Francis Nona

“ Well, Bradburn, back again at last; thy stay
Was long enough to vouchsafe good success:
When can we hold our entry in the fort?
Bradburn.
When you have slain the last of its defenders.
Santa Anna.
Is this—I ask—their whole reply?
Bradburn.
It is.
Santa Anna.
Well, man! a school-boy's eloquence
Could have succeeded where thy art has failed.
Were not our hundred guns, our whelming numbers
Convincing arguments enough to move
The must tenacious rebel to submission?
Bradburn.
What scares a knave stirs not a hero's blood.
Santa Anna. ”

“ To leave thy comrades' banner at a time,
When Victory, the fickle goddess, is
So stable a companion of their arms.
When in the fatness of the land they revel,
While want and hopelessness abide with us.
Bradburn.
The purer my intention is.
Deaf Smith.
Thy name?
Bradburn.
I shall reveal it to thy general.
Lead me to him: for my report is urgent.
Deaf Smith.
Then, Alsbury, conduct him to the camp,
While farther we pursue our scouting-tour.
Bradburn.
No, no. Sir Scout, ye all must come with me,
For every gallant arm is needed there. ”

“ Bradburn.
Despair not, faithful friend! If he is dead.
His blood, shed in the cause of Liberty,
Will rise like incense to the heavenly throne;
Who in return will pour His comfort's balm
Into thine mother's heart with angel's voice.
But if alive, trust that thou shalt behold
His face again; for cruel though they be,
The enemy will hardly disregard
The laws of human mercy as to lay
Their hands on one so young, so fair, so brave.
Wilt thou not ascertain through flag of truce,
If he be 'mong the living or the dead?
Crockett. ”

“ Elsie.
I will.
Chaplain Smith.
Who giveth
This woman to be married to this man?
[The Chaplain receives Elsie at Crockett's hands. Travis with his right hand takes Elsie's right hand.]
Col. Wm. Travis.
I, William Travis, take thee, Elsie Bradburn,
To have and hold thee as my wedded wife,
From this day forth, for better and for worse,
For richer and for poorer, in disease
And so in health, to cherish and to love thee,
Till Death do part us after God's command,
Whereto I plight my sacred troth to thee. ”

“ I hasten to report, that Santa Anna
Was spied surveying o'er the grounds, no doubt,
To mark the places where the batteries
Shall be erected to bombard the Alamo.
Against their cannon, mortars and cohorns
Our guns, light as they are, cannot avail,
Nor will our walls for any length of time
Withstand their onslaught. What is thy command?
Travis.
Nought more we can perfect in our arrangements,
And if we could, our men are too fatigued
By day-alarms and nightly toil of watching.
Their efforts must be spared, till comes the end! ”

“ Than slowly through the hands of Tyranny!
Farewell! how will thy mother pine for thee!
James Travis.
Mourn not, dear brother; for the joyous boon
Of such a death can never come too soon!
[The sound of the enemy's drums and martial music is now heard more distinctly.]
Col. Wm. Travis.
Hark ye! how close the foe is now at hand,
Full many thousands 'gainst our little band.
So nerve your strength, let every sinew swell
To be a man, and let your bayonets tell,
Your swords, your muskets and your Bowie-knives,
How dearly ye have sold your precious lives. ”

“ Travis.
Now art thou wholly as I wished to find thee!
Oh, happy I! since for me beats and throbs
The noblest heart that ever dwelt in woman!
But think, beloved! can no way be found
To spare from thee this woeful suicide
Of every hope and earthly joy, whom thus
Resigningly thou lay'st on Freedom's altar?
Elsie.
If there exists a way, it lies with us. ”

“ Santa Anna.
It is my wish, that under flag of truce
Thou instantly start for the Alamo,
And there arrived, demand the fort's surrender
With all its men and arms. But am I right?
The task appears not pleasant quite to thee.
Bradburn.
Make me the leader of the Forlorn Hope,
Place me where fiercest raves the battle's roar,
But bid me not in parley to confront
Those men, whose every eye-glance, every word
Mean scorn and sneers cast on my loyalty.
Santa Anna.
Is that thy whole objection? Why, meseems,
Thy own confession puts thee in the wrong.
Bradburn. ”

