ne of us lived very well," said Bowie, "but we can die well.
I say as an American, that Texas is ours by right of natural locality,
and by right of treaty; and, as I live, I will do my best to make
it American by right of conquest! Comrades, I do not want a prettier
quarrel to die in"--and looking with a brave, unflinching gaze around
the grim fortress--"I do not want a better monument than the Alamo!"

The speech was not answered with any noisy hurrahing; but the men
around the bare, long table clasped hands across it, and from that last
interview with the doomed men Thomas Worth came away with the knowledge
that he had seen the battle begun. He felt now that there was no time to
delay longer his plans for the safety of his mother and sisters. These
were, indeed, of the simplest and most uncertain character; for the
condition of the country and its few resources were such as to make
flight the only way that promised safety. And yet flight was environed
with dangers of every kind--hunger, thirst, exhaustion, savage beasts,
Indians, and the triple armies of Mexico.

The day after his arrival he had begun to prepare, as far as possible,
for this last emergency, but the Senora's unconquerable aversion to
leave her native city had constantly hampered him. Until Santa Anna
really appeared she would not believe in the necessity of such a
movement. The proposal of Fray Ignatius, even if it did end in a
convent, did not seem so terrible as to be a wanderer without a roof
to cover her. She felt aggrieved and injured by Antonia's and Isabel's
positive refusal to accept sanctuary from the priest, and with the
underhand cunning of a weak woman she had contrived to let Fray Ignatius
know that SHE was not to blame for the refusal.

All the same the priest hated her in conjunction with her children. On
the morning after her interview with her uncle, he went to receive her
submission; for the marquis had informed him of all that had passed, and
he felt the three women and the valuable Worth property already under
his hard hand. He opened the gate with the air of a proprietor. He
looked down the lovely alleys of the garden, and up at the latticed
stories of the handsome house, with that solid satisfaction which is the
reward of what is acquired by personal effort or wisdom.

When he entered the door and was confronted by Thomas Worth, he was
for the moment nonplussed. But he did not permit his confusion and
disappointment to appear.