ry
peals, and repeated bursts of military music denoted that it was a gala
day in the ancient city. At that moment the great body of the Mexican
army crossed the stream under the orders of General Torrejon, and these
were the forces that Walker and his rangers had eluded while bearing to
Isabel the cheering despatch from Major Brown.

* * * * *

At the close of this chapter, and while we are preparing for graver
subjects, it may not be uninteresting for the reader to obtain a careful
picture of those TEXAN RANGERS, whose services had already
proved so useful, and who were to play an important part in this bloody
drama.

These were the bold and reckless children of the frontier, who lived
forever in warlike harness, prompt to suppress the savage raids of the
Indians and mongrel Mexicans who harrassed the settlements of western
Texas in the neighborhood of the Guadalupe, La Vaca and San Antonio.
Organizing themselves in regular companies for mutual protection along a
ravaged border, they were continually prepared alike for camp or battle,
and opposed themselves to the enemy at the outpost barriers of
civilization.

It must not be supposed that men whose life is passed in the forest, on
the saddle, or around the fire of a winter bivouac, can present the
gallant array of troopers on parade, hence the Texan Ranger is careless
of external appearance, and adapts his dress strictly to the wants of
useful service. His first care is to provide himself with a stalwart and
nimble horse, perfectly broken and capable of enduring fatigue in a
southern climate. His Spanish saddle, or saddle frame, is carefully
covered with the skins of wild animals, while, from its sides depend
some twenty or thirty leathern thongs to which are attached all the
various trappings needed in the woods. No baggage is permitted to
accompany the troop and encumber it in the wilderness. A braided
_lariat_ and a _cabaros_ of horse-hair are coiled around his saddle bow,
the latter to be unwound at nightfall and laid in circles on the ground
to prevent the approach of reptiles which glide off from the sleeper
when they touch the bristling hair of the instrument, while his horse,
tethered by the long and pliant _lariat_ trailing along the ground,
wanders but little from the spot where his master reposes.

Stout buckskin leggings, hunting shirt, and cap, protect the ranger's
body from the sharp spines of aloes, or the briars an