“ Santa Anna.
These are quite novel theories to me;
But pray, proceed, Miss Bradburn, for I long
To hear your more than curious eulogy
Of rogues and desperadoes to the end.
Elsie.
Virtue at rest is indolent and slow,
And needs a spur to rouse her energies;
For her regard for peace, her reverence
For law and order, her dislike to strife,
Cause often her to bear what she ought not. ”

“ Here is the entrance to the corridor
That leads the way to Freedom's hallowed shore.
Father! forgive me, if I leave thee now,
My own defence absolves me from my vow.
My sole protection now lies,— where I go,—
With William Travis in the Alamo.
[Having raised the altar-cloth Elsie and James Travis disappear beneath it. Santa Anna, finding his efforts unavailing, resigns himself to his fate.]
Santa Anna.
Curse, curse on every mercy-tempered deed;
It carries in itself its failure's seed! ”

“ Oh, Elsie ! had I listed but to thee!
[Hopefully.] Maybe that all may yet turn for the best;
That Santa Anna may be moved to truth
Through me, as I was through my hero-brethren,
Or, that returning my sincerity
By generosity, he will allow me
Hence to depart. [Resolutely.] Still were no less than death
To be the expiation of my wayward course,
I shall not flinch nor beg, but solace me
With that grand sentence of the Irish patriot:
"Whether on the gallows high,
Or in the battle's van.
The fittest place for man to die
Is, where he dies for man!" ”

“ Bradburn.
But, child, the Alamo
Will soon surrender to the Mexicans.
What were our fate, if they entrapped us there?
Elsie.
It will not, can not: Travis holds the fort,
And Texan patriots are its garrison.
Bradburn.
Unless they yield, their doom is certain death.
Elsie.
What if it is? So let us die with them!
Bradburn.
Heroic child!—But let us bide our time.
Ere we select this last of remedies.
I will fulfill my mission; if it fails,
Thy way proposed lies open still to us,
Elsie. ”

“ To-day!—and not until to-day,—my Heart Has conquered, and from its joyful shrine, Comes up the shout of Victory and Triumph. Roused by the sight of genuine glorious manhood, Inspired by the thrill of heroism. Enchanted by the words of truth that came From the defenders of the Alamo, My heart arose, threw off its chains and fetters, And made me what I am—
[Striking his breast with noble pride.]
A Man—a Man—
A Man resolved to stand by Truth and Right,
A Man prepared for torture and for death,
A Man before whose open brow and eye ”

“ Bradburn.
And yet your school's first principle is this:
That one may do what others are forbidden.
Santa Anna.
That one can do what others can not do.
This is no law of mine—throughout the realm
Of nature, on the sky, upon the earth,
Uncommon strength and talent vault the bounds
By which the mean, the weak are hedged around.
As goes the radiant comet's flaming path
Athwart the planets' even orbits,—so
A great mind will not brook the narrow lists
Of every day's constraint and common usage.
Bradburn.
This is quite true, but tell: what mind is great? ”

“ To have for husband a dishonored man,
I answer thee: a thousand times, no, no!
Thou canst not rob us of the confidence
Wherewith we trust each other, though divided.
For love and honor are the self-same thing
In every heart whose pulse throbs for the right.
True to oneself is to be true to all.
If nothing else be thy commission than
To test my strength, thou couldst have spared that trouble.
Where actions speak, words might be fitly saved.
Bradburn.
If nought will overcome thy stubbornness.
So shudder then at what I tell thee last.
Thy brother James—
Travis. ”

“ Elsie Bradburn, admitted by the jailer through the door in the rear, has entered during Travis' last words which she has overheard, and stands for a moment quietly behind him. Travis.
Travis.
[Turning and perceiving Elsie, who sinks into his arms.]
What ? Elsie, thou?
Elsie.
My Travis! thou in prison
Unjustly, most unworthily confined!
Than whom none else delights so much in sunshine,
In balmy air, in freedom from restraint.
Thou canst not live beneath this damp-cold vault,
But wilt fall sick, and as the prairie-flower. ”

“ J. Travis.
I never saw his face, still every trait
His blood-shot eye, his lips so firmly set.
His savage grin, his hollow cheeks,—they all
Proclaim to me: I stand before "The Butcher."
Santa Anna.
Here, gentlemen, you can behold anew
The fruit of Anglo-Saxon discipline:
Gross impudence and wanton disrespect.
J. Travis.
We Anglo-Saxons give our free esteem
To honest men, however poor and low;
But such as thee we hate and loathe the more,
The greater might they have to do us harm.
Santa Anna. ”

