beheld lay unrolled before me ; red, yellow, violet, 
 blue, every color was there 5 millions of the most magnificent 
 prairie roses, tuberoses, asters, dahlias, and fifty other kinds of 
 flowers. The finest artificial garden in the world would sink into 
 insignificance when compared with this parterre of nature's own 
 planting. My horse could hardly make his way through the wil 
 derness of flowers,, and I for a time remained lost in admiration 
 of this scene of extraordinary beauty. The prairie in the distance 
 looked as if clothed with rainbows, that waved to and fro over its 
 surface. 
 
 But the difficulties and anxieties of my situation soon banished 
 all other thoughts, and I rode on with perfect indifference through 
 a scene, that, under other circumstances, would have captivated 
 my entire attention. All the stories that I had heard of mishaps 
 in these endless prairies, recurred in vivid coloring to my memory, 
 not mere backwoodsman's legends, but facts well authenticated by 
 persons of undoubted veracity who had warned me, before I came 
 to Texas, against venturing without guide or compass into these 
 dangerous wilds. Even men who had been long in the country, 
 were often known to lose themselves, and to wander for days and 
 weeks over these oceans of grass, where no hill or variety of sur 
 face offers a landmark to the traveller. In summer and autumn 
 
200 
 
 such a position would have one danger the less, that is, there 
 would be no risk of dying of hunger ; for at those seasons the most 
 delicious fruits, grapes, plums, peaches, and others, are to be found 
 in abundance. But we were now in early spring, and although I 
 saw numbers of peach and plum trees, they were only in blossom. 
 Of game also there was plenty, both fuc and feather, but I had 
 no gun, and nothing appeared more probable than that I should 
 die of hunger, although surrounded by food, and in one of the 
 most fruitful countries in the world. This thought flashed sud 
 denly across me, and for a moment my heart sunk within me as I 
 first perceived the real danger of my position. 
 
 After a time, however, other ideas came to console me. I had 
 been already four weeks in the country, and had ridden over a 
 large slice of it in every direction, always through prairies, and I 
 had never had any difficulty in finding my way. True, but then 
 I had always had a compass and been in company. It was this 
 sort of over-confidence and feeling of security, that had made me 
 adventure so rashly, and spite of all warning, in pursuit of the 
 mustang. I had not waited to reflect, that a little more than four 
 weeks' experience was necessary to make one acquainted with the 
 bearings of a district three times as big as New York State. Still 
 I thought it impossible that I should have got so far out of the 
 right track as not to be able to find the house before nightfall, 
 which was now, however, rapidly approaching. Indeed, the first 
 shade of evening, strange as it may seem, gave this persuasion in 
 creased strength. Home-bred and gently nurtured as I was, my 
 life before coming to Texas had been by no means one of adven 
 ture, and I was so used to sleep with a roof over my head, that 
 when I saw it getting dusk I felt certain I could not be far from 
 the house. ^ The idea fixed itself so strongly in my mind, that I 
 involuntarily spurred my mustang, and trotted on, peering out 
 through the fast-gathering gloom, in expectation of seeing a light. 
 Several times I fancied I heard the barking of the dogs, the cattle 
 lowing, or the merry laugh of the children. 
 
 " Hurrah ! there is the house at last I see the lights in tha 
 parlor windows." 
 
 I urged my horse on, but when I came near the house, it provo4 
 
201 
 
 
 to be an island of trees. What I had taken for candles were fire 
 flies, that now issued in swarms from out of the darkness of the 
 islands, and spread themselves over the prairie, darting about in 
 every direction, their small blue flames literally lighting up the 
 plain, and making it appear as if I were surrounded by a wall of 
 Bengal fire. It is impossible to conceive anything more bewilder 
 ing than such a ride as mine, on a warm March night, through the 
 interminable never-varying prairie. Overhead the deep blue fir 
 mamerit, with its hosts of bright stars ; at my feet, and all around, 
 an ocean of magical light, myriads of fire-flies floating upon the 
 soft still air. To me it was like a scene of enchantment. I could 
 distinguish every blade of grass, every flower, each leaf on the 
 trees, but all in a strange unnatural sort of light, and in altered 
 colors. Tuberoses and asters, prairie roses and geraniums, dahlias 
 and vine branches, began to wave and move, to range themselves 
 in ranks and rows. The whole vegetable world around me seemed 
 to dance, as the swarms of living lights passed over it. 
 
 Suddenly out of the sea of fire sounded a loud and long-drawn 
 note. I stopped, listened, and gazed around me. It was not re-' 
 peated, and I rode on. Again the same sound, but this time the 
 cadence was sad and plaintive. Again I made a halt and listened. 
 It was repeated a third time in a yet more melancholy tone, and 
 I recognized it as the cry of a whip-poor-will. Presently it was 
 answered from a neighboring island by a Katydid. My heart 
 leaped for joy at hearing the note of this bird, the native minstrel 
 of my own dear fatherland. In an instant the house where I was 
 born stood before the eyesight of my imagination. There were 
 the negro huts, the garden, the plantation, everything exactly as 
 I had left it. So powerful was the illusion, that I gave my horse 
 the spur, persuaded that my fathers house lay before me. The 
 island, too, I took for the grove that surrounded our house. On 
 reaching its border, I literally dismounted, and shouted out for 
 Charon Tommy. There was a stream running through our plan 
 tation, which, for nine months out of the twelve, was only passable 
 by means of a ferry, and the old negro who officiated as ferryman 
 was indebted to me for the above classical cognomen. I believe 
 I called twice, nay, three times, but no Charon Tommy answered ; 
 
202 
 
 
 
 and I awoke as from a pleasant dream, somewhat ashamed of the 
 length to which my excked imagination had hurried me. 
 
 I now felt so weary and exhausted, so hungry and thirsty, and 
 withal, my mind was so anxious and harassed by my dangerous 
 position, and the uncertainty how I should get out of it, that I 
 was really incapable of going any further. I felt quite bewildered, 
 and stood for some time gazing before me, and scarcely even 
 troubling myself to think. At length I mechanically drew my 
 clasp-knife from my pocket, and set to work to dig a hole in the 
 rich black soil of the prairie. Into this hole I put the knotted 
 end of my lasso, and then pushing it down with my foot, as I had 
 seen others do since I had been in Texas, I passed the noose over 
 my mustang's neck, and left him to graze, while I myself lay down 
 outside the circle which the lasso would enable him to describe. 
 An odd manner, it may seem of tying up a horse ; but the most 
 convenient and natural one in a country where one may often find 
 one's-self fifty miles from any house, and five-and-twenty from a 
 tree or bush. 
 
 I found it no easy matter to sleep, for on all sides I heard the 
 howling of wolves and jaguars, an unpleasant serenade at any time, 
 but most of all so in the prairie, unarmed and defenceless as I 
 was. My nerves, too, were all in commotion, and I felt so feverish 
 that I do not know what I should have done, had I not fortu 
 nately remembered that I had my cigar-case and a roll of tobacco, 
 real Virginia dulcissimus, in my pocket invaluable treasures in 
 my present situation, and which on this, as on many other occa 
 sions, did not fail to soothe and calm my agitated thoughts. 
 
 Luckily, too, being a tolerably confirmed smoker, I carried A 
 flint and steel with me ; for otherwise, although surrounded by 
 lights, I should have been sadly at a loss for fire. A couple of 
 Havanas did me an infinite deal of good, and after a while 1 sunk 
 into the slumber of which I stood so much in need. 
 
 The day was hardly well broken when I awoke. The refresh 
 ing sleep I had enjoyed had given me new energy and courage. 
 [ felt hungry enough, to be sure, but light and cheerful, and I 
 hastened to dig up the end of the lasso, and saddled my horse. I 
 trusted that, though I had been condemned to wander over tht 
 
203 
 
 prairie the whole of the preceding day as a sort of punishment foi 
 my rashness, I should now have better luck, and having expiated 
 my fault, be at length allowed to find my way. With this hope I 
 mounted my mustang, and resumed my ride. 
 
 I passed several beautiful islands of pecan, plum, and peach 
 trees. It is a peculiarity worthy of remark, that these islands 
 are nearly always of one sort of tree. It is very rare to meet 
 with one where there are two sorts. Like the beasts of the forest, 
 that herd together according to their kind, so does this wild vege 
 tation preserve it. One island will be entirely composed of live 
 oaks, another of plum, and a third of pecan trees ; the vine only 
 is common to them all, and embraces them all alike with its slen 
 der but tenacious branches. I rode through several of them 
 islands. They were perfectly free from bushes and brushwood, 
 and carpeted with the most beautiful verdure it is possible to be 
 hold. I gazed at them in astonishment. It seemed incredible 
 that nature, abandoned to herself, should preserve herself so 
 beautifully clean and pure, and I involuntarily looked around me 
 for some trace of the hand of man. But none was there. I saw 
 nothing but herds of deer, that gazed wonderingly at me with 
 their large clear eyes, and when I approached too near, galloped 
 off in alarm. What would I not have given for an ounce of lead, 
 a charge of powder, and a Kentucky rifle ? Nevertheless, the 
 mere sight of the beasts gladdened me, and raised my spirits. 
 They were a sort of society. Something of the same feeling 
 seemed to be imparted to my horse, who bounded under me, 
 and neighed merrily as he cantered along in the fresh spring 
 morning. 
 
 I was now skirting the side of an island of trees of greater ex 
 tent than most of those I had hitherto seen. On reaching the 
 end of it, I suddenly came in sight of an object presenting so ex 
 traordinary an appearance as far to surpass any of the natural 
 wonders I had as yet beheld, either in Texas or the United 
 States. 
 
 At the distance of about two miles rose a colossal mass, in 
 shape somewhat like a monumental mound or tumulus, and appa 
 rently of the brightest silver. As I came in view of it, the SUD 
 
204 
 
 was just covered by a passing cloud, from the lower edge of which 
 the bright rays shot down obliquely upon this extraordinary phe 
 nomenon, lighting it up in the most brilliant manner. At one 
 moment it looked like a huge silver cone ; then took the appear 
 ance of an illuminated castle with pinnacles and towers, or the 
 dome of some great cathedral ; then of a gigantic elephant, cov 
 ered with trappings, but always of solid silver, and indescribably 
 magnificent. Had all the treasures of the earth been offered me 
 to say what it was, I should have been unable to answer. Be 
 wildered by my interminable wanderings in the prairie, and weak 
 ened by fatigue and hunger, a superstitious feeling for a moment 
 came over me, and I half asked myself whether I had not reached 
 some enchanted region, into which the evil spirit of the prairie 
 was luring me to destruction by appearances of supernatural 
 strangeness and beauty. 
 
 Banishing these wild imaginings, I rode on in the direction 
 of this strange object; but it was only .when I came within a 
 very short distance, that I was able to distinguish its nature. It 
 was a live oak of most stupendous dimensions, the very patriarch 
 of the prairie, grown grey in the lapse of ages. Its lower limbs 
 had shot out in a horizontal, or rather a downward-slanting direc 
 tion ; and, reaching nearly to the ground, formed a vast dome 
 several hundred feet in diameter, and full a hundred and thirty 
 feet high. It had no appearance of a tree, for neither trunk nor 
 branches were, visible. It seemed a mountain of whitish-green 
 scales, fringed with long silvery moss, that hung like innumer 
 able beards from every bough and twig. Nothing could better 
 convey the idea of immense and incalculable age than the hoary 
 beard and venerable appearance of this monarch of the woods. 
 Spanish moss of a silvery grey covered the whole mass of wood 
 and foliage, from the topmost bough down to the very ground ; 
 short near the top of the tree, but gradually increasing in length 
 as it descended, until it hung like a deep fringe from the lower 
 branches. I separated the vegetable curtain with my hands, and 
 entered this august temple with feelings of involuntary awe. 
 The change from the bright sunlight to the comparative dark 
 ness beneath the leafy vault, was BO great that I at first could 
 
205 
 
 scarcely distinguish anything. When my eyes got accustomed 
 to the gloom, however, nothing could be more beautiful than the 
 effect of the sun's rays, which, in forcing their way through the 
 silvered leaves and mosses, took as many varieties of colors as if 
 they had passed through a window of painted glass, and gave the 
 rich, subdued, and solemn light of some old cathedral. 
 
 The trunk of the tree rose, free from all branches, full forty 
 
 feet from the ground, rough and knotted, and of such enormous 
 
 size that it might have been taken for a mass of rock, covered 
 
 with moss and -lichens, while many of its boughs were nearly as 
 
 thick as the trunk of any tree I liad ever previously seen. 
 
 I was so absorbed in the contemplation of the vegetable giant, 
 that for a short space I almost forgot my troubles ; but as I rode 
 away from the tree, they returned to me in full force, and my 
 reflections were certainly of no very cheering or consolatory 
 nature. I rode on, however, most perseveringly. The morning 
 slipped away ; it was noon, and the sun stood high in the cloud 
 less heavens. My hunger had now increased to an insupportable 
 degree, and I felt as if something were gnawing within me 
 something like a crab, tugging and riving at my stomach with his 
 sharp claws. This feeling left me after a time, and was replaced 
 by a sort of squeamishness a faint, sickly sensation. But if 
 hunger was bad, thirst was worse. For some hours I suffered 
 martyrdom. At length, like the hunger, it died away, and was 
 succeeded by a feeling of sickness. The thirty hours' fatigue 
 and fasting I had endured were beginning to tell upon my natu 
 rally strong nerves : I felt my reasoning powers growing weaker, 
 and my presence of mind leaving me. A feeling of despondency 
 came over me a thousand wild fancies passed through my be 
 wildered brain ; while at times my head grew dizzy, and I reeled 
 in my saddle like a drunken man. These weak fits, as I may 
 call them, did not last long ; and each time that I recovered, I 
 spurred my mustang onwards, but it was all in vain ride as far 
 and as fast as I would, nothing was visible but a boundless sea 
 of grass. 
 
 At length I gave up all hope, except in that God whose al 
 mighty hand was so manifest in the beauteous works around me 
 
206 
 
 I let the bridle fall on my horse's neck, clasped my hands to* 
 gether, and prayed as I had never before prayed, so heartily and 
 earnestly. When I had finished my prayer I felt greatly com 
 forted. It seemed to me that here in the wilderness, which man 
 had not as yet polluted, I was nearer to God ? and that my petition 
 would assuredly be heard. I gazed cheerfully around, persuaded 
 that I should yet escape from the peril in which I stood. As I 
 did so, with what astonishment and inexpressible delight did I 
 perceive not ten paces off, the track of a horse ! 
 
 The effect of this discovery was like an electric shock to me, 
 and drew a cry of joy to my lips that made my mustang start and 
 prick his ears. Tears of delight and gratitude to Heaven came 
 into my eyes, and I could scarcely refrain from leaping off my 
 horse and kissing the welcome signs that gave me assurance of 
 succor. With renewed strength I galloped onwards ; and had I 
 been a lover flying to rescue his mistress from an Indian war 
 party, I could not have displayed more eagerness than I did in 
 following up the trail of an unknown traveller. 
 
 Never had I felt so thankful to Providence as at that moment. 
 I uttered thanksgivings as I rode on, and contemplated the won 
 derful evidences of his skill and might that offered themselves to 
 me on all sides. The aspect of everything seenred changed, and 
 I gazed with renewed admiration at the scenes through which I 
 passed, and which I had previously been too pre-occupied by the 
 danger of my position to notice. The beautiful appearance of the 
 islands struck me particularly as they lay in the distance, seeming 
 to swim in the bright, golden beams of the noonday sun, like dark 
 spots of foliage in the midst of the waving grasses and many-hued 
 flowers of the prairie. Before me lay the eternal flower-carpet 
 with its innumerable asters, tuberoses, and mimosas, that delicate 
 plant which, when you approach it, lifts its head, seems to look at 
 you, and then droops and shrinks back in alarm. This I saw it 
 do when I was two or three paces from it, and without my horse's 
 foot having touched it. Its long roots stretched out horizontally 
 in the ground, and the approaching tread of a horse or man is 
 communicated through them to the plant, and produces this sin 
 gular phenomenon. When the danger is gone by, and the earth 
 
207 
 
 seases to vibrate, the mimosa may be seen to raise its head again, 
 but quivering and trembling, as though not yet fully recovered 
 from its fears. 
 
 I had ridden on for three or four hours, following the track I 
 had so fortunately discovered, when I came upon the trace of a 
 second horseman, who appeared to have here joined the first tra 
 veller. It ran in a parallel direction to the one I was following. 
 
 Had it been possible to increase my joy, this discovery would 
 have done so. I could now entertain no doubt that I had hit upon 
 the way out of this terrible prairie. It struck me as being rather 
 singular that two travellers should have met in this immense plain, 
 which so few persons traversed ; but that they had done so was 
 certain, for there was the track of the two horses as plain as pos 
 sible. The trail was fresh, too, and it was evidently not long since 
 the horsemen had passed. It might still be possible to overtake 
 them, and in this hope I rode on faster than ever, as fast, at least, 
 as my mustang could carry me through the thick grass and flowers, 
 which in many places were four or five feet high. 
 
 During the next three hours I passed over some ten or twelve 
 miles of ground ; but although the trail still lay plainly and 
 broadly marked before me, I saw nothing of those who had left it. 
 Still I persevered. I must overtake them sooner or later, provi 
 ded I did not lose the track ; and that I was most careful not to 
 do, keeping my eyes fixed upon the ground as I rode along, and 
 never deviating from the line which the travellers had followed. 
 
 In this manner the day passed away, and evening approached. 
 I still felt hope and courage ; but my physical strength began to 
 give way. The gnawing sensation of hunger increased. I was 
 sick and faint ; my limbs became heavy, and my blood seemed 
 chilled in my veins, and all my senses appeared to grow duller 
 under the influence of exhaustion, thirst, and hunger. My eye 
 sight became misty, my hearing less acute, the bridle felt cold and 
 heavy in my fingers. 
 
 Still I rode on. Sooner or later I must find an outlet ; the 
 prairie must have an end somewhere. It is true the whole of 
 Southern Texas is one vast prairie ; but then there are rivera 
 flowing through it, and if I could reach one of those. I should not 
 
208 
 
 be far from the abodes of men. By following the streams five or 
 six miles up or down, I should be sure to find a plantation. 
 
 As I was thus reasoning with, and encouraging myself, I sud 
 denly perceived the traces of a third horse, running parallel to the 
 two which I had been so long following. This was indeed en- 
 courgement. It was certain that three travellers, arriving from 
 different points of the prairie, and all going in the same direction 
 must have some object, must be repairing to some village or clear 
 ing, and where or what this was, had now become indifferent to 
 me, so long as I once more found myself amongst my fellow-men. 
 I spurred on my mustang, who was beginning to flag a little in 
 his pace with the fatigue of our long ride. 
 
 The sun set behind the high trees of an island that bounded 
 my view westward, and there being little or no twilight in those 
 southerly latitudes, the broad day was almost instantaneously 
 replaced by the darkness of night. I could proceed no farther 
 without losing the track of the three horsemen ; and as I hap 
 pened to be close to an island, I fastened my mustang to a branch 
 with the lasso, and threw myself on the grass under the trees. 
 
 This night, however, I had no fancy for tobacco. Neither the 
 cigars nor the dulcissimus tempted me. I tried to sleep, but in 
 vain. Once or twice I began to dose, but was roused again by 
 violent cramps and twitchings i,n all my limbs. There is nothing 
 more horrible than a night passed in the way I passed that one, 
 faint and weak, enduring torture from hunger and thirst, striving 
 after sleep and never finding it. I can only compare the sensa 
 tion of hunger I experienced to that of twenty pairs of pincers 
 tearing at my stomach. 
 
 With the first grey light of morning I got up and prepared for 
 departure. It was a long business, however, to get my horse 
 ready. The saddle which at other times I could throw upon his 
 back with two fingers, now seemed made of lead, and it was as 
 much as I could do to lift it. I had still more difficulty to draw 
 the girths tight ; but at last I accomplished this, and scrambling 
 upon my beast rode off. Luckily my mustang's spirit was pretty 
 well taken out of him by the last two days' work ; for if he had 
 been fresh, the smallest spring on one side would have sufficed to 
 
209 
 
 throw me out of the saddle. As it was, I sat upon him like an 
 automaton, hanging forward on his neck, sometimes grasping the 
 mane, and almost unable to use either rein or spur. 
 
 I had ridden on for some hours in this helpless manner, when 
 I came to a place where the three horsemen whose track I wag 
 following had apparently made a halt, perhaps passed the previous 
 night. The grass was trampled and beaten down in a circum 
 ference of some fifty or sixty feet, and there was a confusion in 
 the horse-tracks as if they had ridden backwards and forwards. 
 Fearful of losing the right trace, I was looking carefully about me 
 to see in what direction they had recommenced their journey, 
 when I noticed something white amongst the long grass. I got off 
 my horse to pick it up. It was a piece of paper with my own 
 name written upon it ; and I recognized it as the back of a letter 
 in which my tobacco had been wrapped, and which I had thrown 
 away at my halting place of the preceding nigl^t. I looked 
 around, and recognized the island and the very tree under which 
 I had. slept, or endeavored to sleep. The horrible truth instantly 
 flashed across me the horse tracks I had been following were my 
 own : since the preceding morning I had been riding in a circle i 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE PERIL. THE RESCUE. 
 
 READER, did you ever have your dearest hopes crushed at one 
 fell moment ? Were your fondest aspirations ever blighted at one 
 unlocked for disaster ? If not, you can but feebly imagine my 
 feelings on realizing the dreadful fact announced at the close of 
 the last chapter. I stood for a few seconds thunderstruck, and 
 then sank upon the ground in utter despair. At that moment I 
 should have been thankful to any one who would have knocked 
 me on the head as I lay. All I wished for was to die as speedily 
 as possible. 
 
 I remained I know not how long lying in a desponding, half 
 insensible, state upon the grass. Several hours must have 
 elapsed ; for when I got up the sun was low in the western hea 
 vens. My head was so weak and wandering, that I could not well 
 explain to myself how it was that I had been thus riding after ray 
 own shadow. Yet the thing 'Was clear enough. Without land 
 marks, and in the monotonous scenery of the prairie, I might 
 have gone on for ever following my horse's track, and going back 
 when I thought I was going forwards, had it not been for the dis 
 covery of the tobacco paper. I was, as I subsequently learned, in 
 the Jacinto prairie, one of the most beautiful in Texas, full sixty 
 miles long and broad, but in which the most experienced hunters 
 never risked themselves without a compass. It was little wonder 
 then, that I, a mere boy of two-and-twenty, just escaped from col 
 lege, should have gone astray in it. 
 
 I now gave myself up for lost, and with the bridle twisted 
 
' - 211 
 
 round my hand, and holding on as well as I could by the saddle 
 and mane, I let my horse choose his own road. It would per 
 haps have been better if I had done this sooner. The beast's 
 instinct would probably have led him to some plantation. When 
 he found himself left to his own guidance, he threw up his head, 
 snuffed the air three or four times, and then turning round, set 
 off in: a contrary direction, and at such a brisk pace that it was 
 as much as I could do to keep upon him. Every jolt caused me 
 so much pain, that I was more than once tempted to let myself 
 fall off his back. 
 
 At last night came and thanks to the lasso, which kept my 
 horse in awe, I managed to dismount and secure him. The whole 
 night through I suffered from racking pains in head, limbs, and 
 body. I felt as if I had been broken on the wheel ; not an inch 
 of my whole person but ached and smarted. My hands were 
 grown thin and transparent, my cheeks fallen in, my eyes deep 
 sunk in their sockets. When I touched my face, I could feel 
 the change that had taken place ; and as I did so, I caught, 
 myself once or twice laughing like a child I was becoming 
 delirious. 
 
 In the morning I could scarcely rise from the ground, so 
 utterly weakened and exhausted was I by my three days 1 fast 
 ing, anxiety, and fatigue. I have heard say that a man in good 
 health can live nine days without food. It may be so in a room 
 or a prison ; but assure'dly not in a Texian prairie. I am quite 
 certain that the fifth day would have seen the last of me. 
 
 I should never have been able to mount my mustang, but he 
 had fortunately lain down, so I got into the saddle, and he rose 
 up with me and started off of his own accord. As I rode along, 
 the strangest visions seemed to pass before me. I saw the most 
 beautiful cities that a painter's fancy ever conceived, wifch towers, 
 cupolas, and columns, the summits of which lost themselves in 
 the clouds marble basins and fountains of bright, sparkling 
 water rivers flowing with liquid gold and silver and gardens 
 in which the trees were bowed down with the most magnificent 
 fruit fruit that I had not strength enough to raise my hand and 
 pluck. My limbs were heavy as lead, my tongue, lips and gums 
 
212 
 
 dry and parched. I breathed with the greatest difficulty, and 
 within me was a burning sensation, as if I had swallowed hot 
 coals ; while my extremities, both hands and feet, did not appear 
 to form a part of myself, but to be instruments of torture affixed 
 to me, and causing me the most intense suffering. 
 
 I have a confused recollection of a sort of rushing noise, the 
 nature of which I was unable to determine, so. nearly had all 
 consciousness left me ; then of finding myself amongst trees, the 
 leaves and boughs of which scratched and beat against my face 
 as I passed through them ; then of a sudden and rapid descent, 
 with the broad, bright surface of a river below me. I clutched 
 at a branch, but my fingers had no strength to retain their 
 grasp there was a hissing, splashing noise, and the waters closed 
 over my head. 
 
 I soon rose, and endeavored to strike out with my arms and 
 legs, but in vain ; I was too weak to swim, and again I went 
 down. A thousand lights seemed to dance before my eyes : there 
 vvas a noise in my brain as if a four-and- twenty pounder had been 
 fired close to my ear. Just then a hard hand was wrung in to 
 my neckcloth, and I felt myself dragged out of tfce water. The 
 next instant my senses left me. 
 
213 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A DANGEROUS DELIVERER. 
 
 WHEN I recovered from my state of insensiblity, and once more 
 pened my eyes, I was lying on the bank of a small but deep river. 
 My horse was grazing quietly a few yards off, and beside me stood 
 a man with folded arms, holding a wicker-covered flask in his 
 hand. This was all I was able to observe ; for my state of weak 
 ness prevented me from getting up and looking around me. 
 
 " Where am I ?" I gasped. 
 
 " Where are you, stranger ? By the Jacinto ; and that you are 
 by it, and not in it, is no fault of your'n, I reckon." 
 
 There was something harsh and repulsive in the tone and man 
 ner in which these words were spoken, and in the grating scornful 
 laugh that accompanied them, that jarred upon my nerves, and 
 inspired me with a feeling of aversion towards the speaker. I 
 knew that he was my deliverer ; that he had saved my life, when 
 my mustang, raging with thirst, had sprung head-foremost into the 
 water ; that without him, I must inevitably have been drowned, 
 even had the river been less deep than it was ; and that it was by 
 his care, and the whisky he had made me swallow, and of which J 
 gtill felt the flavor on my tongue, that I had been recovered from 
 the death-like swoon into which I had fallen. But had he done 
 ten times as much for me, I could not have repressed the repug 
 nance, the inexplicable dislike, with which the mere tones of his 
 voice filled me. I turned my head away in order not *o see him. 
 There was a silence of some moments' duration. 
 
214 
 
 "Don't seem as if my company was over and above agreeable," 
 paid the man at last. 
 
 " Your company not agreeable ? This is the fourth day since I 
 paw the face of a human being. During that time not a bit nor a 
 drop has passed my tongue." 
 
 " Hallo ! that's a lie !" shouted the man, with another strange, 
 wild laugh. " You have taken a mouthful out of my flask ; not 
 taken it, certainly, but it went over your tongue all the same. 
 Where do you come from ? The beast ain't your'n." 
 
 " Mr. Neal's," answered I. 
 
 " See it is by the brand. Bat what brings you here from Mr. 
 Neal's ? It's a good seventy mile to his plantation, right across 
 the prairie. Ain't stole the horse, have you ?" 
 
 u Lost my way four days eaten nothing." 
 
 These words were all I could articulate. I was too weak to talk 
 
 " Four days without eatin' !" cried the man, with a laugh like 
 the sharpening of a saw, " and that in a Texas prairie, and with 
 islands on all sides of you ! Ha ! I see how it is. You're a gen 
 tleman that's plain enough. I was a sort of one myself once. 
 You thought our Texas prairies was like the prairies in the States. 
 Ha, ha ! And so you didn't know how to help yourself. Did you 
 see no bees in the air, no strawberries on the earth ?" 
 
 "Bees? Strawberries?" repeated I. 
 
 " Yes, bees, which live in the hollow trees. Out of twenty trees 
 there's sure to be one full of honey. So you saw no bees, eh ? 
 Perhaps you don't know the creturs when you see em? Ain't 
 altogether so big as wild geese or turkies. But you must know 
 what strawberries are, and that they don't grow upon the trees." 
 
 All this was spoken in the same sneering, savage manner as 
 before, with the speaker's head half turned over his shoulder, 
 while his features were distorted into a contemptuous grin. 
 
 " And if I had seen the bees, how was I to get at the honey, 
 without an axe ?" 
 
 " How did you lose yourself?" 
 
 " My mustang ran away" 
 
 " I see. And you after him. You'd have done better to lei 
 him run But what d'ye mean to do now ?" 
 
215 
 
 " I am weak sick to death. I wish to get to the nearest house 
 an inn anywhere were men are." 
 
 "Where men are," repeated the stranger, with his scornful 
 smile. " Where men are," he muttered again, taking a few steps 
 on one side. 
 
 I was. hardly able to turn my head, but there was something 
 Strange in the man's movement that alarmed me ; and, making a 
 violent effort, I changed my position sufficiently to get him in 
 sight agaiu He had drawn a long knife from his girdle, which 
 he clutched in one hand, while he ran the fore-finger of the other 
 along its edge. I now for the first time got a full view of his 
 face, and the impression it made upon me was anything but favor 
 able. His countenance was the wildest I had ever seen ; his blood 
 shot eyes rolled like balls of fire in their sockets ; while his move 
 ments and manner were indicative of a violent inward struggle. 
 He did not stand still for three seconds together, but paced back 
 wards and forwards with hurried, irregular steps, casting wild 
 glances over his shoulder, his fingers playing all the while with the 
 knife, with the rapid and objectless movements of a maniac. 
 
 I felt convinced that I was the cause of the struggle visibly 
 going on within him ; that my life or death was what he was deci 
 ding upon. But in the state I then was, death had no terror for 
 me. The image of my mother, sisters, and father, passed before 
 my eyes. I gave one thought to my peaceful, happy home, and 
 then looked upwards and prayed. 
 
 The man had walked off to some distance. I turned myself a 
 little more round, and, as I did so, I caught sight of the same 
 magnificent phenomenon which I had met with on the second day 
 of my wanderings. The colossal live oak rose in all its silvery 
 splendor, at the distance of a couple of miles. Whilst I was gazing 
 at it, and reflecting on the strange ill luck that had made me pass 
 within so short a distance of the river without finding it, I saw 
 my new acquaintance approach a neighboring cluster of trees, 
 amongst which he disappeared. 
 
 After a short time I again perceived him coming towards me 
 with a slow and staggering sto r > As he drew near, I had an 
 opportunity of examining his whole appearance. He was very 
 
216 
 
 tall and lean, but large-boned, and apparently of great strength. 
 His face, which had not been shaved for several weeks, was so 
 tanned by sun and weather, that he might have been taken for an 
 Indian, had not the beard proved his claim to white blood. But 
 his eyes were what most struck me. There was something so 
 frightfully wild in their expression, a look of terror and despera 
 tion, like that of a man whom all the furies of hell were hunting 
 and persecuting. His hair hung in long, ragged locks over his 
 forehead, cheeks, and neck, and round his head was bound a hand 
 kerchief, on which were several stains of a brownish black color. 
 Spots of the same kind were visible upon his leathern jacket, 
 breeches, and moccasins ; they were evidently blood-stains. His 
 hunting knife, which was nearly two feet long, with a rude, wooden 
 handle, was now replaced in his girdle, but in its stead he held a 
 Kentucky rifle in his hand. 
 
 Although. I did my utmost to assume an indifferent counte 
 nance, my features doubtless expressed something of the repug 
 nance and horror with which the man inspired me. He looked 
 loweringly at me for a moment from under his shaggy eye 
 brows. 
 
 " You don't seem to like the company you've got into," said he. 
 " Do I look so very desperate, then ? Is it written so plainly on 
 my face ?" 
 
 " What should there be written upon your face ?" 
 
 " What ? What ? Fools and children ask them questions." 
 
 " I will ask you none ; but as a Christian, as my countryman, 
 I beseech you " 
 
 " Christian !" interrupted he, with a hollow laugh. " Country 
 man !" He struck the butt of his rifle hard upon the ground. 
 " That is my countryman my only friend !" he continued, as he 
 examined the flint and lock of his weapon. " That releases from 
 all troubles ; that's a true friend. Pooh ! perhaps it'll release you 
 too put you to rest." 
 
 These last words were uttered aside, and musingly. 
 
 " Put him to rest, as well as Pooh ! One more or less 
 Perhaps it would drive away that cursed spectre !'' 
 
 All this seemed to be spoken to his rifle. 
 
217 
 
 u Will you swear not to betray me ?" cried he to me. " Else, 
 one touch " 
 
 As he spoke, he brought the gun to his shoulder, the muzzle 
 pointed full at my breast. 
 
 I felt no fear. I am sure my pulse did not give a throb the 
 more for this menace. So deadly weak and helpless as I lay, it 
 was unnecessary to shoot me. The slightest blow from the butt 
 of the rifle would have driven the last faint spark of life out of 
 my exhausted body. I looked calmly, indifferently even, into 
 the muzzle of the piece. 
 
 " If you can answer it to your God, to your and my Judge and 
 Creator, do your will" 
 
 My words, which from faintness I could scarcely render audi 
 ble, had, nevertheless, a sudden and startling effect upon the man. 
 He trembled from head to foot, let the butt of his gun fall heavily 
 to the ground, and gazed at me with open mouth and staring 
 eyes. 
 
 u This one, too, comes with his God !" muttered he. " God ! 
 and your and my Creator and Judge." 
 
 He seemed hardly able to articulate these words, which were 
 uttered by gasps and efforts, as though something had been 
 choking him. 
 
 " His and my Judge !" groaned he, again. " Can there be 
 a God, a Creator and Judge ?" 
 
 As he stood thus muttering to himself, his eyes suddenly 
 became fixed, and his features horribly distorted. 
 
 "Do it not !" cried he, in a shrill tone of horror, that rang 
 through my head. " It will bring no blessin' with it. I am a 
 dead man ! God be merciful to me ! My poor wife, my poor 
 children !" 
 
 The rifle fell from his hands, and he smote his breast and fore 
 head in a paroxysm of the wildest fury. It was frightful to 
 behold the conscience-stricken wretch, stamping madly about, and 
 casting glances of terror behind, as though demons had been 
 hunting him down. The foam flew from his mouth, and I 
 expected each moment to see him fall to the ground in a fit of 
 epilepsy. Gradually, however, he became more tranquil 
 
 19 
 
218 
 
 u D'ye see no thin' in my face ?" said he, in a hoarse whisper 
 Buddenly pausing close to where I lay. 
 
 "What should I see?" 
 
 He came yet nearer. 
 
 " Look well at me through me, if you can. D'ye see nothin' 
 now?" 
 
 " I see nothing," replied I. 
 
 " Ah ! I understand ; you can see nothin'. Ain't in a spyin 1 
 humor, I calkilate. No, no, that you ain't. After four days and 
 nights fastin', one loses the fancy for many things. I've tried it 
 for two days myself. So you are weak and faint, eh ? But I 
 needn't ask that, I reckon. You look bad enough. Take another 
 drop of whisky ; it'll strengthen you. But wait till I mix it." 
 
 As he spoke, he stepped down to the edge 0f the river, and 
 scooping up the water in the hollow of his hand, filled his flask 
 with it. Then returning to me, he poured a little into my 
 mouth. 
 
 Even the bloodthirsty Indian appears less of a savage when 
 engaged in a compassionate act, and the wild desperado I hacl 
 fallen in with, seemed softened and humanized by the service he 
 was rendering me. His voice sounded less harsh ; his manner 
 was calmer and milder. 
 
 " You wish to go to an inn ?" 
 
 " For Heaven's sake, yes. These four days I have tasted 
 nothing but a bit of tobacco." 
 
 " Can you spare a bit of that ?" 
 
 All I have." 
 
 I handed him my cigar case, and the roll of dukissimus. He 
 snatched the latter from me, and bit into it with the furious eager 
 ness of a wolf. 
 
 " Ah, the right sort this !" muttered he to himself. " Ah, 
 young man, or old man you're an old man, ain't you ? How 
 old are you ?" 
 
 " Two-and-twenty." 
 
 He shook his head, doubtingly. 
 
 " Can hardly believe that. But four days in the prairie, and 
 nothin' to eat. Well, it may be so. But, stranger if I had had 
 
 
219 
 
 this bit of tobacco only ten days ago a bit of tobacco is worth 
 
 a deal sometimes. It might have saved a man's life !" 
 
 Again he groaned, and his accents became wild and unnatural. 
 
 " I say, stranger !" cried he, in a threatening tone. " I say ! 
 d'ye see yonder live oak ? D'ye see it ? It's the Patriarch, and 
 a finer and mightier one you won't find in the prairies, I reckon. 
 D'ye see it ? 
 
 " I do see it." 
 
 " Ah ! you see it," cried he, fiercely. " And what is it to you ? 
 What have you to do with the Patriarch, or with what lies under 
 it ? I reckon you had best not be too curious that way. If you 
 dare take a step under that tree " He swore an o&th too hor 
 rible to be repeated. 
 
 " There's a spectre there," cried he ; "a spectre that would 
 fright you to death. Better keep away. 
 
 * : I will keep away," replied I. " I never thought of going near 
 it. All I want is to get to the nearest plantation or inn." 
 
 " Ah ! true, man the next inn. I'll show you the way to it. 
 I will." 
 
 " You will save my life by so doing," said I, " and I shall be 
 ever grateful to you as my deliverer." 
 
 " Deliverer," repeated he, with a wild laugh. " Pooh ! If you 
 knew what sort of a deliverer Pooh ! What's the use of savin' 
 a life, when yet I will I will save yours ; perhaps the cursed 
 spectre will leave me then. Will you not ? Will you not ?" cried 
 he, suddenly changing his scornful mocking tones to those of 
 entreaty and supplication, and turning his face in the direction 
 of the live oak. Again his wildness of manner returned, and his 
 eyes became fixed, as he gazed for some moments at the gigantic 
 tree. Then darting away, he disappeared among the trees, 
 whence he had fetched his rifle, and presently emerged again, 
 leading a ready saddled horse with him. He called to me to 
 mount mine, but seeing that I was unable even to rise from the 
 ground, he stepped up to me, and with the greatest ease lifted me 
 into the saddle with one hand, so light had I become during my 
 long fast. Then taking the end of my lasso, he got upon his own 
 horse and set off, leading my mustang after him. 
 
220 
 
 We rode on for some time without exchanging a word. My 
 guide kept up a sort of muttered soliloquy ; but as I was full ten 
 paces in his rear, I could distinguish nothing of what he said At 
 times he would raise his rifle to his shoulder, then lower it again, 
 and speak to it, sometimes caressingly, sometimes in anger. 
 More than once he turned his head, and cast keen, searching 
 glances at me, as though to see whether I were watching him or 
 not. 
 
 We had ridden more than an hour, and the strength which the 
 whisky had given me was fast failing, so that I expected each 
 moment to fall from my horse, when suddenly I caught sight of 
 a kind of rude hedge, and almost immediately afterwards the wall 
 of a small blockhouse became visible. A faint cry of joy escaped 
 me, and I endeavored, but in vain, to give my horse the spur. 
 My guide turned round, fixed his wild eyes upon me, and spoke 
 in a threatening tone. 
 
 " You are impatient, man ! impatient, I see. You think now, 
 perhaps" 
 
 " I am dying," was all I could utter. In fact, my senses were 
 leaving me from exhaustion, and I really thought my last hour 
 was come. 
 
 " Pooh ! dyin !' One don't die so easy. And yet d n ! 
 
 it might be true." 
 
 He sprang off his horse, and was just in time to catch me in his 
 arms as I fell from the saddle. A few drops of whisky, however, 
 restored me to consciousness. My guide replaced me upon my 
 mustang, and after passing through a potato ground, a field of 
 Indian corn, and a small grove of peach-trees, we found ourselvei 
 it the door of the blockhouse. 
 
221 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE SELF-ACCUSED. 
 
 I WAS so utterly helpless, that my strange companion wu 
 obliged to lift me off my horse, and carry me into the dwelling. 
 He sat me down upon a bench, passive and powerless as an infant. 
 Strange to say, however, I was never better able to observe all 
 that passed around me, than during the few hours of bodily 
 debility that succeeded my immersion in the Jacinto. A blow 
 with a reed would have knocked me off my seat, but my mental 
 faculties, instead of participating in this weakness, seemed sharp 
 ened to an unusual degree of acuteness. 
 
 The blockhouse in which we now were, was of the poorest pos 
 sible description ; a mere log hut, consisting of one room, that 
 served as kitchen, sitting-room, and bedchamber. The door of 
 rough planks swung heavily upon two hooks that fitted into iron 
 rings, and formed a clumsy substitute for hinges 5 a wooden latch 
 and heavy bar served to .secure it ; windows, properly speaking, 
 there were none, but in their stead a few holes covered with dirty 
 oiled paper ; the floor was of clay, stamped hard and dry in the 
 middle of the hut, but out of which, at the sides of the room, a 
 crop of rank grass was growing, a foot or more high. In one corner 
 stood a clumsy bedstead, in another a sort of table or counter, on 
 which were half a dozen drinking glasses of various sizes and pat 
 terns. The table consisted of four thick posts, firmly planted in 
 the ground, and on which were nailed three boards that had appar 
 ently belonged to some chest or case, for they were partly painted 
 and there was a date, and the three first letters of a word upou 
 
 19* 
 
222 
 
 one of them. A shelf fixed against the side of the hut supported 
 an earthen pot or two, and three or four bottles, uncorked, and 
 apparently empty; and from some wooden pegs wedged in between 
 the logs, hung suspended a few articles of wearing apparel of no 
 very cleanly aspect. 
 
 Pacing up and down the hut with a kind of stealthy cat-like 
 pace, was an individual, whose unprepossessing exterior was in 
 good keeping with the wretched appearance of this Texian she 
 been house. He was an undersized, stooping figure, red-haired, 
 large mouthed, and possessed of small reddish, pig's eyes, which 
 he seemed totally unable to raise from the ground, and the lower 
 ing, hang-dog expression of which corresponded fully with the 
 treacherous, panther-like stealthiness of his step and movements. 
 Without greeting us either by word or look, this personage dived 
 into a dark corner of his tenement, brought out a full bottle, and 
 placing it on the table beside the glasses, resumed the mono 
 tonous sort of exercise in which he had been indulging on our 
 entrance. 
 
 My guide and deliverer said nothing while the tavern-keeper 
 was getting out the bottle, although he seemed to watch all his 
 movements with a keen and suspicious eye. He now filled a large 
 glass of spirits, and tossed it off at a single draught. When he 
 had done this, he spoke for the first time. 
 
 "Johnny!" 
 
 Johnny made no answer. 
 
 " This gentleman has eaten nothing for four days." 
 
 " Indeed," replied Johnny, without looking up, or intermit 
 ting his sneaking, restless walk from one corner of the room to the 
 other. 
 
 " I said four days, d'ye hear ? Four days. Bring him tea im 
 mediately, strong tea, and then make some good beef soup. The 
 tea must be ready directly, the soup in an hour at farthest, d'ye 
 understand ? And then I want some whisky for myself, and a 
 beafsteak and potatoes. Now, tell all that to your Sambo." 
 
 Johnny did not seem to hear, but continued his walk, creeping 
 along with noiseless step, and each time that he turned, giving a 
 sort of spring like a cat or a panther. 
 
223 
 
 u I've money, Johnny," said my guide. " Money, man, d'ye 
 hear ?" And so saying he produced a tolerably full purse. 
 
 For the first time, Johnny raised his head, gave an indefinable 
 eort of glance at the purse, and then springing forward, fixed his 
 small, cunning eyes upon those of my guide, while a smile of 
 strange meaning spread over his repulsive features. 
 
 The two men stood for the space of a minute, staring at each 
 other, without uttering a word. An infernal grin distended 
 Johnny's coarse mouth from ear to ear. My guide seemed to gasp 
 for breath. 
 
 " I've money," cried he at last, striking the butt of his rifle vio 
 lently on the ground. " D'ye understand, Johnny ? Money ; and 
 a rifle too, if needs be." 
 
 He stepped to the table and filled another glass of raw spirits, 
 which disappeared like the preceding one. While he drank, 
 Johnny stole out of the room' so softly, that my companion was 
 only made aware of his departure by the noise of the wooden latch 
 He then came up to me, took me in his arms without saying a 
 word, and carrying me to the bed, laid me gently down upon it. 
 
 " You make yourself at home," snarled Johnny, who just then 
 eame in again. 
 
 " Always do that, I reckon, when I'm in a tavern," answered 
 my guide, quietly pouring out and swallowing another glassful. 
 " The gentleman shall have your bed to-day. You and Sambo 
 may sleep in the pigsty. You have none though, I believe ?" 
 
 " Bob !" screamed Johnny, furiously. 
 
 " That's my name Bob Rock." 
 
 " For the present," hissed Johnny, with a sneer. 
 
 " The same as yours is Johnny Down," replied Bob in the same 
 tone. " Pooh ! Johnny, guess we know one another ?" 
 
 " Rayther calkiiate we do," replied Johnny, through his 
 teeth. 
 
 " And have done many a day," laughed Bob. 
 
 u You're the famous Bob from Sodoma in Georgia ?" 
 
 " Sodoma iri Alabama, Johnny. Sodoma lies in Alabama," said 
 Bob, filling another glass. " Don't you know that yet, you who 
 were above a year in Columbus, doin' all sorts of dirty work ?" 
 
224 
 
 " Better hold your tongue, Bob," said Johnny, with a danger 
 ous look at me. 
 
 " Pooh ! Don't mind him ; he won't talk, I'll answer for it 
 He's lost the taste for chatterin' in the Jacinto prairie. But 
 Sodoma," continued Bob, " is in Alabama, man ! Columbus in 
 Georgia ! They are parted by the Chatahoochie. Ah ! that was 
 a jolly life we led on the Chatahoochie. But nothin' lasts in this 
 world, as my old schoolmaster used to say. Pooh ! They've druv 
 the Injuns a step further over the Mississippi now. But it was a 
 glorious life warn't it ?" 
 
 Again he filled his glass and drank. 
 
 The information I gathered from this conversation as to the 
 previous life and habits of these two men, had nothing in it very 
 satisfactory or reassuring for me, In the whole of the south-wes 
 tern states there was no place that could boast of being the resort 
 of so many outlaws and bad characters as the town of Sodoma. It 
 is situated, or was situated, at least, a few years previously to the 
 time I speak of, in Alabama, on Indian ground, and was the har 
 bor of refuge for all the murderers and outcasts from the western 
 and south-western parts of the Union. Here, under Indian 
 government, they found shelter and security ; and frightful were 
 the crimes and cruelties perpetrated at this place. Scarcely a day 
 passed without an assassination, not secretly committed, but in 
 broad sunlight. Bands of these wretches, armed with knives and 
 rifles, used to cross the Chatahoochie, and make inroads into 
 Columbus ; break into houses, rob, murder, ill-treat women, and 
 then return in triumph to their dens, laden with booty, and laugh- 
 ing at the laws. It was useless to think of pursuing them, or of 
 obtaining justice, for they were on Indian territory ; and many of 
 the chiefs were in league with them. At length General Jackson 
 and the government took it up. The Indians were driven over 
 the Mississippi, the outlaws and murderers fled, Sodoma itself 
 disappeared ; and, released from its troublesome neighbors, Coluro^ 
 bus is now in as flourishing a state as any place in the west. 
 
 The recollections of their former life and exploits seemed highly 
 interesting to the two comrades j and their communications 
 became more and more confidential. Johnny filled himself a glass, 
 
225 
 
 and the conversation soon increased in animation. I could under 
 stand little of what they said, for they spoke a sort of thieves' jar 
 gon. After a time, their voices sounded as a confused hum in my 
 ears, the objects in the room became gradually less distinct, and 
 I fell asleep, 
 
 I was roused, not very gently, by a mulatto woman, who poured 
 a spoonful of tea into my mouth before 1 had well opened my eyes. 
 She at first did not appear to be attending to me with any great 
 degree of good-will ; but by the time she had given me half a 
 dozen spoonsful her womanly sympathies began to be awakened, 
 and her manner became kinder. The tea did me an infinite deal 
 of good, and seemed to infuse new life into my veins. I finished 
 the cup, and the mulatto laid me down again on my pillow with 
 far more gentleness than she had lifted me up. 
 
 "Gor! Gror!" cried she, " what poor young man ! Berry weak. 
 Him soon better. One hour, massa, good soup." 
 
