That night he ordered myself and the children into the room, in a more angry tone than ever, and barred us in.  It was not long after this before his wicked companions arrived and planted themselves down at the table.  I listened at the door, and while my husband had gone out of the cabin for some purpose, I heard them whispering busily together.  As he entered the apartment, however, the whispering ceased, and one of them said, “Let’s play for the liquor first, and decide that point afterwards.”

After this, they played and swore, and one would have supposed the room to have been occupied by fiends incarnate rather than by men.  At about twelve o’clock, one of the company said, “Well, boys, now is the time; what are we here for?” “Out with the light,” said another.  My husband now asked what they proposed doing, when, without giving him the slightest notice, the light was put out, and a heavy blow descended.  I heard my husband cry out, “Do not murder me;” but the strokes fell heavy and fast, and spite of my screams and the screams of my children—­spite of our efforts to beat the door in, the bloody work was kept up until I heard my husband’s body fall upon the floor.  In a short time his murderers left.  I tried to burst the door open, but without success.  At last, I raised my eldest boy to the window, and he crawled outside, and ran round, entering the door which led to the room containing his father’s corpse.  As the child moved towards the door of the room, for the purpose of unbarring it, he fell over the dead body of his father.  The door was finally unbarred, and I rushed into the room where my murdered husband lay.  Oh, sir, I cannot tell you what were then my feelings.  The lights which the children brought into the room exposed the whole scene, and it was one which I could not describe if I would—­my husband’s body lying upon the floor, weltering in blood.  I tried to lift it up to the bed, but could not.  I then, with the assistance of the children, rolled it up in a counterpane, and we sat down and watched it till morning—­fearing that, if we did not, it might be carried off by wolves—­a large number of which howled about the house until day dawned.  Oh, sir, it was a sorrowful night!  The next morning several of the neighbours called in, and after expressing their horror at the deed of blood, assured me that they would aid in bringing the murderers to justice.  That they knew them, and that they resided on the Sabine river.  Would you believe it, sir?  Two of the very sympathizers I knew to have been concerned in the murder of my husband.

A coffin was made, into which my poor husband’s body was laid, and then the neighbours buried him, but in such a manner that he lay but a foot or two below the earth’s surface.  I have been afraid the beasts of prey which infest this region would get possession of his corpse; so, with my children, I build every night a fire near his grave.

“Now, sir,” added the woman, “I have told you the painful story, and you will see in what a dreadful situation I am.  I am here in this dreadful place, with perhaps one hundred dollars in money, and five children, nearly all of whom constantly require my watchful care.  Can you not assist me in my wretchedness?”