ind. The court broke up, and Fielding, probably
to show how deep was his remorse, gave three cheers, to which the whole
court answered with a hurrah, and the merchant was called upon to treat
the whole company: of course he complied, and they all left the
court-house. Gabriel and I remained behind. He had often tried to
persuade me to abandon my ideas of going to the States and Europe,
pointing out to me that I should be made a dupe and become a prey to
pretended well-wishers. He had narrated to me many incidents of his own
life, of his folly and credulity, which had thrown him from an eminent
station in civilized society, and had been the cause of our meeting in
the Western World. He forewarned me that I should be disappointed in my
expectations, and reap nothing but vexation and disappointment. He knew
the world too well. I knew nothing of it, and I thought that he was
moved by bitterness of spirit to rail so loud against it. He would fain
persuade me to return with him to my own tribe of Shoshones, and not go
in search of what I never should obtain. He was right, but I was
obstinate. He did not let pass this opportunity of giving me a lesson.

"You have now witnessed," said he, "a sample of justice in this
_soi-disant_ civilized country. Two hundred dollars perhaps, have
cleared a murderer; ten millions would not have done it among the
Shoshones."

"But Texas is not Europe," replied I.

"No," said Gabriel, "it is not; but in Europe, as in Texas, with money
you can do anything, without money nothing."

At that moment we perceived a man wrapt in his blanket, and leaning
against a tree.

He surveyed the group receding to the tavern, and the deepest feelings
of hatred and revenge were working evidently within him. He saw us not,
so intense were his thoughts. It was the plaintiff whose son had been
murdered. Gabriel resumed.

"Now, mark that man; he was the plaintiff, the father of the young
fellow so shamefully plundered and murdered; he is evidently a poor
farmer, or the assassin would have been hung. He is now brooding over
revenge; the law gave not justice, he will take it into his own hands,
and he will probably have it to-night, or to-morrow. Injustice causes
crime, and ninety-nine out of a hundred are forced into it by the
impotency of the law; they suffer once, and afterwards act towards
others as they have been acted by. That man may have been till this day
a good, industrious, and hospitable farmer; to-ni