 " Soup ! What do you want with soup ?" grumbled Johnny. 
 
 " Him take soup. I cook it," screamed the woman. 
 
 " Worse for you if she don't, Johnny," said Bob. 
 
 Johnny muttered something in reply, but I did not distinguish 
 what it was, for my eyes closed, and I again fell asleep. 
 
 It seemed to me as if I had not been five minutes slumbering 
 when the mulatto returned with the soup. The tea had revived 
 me, but this gave me strength ; and when I had taken it I was 
 able to sit up in my bed. 
 
 While the woman was feeding me, Bob was eating his beefsteak. 
 It was a piece of meat that might have sufficed for six persons, 
 but the man seemed as hungry as if he had eaten nothing for 
 three days. He cut off wedges half as big as his fist, swallowed 
 them with ravenous eagerness, and, instead of bread, bit into 
 some unpeeled potatoes. All this was washed down with glass 
 after glass of raw spirits, which had the effect of wakening him up, 
 and infusing a certain degree of cheerfulness into his strange 
 humor. He still spoke more to himself than to Johnny, but hia 
 recollections seemed agreeable ; he nodded self-approvingly, and 
 iometimes laughed aloud. At last he began to abuse Johnny for 
 
226 
 
 being, as he said, such a sneaking, cowardly fellow such a treach 
 erous, false-hearted gallows-bird. 
 
 " It's true," said he, " I am gallows-bird enough myself, but 
 then J'm open, and no man can say I'm a-fear'd ; but 'johnny, 
 Johnny, who " 
 
 " I do not know what he was about to say, for Johnny sprang 
 towards him, and placed botli hands over his mouth, receiving in 
 return a blow that knocked him as far as the door, through which 
 he retreated, cursing and grumbling. 
 
 I soon fell asleep again, and whilst in that state I had a con 
 fused sort of consciousness of various noises in the room, loud 
 words, blows, and shouting. Wearied as I was, however, I believe 
 no noise would have fully roused me, although hunger at last did. 
 
 When I opened my eyes I saw the mulatto woman sitting by 
 my bed, and keeping off the mosquitoes. She brought me the 
 remainder of the soup, and promised, if I would sleep a couple of 
 hours more, to bring me a beefsteak. Before the two hours had 
 elapsed I awoke, hungrier than ever. After I had eaten all the 
 beefsteak the woman would allow me, which was a very moderate 
 quantity, she brought me a beer-glass full of the most delicious 
 punch I ever tasted. I asked her where she had got the rum and 
 lemons, and she told me that it was slie who had bought them, as 
 well as a stock of coffee and tea ; that Johnny was her partner, 
 but that he had done nothing but build the house, and badly built 
 it was. She then began to abuse Johnny* and said he was a gam 
 bler ; and, worse still, that he had had plenty of money once, but 
 had lost all ; that she had first known him in Lower Natchez, but 
 he had been obliged to run away from there in the night to save 
 his neck. Bob was no better, she said ; on the contrary and here 
 she made the gesture of cutting a man's throat he was a very bad 
 fellow, she added. He had got drunk after his dinner, knocked 
 Johnny down, and broken everything. He was now lying asleep 
 outside the door ; and Johnny had hidden himself somewhere. 
 
 How long she continued speaking I know not, for I again fell 
 into a deep sleep,' which this time lasted six or seven hours. 
 
 I was awakened by a strong grasp laid upon my arm, which 
 
227 
 
 made me cry out, more, however, from surprise than pain. Bob 
 stood by my bedside ; the traces of the preceding night's debauch 
 plainly written on his countenance. His bloodshot eyes were 
 inflamed arid swollen, and rolled with even more than their usual 
 wildness : his mouth was open, and the jaws stiff and fixed ; he 
 looked as. if he had just come from committing some frightful 
 deed. I could fancy the first murderer to have worn such an 
 aspect when gazing on the body of his slaughtered brother. J 
 shrank back, horror-struck at his appearance. 
 
 " In God's name, man, what do you want ?" 
 
 He made no answer. 
 
 " You are in a fever. You've the ague !" 
 
 *" Ay, a fever," groaned he, shivering as he spoke ; " a fever, but 
 not the one you mean ; a fever, young man, such as God keep you 
 from ever having." 
 
 His whole frame shuddered while he uttered these words. 
 There was a short pause. 
 
 " Curious that," continued he ; " I've served more than one in 
 the same way, but never thought of it afterwards was forgotten 
 in less than no time. Got to pay the whole score at once, I sup 
 pose. In the open prairie it's the worst ; there stands the old 
 man so plain, with his silver beard, and the spectre just behind 
 him." 
 
 His eyes rolled, he clenched his fists, and, striking his forehead 
 furiously, rushed out of the hut. 
 
 In a few minutes he returned, apparently more composed, and 
 walked straight up to my bed. 
 
 " Stranger, you must do me a service," said he abruptly. 
 
 u Ten rather than one," replied I ; " anything that is in my 
 power. Do I not owe you my life ?" 
 
 " You are a gentleman, I see, and a Christian. You must come 
 with me to the squire the Alcalde." 
 
 " To the Alcalde, man ! What must I go there for ?" 
 
 " You'll see and hear when you get there ; I've something to 
 itell him something for his own ear." 
 
 He drew a deep breath, and remained silent for a short time 
 gazing anxiously on all sides of him 
 
228 
 
 " Something," whispered he, " that nobody else must hear." 
 
 " But there's Johnny, there why not take him ?" 
 
 " Johnny !" cried he, with a scornful laugh ; " Johnny ! who's 
 ten times worse than I am, bad as I be ! and bad I am, to be 
 gure, but yet open and above board, always, till this time ; but 
 Johnny ! he'd sell his own mother. He's a cowardly, sneakin', 
 treacherous hound, is Johnny." 
 
 It was unnecessary to tell me this, for Johnny's character was 
 written plainly enough upon his countenance. 
 /M But why do you want me to go to the Alcalde ?" 
 
 " Why does one want people before the judge ? He's a judge, 
 man a Mexican one, certainly, but chosen by us Americans ; 
 and an American himself, as you and I are." 
 
 " And how soon must I go ?" 
 
 " Directly. I can't bear it any longer. It leaves me no peace. 
 Not an hour's rest have I had for the last eight days. When 1 
 get out into the prairie, the spectre stands before me and beck 
 ons me on ; and if I try to go another way, he comes behind me 
 and drives me before him under the Patriarch. I see him just 
 as plainly as when he was alive, only paler and sadder. It seems 
 as if I could touch him with my hand. Even the bottle is no 
 use now ; neither rum, nor whisky, nor brandy, rid me of him ; 
 it don't, by the 'tarnel. Curious, that ! I got drunk yesterday- 
 thought to get rid of him ; but he came in the night and drove 
 aae out. I was obliged to go. Wouldn't let me sleep ; was forced 
 to go under the Patriarch." 
 
 " Under the Patriarch ? the live oak ?" cried I, in astonish 
 ment. c ' Were you there in the night ?" 
 
 Vk Ay, that was I," replied he. in the same horribly confidential 
 tone ; and the spirit threatened me, and said, ( I will leave you 
 no peace, Bob, till you go to the Alcalde and tell him ' " 
 
 " Then I will go with you to the Alcalde, and that immedi 
 ately," said I, raising myself up in bed. I could not help pitying 
 the poor fellow from my very soul. 
 
 " Where are you going ?" croaked Johnny, who at this moment 
 glided into the room. "Not a step shall you stir till you've 
 paid " 
 
tt Johnny/ 1 said Bob, seizing his less powerful companion by 
 the shoulders, lifting him up like a child, and then setting him 
 down again with such force, that his knees cracked and bent 
 under him : " Johnny, this gentleman is my guest, d'ye under 
 stand ? And here is the reckoning and mind yourself, Johnny- 
 mind yourself, that's all." 
 
 Johnny crept into a corner like a flogged hound ; the mulatto 
 woman, however, did not seem disposed to be so easily intimi 
 dated. Sticking her arms in her sides, she waddled boldly for 
 ward. 
 
 " You not take him 'way, Massa Bob ?" screamed she. " Him 
 stop here. Him berry weak not able for ride not able for 
 stand on him foot." 
 
 This was true enough. Strong as I had felt in bed, I could 
 hardly stand upright when I got out of it. 
 
 For a moment Bob seemed undecided, but only for one mo 
 ment ; then, stepping up to the mulatto, he lifted her, fat and 
 heavy as she was, in the same manner as he had done her part 
 ner, at least a foot from the ground, and carried her screaming 
 and struggling to the door, which he kicked open. Then setting 
 her down outside, " Silence !" roared he, " and some good strong 
 tea instead of your cursed chatter, and a fresh beefsteak instead 
 of your stinking carcass. That will strengthen the gentleman ; 
 so be quick about it, you old brown-skinned beast, you !" 
 
 I had slept in my clothes, and my toilet was consequently soon 
 made, by the help of a bowl of water and towel, which Bob made 
 Johnny bring, and then ordered him to go and get our horses 
 ready. 
 
 A hearty breakfast of tea, butter, Indian corn bread, and 
 steaks, increased my strength so much, that I was able to mount 
 my mustang. I had still pains in all my limbs, but we rode 
 slowly ; the morning was bright, the air fresh and elastic, and 
 I felt myself getting gradually better. Our path led through the 
 prairie the river fringed with wood on the one hand, and the 
 vast ocean of grass, sprinkled with innumerable islands of trees, 
 on the other. We saw abundance of game, which sprang up under 
 the very feet of our horses ; but although Bob had his rifle, he 
 
 20 
 
230 
 
 made no use of it. He muttered continually to himself, anu 
 seemed to be arranging what he should say to the judge ; for I 
 heard him talking of things which I would just as soon not have 
 listened to, if I could have helped it. I was heartily glad when we 
 at length reached the plantation of the Alcalde. 
 
 It seemed a very considerable one, and the size and appearance 
 of the framework house bespoke comfort and every luxury. The 
 building was surrounded by a group of China trees, which I should 
 have thought about ten years of age, but which I afterwards 
 learned had not been planted half that time, although they were 
 already large enough to afford a very agreeable shade. Right in 
 front of the house rose a live oak, inferior in size to the one in the 
 prairie, but still of immense age and great beauty. To the left 
 were some two hundred acres of cotton fields, extending to the 
 bank of the Jacinto, which at this spot made a sharp turn, and 
 winding round the plantation, enclosed it on three sides. Before 
 the house lay the prairie, with its archipelago of islands, and herds 
 of grazing cattle and mustangs ; to the right, mose cotton fields ; 
 and in rear of the dwelling, the negro cottages and out-buildings. 
 There, was a Sabbath-like stillness pervading the whole scene, 
 which seemed to strike even Bob. He paused, as though in deep 
 thought, and allowed his hand to rest for a moment on the handle 
 of the lattice door. Then with a sudden and resolute jerk, 
 bespeaking an equally sudden resolution, he pushed open the gate, 
 and we entered a garden planted with orange, banana, and citron 
 trees, the path through which was. enclosed between palisades, and 
 led to a sort of front court, with another lattice,-work door, beside 
 which hung a bell. Upon ringing this, a negro appeared. 
 
 The black seemed to know Bob very well, for he nodded to him 
 as to an^ old acquaintance, and said the squire wanted him, and 
 had asked after him several times. He then led the way to a 
 large parlor, very handsomely furnished for Texas, and in which 
 we found the squire, or more properly speaking, the Alcalde, sit 
 ting smoking his cigar. He had just breakfasted, and the plates 
 and dishes were still upon the table. He did not appear to be 
 much given to compliments or ceremony, or to partake at all of 
 the general failing of curiosity, for he answered our salutation 
 
231 
 
 with a laconic " good morning," and scarcely even looked at us 
 At the very first glance, it was easy to see that he came from Ten- 
 nessee or Virginia, the only provinces in which one finds men of 
 his gigantic mould. Even sitting, his head rose above those of 
 the negro servants in waiting. Nor was his height alone remark 
 able; he had the true West- Virginian. build-; the enormous chest 
 and shoulders, and herculean limbs, the massive features and sharp 
 grey eyes ; altogether an exterior well calculated to impose on the 
 rough backwoodsmen with whom he had to deal. 
 
 I was tired with my. ride, and took a chair. The squire appar 
 ently did not deem me worthy of notice, or else he reserved me 
 for a later scrutiny ; but he fixed a long, searching look upon Bob, 
 who remained standing, with his head sunk on his breast. 
 
 The judge at last broke silence. 
 
 " So here you are again. Bob. It's long since we have seen you, 
 and I thought you had clean forgotten us. Well, Bob, we 
 shouldn't have broke our hearts, I reckon ; for I hate gamblers 
 ay, that I do worse than skunks. It's a vile thing is play, and 
 has ruined many a man in this world, and" the next. It's ruined 
 you, too, Bob." 
 
 Bob said nothing. 
 
 " You'd have been mighty useful here last week ; there was 
 pienty for you to do. My step-daughter arrived ; but as you 
 weren't to be found, we had to send to Joel to shoot us a 
 buck and a couple of dozen snipes. Ah, Bob ! one might still 
 make a good citizen of ^ou, if you'd only leave off that cursed 
 flay!" 
 
 Bob still remained silent. 
 
 " Now go into the kitchen and get some breakfast." 
 
 Bob neither answered nor moved. 
 
 " D ye hear ? Go into the kitchen and get something to eat. 
 And, Ptoly," added he to the negro " tell Veny to give him a 
 pint of rum." 
 
 " Don't want yer rum ain't thirsty," growled Bob. 
 
 K Very like, very like/' said the judge sharply. " Reckon you've 
 taken too muc'h already. Look as if you could swallow a wild cat, 
 claws and fill. \nd vou," addad he, tuning to me, " whai the 
 
232 
 
 devil are you at, Ptoly ? Don't you see the man wants his break 
 fast? Where's the coffee? Or would you rather have tea?" 
 
 " Thank you, Alcalde, I have breakfasted already." 
 
 " Don't look as if. Ain't sick, are you? Where do you come 
 from? What's happened to you? What are you doing with 
 Bob. 
 
 He looked keenly and searchingly at me, and then again at 
 Bob. My appearance was certainly not very prepossessing, 
 unshaven as I was, and with my clothes and linen soiled and torn. 
 He was evidently considering what could be the motive of our 
 visit, and what had brought me into Bob's society. The result of 
 his physiognomical observations did not appear very favorable 
 either to me or my companion. I hastened to explain. 
 
 " You shall hear how it was, judge. I am indebted to Bob for 
 my life." 
 
 " Your life ! Indebted to Bob for your life !" repeated the 
 iudge, shaking his head incredulously. 
 
 I related how I had lost my way in the prairie ; been carried 
 into the Jacinto by my horse ; and how I should inevitably have 
 been drowned, but for Bob's aid. 
 
 " Indeed !" said the judge, when I had done speaking. " So, 
 Bob saved your life ! Well, I am glad of it. Ah ! if you could 
 only keep away from that Johnny. I tell you, Bob, Johnny will 
 be the ruin of you. Better keep out of hi? way." 
 
 " It's too late," answered Bob. 
 
 "Don't know why it -should be. N*ver too late to leave a 
 debauched, sinful life ; never, man !" 
 
 " Calkilate it is, though," replied Bob, sullenly. 
 
 " You calculate it is ?" said the judge, fixing his eyes on him. 
 ' And why do you calculate that ? Take a glass Ptoly, a glass 
 and tell me, man, why should it be too late ?" 
 
 " I ain't thirsty, squire," said Bob. 
 
 " Don't talk to me of your thirst ; rum's not for thirst, but to 
 utrengthen the heart and nerves, to drive away the blue devils. 
 And a good thing it is, taken in moderation." 
 
 As he spoke he filled himself a glass, and drank half of it ofE 
 Bob shook his bead. 
 
233 
 
 " No rum for me, squire. I take no pleasure in it. I've gom^ 
 thing on my mind too heavy for rum to wash away." 
 
 And what is that, Bob? Come, let's hear what you've got to 
 say. Or, perhaps, you'd rather speak to me alone. It's Sunday 
 to-day, and no business ought to be done ; but for once, and for 
 you, we'll make an exception." 
 
 " I brought the gentleman with me on purpose to witness what 
 I had to say," answered Bob, taking a cigar out of a box that stood 
 on the table, and lighting it. He smoked a whiff or two, looked 
 thoughtfully at the judge, and then threw the cigar through the 
 open window. 
 
 " It don't relish, squire ; nothin' does now." 
 
 " Ah, Bob ! if you'd leave off play and drink ! They're your 
 ruin : worse than ague or fever." 
 
 " It's no use," continued Bob, as if he did not hear the judge's 
 remark ; " it must out. I fo't agin it, and tried to drive it away, 
 but it can't be done. I've put a bit of lead into several before 
 now, but this one " 
 
 " What's that ?" cried the judge, chucking his cigar away, and 
 looking sternly at Bob. " What's up now ? What are you say- 
 ng about a bit of lead? None of your,Sodoma and Lower 
 Natchez tricks, I hope ? They won't do here. Don't understand 
 such jokes." 
 
 " Pooh ! they don't understand them a bit more in Natchez. 
 If they did, I shouldn't be in Texas." 
 
 " The less said of that the better, Bob. You promised to lead 
 a new life here ; so we won't rake up old stories." 
 
 " I did, I did !" groaned Bob ; " but it's all no use. I shall 
 never be better till I'm hung." 
 
 I stared at the man in astonishment. The judge, however, took 
 another cigar, lighted it, and after puffing out a cloud of smoke, 
 said, very unconcernedly 
 
 " Not better till you are hung ! What do you want to be hung 
 for ? To be sure, you should have been long ago, if the Georgia 
 and Alabama papers don't lie. But we are not in the States 
 here, but in Texas, under Mexican laws. It's nothing to us what 
 
 20* 
 
234 
 
 you've done yonder. Where there is no accuser there can be no 
 judge." 
 
 " Send away the nigger, squire," said Bob. " What a free white 
 man has to say, shouldn't be heard by black ears." 
 
 " Go away, Ptoly," said the judge. " Now. then," added ho 
 turning to Bob, " say what you have to say ; but mind, nobody 
 forces you to do it, and it's only out of good will that I listen to 
 you, for to-day's Sunday." 
 
 "I know that," muttered Bob; "I know that, squire; but it 
 leaves me no peace, and it must out. I've been to San Felipe de 
 Austin, to Anahuac, everywhere, but it's all no use. Wherever 
 I go, the spectre follows me, and drives me back under the cursed 
 Patriarch." 
 
 " Under the Patriarch !" exclaimed the judge. 
 
 " Ay, under the Patriarch !" groaned Bob. " Don't you know 
 the Patriarch ; the old live oak near the ford, on the Jacinto ?" 
 
 " I know, I know !" answered the judge. " And what drives 
 yon under the Patriarch ?" 
 
 " Who drives me ? What drives a man who who " 
 
 " A man who " repeated the judge, gently. 
 
 " A man," continued Bob, in the same low tone, " who has sent 
 a rifle bullet into another's heart. He lies there, under the Patri 
 arch, whom I " 
 
 " Whom you ?" asked the judge. 
 
 " Whom I killed /" said Bob, in a hollow whisper. 
 
 " Killed !" exclaimed the judge. " You killed him. Whom ?" 
 
 " Ah ! whom ? Why don't you let be speak ? You always in 
 terrupt me with your palaver," growled Bob. 
 
 " You are getting saucy, Bob," said the judge, impatiently. 
 " Go on, however. I reckon it's only one of your usual tantrums." 
 
 Bob shook his head. The judge looked keenly at him for a 
 moment, and then resumed in a sort of confidential, encouraging 
 tone. 
 
 " Under the Patriarch ; and how did he come under the Patri 
 arch ?" 
 
 u I dragged him there, and buried him there," replied Bob, 
 
S85 . 
 
 c Dragged him there ! Why did you drag him there V 
 
 (i Because he couldn't go himself, with more than half an ounot 
 f lead in his body." 
 
 " And you put the half ounce of lead into him, Bob ? Well, 
 if it was Johnny, you've done the country a service, and saved it 
 a rope." 
 
 Bob shook his head negatively. 
 
 " It wasn't Johnny, although But you shall hear all about 
 
 it. It's just ten days since you paid me twenty dollars fifty." 
 
 " I did so, Bob ; twenty dollars fifty cents ; and I advised you 
 at the same time to let the money lie till you had a couple of hun 
 dred dollars, or enough to buy a quarter or an eighth of Sitic 
 land ; but advice is thrown away upon you. 11 
 
286 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 .THE GAMBLER'S STORY THE MURDER. 
 
 BOB having taken a long draught of water a beverage some 
 what new to his palate commenced the narration of his own 
 crimes as follows : 
 
 ' Well, squire, when I got the money I thought I'd go down 
 to San Felipe, to the Mexicans, and try my luck ; and, at the same 
 time, to see the doctor about my fever. As I was goin' there, I 
 passed near Johnny's house, and fancied a glass, but determined 
 not to get off my horse. I rode up to the window and looked in. 
 There was a man sittin' at the table, havin' a hearty good dinner 
 of steaks and potatoes, and washin' it down with a stiff glass of 
 grog. I began to feel hungry myself, and while I was considering 
 whether I should 'light or not, Johnny came sneakin' out, and 
 whispered to me to come in, that there was a man inside with whom 
 somethin' might be done if we went the right way to work ; a man 
 who had a leather belt round his waist cram-full of hard Jackson ; 
 and that if we got out the cards, and pretended to play a little 
 together, he would soon take the bait and join us 
 
 " I wasn't much inclined to do it," continued Bob ; " but Johnny 
 bothered me so to go in, that I got off my horse. As I did so 
 the dollars chinked in my pocket, and the sound gave me a wish 
 to play. 
 
 " I went in ; and Johnny fetched the whisky bottle. One glass 
 followed another. There were beefsteaks and potatoes too, but I 
 only eat a couple of mouthfuls. When I had drank two, three. 
 ay, four glasses, Johnny brought the cards and dice. Hallo 
 
237 
 
 Johnny,' says I, ' cards and dice, Johnny ! I've twenty dollars 
 fifty in my pocket. Let's have a game ! But no more drink for 
 me ; for I know you, Johnny, I know you ' 
 
 " Johnny larfed slyly, and rattled the dice, and we sat down 
 to play. I hadn't meant to drink any more, but play makes one 
 thirsty ; and with every glass I got more eager, and my dollars 
 got fewer. I reckoned, however, that the stranger would join us, 
 and that I should be able to win back from him ; but not a bit of 
 it : he sat quite quiet, and eat and drank as if he didn't see we 
 were there. I went on playin' madder than ever, and before half 
 an hour was over, I was cleaned out ; my twenty dollars fifty gone 
 to the devil, or what's the same thing, into Johnny's pocket. 
 
 " When I found myself without a cent, I was mad, I reckon. 
 It warn't the first time, nor the hundredth, that I had lost money. 
 Many bigger sums than that ay, hundreds and thousands of 
 dollars had I played away but they^iad none of them cost me 
 the hundredth or thousandth part of the trouble to get, that these 
 twenty dollars fifty had ; two full months had I been slavin' away 
 in the woods and prairies to aim them, and I caught the fever 
 there. The fever I had still, but no money to cure it with. Johnny 
 only larfed in my face, and rattled my dollars. I made a hit at 
 him, which, if he hadn't jumped on one side, would have cured him 
 of larfin' for a week or two. 
 
 " Presently, however, he came sneakin' up to me, and walkin' 
 and whisperin' ; and, ' Bob,' says he, ' is it come to that with you ? 
 are you grown so chicken-hearted that you don't see the belt full of 
 money round his body?' said he, lookin' at it. 'No end of hard 
 coin, I guess ; and all to be had for little more than half an ounce 
 of lead. 5 
 
 " Did he say that?" asked the judge 
 
 " Ay, that did he, but I wouldn't listen to him. I was mad 
 with him for winning my twenty dollars ; and I told him that if 
 he wanted the stranger's purse, he might take it himself and be 
 
 d d ; that I wasn't goin' to pull the hot chestnuts out of the 
 
 fire for him. And I got on my horse, and rode away like mad. 
 
 " My head spun round like a mill. I couldn't get over my loss. 
 I took the twenty dollars fifty more to heart than any money I bad 
 
238 
 
 ever gambled. I didn't know where to go. I didn't dare go back 
 to you, for I knew you would scold me." 
 
 " I shouldn't have scolded you, Bob ; or, if I had, it would only 
 have been for your good. I should have summoned Johnny be 
 fore me, called together a jury of twelve of the neighbors, got you 
 back your twenty dollars fifty, and sent Johnny out of the coun 
 try ; or, better still, out of the world." 
 
 These words were spoken with much phlegm, but yet with a 
 degree of feeling and sympathy which greatly improved my opin 
 ion of the worthy judge. Bob also seemed touched. He drew a 
 deep sigh, and gazed at the Alcalde with a melancholy look. 
 
 v It's too late," muttered he ; " too late, squire." 
 
 " Perhaps not," replied the judge. " but let's hear fhe rest." 
 
 " Well," continued Bob, " I kept riding on at random, and when 
 evenin' came I found myself near the palmetta field on the bank 
 of the Jacinto. As I was ridin' past it, I heard all at once the 
 tramp of a horse. At that moment the queerest feelin' I ever had 
 came over me ; a sort of cold shiverin' feel. I forgot where I was ; 
 sight and hearin' left me ; I could only see two things, my twenty 
 dollars fifty, and the well-filled belt of the stranger I had left at 
 Johnny's. Just then a voice called to me. 
 
 " ' Whence come, countryman, and whither going ?' it said. 
 
 44 i Whence and whither,' answered I, as surlily as could be, ' to 
 the devil at a gallop, and you'd better ride on and tell him I'm 
 comin'.' 
 
 " ' You can do the errand yourself,' answered the stranger, 
 larfin' ; c my road don't lie that way.' 
 
 " As he spoke I looked round, and saw, what I was pretty sure 
 of before, that it was the man with the belt full of money. 
 
 "'Ain't you the stranger I see'd in the inn yonder?' asked 
 he. 
 
 " { And if I am,' says I, ' what's that to you ?' 
 
 " ' Nothin',' said he, 'nothin', certainly.' 
 
 " ' Better ride on,' says I ; * and leave me quiet.' 
 
 " ' Will so, stranger ; but you needn't take it so mighty onkind. 
 A word ain't a tomahawk, I reckon,' said he. ' But I raythe 
 expect your losins at play ain't put you in a very church-goin 
 
239 
 
 humor ; and, if I was you, I'd keep my ^dollars in my pocket, 
 and not set them on cards and dice.' 
 
 u This put me in a rile, to hear him cast my losins in my teeth 
 that way. 
 
 " ' You're a nice feller,' said I, l to throw a man's losses in his 
 face. A pitiful chap you are,' says I. 
 
 " I thought to provoke him, and that he'd tackle me. But he 
 seemed to have no fancy for a fight, for he said quite humble 
 like 
 
 " ' I throw nothin' in your face ; God forbid that I should 
 reproach you with your losses ! I'm sorry for you, on the con 
 trary. Don't look like a man who can afford to lose his dollars. 
 Seem to me one who airng his money by hard work.' 
 
 " We were just then halted at the further end of the cane brake 
 close to the trees that border the Jacinto. I had turned my 
 horse, and was frontin' the 'stranger. And all the time the devil 
 was whisperin' to me, and pointin' to the belt round the man's 
 waist. I could see where it was, plain enough, though he had 
 buttoned his coat over it. 
 
 " ' Hard work, indeed,' says I ; ' and now I've lost everything ; 
 not a cent left for a quid of baccy.' 
 
 " ' If that's all,' says he ; < there's help for that. I don't chew 
 myself, and I ain't a rich man ; I've a wife and children, and want 
 every cent I've got, but it's one's duty to help a countryman. 
 You shall have money for tobacco and a dram.' 
 
 " And so sayin', he took a purse out of his pocket, in which he 
 carried his change. It was pretty full ; there may have been 
 some twenty dollars in it ; and as he drew the string, it was as 
 if the devil laughed and nodded to me out of the openin' of the 
 purse. 
 
 " ' Halves !' cried I. 
 
 " ; No, not that,' says he ; l I've a wife and child, and what I 
 have belongs to them ; but half a dollar' 
 
 " ' Halves !' cried I again ; ' or else' 
 
 " ' Or else ?' repeated he : and, as he spoke, he put the purse 
 back into his pocket, and laid hold of the rifle which was slung on 
 his shoulder. 
 
240 
 
 " ' Don't force one to do you a mischief,' said he. ' Don't,' sayi 
 he ; 'we might both be sorry for it. What you're thinkin' of 
 brings no blessinV 
 
 " I was past seem' or hearin'. A thousand devils from hell 
 were possessin' me. 
 
 " ' Halves !' I yelled out ; and, as I said the word, he sprang 
 out of the saddle, and fell back over his horse's crupper to the 
 ground. 
 
 " ' I'm a dead man !' cried he ; as well as the rattle in his 
 throat would let him. < God be merciful to me ! My poor wife, 
 my poor children !' " 
 
 Bob paused ; he gasped for breath, and the sweat stood in large 
 drops upon his forehead. He gazed wildly round the room. 
 The judge himself looked very pale. I tried to rise, but sank 
 back in my chair. Without the table I believe I should have 
 fallen to the ground. 
 
 There was a gloomy pause of some moments' duration. At 
 last the judge broke silence. 
 
 " A hard, hard case !" said he. " Father, mother, children, all 
 at one blow. Bob, you are a bad fellow a very bad fellow a 
 great villain !" 
 
 " A great villain," groaned Bob. " The ball was gone right 
 through his breast." 
 
 " Perhaps your gun went off by accident," said the judge, anx 
 iously. " Perhaps it was his own ball." 
 
 Bob shook his head. 
 
 " I see him now, judge, as plain as can be, when he said, * Don't 
 force me to do you a mischief. We might both be sorry for it.' 
 But I pulled the trigger. His bullet is still in his rifle. 
 
 i; When I saw him lie dead before me, I can't tell you what I 
 felt. It warn't the first I had sent to his account ; but yet I 
 would have given all the purses and money in the world to have 
 had him alive again. I must have dragged him under the Patri 
 arch, and dug a grave with my hunting knife ; for I found him 
 there afterwards." 
 
 " You found him there ?" repeated the judge. 
 
241 
 
 " Yes. I don't know how he came there. I must have brought 
 him, but I recollect nothin' about it." 
 
 The judge had risen from his chair, and was walking up and 
 down the room, apparently in deep thought. Suddenly he stop 
 ped short. 
 
 " What have you done with his money ?" 
 
 " I took his purse, but buried his belt with him, as well as a 
 flask of rum and some bread and beef he had brought away from 
 Johnny's. I set out for San Felipe, and rode the whole day. In 
 the evinin', when I looked about me, expectin' to see the town, 
 where do you think I was ?" 
 
 The judge and I stared at him. 
 
 " Under the Patriarch. The ghost of the murdered man had 
 driven me there. I had no peace till I'd dug him up and buried 
 him again. Next day I set off in another direction. I was out 
 of tobacco, and I started across the prairie to Anahuac. Lord, 
 what a day I passed ! Wherever I went, he stood before me. If 
 I turned, he turned too. Sometimes he came behind me, and 
 looked over my shoulder. I spurred my mustang till the blood 
 came, hopin' to get away from him, but it was all no use. I 
 thought when I got to Anahuac I should be quit of him, and I 
 galloped on as if for life or death. But in the evenin', instead 
 of bein' close to the salt-works as I expected, there I was again, 
 under the Patriarch. I dug him up a second time, and sat and 
 stared at him, and then buried him agin." 
 
 " Queer that," observed the judge. 
 
 " Ay, very queer !" said Bob mournfully. " But it's all no 
 use. Nothin' does me any good. I sha'nt be better I shall 
 never have peace till I'm hung." 
 
 Bob evidently felt relieved now ; he had in a manner passed 
 sentence on himself. Strange as it may appear, I had a slmilaY 
 feeling, and could not help nodding my head approvingly. The 
 judge alone preserved an unmoved countenance. 
 
 " Indeed !" said he, " indeed ! You think you'll be no better 
 till you're hung." 
 
 " Yes," answered Bob, with eager haste. " Hung on the same 
 tree under which he lies buried." 
 
242 
 
 u Well, if you will have it so, we'll see what can be done for 
 you. We'll call a jury of the neighbors together to-morrow." 
 
 " Thank ye, squire," murmured Bob, visibly comforted by this 
 promise. 
 
 " We'll summon a jury," repeated the Alcalde, " and see what 
 can be done for you. You'll perhaps have changed your mind 
 by that time." 
 
 I stared at him like one fallen from the clouds, but he did 
 not seem to notice my surprise. 
 
 " There is, perhaps, another way to get rid of your life, if you 
 are tired of it," he continued. " We might, perhaps, hit upon one 
 that would satisfy your conscience." 
 
 Bob shook his head. I involuntarily made the same move 
 ment. 
 
 " At any rate, we'll hear what the neighbors say," added the 
 judge. 
 
 Bob stepped up to the judge, and held out his hand to bid 
 him farewell. The other did not take it, and turning to me, 
 said" Yon had better stop here, I think " 
 
 Bob turned round impetuously. 
 
 " The gentleman must come with me." 
 
 " Why must he ?" said the judge. 
 
 Ask himself." 
 
 I again explained the obligation I was under to Bob ; how we 
 had fallen in with one another ; and what care and attention he 
 had shown me at Johnny's. 
 
 The judge nodded approvingly. " Nevertheless," said he, " you 
 will remain here, and Bob will go alone. You are in a state of 
 mind, Bob, in which a man is better alone, d'ye see ; and so leave 
 the young man here. Another misfortune might happen ; and, 
 at any rate, he's better here than at Johnny's. Come back to-mor 
 row, and we'll see what can be done for you." 
 
 These words were spoken in a decided manner, which seemed 
 to have its effect upon Bob. He nodded assentingly, and left the 
 room. I remained staring at the judge, and lost in wonder at these 
 itrmnge proceedings. 
 
243 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 TRIAL BY A TEXIAN JURY. 
 
 WHEN Bob was gone, the Alcalde gave a blast on a shell, which 
 supplied the place of a bell. Then seizing the cigar box, he tried 
 one cigar after another, broke them peevishly up, and threw the 
 pieces out of the window. The negro whom the shell had sum 
 moned, stood for some time waiting, while his master broke up the 
 cigars, and threw them away. At last the judge's patience seemed 
 quite to leave him. 
 
 " Hark ye, Ptoly !" growled he to the frightened black, " the 
 next time you bring me cigars that neither draw nor smoke, I'll 
 make your back smoke for it. Mind that, now ; there's not a 
 single one of them worth a rotten maize stalk. Tell that old 
 coffee-colored hag of Johnny's, that I'll have no more of her cigars. 
 Ride over to Mr. Ducie's and fetch a box. And, d'ye hear ? Tell 
 him I want to speak a word with him and the neighbors. Ask 
 him to bring the neighbors with him to-morrow morning. And 
 mind you're home again by two o'clock. Take the mustang we 
 caught last week. I want to see how he goes." 
 
 The negro listened to these various commands with open mouth 
 and staring eyes, then giving a perplexed look at his master, shot 
 out of the room. 
 
 " Where away, Ptoly ?" shouted the Alcalde after him. 
 
 ' To Massa Ducie." 
 
 " Without a pass, Ptoly ? And what are you going to say to 
 Mr. Ducie ?" 
 
 " Him nebber send bad cigar again, him coffee-culliid hag. 
 
244 
 
 Massa speak to Johnny and neighbors. Johnny bring neighborf 
 here." 
 
 " I thought as much," said the judge with perfect equanimity. 
 u Wait a minute, I'll write the pass, and a couple of lines for Mr. 
 Ducie." 
 
 This was soon done, and the negro dispatched on his errand. 
 The judge waited till he heard the sound of his horse's feet gal 
 loping away, and then, laying hold of the box of despised cigars, 
 lit the first which came to hand. It smoked capitally, as did 
 the one that I took. They were Principes, and as good as I ever 
 tasted. 
 
 I passed the whole of that day tete-a-tete with the judge, who I 
 soon found, knew various friends of mine in the States. I told 
 him the circumstances under which I had come to Texas, and the 
 intention I had of settling there, should I find the country to my 
 liking. During our long conversation, I was able to form a very 
 different, and much more favorable estimate of his character, than 
 I had done from his interview with Bob. He was the very man 
 to be useful to a new country ; of great energy, sound judgment, 
 enlarged and liberal views. He gave me some curious information 
 as to the state of things in Texas ; and did not think it necessary 
 to conceal from me, as an American, and one who intended set 
 tling in the country, that there was a plan in agitation for throw 
 ing off the Mexican yoke, and declaring Texas an independent 
 republic. The high-spirited, and, for the most part, intelligent 
 emigrants from the United States, who formed a very large 
 majority of the population of Texas, saw themselves, with no very 
 patient feeling, under the rule of a people both morally and phy 
 sically inferior to themselves. They looked with contempt, and 
 justly so, on the bigoted, idle, and ignorant Mexicans, while the 
 difference of religion, and interference of the priests, served to 
 increase the dislike between the Spanish and Anglo-American 
 races. 
 
 Although the project was as yet not quite ripe for execution, 
 it was discussed freely and openly by the American settlers. " It 
 is the interest of every man to keep it secret," said the judge ; 
 ind there can be nothing to induce even the worst amongst us to 
 
245 
 
 betray a cause, by the success of which he is sure to profit. We 
 have many bad characters in Texas, the offscourings of the United 
 States, men like Bob, or far worse than him 5 but debauched, 
 gambling, drunken villains though they be, they are the men 
 we want when it comes to a struggle ; and when that time arrives, 
 they will all be found ready to put their shoulders to the wheel, 
 use knife and rifle, and shed the last drop of their blood in defence 
 of their fellow citizens, and of the new and independent republic 
 of Texas. At this moment we must wink at many things which 
 would be severely punished in an older and more settled country ; 
 each man's arm is of immense value to the State ; for, on the day 
 of battle, we shall have, not two to one, but twenty to one opposed 
 to us." 
 
 I was awakened the following morning by the sound of a horse's 
 feet ; and, looking out of the window, saw Bob dismounting from 
 his mustang. The last twenty-four hours had told fearfully upon 
 him. His limbs seemed powerless, and he reeled and staggered 
 in such a manner, that I at first thought him intoxicated. But 
 such was not the case. His was the deadly we'ariness caused by 
 mental anguish. He looked like one just taken from the rack. 
 
 Hastily pulling on my clothes, I hurried down stairs, and 
 opened the house door. Bob stood with his head resting on his 
 horse's neck, and his hands crossed, shivering and groaning. 
 When I spoke to him, he looked up, but did not seem to know me. 
 I tied his horse to a post, and taking his hand led him into the 
 house. He followed like a child, apparently without the will or 
 the power to resist ; and when I placed him in a chair, he fell into 
 it with a weight that made it crack under him, and shook the 
 house. I could not get him to speak, and was about to return to 
 my room to complete my toilet, when I again heard the tramp of 
 mustangs. This was a party of half a do?en horsemen, all dressed 
 in hunting shirts over buckskin breeches and jackets, and armed 
 with rifles and bowie-knives ; stout, daring-looking fellows, evi 
 dently from the south-western States, with the true Kentucky 
 half-horse half-alligator profile, and the usual allowance of thun 
 der, lightning, and earthquake. It struck me when I saw them, 
 that two or three thousand such men would have small difficulty 
 
 21* 
 
246 
 
 in dealing with a whole army of Mexicans, if the latter were all 
 of the pigmy, spindle-shanked breed I had seen on first landing. 
 These giants could easily have walked away with a Mexican in 
 each hand. 
 
 They jumped off their horses, and threw the bridles to the 
 negroes in the usual Kentuckian devil-may-care style, and then 
 walked into the house with the air of people who make themselves 
 at home everywhere, and who knew themselves to be more masters 
 in Texas than the Mexicans themselves. On entering the parlor 
 they nodded a " good morning" to me, rather coldly to be sure, 
 for they had seen me talking to Bob, which probably did not much 
 recommend me. Presently four more horsemen rode up, and then 
 a third party, so that there were now fourteen of them assembled, 
 all decided looking men, in the prime of life and strength. The 
 judge, who slept in an adjoining room, had been awakened by the 
 noise. I heard him jump out of bed, and not three minutes 
 elapsed before he had entered the parlor. 
 
 After he had shaken hands with all his visitors, he presented 
 me to them, and I found that I was in the presence of no less 
 important persons than the Ayuntamiento of San Felipe de Aus 
 tin ; and that two of my worthy countrymen were corregidors, one 
 a procurador, and the others buenos hombres, or freeholders. They 
 did not seem, however, to prize their titles much, for they 
 addressed one another by their surnames only. 
 
 The negro brought a light, opened the cigar box, and arranged 
 the chairs ; the judge pointed to the sideboard and to the cigars 
 and then sat down. Some took a dram, others lit a cigar. 
 
 Several minutes elapsed, during which the men sat in perfect 
 silence, as if they were collecting their thoughts, or, as though it 
 were undignified to show any haste or impatience to speak. This 
 grave sort of deliberation which is met with among certain classes, 
 and iu,certain provinces of the Union, has often struck me as a 
 curious feature of our national character. It partakes of the stoical 
 dignity of the Indian at his council fire, and of the stern, religious 
 gravity of the early puritan settlers in America. 
 
 During this pause Bob was writhing on his chair, like a worm, 
 his face concealed by his hands, his elbows on his knees. At 
 
247 
 
 last, when all had drank and smoked, the judge laid down hii 
 cigar. 
 
 " Men !" said he. 
 
 " Squire !" answered they. 
 
 " We've a business before us, which I calculate will be beat 
 explained by him whom it concerns." 
 
 The men looked at the squire, then at Bob, then at me. 
 
 " Bob Rock ! or whatever your name may be, if you have aught 
 to say, say it P continued the judge. 
 
 " Said it all yesterday," muttered Bob, his face still covered by 
 his hands. 
 
 " Yes, but you must say it again to-day. Yesterday was Sun 
 day, and Sunday is a day of rest and not of business. I will 
 neither judge you, nor allow you to be judged by what you said 
 yesterday. Besides, it was all between ourselves, for I don't 
 reckon Mr. as anything ; I count him still as a stranger." 
 
 " What's the use of so much palaver, when the thing's plain 
 enough ?" said Bob, peevishly, raising his head as he spoke. 
 
 The men stared at him in grave astonishment. He was really 
 frightful to behold ; his face of a sort of blue tint ; his cheeks hoi 
 low ; his beard wild and ragged ; his blood-shot eyes rolling and 
 deep sunk in their sockets. His appearance was scarcely human. 
 
 " I tell you again," said the judge, " I will condemn no man 
 upon his own word alone ; much less you, who have been in my 
 service, and eaten of my bread. You accused yourself yester 
 day, but you were delirious at the time you had the fever upon 
 you." 
 
 " It's no use, squire," said Bob, apparently touched by the kind 
 ness of the judge. You mean well, I see ; but though you might 
 deliver me out of men's hands, you couldn't rescue me from myself. 
 It's no use I must be* hung hung on the same tree under which 
 the man I killed lies buried." 
 
 The men, or the jurors, as I may call them, looked at one 
 another, but said nothing. 
 
 " It's no use," again cried Bob, in a shrill, agonized tone. * If 
 he had attacked me, or only threatened n\c ; but no, he didn't do 
 it. I hear his words still, when he said, ' Do it not, man ! I've a 
 
248 
 
 wife and child. What you inteiid brings no blessin* on the doer. 
 But I heard nothin' then except the voice of the devil; I brought 
 the rifle down levelled fired." 
 
 The man's agony was so intense, that even the iron-featured 
 jury seemed moved by it. They cast sharp, but stolen glances at 
 Bob. There was a short silence. 
 
 " So you have killed a man ?" said a deep, bass voice, at last. 
 
 " Ay, that have I !" gasped Bob. 
 
 " And how came that ?" continued his questioner. 
 
 " How it came ? You must ask the devil or Johnny. No, not 
 Johnny, he can tell you nothing ; he was not there. No one can 
 tell you but me ; and I hardly know how it was. The man was 
 at Johnny's, and Johnny showed me his belt full of money." 
 
 " Johnny !" exclaimed several of the jury. 
 
 " Ay, Johnny ! He reckoned on winning it from him, but the 
 man was too cautious for that ; and when Johnny had plucked all 
 my feathers, won my twenty dollars fifty " 
 
 u Twenty dollars fifty cents," interposed the judge, " which I 
 paid him for catching mustangs and shooting game." 
 
 The men nodded. 
 
 " And then because he wouldn't play, you shot him ?" asked the 
 same deep-toned voice as before. 
 
 " No some hours after by the Jacinto, near the Patriarch 
 met him there, and killed him." 
 
 " Thought there was something out o' the common thereaway," 
 said one of the jury ; " for as we rode by the tree a whole nation 
 of kites and turkey buzzards flew out. Didn't they, Mr. Hart ?" 
 
 Mr. Hart nodded. 
 
 " Met him by the river, and cried halves of his money," con 
 tinued Bob mechanically. w He said he'd give me something to 
 buy a qnid, and more than enough for that, but not halves. * I've 
 a wife and child,' said he " 
 
 " And you?" asked the juror with the deep voice, which thii 
 time, however, had a hollow" Bound in it. 
 
 " Shot him down," said Bob, with a wild, hoarse laugh. 
 
 For some time no word was spoken. 
 
 " And who was the man ?" said a juror at last. 
 
249 
 
 " Didn't ask him ; and it warn't written on his face. He wai 
 from the States ; but whether a hoosier, or a buckeye, or a mud- 
 head, is more than I can say." 
 
 " The thing must be investigated, Alcalde," said another of the 
 jury after a second pause. 
 
 " It must so," said the Alcalde. 
 
 " What's the good of so much investigation ?" grumbled Bob. 
 
 " What good ?" repeated the Alcalde. " Because we owe it to 
 ourselves, to the dead man, and to you, not to sentence you with 
 out havifig held an inquest on the body. There's another thing 
 which I must call your attention to," continued he, turning to the 
 jury ; " the man is half out of his mind non compos mentis as 
 they say. He's got the fever, and had it when he did the deed ; 
 he was urged on by Johnny, and maddened by his losses at play. 
 In spite of his wild excitement, however, he saved that gentleman's 
 life yonder, Mr. . 
 
 " Did he so ?" said one of the jury. 
 
 " That did he," replied I, " not only by saving me from drown 
 ing when my horse dragged me, half dead and helpless, into the 
 river, but also by the care and attention he forced Johnny and his 
 mulatto to bestow upon me. Without him I should not be alive 
 at this moment." 
 
 Bob gave me a look which went to my heart. The tears were 
 standing in his eyes. The jury heard me in deep silence. 
 
 " It seems that Johnny led you on and excited you to this ?" 
 said one of the jurors. 
 
 " I didn't say that. I only said that he pointed to the man's 
 
 money bag, and said But what is it to you what Johnny said ? 
 
 I'm the man who did it. I speak for myself, and I'll be hanged 
 for myself." 
 
 " All very good, Bob," interposed the Alcalde ; " but we can't 
 hang you without being sure you deserve it. What do you say to 
 it, Mr. Whyte? You are the procurador and you, Mr. Hart and 
 Mr. Stone ? Help yourselves to rum or brandy ; and Mr. Bright 
 and Irwin, take another cigar. They're considerable tolerable 
 the cigars ain't they? That's brandy, Mr. Whyte, in the 
 diamond bottle. 11 
 
250 
 
 Mr. Why te had got up to give his opinion, as I thought ; but 1 
 tras mistaken. He stepped to the sideboard, took up a bottle in 
 one hand and a glass in the other, every movement being per 
 formed with the greatest deliberation. 
 
 " Well, squire," said he, " or rather Alcalde " 
 
 After the word Alcalde, he filled the glass half full of rum. 
 
 " If it's as we've heard," added he, pouring about a spoonful of 
 water on the rum, " and Bob has killed the man" he continued, 
 throwing in some lumps of sugar " murdered him," he went on 
 crushing the sugar with a wooden stamp " I rather calkilate" 
 here he raised the glass " Bob ought to be hung," he conclu 
 ded, putting the tumbler to his mouth and emptying it. 
 
 The jurors nodded in silence. Bob drew a deep breath, as if a 
 load were taken off his breast. 
 
 " Well," said the judge, who did not look over well pleased ; 
 " if you all think so, and Bob is agreed, I calculate we must do as 
 he wishes. I tell you, though, I don't do it willingly. At any 
 rate we must find the dead man first, and examine Johnny. We 
 owe that to ourselves and to Bob." 
 
 " Certainly." said the jury with one voice. 
 
 ' ; You are a dreadful murderer, Bob, a very considerable one," 
 continued the judge, " but I tell you to your face, and not to flat 
 ter you, there is more good in your little finger than in Johnny's 
 whole hide. And I'm sorry for you, because, at the bottom, you 
 are not a bad man, though you've been led away by bad company 
 and example. I calculate you might still be reformed, and made 
 very useful more so, perhaps, than you think. Your rifle's a 
 capital good one." 
 