“ When outraged Nature, rising fierce and grand,
With one accord will wreck what thou hast planned,
And wipe thy labors' vestige from the land!
All save thy name! that, that alone shall last,
And like a stranded vessel's towering mast.
Shall overtop the billows of the Past,
A warning voice 'gainst wild Ambition's blast.
[Taking the keys from the table, Elsie, Santa Anna's sword in hand, leaves the room, which she locks behind her. Crossing; the corridor, she unlocks the room in which James Travis lies, and standing at the Threshold, calls out to him ;]
Awake, James Travis! ”

“ Bradburn.
Enough, this idle interchange of speech
Which neither mitigates the culprit's guilt,
Nor elevates the judge's majesty.
The packet-boat lies ready at the wharf,
To-morrow even to convey from here
To Vera Cruz thee and thy fellow rebels
For trial at the court of Mexico.
Your death is certain; for the Mexicans,
Justly embittered o'er the foreigners
Who wantonly disturb the peaceful realms
Of their domain by stirring strife and discord,
Long since have clamored, that a stern example
Of justice should be meted out to them. ”

“ Duque.
I pray thee, wake him: e'en to hear his dream.
To see him writhe, congeals my blood with terror.
Prado.
I cannot, will I not incur his wrath;
He oft dreams so. See, he begins anew.
Santa Anna.
[Laboring under still more violent convulsions than before.]
Ha! still I live ! What change in me and nature!
Instead of stifling heat, as erst, now creeps
An icy chill through every limb of mine,
While over me a midnidit-blackness veils
The burning sky and blinds the sunlight's blaze. ”

“ Called out to Sherman's volunteers: "Remember
The Alamo! [1] As darts the lightning-bolt
Athwart the air, so flashed this battle-cry
Through every bosom, and from wing to wing
The startled breezes bore its thundering echo.
Awed by this deafening peal the enemy
With terror broke their ranks; this battery
Alone sustained its fire against our men.
They wavered for an instant; wresting then
The regimental standard from the ensign,
And waving it with vigor, Colonel Bradburn
Rushed straight against the cannon's mouth and planted
The banner on the rampart. ”

“ The swollen waves defy their strength to cross.
So go to work; then I shall follow you.
Deaf Smith.
Thou, a deserter, unknown and despised,
Commandest here, as if thou wert our master;
And yet I know not what it is that prompts me
Implicitly thy order to obey.
If I believed in visions, I should ween
Thou wert an angel sent from heavenly realms,
Disguised in beggar's dress, to aid our cause
By thine advice; so beams thy eye inspired.
And so assuring sounds to me thy voice.
So, friends, make haste to hurl these planks and beams
Into the waves ”

“ James Travis I am called.
Santa Anna.
James Travis? what?
Art thou related to that demagogue
Who, Colonel now, commands the Alamo?
J. Travis.
My highest boast is that I am his brother,
Yea, brother to the best, the bravest man
That ever breathed the air. No human heart
Beats so for all that noble is and good.
Santa Anna.
Thou art his brother, hem! that pleases me.
Yea, pleases me more than a thousand captives.
[Abruptly.]
How many men defend the Alamo?
J. Travis.
How many men? Is that thy wish to know?
Santa Anna.
Yes, yes! no matter 'bout a man or two. ”

“ Santa Anna.
Quick! summon General Almonte here.
[Exit Prado.]
You little thought, Miss Bradburn, when you made
Your wish beknown to me, that each your word
Gave me a stone in hand, wherewith to build
Your prison-walls, where easily enough
I shall your secret's knowledge wrest from you,
As from his hound the hunter takes his prey.
None but his equals will a lion combat,
But when on his pursuit of royal game
A mouse opposes him, then without pity
He crushes her with one stroke of his paw. ”

“ Bradburn.
Its guaranty should rather come from you.
Santa Anna.
I long to hear thee prove thy argument.
Bradburn.
What caused this insurrection? what has filled
The heart of every honest Mexican
With sorrow and disgust? The overthrow
Of what he deemed his costliest possession,
His constitution, through your agency.
Would you behold this land restored to peace,
To rise, to flourish, render up your power
And leave your fellow-citizens to mould,
Perfect, enjoy their rights of Liberty.
Santa Anna. ”