raw night, complaining of cold to his guard, wood was brought,
which he piled up in the middle of the room. Then mounting that, and
succeeding in breaking through the roof, he noiselessly crept to the
eaves, below which a sentinel, wrapped in a heavy cloak, paced to
and fro, to prevent his escape. He watched until the guard's back was
turned, then swung himself from the wall, and with as much ease as
possible, walked to a mess-fire, where his friends in waiting supplied
him with a pistol and clothing. When day broke, the town of Fernandez
lay far beneath him in the valley, and two days after he was safe in our
camp.

Many a hand-to-hand encounter ensued during the fight at Taos, one of
which was by Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, whom I knew intimately; a grand
old gentleman, now sleeping peacefully in the quaint little graveyard at
Mora, New Mexico, where he resided for many years. The gallant colonel,
while riding along, noticed an Indian with whom he was well acquainted
lying stretched out on the ground as if dead. Confident that this
particular red devil had been especially prominent in the hellish acts
of the massacre, the colonel dismounted from his pony to satisfy himself
whether the savage was really dead or only shamming. He was far from
being a corpse, for the colonel had scarcely reached the spot, when the
Indian jumped to his feet and attempted to run a long, steel-pointed
lance through the officer's shoulder. Colonel St. Vrain was a large,
powerfully built man; so was the Indian, I have been told. As each of
the struggling combatants endeavoured to get the better of the other,
with the savage having a little the advantage, perhaps, it appears that
"Uncle Dick" Wooton, who was in the chase after the rebels, happened to
arrive on the scene, and hitting the Indian a terrific blow on the head
with his axe, settled the question as to his being a corpse.

Court for the trial of the insurrectionists assembled at nine o'clock.
On entering the room, Judges Beaubien and Houghton were occupying their
official positions. After many dry preliminaries, six prisoners were
brought in--ill-favoured, half-scared, sullen fellows; and the jury of
Mexicans and Americans having been empanelled, the trial commenced.
It certainly did appear to be a great assumption on the part of
the Americans to conquer a country, and then arraign the revolting
inhabitants for treason. American judges sat on the bench. New Mexicans
and Americans fille