I saw the noble animal at the close of the
engagement staggering with his master over the heaps of slain. Houston,
indeed, had great difficulty in arresting the carnage; far over the
prairie the flying foe were followed, and at Vance's Bridge--to which
the Mexicans fled, unaware of its destruction--there was an awful
scene. The bayou was choked with men and horses, and the water red as
blood."
"Ah, John; could you not spare the flying? Poor souls!"
"Daughter, keep your pity for the women and children who would have
been butchered had these very men been able to do it! Give your
sympathy to the men who fell in their defense. Did you see Stephenson
in the fight, John?"
John smiled. "I saw him after it. He had torn up every shirt he had
into bandages, and was busy all night long among the wounded men. In
the early dawn of the next day we buried our dead. As we piled the
last green sod above them the sun rose and flooded the graves with
light, and Stephenson turned his face to the east, and cried out, like
some old Hebrew prophet warrior:
"'Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel, when the people
willingly offered themselves.'...
"'My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves
willingly among the people. Bless ye the Lord.'...
"'So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love
him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.
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