If we fall with it, it is still a deed well done.

We shall have given to Houston and Fanning time to interpose themselves between Santa Anna and the settlements." "We have none of us lived very well," said Bowie, "but we can die well.
I say as an American, that Texas is ours by right of natural locality, and by right of treaty; and, as I live, I will do my best to make it American by right of conquest! Comrades, I do not want a prettier quarrel to die in"-- and looking with a brave, unflinching gaze around the grim fortress--"I do not want a better monument than the Alamo!" The speech was not answered with any noisy hurrahing; but the men around the bare, long table clasped hands across it, and from that last interview with the doomed men Thomas Worth came away with the knowledge that he had seen the battle begun.

He felt now that there was no time to delay longer his plans for the safety of his mother and sisters.

These were, indeed, of the simplest and most uncertain character; for the condition of the country and its few resources were such as to make flight the only way that promised safety.

And yet flight was environed with dangers of every kind--hunger, thirst, exhaustion, savage beasts, Indians, and the triple armies of Mexico.
The day after his arrival he had begun to prepare, as far as possible, for this last emergency, but the Senora's unconquerable aversion to leave her native city had constantly hampered him.