“You know a fellow in a Mexican prison doesn’t get much chance to learn what’s going on, boys,” he said. “And since I’ve been out I’ve hurried too fast to pick up any news especial.”
“Yonder, at the capital, I reckon. I didn’t stay to bid him good-by. Fact is, I didn’t pass his way.”
“How do they feel about him, in Mexico, do you think?”
“He’s in the saddle; that’s generally recognized. But everything he does, he does through the vice-president that he’s appointed――Don Miguel Barrigan, a sort of president pro tem., or acting president. Santa Anna pulls the strings.”
“Anything left of the Constitution of 1824, and State rights?”
“I told you, boys, that I was in too much of a hurry to talk politics. But I reckon you’ve heard of the Decree of October Third, which Barrigan issued for Santa Anna? I learned about it from a _paisano_ [country-man] just as I was crossing into Texas. All the state legislatures are dissolved, and all state officers must be approved by the Supreme General Government. There’ll be no more elections by the people. We don’t have any voice in the management of affairs, and the famous Constitution of ’24 looks to me as if it were wadded up in a ball and tossed aside.”
“Won’t there be a revolution, yonder, to help in this fight Texas is making?”
“_Quien sabe?_ [Who knows?]” he said. “But in my humble opinion Santa Anna has all those Mexican states snubbed fast――they’re afraid of him; and Texas’ll have to depend on the United States for help. Of course, boys,” he added, apologetically, “I’ve been at large too short a time to _sabe_ much, myself; but it seems to me our own blood in the United States won’t stand by and see us lose either our liberties or our lands. These natives are used to that sort of thing; but we Anglo-Saxons aren’t.”
“Well,” spoke somebody, “there’s Sam Houston. Maybe when it comes down to a regular war, he’ll get President Andy Jackson to send United States troops across the Red River and take us under his wing. We’d be a heap better off under the American flag than under the Mexican.”
The three captured Mexican officers were started for San Felipe――where they later were released upon promising not to take up arms again in opposition to the privileges of the Constitution of ’24. And this afternoon the little army moved by ford and ferry to the west side of the Guadalupe. Here they camped.