ect
with me to do the most service I can for our Lone blessed Star! I
should like a game with old 'Santy' in a clear ring, and fair play;
but I am thinking we had best take French leave of this place, and
join the main body where we can fight with some chance ahead. Now
that's my opinion, but if you don't believe that doctrine, and want to
take the 'old bull right by the horns,' I say let's at him."

A smile passed over the face of his commander.

"Thank you, Furgeson, and rest assured I shall not doubt your stanch
support in time of need."

Again the broad brow contracted, and, linking his arm in that of Dr.
Bryant, he paced to and fro, engrossed in earnest, anxious thought.
Pausing at length, he pointed to his troops, awaiting in silence his
commands.

"Bryant, at least half those brave fellows have wives and children,
and bright homes, beckoning them away, yet see them calmly trust to
me in this trying hour. Should my order go forth to man the fort, and
meet the worst, I know full well not a murmur would be heard. Still it
is equally certain that, if we brave the conflict, not one of us
shall survive to tell the tale. What am I to do? Make this a second
Thermopylae?"

"Peculiarly painful, I know full well, is the situation in which you
are placed. Yet one strong argument remains to be urged. Colonel, if
we desert Goliad, and sound a retreat, we cannot escape. The force of
the enemy is too powerful, their movements too rapid, to allow us to
retire to a place of safety without a desperate encounter. Is it not
better policy to remain here, and meet the shock?"

"If we fight at all it must be at fearful odds; four hundred to six
thousand! Yet, should I follow the dictates of my own heart, I would
not give one inch!--no, not one! Dearly they should buy the ground on
which I stand!"

"Colonel, shall we not meet them on this spot and lay down our lives,
as did our brethren of the Alamo?"

"No, by Jove! I shall have to leave, whether I will or not!" And
crumpling the note of orders, he tossed it to the ground, and pressed
it with his heel.

He stepped forth, and drawing his military cap about his eyes, folded
his arms upon his broad chest, and addressed his troops:

"Comrades! Retreat is no test of an army's bravery, neither the
courage of its commander. In every age and nation, circumstances have
occurred in which the cause of liberty, or the general welfare of
the state, has been promoted by timely flight rat