them nothing, and he readily consented. My friend, again turning to the officer after taking the drink, said, "Shall I offer the poor prisoner some?" "If you please," was the reply. I stepped up to the counter, and while taking a drink, received a hunch from the elbow of my old friend. In a little time he again asked the officer to drink, and again his invitation was accepted, the officer taking a "stiff pull" each time. He [299] soon became good-natured and loquacious; was eloquent in giving this stage-passenger a history of the Texians, their mode of warfare, &c.; said that we were very daring, and could shoot out one's eye at three hundred yards with our big rifles, and wound up by depicting my character, performances, &c. He said that I had had Santa Anna prisoner once in my country; I ought, therefore, to be closely watched, as there was nothing too daring for these people to undertake. This new stage-acquaintance stepped into the adjoining room, and returned in a few minutes with a razor, hairbrush, and comb, so folded in a rumpled paper that their ends plainly shown. He remarked to the officer that "that poor fellow looks as if he would be the better of a good razor: can I have the privilege of giving him these shaving tools?" "Certainly," replied the officer. He handed them to me, with a wink which I well understood. I carelessly took the package in my hand, and walked back to the castle by the side of the officer, he little dreaming that the rumpled envelope was a lithographed map of the country between Vera Cruz, via Perote, and the City of Mexico. This survey had been made a few years since by order of the government for a railroad; the rivers, mountains, and passes were plainly marked. When I reached my prison safe with it, one important difficulty was surmounted. My friend Ludovic Colquhoun, being a good draughtsman, made several copies of it.[300]

Passing in and out of the castle to the stage-office, I had estimated the height of the walls from the bottom of the great moat to the top of the bastion. This I was the more easily enabled to do from counting the number of layers of squared stones, and multiplying that number by the thickness of each. This ascertained, the next difficulty was to procure a rope of sufficient length to tie to the carriage of the artillery, pass over the wall, and reach to the bottom. The rope could be purchased in town, but the difficulty was the getting it in the castle. This we accomplished by sending time after time, and purchasing short pieces, that it might not attract notice. These several pieces once in our prison-room, were easily made into one by the sailor experience of several of our companions. It is about as easy for the old sailing-master to splice a rope as it is for a landsman to cut one in two.

Our preparation had progressed thus far with entire success, but yet there were many difficulties to overcome, one of which was to elude the vigilance of the officer at lock-up time.

At six o'clock in the evening we had to be counted before being locked up