Mountain outlaws could feel themselves damned beyond redemption

Evidence

When the snow, which for some time had been falling, compelled him to break off and guide me to a sheltered place from which I could make my own way back again, he stopped his horse and said, “Now you see a man who has made a devil of himself! Lost! Lost! Lost! I believe in God. I’ve given Him no choice but to put me with ‘the devil and his angel.’ I’m afraid to die. You’ve stirred the better nature in me too late. I can’t change. If ever a man were a slave, I am. Don’t speak to me of repentance and reformation. I can’t reform. Your voice reminded me of ---.” Then in feverish tones, “How dare you ride with me? You won’t speak to me again, will you?” — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 478

Categorization

• CANDY: The dramatic “Lost! Lost! Lost!” confession of the Colorado desperado is a striking, retellable moment.