their weapons and as they use them! kill them as they kill our companions! and continue to kill them as long as one of us shall remain alive! ... But I 155 leave every man to his own choice. Should any man prefer to surrender or to attempt an escape

.. he is at liberty to do so. My own choice is to stay in the fort and die for my country, fighting as long as breath shall remain in my body. This will I 160 do, even if you leave me alone. Do as you think best; but no man can die with me without affording me comfort in the hour of death!'

"Colonel Travis then drew his sword, and with its point traced a line upon the ground extending from 165 the right to the left of the file. Then, resuming his position in front of the centre, he said, 'I now want every man who is determined to stay here and die with me to come across this line. Who will be first? March!' The first respondent was Tapley Holland, 170 who leaped the line at a bound, exclaiming, 'I am ready to die for my country!' His example was instantly followed by every man in the file with the exception of Rose. . . Every sick man that could walk, arose from his bunk and tottered across the 175 line. Colonel Bowie, who could not leave his bed, said, 'Boys, I am not able to come to you, but I wish some of you would be so kind as to remove my cot over there.' Four men instantly ran to the cot, and each lifting a corner, carried it across the line. Then 180 every sick man that could not walk made the same request, and had his bunk removed in the same way.

Rose, too, was deeply affected, but differently from his companions. He stood till every man but

himself had crossed the line. . . .

He sank upon the

He di

ground, covered his face, and yielded to his own re- 185 flections. .. A bright idea came to his relief; he spoke the Mexican dialect very fluently, and could he once get safely out of the fort, he might easily pass for a Mexican and effect an escape. rected a searching glance at the cot of Colonel Bowie. 190 Colonel David Crockett was leaning over the cot, conversing with its occupant in an undertone. After a few seconds Bowie looked at Rose and said, 'You seem not to be willing to die with us, Rose.' 'No,' said Rose; 'I am not prepared to die, and 195 shall not do so if I can avoid it.' Then Crockett also looked at him, and said, 'You may as well conclude to die with us, old man, for escape is impossible.' Rose made no reply, but looked at the top of the wall. 'I have often done worse than to climb that wall,' 200 thought he. Suiting the action to the thought, he sprang up, seized his wallet of unwashed clothes, and ascended the wall. Standing on its top, he looked down within to take a last view of his dying friends. They were all now in motion, but what they were 205 doing he heeded not; overpowered by his feelings, he looked away and saw them no more. down his wallet and leaped after it. . . . He took the road which led down the river around a bend to the ford, and through the town by the church. He 210 waded the river at the ford and passed through the town. He saw no person .. but the doors were all closed, and San Antonio appeared as a deserted city. "After passing through the town he turned down the river. A stillness as of death prevailed. When 215

...

He threw

he had gone about a quarter of a mile below the town, his ears were saluted by the thunder of the bombardment, which was then renewed. That thunder continued to remind him that his friends 220 were true to their cause, by a continual roar with but slight intervals until a little before sunrise on the morning of the 6th, when it ceased and he heard it no

And well may it "cease" on that morning of that 225 6th; for after that thrilling 3d the siege goes on, the enemy furious, the Texans replying calmly and slowly. Finally Santa Ana determines to storm. Some hours before daylight on the morning of the 6th the Mexican infantry, provided with scaling230 ladders, and backed by the cavalry to keep them up to the work, surround the doomed fort. At daylight they advance and plant their ladders, but give back under a deadly fire from the Texans. They advance again, and again retreat. A 235 third time-Santa Ana threatening and coaxing by turns they plant their ladders. Now they mount the walls. The Texans are overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers and exhaustion of continued watching and fighting. The Mexicans swarm into 240 the fort. The Texans club their guns; one by one they fall fighting—now Travis yonder by the west

1 Rose succeeded in making his escape, and reached the house of the Zubers, as before stated, in fearful condition. After remaining here some weeks, he started for his home in Nacogdoches, but on the way his thorn-wounds' became inflamed anew, and when he reached home "his friends thought that he could not live many months." This was "the last" that the Zubers "heard of him."

ern wall, now Crockett here in the angle of the church-wall, now Bowie butchered and mutilated in his sick-cot, breathe quick and pass away; and presently every Texan lies dead, while there in 245 horrid heaps are stretched five hundred and twentyone dead Mexicans and as many more wounded! Of the human beings that were in the fort five remain alive: Mrs. Dickinson and her child, Colonel Travis's negro-servant, and two Mexican women. 250 The conquerors endeavor to get some more revenge out of the dead, and close the scene with raking together the bodies of the Texans, amid insults, and burning them.

The town did not long remain in the hands of the 255 Mexicans. Events followed each other rapidly until the battle of San Jacinto, after which the dejected Santa Ana wrote his famous letter of captivity under the tree, which for a time relieved the soil of Texas from hostile footsteps. San Antonio was neverthe- 260 less not free from bloodshed, though beginning to drive a sharp trade with Mexico and to make those approaches toward the peaceful arts which necessarily accompany trade. The Indians kept life from stagnating, and in the year 1840 occurred a bloody 265 battle with them in the very midst of the town. Certain Camanche chiefs, pending negotiations for a treaty of peace, had promised to bring in all the captives they had, and on the 19th of March, 1840, met the Texan Commissioners in the Council-house 270 in San Antonio to redeem their promise. Leaving twenty warriors and thirty-two women and children outside, twelve chiefs entered the council-room and

presented the only captive they had brought—a little 275 white girl-declaring that they had no others.

This statement the little girl pronounced false, asserting that it was made solely for the purpose of extorting greater ransoms, and that she had but recently seen other captives in their camp. An awk280 ward pause followed. Presently one of the chiefs inquired, How the Commissioners liked it. By way of reply, the company of Captain Howard, who had been sent for, filed into the room, and the Indians were told that they would be held prisoners until 285 they should send some of their party outside after the rest of the captives. The Commissioners then rose and left the room.

As they were in the act of leaving, however, one of the Indian chiefs attempted to rush through the door, 290 and being confronted by the sentinel, stabbed him. Seeing the sentinel hurt, and Captain Howard also stabbed, the other chiefs sprang forward with knives and bows and arrows, and the fight raged until they were all killed. Meantime the warriors outside be295 gan to fight, and engaged the company of Captain Read; but, taking shelter in a stone-house, were surrounded and killed. Still another detachment of the Indians managed to continue the fight until they had reached the other side of the river, when they 300 were finally despatched. Thirty-two Indian warriors and five Indian women and children were slain, and the rest of the women and children were made prisoners. The savages fought desperately, for seven Texans were killed and eight wounded.