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Show TEXAS CONTINUED. 427 wall! Kill them as they leap in! Kill them as they raise their weapons; and continue to kill them as long as one of us shall remain alive. And, be assured, our memory will be gratefully cherished till all history shall be erased and noble deeds be forgotten among men. God and Texas! Liberty or Death!" He then traced a line with his sword, requesting all who would die with him to step over it. Every one complied but Rose. He, dis-guised as a Mexican, and speaking the language fluently, crawled out down a ravine and escaped. Long before daylight the Mexicans ad-vanced, with discharges of musketry and cannon. The cavalry formed a ring around the infantry, for the double purpose of urging them on and preventing the escape of any of the garrison. Pressed on by those behind, the foremost assailants tumbled inside the walls by hun-dreds. Every Texan died fighting. Travis was shot, and a Mexican officer rushed forward to dispatch him ; he rallied all his strength, pierced his assailant with his sword, and both expired together. Major Evans was shot in the act of attempting to fire the magazine. Bowie, then disabled, was butchered in his bed. When only seven were left they asked for quarter. It was refused; and, drawing their bowie- knives, they rushed to a final assault, and died on the bayo-nets of their foes. Their remains were savagely mutilated and re-fused burial. Among the slain was one, with bowie- knife clinched in his stiffened hand, and surrounded by a heap of the fallen enemy, whose counte-nance bore even in death the impress of that nobleness which had an-imated it in life, conjoined with the healthful freshness of the hunter's aspect. It was Colonel David Crockett, of Tennessee a man whose real life was a romance more thrilling than novelist ever portrayed. He was a product of nature in her most bounteous clime, of active life and free institutions. In childhood the axe and the rifle were his playthings ; in early manhood he fought for his country against the British, and in peace his personal qualities earned promotion from his neighbors. Hospitality kept cheerful watch at his door ; welcome sat smiling at his table, and social humor gleamed in his bright eye. His career in Congress was not a success, but gave him a keener relish for a free, western life; and he left his native State for Texas, to assist in making her free. Brave Crockett, thou didst deserve a better fate ; but in thy death was born a zeal for Texan freedom which did more than a thousand lives. In thy memory the State has a legacy that will glorify her early annals, and animate her sons till the last hour of her existence. |