 At these last words the men all looked up, and threw a keen, 
 inquiring glance at Bob. 
 
 '* You might be of great service," continued the judge encourag 
 ingly, " to the country and to your fellow-citizens. You're worth 
 a dozen Mexicans any day." 
 
 While the judge was speaking. Bob let his head fall on his 
 breast, and seemed reflecting. He now looked up. 
 
 " I understand, squire ; I see what you're drivin' at. But I 
 can't 4o it I can't wait so long. My life's a burthen and a suf 
 
251 
 
 ferin' to me. Wherever I go, by day or by night, he's alwayi 
 there, standin' before me, and drivin* me under the Patriarch." 
 
 There was a pause of some duration. The judge resumed. 
 
 " So be it, then," said he, with a sort of suppressed sigh. 
 We'll see the body to-day, Bob, and you may come to-morrow at 
 ten o'clock." 
 
 " Couldn't it be sooner ?" asked Bob, impatiently. 
 
 " Why sooner ? Are you in such a hurry ?" asked Mr. Heart. 
 
 " What's the use of palaverin' ?" said Bob, sulkily. " I told 
 you already, I'm sick of my life. If you don't come till ten 
 o'clock, by the time you've had your talk out and ridden to the 
 Patriarch, the fever'll be upon me." 
 
 " But we can't be flying about like a parcel of wild geeso 
 because of your fever," said the procurador. 
 
 " Certainly not," said Bob, humbly. 
 
 " It's an ugly customer, the fever, though, Mr. Whyte," observe^ 
 Mr. Trace ; " and I calculate we ought to do him some pleasure. 
 What do you think, squire ?" 
 
 " I reckon he's rather indiscreet in his askin's," said the judge, 
 in a tone of vexation. " However, as he wishes it, and if it ia 
 agreeable to you," added he, turning to the Ayuntamiento, " and 
 as it's you, Bob, I calculate we must do what you ask." 
 
 " Thankee," said Bob. 
 
 " Nothing to thank for," growled the judge. " And now go 
 into the kitchen and get a good meal of roast beef, d'ye hear ?" 
 He knocked upon the table. " Some good roast beef for Bob," 
 said he to a negress who entered, " and see that he eats it. And 
 get yourself dressed more decently, Bob like a white man and 
 a Christian, not like a wild redskin." 
 
 The negress and Bob left the room. The conversation now 
 turned upon Johnny, who appeared, from all accounts, to be a 
 very bad and dangerous fellow ; and after a short discussion, they 
 agreed to lynch him, (in backwoodsman's phrase,) just as coolly 
 as if they had been talking of catching a mustang. When the 
 men had come to this satisfactory conclusion, they got up, drank 
 the judge's health and mine, shook us by the hand, and left the 
 room and the house. 
 
252 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THEEXECUTION. 
 
 THE day passed more heavily than the preceding one. I was 
 too much engrossed with the strange scene I had witnessed to 
 talk much. The judge, too, was in a very bad humor. He was 
 vexed that a man should be hung who might render the country 
 much and good service if he remained alive. That Johnny, the 
 miserable, cowardly, treacherous Johnny, should be sent out of 
 the world as quickly as possible, was perfectly correct, but with 
 Bob it was very different. In vain did I remind him of the 
 crime of which Bob had been guilty of the outraged laws of 
 God aad man and of the atonement due. It was no use. If 
 Bob had sinned against society, he could repair his fault much 
 better by remaining alive than by being hung ; and, for anything 
 else, God would avenge it in his own good time. We parted for 
 the night, neither of us convinced by the other's arguments. 
 
 We were sitting at breakfast the next morning, when a man, 
 dressed in tyack, rode up to the door. It was Bob, but so meta 
 morphosed that I scarcely knew him. Instead of the torn and 
 bloodstained handkerchief round his head, he wore a hat ; instead 
 of the leathern jacket, a decent cloth coat. He had shaved off 
 his beard, too, and looked quite another man. His manner had 
 altered with his dress ; he seemed tranquil and resigned. With 
 a mild and submissive look, he held out his Hand to the judge, 
 who took and shook it heartily. 
 
 " Ah, Bob," said he, " if you had only listened to what I so 
 often told you ! I had those clothes brought on purpose from 
 
253 
 
 New Orleans, in order that, on Sundays at least, you might loo* 
 like a decent and respectable man. How often have I asked you 
 to put them on, and come with us to meeting, to hear Mr. Bliss 
 preach ! There is some truth in the saying, that the coat makes 
 the man. With his Sunday coat, a man often puts on other and 
 better thoughts. If that had been your case only fifty-two times 
 in the year, you'd have learned to avoid Johnny before now." 
 
 Bob said nothing. 
 
 " Well, well ! I've done a.11 I could to make a better man of 
 you. All that was in my power." 
 
 " That you have," answered Bob, much moved. " God reward 
 you for it." 
 
 I could not help holding out my hand to the worthy judge ; 
 and as I did so, I thought I saw a moistness in his eye, which he 
 suppressed, however, and, turning to the breakfast table, bade us 
 sit down. Bob thanked him humbly, but declined, saying that 
 he wished to appear fasting before his offended Creator. The 
 judge insisted, and reasoned with him, and at last he took a 
 chair. 
 
 Before we had done breakfast, our friends of the preceding day 
 began to drop in, and some of them joined us at the meal. When 
 they had all taken what they chose, the judge ordered the negroes 
 to clear away, and leave the room. This done, he seated himself 
 at the upper end of the table, with the Ayuntamiento on either 
 side, and Bob facing him. 
 
 " Mr. Whyte," said the Alcalde, " have you, as procurado, any 
 thing to state ?" 
 
 " Yes, Alcalde," replied the procurado. " In virtue of my 
 office, I made a search in the place mentioned by Bob Hock, and 
 there found the body of a man who had met his death by a gun 
 shot wound. I aiso found a belt full of money, and several let 
 ters of recommendation to different planters, from which it 
 appears that the man was on his way from Illinois to San Felipe, 
 in order to buy land of Colonel Austin, and to settle in Texas." 
 The procurado then produced a pair of saddlebags, out of which 
 he took a leathern belt stuffed with money, which he laid on the 
 table, together with the letters. The judge opened the belt, and 
 
 22 
 
254 
 
 counted the money. It amounted to upwards of five hundred 
 dollars, in gold and silver. The procurador then read the let 
 ters. 
 
 One of the corregidors now announced that Johnny and his 
 mulatto had left their house and fled. He, the corregidor, had 
 sent people in pursuit of them ; but as yet there were no tidings 
 of their capture. This piece of intelligence seemed to vex the 
 judge greatly, but he made no remark on it at the time. 
 
 Bob Rock !" cried he. 
 
 Bob stepped forward. 
 
 " Bob Rock, or by whatever name you may be known, are you 
 guilty or not guilty of this man's death ?" 
 
 " Guilty !" replied Bob, in a low tone. 
 
 " Gentlemen of the jury, will you be pleased to give your ver 
 dict ?" 
 
 The jury left the room. In ten minutes they returned. 
 
 " Guilty !" said the foreman. 
 
 " Bob Rock," said the judge solemnly, " your fellow-citizens have 
 found you guilty ; and I pronounce the sentence that you be 
 hung by the neck until you are dead. The Lord be merciful to 
 your soul !" 
 
 " Amen !" said all present. 
 
 " Thank ye," murmured Bob. 
 
 " We will seal up the property of the deceased," said the judge, 
 " and then proceed to our painful duty." 
 
 He called for a light, and he and the procurator and corregi 
 dors sealed up the papers and the money. 
 
 " Has any one aught to allege why the sentence should not be 
 put in execution ?" said the Alcalde, with a glance at me. 
 
 " He saved my life, judge and fellow-citizens," cried I, deeply 
 moved. 
 
 Bob shook his head mournfully. 
 
 " Let us go, then, in God's name," said the judge. 
 
 Without another word being spoken, we left the house and 
 mounted our horses. The judge had brought a Bible with him ; 
 and he rode on. a little in front, with Bob, doing his best to pre 
 pare him for the eternity to which he was hastening. Bob list- 
 
265 
 
 ened attentively for some time ; but at last he seemed to get 
 impatient, and pushed his mustang into so fast a tflot, that for a 
 moment we suspected him of wishing to escape the doom he had 
 so eagerly sought. But it was only that he feared the fever 
 might return before the expiration of the short time he had to 
 live. 
 
 After an hour's ride, we came to the enormous live oak distin 
 guished as the Patriarch. Two or three of the men dismounted, 
 and held aside the moss-covered branches which swept the ground, 
 and formed a complete curtain round the tree. The party, rode 
 through the opening thus made, and drew up in a circle beneath 
 the huge leafy dome. In the centre of this ring stood Bob, 
 trembling like an aspen-leaf, and with his eyes fixed on a small 
 mound of fresh earth, partly concealed by the branches, and 
 which had escaped my notice on my former visit to the tree. It 
 was the grave of the murdered man. 
 
 A magnificent burial 'place was that: no poet could have 
 dreamt or desired a better. Above, the huge vault, with its natu 
 ral frettings and arches ; below, the greenest, freshest grass ; 
 around, an eternal half light, streaked and varied, and radiant as 
 a rainbow. It was imposingly beautiful. 
 
 Bob, the judge, and the corregidors, remained sitting on their 
 horses, but several of the other men dismounted. One of the 
 latter cut the lasso from Bob's saddle, and threw an end of it over 
 one of the lowermost branches ; then uniting the two ends, formed 
 them into a strong noose, which he left dangling from the bough. 
 This simple preparation completed, the Alcalde took off his hat 
 and folded his hands. The others followed his example. 
 
 " Bob !" said the judge to the unfortunate criminal, whose 
 head was bowed on his horse's mane ; " Bob ! we will pray for 
 your poor soul, which is about to part from your sinful body." 
 
 Bob raised his head. " I had something to say," exclaimed he 
 in a wondering and husky tone. " Something I wanted to say." 
 
 " What have you to say ?" 
 
 Bob stared around him ; his lips moved, but no word escaped 
 him- His spirit was evidently no longer with things of this 
 earth. 
 
256 
 
 " Bob !" said the judge again, " we will pray for your soul." 
 
 " Pray ! pray !" groaned he. " I shall need it." 
 
 In slow and solemn accents, and with great feeling, the judge 
 uttered the Lord's Prayer. Bob 'repeated every word after him 
 When it was ended 
 
 " God be merciful to your soul !" exclaimed the judge. 
 
 " Amen !" said all present. 
 
 One of the corregidors now passed the noose of the lasso round 
 Bob's neck, another bound his eyes, a third person drew his feet 
 out of the stirrups, while a fourth stepped behind his horse with 
 a heavy riding-whip. All was done in the deepest silence ; not 
 a word was breathed ; not a footfall heard on the soft, yielding 
 turf. There was something awful ad oppressive in the profound 
 stillness that reigned in the vast enclosure. 
 
 The whip fell. The horse gave a spring forwards. At the 
 same moment Bob made a desperate clutch at the bridle, and a 
 loud hold " Hold !" burst in thrilling tones from the lips of the 
 judge. 
 
 It was too late ; Bob was already hanging. The judge pushed 
 forward, nearly riding down the man who held the whip, and 
 seizing Bob in his arms, raised him on his own horse, supporting 
 him with one hand, while with the other he strove to unfasten 
 the noose. His whole gigantic frame trembled with eagerness 
 and exertion. The procurador, corregidors, all, in short, stood 
 in open-mouthed wonder at this strange proceeding. 
 
 " Whisky ! whisky ! Has nobody any whisky ?" shouted the 
 judge. 
 
 One of the men sprang forward with a whisky-flask, another 
 supported the body, and a third the feet of the half-hanged man, 
 while the judge poured a few drops of spirits into his mouth. 
 The cravat, which had not been taken off, had hindered the 
 breaking of the neck. At last Bob opened his eyes, and gazed 
 vacantly around him. 
 
 " Bob," said the iudge, "you had something to say Vadn't yon, 
 about Johnny ?" 
 
 " Johnny," gasped Bob j " Johnny." 
 " What's become of him ?" 
 
One of the men sprang forward with a whiskey-flask, another supported the body 
 and a third the feet of the half-hanged man, while the judge poured a few drops of 
 spirits into his mouth. PAGE 256. 
 
257 
 
 * He's gone to San Antonio, Johnny." 
 
 " To San Antonio !" repeated the judge, with an expression of 
 great alarm overspreading his features. 
 
 " To San 4-Qtonio to Padre Jose," continued Bob ; " a Catho 
 lic. Beware !" 
 
 " Catholic 1" exclaimed the judge. The words he had heard 
 geemed to deprive him of all strength. His arms fell slowly and 
 gradually by his side, and Bob was again hanging from the lasso. 
 
 " A Catholic ! a traitor !" repeated several of the men ; ' ; a citi 
 zen and a traitor !" 
 
 " So it is, men !" exclaimed the judge. We've no time to 
 lose," continued he, in a harsh, hurried voice ; " no time to lose j 
 we must catch him." 
 
 " That must we," said several voices, " or our plans are betray 
 ed to the Mexicans." 
 
 " After him immediately to San Antonio !" cried the judge, 
 with the same desperately hurried manner. 
 
 " To San Antonio !" repeated the men, pushing their way 
 through the curtain of moss and branches. As soon as they 
 were outside, those who were dismounted sprang into the saddle, 
 and, without another word, the whole party galloped away in 
 the direction of San Antonio. 
 
 The judge alone remained, seemingly lost in thought; his 
 countenance pale and anxious, and his eyes following the riders. 
 His reverie, however, had lasted but a very few seconds, when he 
 seized my arm. 
 
 '* Hasten to my house," quoth he ; " lose no time, don't spare 
 horse-flesh. Take Ptoly.and afresh beast; hurry over to San 
 Felipe, and tell Stephen Austin what has happened, and what 
 you have seen and heard. 
 
 " Off with you at once, if you would do Texas a service. Bring 
 my wife and daughter back." 
 
 And so saying, he literally drove me from under the tree, push 
 ing me out with his hands and feet. I was so startled at the 
 expression of violent impatience and anxiety which his features 
 assumed, that, without venturing to make further objection I 
 truck the spurs into my mustang and galloped off. 
 
 22* 
 
258 
 
 I rode full speed to the judge's house, and thence on a fresh 
 norse to San Felipe, where I found Colonel Austin, who seemed 
 much alarmed at the news I brought him, had horses saddled, and 
 sent round to all the neighbors. Before the wife and step-daugh 
 ter of the judge had made their preparations to accompany me 
 home, he started with fifty armed men to San Antonio. 
 
 I escorted the ladies to their house, but scarcely had we 
 arrived there, when I was seized with a fever, the result of my 
 recent fatigues and sufferings. For some days my life was in 
 danger, but at last a good constitution, and the kindest and most 
 watchful nursing, triumphed over the disease. As soon as I was 
 able to mount a horse, I set out for Mr. Neal's plantation, in 
 company with his huntsman, Anthony, who, after spending many 
 days, and riding over many hundreds of miles of ground in quest 
 of me, had at last found me out. 
 
 Our way led up past the Patriarch, and, as we approached it, 
 we saw innumerable birds of prey, and carrion crows circling 
 round it, croaking and screaming. I turned my eyes in another 
 direction ; but, nevertheless, I felt a strange sort of longing to 
 revisit the tree. Anthony had ridden on, and was already hid 
 den from view behind its branches. Presently I heard him give 
 a loud shout of exultation. I jumped off my horse, and led it 
 through a small opening in the leafage. 
 
 Some forty paces from me the body of a man was hanging by 
 a lasso from the very same branch on which Bob had been hung. 
 It was not Bob, however, for the corpse was much too short and 
 email for him. 
 
 I drew nearer. " Johnny !" I exclaimed. " That's Johnny !" 
 
 " It was" answered Anthony. " Thank Heaven, there's an 
 end of him !" 
 
 I shuddered. " But where is Bob ?" 
 
 Bob ?" cried Anthony. " Bob !" 
 
 He glanced towards the grave. The mound of earth seemed 
 to me larger and higher than when I had last seen it. Doubt 
 less the murderer lay. beside his victim. 
 
259 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE ATTACK THE REPULSE. 
 
 I HAD been but three or four months in Texas, when, in cons* 
 queuce of the oppressive conduct of the Mexican military author!* 
 .ties, symptoms of discontent showed themselves, and several skir- 
 mishes occurred between the American settlers and the soldiery. 
 The two small forts of Velasco and Nacogdoches were taken by the 
 former, and their garrisons and a couple of field-officers made pri 
 soners ; soon after which, however, the quarrel was made up by the 
 intervention of Col. Austin on the part of Texas, and Col. Mejia 
 on the part of the Mexican authorities. 
 
 But in the year '33 occurred Santa Anna's defection from the 
 liberal party, and the imprisonment of Stephen F. Austin, the 
 Texan representative in the Mexican congress, by the vice-presi 
 dent, Gomez Farias. This was followed by Texas adopting the 
 constitution of 1824, and* declaring itself an independent state of 
 the Mexican republic. Finally, toward the close of 1835, Texas 
 threw off the Mexican yoke altogether, voted itself a free and 
 sovereign republic, and prepared to defend by arms its newly 
 asserted liberty. 
 
 The first step to be taken was to secure our communications 
 with the United States by getting possession of the sea-ports. Gen. 
 Cos had occupied Galveston harbor, and built and garrisoned a 
 block-fort, nominally for the purpose of enforcing the customs laws, 
 but in reality with a view to cut off our communications with New 
 Orleans and the States. This fort it was necessary to get posses 
 sion of, and my friend Fanning and myself were appointed to that 
 
duty by the Alcalde, who "had taken a prominent part in all that 
 had occurred. 
 
 Our whole force and equipment wherewith to accomplish this 
 enterprise, consisted in a sealed despatch, to be opened" at the 
 town of Columbia, and a half-breed, named Agostino who acted 
 as our guide. On reaching Columbia, we called together the 
 principal inhabitants of the place, and of the neighboring towns 
 of Bolivar and Marion, unsealed the letter in their presence, and 
 six hours afterwards the forces therein specified were assembled, 
 and we were on our march toward Galveston. The next day the 
 fort was taken, and the garrison made prisoners, without our losing 
 a single man. 
 
 We sent off our guide to the government at San Felipe with 
 news of our success. In nine days he returned, bringing us the 
 thanks of Congress, and fresh orders. We were to leave a garri 
 son in the fort, and then ascend Trinity River, and march toward 
 San Antonio de Bexar. This route was all the more agreeable 
 to Fanning and myself, as it would bring us into the immediate 
 vicinity of the haciendas, or estates, of which we had some time 
 previously obtained a grant from the Texan government ; and we 
 did not doubt that we were indebted to our friend the Alcalde for 
 the orders which thus conciliated our private convenience with 
 our public duty. 
 
 As we marched along we found the whole country in commotion, 
 the settlers all arming, and hastening to the distant place of ren 
 dezvous. We arrived at Trinity River one afternoon, and imme 
 diately sent messengers for forty miles in all directions to summon 
 the inhabitants. At the period in question, the plantations ia 
 that part of the country were very few and far between, but never 
 theless by the afternoon of the next day we had got together four- 
 and-thirty men, mounted on mustangs, each equipped with rifle 
 and bowie-knife, powder-horn and bullet-bag, and furnished with 
 provisions for several days. With these we started for San An 
 tonio de Bexar, a march of two hundred and fifty miles, through 
 trackless prairies intersected with rivers and streams, which, 
 although not quite so big as the Mississippi or Potomac, were yet 
 deep and wide enough to have offered serious impediment ta 
 
261 
 
 regular armies. But to Texan farmers anl backwoods-men, they 
 were trifling '' obstacles. Those we could not wade through we 
 swam over ; and in aue time, and without any incident worthy of 
 note, reached the appointed place of rendezvous, which was on the 
 river Salado, about fifteen miles from San Antonio, the principal 
 city of the province. This latter place it was intended to attack 
 an enterprise of some boldness and risk, considering that the 
 town was protected by a strong fort, amply provided with heavy 
 artillery, and had a garrison of nearly three thousand men, com 
 manded by officers who had, for the most part, distinguished them* 
 selves in the revolutionary wars against the Spaniards. Our whole 
 army, which we found encamped on the Salado, under the com 
 mand of General Austin, did not exceed eight hundred men. 
 
 The day after that on which Fanning and myself, with our four 
 and thirty recruits, reached headquarters, a council of war was 
 held, and it was resolved to advance as far as the mission of Santa 
 Espada. The advanced guard was to push forward immediately ; 
 the main body would follow the next day. Fanning and myself 
 were appointed to the command of the vanguard, in conjunction 
 with Mr. Wharton, a wealthy planter," who had brought a strong 
 party of^ volunteers with him, and whose mature age and cool judg 
 ment, it was thought, would counterbalance any excess of youthful 
 heat and impetuosity on our part. Selecting ninety-two men out 
 of the eight hundred, who, to a man, volunteered to accompany 
 us, we set out for the mission. 
 
 These missions are a sort of picket-houses or outposts of the 
 Catholic church, and are found in great numbers in all the frontier 
 provinces of Spanish America, especially in Texas, Santa Fe, and 
 Cohahuila. They are usually of sufficient strength to afford their 
 inmates security against any predatory party of Indians or other 
 marauders, and are occupied by priests, who, while using their 
 endeavors to spread the doctrines of the church of Rome, act also 
 as spies and agents of the Mexican government. 
 
 On reaching San Espada we held a consultation as to the pro 
 priety of remaining there until the general came up, or of advan 
 cing at once toward the river. Wharton inclined to the former 
 plan, and it was certainly the most prudent, for the mission wa 
 
262 
 
 * strong building, surrounded by a high wall, and might hare b*ui 
 held against very superior numbers. Fanning and I, however, 
 did not like the idea of being cooped up in a house, and at last 
 Wharton yielded. We left our horses and mustangs in the charge 
 of eight men, ajod with the remainder set out in the direction of 
 the Salado, which flows from north to south, a third of a mile to 
 the westward of the mission. About half-way between the latter 
 and the river, was a small group, or island, of muskeet trees, the 
 only object that broke the uniformity of the prairie. The bank 
 of the river on our side was tolerably steep, about eight or ten 
 feet high, hollowed out here and there, and covered with a thick 
 network of wild vines. The Salado at this spot describes a sort 
 of bow-shaped curve, with a ford at either end. by which alone the 
 river can be passed, for although not very broad, it is rapid and 
 deep. We resolved to take up a position within this bow. calcu 
 lating that we might manage to defend the two fords, which were 
 not above a quarter of a mile apart. ' 
 
 At the same time we did not lose sight of the dangers of such 
 a position, and of the almost certainty that if the enemy managed 
 to cross the river, we should be surrounded and cut off. But our 
 success on the few occasions on which we had hitherto come to 
 blows with the Mexicans, at Velasco, at Nacogdoches, and Gralves- 
 tion, had inspired us with so much confidence, that we considered 
 ourselves a match for thousands of such foes, and actually began 
 to wish the enemy would attack us before our main body came up. 
 We reconnoitred the ground, stationed a picket of twelve men at 
 each ford, and an equal number in the island of muskeet trees ; 
 and established ourselves with the remainder among the vines and 
 in the hollows on the river bank. 
 
 The commissariat department of the Texan army, was, as may 
 be supposed, not yet placed upon any very regular footing. -In 
 fact, every man, was, for the present, his own commissary-general. 
 Finding our stock of provisions to be very small, we sent out a 
 party of foragers, who soon returned with three sheep which they 
 had taken from a rajicho, within a mile of San Antonio. An old 
 priest, whom they found there, had threatened them with the 
 anger of Heaven and of General Cos ; but they paid little atten- 
 
268 
 
 tion to his denunciations, and, throwing down three dollars, walked 
 off with the sheep. The priest became furious, got upon his mule, 
 and trotted away in the direction of the city to complain to Gen. 
 Cos of the misconduct of the heretics. 
 
 After this we made no doubt that we should soon have a visit 
 from the worthy Dons. Nevertheless the evening and the night 
 passed away without incident. Day broke still no signs of the 
 Mexicans. This treacherous sort of calm, we thought, might fore 
 bode a storm, and we did not allow it to lull us into security. We 
 let the men get their breakfast, which they had hardly finished, 
 when the picket from the outer ford came in with news that a 
 strong body of cavalry was approaching the river, and that their 
 vanguard was already in the hollow way leading to the ford. We 
 had scarcely received this intelligence when we heard the blare 
 of the trumpets, and the next moment we saw the officers push 
 their horses up the declivitous bank, closely followed by their men, 
 whom they formed up in the prairie. We counted six smal\ 
 squadrons, about three hundred men in all. They were the 
 Durango dragoons smart troops enough to all appearance, capi 
 tally mounted and equipped, and armed with carbines and sabres. 
 
 Although the enemy had doubtless reconnoitered from the 
 opposite shore, and ascertained our position, he could not form any 
 accurate idea of our numbers, for with a view to deceive him, we 
 kept the men in constant motion, sometimes showing a part of 
 them on the prairie, then causing them to disappear again behind 
 the vines and bushes. This was all very knowing for young 
 soldiers such we were ; but, on the other hand, we had committed 
 a grievous .error and sinned against all established military rules, 
 by not placing a picket on the further side of the river, to warn 
 us of the approach of the enemy, and the direction in which he 
 was coming. There can be little doubt that if we had had earlier 
 notice of their approach, thirty or forty good marksmen and al] 
 our people were that might not only have delayed* the advance 
 of the Mexicans, but perhaps even totally disgusted them of their 
 attempt to cross the Salado. The hollow way on the other side 
 of the river leading to the ford, wag narrow and tolerably steep, 
 ud the bank at least six times as high as on our side. Nothing 
 
264 
 
 would have been easier than to have stationed a party, so as to 
 pick off the cavalry as they wound through this sort of pass, and 
 emerged two by two upon the shore. Our error, however, did 
 not strike us till it was too late to repair it ; so we were fain to 
 console ourselves with the reflection that the Mexicans would be 
 much more likely to attribute our negligence to an excess of 
 confidence in our resources, than to inexperience in military 
 matters, which was its real cause. We resolved to do our best 
 to merit the good opinion which we thus supposed them to enter 
 tain of us. 
 
 When the whole of the dragoons had crossed the water, they 
 m'arched on for a short distance in an easterly direction ; then, 
 wheeling to the right, proceeded southward, until within some five 
 hundred paces of us, where they halted. In this position the lino 
 of cavalry formed the chord of the arc described by the river, and 
 occupied by us. 
 
 As soon as they halted, they opened their fire, although they 
 could not see one of us, for we were completely sheltered by the 
 bank. Our Mexican heroes, however, apparently did not think 
 it necessary to be within sight or range of their opponents before 
 firing, for they gave us a rattling volley at a distance which no 
 carbine would carry. This done, others galloped on for about a 
 hundred yards, halted again, loaded, fired another volley, and 
 then giving another gallop, fired again. They continued this sort 
 of manege till they found themselves within two hundred and 
 fifty paces of us, and then appeared inclined to take a little time- 
 for reflection. 
 
 We kept ourselves perfectly still. The dragoons evidently did 
 not like the aspect of matters. Our remaining concealed and not 
 answering their fire, seemed to bother them. We saw the officers 
 taking a deal of pains to encourage their men, and at last two 
 squadrons advanced, the others following more slowly, a short dis 
 tance in the rear. This was the moment we had waited for. No 
 sooner had the dragoons got into a canter, than six of our men 
 who had received orders to that effect, sprang up the bank, took 
 eteady aim at the officers, fired, and then jumped down again. 
 
 As we had expected, the small numbers that had shown them 
 
265 
 
 selves, encouraged the Mexicans to advance. They seemed at 
 first taken rather aback by the fall of four of their officers ; but 
 nevertheless, after a moment's hesitation, they came thundering 
 along full speed. They were within sixty or seventy yards of us, 
 when Fanning and thirty of our riflemen ascended the bank, and 
 with a coolness and precision that would have done credit to 
 khe most veteran troops, poured a steady fire into the ranks of 
 the dragoons. 
 
 It requires some nerve and courage for men who have never 
 gone through any regular military training, to stand their ground 
 singly and unprotected, within fifty yards of an advancing line of 
 cavalry. Our fellows did it, however, and fired, not all at once, 
 or in a hurry, but slowly and deliberately ; a running fire, every 
 nhot of which told. Saddle after saddle was emptied ; the men, 
 *s they had been ordered, always picking out the foremost horse 
 men, and as soon as they had fired, jumping down the bank to 
 reload. When the whole of the thirty men had discharged their 
 rifles, Wharton and myself, with the reserve of six-and-thirty more, 
 took their places; but the dragoons had almost had enough 
 already, and we had scarcely fired ten shots when they executed 
 a right about turn, with an uniformity and rapidity which did 
 infinite credit to their drill, and went off at a pace that soon car 
 ried them out of reach of our bullets. They had probably not 
 expected so warm a reception. We saw their officers doing every 
 thing they could to check their flight, imploring, threatening, even 
 cutting at them with their sabres, but it was of no use ; if they 
 were to be killed, it must be in their own way, and they preferred 
 being cut down by their officers to encountering the deadly pre 
 cision of rifles, in the hands of men who, being sure of hitting a 
 squirrel at a hundred yards, were not likely to miss a Durango 
 dragoon at any point within range. 
 
 Our object in ordering the men to fire slowly was, always to 
 have thirty or forty rifles loaded, wherewith to receive the enemy 
 should he attempt a charge en masse. But our first greeting had 
 been a sickener, and it appeared almost doubtful whether he 
 would venture to attack us again, although the officers did every 
 thing in their power to induce their men to advance. For a long 
 
 23 
 
266 
 
 lime, neither threats, entreaties, nor reproaches, produced any 
 effect. We saw the officers gesticulating furiously, pointing to us 
 with their sabres, and impatiently spurring their horses, till the 
 fiery animals plunged and reared, and sprang with all four feet 
 from the ground. It is only just to say, that the officers exhib 
 ited a degree of courage far beyond anything we had expected 
 from them. Of the two squadrons that charged us, two-thirds 
 of the officers had fallen ; but those who remained, instead of 
 appearing intimidated by their comrades' fate, redoubled their 
 efforts to bring their men forward. 
 
 At last there appeared some probability of accomplishing this, 
 after a most curious and truly Mexican fashion. Posting them 
 selves in front of their squadrons, they rode on alone for a hun 
 dred yards or so, halted, looked round, as much as to say " You 
 see there is no danger as far as this," and then galloping back, 
 led their men on. Each time that they executed this mano3uvre, 
 the dragoons would advance slowly some thirty or forty paces, 
 and then halt as simultaneously as if the word of command had 
 been given. Off went the officers again, some distance to the 
 front, and then back again to their men, and got them on a little 
 further. In this manner these heroes were inveigled once more 
 to within a hundred and fifty yards of our position. 
 
 Of course, at each of the numerous halts which they made dur 
 ing their advance, they favored us with a general, but most innoc 
 uous discharge of their carbines ; and at last, gaining confidence, 
 I suppose, from our passiveness, and from the noise and smoke 
 they themselves had been making, three squadrons which had not 
 yet been under fire, formed open column, and advanced at a trot. 
 Without giving them time to halt or reflect " Forward ! 
 Charge !" shouted the officers, urging their own horses to their 
 utmost speed ; and, following the impulse thus given, the three 
 squadrons came charging furiously along. 
 
 Up sprang thirty of our men to receive them. Their orders 
 were to fire slowly, and not throw away a shot, but the gleaming 
 sabres and rapid approach of the dragoons flurried some of them 
 and firing a hasty volley, they jumped down the bank again, 
 This precipitation had nearly been fatal to us. Several of the 
 
267 
 
 dragooiis fell, and there was some confusion and a momentary 
 faltering vamong the others; but they still came on. At this 
 critical moment, Wharton and myself, with the reserve, showed 
 ourselves on the bank. " Slow and sure mark your men !" 
 shouted we both. Wharton on the right and I on the left. ^The 
 command was obeyed : rifle after rifle cracked off, always aimed 
 at the foremost of the dragoons, and at every report a saddle waa 
 emptied. Before we had all fired, Fanning and a dozen of his 
 sharpest men had again loaded, and were by our side. For nearly 
 a minute the Mexicans remained, as if stupefied by our murder 
 ous fire, and uncertain whether to advance or retire ; but as those 
 who attempted the former were invariably shot down, they at 
 last began a retreat, which was soon converted into a rout. We 
 gave them a farewell volley, which eased a few more horses of 
 their riders, and then got under cover again, to await what might 
 next occur. 
 
 But the Mexican caballeros had no notion of coming up to the 
 scratch a third time. They kept patrolling about some three or 
 four hundred yards off, and firing volleys at us, which they were 
 able to do with perfect impunity, as at that distance we did not 
 think proper to return a shot. 
 
 The skirmish had lasted nearly three quarters of an hour. 
 Strange to say, we had not had a single man wounded, although 
 at times the bullets had fallen about us as thick as hail. We 
 could not account for this. Many of us had been hit by the 
 balls, but a bruise or a graze of the skin was the worst conse 
 quence that had ensued. We were in a fair way to deem our 
 selves invulnerable. 
 
 We were beginning to think that the fight was over for the 
 day, when our videttes at the lower ford brought us the somewhat 
 unpleasant intelligence that large masses of infantry were ap 
 proaching the river, and would soon be in sight. The words 
 were hardly uttered, when the roll of the drums and shrill squeak 
 of the fifes became audible ; and in a few minutes the head of the 
 column of infantry, having crossed the ford, ascended the sloping 
 bank, and defiled in the prairie opposite the island of muskeet 
 trees. As company after company appeared, we were able to 
 
263 
 
 !**, a pretty exact estimate of their numbers. There were two 
 battalions, together about a thousand men 5 and they brought a 
 field-piece with them. 
 
 These were certainly rather long odds to be opposed to seventy- 
 two men and three officers ; for it must be remembered that we 
 had left twenty of our people at the mission and in the island of 
 trees. Two battalions of infantry, and six squadrons of dragoons 
 the latter, to be sure, disheartened and diminished by the loss 
 of some fifty men, but nevertheless formidable opponents, now 
 they were supported by the foot soldiers. About twenty Mexi 
 cans to each of us. It was getting past a joke. We were all 
 capital shots, and most of us, besides our rifles, had a brace of 
 pistols in our belts ; but what were seventy-five rifles, and five or 
 six score of pistols against a thousand muskets and bayonets, two 
 hundred and fifty dragoons, and a field piece loaded with canis 
 ter? If the Mexicans had a spark of courage or soldiership 
 about them, our fate was sealed. But it was exactly this courage 
 and soldiership which we made sure would be wanting. 
 
 Nevertheless we, the officers, could not repress a feeling of anx- 
 ioty and self-reproach, when we reflected that we had brought 
 our comrades into such a hazardous predicament. But on look 
 ing around us, our apprehensions vanished. Nothing could ex 
 ceed the perfect coolness and confidence with which the men were 
 cleaning and preparing their rifles for the approaching conflict ; 
 no bravado no boasting, talking, or laughing, but a calm decis 
 ion of manner, which at once told us, tL*t if it were possible to 
 oTvrcome such odds as were brought against us, those were the 
 nr n to do it. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE DEAD ALIVE. 
 
 OUR arrangements for the approaching struggle were soon *n> 
 pleted. Fanning and Wharton were to make head againsv the 
 infantry and cavalry. I was to capture the field-piece an eight- 
 pounder. 
 
 This gun was placed by the Mexicans upon their extreme left, 
 close to the river, the shores of which it commanded for a consid 
 erable distance. The bank on which we were posted was, as 
 before mentioned, indented by caves and hollows, and covered 
 with a thick tapestry of vines and other plants, which was now 
 very useful in concealing us from the artillery-men. The latter 
 made a pretty good guess at our position however, and at the 
 first discharge, the canister whizzed past us at a very short dis 
 tance. There was not a moment to lose, for one well-directed 
 shot might exterminate half of us. Followed by a dozen men, I 
 worked my way as well as I could through the labyrinth of vines 
 and bushes, and was not more than fifty yards from the gun, 
 when it was again fired. No one was hurt, although the shot was 
 evidently intended for my party. The enemy could not see us : 
 but the motion of the vines, as we passed through them, had be 
 trayed our whereabout : so, perceiving that we were discovered, 
 I sprang up the bank into the prairie, followed by my men, to 
 whom I shouted, above all to aim at the artillerymen. 
 
 I had raised my own rifle to my shoulder, when I let it fall 
 again in astonishment at an apparition that presented itself to 
 my view. This was a tall, lean, wild figure, with a face over- 
 
 23* 
 
270 
 
 grown by a long beard that hung down upon his breast, and 
 dressed in a leather cap, jacket, and mocassins. Where this man 
 had sprung from was a perfect riddle. He was unknown to any 
 of us, although I had some vague recollection of having seen him 
 before, but where or when, I could not call to mind. He had a 
 long rifle in his hands, which he must have fired once already, for 
 one of the artillerymen lay dead by the gun. At the moment I 
 first caught sight of him, he shot down another, and then began 
 reloading with a rapid dexterity, that proved him to be well used 
 to the thing. My men were as much astonished as I was by this 
 strange apparition, which appeared to have started out of the 
 <<arth ; and for a few seconds they forgot to fire, and stood gaz 
 ing at the stranger. The latter did not seem to approve of their 
 inaction 
 
 " D yer eyes, yer starin' fools," shouted he, in a rough 
 
 hoarse voice, "don't ye see them art'lerymen? Why don't ye, 
 knock 'em on the head ?" 
 
 It certainly was not the moment to remain idle. We fired ; 
 but our astonishment had thrown us off our balance, and we 
 nearly all missed. We sprang down the bank again to load, just 
 as the men serving the gun were slewing it round, so as to bring 
 it to bear upon us. Before this was accomplished, we were under 
 cover, and the stranger had the benefit of the discharge, of which 
 he took no more notice than if he had borne a charmed life. 
 Again we heard the crack of his rifle, and when, having reloaded, 
 we once more ascended the bank, he was taking aim at the last 
 artilleryman, who fell, as his companions had done. 
 
 " D ye, for laggin' fellers !" growled the stranger. t: Why 
 
 don't ye take that 'ere big gun ?" 
 
 Our small numbers, the bad direction of our first volley, but, 
 above all, the precipitation with which we had jumped down the 
 bank after firing it, had so encouraged the enemy, that a company 
 of infantry drawn up some distance in the rear of the field-piece, 
 fired a volley and advanced at double-quick time, part of them 
 making a small detour with the intention of cutting us off from 
 our friends. At this moment, we saw Fanning and thirty men 
 coming along the river bank to our assistance ; so without mind 
 
271 
 
 ing the Mexicans who were getting behind us, we rushed forward 
 to within twenty paces of those in our front, and taking steady 
 aim, brought down every man his bird. The sort of desperate 
 coolness with which this was done, produced the greater effect on 
 our opponents, as being something quite out of their way. They 
 would, perhaps, have stood firm against a volley from five times 
 our number, at a rather greater distance ; but they did not like 
 having their mustaches singed by our powder ; and after a 
 moment's wavering and hesitation, they shouted out " Diabolus ! 
 Diabolus !" and throwing away their muskets, broke into a pre 
 cipitate flight. 
 
 Fannyig and Wharton now came up with all the men. Under 
 cover of the infantry's advance, the gun had been re-manned, but, 
 luckily for us, only by infantry soldiers ; for had there been artil 
 lerymen to seize the moment when we were all standing exposed 
 on tlu prairie, they might have diminished our numbers not a 
 little. The fuse was already burning, and we had just time to 
 get under the bank when the gun went off. Up we jumped again, 
 and looked about us to see what was next to be done. 
 
 Although hitherto all the advantages had been on our side, our 
 situation, was still a very perilous one. The company we had put 
 to flight had rejoined its battalion, which was now beginning to 
 advance by echelon of companies. The second battalion, which 
 was rather farther from us, was moving forward in like manner, 
 and in a parallel direction. We should probably, therefore, have 
 to resist the attack of a dozen companies, one after the other ; and 
 it was to be feared that the Mexicans would finish by getting over 
 their panic terror of our rifles, and exchange, their distant and 
 ineffectual platoon-firing for a charge with the bayonet, in which 
 their superior numbers would tell. We observed, also, that the 
 cavalry, which had been keeping itself at a safe distance, was now 
 put in motion, and formed up close to the island of muskeet trees, 
 to which the right flank of the infantry was also extending itself. 
 Thence .they had clear ground for a charge down upon us. 
 
 Meanwhile, what had become of the twelve men whom we had 
 loft in the island? Were they still there, or had they fallen back 
 upon the mission in dismay at the overwhelming force of the 
 
272 
 
 Mexicans ? If the latter, it was a bad business for us, for they 
 were all capital shots, and well armed with rifles and pistols. We 
 heartily wished we had brought them with us, as well as the eight 
 men at the mission. Cut off from us as they were, what could 
 they do against the whole of the cavalry and two companies of 
 infantry which were now approaching the island ? To add to our 
 difficulties, our ammunition was beginning to run short. Many 
 of us had only had enough powder and ball for fifteen or sixteen 
 charges, which were now reduced to six or seven. It was no use 
 desponding, however ; and, after a hurried consultation, it was 
 agreed that Fanning and Wharton should open a fire upon the 
 enemy's centre, while I made a dash at the field-piece before any 
 more infantry had time to come up for its protection. 
 
 The infantry-men who had re-manned the gun were by this time 
 shot down, and, as none had come to replace them, it was served by 
 an officer alone. Just as I gave the order to advance to the twenty 
 men who were to follow me, this officer fell. Simultaneously with 
 his fall, I heard a sort of jrell behind me, and turning round, saw 
 that it proceeded from the wild spectre-looking stranger, whom I 
 had lost sigh'; of during the last few minutes. A ball had struck 
 him,' and b<i fell heavily to the ground ; his rifle, which had just 
 been discharged, and was still smoking from muzzle and touchhole, 
 clutched convulsively in both hands ; his features distorted, his 
 eyes rolling frightfully. There was something in the expression 
 of his face at that moment which brought back to me, in vivid 
 coloring, one of the earliest and most striking incidents of my resi 
 dence in Texas. Had I not myself seen him hung, I could havo 
 sworn that Sob Rock the murderer now lay before me. 
 
 A second look at the man gave additional force to this idea. 
 
 " Bob !" I exclaimed. 
 
 " Bob !" repeated the wounded man, in a broken voice, and 
 with a look of astonishment, almost of dismay. " Who calls 
 Bob ?" 
 
 A wild gleam shot from his eyes, which the next instant closed. 
 He had become insensible. 
 
 It was neither the time nor the place to indulge in speculations 
 on this singular resurrection of a man whose execution I hM 
 
273 
 
 myself witnessed. "With twelve hundred foes around us, we had 
 plenty to occupy all our thoughts and attention. My people were 
 already masters of the gun, and some of them drew it forward and 
 pointed it against the enemy, while the others spread out right 
 and left, to protect it with their rifles. I was busy loading the 
 piece when an exclamation of surprise from one of the men made 
 me look up. 
 
 There seemed to be something extraordinary happening among 
 the Mexicans, to judge from the degree of confusion which sud 
 denly showed itself in their ranks, and which, beginning with the 
 cavalry and right flank of the infantry, soon became general 
 throughout their whole force. It was a sort of wavering and 
 unsteadiness which, to us, was quite unaccountable, for Fanning 
 and Wharton had not yet fired twenty shots, and, indeed, had 
 only just come within range of the enemy. Not knowing what it 
 could portend, I called in my men, and stationed them round the 
 gun, which I had double-shotted, and stood ready to fire. 
 
 The confusion in the Mexican ranks increased. For about a 
 minute they waved and reeled to and fro, as if uncertain which 
 way to go ; and at last, the cavalry and right of the line fairly 
 broke, and ran for it. This example was followed by the centre, 
 and presently the whole of the two battalions and three hundred 
 cavalry were scattered over the prairie, in the wildest and most 
 disorderly flight. I gave them a parting salute from the eight- 
 pounder, which would doubtless have accelerated their move 
 ments, had it been possible to run faster than they were already 
 doing. 
 
 We stood staring after the fugitives in perfect bewilderment, 
 totally unable to explain their apparently causeless panic. At last 
 the report of several rifles from the island of trees gave us the 
 clue to the mystery. 
 
 Some six-and-thirty shots, every one of which told, fired sud 
 denly from a cover close to their rear, were enough to startle even 
 the best troops, much more so our Mexican Dons, who, already 
 sufliciently inclined to a panic, now believed themselves fallen into 
 an ambuscade, and surrounded on all sides by the incarnate diabo- 
 lo$, as they called us. The eavalry, who had not yet recovered th 
 
274 
 
 thrashing vie had given them, were ready enough for a run, and 
 the infantry were not slow to follow them. 
 
 Our first impulse was naturally to pursue the flying enemy, but 
 a discovery made by some of the men, induced us to abandon that 
 idea. They had opened the pouches of the dead Mexicans, IE 
 order to supply themselves with ammunition, ours being nearly 
 expended ; but the powder of the cartridges turned out so bad aa 
 to be useless. It was little better than coal-dust, and would not 
 carry a ball fifty paces to kill or wound. This accounted for our 
 apparent invulnerability to the fire of the Mexicans. The muskets 
 also were of a very inferior description. Both they and the 
 cartridges were of English make ; the former being stamped " Bir 
 mingham," and the latter having the name of an English powder 
 manufactory, with the significant addition, " for exportation." 
 
 Under these circumstances, we had nothing to do but let the 
 Mexicans run. We sent a detachment to the muskeet island, 
 to unite itself with the twelve men who had done such good ser- 
 fice there, and thence advance toward the ford. We ourselves 
 proceeded slowly in the other direction. This demonstration 
 Brought the fugitives back again, for they had, most of them, in 
 he wild precipitation of their flight, passed the only place where 
 they could cross the river. They began crowding over in the 
 greatest confusion, foot and horse, all mixed up together; and, by 
 the time we got within a hundred paces of the ford, the prairie 
 was nearly clear of them. There were still a couple of hundred 
 men on our side of the water, completely at our mercy, and Whar- 
 ton, who was a little in front with thirty men, gave the word to 
 fire upon them. No one obeyed. He repeated the command. 
 Not A rifle was raised. He stared at his men, astonished and im 
 patient at this strange disobedience. An old weather-beaten bear- 
 hunter stopped forward, squirting out his tobacco juice with all 
 imaginable deliberation. 
 
 " I tell ye what, capting !" said he, passing his quid over from 
 his right cheek to his left ; " I calkilate, capting," he continued, 
 " we'd better leave the poor devils of dons alone." 
 
 " The poor devil* of dons alone !" repeated Wharton in a rage 
 * Are you mad. man 7'' 
 
275 
 
 Panning and I had just come up with our detachment, and were 
 not less surprised and angry than Wharton was, at this breach of 
 discipline. The man, however, did not allow himself to be dis 
 concerted. 
 
 " There's a proverb, gentlemen," said he, turning to us, " which 
 Bays, that one should build a golden bridge for a beaten enemy ; 
 and a good proverb it is, I calkilate a considerable good one." 
 
 " What do you mean, man, with your golden bridge ?" cried 
 Fanning. " This is no time for proverbs." 
 
 " Do you know that you are liable to be punished for insubor 
 dination ?" said I. " It's your duty to fire, and do the enemy all 
 the harm you can ; not to be quoting proverbs." 
 
 " Calkilate it is," replied the man, very coolly. " Calkilate I 
 could shoot 'em without danger or trouble ; but I reckon, that 
 would be like Spaniards or Mexicans ; not like Americans not 
 prudent." 
 
 Untimely as this palaver, to use a popular word, undoubtedly 
 was, we could scarcely forbear smiling at the simple naive manner 
 in which the old Yankee spoke his mind. 
 
 " Calkilate, captings," he concluded, " you'd better let the poor 
 devils run. We shall get more profit by it than if we shot five 
 hundred of 'em. Next time they'll run away directly to show 
 their gratitude for our generosity." 
 
 The man stepped back into the ranks, and his comrades nodded 
 approvingly, and calculated and reckoned that Zebediah had spoke 
 a true word ; and meanwhile the enemy had crossed the river, and 
 was out of our reach. We were forced to content ourselves 
 with sending a party across the water to follow up the Mexicans, 
 and observe the direction they took. We then returned to our 
 old position. 
 
 My first thought on arriving there was to search for the body 
 of Bob Rock for he it undoubtedly was, who had so mysteriously 
 appeared among us. I repaired to the spot where I had seen him 
 fall ; but could discover no signs of him, either dead or alive. I 
 went over the whole scene of the fight, searched along the vines 
 and along the bank of the river ; there were plenty of dead Mexi 
 cans cavalry, infantry, and artillery, but no Bob was to be found, 
 
276 
 
 nor could any one inform me what had become of him, although 
 several had seen him fall. 
 
