The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-09-20

1luOLS UA0 uulAD0I. ao IttUUcI uetuy III
the ardent spirit of the times, also answer
ed the far cry of the borders, leaving the
young wife SO lately wed to wait in prayer
and tears soldiers uncertain coming.
For four days the weary and footsore
band travelled down deep canyon, whose
steep sides narrowed and narrowed until
they closed and barred them in. Then the
retracing of those same steps On and on,
in the silence and gloom of the mighty
contortions of nature, without food, with
out drink. tired in limb, weary and dazed
in mind, their tongues purple and swollen
with thirst, yet seeing in fancy the flower
strewn prairies of their beloved Texas and
the fond hearts beating a welcome there,
still opening up new trails and pushing
on with the courage and faith that made
the martyrs of the Alamo and the heroes
of San Jacinto.
Once Harvey fell exhausted in the shade
Of tree and begged his comrades to leave
him, but his friend lifted him up whis-
pered magic name and babe him press on.
On the evening Of the tenth day they
were met by body of the Mexican cavalry
and hidden to halt and give up their arms.
Half starved and dying, tt " were Tex
ans yet, and their brave commander re-
1uSO0 w w oO CAOOHu uaQCl uICduy oulPOld-
tions.
A treaty was drawn up, and once again
false vows were pledged by Spanish lips.
Water was not reached until sunset of
the next day. By that time only four of
the men were able to walk. Harvey, among
many others, had fallen and been lifted
and strapped across saddled horses and
thus brought into camp. After three
lob I,,;~ bolF
were restored by those arts of healing to
Mexicans known so we'll, they were carried,
handcuffed in pairs, into Saltillo and
thence to Salado.
The hoary walls of the old hacienda
looked down in sinister strength as the
thinnod ranks filed in. Eight Mexicans
were outside digging trench. Ned ex-
changed look with Harvey, his compan-
ion in irons, and whispered, 'sThat means
death" He was not wrong. At o'clock
Of the same day the prisoners were ordered
out and ranged in double line against one
Of the walls.
The officer in command then read the
written decree of Santa Anna, president
of Mexico, decree which pronounced for
these men a fate so ingenious in it's tor
ture to mind and body that it might have
been conceived in the subtle brain of
Herod
Every tenth man was to be killed, the
decision to be made by lottery. Into a
jar were to be dropped 40 beans-153
white and II black
Each man was to take out bean. Those
drawing the black ones were to be shot
before the sun went down; the rest spared
death, but retained as prisoners.
On March 20 the roll was called.
As each hand was slowly lifted and
poised for one single instant above the
mouth of the jar life and death must
have met and made salute.
The game was for souls, and the die
was Mexican bean.
Fosters name was called near the last,
and he carelessly dropped in his left hand
with perchance a Renaissance of childish
days when he had done such things ssfor
luck" and found he had picked up white
bean.
AS he returned to his place Harvey
passed him, and Ned saw in the white
drawn face of his friend no sign of fear,
but the mental anguish of Gethsemane
What was it he had said last night in
one Of the pauses of that long march?
That perhaps even now baby voice
was waking faint echoes in his little
home and that the anxiety he was bearing
for another was sharper with pain than
any physical torture he had experienced Z
Ned looked at the smooth white oval of
the vegetable seed in his hand and made
resolve.
When he looked up, Harvey was just
raising his hand. Ned noticed how it
trembled.
When the fingers were Withdrawn, there
was something black outlined against
their bloodless tips.
The change in his face was as of death.
With a quick movement toward his
friend Foster made a sudden thrust and
gesture, and-how it was done no one
could ever explain-but after the slight
confusion and peremptory orders to fall in
line Harvey was seen standing in his old
place, staring with bewildered gaze at a
white object in his open hand, and Ned,
erect and calm, with brow of more than
mortal beauty, awaiting the signal of
DEATH
AS soon as Harvey regained control of
his confused faculties he made frantic,
pitiable efforts to communicate with his
friend, but was silenced at the point of a
musket and compelled to throw himself
face downward with the rest, while the
II doomed men were led forth, bound to-
gether with cords, their eyes bandaged
and shot repeatedly until life was extinct
They asked the privilege of being shot
from the front, but were refused and
made to sit upon log near the wall with
their backs to the executioners.
Six were taken out first, then six more,
and then five.
Darkness fell like great funeral pail
as the last shots were fired, and stars shed
their holy candle rays upon the dead-the
dishonored dead-lying in one great heap,
body piled atop of body.
There live today those whose eyes look
ed upon that scene, and although the suns
Of more than so summers have since
swung above the fort, and rains beaten
upon it, and winds tanned it's rugged
sides, it stands today and will stand for
all the tomorrows, grim and changeless,
in eternal penance, marking the spot of a
butchery SO inhuman that it is worthy to
mate with the murderous deeds of Nero.
1t was not until months had passed
months snent in irons in the Castle Perote.