They were isolated from all their fellows. They were
surrounded by their enemies. No word of sympathy could reach them. Yet
she knew they would stand like lions at bay; that they would give life
to its last drop for liberty; and rather than be less than freemen, they
would prefer not to be at all.

CHAPTER XIV. THE FALL OF THE ALAMO.

"The combat deepens. On, ye brave!
Who rush to glory or the grave."

"To all the sensual world proclaim:
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name."

"Gashed with honorable scars,
Low in Glory's lap they lie;
Though they fell, they fell like stars,
Streaming splendor through the sky."

The passing-by of Santa Anna and the Mexican army, though it had been
hourly expected for nearly three days, was an event which threw the
Senora and her daughters into various conditions of mental excitement.
They descended from the roof to the Senora's room, where they could move
about and converse with more freedom. For the poor lady was quite
unable to control her speech and actions, and was also much irritated by
Antonia's more composed manner. She thought it was want of sympathy.

"How can you take things with such a blessed calmness," she asked,
angrily. "But it is the way of the Americans, no doubt, who must have
everything for prudence. Sensible! Sensible! Sensible! that is the tune
they are forever playing, and you dance to it like a miracle."

"My dear mother, can we do any good by exclaiming and weeping?"

"Holy Virgin! Perhaps not; but to have a little human nature is more
agreeable to those who are yet on the earth side of purgatory."

"Mi madre," said Isabel, "Antonia is our good angel. She thinks for us,
and plans for us, and even now has everything ready for us to move at
a moment's notice. Our good angels have to be sensible and prudent,
madre."

"To move at a moment's notice! Virgin of Guadalupe! where shall we go
to? Could my blessed father and mother see me in this prison, this very
vault, I assure you they would be unhappy even among the angels."

"Mother, there are hundreds of women today in Texas who would think this
house a palace of comfort and safety."

"Saints and angels! Is that my fault? Does it make my condition more
endurable? Ah, my children, I have seen great armies come into San
Antonio, and always before I have been able to make a little pleasur