“Lieutenant Clayley?”
“Hang!” said Clayley in a quick and emphatic tone.
“Captain Hennessy?”
“Hang them!” answered the Irishman.
“Captain Haller?”
“Have you determined, Major Twing?” I asked, intending, if possible, to mitigate this terrible sentence.
“We have no time, Captain Haller,” replied my superior, interrupting me, “nor opportunity to carry prisoners. Our army has reached Plan del Rio, and is preparing to attack the pass. An hour lost, and we may be too late for the battle. You know the result of that as well as I.”
I knew Twing’s determined character too well to offer further opposition, and the Jarochos were condemned to be hung.
The following extract from the major’s report of the affair will show how the sentence was carried out:
We killed five of them, and captured as many more, but the leader escaped. The prisoners were tried, and sentenced to be hung. They had a gallows already rigged for Captain Haller and his companions, and for want of a better we hanged them upon that.