rest of 'em, poor fellows!"

Wheatley's allusion to "drawing his bean" I understood well enough. All
who have ever read the account of this ill-starred adventure will
remember, that the Texans, goaded by ill-treatment, rose upon their
guard, disarmed, and conquered them; but in their subsequent attempt to
escape, ill managed and ill guided, nearly all of them were recaptured,
and _decimated_--each tenth man having been shot like a dog!

The mode of choosing the victims was by lot, and the black and white
beans of Mexico (_frijoles_) were made use of as the expositors of the
fatal decrees of destiny. A number of the beans, corresponding to the
number of the captives, was placed within an earthen _olla_--there being
a black bean for every nine white ones. He who drew the black bean must
die!

During the drawing of this fearful lottery, there occurred incidents
exhibiting character as heroic as has ever been recorded in story.

Read from an eye-witness:--

"They all drew their beans with manly dignity and firmness. Some of
lighter temper jested over the bloody tragedy. One would say, `_Boys!
this beats raffling all to pieces_!' Another, `_Well, this is the
tallest gambling-scrape I ever was in_.' Robert Beard, who lay upon the
ground exceedingly ill, called his brother William, and said, `Brother,
if you draw a black bean, I'll take your place--I want to die!' The
brother, with overwhelming anguish, replied, `No, I will keep my own
place; _I am stronger, and better able to die than you_.' Major Cocke,
when he drew the fatal bean, held it up between his finger and thumb,
and, with a smile of contempt, said, `Boys! I told you so: I never
failed in my life to draw a prize!' He then coolly added, `They only
rob me of forty years.' Henry Whaling, one of Cameron's best fighters,
as he drew his black bean, said, in a joyous tone, `Well, they don't
make much out of me anyhow: I know I've killed twenty-five of them.'
Then demanding his dinner in a firm voice, he added, `They shall not
cheat me out of it!' Saying this, he ate heartily, smoked a cigar, and
in twenty minutes after had ceased to live! The Mexicans fired fifteen
shots at Whaling before he expired! Young Torrey, quite a youth but in
spirit a giant, said that he `was perfectly willing to meet his fate--
for the glory of his country he had fought, and for her glory he was
willing to die.' Edward Este spoke of his death with the coolest
indifference.