 I was continuing my search, when I met Wharton, who asked 
 me what I was seeking, and on learning, shook his head gravely. 
 He had met the wild prairieman, he said, but whence he came, or 
 whither he was gone, was more than he could tell. It was a long 
 time since anything had startled and astonished him so much as 
 this man's appearance and proceedings. He (Wharton) had been 
 stationed with his party among the vines, and fifty paces in rear 
 of Fanning's people, when just as the Mexican infantry had cross 
 ed the ford, and were forming up, he saw a man approaching at a 
 brisk trot from the north side of the prairie. He halted about a 
 couple of hundred yards from Wharton, tied his mustang to a 
 bush, and with his rifle on his arm, strode along the edge of the 
 prairie in the direction of the Mexicans. When he passed near 
 AVharton, the latter called out to him to halt, and say who he was, 
 whence he came, and whither going. 
 
 " Who I am is no business of yourn," replied the man ; " nor 
 where I come from neither. You'll soon see where I'm goin'. I'm 
 goin' agin' the enemy." 
 
 " Then you must come and join us," cried Wharton. 
 
 This the stranger testily refused to do. H'd fight on his own 
 hook, he said. 
 
 Wharton told him he must not do that. 
 
 He should like to see who would hinder him, he said, and 
 walked on. The next moment he shot the first artilleryman. 
 After that they let him take his own way. 
 
 Neither Wharton, nor any of his men, knew what had become 
 of him ; but at last I met with a bear-hunter, who gave me the 
 following information 
 
 " Calkilatin'," said he, " that the wild prairieman's rifle was a 
 capital good one, as good a one as ever killed a bear, he tho't it a 
 pity that it should fall into bad hands, so wjnt to secure it him 
 self, although the frontispiece of its dead owner warn't very invi- 
 tin'. But when he stooped to take the gun. he got such a shove 
 as knocked him backward, and on getting up, he saw the prairie- 
 man openin' his jacket and examinin' a wound on his breast 
 
377 
 
 which was neither deep nor dangerous, although it had taken 
 away the man's senses for a while. The ball had struck the breast 
 bone, and was quite near the skin, so that the wounded man pushed 
 it out with his fingers ; and then supporting himself on his rifle, 
 got up from the ground, and without either a thankye, or a 
 d nye, walked to where his mustang was tied up, got on its back, 
 and rode slowly away in a northerly direction. 
 
 General Austin expressed his gratitude and approbation to our 
 brave fellows, after a truly republican and democratic fashion. 
 He shook hands with all the rough bear and buffalo hunters, and 
 drank with them. Fanning and myself he promoted, on the spot, 
 to the rank of colonel. 
 
 We were giving the general a detailed account of the morning's 
 events, when a Mexican priest appeared with a flag of truce and 
 several wagons, and craved permission to take away the dead. 
 This was of course granted, and we had some talk with the padre, 
 who, however, was too wily a customer to allow himself to be 
 pumped. What little we did get out of him, determined us to 
 advance the same afternoon against San Antonio. We thought 
 there was some chance, that in the present panic-struck state of 
 the Mexicans, we might obtain possession of the place by a bold 
 and sudden assault. 
 
 San Antonio de Bexar lies in a fertile and well-irrigated valley, 
 stretching westward from the river Salado. In the centre of the 
 town rises the fort of the Alamo, which at that time was armed 
 with forty-eight pieces of artillery of various calibre. The garrison 
 of the town and fortress was nearly three thousand strong 
 
 We were not discouraged, however, and opened our fire upon 
 the city. During the first week, not a day passed without smart 
 skirmishes. General Cos's dragoons were swarming about us like 
 so many Bedouins. But although well-mounted, and capital 
 horsemen, they were no match for our backwoodsmen. Those from 
 the western States especially, accustomed to Indian warfare and 
 cunning, laid traps and ambuscades for the Mexicans, and were 
 constantly destroying their detachments. As for the besieged, if 
 one of them showed his head for ten seconds above the city wall, 
 he was sure of getting a rifle bullet through it I cannot say thai 
 
278 
 
 our besieging army was a perfect model of military discipline ; 
 but any deficiencies in that respect were made good by the intel 
 ligence of the men, and the zeal and unanimity with which they 
 pursued the accomplishment of one great object the capture of 
 the city the liberty and independence of Texas. 
 
 The badness of the gunpowder used by the Mexicans was again 
 of great service to us. Many of their cannon balls that fell far 
 short of us, were collected and returned to them with powerful 
 effect. We kept a sharp look-out for convoys, and captured no less 
 than three one of horses, another of provisions, and twenty thou 
 sand dollars in money. 
 
 After an eight weeks' siege, a breach having been made, the 
 city surrendered, and a month later the fort followed the example. 
 With a powerful park of artillery, we then advanced upon Goliad, 
 the strongest fortress in Texas, which likewise capitulated in 
 about four weeks' time. We were now masters of the whole coun 
 try, and the war was apparently at an end. , 
 
 But the Mexicans were not the people to give up their best pro 
 vince so easily. They have too much of the old Spanish charao 
 ter about them that determined obstinacy which sustained the 
 Spaniards during the protracted struggle with the Moors. The 
 honor of their republic was compromised, and that must be 
 redeemed. Thundering proclamations were issued, denouncing 
 the Texans as rebels, who should be swept off the face of the earth, 
 and threatening the United States for having aided us with money 
 and volunteers. Ten thousand of the best troops in Mexico 
 entered Texas, and were shortly to be followed by ten thousand 
 more. The President, Gen. Santa Anna, himself came to take the 
 command, attended by a numerous and brilliant staff. 
 
 The Texans laughed at the fanfarronades of the dons, and did 
 not attach sufficient importance to these formidable preparations. 
 Their good opinion of themselves, and contempt of their foes, had 
 been increased to an unreasonable degree by their recent and 
 rapid successes. They forgot that the troops to which they had 
 hitherto been opposed were for the most part militia, and that 
 those now advancing against them were of a far better description. 
 and had probably better powder. The call to arms made by OUT 
 
279 
 
 president, Burnet, was disregarded by many, and we could only 
 get together about two thousand men, of whom nearly two-thirds 
 had to be left to garrison the forts of Goliad and Alamo. In the 
 first named place we left seven hundred and sixty men, under the 
 command of Fanping ; in the latter, something more than five 
 hundred. With the remaining seven or eight hundred we took 
 the field. 
 
 The Mexicans advanced so rapidly, that they were upon us 
 before we were aware of it, and we were compelled to retreat, leav 
 ing the garrisons of the two forts to their fate, and a right melaD 
 choly one it proved to be. 
 
 One morning news was brought to Goliad that a number of 
 country people, principally women and children, were on their way 
 to the fort, closely pursued by the Mexicans. Fanning, losing 
 sight of prudence in his compassion for these poor people, imme 
 diately ordered a battalion of five hundred men, under the com 
 mand of Major Ward, to go and meet the fugitives and escort 
 them in. The major, and several officers of the garrison, doubted 
 as to the propriety of this measure ; but Fanning, full of sympa 
 thy for his unprotected country-women, insisted, and the battalion 
 moved out. They soon came in sight of the fugitives, as they 
 thought, but on drawing nearer, the latter turned out to be Mexi 
 can dragoons, who sprang upon their horses, which were concealed 
 in the neighboring islands of trees, and a desperate fight began. 
 The Mexicans, far superior in numbers, received every moment 
 accessions to their strength. The Louis Potosi and Santa Fe 
 cavalry, fellows who seem born on horseback, were there. Our 
 unfortunate countrymen were hemmed in on all sides The fight 
 lasted two days, and only two men out of the five hundred escaped 
 with their lives. 
 
 Before the news of this misfortune reached us. orders had been 
 Bent to Fanning to evacuate the fort and join us with six pieces 
 of artillery. He received the order and proceeded to execute it. 
 But what might have been very practicable for eight hundred and 
 sixty men, was impossible for three hundred and sixty. Never 
 theless, Fanning began his march through the prairie. His little 
 band was almost immediately surrounded by the enemy. Aftei 
 
280 
 
 a gallant defence, which lasted twelve hours, they succeeded in 
 reaching an island, but scarcely had they established themselves 
 there, when they found that their ammunition wa? expended. 
 There was nothing left for them, but to accept t"he terms offered 
 by the Mexicans, who pledged themselves, that if they laid down 
 their arms, they should be permitted to return to their homee 
 But the rifles were no sooner piled, than the Texans found them 
 selves charged by their treacherous foes, who butchered them 
 without mercy. Only an advanced post of three men succeeded 
 in escaping. 
 
 The five hundred men whom we had left in San Antonio de 
 Bexar, fared no better. Not being sufficiently numerous to hold 
 out the town as well as the Alamo, they retreated into the latter. 
 The Mexican artillery soon laid a part of the fort in ruins. Still 
 its defenders held out. After eight days' fighting, during which 
 the loss of the beseigers was tremendously severe, the Alamo was 
 taken, and not a single Texan left alive. 
 
 We thus, by these two cruel blows, lost two thirds of our army, 
 and little more than seven hundred men remained to resist the 
 numerous legions of our victorious foe. The prospect before us 
 was one well calculated to daunt the stoutest heart. 
 
 The Mexican general, Santa Anna, moved his army forward in 
 two divisions, one stretching along the coast toward Yelasco, the 
 other advancing toward San Felipe de Austin. He himself, with 
 a small force, marched in the centre. At Fort Bend, twenty 
 miles below San Felipe, he crossed the Brazos, and shortly after 
 ward established himself with about fifteen hundred men in an 
 intrenched camp. Our army, under the command of General 
 Houston, was in front of Harrisburg, to which place the congress 
 had retreated. 
 
 It was on the night of the twentieth of April, and our whole 
 disposable force, some seven hundred men, was bivouacking in and 
 about an island of sycamores. It was a cloudy, stormy evening ; 
 a high wind was blowing, and the branches of the trees groaned 
 and creaked above our heads. The weather harmonized well 
 enough with our feelings, which were sad and desponding when 
 we thought of the descerate state of our cause. We (the officer*) 
 
281 
 
 were sitting in a circle round the general and Alcalde, both of 
 whom appeared uneasy and anxious. More than once they got 
 up, and walked backward and forward, seemingly impatient, and 
 as if they were waiting for or expecting something. There was a 
 deep silence throughout the whole bivouac ; some were sleeping, 
 and those who watched were in no humor for idle chat. 
 
 "Who goes there?" suddenly shouted one of the sentries. 
 The answer we did not hear, but it was apparently satisfactory, 
 for there was no further challenge, and a few seconds afterward 
 an orderly came up, and whispered something in the ear of the 
 Alcalde. The latter hurried away, and presently returning, 
 spoke a few words in a low tone to the general, and then to us 
 officers. In an instant we were all upon our feet. In less than 
 ten minutes, the bivouac was broken up, and our little army on 
 the march. 
 
 All our people were well mounted, and armed with rifles, pis 
 tols, and bowie-knives. We had six field-pieces, but we took only 
 four, harnessed with twice the usual number of horses. We 
 marched at a rapid trot the whole night, led by a tall, gaunt figure 
 of a man, who acted as our guide and kept some distance in 
 front. I more than once asked the Alcalde who this was. " You 
 will know, by and by," was his answer. 
 
 Before daybreak we had ridden five and twenty miles, but had 
 been compelled to abandon two more guns. As yet, no one knew 
 the object of this forced march. The general commanded a halt, 
 and ordered the men to refresh and strengthen themselves by 
 food and drink. While they were doing this, he assembled the 
 omcers around him, and the meaning of our night march was 
 explained to us. The camp in which the Mexican president and 
 general-in-chief had intrenched himself was within a mile of us ; 
 General Parza, with two thousand men, was twenty miles further 
 to the rear ; General Filasola, with one thousand, eighteen miles 
 lower down on the Brazos ; Viesca, with fifteen hundred, twenty- 
 five miles higher up. One bold and decided blow, and Texas 
 might yet be free. There was not a moment to lose, nor was one 
 lost. The general addressed the men. 
 
 " Friends ! brothers ! citizens ! General Santa Anna is withm 
 
 24* 
 
282 
 
 a mile of us with fifteen hundred men. The hour that is to 
 decide the question of Texian liberty is now arrived. What say 
 you ? Do we attack ?" 
 
 " We do !" exclaimed the men, with one voice, cheerfully and 
 decidedly. 
 
 In the most perfect stillness we arrived within two hundred 
 paces of the enemy's camp. The reveillee of the sleeping Mexi 
 cans was the discharge of our two iield-pieces loaded with canis 
 ter. Rushing on to within twenty-five paces of. the intrench 
 ment, we gave them a deadley volley from our rifles, and then, 
 throwing away the latter, bounded up the breastworks, a pistol 
 in each hand. The Mexicans, scared and stupefied by this sud 
 den attack, were running about in the wildest confusion, seeking 
 their arms, and not knowing which way to turn. After firing 
 our pistols, we threw them away as we had done our rifles, and 
 drawing our bowie-knives, fell, with a shout, upon the masses of 
 the terrified foe. It was more like the boarding of a ship than 
 any land fight I had ever seen or imagined. 
 
 My station was on the right of the line, where the breastwork, 
 ending in a redoubt, was steep and high. I made two attempts 
 to climb up, but both times slipped back. On the third trial I 
 nearly gained the summit ; but was again slipping down, when a 
 hand seized me by the collar, and pulled me up on the bank. In 
 the darkness and confusion, I did not distinguish the face of the 
 man who rendered me this assistance. I only saw the glitter of 
 a bayonet which a Mexican thrust into his shoulder, at the very 
 moment he was helping me up. He neither flinched nor let go 
 his hold of me till I was fairly on my feet ; then, turning slowly 
 round, he levelled a pistol at the soldier, who, at that very mo 
 metit, was struck down by the Alcalde. 
 
 " No thanks to ye, squire !" exclaimed the man, in a voice 
 which made me start, even at that moment of excitement and 
 bustle. I looked at the speaker, but could only see his back, for 
 he had already plunged into the thick of the fight, and was 
 engaged with a party of Mexicans, who defended themselves des 
 perately. He fought like a man more anxious to be killed than 
 to kill, striking furiously right and left, but never guarding a 
 

283 
 
 blow, though the Alcalde, who was by his side, warded off several 
 which were aimed at him. 
 
 By this time, iny men had scrambled up after me. I looked 
 round to see where our help was most wanted, and was about to 
 lead them forward, when I heard the voice of the Alcalde. 
 
 " Are you badly hurt, Bob ?" said he, in an anxious tone. 
 
 I glanced at the spot whence the voice came. There lay Bob 
 Rock, covered with blood, and apparently insensible. The 
 Alcalde was supporting his head upon his arm. Before I had 
 time to give a second look, I was hurried forward with the rest 
 toward the centre of the camp, where the fight was at the hottest. 
 
 About five hundred men, the pick of the Mexican army, had 
 collected round a knot of staff-officers, and were making a most 
 gallant defence. General Houston had attacked them with three 
 hundred of our people, but had not been able to break their 
 ranks. His charge, however, had shaken them a little, and, 
 before they had time to recover from it, I came up. Giving a 
 wild hurrah, my men fired their pistols, hurled them at their 
 enemies' heads, and then springing over the crcasses of the 
 fallen, dashed like a thunderbolt into the broken ranks of the 
 Mexicans. 
 
 A frightful butchery ensued. Our men, who were for the most 
 -)art, and at most times, peaceable and humane in disposition, 
 seemed converted into perfect fiends. Whole ranks of the enemy 
 fell under their knives. Some idea may be formed t)f the horrible 
 slaughter from the fact, that the fight, from beginning to end, did 
 not last above ten minutes, and in that time nearly eight hundred 
 Mexicans were shot or cut down. " No quarter !" was the cry of 
 the infuriated assailants ; " remember Alamo ! Remember Goliad ! 
 Think of Fanning, "Ward !" The Mexicans threw themselves on 
 their knees, imploring mercy, *" Misericordia, ! Cuartd, por el amor 
 de Dios /" shrieked they in heart-rending tones ; but their sup- 
 plications were not listened to, and every man of them would inevi 
 tably have been butchered, had not Gen. Houston and the officers 
 dashed in between the victors and the vanquished, and with the 
 greatest difficulty, and by threats of cutting down our own men 
 if they did not desist, put an end to this scene of bloodshed 
 
284 
 
 and eared the Texan character from the stain of unmanly cru 
 elty. 
 
 When all was over, I hurried back to the place where I had left 
 the Alcalde with Bob. The latter lay, bleeding from six wounds, 
 only a few paces from the spot where he had helped me up the 
 breastwork. The bodies of two dead Mexicans served him for a 
 pillow. The Alcalde was kneeling by his side, gazing sadly and 
 earnestly into the face of the dying man. 
 
 For Bob was dying ; but it was no longer the death of the des 
 pairing murderer. The expression of his features was calm and 
 composed and his eyes were raised to Heaven with a look of hope 
 and supplication. 
 
 I stooped down and asked him how he felt himself, but he made 
 no answer, and evidently did not recollect me. After a minute 
 or two 
 
 " How goes it with the fight ?" he asked in a broken voice. 
 
 " We have conquered, Bob. The enemy killed or taken. Not a 
 man escaped." 
 
 He paused a little, and then spoke again. 
 
 u Have I done my duty ? May I hope to be forgiven?" 
 
 The Alcalde answered him in an agitated voice : 
 
 " He who forgave the sinner on the cross, will doubtless be mer 
 ciful to you, Bob. His holy book says : There is more joy over 
 one sinner that repenteth than over ninety and nine just men. 
 Be of good hope, Bob ! the Almighty will surely be merciful to 
 you !" 
 
 "Thank ye, squire," . gasped Bob, "you're a true friend, a 
 friend in life and death. Well it's come at last," said he, while 
 a resigned and happy smile stole over his features. " I've 
 prayed for it long enough. Thank God, it's come at last !" 
 
 He gazed up at the Alcalde with a kindly expression of coun 
 tenance. There was a slight shuddering movement of his whole 
 frame Bob was dead. 
 
 The Alcalde remained kneeling for a short time by the side of 
 the corpse, his lips moving in prayer. At last he rose to his 
 feet. 
 
 " God desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he 
 
235 
 
 may turn from his wickedness and live," said he. in a low and 
 lolemn tone. " I had those words in my thoughts four years ago, 
 when I cut him down from the branch of the Patriarch." 
 
 ' ; Four years ago !" cried I. u Then you cut him down, and 
 were in time to save him ! Was it he who yesterday brought us 
 news of the vicinity of the foe ?" 
 
 " It was, and much more than that has he done," replied the 
 Alcalde, no longer striving to conceal the tears that fell from his 
 eyes. " For four years has he" dragged on his wretched existence, 
 weary of the world, and despised of all men. For four years has 
 he served us, lived, fought, and spied for us, without honor, 
 reward, hope, or consolation without a single hope of tranquil 
 lity, or a wish for aught except death. All this to serve Texas 
 and his countrymen. Who shall say this man was not a true 
 patriot? God will surely be merciful to his soul," said the 
 Alcalde, after a pause. 
 
 " I trust he will," answered I deeply affected. 
 
 We were interrupted at this moment by a message from Gen 
 eral Houston, to whom we immediately hastened. All was uproar 
 and confusion. Santa Anna could not be found among the pris 
 oners. 
 
 This was a terrible disappointment, for the capture of the 
 Mexican president had been our principal object, and the victory 
 we had gained was comparatively unimportant if. he escaped. 
 Indeed, the hope of putting an end to the war by his capture, had 
 more than anything encouraged and stimulated us to the unequal 
 conflict. 
 
 The moment was a very critical one. Among our men were 
 thirty or forty most desperate characters, who began handling 
 their knives, and casting looks upon the prisoners, the meaning 
 of which it was impossible to mistake. Selecting some of our 
 trustiest men, we stationed them as a guard over the captives, 
 and, having thus assured the safety of the latter, began question 
 ing them as to what had become of their general. 
 
 They had none of them seen Santa Anna since the commence 
 ment of the fight, and it was clear that he must have made his 
 escape while we were getting over the breastworks. He could 
 
286 
 
 not be yery far off, and we at once took measures to find him. A 
 hundred men were sent off with the prisoners to Harrisburg, and 
 a hundred others, capitally mounted on horses found in the 
 Mexican camp, started to scour the country in search of the fugi 
 tive chief. I accompanied the latter detachment. 
 
 We had been twelve hours in the saddle, and had ridden over 
 nearly a hundred miles of ground. We began to despair of find 
 ing the game we were in quest of, and were thinking of abandon 
 ing the chase, when at a distance of about seven miles from the 
 camp, one of our most experienced hunters discovered the print 
 of a small and delicate boot upon some soft ground leading to a 
 marsh. Following this trail, it at last led us to a man sunk up 
 to his waist in the swamp, and so covered with mud and filth, as 
 to be quite unrecognizable. We drew him from his hiding-place, ' 
 half dead with cold and terror, and, having washed the dirt from 
 his face, we found him to be a man of about forty years of age, 
 with blue eyes, of a mild but crafty expression ; a narrow, high 
 forehead ; long, thin nose, rather fleshy at the tip ; projecting 
 upper-lip, and long chin. These features tallied too exactly with 
 the description we had had of the Mexican president, for us to 
 doubt that our prisoner was Santa Anna himself. 
 
 The only thing that at all tended to shake this conviction, was 
 the extraordinary poltroonery of our new captive. He threw 
 himself on his knees, begging us, in the name of God and all the 
 saints, to spare his life. Our reiterated assurances and promises 
 were insufiicient to convince him of his being in perfect safety, or 
 to induce him to adopt a demeanor more consistent with his dig 
 nity and high station. 
 
 The events which succeeded this fortunate capture, are too well 
 known to require more than a very brief recapitulation. The 
 same evening a truce was agreed upon between Houston and 
 Santa Anna, the latter sending orders to his different generals to 
 retire upon San Antonio de Bexar, and other places in the direc 
 tion of the Mexican frontier. These orders, valueless as emanat 
 ing from a prisoner, most of the generals were weak or cowardly 
 tnough to obey, an obedience for which they were afterward 
 
287 
 
 brought to trial by the Mexican congress. In a few days, two- 
 thirds of Texas were in our possession. 
 
 * The news of these successes brought crowds of volunteers to 
 our standard. In three weeks we had an army of several thou 
 sand men, with which we advanced against the Mexicans. There 
 was no more fighting, however, for our antagonists had had 
 enough, and allowed themselves to be driven from one position to 
 another, till, in a month's time, there was not one left in the 
 country. 
 
 On passiiag through the scenes of my Mexican wanderings on 
 my return from Texas, I gleaned a few brief particulars in refer- 
 once to some of the personages who have borne a conspicuous part 
 in these pages. 
 
 We found the contemptible Lieutenant bestialized with whisky 
 to the verge of idiocy. On inquiring of his chaste and delectable 
 wife as to what had happened, we learned that on the evening of 
 the day after we taft, the Colonel had been shot, as he strolled 
 listlessly and without any precaution about his premises. The 
 rumor was that Agatone, accompanied by the old Sefiora and three 
 men, had fired upon him from a thicket. He fell, and they rushed 
 out too soon for before they could finish him he shot one of them 
 through the head, and it was thought had mortally wounded the 
 old Senora. The ferocious Agatone had cut off his ears, and 
 thrust them down his throat while he was dying, with the handle 
 of his knife, and otherwise horribly mutilated his body, which was 
 left for the wolves to devour. It was said that the boy John led 
 the party how he had come to life was a problem to me. Antone 
 had never been heard of. I suppose the wolves made a meal of 
 him after I left. But enough of horrors ! Black, I forgot to 
 mention, had disappeared during the night of the siege no onf 
 knew where ! Bill had accompanied us and performed wonders 
 of sagacity and skill in his peculiar department we left him with 
 Hays in Bexar. 
 
 The cunning Agatone is, for all I know, at this very time a 
 
288 
 
 earheiess cut-throat on that troubled frontier. Castro and his 
 Lipans are still, I believe, the frontier allies of Captain (now 
 Oolonel) Hays. The old Senora never entirely recovered, and I 
 have heard since I left the country, that she was literally " roast 
 ed alive" in her bed some time afterwards, when the indignant 
 Texans who had rallied to the frontier, reduced her Rancho 
 what of it could be burned to ashes, and left no " Doby upB 
 mother" of the rest ! 
 
BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 
 
 A PARISIAN SKETCH. 
 
 THE sun was gilding with his last gleam the turrets of Notre 
 Dame. In a small but handsome chamber, whose window stood 
 just clear of the shadow of the great tower, were seated two 
 individuals, busied with their separate occupations. We will 
 describe them. The first, and the one who sat nearest the win 
 dow, was a girl apparently about eighteen, though her air and 
 actions, soft and graceful, and the silent melancholy of her coun 
 tenance, might have betokened to a careless observer the full- 
 grown woman. Her complexion was dark brunette, her long 
 hair black as ebony, her eye of the same color, and liquid as the 
 soft words that at intervals- fell from her prettily curving lips. 
 She was plying the needle upon a piece of fine cambric, but 
 occasionally casting a glance into the crowded thoroughfare 
 below. 
 
 At a little distance from her, and nearer to the fire for it was 
 December sat a fine-looking youth. The dark complexion, the 
 raven hair, the eye, and the general outline of his features, at 
 once bespoke him the brother of the girl. On his left arm rested 
 the palette, he held the pencil in his right hand, and before him 
 stood the easel, supporting the unfinished portrait of a lady. He 
 was, as may be supposed, an artist. His native country, as that 
 of his sister, Italy. They were the offspring of the bright sun 
 and the, burning clime of Naples, and had wandered to the 
 world's metropolis of art, in order that the young painter might 
 seek that reward of genius, which the poverty of his countrymen 
 had denied him at home. 
 
 25 8 
 
290 
 
 We have sa.d that the painting which leaned against the easel 
 was unfinished. Enough had been done, however, to show that it 
 was the portrait of a lovely woman. The head and neck were 
 perfected. The drapery only remained to be thrown around one 
 of the most perfect conceptions that ever emanated from the 
 brain of an artist. The head was slightly thrown back, giving 
 full effect to the bold but graceful curving .of the neck the head 
 was oval, of the most voluptuous formation the complexion of a 
 pure blonde, the cheeks slightly tinted with the rose, while the eyes 
 and hair were of the deepest black, the latter gracefully folded and 
 plaited into a thick cluster at the back of the head. The upper 
 outline of the nose was a perfectly straight line ; such a nose as 
 the Grecian sculptors loved to cut from their pure Parian while 
 the curved and classic lip seemed constantly to distill dewy drops 
 of crystal honey. In short, the painting was the chef cTceuvre 
 of an artist's skill, as the original must have been of the handi 
 work of nature. 
 
 But how know we that there was an original ? Might it not 
 have been what painters term a " fancy sketch ?" No such thing. 
 The long and ardent gaze which the young painter directed, from 
 time to time, on the lovely object before him, the deep-drawn sigh 
 that escaped him as he turned again to his colors, bore evidence 
 of a feeling far different from the mere enthusiasm of an artist for 
 the creation of his own fancy, and plainly declared that the love 
 liness before him was God's, not his conception. 
 
 " It is impossible !" muttered the artist to himself, as he flung 
 himself back despairingly in his seat. " Impossible the divine 
 pencil of Angelo himself would fail to copy the angel in her 
 eyes. I shall try to see her once more before the sun goes down 
 'tis a lovely evening she may be at her window oh ! could I 
 but see her seated here here, in this soft light for one moment 
 it might be done. Sister !" 
 
 " Guido !" 
 
 "Here, sister, what think you now? have I changed the 
 expression in aught ?" 
 
291 
 
 The Italian girl rose from her seat at the window, approached 
 the painting, and stood for a moment in silent contemplation 
 of it. 
 
 " It is, indeed much more like " 
 
 " Like ! Why, what mean you ? You have never seen her, 
 Bianca ?" 
 
 " I I," answered the sister, in an embarrassed manner ; " I 
 meant that the expression is better more beautiful now." 
 
 The painter seemed satisfied with the answer, and continued : 
 
 " Oh, Bianca, could you but see the original ! I have half a 
 mind to show her to you some day but then how different would 
 she seem to us ! You can only see her with your eyes ; I feel her 
 in my heart, in my pulse, everywhere. She is to me as the sun 
 that lights yonder gilded cupola, and lends it all its glory and 
 brightness" (the painter had approached the window the 
 great tower of Notre Dame had already flung its deep shadow 
 upon the sill, and only the highest turrets of houses were bur 
 nished by the declining sunbeam a cupola with gilded cross rose 
 over the distant roofs to which the young artist pointed, as he 
 continued) " Yes, Bianca, like in more ways than one though 
 that spire raises its head proudly over the humble roofs of the 
 bourgeois, it can never reach the sun hopeless hopeless !" 
 
 " And yet, Gaetano, the sun condescends to come to that 
 cupola and kiss it." 
 
 " Thank you, thank you, sweet sister now shall I take fresh 
 
 % courage from the omen you have uttered my cloak, I must to 
 
 the Chaussde d'Antin one more gaze, one more look into that 
 
 lovely eye, and if my hand and heart fail me not, I shall have it 
 
 upon the canvas, and feast upon it at leisure. Adieu, sister !" 
 
 The enthusiastic lover seized his chapeau, threw a Neapolitan 
 cloak over his shoulders, and, opening the door, hurried out into 
 the street. 
 
 Bianca stood for a moment gazing earnestly at the picture. 
 
 14 How like him /" soliloquized she ; " the eye the nose the 
 , ; lip all all like him ! how very strange and nearly betrayed, 
 
292 
 
 too ha ! I must be more cautious ;" and so saying, the beau 
 tiful girl again approached the window and looked out in to* the 
 street. 
 
 She had not remained long in this position when some object 
 in the crowded thoroughfare below attracted her attention, caused 
 her to start, and sent the red blood mantling over her fair cheeks. 
 A young man, dressed in the prevailing fashion, was standing at 
 a distant corner, under the shade of a cafe awning. A light 
 French cloak was thrown gracefully over his well-made figure, 
 and a black moustache and imperial added to the expression of 
 his handsome face. From beneath his becoming chapeau, black, 
 wavy curls fell upon his shoulders, and his whole appearance gave 
 the impression of graceful and manly beauty. 
 
 During the few moments in which the painter and his sister 
 had been criticising the portrait, this young man had passed and 
 repassed the front of the house, with his eyes anxiously yet 
 stealthily bent on the window of the painter's studio, but the 
 moment the latter issued from the street door, the young man, 
 who had evidently been waiting for this, crossed over the street 
 and entered. 
 
 Presently a slight knock was heard, the door opened, and 
 Bianca's lover stood in her presence. 
 
 " Dearest Bianca !" was the exclamation of the youth, as he 
 kissed the red lip freely offered to him. There was no coquetry 
 here. The lover had won the affections of the Italian maiden, 
 and she yielded to him without resistance this swfcet favor of 
 confiding love. 
 
 " Guido has gone out, Bianca ; I have watched him from the 
 street think you, love, he will soon return ?" 
 
 " No, not soon, Louis, he will remain out until nightfall he 
 always does when he goes on the same errand." 
 
 " "What errand, Bianca '** 
 
 " Why, your own," replied the girl, laughing, " he has gone to 
 see his sweetheart." 
 
 "Ha! Guidoin love?" 
 
293 
 
 X 
 
 u Aye, like yourself again." 
 
 " But he never told me of his love." 
 
 " Have you ever told him of yours ? ha!" - 
 
 " No, sweetest, but I mean to break it to him the very first 
 opportunity." 
 
 A gleam of joy flashed over the features of the Italian maiden. 
 It was this she had long desired, for the secrecy of her attachment 
 to the young Frenchman (which, though pure and holy, had been 
 carefully concealed from her brother) distressed her; and she 
 often wished that she had made Guido a confidant. She doubted 
 not that, had this been done, from the peculiar nature of her 
 brother's own circumstances, he would have sympathized with her ; 
 but since he had freely confided in her, she knew that his pride 
 would be wounded by the deception she was practising, and per 
 haps in the violence of his nature he might forbid the advances 
 of her lover. 
 
 " Do, dearest Louis, for my sake do !" was the reply of Bianca. 
 
 " I will, and to-morrow, Bianca. What think you ? I have 
 good news for you my kind father has given me leave to choose 
 a wife for myself I should have done so, at all events, but how 
 much pleasanter to have one's father's consent ; and now if we 
 can gain your brother's, we may get speedily married." 
 
 " What happiness 1" 
 
 The lover leaned forward and kissed the beautiful cheek of his 
 mistress. 
 
 " Guido will not refuse it ; he loves, and, like ourselves " - 
 
 " Ah ! not like us." 
 
 " Not like us ! What mean you, Bianca ?" 
 
 "Alas! poor Guido!" 
 
 " Poor Guido ! and why !" 
 
 " His love, I fear, is hopeless." 
 
 * For what reason know you the lady ?" 
 
 " No, but my brother has told rne that she is high in rank, and 
 he can never become acquainted with her. He only loves at a 
 distance." 
 
 25* 
 
294 
 
 " Nonsense ! Guido has everything to hope he is growing 
 famous genius and reputation will win love and beauty ; besides, 
 your brother (he were not else your brother, Bianca) is hand 
 some he is cast in that mould that women admire by-the-by, I 
 heard a very fine lady say (and she only saw him passing her 
 window) that he was the handsomest gentleman in Paris i* faith, 
 I believe he has won her heart ; but, poor girl, he never saw 
 her. How strange is this thing love. It is so seldom mutual 
 like ours ; we were made for each other don't you think so, 
 Bianca ?" 
 
 Bianca smiled, and received another glowing kiss upon her 
 beautiful cheek. 
 
 ** To-morrow, then, Bianca, I will tell Guido that I, his friend, 
 am in love with his sister. Shall I say tint she loves me in 
 return ?" 
 
 "Yes yes!" 
 
 " Well, then, I shall, and afterwards ask his consent to our 
 marriage ; you know I am rich enough he will not refuse me 
 on that ground, I think, and then we will be married, and I shall 
 have the sweetest wife in all Paris ; so happy we shall be ! Shall 
 we not, Bianca ?" 
 "Oh, so happy I 1 ' 
 
 " But what can I do for Guido, he will be so lonely without 
 you ! I wish I could help him to a wife that fine lady he 
 believes to be beyond his reach ; perhaps I may know her, and 
 can introduce him. Can you give me no clue by which to find 
 out who she is ?" 
 
 " Yes, yes ! here is her likeness," suddenly recollected Bianca, 
 pointing to the beautiful portrait on the easel. 
 
 " What !" exclaimed the lover, suddenly starting, while a gleam 
 of joy passed over his countenance ; " this her ?" 
 
 "Yes," answered Bianca. 
 
 " Where did he paint this likeness?" 
 
 " Here from recollection." 
 
 " She lives in the Chaussee d'Antin P* 
 
295 
 
 " She does ; and do you know, Louis, I nearly betrayed myself 
 to Guido this evening, in speaking of her ; for I have often fan 
 cied that the portrait resembled you ! I had nearly spoken out 
 your name !" 
 
 " It is very natural she should resemble me, she is my sister." 
 
 " Your sister /" 
 
 "Yes, truly, that is the likeness of my'sister Eugenie, and I am 
 right glad ; now I can ask Guido for my Bianca with more 
 confidence of success, as I will be enabled to do him a favor in 
 return. Ha! ha! ha! what a singular discovery! We shall 
 have a fair exchange here, though I think the balance will be in 
 my favor, sweet Bianca." 
 
 "But will your sister care for my poor brother?" artlessly 
 inquired the Italian girl. 
 
 "Never mind, Bianca; leave that to my management. But 
 the twilight is darkening; I must away ere he return. Say 
 nothing of our discovery not a word it would mar my 
 schemes. I shall make the rascal so much my debtor that he 
 dare not refuse me anything. Adieu, sweet Bianca, adieu !" and, 
 kissing the fair cheek of his mistress, the young Parisian was 
 soon once more in the street, and on his way homeward. 
 
 Bianca reluctantly closed the door as the echo of his footsteps 
 died away in the distance, and approaching the portrait, she sat 
 down before it, gazing earnestly upon the picture. After a while 
 she leaned forward, and murmuring the words, " sweet sister," 
 imprinted an enthusiastic kiss on the lifeless canvas. She did 
 not perceive that the door had opened, and that her brother, 
 having entered the room, was standing beside her. 
 
 " Sweet sister ! ah, Bianca, it can never be so ! I am mad to 
 think of it !" added the painter, in a melancholy tone. 
 
 " Do not despair, Guido," said Bianca, cheerfully, when she had 
 recovered herself from the slight agitation occasioned by her 
 brother's voice ; " you know not what good fortune may be in 
 store for you." 
 
 She would fain have told him all she knew, but the injunctions 
 
296 
 
 of her lover, and the circumstances of her intimacy with the 
 young Frenchman, prevented the possibility of this, and she was 
 obliged to use other means to cheer his drooping spirits. 
 
 Guido had been to the Chausse'e d'Antin ; he had seen the 
 object of his love in her window, and screened by a friendly 
 projection, had remained for half an hour gazing with rapture 
 upon her beautiful features. 
 
 She had left the window as the twilight darkened down ; and 
 the painter, dispirited and despairing, returned to his home. He 
 did not even yet know her name. He had not had the courage 
 to inquire; but he felt that any advances from a poor artist 
 towards one living in such a splendid mansion, would be treated 
 with scorn. He was fast rising, however, into notice as a man of 
 true genius, and had already made many friends among the 
 higher classes, among whom was the young Parisian,. Louis Le 
 Breton, but this friendship had not as yet extended to the full 
 confidence which admits the stranger into the family circle. 
 
 In the midst of gloomy thoughts that were fast being dissipated 
 by the kind condolence of his beloved sister, the door opened? 
 and a note was handed by a liveried servant to the artist. The 
 
 servant retreated. The note ran as follows : 
 
 
 
 " MY DEAR FRIEND : I have shown the portrait which you 
 painted of me to my family. It has been so much admired, that 
 my sister insists upon having her likeness painted by you, if you 
 can find time ; and perhaps you could make it convenient to 
 come to our house, as she is at present somewhat indisposed. If 
 so, you will extremely oblige your friend, 
 
 "Louis LE BRETON. 
 
 "To-morrow, at ten o'clock, I will wait for you at home, and 
 introduce you to your study. You will find our house at No. 40 
 Rue , Chausse'e d'Antin." 
 
 " I can see the meaning of all this," thought Bianca ; " kind 
 
297 
 
 Louis! how happy will my brother be when lie finds out 
 whose likeness he is to paint/* 
 
 . . 
 
 " Can it be possible ?" inquired the astonished artist of Mr iself, 
 when next morning he came up with No. 40, and found it WZM the 
 very mansion into the windows of which he had often ;azed 
 with longing eyes. "Strange I had not known this before. 
 Louis never told me where he lived. * Le Breton,' No. 40 it is 
 indeed !" 
 
 His hand trembled on the bell-handle ; he rang ; Louis himself 
 came to the door to meet him, and in a moment the painter found 
 himself in the presence of her 'whom he had long secretly 
 adored. He managed, however, to conceal his emotions in the 
 presence of Louis. The latter secretly enjoyed the ruse which 
 he was playing. But the emotions were not all on one side ; for 
 happily this was the lady of whom Louis had spoken to Bianca, 
 as having so ardently admired her brother. These were btrange 
 coincidences. 
 
 The portrait was commenced, and progressed for several suc 
 cessive days, but the artist and his sister began instinctively to 
 understand each other's feelings ; and one day as young Le Breton 
 entered the drawing-room, he saw, with feigned astonishment, his 
 Italian friend sitting close by his sister, gazing ardently into her 
 countenance, and holding her hand in his, while the pencils, 
 palette and paints lay unheeded around. 
 
 The painter rose proudly and was about to retire, thinking that 
 all was lost. He was stopped, however, by his friend, who rushed 
 forwards and seized him by the hand, exclaiming : 
 
 " Come, Guido, whither so fast ? Bo not suppose that I am 
 angry. I know it all you love Eugenie she loves you in return, 
 and it was my management that brought you together ; you shall 
 have her, for my father, I know, will consent to what I propose, 
 but first you must promise me a favor in return." 
 
298 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
 "Bianca!" 
 
 "My sister?" 
 
 "Yes. We, -without your knowledge, have long loved each 
 either. It was during an interview with her that I discovered 
 your partiality for Eugenie here the portrait, Guido ! the por 
 trait ! Coine now, shall we exchange sisters ?" 
 
 Willingly r 
 
 And so they did, for soon after there was an extensive double 
 wedding in the Chausse'e d'Antin. 
 
THE 
 
 LAST ADVENTURE OF A COQUETTE. 
 
 A. MORE capricious coquette than the beautiful Kate Crossley 
 never played with hapless hearts. She is now a sober matron, 
 the wife of an elegant husband, and the mother of two beautiful 
 children. We hate to rake up the ashes of bitter remembrances ; 
 (for, believe us, gentle reader, this story, though short, is neverthe 
 less true ; and we know one young gentleman at least who will 
 recognize the unhappy hero of it.) But we cannot pass over in 
 silence the last episode in the unmarried life of Kate. It may be 
 a warning to future unfortunate lovers, and afford a striking 
 instance of that utter heartlessness which a beautiful flirt alone 
 can feel. 
 
 Kate was an heiress, that is, a moderate fortune of two hun 
 dred thousand had been accumulated expressly for her use for 
 she was an only child. She had a much larger fortune, however, 
 in her face ; and that evening never passed, that the threshold of 
 her father's comfortable dwelling was not crossed by half a score 
 of elegant beaux, all bloods, and some of them men of fortune. 
 Kate amused herself by making these young gentlemen jealous. 
 A beautiful flirt, who can command even the small sum of two 
 hundred thousand dollars, is a dangerous creature in the commu 
 nity of Philadelphia ; and already on Kate Crossley's account, had 
 two parties of the aforesaid young gentlemen crossed over to Cam- 
 den with sanguinary intentions. Fortunately, however, we have the 
 most vigilant police in the world, and a mayor whose instinct is 
 so keen, that it has been known to forewarn him of the time and' 
 
 299 
 
SOU 
 
 place of a duel, the arrangements of which had been kept reli 
 giously secret from all but the principals and their seconds. 
 
 By such efforts of genius on the part of our worthy mayor, had 
 the chivalrous lovers of our heroine been spared the pain of blood 
 letting, and having purchased the pleasing reputation of courage, 
 they were bound over, and thus procured the sweet privilege of 
 frowning at each other hereafter without the necessity of fighting 
 for it. 
 
 Matters were progressing thus ; lovers were alternately sighing, 
 and smiling, and scowling, when the elegant Augustus Nob 
 returned from his European tour, bringing with him, of course, a 
 foreign moustache, and a decidedly foreign accent. Nob was an 
 only son of one of the first families. He had been left an indepen 
 dent fortune by his parents (deceased), most of which he had 
 contrived to spend in Paris and London. This, however, was still 
 a secret, and Nob was welcome everywhere. 
 
 But under no mahogany did Mr. Augustus Nob stretch his 
 limbs more frequently than under the hospitable board of Mrs. 
 Crossley. We say Mrs. Crossley, for although her good husband 
 still lived, he was only identified in the house as a piece of its 
 plainest furniture. 
 
 Crossley had served his purpose in this world he had made 
 the two hundred thousand had retired from business, and was no 
 longer of any value. It was now Mrs. C.'s turn to play her part, 
 which consisted in practically proving that two hundred thousand 
 can be spent almost as fast as it can be made. Balls, soirees, and 
 suppers, followed each other in quick succession. Morning levees 
 were held, attended by crowds of bloods. The elegant Augustus 
 was always present, and always dressed in the most fashionable 
 rig. A party at the house of Mrs. Crossley and the elegant 
 Augustus not present ? Who could bear the idea ? Not Mrs. 
 C. herself, who was constantly exclaiming 
 
 " My dear Augustus he is the very life and soul of us ; how 
 charming, how handsome, and how fashionable ! just the air that 
 travelling always gives. How much I long to call him my dear 
 
301 
 
 son !" and in fact Mrs. C. was leaving no stone unturned to consum 
 mate this maternal design. She was not likely to find much 
 opposition on the part of the " elegant " himself. Not only would 
 the two hundred thousand have been particularly acceptable at 
 that time, but the heart of the young gentleman, or, in other 
 words, his vanity, had become greatly excited, and he felt much 
 disposed to carry off the coquette in triumph, in spite of the 
 agony and disappointment of at least a score of competitors. 
 
 But where is our heroine, Kate, all this time ? Flirting, of 
 course, with a dozen beaux, each at one moment thinking himself 
 most favored, and the next spurned and despairing. Now she 
 smiles upon Mr. Fitz-rush, and compliments him upon the small- 
 ness of his foot. Fitz blushes, simpers, and appears not at all vain 
 of his feet in fact, stammers out that they are " large, very large, 
 indeed ;" to which candid acknowledgment on his part, should 
 the company appear to consent, he carelessly adds that " they are 
 small for a man of his size," insinuating that it is nothing out of 
 the way to find small men with little feet, and little credit should 
 therefore be attached ; but when a man of large dimensions is 
 found with elegant little feet like his, the credit ought to be qua 
 drupled or tripled at least. 
 
 Kate, the talented Kate, understands it all ; and after smiling 
 quietly at the gentleman's silliness, she turns her satire upon an 
 other victim. 
 
 " Ah ! my dear Mr. Cressy, how your eyes sparkled last night 
 at the Opera they looked like a basilisk's." 
 
 This gentleman's eyes were of a very dull green color, and 
 looked more like a cat's than a basilisk's, but not " seeing them as 
 others saw them," he replied that " he could not help it the 
 music always excited him so." 
 
 " Ah ! the music, Mr. Cressy ; but perhaps " 
 
 She was prevented from finishing her reply by the announce 
 ment of a gentleman who had just made his appearance in the 
 doorway, and who was no less a personage than the elegant Augus 
 tus Nob. 
 
 20 
 
302 
 
 To say that Mr. Augustus Nob was a small fish in this party, 
 would be to speak what was not true ; on the other hand, he was 
 a big fish in. fact the biggest in the kettle. Any one who had 
 witnessed the sensation produced by his announcement, would 
 have judged so. The coquette broke oft' in the middle of her 
 satire, and, running towards the door, conducted him to the seat 
 nearest to her own, where, after an elegant bow, he seated himself 
 a full grown lion. During the continuance of this welcome 
 reception, various pantomimic gestures were exhibited by differ 
 ent members of the company. There was a general uneasy shift 
 ing of chairs dark looks were shot towards the " elegant," and 
 conciliatory, and even friendly glances were exchanged among 
 the beaux, who, forgetting for the moment their mutual jealousies, 
 concentrated their united envy upon their common rival. If 
 Cressy's eyes never sparkled before, they certainly did upon this 
 occasion ; and the right leg of Fitz-rush was flung violently over 
 the left knee, where it continued to oscillate with an occasional 
 nervous twitching of the toes, expressive of a hardly repressed 
 desire on the part of its owner to try the force of those little feet 
 on the favored " elegant's " handsome person. It was all in vain, 
 however ; Nob was evidently the successful lover, for he sat close to 
 the graceful creature that is, closer than any other and chatted 
 to her of balls and operas ; and confident of his position, he did 
 not care a fig for the envy and jealousy which on all sides sur 
 rounded him. 
 
 And Kate showered all her attentions upon Nob, and Nob tri 
 umphed over his rivals. 
 
 Matters progressed .thus for several weeks, Nob still paying 
 marked attentions to the coquette, whose chief delight seemed to 
 be, not only to torment her host of other lovers, but occasionally 
 the " elegant " himself. 
 
 Augustus, however, still continued first in favor, and, from the 
 attentions which he received at the hands of Mrs. Crossley, it was 
 conjectured by the family friends that a marriage with her 
 daughter was not far distant. The less aspiring of Kate's former 
 
303 
 
 lovers had long since "hauled their wind," and only a few, among 
 whom were Fitz-rush and Cressy, still continued to hang on des 
 pairingly to what was evidently a forlorn hope. 
 
 Nob openly boasted that he had run them all out of the field, 
 and was heard triumphantly to assert that ho was breaking the 
 heart of the " deaw creataw," and that he " would be under the 
 positive necessity of healing it at the hymeneal altaw." " He was 
 very young to marry quite a child but then to keep the dear 
 sylph in suspense oh ! it would be bawbawous positively baw- 
 bawous ?" 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the cunning, the talented Kate was* 
 ignorant of these boasts on the part of the elegant Nob. No 
 no Kate knew everything, and among other things she knew Mr. 
 Augustus Nob thoroughly ; and she resolved on taking most 
 exquisite vengeance upon him. 
 
 Spring delightful spring has returned, and all nature looks 
 as sweet as the lips of a lovely woman. The trees upon our side 
 walks, and in our beautiful squares, are once more covered with 
 green and shady foliage, and from the windows of high houses 
 hang handsome cages, from which those warbling prisoners the 
 mockbird, and the troupial, and the linnet and canary bird, send 
 forth their dulcet notes, filling the streets with music and melody. 
 
