d Poinsett to offer
Mexico a million of dollars for Texas. Clay would have voted three
millions. Van Buren, in eighteen twenty-nine, told Poinsett to offer
five millions for Texas. I went to Washington that year, and proposed to
revolutionize Texas. I declare to you that the highest men in the land
were of my mind. Only last July President Jackson offered an additional
half million dollars for the Rio Grande boundary; and Mr. Secretary
Forsyth said, justly or unjustly, by hook, or by crook, Texas must
become part of our country. We have been longing for it for fifty years!
Now, then, brothers-in-arms!' he cried, 'You are here for your homes
and your freedom; but, more than that, you are here for your country!'
Remember the thousands of Americans who have slipped out of history and
out of memory, who have bought this land with their blood! We have held
a grip on Texas for fifty years. By the soul of every American who has
perished here, I charge you, No Surrender!'

"You should have heard the shout that answered the charge. Jesu, Maria!
It made my heart leap to my bosom. And ever since, the two words have
filled the air. You could see men catching them on their lips. They
are in their eyes, and their walk. Their hands say them. The up-toss of
their heads says them. When they go into battle they will see Houston in
front of them, and hear him call back 'No surrender!' Mexico cannot hold
Texas against such a determined purpose, carried out by such determined
men."

Lopez did not answer. He was a melancholy, well-read man, who had
travelled, and to whom the idea of liberty was a passion. But the
feeling of race was also strong in him, and he could not help regretting
that liberty must come to Texas through an alien people--"heretics,
too"--he muttered, carrying the thought out aloud. It brought others
equally living to him, and he asked, "Where, then, is Doctor Worth?"

"At Espada. The army wished him to go to San Felipe with Houston, but
he declined. And we want him most of all, both as a fighter and a
physician. His son Thomas went in his place."

"I know not Thomas."

"Indeed, very few know him. He is one that seldom speaks. But his rifle
has its word always ready."

"And Jack?"

"Jack also went to San Felipe. He is to bring back the first despatches.
Jack is the darling of the camp. Ah, what a happy soul he has! One would
think that it had just come from heaven, or was just going there."

"Did you see Senorita