. There was a fire this afternoon; I would be glad if it were burning
yet."

"May God pardon us all, Senorita! That was a fire which does not go out.
It will burn for ages. I will explain myself. Santa Anna had the dead
Americans put into ox-wagons and carried to an open field outside
the city. There they were burnt to ashes. The glorious pile was still
casting lurid flashes and shadows as I passed it."

"I will hear no more! I will hear no more!" cried the Senora. "And I
will go away from here. Ah, Senor, why do you not make haste? In a few
hours we shall have daylight again. I am in a terror. Where is Ortiz?"

"The horses are not caught in a five minutes, Senora. But listen, there
is the roll of the wagon on the flagged court. All, then, is ready.
Senora, show now that you are of a noble house, and in this hour of
adversity be brave, as the Flores have always been."

She was pleased by the entreaty, and took his arm with a composure
which, though assumed, was a sort of strength. She entered the wagon
with her daughters, and uttered no word of complaint. Then Navarro
locked the gate, and took his seat beside Ortiz. The prairie turf
deadened the beat of their horses' hoofs; they went at a flying pace,
and when the first pallid light of morning touched the east, they had
left San Antonio far behind and were nearing the beautiful banks of the
Cibolo.

CHAPTER XV. GOLIAD.

"How sleep the brave who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes bless'd?
* * * * *

By fairy hands their knell is rung;
By forms unseen their dirge is sung.
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell a weeping hermit there."

"How shall we rank thee upon glory's page?
Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage."

"Grief fills the room up of my absent child;
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me;
Remembers me of all his gracious parts."

Near midnight, on March the ninth, the weary fugitives arrived at
Gonzales. They had been detained by the deep mud in the bottom lands,
and by the extreme exhaustion of the ladies, demanding some hours' rest
each day. The village was dark and quiet. Here and there the glimmer
of a candle, now and then the call of a sentry, or the wail of a child
broke the mysterious silence.

Orti