 Fashionable ladies are beginning to make their appearance in 
 the streets unattended by gentlemen, as it is the shopping hour, 
 and gentlemen would be only in the way. From the door of an 
 elegant mansion in the upper part of Chestnut street issues a 
 graceful and beautiful girl, who is proceeding down the street 
 towards the busier part of the city. She does not loiter nor look 
 in at the shop-windows, as ladies generally do at this hour, but 
 walks nimbly along as though she came forth upon some precon 
 ceived errand. As she nears that part of Chestnut street which 
 is in the neighborhood of the State House, she lessens her gait, 
 %nd walks more leisurely. She is heard to soliloquize 
 
304: 
 
 " In truth, it is as much as my courage, nay, even my reputa 
 tion is worth, to enter the studio of my sweet painter thus alone ; 
 but what can I do, since the dear fellow has been banished from 
 our houvse by the aristocratic notions of my mother? Well, I 
 shall risk all for him, as he would for me, I know. How happy 
 it will make him to hear my errand. Only to think that I am 
 forced to an elopement, or marry that ninny whom my mother 
 has chosen for me. But I shall elope I shall. Henry has so 
 often proposed it how happy he shall be to hear me consent ; 
 but I shall do it in my own way that is fixed. Henry will laugh 
 *vhen I tell him of my plans. Some one may be with him at this 
 moment, and deprive me of the pleasure of conversing with him ; 
 but then it is all written here, and I can see him soon again. 
 1 HENRY WILUS, MINIATURE PAINTER.' Yes ! this is the sweet 
 fellow's place no one observes me i3nter." So saying, the grace 
 ful girl entered a large hall, the door of which stood open, and 
 passing up a flight of steps, she tapped gently with her small 
 gloved fingers upon the door of a chamber, upon which was 
 repeated, in gold letters, the same words that were exhibited in 
 front of the building 
 
 " HENRY WILLIS' MINIATURE PAINTER." 
 
 In a moment the door opened, disclosing within the studio of an 
 artist, the artist himself, a fine looking youth, with dark hair and 
 slight moustache, and dressed in his painter's blouse, while in the 
 background could be seen a prim, stiff old lady m high cap and 
 curls, steadily and rigidly sitting for her portrait. 
 
 At sight of the new comer the artist's countenance became 
 bright with love and pleasure, and the exclamation " dearest !" 
 that almost involuntarily escaped him, told that they were no 
 strangers to each other. The young lady, on the other hand, per 
 ceiving the sitter through the half-opened door, glided back a step 
 or two, so as to be unperceived by the latter, and taking from her 
 reticule a folded paper, she held it out to the palter, accompany- 
 
305 
 
 ing the act with these words " A message for you, Henry ; it 
 would have been pleasanter, perhaps, to have delivered it verbally, 
 but you see I have been prepared for any emergency." So say 
 ing, she delivered the paper received a kiss upon her litsile gloved 
 hand smiled said, " good morning ! and graciously glided back 
 into the street. 
 
 The artist re-entered his studio found some excuse to dis 
 miss the stiff old lady, and was soon buried, with beaming face 
 and beating heart, in the contents of the paper he had just 
 received. 
 
 He rose from its perusal like a man mad mad from excess 
 of joy^ mad from love ; and hastily striding up and down his 
 small studio, he exclaimed, "Yes, dearest heart! anything any 
 thing you wish shall be done. One week, and she shall be mine ; 
 and such a mischievous trick but the fool deserves it, richly 
 deserves it, for aspiring to the hand of one so immeasurably his 
 superior. Ninny ! he little knew how deeply she has loved, sweet 
 girl ! How she has deceived them father, mother, friends all ! 
 How sweet and how powerful is first love !" \ 
 
 Kate Crossley had often been heard to say, that whenever she 
 married, there would be an elopement. She either had a presen 
 timent that such would be her fate, or she so despised the modern, 
 un romantic fashion of marrying and giving in marriage, that she 
 was resolved that it should be. Consequently, when the elegant 
 Augustus Nob, on the first day of May, 1842, knelt before her in 
 the most fashionable manner, and made a most fashionable decla 
 ration, quite confident of being accepted who could have refused ? 
 he was accepted, with the proviso that it should be an elope 
 ment. 
 
 " All right !" soliloquized Augustus, as he closed the hall-door 
 behind him ; " all right, and very simple ! old lady decidedly in 
 my favwaw reconciliation easy- carriage and four private 
 
 26* 
 
306 
 
 clergy two days in a hotel sent for, and all right again sim 
 ple, vewy simple, and vewy romantic, too !" 
 
 It was a dark night a very dark night for the month of May 
 and a very cold one, too; and under the shadow of some trees 
 that grew upon the sidewalk in the upper part of Chestnut street, 
 making the spot still darker, might be seen an elegant carriage 
 and horses drawn close up to the curbstone. 
 
 The driver was on the box, enveloped in a great coat, and at 
 a short distance from the carriage, and leaning against a tree, 
 might be seen the figure "of a young man, fashionably and 
 elegantly attired. He wore a cloth cloak, loosely hanging from 
 his shoulders, and he was evidently waiting for some one to arrive 
 and enter the carriage with him. There were no passers by, how 
 ever, to conjecture his motives and actions, as it was nearly two 
 o'clock in the morning, and the streets were quiet. He repeatedly 
 took out a splendid watch, and seemed impatiently waiting for 
 some fixed hour. Presently the great bell upon the state-house 
 tolled two. A light footstep was now heard in the distance, and 
 a moment after a graceful woman came tripping along, and 
 approached the carriage. The young man who had been leaning 
 against the tree, immediately recognized the figure, and stretched 
 out his hand to conduct her to the carriage. We will conceal 
 the names of the lovers no longer they were Augustus Nob and 
 Kate Crossley. 
 
 " My dear Kate," said he, " I have been waiting for you half an 
 hour how vewy cold it is." 
 
 " No, no not cold on such an errand as ours ! But, dear 
 Augustus, said Kate, changing her manner, we must be married 
 
 by the Rev. Mr. C , the good old man has been like a father 
 
 to me, and I could not think of any one else ; he has promised 
 me, and is now expecting us." 
 
 " Oh, vewy well," replied the lover, " you are sure he expects us P 
 
SOT 
 
 "Yes; I will give directions to the driver." So saying, she 
 whispered a word in the ear of the driver, who seemed perfectly 
 to understand her, and entered the carriage, followed by Augus 
 tus. 
 
 The driver immediately gave the whip to his horses, and turn 
 ing down Chestnut, entered a cross street, and drove northward 
 towards the district of the Northern Liberties. 
 
 The carriage drew up before the door of a handsome house in 
 the upper part of the city, and the driver, dismounting from his 
 box, opened the door, let down the steps, and handed the lady to 
 the pavement. Nob thought that he saw the driver kiss his 
 bride's little white-gloved hand as she stepped upon the curbstone ; 
 but it was so dark he could not be sure of this. He was sure, 
 however, that he was the most officious and impertinent driver he 
 had ever seen ; and from the slight glimpse that he caught of the 
 fellow's face, by the light of a street lamp, he saw that he wore a 
 moustache, and was withal a very handsome young man. 
 
 It was no* time, however, to study physiognomy, or resent 
 imaginary insults. The door of the house was quietly opened by 
 some one within, and Nob and his beautiful bride entered, and 
 were shown into the drawing-room. The servant desired Kate to 
 follow her to a dressing-room, that she might take off her bonnet, 
 
 and intimated to Mr. Nob that the Rev. Mr. C would wait 
 
 upon him in a minute. 
 
 Now it was a very strange thing that that same driver, who 
 kissed Kate's little hand for he actually had kissed it instead 
 of staying by his horses, as every good driver should do, gave 
 them up to another, and walked into the house close after the 
 bride and bridegroom. It was also strange that the bride kept 
 the elegant Mr. Augustus Nob impatiently waiting in that front 
 parlor for at least twenty minutes; but the strangest thing of all 
 was, that when she did make her appearance, she still had her 
 bonnet on, as when last he saw her, and was leaning on the arm 
 of a handsome young gentleman wearing moustaches and white 
 kid gloves, whom the stupefied Augustus at once recognized as 
 
308 
 
 the impertiLint driver, and whom the reader may recognize ao 
 Henry Willis, the artist. Mr. Willis politely thanked Mr. Nob 
 for having kindly attended his wife thither, and assisted him in 
 bringing the affair to its happy termination, and added, that as 
 he had driven the party thither, he hoped that Mr. Nob would 
 condescend to reciprocate and take the box on their return. 
 Nob, however, having got the sack in so cruel a fashion, felt 
 no inclination to take the box, and in a few moments he was 
 among the missing. He was never again seen in the city of Bro 
 therly Love. 
 
 The young artist and his beautiful bride entered the carriage 
 and drove to Jones's Hotel, where they remained until sent for by 
 Mr. and Mrs. Crossley, which happy event occurred a day or two 
 after. Whoever should see the modest and matronly Kate now, 
 with her two beautiful children, would hardly credit the story that 
 she had ever been a coquette. This, however, was positively her 
 last adventure. 
 
THE DEATH OF CORDOVA; 
 
 A SOUTH AMERICAN STORY. 
 
 IN the veranda of a beautiful villa, overlooking the Rio Cauca, 
 was seated a young man in the undress uniform of a military 
 officer. Certain insignia upon his dress indicated the rank of a 
 general, and his air and bearing evinced a man accustomed to 
 receive prompt obedience. 
 
 In iiis handsome, though bronzed, countenance might be traced 
 those lines that indicate noble and generous sentiment, and in the 
 quick flash of his dark eye there was something that spoke the 
 true soldier of liberty. 
 
 We have introduced the young general, Jose Maria Cordova 
 the gallant Cordova whose fame at this time filled the hearts of 
 his countrymen, and whose valiant conduct on the fields of Junin 
 and Ayucucho had won for him a reputation, that promised to 
 be yet as bright and far more enviable than that of the " Liberator " 
 himself. 
 
 He was at this time (1829) the military commandant of his 
 native province, Antioquia, and beloved by the people of every 
 caste and color. 
 
 On a small table of braziletto, lay a number of open dispatches, 
 in the perusal of which the young general seemed deeply engaged. 
 It was still early in the day. The sun had shown his golden orb 
 over the central cordillera, and was pouring his rays into the 
 fertile valley of the Cauca. Birds of brilliant plumage fluttered 
 through the lemon groves around the villa, and time and again 
 flashed their bright wings into the veranda itself, while their 
 musical notes mingled with the patriota song of the muleteer at 
 
 809 
 
310 
 
 he wound his way up the distant mountain, or the chorus of the 
 Chino slave, whose wild and melancholy voice came quivering 
 over the far fields of cacao and cofiee. Far down the river the- 
 cross and spire of Santa Fd, shooting up from the glowing 
 embrace of a tropical forest, flung their shadows out upon the 
 quiet bosom of the stream, and the whole scene, earth, sky, and 
 forest, breathed forth the assurance of tranquillity and pleasure. 
 
 Cordova seemed insensible to the beauties around, and was 
 evidently engaged with matters of importance, for he did not 
 notice the entrance of as lovely a being as ever came forth to 
 breathe the soft air of a southern morning. Casting a look at the 
 young officer, the lady perceived that he was busy, and, silently 
 gliding across the veranda, she bent over the balustrade and gazed 
 upon the river. She was exceedingly beautifuj, with the dark 
 complexion of her clime, and she wore that fixed and half matronly 
 expression that distinguishes the young wife. And such she was 
 the lately wedded bride of the gallant Cordova. 
 
 In this case, if ever, 
 
 " Mated hearts were mutual bound." 
 
 Both natives of .this fair valley, they had long loved each other. 
 The handsome person and generous mind, but above all the grow 
 ing fame of the young soldier, had early won the heart of the 
 beauteous Madelina, and she too was the heroine of her own 
 circle, and the proud beauty of many a brilliant ball-room. 
 
 It was thus when Cordova departed for Peru to assist in expel 
 ling the tyrant from his last foothold on the soil of liberty, and 
 when he returned, crowned with glory, and his name was echoed 
 from lip to lip, the richest reward of his toils and triumph, and 
 that which he most prized, was the hand of her who had so long 
 been the idol of his heart. 
 
 The spot where the links of love had been riveted was the villa 
 in which we have first found the wedded lovers the residence of 
 Madelina's father and here, with his young bride, was Cordova 
 for the present remaining. 
 
311 
 
 Half leaning over the balustrade, through the leaves of the 
 orange-trees, Madelina looked out upon the river. The raighty 
 Cauca, bearing on its waters rich grains of gold, rolled silently 
 towards the sea flocks of water-fowl, with bright plumage, either 
 floated along on its bosom, or were winging their way to some 
 far shore and round a distant bend the barco chato, laden with 
 the fruits of the soil, and freighted for the ports of the Magdalena, 
 came sweeping along on the quivering current, while the blade 
 of the boga's oar flashed brightly against the sunbeam. 
 
 But the young wife heeded not these things, her thoughts were 
 otherwise engaged ; for at intervals she would steal a glance at 
 the countenance of Cordova, and when she perceived the cloud 
 gathering upon his brow her own looks grew sympathetic and sad. 
 
 Several minutes had passed in this way, when Cordova, seem 
 ingly actuated by some disagreeable intelligence conveyed in the 
 dispatch, suddenly sprung from his seat, and, with a look and 
 action that evinced a high degree of anger, tore the paper in frag 
 ments and flung them upon the piazza ; then, striding to the end 
 of the veranda, he looked steadily in the direction of the town. 
 
 He fiacl not perceived Madelina, who now glided up, placed her 
 hand gently upon his shoulder, and, like an angel of peace, softly 
 inquired, * 
 
 "Cordova?" ^ 
 
 " Ah, Madelina ! I did not perceive you sweet girl, why do 
 you look so serious ? it is a smiling day, is it not ?" 
 
 She made no reply, but pointed to the fragments of the torn 
 dispatch, on one of which was legible the word "Bolivar." 
 
 " True, Madelina, it is the signature of the tyrant.'* 
 
 "The tyrant, Cordova?" 
 
 " Aye, Madelina, the tyrant it is time that he was known by 
 his proper title, and sorry am I that he has done so much to 
 merit it." 
 
 "But what has he done, Cordova?" 
 
 " Done ! everything that a despot dares but you, Madelina, in 
 common with most of your country women, have been accustomed 
 
312 
 
 to look upon the Liberator as a true patriot, a soldier of liberty, 
 and so does the world at large hitherto he has played the tyrant 
 under a mask his fame, like a vast but luminous cloud, over 
 shadows the land, and under the halo of that glory has he hidden 
 his true heart the friends of liberty have long been jealous of 
 this mighty soldier, and they who have dared to question his 
 course have been marked as fit victims for exile and execution." 
 
 " Is he not our liberator: the achiever of our independence ?" 
 
 " A thousand others would have guided the ship to its destined 
 port, and not have asked one hundredth part the reward which he 
 now exacts from a too grateful people." 
 
 "And what does he exact, Cordova?" 
 
 " Nothing less than absolute submission to his will you, 
 Madelina, can know little of his actions, concealed as they always 
 are under the most specious pretexts but listen, he has trampled 
 upon the old constitution his satellite minions have prevented 
 the Congress of Ocana from forming another he has banished 
 tried patriots on the most frivolous pretence, and by this dispatch, 
 the fragments of which are at my feet, I read that Santander, the 
 brave and true friend of liberty, has been condemned to death !" 
 
 " Santander condemned ! and on what pretence, Cordova ?" 
 
 " He is charged with being privy to a conspiracy, that had for 
 its object the assassination of the*tyrant." 
 
 " His assassination ?" 
 
 u Aye, and well had it been for poor Colombia that it had suc 
 ceeded but these brave sons of freedom have bled for 'this attempt 
 to rid their country of her enslaver look here, Madelina," said 
 the young husband, picking up one of the fragments of the torn 
 dispatch, " these are men whose aim was high and noble, else 
 they never would have stooped to use the knife of the bravo 
 these names have never yet been associated with worthlessness or 
 guilt." 
 
 Madelina took the paper and read over the names of fourteen 
 young men who had been shot in the Plaza de Bogota on the 
 charge of conspiracy. Most of them were distinguished in the 
 
313 
 
 history of their country's revolution, or belonged to families of 
 distinction in Colombia. When she had finished reading, she 
 turned towards her husband, who had gone to the entrance of the 
 piazza and stood gazing intently upwards. 
 
 u See, Madelina !" cried he, beckoning her to the spot and 
 pointing towards the summit of a neighboring mountain, " there 
 is the fit emblem of this native tyrant." 
 
 The young wife looked in the direction indicated. A huge 
 vulture, the condor of the Andes', had sprung from his eyrie on a 
 steep crag of porphyry, and was sweeping down towards the valley. 
 On the opposite bank of the river a flock of small merinoes were 
 quietly browsing on the side of a green hillock. Perceiving their 
 well-known enemy, that was now wheeling above them at a rapidly 
 diminishing elevation, the terrified little animals ran to and fro 
 around the hillock, while a few more wary than the rest scampered 
 off to conceal themselves in the thick underwood of a neighboring 
 forest. The younger ones of the flock, however, still dashed 
 madly and headlong from place to place, uttering wild bleatings 
 at each nearer swoop of the rapacious bird, and dreading every 
 moment to feel his talons in their flesh. The condor had now 
 reached within less than a hundred feet of the earth, his huge 
 body and raven-black wings covering the whole hillock with their 
 shadow. Several of the little creatures, exhausted with running 
 and weakened by the intensity of their terror, had fallen fainting 
 upon the grass, and the vulture was just stretching forth his bare 
 and horrid neck to seize upon a victim, when the report of a 
 musket, followed by a cloud of blue smoke, rose from a small 
 clump of tagua-trees on the right, and a man, in the dress of a 
 peasant cazador, suddenly stepped out from the leaves. But the 
 monster bird did not fall, as the hunter had evidently expected. 
 He had been struck by the shot, however, for at the report he 
 had dropped at least ten feet from his elevation, and then, with an 
 effort which danger had produced, stretching forth his broad wings 
 in tremulous and feeble flight, he betook himself to the nearest 
 crag, there to perish from the wound which he had received. 
 
 27 
 
314: 
 
 Cordova and Madelina had watched the wjiole scene with 
 intense interest. When the vulture disappeared from their view, 
 the young officer turned and for a moment gazed tenderly on the 
 face of his beautiful wife, then, as if nerved by some deep resolu 
 tion, ho clutched his sword, and, striding into the piazza, muttered 
 firmly to himself, 
 
 " It must be done !" 
 
 But the ear of an anxious wife was not distant, and he was 
 overheard. Quick as thought the face of Madelina, beautifully 
 imploring, was at his shoulder. 
 
 " What must be done, Cordova !" 
 
 " The tyrant, Madelina the tyrant must be struck !" 
 
 " Dearest Cordova, your looks almost terrify me !" 
 
 " Fear not, sweet girl, but listen it is time you should know 
 what by to-morrow's sunrise will be no secret in Antioquia your 
 brother, myself, and our friends throughout . the province, have 
 sworn to restore the old constitution or die in its defence; to 
 night is fixed for the rising, and, should we succeed, the friends of 
 liberty over all Colombia will flock to our standard, and the 
 tyrant's power will be speedily prostrated ; but should our enter 
 prise fail, the omen of this foul bird tells me that still the despot 
 shall be bereft of the power to enact further .ill. To-night, 
 Madelina, at the hour of Ha ! what means this ? Soldiers and 
 not of my battalion ! and that villain, Lara, at their head. Good 
 heavens ! can we be betrayed ? Go in, Madelina, go in !" 
 
 The young wife, with a look of deepest anxiety, disappeared 
 within the door. 
 
 The clear notes of a cavalry bugle sounded through the trees, 
 and a troop of dragoons, headed by an officer, in the uniform of 
 an aid-de-camp of Bolivar, galloped up to the gate. The officer 
 dismounted, and, walking into the veranda, presented General 
 Cordova with a sealed packet, which the latter opened and read. 
 
 When he had finished reading, he drew his sword, and, turning 
 the hilt forward, presented it to the aid-de-camp, acknowledging 
 himself under arrest, at the same time requesting a moment to 
 
315 
 
 take leave of his wife. The officer took the sword, muttering 
 some hypocritical phrase about " disagreeable duty," for he was 
 one of Cordova's bitterest enemies, while the latter withdrew to 
 take leave of his beautiful ^wife. 
 
 We will not lift the curtain from the scene of their parting 
 we shall not describe the anguish that accompanied that woe- 
 breathing word, farewell. Suffice it that Cordova in a few 
 minutes returned, and, mounting a horse provided for him, rode 
 off along with the dragoons in the direction of Santa Fe. 
 
 After they were gone, a lovely female leaned from the veranda, 
 and, with tearful eyes, watched the windings of the road leading 
 to the town. The loud beating of her heart prevented her from 
 hearing the tramp of the retreating cavalry. When they had passed 
 the last visible point on the road, the weeping wife knelt down upon 
 the piazza, and, holding a crucifix to her lips, wafted to Heaven 
 a prayer for her husband's safety. God was her only comforter! 
 
 ********** 
 
 It was still early in the day when the troops that attended 
 Cordova entered the suburbs of Santa Fe de Antioquia. They 
 were here joined by a regiment of soldiers just arrived from 
 Bogota. As they neared the piazza, loud shouts and acclamations 
 were heard, as though coming from a vast crowd of people, and 
 at intervals, above the din, cries of" Viva el Libertador /" " Viva 
 Bolivar /" The inhabitants of Santa Fe* had just received the 
 news of the attempted assassination of the supreme chief, and, 
 knowing nothing of the merits of the case and caring little, were 
 publicly rejoicing for his deliverance. The plaza was filled with 
 people, with here and -there groups of soldiers, who, released from 
 duty, were enjoying themselves among the citizens. 
 
 When the troops from Bogota entered the square, among the 
 foremost of which rode General Cordova, the cries and acclama 
 tions were redoubled, and ''Viva el Libertador!" "Viva el Cordova !" 
 filled the air, mingled with loud and enthusiastic cheers. All at 
 once several officers were seen hurrying away to the main barrack, 
 and, after a short interval, a trumpet in the same direction called 
 
316 
 
 the straggling troops to their quarters. In five minutes the 
 provincial soldiers had disappeared, and the square now held the 
 regiment of Bogota, surrounded by a dense multitude of people. 
 The regiment halted, and for several minutes there was a deep 
 and ominous silence, broken only by the low murmur of inquiry, 
 when all at once a strong voice called out from the crowd, 
 " Cordova is a prisoner rescue to the rescue !" 
 A wild burst of indignation broke forth, as though a new mind 
 had entered into that moving throng the cries of "rescue 
 rescue !" arose on every side, and a rush was made to the houses 
 for weapons. Already missiles had been thrown at the regiment 
 of Bogota, when a trumpet sounded from the Calle del Rio, and a 
 party of Cordova's own cavalry galloped into the square ; they 
 were soon followed by a large body of infantry, who had suddenly 
 organized at the barracks, calling out " Viva el Cordova !" 
 " Muerte al tirano Bolivar!" Cordova, taking advantage of these 
 movements in his favor, suddenly wrested his sword from one of 
 the dragoons who guarded him, and, putting spurs to his horse, 
 galloped to the head of his troops. The action was followed 
 instantaneously by an attack upon the regiment of Bogota, who 
 were soon routed, many being killed, while the remainder were 
 taken prisoners. Cordova then addressed his troops and the 
 assembled citizens, exposing the conduct of Bolivar, and ended by 
 declaring for the constitution, which the dictator had abolished. 
 He was answered by deafening shouts and cries of " Viva la con- 
 stitucicn !" "Muerte al tirano!" and the effigy of Bolivar was 
 publicly burned on that same pavement, that but an hour before 
 had resounded with the tread of thousands triumphing on account 
 of his safety. 
 
 *****#**## 
 
 On the evening of that same day, Cordova sat with his young 
 wife in the veranda of her father's mansion. He had come to bid 
 her farewell ere he should put himself at the head of his, now 
 revolutionary, army. The troops of the dictator would soon be in 
 the field to oppose him, and it was necessary that no time should 
 
317 
 
 be wasted. It was his last interview with Madelina. They knew 
 not this, though botk felt a strange foreboding for the future. But 
 he was a soldier, and she a soldier's wife, and the parting words 
 that mingled with her tears were, 
 
 u Go forth, and may the God of battles watch over you !" 
 
 One last kiss one last wild look, and the young soldier, spring 
 ing into his saddle, was soon lost in the fading twilight. It was 
 his last look indeed. He never saw that lovejy form again ! . . . 
 
 Three weeks after, and on a plateau of the Andes, two armies 
 were marshalled in battle array. The soldiers of both wore the 
 uniform of the republic of Colombia, but far different were the 
 causes for which they were about to contend. Along the lines of 
 one army passed the shouts of " Viva la constitution !" " Viva la 
 libertad !" while on the other side rose the solitary war-cry of 
 " El Libertador !" 
 
 On -one side were the soldiers of liberty fighting for the 
 charter which guaranteed that liberty, and which had been so 
 basely wrested from them ; on the other side, but unfortunately 
 far the stronger, were the hired minions of a tyrant fighting for 
 his glory alone. 
 
 The leader of the republican army, as the reader will have 
 guessed, was the gallant Cordova. Opposed to him was a brave 
 man fighting in a bad cause. 
 
 We will not describe an engagement that, for its numbers, was 
 one of the most desperate ever fought, but pass at once to the 
 closing scene. 
 
 The republican army, inferior both in numbers and discipline, 
 was totally defeated. Cordova, with a few brave patriots, took 
 refuge within the walls of a ruined house where they were sur 
 rounded by the troops of Bolivar, and summoned to surrender at 
 discretion. 
 
 'Never!" was the determined reply that came from the ruin, 
 uttered by Cordova himself, and echoed by his brave comrades ; 
 and quickly followed the discharge of about fifty muskets, dealing 
 dreadful havoc among the close column of soldiers. 
 
318 
 
 For three hours an incessant firing was kept up against the 
 devoted house, until the few fragments of wall hardly sheltered 
 the desperate men who still continued to hold out against superior 
 numbers. 
 
 Again and again was the Spartan band summoned to surrender, 
 but they well knew it would be death at the best, and they had 
 resolved to avenge that death, and perish with arms in their 
 hands. 
 
 " Never !" was the resolute reply, accompanied by shots, and 
 cries of tl Viva la libertad !" 
 
 At last the shouts and the firing ceased, and a company of 
 grenadiers were ordered to take possession of the ruin. 
 
 At the head of the company was the villain Lara a tool of 
 the tyrant Bolivar. Entering over the rubbish, he perceived 
 Cordova lying upon a heap of dead bodies, covered with wounds 
 arid blood, but still living. As he approached, with his ^svvord 
 drawn, Cordova raised himself on his knees, and, feebly ejaculat 
 ing " La Libertad !" received the sword of the subordinate through 
 his heart. Thus perished General Cordova, one of the bravest 
 patriots that ever unsheathed his sword in the cause of liberty, 
 and long afterwards did his country weep for his untimely end, 
 while she decreed high honors to his memory. But there was 
 one whose weeping was wilder than all she the loved and 
 widowed. The pure, proud spirit of Madelina was broken by her 
 bereavement, and the grave alone brought solace to her sorrow. 
 
THE HUSBAND'S RUSE. 
 
 A TALE OF SPANISH JEALOUSY. 
 
 IN the city of Havana, some years ago, lived a wealthy Spanish 
 merchant named Fuero Don Diego Fuero. He may be still liv 
 ing there, for aught I know to the contrary ; and this seems very 
 probable, as it is not over ten years since the episode in his life, 
 which I am about to relate, occurred. Don Diego was, at that 
 time, about forty years of age, of a strong frame and vigorous con 
 stitution. His complexion was swarthy his hair black and bushy, 
 and his face, half concealed behind a pair of huge dark whiskers, 
 wore an expression of fierce determination, bordering upon fero 
 city. 
 
 He was a man who rarely smiled, and with whom neither friend 
 nor stranger ever thought of taking an undue liberty. Nevertheless 
 he was reputed strictly honest in his dealings, and the immense 
 fortune which he possessed had been acquired by long and patient 
 industry. 
 
 Now Don Diego was not happy and why ? His fortune was 
 princely his health good and his wife beautiful. Ah alas ! it 
 is not always happiness to have a beautiful wife ! Some prefer 
 rather a plain one, with good sense ; and although we laugh at 
 them, I, for my part, am beginning to think that these are the 
 wise ones, and we the fools. Be that as it may, however, Don 
 Diego's wife, as I have said, was beautiful. Many thought her 
 the most beautiful woman in Havana. This is saying much. I 
 would not myself like to go so far. I have seen some very lovely 
 women in Havana. No matter for that. It is enough to know 
 that the Senora Fuero was very beautiful. She was very young, 
 
 319 
 
320 
 
 too not quite twenty in fact, not half the age of her husband 
 Don Diego but among the Spanish aristocracy age is not con 
 sidered in the disposing of hands it has, however, something to 
 do in the bestowing of hearts, and unfortunately, the heart of the 
 Seiiora Josefa had never been the property of her husband. Not 
 mat it was another's. Not by any means, for she had never loved. 
 Brought up, a young Creole, upon her father's plantation, and 
 seeing no one but her parents, a maiden aunt, and some scores of 
 negro slaves, she had no opportunity of indulging in the delicious 
 dream. 
 
 Young, guileless, and in fact unconscious that such a passion 
 existed, she was bought from her father by the gold of Don Diego, 
 and by the latter transplanted from her rustic home to the gay 
 city. 
 
 . Now here a question arises, on the respective advantages of 
 choosing a wife in the riiy, or bringing one in from the country. 
 I have known this to be productive of furious debate. Both have 
 their advantages and disadvantages though, in either case, I 
 think the disadvantages preponderate. Some prefer city-bred 
 ladies for their superior refinement in dress and manners. Others 
 like a hale, honest country girl, with rosy cheeks and an arm like 
 a pugilist. Well, after all, it is a matter of choice. For my part, 
 I intend to marry a city lady. I have my reasons, of course. I 
 mean to reside in the city. If I intended going upon a farm, I 
 might prefer a country girl for my wife ; but I do not mean to go 
 upon a farm so I shall not be so indiscreet as to choose a country 
 wife and bring her to town. They become very much changed 
 by being so transplanted. Quite another thing. The intoxication 
 of town life balls, parties, and the theatre quite deranges them ; 
 they become foolish, and make others look very foolish, just about 
 the time when city girls have grown matronly and wise. These 
 are mere opinions, and will hurt no one. So let us return to Don 
 Diego, and his new v ife. 
 
 After his marriage, our rich merchant furnished a splendid 
 house in one of the most fashionable streets in the " barrio," where 
 
321 
 
 tie took up hu residence. A magnificent carriage, with blooded 
 horses, soon drew the attention of all Havana to the beautiful 
 Creole. She was at once pronounced a belle, and beset by a 
 crowd of flattering admirers. To say the least, the fair Josefa did 
 not. seem to dislike the relish of such adulation. She who had 
 never known other than the clumsy compliments of her sable 
 handmaidens, was now greeted by the refined flattery of the fash 
 ionable circles of the most fashionable city in the new world. No 
 wonder she should become a little vain. Ah ! vanity, there is 
 much danger in thee many a frail creature hast thou seduced to 
 sin and shame ! 
 
 The exceeding popularity of his wife enchanted Don Diego, and 
 his moody brow for a season seemed to clear up and assume an 
 expression of partial gaiety. 
 
 He was fond of showing his beautiful wife as all men who have 
 beautiful wives are at balls, at the theatre, and on the Pasao. 
 Moreover, he loved her dearly, and wished to gratify her every 
 whim and, to do her justice, she began to entertain not a few of 
 these. Don Diego, however, humored them all it must be 
 acknowledged at a good round cost but for this he cared not so 
 long as it gave pleasure to his " dear Josefa," 
 
 So ran the time through scenes of gaiety and pleasure. 
 Clouds, however, at length appeared on the horizon of Don Diego's 
 happiness. He began to grow jealous. Not that he was natu 
 rally o^a jealous disposition that is, for a Spaniard but he had 
 more than once detected a handsome cavalier gazing in a very 
 expressive manner at his wife and he might be mistaken but 
 he imagined that Josefa did not seem at all to dislike it. Where- 
 ever he went to a ball or theatre the cavalier was there. If he 
 drove his wife upon the Pasao, the cavalier dashed past him on a 
 coal black steed, looking at the beautiful Josefa as if his soul were 
 in his eyes. Furies ! this could not last. It must end in some 
 thing worse and it did not last, for Don Diego, growing more 
 and more jealous, came to the determination of keeping his wife 
 within doors which he did. She was seen no more at the 
 
322 
 
 theatre and seldom, if ever, on the Pasao. This caused a great 
 deal of talk, and not a little scandal. In the vortex of fashionable 
 life in a great city like Havana, one theme of scandal soon gives 
 place to and is submerged in the whirl of many others, and in a 
 short time the rich merchant's wife and her involuntary seclusion 
 from society ceased to be spoken of. We must assume a more 
 seriofts style : the drama we are about to relate requires it. 
 
 Behind Don Diego's mansion was a beautiful garden backed 
 by a low wall, over which drooped the branches of a variety of 
 tropical trees. In one corner of this garden grew a clump of 
 orange and lemon-trees, which had been woven into an arbor by 
 means of the twining tendrils of the West Indian jasmin. This 
 arbor was so completely overshadowed as to be impervious to the 
 rays of the noonday sun, while at night time the only light that 
 shone in its fragrant interior was the flash of the cocuyo. In 
 front of the house, on the other side of the street, was a splendid 
 mansion, which, like that of Don Diego, was furnished with bal 
 conies and Venetian blinds. Don Diego had never inquired who 
 occupied this house. Accident, however, at last made him 
 acquainted with who was the tenant of the mansion. One even 
 ing he had returned home earlier than usual from his warehouse, 
 and, the evening being pleasant, had gone up to the azotea, or 
 roof, to enjoy the sunset. His wife had not seen him come in, as 
 he entered by the garden door, a private entrance of which he 
 always carried the key. 
 
 A row of large japonica-trees grew in boxes along the front of 
 the azotea, and screened observation from the street. As Fuero 
 sat behind one of these, his eyes accidentally roamed through the 
 dark green foliage and fell upon the balcony blinds of the opposite 
 house. Judge of his surprise when he saw, through the half 
 opened jalousie, the face of the very cavalier who had already 
 caused him so much uneasiness. He was not perceived by the 
 
323 
 
 latter, who seemed to be intently gazing on the lower windows 
 of Don Diego's house, and at intervals smiling, as though some 
 one acknowledged his courtesy. The thin lip of the Spaniard 
 quivered with rising emotion the sharp, stinging pain of jealousy 
 shooting through- his heart almost caused him to cry out but he 
 conquered his feelings, determined to await the result. The 
 cavalier disappeared for a moment from the window, but presently 
 returned, and holding a folded billet-doux through the bars of the 
 Venetian, seemed to ask the question "May I send it?" As 
 though he had received an answer in the affirmative, the folded 
 paper was drawn back, and the cavalier, with a gratified smile and 
 a polite bow, withdrew from the window. Presently a mulatto 
 servant issued from the house, and taking a circuitous route, 
 crossed over to the mansion of the merchant, and rung the bell. 
 
 Don Diego received the note from his own servant. It was 
 somewhat laconic for a love epistle, and ran simply as follows : 
 
 ** LOVELIEST OF WOMEN : Grant me but one interview, and I 
 shall feel that I have not lived in vain. 
 
 " ALPHONSO." 
 
 u Thank Heaven !" muttered the Spaniard, " it is not yet too 
 la.te I" and he thrust the note into his bosom. 
 
 A moment afterwards Don Diego entered the drawing-room in 
 which his wife was seated. She was not near the window, but 
 her paleness and agitation plainly told that she knew all that had 
 happened. 
 
 With a gloomy but determined look, Don Diego approached 
 his trembling wife. 
 
 " Here !" said he, producing the billet, and speaking in a tone 
 of bitter irony " this is for you, my dear Josefa it requires an 
 answer." 
 
 " An answer ?" echoed she, feigning astonishment and indigna 
 tion "what villain has dared this? Don Diego, he must be 
 punished !" 
 
324 
 
 "He shall be punished here, write the answer thus" 
 The pen trembled in her small white jewelled hand as she 
 wrote, after Don Diego's dictation : 
 
 " Twelve o'clock to-night an arbor in the garden the wall 
 may be scaled without difficulty. 
 
 "TUYA." 
 
 She felt as though she had written the death-warrant of him, 
 yet innocent in deed, and perhaps led on to guilty thought by her 
 own imprudence and vanity. How was she to save him ? 
 
 " Fold and direct !" abruptly commanded Don Diego. 
 
 " Direct to whom ?" 
 
 " To whom ? to Alphonso." 
 
 And as Don Diego delivered the stern sarcasm he walked up to 
 the window. His back was turned upon his wife ! 
 
 With an instinctive presence of mind, felt only by women when 
 placed in desperate extremes, that little hand seized the pen, and 
 at the bottom of the page wrote : 
 
 " Do not come Don " 
 
 She intended to have written, " Don Diego knows all !" but 
 the Spaniard returning to the table prevented her. He did not 
 perceive the addition. With a look of keen despair the young 
 wife folded the note mechanically, and directed it as she had been 
 desired. Don Diego took the billet from her hand, and motion 
 ing her to a cabinet, which she entered, he closed the door, and 
 locking it, put the key into his pocket. He then rung the bell, 
 and after giving some directions to a confidential servant, walked 
 from the room. 
 
 The note reached its destination, but the half uttered warning, 
 "Do not come Don " was not understood by the enraptured 
 but unfortunate lover. He thought it had been addressed to him 
 self and interpreted it as the last struggle of expiring virlue. 
 
325 
 
 The bell of the great cathedral was just tolling the hour of 
 eleven, when Don Diego Fuero silently glided from the back 
 piazza of his house, and entered the arbor we have already spoken 
 of. A crescent moon had just gone down behind the hill of 
 Mexico. The night seemed to portend storm. The darkness was 
 extreme, and objects were only visible by the light which ema 
 nated from the burning cocuyo. As the glowing insects flitted 
 before the face of the Spaniard, they reflected features of no com 
 mon expression. A deep and desperate resolve was depicted in 
 that face, and every muscle of those swarthy lineaments was 
 strained to its extremest tension. 
 
 With his hands, and by the aid of a palmetto, he cleared the 
 arbor of the fire-flies, and now stood in darkness, silently awaiting 
 the approach of his victim. One two three twelve o'clock 
 from the cathedral 1 A rustling is heard among the orange-trees 
 the breaking of a bough a form is upon the top of the wall 
 then follows a heavy sound, as of some one leaping to the earth, 
 and all again is still. Only for a moment. A man, guided by 
 the light of the cocuyo, is seen making for the arbor. He reaches 
 it he enters. Hist! hist! The gleam of a dagger is seen, fol 
 lowed by the noise of a death struggle muttered curses are heard, 
 and the dull, heavy sound of stabbing then issues a groan 
 another and another and all is silent as before. 
 
 See ! a man comes out of the arbor the light of the fire-fly 
 glares upon him horror ! he is dragging a corpse ! He lifts it 
 upon^the wall a fearful imprecation the sound of a heavy body 
 falling upon the street and all is silent again ! 
 
THE WOUNDED GUERRILLA. 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 THE city of Puebla lies in the centre of an immense plateau, 
 seven thousand feet above sea level, and bordered by mountains 
 of more than twice this altitude. Malinchi, rendered classic in 
 the history of the first conquest, rises on the north ; the Final 
 bars up the eastern passes, while the great Cordillera of the Rio 
 Frio forms its western boundary, thus separating the two great 
 valleys of Puebla and Mexico by an almost impassable barrier. In 
 this ridge lie the great snow mountains of Popocatepec and the 
 " White Woman," (la muger blanca), known poetically as the 
 " Twin Sisters." 
 
 These mountains soar far above the regions of eternal snow. 
 Popocatepec is a cone, and the grey fringe that marks the blend 
 ing of the white glacier and the dark pines of the mountain for 
 est, forms the circumference of a horizontal circle. On the 
 White Woman this snow line is more irregular. On both moun 
 tains its altitude is variable, according to the season and the heat of 
 the sun. Thus the melting of the snows in the sultry months of 
 summer throws the grey fringe higher upon the sides of Popocate 
 pec and Ixticihuath, and irrigates the broad plains of Puebla and 
 Tlascalla. 
 
 But for these snow-crowned mountains the plateau of Puebla 
 would be a barren desert. As it is, the western segment of this 
 plain may be termed the garden spot of Mexico; 
 
 As the traveller emerges from the western gate of Puebla, he 
 beholds one of the loveliest pictures in the world. The delighted 
 eye roams over broad fields of corn and wheat, and " frijolea," 
 
 m 
 
327 
 
 bordered by fence rows of the picturesque maguey here and 
 there the cupolas of rich haciendas the turrets of a flourishing 
 village, and the spires of a rural church variegate the green land- 
 scape, while in the distance rises the dark Cordilleras of the Mex 
 ican Andes, over whose gloomy forests and frowning chasms the 
 snowy crests of the " Twin Sisters " glisten with a dazzling white 
 ness. 
 
 This is, perhaps, the fairest picture in Mexico. Its beauty, how 
 ever, did not protect it from the desolating influence of war, and 
 during the occupation of Puebla by the American army, bands of 
 robbers, under the name of " guerrilleros," alike hostile to Mexi 
 can and American, roamed over the fairest portions of this district, 
 committing every species of outrage upon its peaceful inhabi 
 tants. 
 
 The American army entered Puebla in the month of May, 
 1847. The inhabitants, one hundred thousand in number, were 
 struck with astonishment at the boldness of the act. They had 
 been expecting an army of at least ten thousand men. Instead 
 of this, ninety dragoons rode into the plaza alone, where they 
 halted to await the advance of the army, in all not numbering 
 four thousand men. Hundreds of Mexicans counted our soldiers 
 as they crossed the bridge of " Noche buena," and the feeling that 
 existed in the breasts of the Poblanos, after our entry into their 
 city, was one of shame, that they had permitted such a handful 
 of men to take the old and warlike town of Puebla without a 
 blow having been struck in its defence. 
 
 They might apparently have stoned us to death. 
 
 Santa Anna, repulsed at Amozoc, had retreated upon San Mar 
 tin, and now held that fair district with his rabble soldiery. 
 
 On finding that it was not in the power of the American com 
 mander to advance beyond Puebla for a time, the bright idea 
 struck Santa Anna of rousing the national pride once more in 
 defence of their capital. He consequently crossed the mountains at 
 Rio Frio, and commenced fortifying the ancient city of the Aztecs, 
 leaving, however, a large guerrilla force, who roamed at will over 
 
328 
 
 the western plain of Puebla and occupied San Martin, Tlaxcalla, 
 and Atlixco. These at first commenced hostilities by stopping 
 the supplies of the Puebla market, which depends altogether upon 
 the fertile districts of the west. Finding, however, that the Ame 
 rican gold received in exchange for the fruits and vegetables of 
 San Martin, served their purposes better than revenge, the guerrillas 
 at length permitted the produce to pass, levying a heavy contri 
 bution upon each article. 
 
 The hated " alcabala," was abolished at the city gates, and the 
 Indians and rancheros of Chohula, San Pablo, and San Martin, 
 flocked to the grand Plaza of Puebla. 
 
 It was a rare sight in the bright mornings of June, this Plaza 
 of Puebla. Hundreds of Indian girls, seated in groups under 
 their awnings of " petates," gaily chatting with one another, or 
 laughing with a clear ringing laugh at the bad Spanish of the 
 American soldier. "Who says that the Indians of Mexico are a 
 dejected race? No such thing. We have seen more bright, 
 happy faces in the markets of Puebla than anywhere else. The 
 slightest witticism a mispronunciation of the names of any of 
 their wares by a foreign tongue, will elicit peals of laughter from 
 these merry market-girls, while the almost constant display of 
 their small pearly teeth and sparkling eyes evinces the lightness 
 of their hearts. 
 
 The remnants of several nations exist in the plains of Puebla. 
 These may be easily distinguished in the streets of the city by a 
 singular custom. A few strands of worsted thread, blue, crimson, 
 or purple, are twisted into the plaits of their luxuriant black hair. 
 The difference of color in this worsted marks the tribe or village 
 to which the wearer belongs, so that at a glance you may tell an 
 Indian girl from Tlaxcalla or San Pablo from one of the Chol- 
 nltecas. 
 
 The Indians of the last-mentioned tribe are perhaps the most 
 interesting to be met with in Mexico. Living at the foot of the 
 great pyramid, on " haunted holy ground," they are constantly 
 reminded of the religion of their fathers, many of whose peculiar 
 
329 
 
 customs and habits they still preserve in all their pristine simpli 
 city. The young girls of this tribe are strikingly handsome, and 
 but for their malformation the effect of early toil and careless 
 rearing the Cholultecas, with their dark Indian eyes and pearly 
 teeth, would far eclipse with their beauty the daughter of the 
 famed Castilian conquerors. 
 
 Of all the Indian maidens who visited the Plaza of Puebla, 
 none attracted more admiration from the officer or soldier who 
 thronged through this market than two sisters from Cholula. 
 These girls were named Remedies and Dolores, after the appella 
 tions of two of the most popular saints in Mexico. 
 
 The elder, Remedies, was strikingly beautiful, and though 
 admired by all, her dark Indian eye had made a deeper impres 
 sion upon the heart of a young ranger. 
 
 The occupation of these girls was that of weaving baskets 
 from the fine fibres of the palma redonda, which wares, along 
 with the flowers that grew in their little garden at Cholula, they 
 brought once or twice a week to the city. 
 
 The young ranger spoken of, was frequently placed upon picket 
 guard at a point on the Cholula road, and had thus become 
 acquainted with the sisters, with whom he seemed to be on terms 
 of friendly intercourse. He was frequently seen to accompany 
 them beyond the confines of the city on their return homeward, 
 and at parting, the beautiful Remedies would linger behind her 
 sister, and concealed by the friendly shelter of a maguey planta 
 tion, bid him farewell with a kiss. It was evident that the pas 
 sion between the ranger and the fair Cholulteca was mutual. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs in the city. Let us follow the 
 young girls to their native village at the foot of the far-famed 
 pyramid. 
 
 Under the shade of a huge pepper-tree, stood a small but neat 
 cottage of adobes. In the front of this cottage was a little garden 
 filled with bright flowers, and fenced in by a close wall of the 
 octagonal columns of nopal. Outside of the little garden grew 
 the giant maguey, planted closely in rows, and running alongside 
 
 28* 
 
330 
 
 pathways which led to other cottages similar to the one abovo 
 mentioned. Such pathways form the lanes and streets of a Mexi 
 can-Indian village. 
 
 Over the cottage door is a little awning or shade formed by 
 two or three poles and the broad leaves of the royal palm, and 
 under this awning are seated the sifters Remedies and Dolores. 
 
 They have been silent for some dine, each busily engaged with 
 her work, which consists in weaving the beautiful palm-baskets, 
 that meet with such ready sale in the plaza. Dolores is no doubt 
 thinking upon the profits which her work will yield, and how she 
 will rejoice "the heart of her old and helpless father, who has no 
 other support. Dolores is the old man's favorite, and returns his 
 parental fondness with a heart full of filial love. 
 
 The thoughts of Remedies are dwelling upon a far different object, 
 and two or three times she has become so absent as to make 
 strange mistakes in her work. Presently the fibre of palm which 
 she has been weaving becomes entangled, and suddenly breaks. 
 
 " What are you doing, Remedies ?" asked her sister. Then 
 adds with a somewhat malicious laugh : " Thinking of Don San 
 tiago ! But come, sister, see better to your work, or we will not 
 have our baskets ready for to-morrow's market, and then how you 
 would be disappointed !" 
 
 Remedies blushed, but made no other reply to the pleasantry of 
 her sister. 
 
 Dolores looked in her face, and noticing the blush, said in a 
 more serious tone. 
 
 " Ah, Remedies ! if Pepe only knew." 
 
 " Knew what ?" 
 
 " Of Don Santiago." 
 
 " And if he did ?" exclaimed the elder sister, while her dark 
 eyes flashed with indignation, " what is Pepe to me. J never 
 loved him, and I never told him I did he has no right to 
 me more than another !" 
 
 At this moment a footstep reached the ears of the sisters, caus 
 ing them to start and look up. 
 
381 
 
 A young man of rather a forbidding-appearance was coming tip 
 between the rows of magueys. He was dressed in the costume 
 of an ordinary peasant, but the short carbine which he carried 
 over his shoulder, and the belt and pouch slung across his breast 
 betokened that he was one of the enrolled guerrillas, whose head 
 quarters were for the time in the village of )holula. 
 
 The young man entered through the opening of the nopal 
 fence, and striking the butt of his piece to the ground, stopped in 
 front of the cottage, saluting the sisters with the usual exclama 
 tion for that hour, " buenas tardes !" (good evening.) 
 
 The salutation was returned by both the sisters; but in such a 
 manner by the elder, as showed that she felt a coldness, or rather 
 a repugnance towards the object of it. 
 
 Pope (the name of the intruder) noticed this, and glared upon 
 her with a scowl which bespoke a strange blending of fierce love 
 with jealous anger. It was evident that he was now before them 
 with some sinister design, and the sisters sat without speaking, 
 but both trembling under the influence of his evil eye. 
 
