Part 28 (1/2)
”Are you sure there is no danger to-night, Antonia?”
”Not to-night. Say your prayer, and sleep in G.o.d's presence. There is yet nothing to fear. Ortiz and Lopez Navarro are watching every movement.”
But at three o'clock in the morning, the quiet of their rest was broken by sharp bugle calls. The stars were yet in the sky, and all was so still that they thrilled the air like something unearthly. Antonia started up, and ran to the roof. Bugle was answering bugle; and their tones were imperative and cruel, as if they were blown by evil spirits.
It was impossible to avoid the feeling that the call was a PREDESTINED summons, full of the notes of calamity. She was weighed down by this sorrowful presentiment, because, as yet, neither experience nor years had taught her that PREDESTINED ILLS ARE NEVER LOST.
The unseen moving mult.i.tudes troubled the atmosphere between them. In wild, savage gusts, she heard the military bands playing the infamous Dequelo, whose notes of blood and fire commingled, shrieked in every ear--”NO QUARTER! NO QUARTER!” A prolonged shout, the booming of cannon, an awful murmurous tumult, a sense of horror, of crash and conflict, answered the merciless, frenzied notes, and drowned them in the shrieks and curses they called for.
It was yet scarcely dawn. Her soul, moved by influences so various and so awful, became almost rebellious. Why did G.o.d permit such cruelties?
Did He know? Would He allow a handful of men to be overpowered by numbers? Being omnipotent, would He not in some way, at least, make the fight equal? The instinct of her anglo-American nature revolted at the unfairness of the struggle. Even her e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns to heaven were in this spirit. ”It is so unjust,” she murmured; ”surely the Lord of Hosts will prevent a fight which must be a ma.s.sacre.”
As she went about the simple preparations for their breakfast, she wept continuously--tears of indignation and sorrow--tears coming from the strength of feeling, rather than its weakness. The Senora could eat nothing. Isabel was white with terror. They wandered from window to window in the last extremity of anxiety.
About seven o'clock they saw Ortiz pa.s.s the house. There were so many people on the road he could not find an opportunity to enter for some time. He had been in the city all night. He had watched the movement of the troops in the starlight. As he drank a cup of chocolate, he said:
”It was just three o'clock, Senorita, when the Matamoras battalion was moved forward. General Cos supported it with two thousand men.
”But General Cos was paroled by these same Americans who are now in the Alamo; and his life was spared on condition that he would not bear arms against them again.”
”It is but one lie, one infamy more. When I left the city, about four thousand men were attacking the Alamo. The infantry, in columns, were driven up to the walls by the cavalry which surrounded them.”
”The Americans! Is there any hope for them?”
”The mercy of G.o.d remains, Senorita. That is all. The Alamo is not as the everlasting hills. What men have made, men can also destroy. Senor Navarro is in the church, praying for the souls that are pa.s.sing every moment.”
”He ought to have been fighting. To help the living is better than to pray for the dead.”
”Permit me to a.s.sure you, Senorita Antonia, that no man has done more for the living. In time of war, there must be many kinds of soldiers. Senor Navarro has given nearly all, that he possesses for the hope of freedom.
He has done secret service of incalculable value.”
”Secret service! I prefer those who have the courage of their convictions, and who, stand by them publicly.”
”This is to be considered, Senorita; the man who can be silent can also speak when the day for speaking arrives.” No one opposed this statement.
It did not seem worth while to discuss opinions, while the terrible facts of the position were appealing to every sense.
As the day went on, the conflict evidently became closer and fiercer.
Ortiz went back to the city, and the three lonely women knelt upon the house-top, listening in terror to the tumult of the battle. About noon the firing ceased, and an awful silence--a silence that made the ears ache to be relieved of it--followed.
”All is over!” moaned Antonia, and she covered her face with her hands and sobbed bitterly. Isabel had already exhausted tears. The Senora, with her crucifix in her hand, was praying for the poor unfortunates dying without prayer.
During the afternoon, smoke and flame, and strange and sickening odors were blown northward of the city, and for some time it seemed probable that a great conflagration would follow the battle. How they longed for some one to come! The utmost of their calamity would be better than the intolerable suspense. But hour after hour went past, and not even Ortiz arrived. They began to fear that both he and Navarro had been discovered in some disloyalty and slain, and Antonia was heartsick when she considered the helplessness of their situation.
Still, in accordance with Navarro's instructions, they dressed for the contemplated journey, and sat in the dark, anxiously listening for footsteps. About eleven o'clock Navarro and Ortiz came together. Ortiz went for the horses, and Navarro sat down beside, the Senora. She asked him, in a low voice, what had taken place, and he answered:
”Everything dreadful, everything cruel, and monstrous, and inhuman!
Among the angels in heaven there is sorrow and anger this night.”
His voice had in it all the pathos of tears, but tears mingled with a burning indignation.
”The Alamo has fallen!”