too--joined with Rock in his laughter,
while Kearney, Crittenden, and their own surgeon could not help uniting
in the chorus. Never had tragic hero suffered a more comical
discomfiture.

He was now permitted to withdraw from the scene of it, a permission of
which he availed himself without further delay; first retreating for
some distance along the Shell Road, as one wandering and distraught;
then, as if seized by a sudden thought, diving into the timbered swamp
alongside, and there disappearing.

Soon after the carriage containing the victorious party rattled past;
they inside it scarce casting a look to see what had become of
Santander. He was nothing to them now, at best only a thing to be a
matter of ludicrous remembrance. Nor long remained he in their
thoughts; these now reverting to Texas, and their necessity for
hastening back to the Crescent City, to make start for "The Land of the
Lone Star."

CHAPTER NINE.

A SPARTAN BAND.

In ancient days Sparta had its Thermopylae, while in those of modern
date Sicily saw a thousand men in scarlet shirts make landing upon her
coast, and conquer a kingdom defended by a military force twenty or
thirty times their number!

But deeds of heroism are not alone confined to the history of the Old
World. That of the New presents us with many pages of a similar kind,
and Texas can tell of achievements not surpassed, either in valour or
chivalry, by any upon record. Such was the battle of San Jacinto, where
the Texans were victorious, though overmatched in the proportion of ten
to one: such the defence of Fort Alamo, when the brave Colonel Crockett,
now world-known, surrendered up his life, alongside the equally brave
"Jim Bowie," he who gave his name to the knife which on that occasion he
so efficiently wielded--after a protracted and terrible struggle
dropping dead upon a heap of foes who had felt its sharp point and keen
edge.

Among the deeds of great renown done by the defenders of the young
Republic, none may take higher rank, since none is entitled to it, than
that known as the battle of Mier. Though they there lost the day--a
defeat due to the incapacity of an ill-chosen leader--they won glory
eternal. Every man of them who fell had first killed his foeman--some
half a score--while of those who survived there was not one so craven as
to cry "Quarter!" The white flag went not up till they were overwhelmed
and overpowered by sheer disparity of numbers.

I