 " So, Remedies, I have found out the reason why you rejected 
 me so scornfully ; but I will be revenged." 
 
 " What mean you, Pepe ?" asked the girl in a conciliatory 
 tone. 
 
 "You know what I mean. I have heard and know well, too, 
 of your partings on the road by the garita. I have been told all 
 but trust me you will take no more of these affectionate fare 
 wells, for this night I will have my revenge. We have laid our 
 plans, and this night your Yankee lover will die and if by to 
 morrow at noon you have not promised to be mine, you may 
 dread the vengeance of my comrades, for they shall know all. 
 
 "Remember, to-morrow I return." 
 
 So saying, the guerrilla flung his carbine over his shoulder, and 
 with an angry look strode from the cottage. 
 
 The young girls watched for a moment in silence his retreating 
 form. When he had passed from their sight, Reraedios bent 
 towards her sister, and in a half whisper asked : 
 
S32 
 
 " What does he mean when he says that he must die to-night ? 
 Do you think he has some plot laid to assassinate Don Santiago? 11 
 
 ' ; No, to-night they are to attack the picket at the garita. You 
 know that this is the day of Don Santiago's guard. I overheard 
 one of the guerrillas talk of their plan as I came from the 
 church." 
 
 All that night Remedies was unhappy. She slept but little, 
 thinking of the threat which had been uttered by the jealous 
 Pepe, and with painful suspense she awaited the approach of 
 day. 
 
 At an early hour the sisters, with their baskets filled with the 
 work of yesterday, and a profusion of beautiful flowers, started 
 for Puebla. 
 
 Shortly after leaving the village they met an Indian woman 
 coming from the direction of the city, driving an ass. This 
 woman informed the sisters that there had been a severe skirmish 
 near the garita between the guerrillas and the guard, in which the 
 former had been defeated and scattered. The guard had got 
 information by some means of the intended attack, and had sent 
 to Puebla for a reinforcement of mounted men, which had arrived 
 just in time and by a circuitous route, and had attacked the guer 
 rillas in the rear, so that only a few of them escaped from either 
 death or capture. 
 
 The sisters had scarcely bid adieu to the Indian woman, when, 
 on reaching a turn in the road, they came upon one of the guer 
 rillas seated upon a stone. 
 
 A handkerchief was bound around his head his face, pale and 
 haggard, was spotted with blood, and there was a look of wild 
 revenge in his eye as he recognized the approach of the two 
 girls. 
 
 They were at first alarmed on perceiving whom they had 
 encountered, for it was Pepe who was before them, but when they 
 saw that the guerrilla was wounded, and apparently suffering, in 
 the true spirit of womanly compassion both the young girls ran 
 up to him and inquired what they could do to assist him. 
 
1133 
 
 This appeared for a moment to soften the bitter spirit of the 
 wounded man, and in a manner of more tenderness than he usu 
 ally exhibited, he requested one of them to bring him a draught 
 of water, while the other rebound the handkerchief upon his 
 wound. 
 
 The elder sister immediately ran to fulfill his request, while 
 Dolores remained alone with the guerrilla. 
 
 She unbound the handkerchief with tender care, and had com 
 menced readjusting it, when the sudden trampling of horses' hoofs 
 was heard, and before the wounded man had time to escape, half 
 a dozen rangers came galloping up the road. 
 
 The guerrilla had seized his carbine, and was making for the 
 chaparral, when one of his pursuers called at him to halt, and they 
 would spare him. Seeing the impossibility of escape, the man 
 turned suddenly round and doggedly approached the party of 
 rangers, who had halted upon the road. 
 
 At this moment Remedies returned, and recognizing one of the 
 rangers, with an exclamation of delight called out 
 
 " Don Santiago !" 
 
 "Ha!" cried the guerrilla, "it is he!" And throwing up his 
 carbine, he fired at the young ranger, who had leaped from his 
 horse, and was approaching the girl. 
 
 The ball took effect, passing through the fleshy part of the ran 
 ger's arm. The shock brought him to the ground, and the wild 
 laugh of the guerrilla told that he believed his vengeance had been 
 complete. 
 
 The quick successive reports of half a dozen rifles for a moment 
 drowned his laugh, and when they ceased it was heard no more. 
 He that had uttered it lay by the road a bleeding corpse. 
 
THE UNKNOWN ARTIST. 
 
 ONE day, as the celebrated Rubens, accompanied by his pupils, 
 Vandyke, Van Thalden, Jaiques, and Van Zulden, were strolling 
 through the suburbs of Madrid, they found themselves in the 
 neighborhood of a very mean-looking convent. Having entered 
 the building, they observed, with surprise, the poverty of the 
 establishment, and also the austerity and humiliation to which the 
 poor monks submitted themselves. In the midst of this meanness 
 and poverty, however, the eyes of the great artist fell upon a 
 small painting, that gave evidence of the most sublime talent on 
 the part of its author. The painting represented the death of a 
 monk. Rubens called his pupils to his side, and pointed out the 
 work that had so excited his admiration. They were all equally 
 struck with the genius which the unknown artist had displayed. 
 
 "And who can be the author of this work?" inquired Van 
 dyke, the favorite pupil of the great master. 
 
 A name had evidently been written below the painting, but 
 afterwards carefully erased. 
 
 Van Zulden pointed to this, but none of the artists could 
 decipher the blotted inscription. 
 
 After some consultation, Rubens sent a pressing request to the 
 prior of the convent to grant him a short interview, to which the 
 latter acceded. In a few minutes he made his appearance, 
 clothed in the humblest garb of his order, and inquired, meekly, 
 the wishes of the strangers. 
 
 " Pardon me, father," said Rubens, " I have taken the liberty 
 of sending for you, to inquire the name of him who produced this 
 remarkable painting." 
 
 41 He is not now in the world," was his answer. 
 
 884 
 
335 
 
 u Dead !" exclaimed Rubens, " dead ! and no one has known 
 him till now no one has announced his name, so that it might 
 become immortal ; a name, by the side of which my own would 
 sink into obscurity, notwithstanding," added tfae artist, with a 
 noble pride, " notwithstanding that I am Paul Rubens." 
 
 At hearing this name, the countenance of the prior became 
 strangely illuminated with the fire of enthusiasm, and he fixed his 
 eyes upon Rubens with a look that spoke more than mere curiosity. 
 But his enthusiasm seemed gradually to die away. He lowered 
 his eyes upon the ground, and crossing his arms that a moment 
 before, at the mention of the great artist's name, had been lifted 
 towards Heaven on his breast, he slowly repeated : 
 
 " The painter is not now in the world." 
 
 " But his name, worthy father, his name ?" cried Rubens ; " tell 
 it to me, that I may reveal it to the universe, and proclaim for it 
 the immortality which it so well merits." 
 
 And Vandyke, Jaiques, Van Zulden, all added their voices to 
 that of their master, and earnestly entreated the prior to name 
 the author of the picture. The monk trembled from head to foot, 
 while a cold sweat passed over his lean and sallow cheeks ; his 
 lips became contracted, and his whole frame assumed the con 
 vulsive semblance of one who was about to reveal some dreadful 
 secret. 
 
 " The name ! the name !" impatiently repeated Rubens and the 
 others. 
 
 The prior, with a deep solemnity in his voice and manner, 
 commenced : 
 
 " Listen to me, senores ; you have misunderstood me ; I have 
 said to you that the author of this painting is not in the world 
 but I did not mean that he was dead." 
 
 u Ha ! he lives, then ? say, does he live ? Show him to us, that 
 we may honor him." 
 
 41 He does live, but has renounced all things that pertain to the 
 vain pursuits of the earth. He is in a cloister, and is a monk." 
 
 tt A monk ! mio padre, a monk ! Tell me in what convent, that 
 
336 
 
 I may go to him and bring him thence ! When God has given 
 such genius as this, it is not fit that it should be buried in a 
 cloister. God has sent him upon a sublime mission. It is neces 
 sary that he should fulfill it. Tell me, holy prior, what convent, 
 so that I may rescue him from his solitude, and reveal to him the 
 glory that awaits him. Tell it to me, and the pope, who esteems 
 me, will hear my request and grant it." 
 
 " I will not tell you his name, nor the convent to which he 
 belongs," answered the prior, resolutely. 
 
 " The pope will command it for us," replied Rubens, despair 
 ingly. 
 
 " Hearken to me, senores !" said the monk ; " hear me in the 
 name of Heaven ! Do jou think that this man, before abandon 
 ing the world to end his days in the solitude of a cloister, did not 
 sufficiently prepare himself to wrestle with such temptation as you 
 would now offer? that the bitter disappointment, the cruel 
 wrongs which he has suffered in the world, have not sufficiently 
 convinced him that the joys and glories of earth are naught but 
 vanity ? He has, and your entreaties can avail nothing. His 
 determination is sealed to die in the seclusion to which an 
 unkind and wicked world has driven him, and not all the foolish 
 glory of that world can allure him back. Children, you speak 
 unwisely it is in vain !" 
 
 " But, holy father, that which he renounces is immortality." 
 
 " And what is immortality in name, when compared with the 
 eternity of the soul ?" 
 
 So saying, the prior made the sign of the cross, and covered up 
 his face in the folds of his capucho. 
 
 Rubens and his pupils went out from his presence with feelings 
 of disappointment, and they all returned to the city, silent and 
 thoughtful. 
 
 After they had gone, the monk returned to his cell, and, kneel 
 ing down upon a small mattress of straw, that served him for a 
 bed, he prayed fervently. When he had finished, he arose, and 
 gathering together his pencils, and colors, with an easel, and two 
 
337 
 
 or three frames that leaned against the walls of his cell, he 
 approached the window. A deep river -ran beneath the open 
 lattice. Summoning up resolution, he flung the little collection 
 of articles (through whose aid he had often beguiled the lonely 
 hour) upon the rapid current. 
 
 With a long look of melancholy, he watched them as they were 
 borne away upon the bosom of the stream, and when a bend in 
 the river h/ J . liiem from bis sight, he knelt again upca his mat of 
 straw, and prayed. 
 
WANITA, 
 
 THE BEAUTY OF THE El^i. 
 
 IN one of the wildest and most remote districts of Texas, one 
 hundred miles northwest from San Antonio, and almost as far 
 from any other Christian settlement, may be seen the ruined 
 remains of an old Spapish outpost called by the Mexicans of the 
 present day " Casa del Sangre " (House of Blood). It is situated 
 on a hill overlooking the San Saba River, about forty miles above 
 its confluence with the Colorado. The old grey walls, embraced 
 by a green trellis-work of parasitical plants, and overshadowed by 
 huge live oaks, form a picturesque feature on the landscape, rarely 
 witnessed, however, except by the adventurous hunter and the 
 wild savage of the hills. 
 
 The fort, originally called Sabano, was built for the protection 
 of a silver mine, that was worked by the early Spanish settlers. 
 The latter has been long since abandoned. Part of the valley 
 contiguous to the fort has been under cultivation, for the ridges 
 may still be traced, and, among the crumbling walls, some fruit 
 trees, and half a dozen plants of the aloe species, still flourish, 
 exciting the mind of the traveller to a keen and romantic interest. 
 
 There is something irresistibly pleasing in the contemplation of 
 these old deserted settlements they beget strange imaginings of 
 the past in which we can fancy interesting scenes of industry and 
 enterprise wild adventures with savage foemen captivity, tor 
 ture, and death and the mysterious name of this old fortress, 
 together with its dismantled condition, told that other agency 
 than that of time had aided in its destruction. 
 
 It was with feelings of no common curiosity, that a small party 
 
of adventurers, consisting of three Texans, two Mexican gentlemen 
 from San Antonio, and the writer of the present article, with our 
 Indian guide, alighted before the deserted outpost of Casa del 
 Sangre. Our expedition hither had been undertaken for the pur 
 pose of examining the condition of the mine already referred to. 
 It was not without danger, as the valley of the San Saba lay in 
 the very heart of the Comanche hunting-ground, though the con 
 ditions of the late treaty between our government and the 
 Comanche nation would sufficiently protect us if observed if not, 
 there were seven of us (our guide being a half-blood, and more 
 Mexican than Indian), well armed and well used to forest 
 fighting. 
 
 It was nearly noon when we reached the ruin, and we con 
 cluded before proceeding to the mine to take our mid-day repast. 
 Fastening our horses to the bunging branches of a huge willow, 
 we seated ourselves in the cool shade of a clump of luxuriant live 
 tit's. Dried deer flesh, slices of buffalo tongue, and tortilla cakes, 
 soon appeared from our saddle pouches, and almost as hastily dis 
 appeared, and then small flagons of aguardiente came forth, and 
 were applied to thirsting lips, that blessed the luck we had met in 
 the last raiicho and, after frequent applications of this sort, 
 silence gave place to a general and interesting conversation, and 
 the toils and perils of the journey were for a while at least for 
 gotten. 
 
 " Where is Basano ?" cried a voice ; " Senor Basano !" 
 
 " He is in the ruin," answered the guide. 
 
 " 'Tis very strange," observed a Texan ; " he crossed himself 
 when we first came in sight of the fort, and twice again as we 
 forded the river, muttering all the while his l por amor de Dios? 
 and his ' neustra Senora ' 'tis very strange. I have known 
 Basano ten years, and I always thought him a sensible man." 
 
 " Why, Lopez is off, too," whispered another Texan, pointing to 
 the young Don, who had left our party, and was walking with 
 undue solemnity towards the fort. "I'll tell you what it is, gents, 
 the Mexicans are mad." 
 
340 
 
 We had all come to the conclusion that something certainly 
 was the matter, and, to tell the truth, unworthy suspicions were 
 beginning to intrude themselves. "We were here in a country a 
 hundred miles from any American settlement, and should these 
 
 Mexicans, to favor some view of their late government we 
 
 looked towards half a dozen rifles, and as many pair of pistols, 
 that lay within a short distance. 
 
 " Bah, gentlemen, for shame ! Senores Lopez and Basano are 
 our comrades, and as good Texans as any of us it's only some 
 twist in the ways of * Mother Church.' See ! they are coming out." 
 
 As he spoke, the two Mexicans stepped out from the ruin. 
 Basano, the elder, approached a large maguey that grew in front, 
 and drawing his machete, he severed two or three slips from the 
 plant, which, after pruning a little, he tied behind the saddle of 
 his mustang. This puzzled us still more. What he could want 
 with a bunch of aloe shoots was beyond our conjecture, and we 
 waited for the result. After having properly secured the slips and 
 sheathed his hunting knife, he approached. Curiosity was pictured 
 in our countenances, and the Mexican perceived it 
 
 " Ah ! caballeros, you are wondering why I maimed the poor 
 maguey I hated to do it." 
 
 "Why, in truth, Senor Basano, that and some other little 
 matters have puzzled us not a little." 
 
 " Well, then, senores, I will explain the circumstances ; but you 
 will have to listen to a long legend." 
 
 A legend ?" 
 
 "Yes the legend of the Brazos de Dios." 
 
 u With pleasure, Senor Basano," cried several voices at once ; 
 " but first take a cup of the best water in Texas, mixed with the 
 worst brandy." 
 
 Our brandy, or aguardiente (for it was the mescal of the Mexi 
 cans), was wretched, to American palates, but a spring of water, 
 clear and cold as ice, gurgled forth from a rock at our feet, and, 
 after bubbling through a mraiature lake of crystal, fringed with 
 lilies, sparkled away towards the San Saba, 
 
34:1 
 
 We now seated ourselves on fragments of rock, each one having 
 taken a fresh pull at his flagon, while the " vuelta de Ahajo," in 
 Yankee parlance, " the weed," was passed from hand to hand. 
 Cigars, too, were lit, and we waited patiently for Don Basano to 
 commence the legend. 
 
 After making the " sacred sign " with due solemnity, the Mexi 
 can proceeded : 
 
 " Senores, it is more than forty years since I first saw the Casa 
 del Sangre you are surprised at what I have said (we were sur 
 prised, as none of us supposed Don Basano to be much over forty 
 years of age), but you need not I was born within those very 
 walls ! Fifty years ago, where you now see only a pile of crum 
 bling mason-work, stood a handsome and well-built castle ; and, 
 along the hillside, down to the spot where we are sitting, were up 
 wards of a hundred houses but they were of wood, and the fire 
 has left no trace of them no, not a single beam !" 
 
 Don Basano remained for a moment silent. He was evidently 
 grappling with some painful recollection of the past; and the 
 unusual solemnity of his manner prevented us from interrupting 
 his reverie. He at length continued : 
 
 " The valley, as far as yonder bend in the river, was cleared and 
 cultivated, and fields of maize, and cotton, and maguey, stretched 
 away back to the hills ; but this was when I was but a child, and 
 I can barely recollect the settlement. It has been often described 
 to me by one who survived that fearful night. I returned to see 
 it ten years after, and I then saw the corn growing wild, but no 
 hand to gather it; and here and there plants of the maguey, as 
 you see them now, stunted and shrivelled, and eaten by the buffalo 
 and the wild oxeu of the hills. I returned to see the place of my 
 nativity in ruins ! to see those walls, the only remains of a pros 
 perous settlement, not as they are now, garlanded with vines and 
 flowers, but bare and desolate wasted and blackened with the 
 fire that had consumed their roofs ! I returned then, and many 
 times since, to seek for vengeance upon the murderers of my 
 mother, and with my comrades I found it (though God's arm had 
 
 29* 
 
amply avenged us), and many a Comanche had good cause, after 
 wards, to rue the burning of the Casa del Sangre ! I am straying 
 from my tale, senores, but I shall now proceed." 
 
 We had now become deeply interested in the feelings of our 
 Mexican companion. His strange behavior was sufficiently 
 accounted for. We had all heard that the Casa del Sangre had 
 been destroyed by the Indians, and that, in consequence of their 
 hostility, the settlement had been deserted, and we were curious to 
 hear the account of this event ; and the more so, as Don Basano 
 had been himself one of the unfortunate colonists. 
 
 ' The Casa del Sangre was originally called ' Sabano.' It was 
 only after the events I am about to relate, that it assumed the 
 name of the ' Bloody House. 7 Previous to this, it was one of the 
 most flourishing colonies in Texas. The mines of which we are 
 in search, lie in the heart of those wooded hills, and at this time 
 amply repaid the labor of working them. There were two hun 
 dred laborers employed in these, and in the village and fields three 
 hundred more ; both men and women were engaged in the culti 
 vation of the soil, and in the manufacture of articles for the Indian 
 market. Besides these, there were a hundred and fifty soldiers 
 to garrison the fort, and there was also a mission with its church, 
 through the influence of which many of the neighboring Indians 
 had been induced to join the settlement, and had become converts 
 to the Christian religion. 
 
 44 Senores, it was about this time that the government of Spain 
 then our government appointed Count Rosas to the command 
 of the fort and colony. The count was an old Castilian, and 
 brought along with him, besides his lady and an only son, several 
 families of distinction, and a number of gay young men from 
 Madrid. The count, moreover, was a man of a quiet and bene 
 ficent disposition, and Sabano began to prosper under his adminis 
 tration. His son, who was called Francisco, though of a brave 
 and generous heart, was as wild as an antelope, and, instead of 
 assisting his father in the affairs of the colony, he spent most of 
 his time in hunting excursions and parties of pleasure, attended by 
 
Hi 
 
 his companions from Madrid, and generally by half the soldiers of 
 the garrison, of whom he was, under his father, lieutenant-colonel. 
 
 "In one of his hunting expeditions towards the Guadalupe 
 mountains, he, with his party, suddenly came upon a large Indian 
 town, in the beautiful valley of the Rio Saco. The inhabitants 
 were of the Comanche tribe, but made a semi-annual residence in 
 this valley, where they had built their cottages, and had cultivated 
 the fertile soil. Francisco and his party were received by the old 
 Cazique with every honor, and the young lieutenant-colonel wa? 
 lodged in the bohio of the chief himself. It was agreed that they 
 should remain and spend some days in hunting in company with 
 the host and his warriors. Nearly a week was passed in this way 
 many buffaloes, bears and deer were slaughtered, and there was 
 much feasting and merriment in the Indian town. 
 
 " In the meantime, the Count Rosas, and the people at Sabano, 
 were becoming uneasy at, the long absence of the expedition, and 
 messengers were sent from the fort in quest of them. It was not 
 his enjoyment of the chase that detained Francisco from returning 
 to Sabano. No there was another, and far more powerful reason. 
 The Cazique of this Indian tribe, had an only daughter called 
 Wanita. She was very beautiful, and almost as fair as our own 
 people, so that many believed she was not his daughter, but some 
 girl stolen from the settlements on the Rio Grande. How this 
 may have been, I cannot say but, if true, she must have been 
 carried away while very young, for she knew nothing of our life 
 or language ; and, moreover, the old chief had always treated her 
 as his own child. 
 
 " Wanita was about to be married to the chief-of a neighboring 
 tribe, and preparations were already made for the approaching 
 nuptials, when the arrival of the Spaniards changed the course of 
 events. The Indian maiden was struck with the splendid dress, 
 the high command, and gallant bearing of the handsome young 
 officer for Don Francisco was a noble-leaking youth and, in less 
 than twenty-four hours after his arriva , she was passionately in 
 love with him. 
 
344 
 
 * 4 Sefiores, the love of the Indian maiden is unlike that of our 
 race. It is single in its object, but irresistible as the cataract. She 
 will brook DO opposition, and will sooner die than be separated 
 from the idol of her affections. I have known many cases, in 
 which wrong, neglect, and desertion, were repaid by the assassina 
 tion of the wronger, and afterwards came the self-destruction of the 
 wronged one. Wanita had been tenderly reared, and though, 
 according to her father's desire, she had consented to marry 
 Wawara. the neighboring Cazique, it was simply a yielding to 
 what she supposed was her destiny and duty ; but now, that she 
 had seen and loved the young chief of the pale-faced warriors, the 
 sight of Wawara became hateful to her, and in less than a week 
 from the arrival of the Spaniards, she told her father, in a positive 
 and resolute manner, that she would sooner die than become his 
 wife. 
 
 " Francisco was not less enamored of the wild beauty of the 
 hills. He had been captivated at first sight. As she bounded 
 forth to meet the old chief, her father, and flung herself affection 
 ately on his neck then perceiving, for the first time, the hand 
 some stranger, as she crouched by her father's side, gazing upon 
 Francisco with undisguised admiration, a less sensitive heart than 
 that of the young officer would have been touched by her beauty. 
 Francisco had never before seen so much grace such elasticity of 
 motion such a piercing, yet lovely eye or so finely pencilled 
 eyebrows. Her features were all perfection, such as he had never 
 seen, even in his native Spain ; and her glossy hair, of a purple 
 blackness, that would have swept the earth, was arranged upon 
 her beautiful head and neck, forming a coiffure that art could not 
 imitate. 
 
 ** Francisco was struck at first sight by her beauty ; but when, 
 after the expiration of a week, he became conscious of her modest 
 purity and innocence, of her attachment to himself, which, in her 
 simplicity, she had taken no pains to conceal, his love became 
 deep and ardent. Though wild, and unattached to business modes 
 of life, he inherited his father's goodness and generosity of heart. 
 
345 
 
 He was the last man to have taken the advantage of love, or to 
 rob of her innocence even an Indian maiden, and when his father's 
 messengers arrived requiring his immediate return to Sabano, and 
 he saw the danger of a separation, he made a formal application 
 for her hand in marriage. 
 
 "The old chief, who was kind-hearted, and well-disposed towards 
 the whites, would willingly have complied with his request, but he 
 dreaded the anger of Wawara, who was much more powerful than 
 himself. After being urged, however, by the lover, and promised 
 the protection of the whites, he consented, and upon the next day 
 he and his whole tribe left the valley of the Saco, and accompanied 
 the Spaniards to Sabano, where, in due time, with the consent of 
 Count Rosas and his lady, Don Francisco was married to the 
 Indian Princess Wanita. The consent of Francisco's father and 
 mother was obtained by the aid of the Padre Urbano, who was 
 much attached to Francisco, and whose influence in the settle 
 ment was very great. The worthy father expected by this means 
 to bring over to Christianity all the Indian tribes in the neighbor 
 hood, for Padre Urbano was a true man of God, and was beloved 
 by all who knew him. 
 
 " From this time, everything prospered to a greater degree than 
 before. Don Francisco, who was much attached to his young bride, 
 remained almost constantly at the fort, engaged in building and 
 ornamenting the house in which they were to live. Wanita 
 became the favorite of every female in the colony, and her educa 
 tion, under the good priest Urbano, was daily progressing. 
 
 " Senores, my narration now brings me to the dreadful occur 
 rence that desolated this beautiful valley, destroyed and annihilat 
 ed a flourishing colony, and changed the name of the Casa Sabano 
 to the fearful appellation of the * House of Blood.' I was then only 
 six years of age, yet I understood, and can remember with a horri 
 ble distinctness, many of the occurrences of that day of fire and 
 murder. 
 
 " Wawara having learned the deception that had been practised 
 upon him, and the flight of his betrothed and her father, bad 
 
346 
 
 determined on a bloody vengeance. He had heard of the mar 
 riage of Wanita to the young chief of the whites, and he was 
 filled with rage and jealousy. Knowing, however, that to attack 
 Sabano, while the soldiers were in the fort, would be worse than 
 useless, he resolved to wait for a favorable opportunity. 
 
 " That opportunity, unfortunately, arrived too soon. The silence 
 of Wawara operated as the cunning chief had calculated, and his 
 expected enmity, not having shown itself in an immediate attack, 
 was with himself forgotten, or supposed to have been buried 
 through necessity. 
 
 "About the middle of Indian summer, Don Francisco and his 
 father-in-law started on a hunting expedition, towards the forks of 
 the Cobrado, where, at that season, may buffaloes were known to 
 pass in their annual migrations. Nearly all the soldiers of the 
 colony accompanied the expedition, and in consequence the fort, 
 as well as the mine, was left completely unguarded. So great 
 was the feeling of security, that the Indians of the surrounding 
 district were freely admitted into the fort for the purpose of trad 
 ing. These, however, were mostly friendly Indians, and well 
 known to the settlers. On the third day of Don Francisco's 
 absence, and the day on which the hunters were expected to 
 return, a larger number than usual of these strange Indians, closely 
 wrapped in their buffalo robes, but apparently unarmed as the 
 others, were observed in the village, and admitted unsuspectingly 
 into the fort. All at once rose the cry of, * Wawara ! Wawara ! 
 mueran los blancos /' (death to the whites) for the tribe of 
 Wawara had learned to speak our language on the Rio Grande * 
 
 * The destruction of the fort and colony of San Saba, by the Indians, is 
 a historical fact well known in the records of Texas. With regard to that 
 part of the tradition relative to the Brazos de Dios, we might observe that 
 it is told and firmly believed by the Mexicans of San Antonio, and is a fair 
 specimen of the monkish legends, that in most of the Mexican settlements, 
 and particularly among the rude Indians, usurp the place of true religion. 
 We might also observe that the river now called Colorado, was formerly the 
 Brazos, the two rivers, Colorado and Brazos, having, by some mistake in 
 
347 
 
 and the savages, throwing aside their buffalo skins, discovered 
 knives and tomahawks, with which they commenced an indis 
 criminate slaughter. I can remember distinctly the first wild 
 onslaught, and the wild yells of the Indians! I rcas standing by 
 my mother's cottage. I rushed for the door. I met my mother, 
 and clung to her knees for protection. I remember her struggle 
 with a hugh savage, who brandished his hatchet over her head 
 and struck her repeatedly till she fell, covering me with her warm 
 blood ! I can remember how the monster seized me by the hair 
 and flung me out of the window that I fell into the centre of a 
 large maguey and how I lay concealed among its giant leaves, 
 and saw the Indians rushing from house to house, and waving 
 fiery torches, which they applied to the roofs, while others sav 
 agely butchered women and children, who leaped out from the 
 burning windows and I heard shouts from the houses, and saw 
 some of the Indians leap high in the air, and then fall dead beside 
 their victims but the shouts at last ceased, and I saw a man in a 
 dark dress pass me, leading a young female. They ran down 
 the field, concealed by the thick leaves of the aloes, and the man 
 mounted a horse, placing the lady before him and I knew him. 
 to be Father Urbano for he had often fondled me and they 
 galloped off towards yon dark woods and then the houses began 
 to smoke, and blaze, and crackle, and the smoke gathered around 
 me, and choked me until I was insensible, and I saw no more." 
 
 Here Don Basano paused for a moment, and applied the flask 
 to his lips. We had become so interested in the narration, that 
 not one of our party offered a word of interruption. After tasting 
 the aguardiente, he continued : 
 
 " When I came to my senses again, I was still couched among 
 the leaves of the aloe, but instead of the village, there was now 
 nothing to be seen but a smoldering heap of ashes, and burning 
 
 early times, " swapped " names. Colorado means " colored ;" the Brazos 
 of the present day is colored almost red while, on the other hand, the 
 Colorado is pure as crystal. 
 
348 
 
 logs. The fort too was in flames, but the wind was blowing the 
 smoke in another direction, so that I could breathe freely, and 
 look around me ; and what was my joy, when, by the light of th.e 
 fires, for it had become nearly night, I saw, instead of the gaunt 
 forms of the savages, the uniforms of Spanish soldiers, and I could 
 hear them speak in our own tongue. It was Don Francisco and 
 the hunters, who had returned. I tumbled rather than leaped 
 from my strange hiding-place, and staggered up to them. I, a 
 child of six years old, was the only living thing they had found in 
 the settlement. All the others lay around, mangled, and ghastly, 
 and bloody or were still roasting and simmering in the ashes of 
 their own dwellings ! Now, senores, you know why this ruin 
 has been called * Casa del Sangre.' " 
 
 Here the Mexican paused so long, that we thought he had 
 ended his narrative. 
 
 " It is indeed an interesting tale, Senor Basano," said a voice, 
 " but what has this legend to do with the * Brazos de Dios ?" 
 
 " Hear me out, senores," returned the Mexican. " I told Don 
 Francisco who was almost wild with rage and grief what I 
 had seen ; how the Padre Urbano had mounted a horse with the 
 lady Wanita for I knew it to be the Indian lady and that they 
 had fled towards the woods. 
 
 " As soon as Don Francisco heard these things, he hurried off, 
 with all the soldiers, in pursuit of the Indians, for he knew that 
 Wawara would follow the Padre and Wanita. The Indian trail 
 ran in the direction of the Brazos Kiver. Don Francisco and his 
 soldiers spent the whole night on the track, and at daybreak 
 reached the river ; but what was their surprise when, on coming 
 up, they found the whole Indian army, with their chief Wawara, 
 lying dead upon the bank, close, to the water's edge ! There 
 were no wounds nor blood, nor any sign of violence upon any of 
 their bodies, but they lay with their faces all looking in the same 
 direction, towards the east, and their eyes ghastly and glazed ! 
 The vultures flew around, and lit on the tops of the tall trees, but 
 not one of them would taste their flesh ! He concluded that they 
 
349 
 
 had died by a judgment of God, in consequence of their having 
 pursued his sacred minister, which was afterwards confirmed by 
 Father Urbano himself, who with the lady Wanita had reached 
 San Antonio in safety. He informed us how they were closely 
 followed by the Indians and that the waters of the river opened 
 to let him pass, and that after crossing in safety with the lady 
 Wanita, his pursuers entered the river, and while he made the 
 sacred sign, and looked to Heaven, the waters closed upon them 
 and swallowed them up, and after a time cast them out upon the 
 bank, stiff and dead, as our soldiers had found them. So that 
 from this miraculous interference of Providence, the river was ever 
 afterwards called * Rio Brazos de Diosj which in your language, 
 senores, means the ' River of the Arm of God/ 
 
 4< Don Francisco, with his Indian princess and an only son, are 
 still living in San Antonio. And perhaps, gentlemen," added Don 
 Basano, smiling, as he observed the eager curiosity of our coun 
 tenances, " if I should tell you his family name, you would recog 
 nize both him and his son." 
 
 " The name the name ! Sefior Basano !" shouted four anxious 
 voices in a breath, while twice that number of anxious ears were 
 bent to listen. * 
 
 Don Basano looked towards the handsome young Mexican, and 
 we followed the direction of his glance. The smile of assent that 
 returned our gaze, told u* that the only son of the hero and 
 heroine, was our silent and gentlemanly companion, Don Fran 
 cisco Lopez. In a moment each of us had grasped his hand. 
 
 " Now, senores, you have heard the legend of the * Brazos de 
 Dios. 1 It grows late ! Vamos f" 
 
 " No stop, Senor Basano !" cried Captain Handel, jokingly, 
 " you have not explained the slips of maguey ?" 
 
 " Ah ! true, senores, the slips of maguey it is only a trifle I 
 have a daughter who made me promise, on leaving San Antonio, 
 to bring her some shoots as souvenirs you know of what that 
 i* all, gentlemen !" 
 
 We mounted our mustangs, and rode off for the mine. 
 
 31 
 
SCOUTING NEAR VERA CRUZ. 
 
 HOURS before day, Lieutenant Rolfe and his party were thread 
 ing the mazes of the chaparral. The moon glistened upon their 
 bayonets and bright barrels. Their path lay in a southwesterly 
 direction, near the old road to Orizava. Here it passed through 
 a glade or opening, where the moonbeams fell upon a profusion 
 of flowers, there it re-entered dark alleys among the cluster 
 ing trees, where the " trail arms " was given in a half whisper. 
 The boughs met and locked overhead, and the thick foliage hid 
 the moon from sight. Now a bright beam escaping through 
 some chance opening in the leaves, quivered along the path, and 
 scared the wolf in his midnight wanderings.' Out again upon the 
 open track through the soft grass, and winding around the wild 
 maguey, or under the claw-shaped thorns of the musquit. A deer 
 sprung from his lair among the soft flowers looked back for a 
 moment at the strange intruders, and frightened at the gleaming 
 steel, dashed off into the thicket. The woods are not silent by 
 night, as in the colder regions of the North. The southern forest 
 has its voices, moonlit or dark. All through the livelong night 
 sings the mock-bird screams the " loreto." From dark till dawn,, 
 you hear the hoarse baying of the " coyote," and the dismal howl 
 of the gaunt grey wolf. The cicada fills the air with its mono 
 tonous and melancholy notes. In all these sounds there is a 
 breathing, a wild voluptuousness that tells you you are wandering 
 in the clime of the sun amidst scenes like those rendered classi 
 cal by the pen of St. Pierre. They who have read the sweet 
 French romance, will recognize his faithful painting of tropical 
 pictures. The sunny glades and shady arbors the broad green 
 and yellow leaves the tall palm-trees, with their long, lazy 
 feathers and clustering fruits waving to the slightest breeze, and 
 
 860 
 
351 
 
 looking the same as in that sea island where they flung their 
 changing shadows over the loves of Paul and Virginia. Scouting 
 at night, and to strangers (as were Rolfe and his men) in the 
 land, was not without its perils. Objects of alarm were near and 
 around. The nopal rose before you like the picket of an enemy. 
 Its dark column gleaming under the false light of the moon is 
 certainly some sentinel on the outpost. A halt is the conse 
 quence, and silent and cat-like one of the party, on his hands 
 and knees, steals nearer and nearer, through the thorny brambles, 
 until the true nature of the apparition betrays itself, in the shape 
 of a huge column of prickly pear. He then returns to his com 
 rades, and the obstacle is passed, some one, as he passes, with a 
 muttered curse, slashing his sabre through the soft trunk of the 
 harmless vegetable. 
 
 The wild maguey grasps you by the leg, as though some 
 hideous monster had sprung from the bushes. You start and rush 
 forward, only to be dragged back among the elastic leaves. It 
 is 'useless to struggle. You must either return and unwind your 
 self by gentle means, or leave the better part of your cloth 
 Jnexpressibles in the ruthless fangs of the plant. The ranchero 
 fences his limbs with leather, or with leggings of tiger-skin. It is 
 not fancy or choice to wear leather breeches in Mexico. Neces 
 sity has something to say in fixing the fashion of your small 
 clothes. 
 
 When day broke, Rolfe and his party were ten miles from 
 camp ten miles from the nearest American picket, and with only 
 thirty men ! They were concealed in a thicket of aloes and mns- 
 quit. This thicket crowned the only eminence for miles in any 
 direction. It commanded a view of the whole country southward 
 to the Alvarado. 
 
 As the sun rose the forest echoed with sounds and song. The 
 leaves moved with life, as a thousand bright-plumed birds flashed 
 from tree to tree. The green parrot screamed after his mate, 
 uttering his wild notes of endearment. They are seen in pairs 
 flying high up in the heavens. The troi^piale flashed through the 
 dark foliage like a ray of yellow light. Birds seemed to vie with 
 
352 
 
 each other in their songs of love. Amidst these sounds of the 
 forest, the ear of Rolfe caught the frequent crowing of cocks, the 
 barking of dogs, and the other well-known sounds of the settlement. 
 These were heard upon all sides. It was plain that the country 
 was thickly settled, though not a house was visible above the tree- 
 tops. The thin column of blue smoke as it rose above the green 
 foliage proved the existence of dwellings. 
 
 At some distance, westward, an open pain lay like an emerald 
 lake. The woods that bordered it were of a darker hue than the 
 meadow-grass upon its bosom. In this plain were horses feeding, 
 and Rolfe saw at a glance that they were picketed. Some of 
 them had dragged their laryettes and were straying from the 
 group. There appeared to be in all about a hundred horses. It 
 was plain that their owners were not far off. A thin, blue smoke 
 that hung over the trees on one side of the meadow gave evidence 
 of a camp. The baying of dogs came from this direction, min 
 gled with the sounds of human voices. It was evidently a camp 
 of the " Jarochos," (guerrilleros). 
 
 Suddenly a bugle sounded, wild and clear above the voices of 
 the singing-birds, a few notes somewhat resembling the dragoon 
 stable-call. The horses flung up their heads and neighed fiercely, 
 looking towards the encampment Presently a crowd of men were 
 seen running from the woods, each carrying a saddle. The few 
 strays that had drawn their pickets during the night, came run 
 ning in at the well-known voices of their masters. The saddles 
 were flung on and tightly girthed the bits adjusted and the lary 
 ettes coiled and hung to the saddle-horns, in less time than an 
 ordinary horseman would have put on a bridle. Another flourish 
 of the bugle, and the troop were in their saddle and galloping 
 away over the greensward of the meadow in a southerly direction. 
 The whole transaction did not occupy five minutes, and it seemed 
 to Rolfe and his party, who witnessed it, more like a dream than 
 a reality. The Jarochos were just out of musket range. A long 
 shot might have reached them, but even had Rolfe ventured this, 
 it would have been with doubtful propriety. Rumor had fixed 
 the existence of a large force of the enemy in this neighborhood. 
 
353 
 
 It was supposed that at least a thousand men were on the Alvarado 
 road, with the intention of penetrating our lines, with beeves for 
 the besieged Veracruzanos. 
 
 "They got off in good time, sergeant," muttered Rolfe, "had 
 they but waited half an hour longer-^-oh, for a score of Harney's 
 horses !" 
 
 " Lieutenant, may I offer an opinion ?" asked the sergeant, 
 who had raised himself and stood peering through the leafy 
 branches of a cacuchou-tree. 
 
 " Certainly, Heiss, any suggestion " 
 
 " Wai, then thar's a town," the sergeant lifted one of the leafy 
 boughs and pointed towards the southeast a spire and cross a 
 white wall and the roofs of some cottages were seen over the trees. 
 " Raoul, here, who's French, and knows the place, says it's Madalin 
 he's been to it and there's no good road for horses direct 
 from here but the road from Very Cruz crosses that meadow 
 far up now, lieutenant, it's my opinion them thieving Mexicans 
 is bound for that 'ere place Raoul says it's a good sweep round 
 if we could git acrosst this yere strip we'd head 'em sure." 
 
 The backwoodsman swept his broad hand towards the south, to 
 indicate the strip of woods that he desired to cross. The plan 
 seemed feasible enough. The town, although seemingly near, 
 was over five miles distant. The road by which the guerrilleros 
 had to reach it was much further. Could Rolfe and his party 
 meet them on this road, by an ambuscade, they would gain an 
 easy victory, although with inferior numbers, and Rolfe wished to 
 carry back to camp a Mexican prisoner. This was the object of 
 the scout, to gain information of the force supposed to be in the 
 rear of our lines. The men, too, were eager for the wild excite 
 ment of a fight. For what came they there ? 
 
 "Raoul," said Rolfe, "is there any path through these 
 woods 1" 
 
 " Zar is, von road I have believe oui Monsieur Lieutenant." 
 
 Raoul was a dapper little Frenchman, who had joined the 
 army at Vera Cruz, where we found him. He had been a sort 
 of market-gardener for the plaza, and kne~v the back country 
 
854 
 
 perfectly. He had fallen into bad odor with the rancheros of the 
 Tierra Caliente, and owed them no good-will. The coming of 
 the American army had been a perfect godsend to Raoul, who was 
 now an American volunteer, and as circumstances afterwards 
 proved, worthy of the title. 
 
 "Close teccket, monsieur," continued the Frenchman, "but 
 there be von road, I make ver sure, by that tree, vot you call him, 
 big tree." 
 
 Raoul pointed to some live-oaks that formed a dark belt across 
 the woods. 
 
 44 Take the lead, Raoul." 
 
 The little Frenchman sprung out in front and commenced 
 descending into the dark woods beneath. The party was soon 
 winding through the shadowy aisles of a live-oak. The woods 
 were at first open and easy. After a short march they came to a 
 small stream, bright and silvery. But what was the surprise of 
 Rolfe to find that the path here gave out, and on the opposite 
 bank of the rivulet the trees grew closer together, and the woods 
 were almost woven into a solid mass, by the lianas and other 
 creeping plants. These were covered with blossoms. In some 
 places a wall of snow-white flowers rose up before you. Pyra 
 midal forms of foliage, green and yellow, over which hung 
 myriads of vine-blossoms, like a scarlet mantle. Still there was 
 no path at least to be trodden by human foot. Birds flew 
 around, scared in their solitary haunts. The arrnadilla and the 
 wolf stood at a distance with glaring eyes. The fearful-looking 
 guana scampered off upon the decaying limbs of the live-oak, or 
 the still more fearful cobra di capella glided almost noiselessly 
 over the dry leaves and brambles. 
 
 Raoul confessed that he had been deceived. He had never 
 travelled this belt of timber. The path was lost. 
 
 This was strange. A path had conducted them thus far, but on 
 reaching the stream had suddenly stopped. Soldiers went up and 
 down the water- course, and peeped through the trellis of vines, 
 but to no purpose. In all directions they were met by an impe 
 netrable chaparral. 
 
355 
 
 Chafing with disappointment, the young officer was about to 
 retrace his way, when an exclamation from Heiss recalled him. 
 The backwoodsman had found a clew to the labyrinth. An open 
 ing led into the thicket. This had been concealed by a perfect 
 curtain of closely woven vines, covered with thick foliage and 
 flowers. It appeared at first to be a natural door to the avenue 
 which led from this spot, but a slight examination showed that 
 these vines had been trained by human hands, and that the path 
 itself had been kept open by the same agency. Branches were 
 here and there lopped off and cast aside, and the ground had the 
 marks of human footsteps. The track was clear and beaten, and 
 Rolfe ordering his men to follow noiselessly, in Indian file, took the 
 lead. For at least two miles they traced the windings of this forest 
 road, through dark woods, occasionally opening out into green, 
 flowery glades. The bright sky began to gleam through the trees. 
 Farther on and the breaks became larger and more frequent. An 
 extensive clearing was near at hand. They reached it, but to 
 their astonishment, instead of a cultivated farm, which they had 
 been expecting to see, the clearing had more the appearance of a 
 vast flower-garden. The roofs and turrets of a house were visible 
 near its centre. The house itself appeared of a strange oriental 
 style, and was buried amidst groves of the brightest foliage. 
 Several huge old trees spread their branches over the roof, and 
 their leaves hung around the fantastic turrets. 
 
 What should have been fields were like a succession of huge 
 flower beds'- and large shrubs, covered with sheets of pink and 
 white blossoms that resembled wild roses. This shrubbery was 
 high enough to conceal the approach of Rolfe and his party as 
 they followed the path apparently the only one which led to the 
 house. 
 
 On nearing this, the officer halted his men in a little glade, and 
 taking with him Heiss and the boy Gerry (who might return for 
 the men in case of a surprise), proceeded to reconnoitre the 
 strange-looking habitation. 
 
 A wall of ivy, or some perennial vine, lay between him and 
 the house. A curtain of green leaves covered the entrance 
 
356 
 
 through this wall. This appeared to have grown up by neglect. 
 As Rolfe lifted this festoon, to pass through, the sound of female 
 voices greeted him. These voices reached his ear in tones of the 
 lightest mirth. At intervals came a clear ringing laugh from 
 some throat of silver, and then a plunging, splashing sound of 
 water. Rolfe conjectured that some females were in the act of 
 bathing, and not wishing to intrude upon them sat down for a 
 moment outside the wall. The sounds of merriment were still 
 heard, and among the soft tones the officer imagined that he 
 could distinguish the coarser voice of a man. Curiosity now 
 prompted him to enter. Moreover, he reflected that if there were 
 men there already, there could not be much impropriety in his 
 taking a share in the amusement. 
 
 Drawing aside the curtain of leaves he looked in. The 
 interior was a garden, but evidently in a neglected state. 
 It appeared the ruin of a once noble garden and shrub 
 bery. Broken fountains and statues crumbling among weeds, and 
 untrained rose-trees, met the eye. The voices were more distinct, 
 but those who uttered them were hidden by a hedge of jas 
 mins. Rolfe stepped silently np to this hedge and peeped 
 through an opening. The picture presented was indeed an 
 enchanting one. 
 
 A large fountain lay between him and the house, filled with 
 crystal water. In this fountain two young girls were plunging 
 and diving about in the wildest abandon of mirth. The water 
 was not more than waist deep, and the arms and bosoms of the 
 young girls appeared above its surface. They were strikingly 
 alike, in all except colour. In this there was a marked contrast. 
 The neck, arms and bosom of one seemed carved from snow-white 
 marble, while the other's complexion was almost as dark as maho 
 gany. There were the same cast of features, the same expression 
 in both countenances, and their forms, just emerging from the 
 slender figure of girlhood, were exactly alike. Their long hair 
 trailed after them, black and luxuriant, on the surface of the 
 water, as they plunged and swam from one side of the basin to 
 the other. A huge negress sat upon the edge of the fountain, 
 
357 
 
 seemingly enjoying the bath as much as those who partook of it. 
 It was the voice of this negress that Rolfe had mistaken for that 
 of a man. 
 
 The young officer did not hesitate a moment, but stole gently 
 back and regained his comrades. 
 
 Then striking through the flowery fields that stretched away 
 towards the woods in the rear, he commenced searching for the path 
 that led from the woods in a direction opposite to that whence lie 
 had come, without disturbing the inmates of this peaceful mansion. 
 Finding this path on the other side, the party entered and hastily 
 kept on, in order to intercept the guerrilleros, whom they still 
 hoped to fall in with. In these hopes they were not disappointed, 
 for emerging from the woods near Medellin they came upon the 
 guerrilleros, with whom they had a sharp skirmish. Rolfe and his 
 party were successful, killing two of the guerrilla and taking the 
 same number prisoners. 
 
 The young girls continued their pleasant pastime, little dream 
 ing how near to them had been these strange and warlike visi 
 tors. 
 
MEXICAN JEALOUSY. 
 
 ON the 15th of September, two days after the storming of 
 Chapultepec, a small party of soldiers, in dark uniforms, were 
 seen to issue from the great gate' of that castle, and, winding down 
 the Calzada, turn towards the city of Mexico. This occurred at 
 ten o'clock in the morning. The day was very hot, and the sun, 
 glancing vertically upon the flinty rocks that paved the causeway, 
 rendered the heat more oppressive. 
 
 At the foot of the hill the party halted, taking advantage of 
 the shade of a huge cypress-tree, to set down a litera, which four 
 men carried upon their shoulders. This they deposited under one 
 of the arches of the aqueduct in order the better to protect its 
 occupant from the hot rays of the sun. 
 
 The occupant of the litera was a wounded man, and the pale 
 and bloodless cheek, and fevered eye showed that his wound was 
 not a slight one. There was nothing around to denote his rank, 
 but the camp cloak, of dark blue, and the crimson sash, which lay 
 upon the litera, showed that the wounded man was an officer. 
 The sash had evidently been saturated with blood, which was now 
 dried upon it, leaving parts of it shrivelled like, and of a darker 
 shade of crimson. It had staunched the life-blood of its wearer 
 upon the 13th. The soldiers stood around the litter, their bronzed 
 faces turned upon its occupant, apparently attentive to his requests. 
 There was something in the gentle care with which these rude 
 men seemed to wait upon the young officer, that bespoke the 
 existence of a stronger feeling than mere humanity. There was 
 that admiration which the brave soldiers feel for him who has led 
 them in the field of battle, at their head. That small group were 
 among the first who braved the frowning muzzles of the cannon 
 
 853 
 
359 
 
 upon the parapets of Chapultepec. The wounded officer had led 
 them to those parapets. 
 
