Chap. I. TEXAN DESPERADOES. 441 
of gamblers, and the intimidated or partial jury returned a 
verdict of " Not Guilty." Nearly all the new territories 
of the United States have been obliged to pass through 
such a period, until the reign of terror has grown in- 
tolerable, and the quiet and peaceable part of the popula- 
lation have expelled or hanged the culprits. This happened 
soon after in Texas. 
Whilst Glanton usually attacked or murdered weak 
and defenceless men, another of the Texan desperadoes 
distinguished himself by a certain noble generosity. When- 
ever he fell into a quarrel and drew the revolver, he would 
ask his adversary, " Are you armed ?" And whenever 
the answer was in the negative, Bill Hardy desisted from 
any violence. After numerous murders, he was taken 
prisoner in one of the small towns on the Texan shore of 
the Rio Grande, brought to trial, and sentenced to death. 
His friends succeeded in conveying to him a loaded re- 
volver, and when about to be removed from the prison, he 
with this weapon put the guard, and others present, to flight, 
and was thus free. But instead of escaping across the 
river into Mexico, he returned slowly and calmly into his 
prison, and hanged himself. He is said to have uttered 
these words: — " The world is so full of cowardly rabble 
that it is not worth while to live/' Even if no one heard 
this expression, it characterizes, at least, the reputation in 
which the man was held. 
