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[104]
“No one dares convict him,” sas a Mexican, who is sitting next to me at table.
“Not if he is guilty of three murders?”
“Not if he is guilty of a hundred murders-as they say he is. Whether right or wrong, our people think him an injured man, who loves his country and his religion, and is persecuted for the love which thousands share with him. They make his cause their own. No jury in San Jose will dare to find Tiburcio Vasquez guilty of a capital crime.”
An English settler listens to this talk, and when the Mexican stops, he says quietly, “In that case, Tiburcio Vasquez will be lynched.”
“ Lynched-by a White mob?
”
“Yes, if you like the word, by a White mob. I know the temper of our people well; their blood is up this time; and whether the jury find him guilty or not guilty, Vasquez will be hung at San Jose.”
This settler speaks the truth.
The British race is master in these valleys; and the British race demands the brigand's blood.
I04
1875.
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