433
P,\PERS OF MIRABE.1-\U BUONAP.\RTE LA){AR
pocket of hi overcoat, (being cold w·eather he had ~n one of India Rubber) a piece of canvass containing a double handfull of dollars, which he al o gave to the officer. Sphon was then ordered to bandage his eyes, and Col. Fann1ng handed him hi pocket handkerchief. He proceeded to fold it, but being agitated be done it clumsily, when the officer snatched it from his hand and folded it him elf, and told Col. Fanning to it dO'wn on a chair whi'Ch was near, and tepping behind him bandaged bis eyes, saying to Col. Fanning in English, ''good, good," meaning if his eyes were properly bound-to which Fanning replied, ''yes, ye .'' The captain then came in front and ordered his men to unfix their bayonets and approach Col. Fanning, he·haaring them nearing him, told Sphon to tell them not to place their muskets so near as to scorch his face with the powder." The officer standing be- hind them, after seeing their muskets were brought within two feet of his body, drew forth his handkerchief a a ianal, when they fired and poor Fanning fell dead on his right side on the chair, and from thence rolled into a dry ditch about three feet deep, close by the w:all. · They then led Sphon near the gate, from which another officer took him and placed him in the room of Colonel Portia, with a sentinel over him. He asked the officer if he was going to hoot him, he replied "no hijo," grinning maliciously at the ame time. In the room he , found a 1 Frenchman of the Copano Company, who told him the rest of his corps had early in the morning been placed in a garden outside the fort under guard. After be had been there a short time a soldier, with his gun, came to the door, telling him he was wanted at the-gate. 'When he came to the gate be found Commandate Portia sun·otmded by his officers, who, on seeing Sphon, seeing him before, begged Portia to save him, but he aid he could not a his order were po itive, but they persisting he rather jmpatiently said, "Well, take him away." At the same time he aw them lead young Ripley, who was second ergeant of the Mobile Greys, who was badly wounded in the left arm, to the place or execution.-Sphon wa then taken to the house of an officer, where he was left, where every moment he could hear the muskets roar the death knell of his companions. Sphon had been in the house but a little time when a young l\Iex.ican soldier, with a bloody sword, entered the room and asked him what he was doino- there, and woulct have run him throtwh had not the ervants told him be was placed there by the officers. Dr. Field came in with a serjeant-the Dr. told Sphon that all were shot, and they had roughly dragged Captain Brook , of West Point, who laid with his tbio-h broken, from a house out ide the fort, and dispatched him brutally in the street. ·In an hour more Spohn re-entered the fort, where he found the Mexican soldiers placino- the bodie of the dead on a large wl!!!on and carrying them off. Two or thre~ days after Spohn was taken by a Captain orona to the place ,outside the fort, where his countrymen had been murdered and piled one on top the other, and partially burnt or roasted, presenting a most 1 frightful, horrible and disgusting pectacle, by which he found that they had been divided into four parties before they were hot, as there were four piles, surrounded by torn pieces of bloody clothing, shoes, caps, pocket books and papers. Amongst the rest was the bloody cap of Fanning, which lead u to expect he wa 2S-Llbrary.
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