Time passed heavily, and though we were repeatedly told that we must go to work, yet the order was not attempted to be enforced upon us. The balance of the men, with the exception of those who had been excused, from inability or other causes, were, however, compelled to work in the manner before described.[256]

About this time our countrymen the Hon. Wm. E. Jones, S. A. Maverick, and Judge Hutchinson were liberated, through the intercession of General Thompson.12 They had been ordered from Perote to Mexico, where they were delivered over to General Thompson, and now, while on their way home, they called to take leave of us. This afforded our companions good opportunity to write home, which many eagerly embraced.

We were told also that Judge James W. Robinson, one of the Bexar prisoners, previous to our arrival at the castle had opened a correspondence with President Santa Anna, in which he represented a general feeling to prevail among the Texian prisoners, as well as in Texas, for returning back to the Mexican fold; that this correspondence, with a promise from Robinson to use his utmost endeavours to accomplish this end, had procured his release. So far as Robinson's falsehood concerned himself, his companions in chains were perfectly willing that he should humbug Santa Anna out of his liberty; but they were unwilling to be under the imputation of disloyalty to their country even at the price of their liberty. Many wrote letters to Texas, and several to Santa Anna, denouncing the falsehood and the traitor.13

Up to this time we had been five months from our homes. We knew but little of what was going on there, and that little obtained through the newspapers. It was of the most melancholy and foreboding [257] character, and contained in President Houston's many messages and proclamations, the last of which had just reached us, in which it was stated that a portion of our country was in a state of civil war, on account of his violent attempt to remove the public archives from the seat of government.14 No wonder, we thought, that Santa Anna should believe Robinson's statement, when he saw under the sign manual of our own president such evidence of national disruption. He therefore concluded, as did many intelligent men in Mexico, that the people of Texas, to escape from such a state of anarchy, would cheerfully return to the Mexican family.

Had we been as little acquainted with President Houston and his habitual disregard for truth, such possibly might have been our conclusion. We knew