asa Americano drank their juleps, and puffed their
cigarettes in silence.

The sheriff, Metcalf, formerly a mountaineer, was in want of the
wherewithal to hang the condemned criminals, so he borrowed some rawhide
lariats and picket-ropes of a teamster.

"Hello, Met," said one of the party present, "these reatas are mighty
stiff--won't fit; eh, old feller?"

"I've got something to make 'em fit--good 'intment--don't emit very
sweet perfume; but good enough for Greasers," said the sheriff,
producing a dollar's worth of Mexican soft soap. "This'll make 'em slip
easy--a long ways too easy for them, I 'spect."

The prison apartment was a long chilly room, badly ventilated by one
small window and the open door, through which the sun lit up the
earth floor, and through which the poor prisoners wistfully gazed.
Two muscular Mexicans basked in its genial warmth, a tattered serape
interposing between them and the ground. The ends, once fringed but
now clear of pristine ornament, were partly drawn over their breasts,
disclosing in the openings of their fancifully colored shirts--now
glazed with filth and faded with perspiration--the bare skin, covered
with straight black hair. With hands under their heads, in the mass of
stringy locks rusty-brown from neglect, they returned the looks of
their executioners with an unmeaning stare, and unheedingly received the
salutation of--"Como le va!"

Along the sides of the room, leaning against the walls, were crowded the
poor wretches, miserable in dress, miserable in features, miserable
in feelings--a more disgusting collection of ragged, greasy, unwashed
prisoners were, probably, never before congregated within so small a
space as the jail of Taos.

About nine o'clock, active preparations were made for the execution, and
the soldiery mustered. Reverend padres in long black gowns, with meek
countenances, passed the sentinels, intent on spiritual consolation, or
the administration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, commanding the military, ordered every
American under arms. The prison was at the edge of the town; no houses
intervened between it and the fields to the north. One hundred and fifty
yards distant, a gallows was erected.

The word was passed, at last, that the criminals were coming. Eighteen
soldiers received them at the gate, with their muskets at "port arms";
the six abreast, with the sheriff on the right--nine soldiers on each
side.

The poor priso