Cash said, `Well, they murdered my brother with Colonel
Fannin, and they are about to murder me.' J.L. Jones said to the
interpreter, `Tell the officer to look upon men who are not afraid to
die for their country.' Captain Eastland behaved with the most
patriotic dignity; he desired that his country should not particularly
avenge his death. Major Dunham said he was prepared to die for his
country. James Ogden, with his usual equanimity of temper, smiled at
his fate and said, `I am prepared to meet it.' Young Robert W. Harris
behaved in the most unflinching manner, and called upon his companions
to avenge their murder.

"They were bound together--their eyes being bandaged--and set upon a log
near the wall with their backs towards their executioners. They all
begged the officer to shoot them in front, and at a short distance,
saying they `_were not afraid to look death in the face_.' This request
the Mexican refused; and to make his cruelty as refined as possible,
caused the fire to be delivered from a distance, and to be continued for
ten or twelve minutes, lacerating and mangling those heroes in a manner
too horrible for description."

When you talk of Thermopylae think also of Texas!

"But what of Holingsworth?" I asked.

"Ah! Holingsworth!" replied the lieutenant; "_he has_ good cause to
remember Ijurra, now I think of it. I shall give the story to you as I
heard it;" and my companion proceeded with a relation, which caused the
blood to curdle in my veins, as I listened. It fully explained, if it
did not palliate, the fierce hatred of the Tennessean towards Rafael
Ijurra.

In the Mier expedition Holingsworth had a brother, who, like himself,
was made prisoner. He was a delicate youth, and could ill endure the
hardships, much less the barbarous treatment, to which the prisoners
were exposed during that memorable march. He became reduced to a
skeleton, and worse than that, footsore, so that he could no longer
endure the pain of his feet and ankles, worn skinless, and charged with
the spines of acacias, cactus, and the numerous thorny plants in which
the dry soil of Mexico is so prolific. In agony he fell down upon the
road.

Ijurra was in command of the guard; from him Holingsworth's brother
begged to be allowed the use of a mule. The youth had known Ijurra at
San Antonio, and had even lent him money, which was never returned.

"To your feet and forward!" was Ijurra's answer.

"I cannot move a s