Remember the Alamo

anges of the w

issitudes of

g, never in a

l, and after

the scenes of

whose br

influ

mits of that po

people into

ill, for fre

revenge

uence of natural and business-like events. He was born in New York. In that city he studied his profession, and in eighteen hundred and three began its practice in an office near Contoit's Hotel, o

then angrily disputing. They asserted that it was the Rio Grande; but Spain, who naturally did not want Americans so near her own territory, denied the cl

d boundary, and of Mexico. And Mexico was then a name to conjure by. She was as yet a part of Spain, and a sharer in all her ancient glories. She was a land of

umber of troops to garrison the city. For Spain was well aware that, however statesmen might settle the question, the young and adventurous of the Ame

face. And the white Moorish city had one special charm for him-it was seldom quite free from Americans, Among the mediaeval loungers in the narrow streets, it filled his heart with joy to see at interv

much property in San Antonio. She had been born within its limits, and educated in its convent, and a visit to Mexico and New Orleans had only strengthened her attachmen

velvet, and work fine embroideries for the altars. They had passed nearly twenty-six years together in more than ordinary content and prosperity. Ye

f fourteen, he determined to send him to New York. He spoke to Dona Maria of this intention. He described Columbia to her with all the affectionate pride of a student for his alma mater. The boy's grandmother also still lived in

. She regarded the college of San Juan de Lateran in Mexico as the fountainhead of knowled

proficient in theology and metaphysics. They will let him dabble in algebra and Spanish literature; and with great pomp, they will give him his degree, and 't

it. Two years afterwards, Antonia followed her brother to New York, and this time, the mother made less opposition. Perhaps she divined that opposition would have been still more useless than in the case of the boy. For

strious, an intelligent and responsive companion, a neat and capable housekeeper, who insensibly gave to his home that Am

pose, so inflexibly carried out with her brothers and sister. Isabel was entirely different from them. Her father had watched her carefully, and come t

rths who had defied both Charles the First and George the Third. But Isabel had no soul-kinship with her father's people. Robert Worth had seen in the Yturbide residencia in Mexico the family portraits which they had brought with them from Castile.

mosel of family and fortune. On the night of the Senora Valdez's reception, she had astonished every one by the adorable grace of her dancing, and the captivating way in which she use

him an unusual anxiety, for he knew this night that the days were fast approaching which would test to ext

When did she learn these things? I

sister with eyes full of loving speculation. Her answer dropped

been at school before she was born here. Father,

I have been expecting something

ou are

. Go back to the dancers.

nd watched him mount the horse always kept ready saddled for such emergencies, and ride away with the messenger. The incident in its

passion and with much demonstrativeness. And the officers from the Alamo! How conscious they had been of their own importance! What airs of condescension and of an almost insufferable protection they had assumed! Now, that she recalled the faces o

y through the United States, and enabled Cos and Toledo, and the other revolutionary generals in Mexico, to carry their arms against Old Spain to the very doors of the vice-royal palace. She had heard from her fath

ng what the American colonists did, when they drove the English royalists back to England. It was natural, too, that the Americans should help the Mexicans, for, at first, they were but a li

uggle in all its salient features flashed through her mind; and she understood that it is not the sword alone that gives liberty-that th

American traders and explorers-bold and enterprising-they had sown the seed. For great ideas are as catching as evil ones. A Mexican, with the iron hand of Old

od, she lifted her prayer-book, and began to recite "the rising prayer." She had not said to herself, "from the love of Freedom to the love of God, it is but a step,"

e radiance of the early morning. The matin bells chimed from the convent and the churches, an

up of strong coffee alone in his study; so the first meal of the day was usually, as perhaps it ought to be, a selfishly-silent one. "Too much enthusiasm and chattering at

door, and easily divined the subject of it. It was, but natural. The child had a triumph; one that appealed strongly to her m

olence among them, sipping chocolate and smoking a cigarrito. Isabel was on a couch of the same description. She wore a satin petticoat, and a loose linen waist richly trimmed with lace. It showed her beauti

ack hair was loose and flowing, and caressed her cheeks and temples in numberless little curls and tendrils. Her face was one flush of joy and youth. She had a look half-earne

ays something wanting," and her voice fell with those sad

r. "Don Luis was not desirable.

t w

soul to him, I think. He would have fought Morello about him, if the captain could have drawn his sword in such a quarrel

he knows nothi

cowards. It was these words Captain Morello said, when Don Luis drew his sword, made a circle with its point and stood it upright in the centre.

to fight. Morello's tongue

permit his officers to fight in such a quarrel. 'Santo Dios!' he said, 'you shall all have your opportunity v

y, who wears the pavement out with his spurs and sabre. His weapons are fo

or at least infidels, all of them!-the devil himself is their fa

the

aptized, the devil sends you to do his work. As for Don Luis, he is

s!" said Isab

ways be with him. I dare say this man called Houston is no better than a Jew, and perhaps very ugly beside. Let us talk n

mpatient to speak for the father, and grandmother, and the friends, so dear to her; but she possessed great discretion, an