Snatching suddenly a rifle, he opened a
window, and as the honest girl ran across the square towards the
negroes' huts, she fell quite dead, with a ball passing across her
temples. The Governor and police of the first and second municipalities
offer one thousand dollars reward for the apprehension of the miserable
assassin, who, of course, has absconded."
This is the "_harmless and inoffensive man of delicate constitution, a
citizen of the United States,_" which Mr. Kendal would give us as a
martyr of Mexican barbarism. During the trip across the prairie, every
man, except two or three, had shunned him, so well did every one know
his character: and now I will describe the events which caused him to be
shot in the way above related.
Two journeys after they had left Santa Fe they passed the night in a
little village, four men being billeted in every house under the charge
of one soldier. Golpin and another of his stamp were, however, left
without any guard in the house of a small retailer of aguardiente, who,
being now absent, had left his old wife alone in the house. She was a
good hospitable soul, and thought it a Christian duty to administer to
the poor prisoners all the relief she could afford. She gave them some
of her husband's linen, bathed their feet with warm water mixed with
whisky, and served up to them a plentiful supper.
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