The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-07-11 00:00:00

down discharged it into the face of !the wounded man, who
stretched out his limbs convulsively and was dead.
" There's one rascally Spaniard the less, anyhow," he mut-
tered. And without another remark or thought on the atro-
cious act just committed the party quietly proceeded on their
way.

A WELL DESERVED DOOM.
When within a few yards of the gate, the first object which
presented itself was the girl Candelaria seated on a stone by
the roadside, with her long black hair dishevelled, and hanging
in masses over her neck and shoulders : her face was white as
snow, and a wild and almost idiotic expression possessed her
features. Her dress was, moreover, disordered, the upper part
being partly torn from her shoulders. She neither looked up
nor gave token of consciousness of their presence, until one
Miguel, her lover, rode up, and, throwing himself off his horse,
took her hand, and asked tenderly what ailed her.
"Nome tocas!" (Touch me not), answered the girl, looking
into his face. " Quita-te, Miguel, ya no soy como era! Ah,
Dios mio, que estop ahora desdichada y infeliz! Quita-te,
Miguel, por Dios, yno me tocas!" (Away from me Miguel, I
am not what I was ! Ah my God, miserable and polluted that
lam ! Away, Miguel, and touch me not!) she cried, waving
him from her
"Maria purissima!" muttered Miguel, clenching his teeth,
"presta me auxilio 1" (lend me aid), as, dropping the hand of
the unfortunate girl, he sprang into his saddle and dashed into
the gate of the rancho before his companions had time to stay
him. In another minute he was galloping out, with a Texan
dragging on the ground after him, the noose of Miguel's lasso
round his neck, and the other end attached to the horn of his
saddle. Turning into the plain, he dashed furiously over the
most rocky portion of the ground, the dead body of the Texan
trailing after him, with its head smashed to pieces by the rocks
over and against which it had been dragged, and besmearing
them with blood and brains in its course.
The Rangers inside the rancho, when they saw this daring
act, rushed out of the gate without thinking of their arms, and
were immediately set upon by the infuriated Mexicans. In a
minute all but two were lassoed and lanced to death. The cap-
tain and another succeeded in reaching the corral, and mount-
ing two horses, which with several others stood saddled within,
jamped into the saddles and essayed to escape. The gateway,
however, was thronged with the Mexicans; and although the
crowd opened as Smith, with a pistol in each hand, charged
into the midst, firing right and left and dropping two of his
opponents, yet at the same time a score of lassoes, thrown by
unerring hands, whirred through the air, and horse and rider
were soon rolling over each other on the ground. Smith strug-
gled instantly to his feet, and drawing his bowie-knifes cut the
thongs which hound him. and struck furiously with the long
and glittering blade at all who came within his reach. His
companion already lay struggling on the ground, to which he
was pinned by a lance thrust through his neck ; and, spite of
his hopeless resistance, Smith was soon again lassooed and
thrown violently down, and a dozen lance blades were quickly
drinking the life blood of the Texan Ranger.
When, some days after, a detachment arrived from Victoria
to relieve the part of Rangers, all that remained of them were
the bleached and well-picked bones, on which the wolves had
long before most daintily regaled.