 The scene around exhibited the usual indications of a recent 
 field of battle. There were batteries near, with dismounted can 
 non, broken carriages, fragments of shells, dead horses, whose 
 riders lay by them, dead too, and still unburied. Parties were 
 strolling about, busied with this sad duty, but heaps of mangled 
 carcasses still lay above ground, exhibiting the swollen limbs and 
 distorted features of decomposition. The atmosphere was heavy 
 with the disagreeable odor, and the wounded man, turning upon 
 his pillow, gently commanded the escort to proceed. Four stout 
 soldiers again took up the litera, and the party moved slowly 
 along the aqueduct, towards the Garita Belen. The little escort 
 halted at intervals for rest and to change bearers. The fine trees 
 that line the great aqueduct on the Tacubaya road, though much 
 torn and mangled by the cannonade of the 13th, afforded a fine 
 shelter from the hot sunbeams. In two hours after leaving the 
 Chapultepec, the escort entered the Garita Belen, passed up the 
 Paseo Nuevo, and halted in front of the Alameda. 
 
 Any one who has visited the city of Mexico will recollect, that 
 opposite the Alameda, on its southern front, is a row of fine 
 houses, which continue on to the Calle San Francisco, and thence 
 to the Great Plaza, forming the Calles Correo, Plateros, etc. 
 These streets are inhabited principally by foreigners, particularly 
 that of Plateros, which is filled with Frenchmen. To prevent 
 their houses from being entered by the American soldiery, upon 
 the 14th, the windows were filled with national flags, indicating 
 to what nation the respective owners of the houses belonged. 
 There were Belgians, French, English, Prussians, Spanish, Danes, 
 and Austrians in fact, every kind of flag. Mexican flags alone 
 were not to be seen. Where these should have been, at times, 
 the white flag the banner of peace hung through the iron rail 
 ings, or from the balcony. In front of a house that bore this 
 simple ensign, the escort, with the litera, had accidentally stopped. 
 
 The eye of the wounded officer rested mechanically upon the 
 little flag over his head, when his attention was arrested by notio- 
 
360 
 
 ing that this consisted of a small, white lace handkerchief, hand 
 somely embroidered upon the corners, and evidently such as 
 belonged to some fair being. Though suffering from the agony 
 of his wound, there was something so attractive in this discovery, 
 that the eyes of the invalid were immediately turned upon the 
 window, or rather grating, from which the flag was suspended, 
 and his countenance changed at once, from the listless apathy of 
 pain to an expression of eager interest. A young girl was in the 
 window, leaning her forehead against the reja, or grating, and 
 looking down with more of painful interest than curiosity upon 
 the pale face beneath her. It was the window of the entresol, 
 slightly raised above the street, and the young girl herself was 
 evidently of that class known to the aristocracy of Mexico as the 
 " leperos." She was tastefully dressed, however, in the picturesque 
 costume of her class and country, and her beautiful black hair, her 
 dark Indian eye, the half olive, half carmine tinge upon her soft 
 cheek, formed a countenance at once strange, and strikingly beau 
 tiful. Her neck, bosom, and shoulders, seen over the window- 
 stone, were of that form which strikes you as possessing more of 
 the oval than the rotund in short, the model of the perfect 
 woman. 
 
 On seeing the gaze of the wounded man so intently fixed upon 
 her, the young girl blushed, and drew back. The officer felt dis 
 appointed and sorry, as one feels when the light, or a beautiful 
 object is suddenly removed from his sight; still, however, keeping 
 his eyes intently fixed upon the window, as though unable to 
 unrivet his gaze. This continued for some moments, when a 
 beautiful arm was plunged through the iron grating, holding in the 
 most delicate little fingers a glass of pinal. 
 
 A soldier stepped up, and taking the proffered glass, held it to 
 the lips of the wounded officer, who gladly drank of the cool and 
 refreshing beverage, without being able to thank the fair donor, 
 who had withdrawn her hand at parting with the glass. The glass 
 was held up to the window, but the hand that clutched it was 
 coarse and large, and evidently that of a man. A muttered curse, 
 too, in the Spanish language, was heard to proceed from within. 
 
361 
 
 This was heard but indistinctly. The invalid gazed at the window 
 for some minutes, expecting the return of the beautiful apparition, 
 then as if he had given up all hope, he called out a " gracias 
 adios !" and ordered the escort to move on. The soldiers, once 
 in ore shouldering the litera, passed up the Calle Correo, and 
 entered the Hotel Oompagnon, in the street of Espiritu Santo. 
 
 For two months the invalid was confined to his chamber, but 
 often, during that time, both waking and dreaming, the face of 
 the beautiful Mexican girl would flit across his fevered fancy. 
 At the end of this time his surgeon gave him permission to ride 
 oat in an easy carriage. He was driven, to the Alameda, where 
 he ordered the carriage to halt under the shade of its beautiful 
 trees, and directly in front of the spot where he had rested on 
 entering the city. He recognized the little window. The white 
 flag was not now there, and he could see nothing of the inmates. 
 He remained a considerable time seated in the carriage, gazing 
 upon the house, but no face appeared at the cold iron grating, no 
 smile to cheer his vigil. Tired and disappointed, he ordered his 
 carriage to be driven back to the hotel. 
 
 Next day he repeated the mano3uvre, and the next, and the 
 next, with a like success. Probably he had not chosen the proper 
 time of day. It was certainly not the hour when the lovely faces 
 of the Mexican women appear on their balconies. This reflection 
 induced him to change the hour, and, upon the. day following, he 
 ordered the carriage in the evening. Just before twilight, it drew 
 up as usual under the tall trees of the Alameda. Imagine tho 
 delight of the young officer, at seeing the face of the beautiful 
 Mexican through the gratings of the reja. 
 
 The stir made by the stopping of the carriage had attracted 
 her. The uniform of its inmate was the next object of her atten 
 tion, but when her eyes fell upon the face of the wearer, a strange 
 expression came over her countenance, as if she were struggling 
 with some indistinct recollections, and all at once that beautiful 
 countenance was suffused with a smile of joy. She had recog 
 nized the officer. The latter, who had been an anxious observer 
 of every change of expression, smiled in return, and bowed an 
 
 32 
 
362 
 
 acknowledgment, then turning to his servant, who was a Mexi 
 can, he told him in Spanish, to approach the window, and offer 
 his thanks to the young lady for her act of kindness upon the 15th 
 of September. 
 
 The servant delivered the message, and shortly afterwards the 
 carnage drove off. For several evenings the same carriage might 
 be seen standing under the trees of the Alarneda. An interesting 
 acquaintance had been established between the young officer and 
 the Mexican girl. About a week afterwards, and the carriage 
 appeared no more. The invalid had been restored to perfect 
 strength. 
 
 December came, and upon the 15th of this month, about half an 
 hour before twilight, an American officer, wrapped in a light, 
 Mexican cloak, passed down the Calle San Francisco, and crossed 
 into the Alameda. Here he stopped, leaning against a tree, as 
 though observing the various groups of citizens, who passed in 
 their picturesque dresses. His eye, however, was occasionally 
 turned upon the houses upon the opposite side of the street, and 
 with a glance of stealthy, but eager inquiry. At length the well- 
 known form of the beautiful "lepera" appeared at the window, 
 who, holding up her hand, adroitly signalled the officer with her 
 taper, fan-like fingers. The signal was -answered. She had 
 scarcely withdrawn her hand inside the reja when a dark, scowling 
 face made its appearance at her side, her hand was rudely seized, 
 and with a scream she disappeared. The young officer fancied he 
 saw the bright gleam of a stiletto within the gloomy grating. 
 
 He rushed across the street, and in a moment stood beneath 
 the window. Grasping the strong iron bars, he lifted himself up 
 so as to command a view of the inside, which was now in perfect 
 silence. His horror may be imagined when, on looking into the 
 room he saw the young girl stretched upon the floor, and, to all 
 appearance, dead. A stream of blood was running from beneath 
 her clothes, and her dress was stained with blood over the waist 
 and bosom. With frantic energy the young man clung to the 
 bars, and endeavored to wrench them apart. It was to no pur- 
 pos-s, and letting go his hold, he dropped into the street. The 
 
363 
 
 large gate of the house was open. Into this he rushed, and 
 reached the patio just in time to catch a glimpse of a figure 
 escaping along the azotea. He rushed up the steep stone stair 
 way, and grasping the parapet, raised himself on the roof. The 
 fugitive had run along a series of platforms of different heights, 
 composed by the azoteas of houses, and had reached a low roof 
 from which he was about to leap into an adjoining street, where 
 he would, in all probability, have made good his escape. He 
 stood upon the edge of the parapet, calculating his leap, which was 
 still a fearful plunge. It was not left to his choice whether to 
 take or refuse it. A pistol flashed behind him, and almost simul 
 taneously with the report he fell forward upon his head, and lay 
 upon the pavement below, a bruised and bleeding corpse. His 
 pursuer approached the parapet, and looked over into the street, 
 as if to assure himself, that his aim had been true, then turned 
 with a fearful foreboding, and retraced his way over the azotea*, 
 His fears, alas ! were but too just. She was dead. 
 
A CAMPAIGN IN TEXAS. 
 
 " i SITING of citizens," so ran the announcement that, on 
 the naming of the llth October, 1835, was seen posted, in letters 
 a foot h?gh, at the corner of every street in New Orleans " a 
 meeting cf citizens this evening, at eight o'clock, in the Arcade 
 Coffee-house. It concerns the freedom and sovereignty of a peo 
 ple in whose veins the blood of the Anglo-Saxon flows. Texas, 
 the prairie- land, has risen in arms against the tyrant Santa Anna 
 and the greedy despotism of the Romish priesthood, and implores 
 the assistance of tho citizens of the Union. We have therefore 
 convoked an hsecmbly of the inhabitants of this city, and trust to 
 see it numerously attended. 
 
 U THE COMMITTEE TOR TEXAS." 
 
 The extensive and fertile province of Texas had, up to the period 
 of Mexico's separation from Spain, been utterly neglected. Situ 
 ated at the northeastern extremity of the vast Mexican empire, 
 and exposed to the incursions of the Comanches, and other warlike 
 tribes, it contained but a scanty population of six thousand souls, 
 who, for safety's sake, collected together in a few towns, and forti 
 fied mission-houses, and even there were compelled to purchase 
 security bystribute to the Indians. It was but a very short time 
 before the outbreak of the Mexican revolution, that the Spaniards 
 began to turn their attention to Texas, and to encourage emigra 
 tion from the United States. The rich 'soil, the abundance of 
 game, the excellence of the climate, were irresistible inducements ; 
 and soon hundreds of hardy back-woodsmen crossed the Sabine, 
 with their families and worldly goods, and commenced the work 
 of colonization. Between the iron-fisted Yankees and the indolent 
 cowardly Mexicans, the Indian marauders speedily discovered the 
 
 864 
 
365 
 
 difference ; instead of tribute and unlimited submission, they wero 
 now received with rifle-bullets and stern resistance; gradually 
 they ceased their aggressions, and Texas became comparatively a 
 secure residence. 
 
 The Mexican revolution broke out and triumphed, and at first 
 the policy of the new government was favorable to the Americans 
 in Texas, whose numbers each day increased. But after a time, 
 several laws, odious and onerous to the settlers, were passed ; and 
 various disputes and partial combats with the Mexican garrisons 
 occurred. When Santa Anna put himself at the head of the libe 
 ral party in Mexico, the Texians gladly raised his banner ; but 
 they soon discovered that the change was to prove of little advan 
 tage to them. Santa Anna's government showed a greater jea 
 lousy of the American settlers than any previous one had done ; 
 their prayer, that the province they had colonized might be 
 erected into a state of the Mexican union, was utterly disregarded, 
 and its bearer, Stephen F. Austin, detained in prison at Mexico ; 
 various citizens were causelessly arrested, and numerous other acts 
 of injustice committed. At last, in the summer of 1835, Austin 
 procured his release, and returned to Texas, where he was joy fully 
 received by the aggrieved colonists. Presently arrived large bo 
 dies of troops, under the Mexican general, Cos, destined to 
 strengthen the Texian garrisons ; and at the same time came a 
 number of ordinances, as ridiculous as they were unjust. One of 
 these ordered the Texians to give up their arms, only retaining 
 one gun for every five plantations ; another forbade the x building 
 of churches. The tyranny of such edicts, and the positive cruelty 
 of the first named, in a country surrounded by tribes of Indian 
 robbers, are too evident to require comment. The Texians, 
 although they were but twenty-seven thousand against eight mil 
 lions, at once resolved to resist ; and to do so with greater effect, 
 they sent deputies to the United States, to crave assistance in the 
 struggle about to commence. 
 
 The summons of the Texian committee of New Orleans to their 
 fellow-citizens was enthusiastically responded to. At the ap 
 pointed hour, the immense Arcade Coffee-house was thronged to 
 
 32* 
 
366 
 
 the roof ; speeches in favor of Texian liberty were made and, ap 
 plauded to the echo ; and two lists were opened one for subscrip 
 tions, the other for the names of those who were willing to lend the 
 aid of their arms to their oppressed fellow-countrymen. Before the 
 meeting separated, ten thousand dollars were subscribed ; and on 
 the following afternoon, the steamer Washita ascended the Mis 
 sissippi with the first company of volunteers. These had ran 
 sacked the tailors' shops for grey clothing, such being the color 
 best suited to the prairie, and thence they received the name of 
 " The Greys ;" their arms were rifles, pistols, and the far-famed 
 bowie-knife. The day after their departure, a second company of 
 Greys set sail, but went round by sea to the, Texian coast ; and 
 the third installment of these ready volunteers was the company 
 of Tampico Blues, who took ship for the port of Tampico. The 
 three companies consisted of Americans, English, French, and 
 several Germans. Six of the latter nation were to be found in 
 the ranks of the Greys ; and one of them, a Prussian, of the name 
 of Ehrenberg, who appears to have been for some time an inhabi 
 tant of the United States, and to be well acquainted with the 
 country, its people, their language and peculiarities, survived, in 
 one instance by a seeming miracle, the many desperate fights and 
 bloody massacres that occurred during the short but severe con 
 flict for Texian independence, in which nearly the whole of his 
 comrades were slain. He has recently published an account of 
 the campaign ; and his narrative, highly characteristic and cir 
 cumstantial, derives a peculiar interest from his details of the de 
 feats suffered by the Texians, before they could succeed in shaking 
 off the Mexican yoke. Of their victories, and especially of the 
 crowning one at San Jacinto, various accounts have already ap 
 peared ; but the history of their reverses, although not less inter 
 esting, is far less known ; for the simple reason, that the Mexicans 
 gave no quarter to those whom they styled rebels, and that the 
 defeat of a body of Texians was almost invariably followed by its 
 extermination. 
 
 Great was the enthusiasm, and joyful the welcome, with which 
 the Texian colonists received the first company of volunteers, when, 
 
367 
 
 under the command of Captain Breece, they landed from their 
 steamboat upon the southern bank of the river Sabine. No 
 sooner had they set foot on shore, than a flag of blue silk, em 
 broidered with the words, " To the first company of Texian volun 
 teers from New Orleans," was presented to them in the name of 
 the women of Texas; the qualification of. Texian citizens was con 
 ferred upon them; every house was placed at their disposal for 
 quarters ; and banquets innumerable were prepared in their honor. 
 But the moment was critical time was too precious to be expend 
 ed in feasts and merry-making, and they pressed onwards. A two 
 days' march brought them to San Augustin, two more to Nacog- 
 doches, and thence, after a short pause, tbey set out on their jour 
 ney of five hundred miles to St. Antonio, where they expected 
 first to burn powder. Nor were they deceived in their expecta 
 tions. They found the Texian militia encamped before the town, 
 which, as well as its adjacent fort of the Alamo, was held by the 
 Mexicans ; the Texians were besieging it in the best manner their 
 imperfect means and small numbers would permit. An amusing 
 account is given by Mr. Ehrenberg of the camp and proceedings 
 of the besieging force : 
 
 We had arrived late in the night, and at sunrise a spectacle 
 offered itself to us, totally different from anything we had ever 
 before beheld. To our left flowed the river St. Antonio, which, 
 although it rises but a few miles from the town of the same name, 
 is already, on reaching the latter, six or eight feet deep, anfl 
 eighteen or twenty yards broad. It here describes a curve, in 
 closing a sort of promontory or peninsula, at the commencement 
 of which, up-stream, the Texian camp was pitched. At the oppo 
 site or lower extremity, but also on the right bank of the river, 
 was the ancient town of St. Antonio, hidden from the camp by 
 the thick wood that fringes the banks of all Texian streams. Be 
 tween us and the town was a maize-field, a mile long, and at that 
 time lying fallow; opposite to the field, on the left bank, and only 
 separated from the town by the river, stood the Alamo, the prin 
 cipal fortress of the province of Texas. The camp itself extended 
 over a space of half a mile in length, surrounded by maize-fields 
 
368 
 
 and prairie, the latter sprinkled with muskeet thickets, and with 
 groups of gigantic cactuses ; in the high grass between which the 
 horses and oxen of our troops were peaceably grazing. On enter 
 ing the adjacent fields, the air was instantly darkened by millions 
 <J blackbirds, which rose like a cloud from the ground, described 
 a few circles, and then again settled, to seek their food upon 
 the earth. In one field, which had been used as a place of 
 slaughter for the cattle, whole troops of vultures, of various kinds, 
 were stalking about amongst the offal, or sitting with open beaks 
 and wings outspread, upon the dry branches of the neighboring 
 pecan-trees, warming themselves in the sun-beams, no bad type 
 of the Mexicans ; whilst here and there, a solitary wolf or prairie 
 dog prowled amongst the heads, hides, and entrails of the slaugh 
 tered beasts, taking his breakfast as deliberately as his human 
 neighbors. The reveille had sounded, and the morning gun been 
 fired from the Alamo, when presently the drum beat to summon 
 the various companies to roll-call ; and the men were seen emerg 
 ing from their tents and huts. It will give some idea of the inter 
 nal organization of the Texian army; if I record the proceedings 
 of the company that lay opposite to us, the soldiers composing 
 which were disturbed by the tap of the drum in the agreeable oc 
 cupation of cooking their breakfast. This consisted of pieces of 
 beef, which they roasted at the fire on small wooden spits. Soon 
 a row of these warriors, some only half-dressed, stood before the 
 sergeant, who, with the roll of the company in his hand, was wait 
 ing their appearance ; they were without their rifles, instead of 
 which, most of them carried a bowie-knife in one hand, and a 
 skewer, transfixing a lump of smoking meat, in the other. Seve 
 ral did not think proper to obey the summons at all, their roast 
 not being yet in a state that permitted them to leave it. At last 
 the sergeant began to call the names, which were answered to 
 alternately from the ranks or from some neighboring fire, and 
 once a sleepy " here !" proceeding from under the canvas of a tent 
 caused a hearty laugh amongst the men, and made the sergeant 
 look sulky, although he passed it over as if it were no unusua* 
 occurrence. When all tho names had been called, he had nc 
 
369 
 
 occasion to dismiss his men, for each of them, after answering, had 
 returned to the fire and his breakfast. 
 
 We Greys, particularly the Europeans, looked at each other, 
 greatly amused by this specimen of Texian military discipline. 
 We ourselves, it is true, up to this time, had never even had the 
 roll called, but had been accustomed, as soon as the reveille 
 sounded, to get our breakfast, and then set forward in a body, or 
 by twos and threes, trotting, walking, or galloping, as best pleased 
 us. Only in one respect were we very particular ; namely, that 
 the quartermaster and two or three men, should start an hour be 
 fore us, to warn the inhabitants of our approach, and get food 
 and quarters ready for our arrival. If we did not find everything 
 prepared, and it was the quartermaster's fault, he was reduced 
 to the ranks, as were also any of the other officers who misbe 
 haved themselves. I must observe, however, that we were never 
 obliged to break either of our captains ; for both Breece of ours, 
 and Captain Cook of the other company of Greys, made themselves 
 invariably beloved and respected. Cook has since risen to the 
 rank of major-general, and is, or was the other day, quartermaster- 
 general of the republic of Texas. 
 
 Towards nine o'clock, a party crossed the field between our 
 camp and the town, to reinforce a small redoubt erected by 
 Cook's Greys, and provided with two cannon, which were continu 
 ally thundering against the Alamo, and from time to time knock 
 ing down a fragment of wall. The whole affair seemed like a 
 party of pleasure, and every telling shot was hailed with shouts of 
 applause. Meanwhile, the enemy were not idle, but kept up a 
 fire from eight or nine pieces, directed against the redoubt, the 
 balls and canister ploughing up the ground in every direction, 
 and driving clouds of dust towards the camp. It was.no joke to 
 get over the six or eight hundred yards that intervened between 
 the latter and the redoubt, for there was scarcely any cover, and 
 the Mexican artillery was far better served than ours. Neverthe 
 less, the desire to obtain a full view of the Alamo, which, from 
 the redoubt, presented an imposing appearance, induced eight 
 i, including myself, to take a start across the field. It seemed 
 
370 
 
 as if the enemy had pointed at us every gun in the fort ; the bul 
 lets fell around us like hail, and for a moment the blasting tem 
 pest compelled us to take refuge behind a pecan-tree. Here we 
 stared at each other, and laughed heartily at the absurd figure we 
 cut, standing, eight men deep, behind a nut tree, whilst our com 
 rades, both in the camp and the redoubt, shouted with laughter 
 at every discharge that rattled amongst the branches over our 
 heads. 
 
 4 This is what you call making war," said one of our party, 
 Thomas Camp by name. 
 
 " And that," said another, as a whole swarm of iron musquitoes 
 buzzed by him, " is what we Americans call variations on Yankee 
 Doodle." 
 
 Just then there was a' tremendous crash among the branches, 
 and we dashed out from our cover, and across to the redoubt, 
 only just in time ; for the next moment the ground on which we 
 had been standing was strewn with the heavy boughs of the pecan- 
 tree. 
 
 All was life and bustle in the little redoubt; -the men were 
 standing round the guns, talking and joking, and taking it by 
 turns to have a shot at the old walls. Before firing, each man 
 was compelled to name his mark, and say what part of the Alamo 
 he meant to demolish, and then bets were made as to his success 
 or failure. 
 
 "A hundred, rifle-bullets to twenty," cried one man, "that I hit 
 between the third and fourth windows of the barracks." 
 
 " Done !" cried half a dozen voices. The shot was fired, and 
 the clumsy artilleryman had to cast bullets all next day. 
 
 " My pistols the best in camp, by the by" exclaimed another 
 aspirant, " against the worst in the redoubt." 
 
 " Well, sir, I reckon I may venture," said a hard-featured back 
 woodsman in a green hunting-shirt, whose pistols, if not quite so 
 good as those wagered, were at any rate the next best. Away 
 flew the ball, and the pistols of the unlucky marksman were trans 
 ferred to Green-shirt, who generously drew forth his own, and 
 handed them to the loser. 
 
371 
 
 " Well, comrade, s'pose 1 must give you yer revenge. If I don't 
 hit, you'll have your pistols back again." 
 
 The cannon was reloaded, and the backwoodsman squinted 
 along it, as ii' it had been his own rifle, his features twisted up 
 into a mathematical calculation, and his right hand describing in 
 the air all manner of geometrical figures. At last he was ready ; 
 one more squint along the gun, the match was applied, and the 
 explosion took place. The rattle of the stones warned us that the 
 ball had taken effect. When the smoke cleared away, we looked 
 in vain for the third and fourth windows, and a tremendous hurra 
 burst forth for old Deaf Smith, as he was called, for the bravest 
 Texian who ever hunted across a prairie, and who subse 
 quently, with a small corps of observation, did such good service 
 on the Mexican frontier between Nueces and the Rio Grande. 
 
 The restless and impetuous Yankee volunteers were not long in 
 finding opportunities of distinction. Some Mexican sharpshooters 
 having come down to the opposite side of the river, whence they 
 fired into the redoubt, were repelled by a handful of the Greys, 
 who then, carried away by their enthusiasm, drove in the enemy's 
 outposts, and entered the suburbs of tne town. They got too far, 
 and were in imminent risk of being overpowered by superior num 
 bers, when Deaf Smith came to their rescue with a party of their 
 comrades. Several days passed away in skirmishing, without any 
 decisive assault being made upon the town or fort. The majority of 
 the men,. were for attacking; but some of the leaders opposed it, 
 and wished to retire into winter quarters in rear of the Guadalupe 
 River, wait for further reinforcements from the States, and then, in 
 the spring, again advance and carry St. Antonio by a coup demain 
 To an army, in whose ranks subordination and discipline were 
 scarcely known, and where every man thought his opinion as 
 worthy to be listened to as that of the general, a difference of 
 opinion was destruction. The Texian militia, disgusted with their 
 leader, Burleson, retreated in straggling parties across the Guada 
 lupe ; about four hundred men, consisting chiefly of the volunteers 
 from New Orleans and the Mississippi, remained behind, besieg 
 ing St. Antonio, of which the garrison was nearly two thousand 
 
372 
 
 strong. The four hundred melted away, little by little, to two him 
 dred and ten ; but these held good, and resolved to attack the, 
 town. They did so, and took it, house by house, with small loss 
 to themselves, and a heavy one to the Mexicans. On the sixth 
 day, the garrison of the Alamo, which was commanded by Gene 
 ral Cos, and which the deadly Texian rifles had reduced to little 
 more than half its original numbers, capitulated. After laying 
 down their arms, they were allowed to retire beyond the Rio 
 Grande. Forty-eight pieces of cannon, four thousand muskets 
 and a quantity of military stores, fell into the hands of the Tex- 
 ians, whose total loss amounted to six men dead, and twenty-nine 
 wounded. 
 
 After two or three weeks' sojourn at St. Antonio, it was deter 
 mined to advance upon Matamoras ; and on the 30th December 
 the volunteers set out, leaving a small detachment to garrison the 
 Alamo. The advancing column was commanded by Colonel 
 Johnson ; but its real leader, although he declined accepting a de 
 finite command, was Colonel Grant, a Scotchman, who had for 
 merly held a commission in a Highland regiment, but had now 
 been for many years resident in Mexico. On reaching the little 
 fort ofGoliad,.near the town of La Bahia, which had a short time 
 previously been taken by a few Texians under Deinmit, they 
 halted, intending to wait for reinforcements. A company of Ken- 
 tuckians, and some other small parties, joined them, making up 
 their strength to about six hundred men ; but they were still 
 obliged to wait for ammunition, and as the troops began to get 
 impatient, their leaders marched them to Refugio, a small town 
 and ruinous fort, about thirty miles further on. Here, in the lat 
 ter days of January, 1836, General Houston, commander-in-chief 
 of the Texian forces, suddenly and unexpected appeared amongst 
 them. He assembled the troops, harangued them, and deprecated 
 the proposed expedition to Matamoras as useless, that town being 
 without the proposed limits of the republic. Nevertheless, so 
 great was the impatience of inaction, that two detachments, to 
 gether about seventy men, marched by different roads towards the 
 Rio Grande, under command of Grant and Johnson. Their 
 
373 
 
 example might probably Lave been followed by others, had not the 
 arrival of some strong reinforcements from the United States caused 
 various changes in the plan of campaign. The fresh troops consist 
 ed of Colonel Fanning's free corps, the Georgia battalion under Major 
 Ward, and the Red Rovers, from Alabama, under Doctor Shackle- 
 ford. Fanning's and Ward's men, and the Greys, retired to 
 Goliad, and set actively to work to improve and strengthen the 
 fortifications ; whilst Colonel Grant, whose chief failing appears to 
 have been over-confidence, continued with a handful of followers 
 his advance to the Rio Grande, promising at least to bring back a 
 supply of horses for the use of the army. 
 
 On the 5th of March, the garrison of Goliad received intelli 
 gence of the declaration of Texian independence, and of the ap. 
 pointment of a government, with Burnet as president, and Lorenzo 
 de Zavala. a Mexican, as vicVpresident. At the same time, came 
 orders from General Houston to destroy the forts of Goliad and 
 the Alamo, and retreat immediately behind the Guadalupe. Santa 
 Anna, with twelve thousand men, was advancing by rapid marches 
 towards Texas. The order reached the Alamo too late, for the 
 little garrison of a hundred and eighty men was already hemmed 
 in, on all sides, by several thousand Mexicans, and had sent mes 
 sengers, imploring assistance, to Fanning at Goliad, and to Hous 
 ton, who was then stationed with five hundred militia atGonzales, 
 high up on the Guadalupe. A second dispatch from General 
 Houston gave Fanning the option of retiring behind the Guada 
 lupe ; or, if bis men wished it, of marching to the relief of the 
 Alamo, in which latter case he was to join Houston and his 
 troops at Seguin's Rancho, about forty miles from St. Antonio. 
 Fanning, however, who, although a man of brilliant and distin 
 guished courage, seems to have been an undecided and wrong- 
 headed officer, did neither, but preferred to wait for the enemy 
 within the walls of Goliad. In vain did a majority of his men, 
 and especially the Greys, urge him to march to the rescue of their 
 comrades ; he positively refused to do so, although each day wit 
 nessed the arrival of fresh couriers from St. Antonio, imploring 
 succor. 
 
374 
 
 One morning tbree men belonging to the small detachment 
 which, under Colonel Grant, had gone upon the mad expedition 
 to the Rio Grande, arrived at Goliad with news of the destruction 
 of their companions. On^y thirty in number, they had collected 
 four hundred fine horses, and were driving them northward to re 
 join their friends, when, in a narrow pass between thickets, they 
 were suddenly surrounded by several hundred of the enemy's lan 
 cers, whose attack, however, seemed directed rather against the 
 horses than the escort. Grant, whose courage was blind, and who 
 had already witnessed many instances of the almost incredible 
 poltroonery of those half-Indians, drew his sword, and charged the 
 Mexicans, who were at least ten times his strength. A discharge 
 of rifles and pistols stretched scores of the lancers upon the ground ; 
 but that discharge made, there was no time to reload, and the 
 Texians had to defend themselves as best they might, with their 
 bowie-knives and rifle-butts, against the lances of the foe, with the 
 certainty that any of them who fell wounded from their saddles, 
 would instantly be crushed and mangled under the feet of the wild 
 horses, which, terrified by the firing and conflict, tore madly about 
 the narrow field. Each moment the numbers of the Texians 
 diminished, one after the other disappeared, transfixed by the 
 lances, trampled by the hoofs. Colonel Grant and three men 
 those who brought the news to Goliad had reached the outskirts 
 of the melee, and might at once have taken to flight ; but Grant 
 perceived some others of his men still fighting heroically amongst 
 the mass of Mexicans, and once more he charged in to rescue 
 them. Everything gave way before him, his broadsword whistled 
 around him, and man after man fell beneath its stroke. His three 
 followers having reloaded, were rushing forward to his support, 
 when suddenly the fatal lasso flew through the air, its coils sur 
 rounded the body of the gallant Scot, and the next instant he lay 
 upon the ground beneath the feet of the foaming and furious 
 horses. In horrorstruck silence, the three survivors turned their 
 horses' heads northeast, and fled from the scene of slaughter. 
 
 Besides this disaster, numerous detachments of Texians were cut 
 off by the Mexicans, who now swarmed over the southern part of 
 
375 
 
 the province. Colonel Johnson and his party were surprised in 
 the town of San Patricio and cut to pieces, Johnson and four of 
 his followers being all that escaped. Thirty men under Captain 
 King, who had been sent by Fanning to escort some settlers on 
 their way northwards, were attacked by overpowering numbers, 
 and, after a most desperate defence, utterly exterminated. The 
 Georgia battalion under Major Ward, which had marched from 
 Goliad to the assistance of King and his party, fell in with a large 
 body of Mexican cavalry and infantry, and although, during the 
 darkness, they managed to escape, they lost their way in the prai 
 rie, were unable to return to Goliad, and subsequently, as will 
 hereafter be seen, fell into the hands of the enemy. The 'Alamo 
 itself was taken, not a man surviving of the one hundred and 
 eighty who had so valiantly defended it. On the other hand, we 
 have Mr. Ehrenberg's assurance that its capture cost Santa Anna 
 two thousand two hundred men. In the ranks of the besieging 
 army were between two and three thousand convicts, who, on all 
 occasions, were put in the post of danger. At the attack on the 
 Alamo they were promised a free pardon if they took the place. 
 Nevertheless, they advanced reluctantly enough to the attack, and 
 twice, when they saw their ranks mown down by the fire of the 
 Texians, they turned to fly, but each time they were driven back to 
 the charge by the bayonets and artillery of their countrymen. At 
 last, when the greater part of these unfortunates had fallen, Santa 
 Anna caused his fresh troops to advance, and the place was taken. 
 The two last of the garrison fell by the Mexican bullets as they 
 were rushing, torch in hand, to fire the powder magazine. The 
 fall of the Alamo was announced to Colonel Fanning in a letter 
 from Houston. 
 
 " The next point of the enemy's operations," said the old general, 
 "will be Goliad, and let the garrison reflect on the immensity of 
 the force that within a very few days will surround its walls. I con 
 jure them to make a speedy retreat, and to join the militia behind 
 the Guadalupe. Only by a concentration of our forces can we 
 hope to achieve anything ; and if Goliad is besieged, it will be im 
 possible for me to succor it, or to stake the fate of the republic 
 
376 
 
 upon a battle it the prairie, where the ground is so unfavorable 
 to our troops. Once more, therefore, Colonel Fanning in rear 
 of the Guadalupe !" 
 
 At last,, but unfortunately too late, Fanning decided to obey the 
 orders of his general. The affairs of the republic of Texas were 
 indeed in a most critical and unfavorable state. St. Antonio 
 taken, the army of volunteers nearly annihilated, eight or ten 
 thousand Mexican troops in the country, for the garrison of Goliad 
 no chance of relief in case of a siege, and, moreover, a scanty store 
 of provisions. These were the weighty grounds which finally in 
 duced Fanning to evacuate and destroy Goliad. The history of 
 the retreat will be best given in a condensed translation of the in 
 teresting narrative now before us. 
 
 On the 18th April, 1836, says Mr. Ehrenberg, at eight in the 
 morning, we commenced our retreat from the demolished and still 
 burning fort of Goliad. The fortifications at which we had worked 
 with so much zeal, a heap of dried beef, to prepare which nearly 
 seven hundred oxen had been slaughtered, and the remainder of 
 our wheat and maize flour, had been set on fire, and were sending 
 up black columns of smoke towards the clouded heavens. Nothing 
 was to be seen of the enemy, although their scouts had for some 
 days previously been observed in the west, towards St. Antonio. 
 All the artillery, with the exception of two long four-pounders and 
 a couple of mortars, were spike'd and left behind us. But the 
 number of store and ammunition wagons with which we started 
 was too great, and our means of drawing them inadequate, so 
 that, before we had gone half a mile, our track was marked by 
 objects of various kinds scattered about the road, and several carts 
 had broken down or been left behind. At a mile from Goliad, on 
 the picturesque banks of the St. Antonio, the remainder of the 
 baggage was abandoned or hastily thrown into the river ; chests 
 full of cartridges, the soldiers' effects, everything, in short, was 
 committed to the transparent waters ; and having harnessed the 
 oxen and draught horses to the artillery and to two ammunition 
 wagons, we slowly continued the march, our foes still remaining 
 invisible. 
 
377 
 
 Our road lay through one of those enchanting landscapes, com 
 posed of small prairies, intersected by strips of oak and underwood. 
 On ail sides droves of oxen were feeding in the high grass, herds 
 of wild-eyed deer gazed wonderingly at the army that thus in 
 truded upon the solitary prairies of the west, and troops of horses 
 dashed madly away upon our approach, the thunder of their hoofs 
 continuing to be audible long after their disappearance. At eight 
 miles from Goliad begins an extensive and treeless prairie, known 
 as the Nine-mile Prairie ; and across this, towards three in the 
 afternoon, we had advanced about four or five miles. Myself and 
 some of my comrades, who acted as rearguard, were about two 
 miles behind, and had received orders to keep a sharp eye upon 
 the forest, which lay at a considerable distance to our left ; but as 
 up to this time no signs of an enemy had been visible, we were 
 riding along in full security, when, upon casually turning our 
 heads, we perceived, about four miles off, at the edge of the wood, 
 a something that resembled a man on horseback. But as the 
 thing, whatever it was, did not appear to move, we decided that it 
 must be a tree or some other inanimate object, and we rode on 
 without taking further notice. We proceeded in .this way for 
 about a quarter of an hour, and then, the main body being only 
 about a quarter of a mile before us, marching at a snail's pace, we 
 halted to rest a little, and let our horses feed. Now for the first 
 time, as we gazed out over the seemingly boundless prairie, we 
 perceived in our rear, and close to the wood, a long black line. 
 At first we took it to be a herd of oxen which the settlers were 
 driving eastward, to rescue them from the Mexicans ; but the 
 dark mass drew rapidly nearer, became each moment more plainly 
 discernible, and soon we could no longer doubt that a strong body 
 of Mexican cavalry was following us at full gallop. We sprang 
 upon our horses, and, at the top of their speed, hurried after our 
 friends, to warn them of the approaching danger. Its intimation 
 was received with a loud hurra ; all was made ready for the fight, 
 a square was formed, and in this manner we marched on, as fast 
 us possible certainly, but that was slowly enough. Fanning, our 
 oommander, was unquestionably a brave and daring soldier, but 
 
 33* 
 
378 
 
 nnfortunately he was by no means fitted for the post he held, or 
 indeed for any undivided command. As a proof of this, instead 
 of endeavoring to reach the nearest wood, hardly a mile off, and 
 sheltered in which our Texian and American riflemen wou^.d have 
 been found invincible, he resolved to give battle upon the open 
 and unfavorable ground that we now occupied. 
 
 The Mexicans came up at a furious gallop to the distance of 
 five or six hundred paces, and thence gave us a volley from their 
 carbines, of which we took no notice, seeing that the bullets flew 
 at a respectful height above our heads, or else fell whistling upon 
 the earth before us, without even raising the dust. One only of 
 the harmless things passed between me and my right hand man, 
 and tore off" part of. the cap of my friend, Thomas Camp, who, 
 after myself, was the youngest man in the army. We remained 
 perfectly quiet, and waited for the enemy to come nearer, which 
 he did, firing volley after volley. Our artillery officers, for the 
 most part Poles, tall, handsome men, calmly waited the opportune 
 moment to return the fire. It came ; the ranks opened, and the 
 artillery vomited death and destruction amongst the Mexicans, 
 whose ill-broken horses recoiled in dismay and confusion from the 
 flash and thunders of the guns. The effect of our fire was fright 
 ful, steeds and riders lay convulsed and dying upon the ground, 
 and for a time the advance of the enemy was checked. We pro 
 fited by this to continue our retreat, but had marched a very short 
 distance before we were again threatened with a charge, and Fan 
 ning commanded a halt. It was pointed out to him that another 
 body of the enemy.was advancing upon our left, to cut us off from 
 the wood, and that those who had already attacked us were 
 merely sent to divert our attention whilst the manoeuvre was ex 
 ecuted. But Fanning either did not see the danger, or he was 
 vexed that another should be more quicksighted than himself, for 
 he would not retract his order. At last, after much vain discus 
 sion, and after representing to him how necessary it was to gain 
 the wood, the Greys declared that they would inarch thither alone 
 But it was too late. The enemy had already cut us off from it, 
 and there "was nothing left but to fight our way through them, or 
 
379 
 
 give battle where we stood. Fanning was for the latter course ; 
 and before the captains, who had formed a council of war, could 
 come to a decision, the Mexican trumpets sounded the charge, and 
 with shout and shot the cavalry bore down upon us, their wild 
 cries, intended to frighten us, contrasting oddly with the silence 
 and phlegm of our people, who stood waiting the opportunity to 
 make the best use of their rifles. Again and again our artillery 
 played havoc amongst the enemy, who, finding his cavalry so un 
 successful in its assaults, now brought up the infantry, in order to 
 make a combined attack on all sides at once. Besides the Mexi 
 cans, three hundred of their Indian allies, Lipans and Caranchuas, 
 approached us on the left, stealing through the long grass, and, 
 contemptible themselves, but formidable by their position, 
 wounded several of our people almost before we perceived their 
 proximity. A few discharges of canister soon rid us of these 
 troublesome assailants. 
 
 Meanwhile the hostile infantry, who had now joined the cavalry, 
 slowly advanced, keeping up a constant but irregular fire, which 
 we replied to with our rifles. In a very short time we were sur 
 rounded by so dense a smoke that we were often compelled to 
 pause and advance a little towards the enemy, before we could 
 distinguish an object at which to aim. The whole prairie was 
 covered with clouds of smoke, through which were seen the rapid 
 flashes of the musketry, accompanied by the thunder of the artil 
 lery, the sharp clear crack of our rifles, and the occasional blare 
 of the Mexican trumpets, encouraging to the fight. At that 
 moment, I believe there was not a coward in the field ; in the 
 midst of such a tumult there was no time to think of self. We 
 rushed on to meet the advancing foe, and many of us found our 
 selves standing firing in the very middle of his ranks. I myself 
 was one of these. In the smoke and confusion I had got too far 
 forward, and was too busy loading and firing, to perceive that I 
 was in the midst of the Mexicans. As soon as I discovered my 
 mistake, I hurried back to our own position, in all the greater 
 haste, because the touchhole of my rifle had got stopped. 
 
 But things went badly with us ; many of our people were killed, 
 
380 
 
 more, severely wounded ; all our artillerymen, with the exception 
 of one Pole, had fallen, and formed a wall of dead bodies round 
 the guns ; the battle-field was covered with dead and dying men 
 and horses, with rifles and other weapons. Fanning himself had 
 been thrice wounded. The third bullet had gone through two 
 coats and through the pocket of his overalls, in which he had a 
 silk handkerchief, and had entered the flesh, but, strang'e to say, 
 without cutting through all the folds of the silk ; so that when he 
 drew out the handkerchief, the ball fell out of it, and he then 
 for the first time felt the pain of the wound. 
 
 It was between five and six o'clock. In vain had the cavalry 
 endeavoured to bring their horses against our ranks ; each attempt 
 had been rendered fruitless by the steady fire of our artillery and 
 rifles, and at last they were obliged to retreat. The infantry also 
 retired without waiting, for orders, and our guns, which were now 
 served by the Greys, sent a last greeting after them. Seven hun 
 dred Mexicans lay dead upon the field ; but we also had lost a 
 fifth part of our men, more than had ever fallen on the side of the 
 Texians in any contest since the war began, always excepting the 
 massacre of the Alamo. The enemy still kept near us, apparently 
 disposed to wait till the next day, and then renew their attacks. 
 Night came ou, but brought us no repose ; a fine rain began to 
 fall, and spoiled the few rifles that were still in serviceable order. 
 Each moment we expected an assault from the Mexicans, who had 
 divided themselves into three detachments, of which one was 
 posted in the direction of Goliad, another upon the road to Victo 
 ria, which was our road, and the third upon our left, equidistant 
 from the other two, so as to form a triangle. Their signals showed 
 us their position through the darkness. We saw that it was 
 impossible to retreat unperceived, and that our only plan was to 
 spike the guns, abandon the wounded and artillery, put our rifles 
 in as good order as might be, and cut our way through that body 
 of Mexicans which held the road to Victoria. Once in the wood, 
 we were safe, and all Santa Anna's regiments would have been 
 insufficient to dislodge us. The Greys were of opinion that it 
 was better to sacrifice a part than the whole, and to abandon the 
 
we uuded, rather than place ourselves at the mercy of a foe in 
 whose honor and humanity no trust could be reposed. But Fan 
 ning was of a different opinion. Whether his wounds none of 
 them, it is true, very severe and the groans and complaints of 
 the dying, had rendered him irresolute and shaken his well-tried 
 courage, or whether it was the hope that our vanguard, which had 
 reached the wood before the Mexicans surrounded us, would 
 return with a reinforcement from Victoria, only ten miles distant, 
 and where, as it was falsely reported, six hundred militiamen were 
 stationed, I cannot say; but he remained obstinate, and we vainly 
 implored him to take advantage of the pitch-dark night, and 
 retreat to the wood. He insisted upon waiting till eight o'clock 
 the next morning, and if no assistance came to us by that time, 
 we could cut our way, he said in open day, through the ranks of 
 our contemptible foe, and if we did not conquer, we could at least 
 bravely die. 
 
 " Give way to- my wishes, comrades," said he \ " listen to the 
 groans of our wounded brethren, whose lives may yet be saved by 
 medical skill. Will the New Orleans 7 Greys, the first company 
 who shouldered the rifle for Texian liberty, abandon their unfor 
 tunate comrades to a cruel death at the hands of our barbarous 
 foes ? Once more, friends, I implore you, wait till daybreak, and 
 if no help is then at hand, it shall be as you please, and I will fol 
 low you." 
 
 In order to unstiffen my limbs, which were numbed by the wet 
 and cold, I walked to and fro in our little camp, gazing out 
 into the darkness. Not a star was visible, the night was gloomy 
 and dismal, well calculated to crush all hope in our hearts. I 
 stepped out of the encampment, and walked in the direction of 
 the enemy. From time to time dark figures glided swiftly by 
 within a short distance of me. They were the Indians, carrying 
 away the bodies of the dead Mexicans, in order to conceal from us 
 the extent of their loss. For hours I mournfully wandered about, 
 and day was breaking when I returned to the camp. All were 
 already astir. In silent expectation, we strained our eyes in the 
 direction of the neighboring wood, hoping each moment to see 
 
382 
 
 our fri 3nds burst out from its shelter ; but as the light became 
 stronger, all our hopes fled, and our previous doubts as to whether 
 there really were any troops at Victoria, became confirmed. The 
 Mexican artillery bad come up during the night, and now 
 appeared stationed with the detachment which cut us off from the 
 wood. 
 
 It was seven o'clock ; we had given up all hopes of succour, and 
 had assembled together to deliberate on the best mode of attack 
 ing the Mexicans, when their artillery suddenly bellowed forth a 
 morning salutation, and the balls came roaring over and around 
 us. These messengers hastened our decision, and we resolved at 
 once to attack the troops upon the road with rifle and bowie-knife, 
 and at all hazards and any loss to gain the wood. All were ready, 
 even the wounded, those at least who were able to stand, made 
 ready to accompany us, determined to die fighting, rather than be 
 unresistingly butchered. Suddenly, and at the very moment that 
 we were about to advance, the white flag, the symbol of peace, was 
 raised upon the side of the Mexicans. Mistrusting their inten 
 tions, however, we were going to press forward, when Fanning's 
 command checked us. He had conceived hopes of rescuing him 
 self and his comrades, by means of an honourable capitulation, 
 from the perilous position into which he could not but feel that 
 his own obstinacy had brought them. 
 
 Three of the enemy's officers now approached our camp, two 
 of them Mexican cavalry-men, the third a German who had got 
 into favour with Santa Anna, and had risen to be colonel of artil 
 lery. He was, if .1 am not mistaken, a native of Mayence, and 
 originally a carpenter, but having some talent for mathematics and 
 architecture, he had entered the service of an English mining com 
 pany, and been sent to Mexico. There Santa Anna employed him 
 to build his well-known country-house of Mango do Clavo, and 
 conceiving, from the manner in which the work was executed, a 
 high opinion of the talent of the builder, he gave him a commis 
 sion in the engineers, and in time made him colonel of artillery. ' 
 This man, whose name was Holzinger, was the only one who spoke 
 English, of the three officers who came with the flag of truce ; and 
 
as he spoke it very badly, a great deal of our conference took 
 place in German, and was then retranslated into Spanish. After 
 a long discussion. Fanning agreed to the following conditions: 
 namely, that we should deliver up our arms, that our private pro 
 perty should be respected, and we ourselves sent to Corpano or 
 Metamoro, there to embark for New Orleans. So long as we 
 were prisoners of war, we were to receive the same rations as the 
 Mexican soldiers. On the other hand, we gave our word of honor 
 not again to bear arms against the existing government of Mexico. 
 Whilst the three officers returned to General Urrea, who com 
 manded the Mexican army, to procure the ratification of these 
 conditions, we, the volunteers from New Orleans and Mobile, sur 
 rounded Fanning, highly dissatisfied at the course that had been 
 adopted. -"What!" was the cry, "is this the way that Fanning 
 keeps his promise this his boasted courage ? Has he forgotten 
 the fate of our brothers, massacred at San Antonio ? Does he not 
 yet know our treacherous foes ? In the Mexican tongue, to capi 
 tulate, means to die. Let us die then, and fighting for Texas and 
 for liberty ; and let the blood of hundreds of Mexicans mingle 
 with our own. Perhaps, even though they be ten times as 
 numerous, we may succeed in breaking through their ranks. 
 Think of San Antonio, where we were two hundred and ten 
 against two thousand, and yet we conquered. Why not again 
 risk the combat?" But all our expostulations and reproaches 
 were rn vain. The majority were for surrender, and we were com 
 pelled to give way and deliver up our weapons. Some of the 
 Greys strode sullenly up and down the camp, casting furious 
 glances at Fanning and those who had voted for the capitulation ; 
 others sat motionless, their eyes fixed upon the ground, envying 
 the fate of those who had fallen in the fight. Despair was legi 
 bly written on the faces of many who but too well foresaw our 
 fate. One man in particular, an American, of the name of John 
 son, exhibited the most ungovernable fury. He sat grinding his 
 teeth, and stamping upon the ground, and puffing forth volumes 
 of smoke ' from his cigar, whilst he meditated, as presently 
 appeared, a frightful plan of vengeance. 
 
