The Texan Star eBook

Joseph Alexander Altsheler
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 422 pages of information about The Texan Star.

The Texan Star eBook

Joseph Alexander Altsheler
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 422 pages of information about The Texan Star.

Then ensued another silence, broken by distant firing, caused by another attack upon the Texan camp outside the town.  It was driven off quickly and the Texans in the houses lay quiet until evening.  Then they heard a great shouting, the occasion of which they did not know until later.  Ugartchea with six hundred men had arrived from the Rio Grande to help Cos.  But it would not have made any difference with the Texans had they known.  They were determined to take San Antonio, and all the time they were pressing harder on Cos.

That night, the Texans, Ned with them, seized another large building called the Priests’ House, which looked directly over the plaza, and now their command of the Mexican situation was complete.  Nothing could live in the square under their fire, and in the night Ned saw the Mexicans withdrawing, leaving their cannon behind.

Exhaustion compelled the boy to sleep from midnight until day, when he was roused by Obed.

“The Mexicans have all gone across the river to the Alamo,” said the Maine man.  “San Antonio is ours.”

Ned went forth with his comrades.  Obed had told the truth.  The great seat of the Mexican power in the north was theirs.  Three hundred daring men, not strongly supported by those whom they had left behind, had penetrated to the very heart of the city through house after house, and had driven out the defenders who were five to their one.

The plaza and Soledad Street presented a somber aspect.  The Mexican dead, abandoned by their comrades, lay everywhere.  The Texan rifles had done deadly work.  The city itself was silent and deserted.

“Most of the population has gone with the Mexican army to the Alamo,” said Obed.  “I suppose we’ll have to attack that, too.”

But Cos, the haughty and vindictive general, did not have the heart for a new battle with the Texans.  He sent a white flag to Burleson and surrendered.  Ned was present when the flag came, and the leader of the little party that brought it was Urrea.  The young Mexican had lost none of his assurance.

“You have won now,” he said to Ned, “but bear in mind that we will come again.  You have yet to hear from Mexico and Santa Anna.”

“When Santa Anna comes he will find us here ready to meet him,” replied Ned.

The Texans in the hour of their great and marvelous victory behaved with humanity and moderation.  Cos and his army, which still doubled in numbers both the Texans who had been inside and outside San Antonio, were permitted to retire on parole beyond the Rio Grande.  They left in the hands of the Texans twenty-one cannon and great quantities of ammunition.  Rarely has such a victory been won by so small a force and in reality with the rifle alone.  All the Texans felt that it was a splendid culmination to a perilous campaign.

Ned, Obed and the Ring Tailed Panther, seated on their horses, watched the captured army of Cos march away.

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The Texan Star from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.