over a precipice in the mountains, and badly crippled himself - so much so that he was taken back to prison in a most helpless condition: that Beck and Davis, his comrades, were also retaken by the pursuing cavalry: that Tom Hancock had also been retaken in venturing into a rancho to buy supplies: that Captain Ogden was retaken entering into Jalapa the night we left it: that Ike Allen, Stone, and Elley were still afloat, and he expected, by this time, "herding their cattle upon the Rio Bravo;" and that Dalrymple was flourishing in the city of the Montezumas. Toowig had already sailed, and here we six were in anxious expectation of so doing.5

Let us for a moment look into our late prison abode at the castle.

The night of our escape, and the next morning up to the counting time, as might be expected, our late companions were under the most excited apprehension, not only on our account, but also what the discovery might cost them. Under this excitement, things remained quiet as usual, for no one in the castle except themselves knew a breath of it. At nine o'clock next morning, Guts and the new guard came around to the prison rooms with the sharp and often-repeated order "a formen, a formen. " [361] This order was well understood by our countrymen; it meant "to form," and that in front of the prison doors, as usual, in the morning; but still they held back, and were slow to come out of the cells. Some made one excuse, some another; Guts stormed at their tardiness; he went into the cells in person to look where the absent were, and found them not; he inquired of the balance; one says, "Perhaps they are at the comûn;" another says, "They are at the tienda:" these places were sent to, but they were not to be found. Our boys said among themselves, "We will put them off to the last minute, for every minute is important to them, as they can get the deeper into the mountains." During this time Guts swelled and raved: "Where are they?" he thundered out to the interpreter; when some of them said, "Well, Van," to Van Ness, "it is no use to put it off any longer; let him have it." Van replied, "Diez y seis faltan" - sixteen deficient. "Where are they gone to, and how did they get out?" bawled Guts, in a still louder tone. "Quien sabe?" - who knows? was the reply. Then commenced the greatest possible row: the whole castle was alarmed - officers and soldiers turned out - the governor came forth with death-like horror upon his countenance - officers and guards flew all over the castle; examined every nook and corner - the top walls - went round the great moat, but still did not discover the breach, the hole having been so carefully stopped with the blanket. The last place where they [362] thought of looking was in the prison cells, and after much useless search, one of the officers pulled back the small shutter in the centre room which covered the loophole, and found, to his inexpressible horror, our breach obliquing to the left. "Who could have thought these daring Texians would have undertaken such a task? they surely are kin to the devil: this castle has stood these hundred years, and no one ever dared such a thing before;" these, and many such exclamations of wonder and astonishment