384 
 
 Stimulated by curiosity, a number of Mexicans now strolled 
 over to our camp, and gazed shyly at the gloomy grey marksmen, 
 as if they still feared them, even though unarmed. The beauty 
 of the rifles which our people had given up, was also a subject of 
 great wonder and admiration; and soon the camp became 
 crowded with unwelcome visitors their joy and astonishment at 
 their triumph, contrasting with the despair and despondency of 
 the prisoners. Suddenly a broad bright flame flashed through 
 the morning fog, a tremendous explosion followed, and then all 
 was again still, and the prairie strewn with wounded men. A 
 cloud of smoke was crushed down by the heavy atmosphere upon 
 the dark green plain ; the horses of the Mexican officers reared 
 wildly in the air, or, with bristling mane and streaming tail gal- 
 lopped furiously away with their half-deafened riders. Numbers 
 of persons had been thrown down by the shock, others had flung 
 themselves upon the ground in consternation, and some moments 
 elapsed before the cause of the explosion was ascertained. The 
 powder magazine had disappeared all but a small part of the 
 carriage, around which lay a number of wounded, and, at about 
 fifteen paces from it, a black object, in which the form of a 
 human being was scarcely recognizable, but which was still living, 
 almost unable to speak. Coal-black as a negro, and frightfully 
 disfigured, it was impossible to distinguish the features of this 
 unhappy wretch. Inquiry was made, the roll was called, and 
 Johnson was found missing. Nobody had observed his proceed 
 ings, and the explosion may have been the result of an accident ; 
 but we entertained little doubt that he had formed a deliberate 
 plan to kill himself and as many Mexicans as he could, and had 
 chosen what he considered a favorable moment to set fire to the 
 ammunition-wagon. As it happened, the cover was not fastened 
 down, so that the principal force of the powder went upwards, and 
 his terrible project was rendered in a great measure abortive. 
 
 Scarcely had the confusion caused by this incident subsided, 
 and the fury of our foes been appeased, when the alarm was 
 sounded in the opposite camp, and the Mexicans ran to their arms. 
 The cause of this was soon explained. In the wood, which, could 
 
385 
 
 we have reached it, would have been our salvation, appeared our 
 faithful vanguard, accompanied by all the militia they had been 
 able to collect in so short a time the whole commanded by Colo 
 nel Horton. False indeed had been the report, that six or eight 
 hundred men were stationed at Victoria ; including our vanguard, 
 the gallant fellows who thus came to our assistance were but sixty 
 in number. 
 
 "With what horror," said the brave Horton, subsequently, "did 
 we perceive that we had arrived too late ! We stood thunder 
 struck and uncertain what to do, when we were suddenly roused 
 from our bewilderment by the sound of the Mexican trumpets. 
 There was no time to lose, and our minds were speedily made up. 
 Although Fanning had so far forgotten his duty as to surrender, 
 ours was to save ourselves, for the sake of the republic. Now, 
 more than ever, since all the volunteers were either killed or pri 
 soners, had Texas need of our arms and rifles. We turned our 
 horses, and galloped back to Victoria, whence we marched to join 
 Houston at Gonzales." 
 
 The Mexicans lost no time in pursuing Horton and his people, 
 but without success. The fugitives reached the thickly-wooded 
 banks of the Guadalupe, and disappeared amongst intricacies 
 through which the foe did not dare to follow them. Had the 
 reinforcement arrived one half hour sooner, the bloody tragedy 
 soon to be enacted would never have taken place. 
 
 The unfortunate Texian prisoners were now marched back to 
 Goliad, and shut up in the church, which was thereby so crowded 
 that scarcely a fourth of them were able to sit or crouch upon the 
 ground. Luckily the interior of the building was thirty-five to 
 forty feet high, or they would inevitably have been suffocated. 
 Here they remained all night, parched with thirst ; and it was not 
 till eight in the morning that six of their number were permitted 
 to fetch water from the river. In the evening they were again 
 allowed water, but for two nights and two days no other refresh 
 ment passed their lips. Strong pickets of troops, and guns loaded 
 with grape, were stationed round their prison, ready to massacre 
 them in case of an outbreak, which it seemed the intention of th$ 
 
 34 
 
Mexicans to provoke. At last, on the evening of the second day, 
 six ounces of raw beef were distributed to each man. This they 
 had no means of cooking, save at two small fires, which they made 
 of the wood-work of the church; and as the heat caused by these 
 was unendurable to the closely packed multitude, the majority 
 devoured their scanty ration raw. One more night was passed in 
 this wretched state, and then the prisoners were removed to an 
 open court within the walls of the fortress. This was a great 
 improvement of their situation, but all that day no rations were 
 given to them, and they began to buy food of the soldiers, giving 
 for it what money they possessed ; and when that was all gone, 
 bartering their clothes, even to their shirts and trousers./ So enor 
 mous, however, were the prices charged by the Mexicans, Mr. 
 Ehrenberg tells us, that one hungry man could easily eat at a 
 meal ten dollars' worth of tortillas or maize-cakes. Not satisfied 
 with this mode of extortion, the Mexican soldiers, who are born 
 thieves, were constantly on the lookout to rob the unhappy prison 
 ers of whatever clothing or property they had left. 
 
 On the fourth morning, three quarters of a ppund of beef were 
 given to each man ; and whilst they were engaged in roasting it, 
 there appeared, to their great surprise, a hundred and twenty fresh 
 prisoners, being Major Ward's detachment, which had lost its way 
 in the prairie, and, after wandering about for eight days, had 
 heard of Fanning's capitulation, and surrendered on the same 
 terms. Twenty-six of them, carpenter's by trade, had been 
 detained at Victoria by order of Colonel Holzinger, to assist in 
 building bridges for the transport of the artillery across the river. 
 On the seventh day came a hundred more prisoners, who had 
 just landed at Copano from New York, under command of Colo 
 nel Miller, and had been captured by the Mexican cavalry. The 
 rations were still scanty, and given but at long intervals ; and the . 
 starving Texians continued their system of barter, urged to it by 
 the pangs of hunger, and by the Mexican soldiers, who told them 
 that they were to be shot in a day or two, arid might as well part 
 with whatever they had left, in order to render their last hours 
 more endurable. This cruel assurar te, however, the prisoners 
 
387 
 
 did not believe. They were sanguine of a speedy return to the 
 States, and impatiently waited the arrival of an order for their 
 shipment from Santa Anna, who was then at St. Antonio, and to 
 whom news of the capitulation had been sent. General Urrea 
 had marched from Goliad immediately after their surrender, only 
 leaving sufficient troops to guard them, and had crossed the Gua- 
 dalupe without opposition. Santa Anna's order at last came, but 
 its purport was far different from the anticipated one. We 
 resume our extracts from Mr. Ehrenberg's narrative : 
 
 The eighth morning of our captivity dawned, and so great were 
 our sufferings, that we had resolved, if some change were not 
 made in our condition, to free ourselves by force, or die in the 
 attempt, when a rumor spread that a courier from Santa Anna 
 had arrived during the night. This inspired us with fresh hopes, 
 and we trusted that the hour of our deliverance at last approached. 
 At eight o'clock in the morning an officer entered our place of 
 confinement, carrying Santa Anna's order in his hand, of the con 
 tents of which, however, he told us nothing, except that we were 
 immediately to march away from Goliad. Whether we were to 
 go to Copano or Matamoras, we were not informed. We saw 
 several pieces of cannon standing pointed against our inclosure, 
 the artillerymen standing by them with lighted matches, and 
 near them was drawn up a battalion of infantry in parade uniform, 
 but coarse and ragged enough; The infantry had no knapsacks 
 or baggage of any kind ; but at the time I do not believe that one 
 of us remarked the circumstance, as the Mexican soldiers in gene 
 ral carry little or nothing. For our part, we required but a very 
 short time to get ready for the march, and in a few minutes we 
 were all drawn up, two- deep, with the exception of Colonel Mil 
 ler's detachment, which was quartered outside the fort. Fanning 
 and the other wounded men, the doctor, his assistants y and the 
 interpreters, were also absent. They were td be sent later to 
 New Orleans, it was believed, by a nearer road. 
 
 After the names had been called over, the order to march was 
 given, and we filed out through the gate of the fortress, the Greys 
 taking the lead. Outside the gate we were received \y two detach 
 
<- 388 
 
 mente of Mexican infantry, who marched along on either side 
 of us, in the same order as ourselves. We were about four 
 hundred in number, and the enemy about seven hundred, not 
 including the cavalry, of which numerous small groups were scat 
 tered about the prairie. We marched on in silence, not however 
 in the direction we had anticipated, but along the road to Victoria. 
 This surprised us; but upon reflection we concluded that they were 
 conducting us to some eastern port, thence to be shipped to New 
 Orleans, which, upon the whole, was perhaps the best and shortest 
 plan. There was something, however, in the profound silence of 
 the Mexican soldiers, who are usually unceasing chatterers, that 
 inspired me with a feeling of uneasiness and anxiety. It was like 
 a funeral march, and truly might it so be called. Presently I 
 turned my head to see if Miller's people had joined and were 
 marching with us. But, to my extreme astonishment, neither 
 they nor Tanning's men, nor the Georgia battalion, were to be 
 seen. They had separated us without our observing it, and the 
 detachment with which I was marching consisted only of the 
 Greys and a few Texian colonists. Glancing at the escort, their 
 full dress uniform and the absence of all baggage, now for the first 
 time struck me. I thought of the bloody scenes that had occurred 
 at Tampico, San Patricio, and the Alamo, of the false and cruel 
 character of those in whose power we were, and I was seized with 
 a presentiment of evil. For a moment I was about to communi 
 cate my apprehensions to my comrades ; but hope, which never 
 dies, again caused me to take a more cheering view of our situa 
 tion. Nevertheless, in order to be prepared for the worst, and in 
 case of need, to be unencumbered in my movements, I watched 
 my opportunity, and threw away amongst the grass of the prai 
 rie a bundle containing the few things that the thievish Mexicans 
 had allowed me to retain. 
 
 A quarter of an hour had elapsed since our departure from the 
 fort, when suddenly the command was given in Spanish to wheel 
 to the left, leaving the road ; and, as we did not understand the 
 order, the officer himself went in front to show us the way, and 
 my companions followed without Baking any particular notice of 
 
389 
 
 the change of direction. To our left ran a muskeet hedge, five or 
 six feet in height, at right angles with the river St. Antonio, which 
 flowed at about a thousand paces from us, between banks thirty or 
 forty feet high, and of which banks the one on the nearer side of 
 the river rose nearly perpendicularly out of the water. We were 
 marched along the side of the hedge towards the stream, and sud 
 denly the thought flashed across us, " Why are they taking us in 
 this direction ?" The appearance of a number of lancers, canter 
 ing about in the fields on our right, also startled us ; and just then 
 the foot-soldiers, who had been marching between us and the 
 hedge, changed their places, and joined those of their comrades 
 who guarded us on the other side. Before we could divine the 
 meaning of this manoeuvre, the word was given to halt. It came 
 like a sentence of death ; for at the same moment that it was 
 uttered, the sound of a volley of musketry echoed across the 
 prairie. We thought of our comrades and of our own probable 
 fate. 
 
 " Kneel down !" now burst in harsh accents from the lips of the 
 Mexican commander. 
 
 No one stirred. Few of usjinderstood the order, and those 
 who did would not obey. The Mexican soldiers, who stood at 
 about three paces from us, levelled their muskets at our breasts. 
 Even then we could hardly believe that they meant to shoot us ; 
 for if we had, we should assuredly have rushed forward in our 
 desperation, and weaponless though we were, some of our mur 
 derers would have met their death at our hands. Only one of our 
 number was well acquainted with Spanish, and even he seemed 
 as if he could not comprehend the order that had been given. 
 He stared at the commanding-officer as if awaiting its repetition, 
 and we stared at him, ready, at the first word he should utter, to 
 spring upon the soldiers. But he seemed to be, as most of us 
 were, impressed with the belief that the demonstration was merely 
 a menace, used to induce us to enter the Mexican service. 
 With threatening gesture and drawn sword, the chief of the assas 
 sins again ejaculated the command to kneel down. The sound 
 of a second volley, in a different direction from the first, just 
 
 $4* 
 
S90 
 
 then reached our ears, and was followed by a confused cry, as if 
 those at whom it had been aimed, had not at all been immedi 
 ately killed. Our comrade, the one who understood Spanish, 
 started from his momentary lethargy, and boldly addressed us.- 
 
 " Comrades,' 7 cried he, " you hear that report, that cry ! There 
 is no hope for us our last hour is come! Therefore, com 
 rades!" 
 
 A terrible explosion interrupted him and then all was still. 
 A thick cloud of smoke was wreathing and curling towards the 
 St. Antonio. The blood of our lieutenant was on my clothes, and 
 around me lay my friends, convulsed by th$ last agony. I saw 
 nothing more. Unhurt myself, I sprang up, and, concealed by the 
 thick smoke, fled along the side of the hedge in the direction of 
 the river, the noise of the water for my guide. Suddenly a blow 
 from a heavy sabre fell upon my head, and from out of the smoke 
 emerged the form of a little Mexican lieutenant. He aimed a 
 second blow at me, which I parried with my left arm. I had 
 nothing to risk, but everything to gain. It was life or death. 
 Behind me a thousand bayonets, before me the almost powerless 
 sword of a coward. I rushed upon him, and with true Mexican 
 valour, he fled from an unarmed man. On I went, the river rolled 
 at my feet, the soldiers were shouting and yelling behind. *' Texas 
 for ever !" cried I, and without a moment's hesitation, plunged 
 into the water. The bullets whistled round me as I swam slowly 
 and wearily to the other side, but none wounded me. Our poor 
 dog, who had been with us all through the campaign, and had 
 jumped into the river with me, fell a last sacrifice to Mexican 
 cruelty. He had reached the middle of the stream, when a ball 
 struck him, and he disappeared. 
 
 Whilst these horrible scenes were occurring in the prairie, 
 Colonel Fanning and his wounded companions were shot and 
 bayoneted at Goliad, only Doctor Thackleford and a few hospital 
 aids having their lives spared, in order that they might attend on 
 the wounded Mexicans. Besides Mr. Ehrenberg, but three of the 
 prisoners at Goliad ultimately escaped the slaughter. 
 
 Having crossed the St. Antonio, Mr. Ehrenberg struck into the 
 
391 
 
 high grass and thickets, which concealed him from the pursuit of 
 the Mexicans, and wandered through the prairie, guiding himself 
 as best he might, by sun and stars, and striving to reach the river 
 Brazos. He lost his way, and want through a variety of striking 
 adventures, which, with some characteristic sketches of Texian 
 life and habits, of General Sam Houston and Santa Anna, and a 
 spirited account of the battle of St. Jacinto, at which, however, he 
 himself was not present, fill up the remainder of his book. Of 
 one scene, between Houston and his army, we will make a final 
 extract : 
 
 It was the latter end of March, and the army of Texian militia, 
 under Houston, which had increased to about thirteen hundred 
 men, was assembled on the banks of the Colorado river. One 
 messenger after another had arrived, bringing news that had con 
 verted them into perfect cannibals, thirsting after Mexican blood. 
 The murder of Grant and his horsemen, that of Johnson and 
 King with their detachments ; the unaccountable disappearance 
 of Ward, who was wandering about in the prairie; and finally, 
 Horton's report of the capture of the unfortunate Fanning: all 
 these calamities, in conjunction with the fall of the Alamo, had 
 raised the fury of the backwoodsmen to such a pitch, that they 
 were neither to hold nor bind, and nobody but Sam Houston 
 would have been able to curb them. 
 
 The old general sat upon a heap of saddles ; and in a circle 
 round a large fire, sat or stood, leaning upon their rifles, the cap 
 tains of the militia. The whole group was surrounded by a 
 grumbling crowd of backwoodsmen. The dark fiery eyes of the 
 officers, nearly all tall powerful figures, glanced alternately at the 
 flames and at old Sam, who was the only calm person present. 
 Slowly taking a small knife from his waistcoat pocket, he opened 
 it, produced a huge piece of Cavendish, cut off a quid, shoved it 
 between his upper lip and frdnt teeth, and handed the tobacco to 
 his nearest neighbour. This was a gigantic captain, the upper 
 part of whose body was clothed in an Indian hunting-coat, his 
 head covered with what had once been a fine beaver hat, but of 
 which the broad-brirn now flapped down over his ears, whilst hi 
 
392 
 
 
 
 strong muscular legs were wrapped from knee to ankle in thick 
 crimson flannel, a precaution against the thorns of the muskeet- 
 trees not unfrequently adopted in the west. His bullet-pouch was 
 made out of the head of a leopard, in which eyes of red cloth 
 had been inserted, bringing out, by contrast, the beauty of the 
 skin, and was suspended from a strap of brown untanned deer- 
 hide. With an expression of great bitterness, the backwoodsman 
 handed the tobacco to the man next to him ; and it passed on 
 from hand to hand, untasted by any one a sign of uncommon 
 excitement amongst-the persons there assembled. When the des 
 pised Cavendish had gone the round, the old general stuck it in 
 his pocket again, and continued the conference, at the same time 
 whittling a stick with perfect coolness and unconcern. 
 
 " Yes," said he, " I tell you that our affairs look rather ticklish 
 can't deny it but that is the only thing that will bring the 
 people to their senses. Santa Anna may destroy the colonies, but 
 it won't be Sam Houston's fault. Instead of at once assembling, 
 the militia stop at home with their wives quite comfortable in 
 the chimney corner think that a handful of volunteers can whip 
 ten thousand of these half-bloods." Quite mistaken, gentlemen 
 quite mistaken. You see it now the brave fellows are gone a 
 scandal it is for us and the enemy is at our heels. Instead of 
 seeing four or five thousand of our people here, there are thirteen 
 hundred the others are minding the shop making journeys to 
 the Sabine. Can't help it comrades, must retire to the Brazos, 
 into the forests must be off, and that at once." 
 
 41 Stop, general, that aint't sense," cried a man, with a cap made 
 out of a -wild-cat's skin ; " not a step backwards the enemy must 
 soon come,. and then we'll whip 'em so glorious, that it will be a 
 pleasure to see it ; the miserable vampires that they are !" 
 
 " A fight ! a fight ?" shouted the surrounding throng. " For 
 Texas, now or never !" 
 
 "Sam Houston is not of that opinion, my fine fellows," 
 answered the general, " and it is not his will to fight. Sam will 
 not risk the fate of the republic in a single foolhardy battle. The 
 broad woods of the Brazos shall do us good service. Though you 
 
393 
 
 are brave, and willing to risk your lives, it would be small benefit 
 to the country if you lost them. No, my boys, we'll give it to the 
 vermin, nevr fear ; they shall have it, as sure as Sam Houston 
 stands in his own shoes." 
 
 " It's impossible 'for us to go back, general," cried another 
 speaker ; u can't be must at 'em ! What, general, our richest 
 plantations lie between the Colorado and the Brazos, and are we 
 to abandon them to these thieves ? Old Austin * would rise out 
 of his grave if he heard the footsteps of the murderers upon the 
 prairie. No, General must be at them must conquer or die !" 
 
 " Must conquer or die !" was echoed through the crowd ; but 
 the old general sat whittling away, as cool as a cucumber, and 
 seemed determined that the next victory he gained should be in 
 his own camp. 
 
 ** Boys," said he and he stood up, took another quid, shut his 
 knife, and continued " Boys, you want to fight very praisewor 
 thy indeed your courage is certainly very praiseworthy ; but 
 suppose the enemy brings artillery with him, can you, will you, 
 take the responsibility of giving battle before our tardy fellow- 
 citizens come up to reinforce us?. How will you answer it to 
 your consciences, if the republic falls back under the Mexican 
 yoke, because an undisciplined mob would not wait the favorable 
 moment for a fight ? No, no, citizens we must retire to the Bra 
 zos, where our rifles will give us the advantage ; whilst here we 
 should have to charge the enemy, who is five times our strength, 
 in the open prairie. Don't doubt your courage, as you call it 
 though it's only foolhardiness but I represent the republic, and 
 am answerable to the whole people for what I do. Can't allow 
 you to fight here. Once more I summon you to follow me to 
 San Felipe, and all who wish well to Texas will be ready in an 
 hour's time. Every moment we may expect to see the enemy on 
 the other side of the river. Once more then to the banks of 
 the Brazos !" 
 
 * The founder of the American colonies in Texas, and father of Stephen 
 F Austin. 
 
394 
 
 The old general walked off to his tent, and the crowd betook 
 themselves to their fires, murmuring and discontented, and put 
 their rifles in order. But in an hour and a half, the Texian army 
 left their camp on the Colorado. Sam Houston had prevailed, and 
 the next evening he and his men reached San Felipe, and, with 
 out pausing there, marched up the river. On the 30th March the 
 first squadron of the enemy showed itself near San Felipe. The 
 inhabitants abandoned their well-stored shops and houses, set fire 
 to them with their own hands, and fled across the river. The 
 Mexicans entered the town, and their rage was boundless when, 
 instead of a rich booty, they found heaps of ashes. Houston had 
 now vanished, and^his foes could nowhere trace him, till he sud 
 denly, and of his own accord, reappeared upon the scene, and fell 
 on them like a thunderbolt, amply refuting the false and base 
 charge brought against him by his enemies, that he had retreated 
 through cowardice. But to this day it is a riddle to me how he 
 managed to reduce to obedience the unruly spirits he commanded, 
 and to induce them to retreat across the Brazos to Buffalo Bayou. 
 Of one thing I am certain only Sam Houston could have done 
 it ; no other man in the republic. 
 
 Mr. Ehrenberg escaped from all his perils in time to share the 
 rejoicings of the Texians at the final evacuation of the country 
 by the Mexican army. And certainly they had cause for exulta 
 tion, not only at being rid of their cruel and semi-barbarous 
 oppressors, but in the persevering gallantry they had displayed 
 throughout the whole campaign, during which many errors were 
 committed and many lives uselessly sacrificed, but of which the 
 close was nevertheless so glorious to tho*se engaged in it. 
 Unskilled in military tactics, without discipline or resources, the 
 stubborn courage of a handful of American backwoodsmen proved 
 an overmatch for Santa Anna and his hosts, and the fairest and 
 freshest leaf of the Mexican cactus was rent from the parent stem, 
 never to be reunited.* 
 
 * The arms of Mexico are a cactus, with as man; leaves as there are 
 states of the republic. 
 
THE ESCAPE. 
 
 A TALE OF NAVARRE. 
 
 IT was about an hour after sunset, and contrary to what is usual 
 in the early part of autumn in Spain, the night was dark and cloudy. 
 A slight mist rose from the fields surrounding the village, and a 
 fine rain began to fall. In the guard-room adjoining the house 
 in which Luis Herrera was prisoner, the soldiers on duty were 
 assembled round a rickety table, on which a large, coarse tallow" 
 candle, stuck in a bottle, flared and guttered, and emitted an 
 odor even more powerful than that of the tobacco smoke with which 
 the room was filled. The air was heavy, the heat oppressive, and 
 both the house-door and that of the guard-room, which was at 
 right angles to it, just within the passage, were left open. Whilst 
 some few of the men, their arms crossed upon the table, and their 
 heads laid upon them, dozed away the time till their turn for 
 going on sentry should arrive, the sergeant and the remainder of 
 the guard, including a young recruit who had only two days before 
 deserted from the Christinos and been incorporated in a Carlist 
 battalion, consumed successive measures of wine, to be paid for 
 by those who were least successful in a trial of skill that was 
 going on amongst them. This consisted in drinking de alto, as it 
 is called literally, from a height and was accomplished by hold 
 ing a small narrow-necked bottle at arm's length above the head, 
 and allowing the wine to flow in a thin stream into the mouth. 
 In this feat of address the new recruit, whose name was Perrico, 
 was so successful as to excite the envy of his less dexterous 
 rivals. 
 
 "Pshaw!" said the sergeant, who, in a clumsily executed 
 attempt, had inundated his chin and moustache with the purple 
 
 805 
 
396 
 
 liquid " Pshaw !" said he, on seeing the deserter raise his bottle 
 in the <iir and allow its contents to trickle steadily and noiselessly 
 down his expanded gullet ; " Perrico beats us all." 
 
 "No wonder," said a soldier, "he is from the country where 
 Grenache and Tinto are more plentiful than water, and where 
 nobody drinks in any other way, or ever puts a glass to his lips. 
 He is a Catalan." 
 
 " An Arragonese," hastily interrupted Perrico, eager to vindi 
 cate himself from belonging to a province which the rough man 
 ners and harsh dialect of its inhabitants cause generally to be 
 held in small estimation throughout the rest of Spain. "An 
 Arragonese, from the siempre heroica Sarragossa." 
 
 "It is all one," said the sergeant with a horse-laugh; " all of 
 the corona de Aragon, as the Catalans say when they are ashamed 
 of their country. But what induced you, Don Perrico, being 
 from Sarragossa, where they are all as revolutionary as Kiego, to 
 leave 'the service of the Neapolitan woman and come over to 
 Charles V.?" 
 
 " Many things," answered the deserter. " In the first place, I 
 am of a thirsty family. My father kept a wine-shop and my 
 mother was a cantiniera, and both drank as much as they sold. 
 I inherited an unfortunate addiction to the wine-skin, which upon 
 several occasions has brought me into trouble and the black-hole. 
 The latter did not please me, and I resolved to try whether I should 
 not find better treatment in the service of King Charles." 
 
 "Not if you have brought your thirst with you," answered the 
 sergeant. " Zumalacarregui does not joke in masters of disci 
 pline ; so, if your thirst troubles you here, I advise you to quench 
 it at the pump. But that will be the easier, as neither wine nor 
 money are likely to be over-abundant with us." 
 
 At this moment, and before Perrico could reply to the ser 
 geant's warning, the sentry in front of the house suspended his 
 walk and uttered a sharp " Quien vive ?" 
 
 " Carlos Quinto," was the reply. 
 
 Another password was exchanged, and then a step was audible 
 in the passage, and the bandaged head and pale face of Paco 
 
397 
 
 appeared at the door of the guard-room. The muleteer was 
 received with a cry of welcome from the soldiers. 
 
 " Hurra !" cried the sergeant, " here is your match, Perrico. 
 No Catalan or Arragonese, but a jolly Navarro. A week's pay 
 to a wet cartridge, he empties this bottle de alto without spilling a 
 drop." 
 
 And he held out one of the small bottles before mentioned, which 
 contained something like an English pint. Paco took it, raised it 
 high as he could in the air, and gradually depressing the neck, 
 the wine poured out in a slender and continuous stream, which 
 the multeer, his head thrown back, caught in his mouth. The 
 bottle was emptied without a single drop being spilt, or a stain 
 appearing on the face of the drinker. 
 
 " Bravo, Paco," cried the soldiers. 
 
 ** Could not be better," said Perrico. 
 
 "You are making a jolly guard of it," said Paco. "Wine 
 ,jems as common as ditch-water amongst you. Who pays the 
 shot !" 
 
 " I !" cried the sergeant, clapping his hand on his pocket, which 
 gave forth a sound most harmoniously metallic. " I have inhe 
 rited, friend Paco ; and, if you like to sit down with us, you shall 
 drink yourself blind without its costing you an ochuvd." 
 
 " 'Twould hardly suit my broken head," returned the muleteer. 
 " But from whom have you inherited ! From the dead or the 
 living ?" 
 
 " The living, to be sure," replied the sergeant, laughing. " From 
 a fat Christino alcalde, with whom I fell in the other morning 
 upon the Salvatierra road. His saddle-bags were worth the rum 
 maging." 
 
 " I can't drink myself," said Paco ; " but let me take out a glass 
 to poor Bias, who is walking up and down, listening to the jingle 
 of the bottles, as tantalized as a mule at the door of a corn-store.'' 
 
 " Against the regulations/' said the sergeant. " Wait till he 
 comes off sentry, and he shall have a skinful." 
 
 " Pooh !" said Paco, " a cup of wine will break no bones, on 
 aentry or off." 
 
 34 ' 
 
398 
 
 And taking advantage of the excellent humor in which his 
 potations had put the non-commissioned officer, he filled a large 
 earthen mug with wine, and left the room. 
 
 The sentinel was leaning against the house-wall, his coat-skirt 
 wrapped round the lock of his musket to protect it from the driz 
 zling rain, and looking as if he would gladly have exchanged his 
 solitary guard for a share in the revels of his comrades, when 
 Paco came out, the cup of wine in his hand, and whistling in a 
 loud key a popular Basque melody. The soldier took the wel 
 come beverage from the muleteer, unsuspicious of any other than 
 a friendly motive on the part of Paco, raised it to his lips, and 
 drank it slowly off, as if to make the pleasure of the draught as 
 long as possible. Thus engaged, he did not observe a man lurk 
 ing in the shadow of an opposite barn, and who, taking advantage 
 of the sentinel's momentary inattention, and of the position of 
 Paco, who stood so as to mask his movements from the soldier, 
 glided across the street, darted into the house, and, passing unseen 
 and unheard before the open door of the guard-room, nimbly and 
 noiselessly ascended the stairs. 
 
 The sentinel drained the cup to the last drop, returned it to 
 Paco, gave a deep sigh of satisfaction, and began marching briskly 
 up and down. Paco re-entered the guard room, and placed the 
 cup upon the table. 
 
 The wine was beginning to make visible inroads on the sobri 
 ety of some of the soldiers, and the propriety of putting an end 
 to the debauch occurred to the non-commissioned officer. 
 
 " Come, boys," cried he, " knock off from drinking, or you' 11 
 hardly go through your facings, if required." 
 
 "Only one glass more, sergeant," cried Perrico. "There is 
 still a pleasant tinkle in the borracka" 
 
 And he shook the large leathern bottle which held the supply 
 of wine. 
 
 " Only one more, then," said the sergeant, unable to resist the 
 temptation, and holding out his glass. Perrico filled it to the 
 brim, and afterwards did the same for three soldiers who still kept 
 their places at the table, the others having composed themselves 
 
399 
 
 to sleep upon the benches round the room. For himself, however, 
 as Paco, who stood behind him, had opportunity of observing, the 
 deserter poured out little or nothing, though he kept the cup at 
 his lips as long as if it were drinking an equal share with his 
 comrades. 
 
 " Now," said the sergeant, thumping his glass upon the table, 
 " not another drop. And you, Master Perrico, though your father 
 did keep a wine-shop, and your mother carry the brandy-keg, let 
 me advise you to put your head under the fountain, and then lie 
 down and sleep till your turn for sentry. It will come in an hour 
 or two." 
 
 " And where shall I be posted ?" hiccuped Perrico, who, to all 
 appearance, began to fell the effects of the strong Navarrese 
 wine. 
 
 " Under the prisoners' window," was the reply, " where you will 
 need to keep a bright look-out. I. would not be in your jacket 
 for a colonel's commission if they were to escape during your 
 guard. To-morrow's firing party would make a target of you." 
 
 " No fear," replied the young man. " I could drink another 
 azumbre and be none the worse for it." 
 
 " Fanfarron /" said the sergeant ; " you talk big enough for an 
 Andalusian instead of an Arragonese." 
 
 And so saying, the worthy sergeant walked to the door of the 
 house to cool his own temples, which he felt were somewhat of 
 the hottest, in the night air. Paco wished him good-night ; and 
 lighting a long, thin taper, composed of tow dipped in rosin, at 
 the guard-room candte, ascended the stairs to his own dormi 
 tory. 
 
 The room, or rather kennel, appropriated to the lodging of the 
 muleteer, was a triangular garret, already described, formed by the 
 ceiling of the upper story and the roof of the house, which rose 
 in an obtuse angle above it. Its greatest elevation was about six 
 feet, and that only in the centre, whence the tiles slanted down 
 wards on either side to the beams by which the floor was sup 
 ported. The entrance was by a step-ladder, and through a trap 
 door, against which, when he reached it, Paco gave two very ilight 
 
400 
 
 but peculiar taps. Thereupon a bolt was cautiously withdrawn, 
 and the trap raised ; the muleteer completed the ascent of tho 
 steps, entered the loft, and found himself face to face with Jaime 
 the gipsy. 
 
 " Did no one see you ?" asked Paco in a cautious whisper. 
 
 "No one," replied the esquilador, reseating himself uponPaco's 
 bed, from which he had risen to give admittance to the muleteer. 
 The bed consisted of a wooden catre or frame, supporting a large 
 square bag of the coarsest sackcloth, half full of dried maize- 
 leaves, and having a rent in the centre, through which to intro 
 duce the arm, and shake up the contents. The only other fur 
 niture of the room was a chair with a Tbroken back. On the floor 
 lay the gipsy's wallet, and his abarcas, which he had taken off to 
 avoid noise during his clandestine entrance into the house. The 
 gipsy himself was busy tying a slip-knot at the end of a stout 
 rope about seven or eight yards long. Another piece of cord, 
 of similar length and thickness, lay beside him, having much the 
 appearance of a halter, owing to the noose already made at one 
 of its extremities. The tiles and rafters covering the room were 
 green with damp, and through various small apertures, allowed 
 the wind and even the rain to enter with a facility which would 
 have rendered the abode untenable for a human inhabitant during 
 any but the summer season. In one of the slopes of the roof war 
 an opening in the tiles, at about four feet from the floor, closed 
 by a wooden door, and large enough to give egress to a man. To 
 this opening Paco now pointed. 
 
 "Through there," said he. 
 
 The gipsy nodded. 
 
 " The roof is strong," continued Paco, " and will bear us well. 
 We creep along the top till we get to the chimney at the furthe 
 end, just above the window of the prisoner's room. I hav< 
 explained to you what is then to be done." 
 
 " It is hazardous," said the gipsy. "If -a tile slips under our 
 feet, or the sentries catch sight of us, we shall be picked off the 
 house-top like sparrows." 
 
 " Perfectly true," aid Paco ; " but th tile will not slip, and 
 
401 
 
 the night is too dark for the sentries to see us. Besides, friend 
 Jaime, ten ounces are not to be earned by saying paternosters, or 
 without risk." 
 
 " Risk enough already," grumbled the gipsy. " At this hour I 
 ought to be five leagues away, and if he, on whose service I was 
 bound, finds out that I have tarried, no tree in the sierra will be 
 too high to hang me on." 
 
 "You must hope that he will not find it out," said Paco, 
 coolly. 
 
 " Did you give the prisoner a hint of our plan ?" inquired the 
 gitano. 
 
 " I was unable. I visit him but once a-day, to take him to his 
 rations, and that at noon. Since I arranged this plan, I endea 
 vored to get admittance to him, but was repulsed by the. sentry. 
 To have insisted would have excited suspicion. He knows, how 
 ever, that he is to be shot to-morrow, and is not likely to be 
 asleep." 
 
 Just then the deep sonorous bell of the neighboring church- 
 clock struck the hour. The two men listened, and counted ten 
 strokes. 
 
 " Is it time I" said the gipsy, who had completed the noose upon 
 the second rope. 
 
 " Not yet," replied Paco ; " let another hour strike. Till then, 
 not another word." 
 
 The muleteer extinguished the light and seated himself down 
 upon the broken chair ; the gipsy stretched himself upon the bed, 
 and all was silent and dark in the garret. Gradually, the slight 
 murmuring sounds which still issued from various houses of the 
 little village became hushed, as the inmates betook themselves to 
 rest; and Paco, who waited with anxious impatience till the 
 moment for action should arrive, heard nothing but the heavy 
 breathing of the esquilador, who had sunk into a restless slum 
 ber. Half-past ten was tolled; the challenging of the sentries 
 was heard as they were visited by the rounds; and then soon 
 afterwards came the long-drawn admonition of " Sentinela 
 alerta /" from the main guard, replied to in sharp, quick tones by 
 
 34* 
 
402 
 
 the " Alerta esta " of the sentries. At length eleven struck, ana 
 when the reverberation of the last stroke had died away, Pace 
 rose from his chair, and shook his companion from his sleep. 
 
 " It is time," said he. 
 
 The gipsy started iip. 
 
 " The money ?" was his first question. 
 
 Paco placed a small bag in the esquilador's hand, which closed 
 eagerly upon it. 
 
 " I promised you ten ounces," said the muleteer, " and you have 
 them there. When you bring me a line in the handwriting of 
 the prisoner, dated from a Christino town, you shall receive a like 
 sum. But beware of playing false, gitano. Others, more pow 
 erful than myself, are concerned in this affair, and will know how 
 to punish treachery." 
 
 The gipsy made no reply, but feeling for his wallet, put his san 
 dals and one of the ropes into it, and fastened it on his shoulders. 
 Paco slipped off his shoes, twisted the other rope round his body, 
 and opening the door in the tiles, in an instant was on the top of 
 the house. The esquilador followed. Upon their hands and feet 
 the two men ascended the gradual slope of the roof till they 
 reached the ridge in its centre, upon which they got astride, and 
 worked themselves slowly and silently along towards that end of 
 the building in which Herrera was confined. Owing to the pro 
 found darkness, and to the extreme caution with which Paco, who 
 led the way, proceeded, their progress was very gradual, and at 
 last an actual stop was put to it by a small but solidly-built stone 
 chimney which rose out of the summit, and within a foot of the 
 extremity of the house. Paco untwisted the rope from round his 
 body and handed it to the gipsy, retaining one end in his hand. 
 The esquilador fixed the noose about his middle, and altering his 
 position, passed Paco, scrambled round the chimney, and seated 
 himself on the verge of the roof, his legs dangling over. Paco 
 gave a turn of the rope round the chimney, and then leaning for 
 ward from behind it, put his mouth to the gipsy's ears, and spoke 
 in one of those suppressed whispers which seem scarcely to pass 
 the lips of the speaker. 
 
403 
 
 " Remember," said he, " ten ounces, or " 
 
 A significant motion of his hand round his throat, completed 
 the sentence in a manner doubtless comprehensible Enough to the 
 esquilador. The latter now turned himself about, and supported 
 himself with his breast and arms upon the roof, his legs and the 
 lower part of his body hanging against the side wall of the house. 
 Paco kept his seat behind the chimney, astride as before, and 
 gathering up the rope, held it firmly. Gradually the gipsy slid 
 down; his breast was off the roof, then his arms, and he merely 
 hung on by his hands. His hold was then transferred to the rope 
 above his head, of which one end was round his waist and the 
 other in the hands of Paco. All this was effected with a caution 
 and absence of noise truly extraordinary, and proving wonderful 
 coolness and habit of danger on the part of the two actors in the 
 strange scene. As the gipsy hung suspended in the air, Paco 
 began gradually paying out the rope, inch by inch. This process, 
 owing to the light weight of the gipsy, and to the check given to 
 the running of the cord by the chimney round which it was 
 turned, he was enabled without difficulty to accomplish and regu 
 late. In a brief space of time a sensible diminution of the strain 
 warned him that the gitano had found some additional means of 
 support. For the space of about three minutes, Paco sat still, 
 holding the rope firmly, but giving out no more of it ; then pull 
 ing towards him, he found it come to his hand without opposition. 
 He drew it all in, again twisted it about his body, and lying down 
 upon his belly, put his head over the edge of the tiles to see what 
 was passing beneath. All was quiet; no . light was visible from 
 the window of Herrera's room, which was at about a dozen feet 
 below him. The mist and thick darkness prevented any view of 
 the sentry ; but he could hear the sound of his footsteps, and tho 
 burden of the royalist ditty which he was churraing between 
 his teeth. % 
 
 Whilst all this took place, Luis Herrera, unsuspicious of the 
 efforts that were making for his rescue, sat alone in his room, 
 which was dimly lighted by an ill-trimmed lamp. Twelve hours 
 bad elapsed since he ha-i been informed of the fate that awaited 
 
404 
 
 him ; in twelve more his race would be run, and he should bid 
 adieu to life, with its hopes and cares, its many deceptions and 
 scanty joys. A priest who had come to give him spiritual conso 
 lation in his last hours, had left him at sundown, promising to 
 return the next morning ; and since his departure Herrera had 
 remained sitting in one place nearly in one posture, thoughtful and 
 preoccupied, but neither grieving at nor flinching from the death 
 which was to snatch him from a world whereof he had short but 
 sad experience. Alone, and almost friendless, his affections 
 blighted and hopes ruined, and his country in a state of civil war 
 all concurred to make Herrera regard his approaching death 
 with indifference. Life, which, by a strange contradiction, seems 
 prized the more as its value diminishes, and clung to with far 
 greater eagerness by the old than the young, had for him few 
 attractions remaining. Once, and only once, a shade of sadness 
 crept over his features, and he gave utterance to a deep sigh, 
 almost a sob, of regret, as he drew from his breast a small locket 
 containing a tress of golden hair. It was a gift of Rita's in their 
 happy days, before they knew sorrow or foresaw the possibility of 
 A separation ; and from this token, even when Herrera voluntarily 
 renounced his claim to her hand, and bade her farewell for ever, 
 he had not had courage to part. By a strong effort, he now 
 repressed the emotion which its sight and the recollections it 
 called up, had occasioned him, and he became calm and collected 
 as before. Drawing a table towards him, he made use of writing- 
 materials, which he had asked for and obtained, to commence a 
 long letter to Mariano Torres. This his confessor had promised 
 should be conveyed to his friend. 
 
 He had written but a few lines, when a slight sound at the 
 room window roused his attention. The noise was too trifling to 
 be much heeded ; it might have been a passing owl or bat flap 
 ping its wing against the wooden shutter. Herrera resumed his 
 writing. A fe\v moments elapsed, and the noise was again heard. 
 This time it was a distinct tapping upon the shutter, very low 
 and cautious, but repeated with a degree of regularity that argued, 
 on the part of the person making it, a desire of attracting hi 
 
405 
 
 attention. Herrera rose, from his seat, and obeying a sort of 
 instinct or impulse, for which he wduld himself have had trouble 
 to account, masked the lamp behind a piece of furniture, and has 
 tening to the window, which opened inwards, cautiously unlatched 
 it. A man, whose features were unknown to him, was supporting 
 himself on the ledge outside, his legs gathered under him, and nearly 
 the whole of his thin, flexible body coiled up within the deep embra 
 sure of the window. Putting his finger to his lips, to enjoin 
 silence, he severed, by one blow of a keen knife, a cord that encir 
 cled his waist, and then springing lightly and actively into the 
 room, closed the shutter, since the opening of which, so rapid had 
 been his movements, not ten seconds had elapsed. 
 
 Although the motive of this strange intrusion was entirely 
 unknown to him, Herrera at once inferred that it boded good 
 rather than evil. He was not long left in doubt. The esquilador 
 pointed to Herrera's wounded arm, the sleeve of which was still 
 cut open, although the wound was healed, and the limb had 
 regained its strength. 
 
 " Have you full use of that 3" said he. 
 
 " I have," replied Herrera. " But what is your errand here ?" 
 
 " To save you," answered the gipsy. " There is no time for 
 words. We must be doing." 
 
 And making a sign to Herrera to assist him, he caught hold of 
 one end of the heavy old-fashioned bedstead, which had been 
 allotted to the use of the wounded prisoner, and with the utmost 
 caution to avoid noise, lifted it from the ground and brought it 
 close to the window. Then taking a rope from his wallet, he 
 fastened it to one of the bed-posts. Herrera began to understand. 
 
 "And my companions," said he. "They also must be saved. 
 My room door is locked, but the next window is that of their 
 apartment." 
 
 "It is impossible," said the gipsy. "You may be saved, per 
 haps ; but to attempt the rescue of more would be destruction. 
 Look here,"- 
 
 The gipsy extinguished the lamp, and, stepping upon the bed, 
 re-opened the shutter, and drew Herrera towards him. 
 
406 
 
 *' Listen," said he, in a low whisper. 
 
 The tread of the sentry was heard, and at that moment, the 
 glare of a lantern fell upon the trees, bordering the field opposite 
 the window. Beyond that field the ground was broken and 
 uneven, covered with tall bushes, fern, And masses of rock, am 
 sloping upwards towards the neighboring hills. The light drew 
 nearer ; the sentry challenged. It was the relief. Their heads in 
 the embrasure of the window, Herrera and the gipsy could heai 
 every word that passed. The man going off sentry gave over his 
 instructions to his successor. They were few and short. Th( 
 principal was, to fire upon any one of the prisoners who should s< 
 much as show himself at a window. 
 
 By the light of the lantern which the corporal carried, Pace 
 who was still peering over the edge of the roof, distinguished th< 
 features of the new sentry. They were those of Perrico, th 
 Christino deserter. The relief marched away, the sentinel shoul 
 dered his musket, and walked slowly up to the further end of hi 
 post. 
 
 " Now then," said the gipsy to Herrera, " fix the rope roun< 
 your waist. We will let him pass once more, and when he agai; 
 turns his back, I will lower you. I shall be on the ground nearl 
 as quickly as yourself, and then keep close to me. Take this, i 
 may be useful." 
 
 And he handed him a formidable clasp-knife, of which th< 
 curved and sharp-pointed blade was fitted into a strong horn han 
 die. With some repugnance, but aware of the possible necessity 
 he might find for it, Herrera took the weapon. The rope was 
 round his waist, and, with his hands upon the embrasure of tht 
 window, he only waited to spring out for a signal from the gipsy 5 
 who was watching, as- well as the obscurity would permit, the 
 movements of the soldier. The night was growing lighter, the 
 wind had risen and swept away the mist from the fields, overhead 
 the clouds had broken, and the stars were visible, sparkling i n 
 their setting of dark blue enamel. 
 
 " Now !" said the gipsy, wno De ^ tne s ^ ac ^ f the rope 
 gathered up in his hands. " No, *S>p !" cried he, in a sharp whis- 
 
07 
 
 per, checking Herrera,who was about to jump out, and draw 
 ing hastily back. " Hell and the devil ! what is he about?" 
 
 The window of the room was nearly at the extremity of the 
 sentinel's post, so that, during one period of his walk, the soldier's 
 jpack, owing to the slow pace at which he marched up und down, 
 was turned for a full minute. It was upon this brief space of time 
 that the gipsy had calculated for accomplishing his own descent 
 and that of his companion. He had allowed the soldier to proceed 
 twice along the whole length of his post, meaning to avail himself 
 of the third turn he should take. But to his surprise and per 
 plexity, when the man passed for the third time, he left his usual 
 track, moved some twenty. paces backwards from the house, and 
 gazed up at Herrera's window. Apparently he could distinguish 
 nothing ; for, after remaining a few moments stationary, he again 
 approached the wall of the house, looked cautiously around him, 
 and, giving three low distinct coughs, continued his walk. With 
 out pausing to consider the meaning of this strange proceeding, 
 the esquilador cauyht. Herrera's arm. 
 
 14 Out with you," said he, u and quickly I" 
 
 Herrera darted through the winuow, hung on for one ihstant 
 by the edge, and let himself go the gipsy, with a degree of 
 strength that could hardly have been anticipated in one so slightly 
 built, holding the rope firmly, and lowering him steadily and 
 rapidly. The moment that his feet touched the ground, the gipsy 
 sprang out of the window, and. grasping the rope, began descend 
 ing by the aid of his hands and feet with the agility of a monkey 
 or a sailor boy. Before he vas half-way down, however, the sen 
 tinel, who had reached the end or ms walk, began retracing his 
 steps. Herrera's heart' beat quick. Hastily cutting the noose 
 from round his waist, he pressed himself against the wall and 
 stood motionless, scarcely venturing to breathe. The sentinel 
 approached. Dark though it was, it seemed impossible that he 
 did not already perceive what was passing. Gliding along close 
 to the wall, Herrera prepared to spring upon him at the first 
 sound uttered, or dangerous movement made by him. The sol 
 dier drew nearer, paused, let the butt of his musket fall gently to 
 
40$ 
 
 the 'ground, and clasped his hands over the muzzle flenw 
 made a bound forward, and clutching his throat, placed the poiu 
 of his knife against his breast. 
 
 " One word," said he, " and I strike I n 
 
 " At the heart of your best friend," replied the soldier, in 
 voice of which the well-known accents thrilled Herrera's blood. 
 
 " Mariano !" he exclaimed. 
 
 "Himself!" replied Mariano Torres. 
 
 Just then the gipsy, who had reached the ground, sprang upo 
 the disguised Christino, and made a furious blow at him with hi 
 knife. Torres raised his arm, and the blade passed through th 
 loose sleeve of his capote. Herrera hastened to interfere. 
 
 " Tis a friend," said he. 
 
 The gipsy made a step backwards, in distrust and uncer 
 tainty. 
 
 " I tell you it is a friend," repeated Herrera" a comrade of 
 my own, who has come to aid my escape. And now that you 
 have rescued me, act as our guide to the nearest Christino post, 
 and your reward shall be ample." 
 
 * 
 

 
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