The black flag waved above them; the city itself had the stillness of death; but for hours the dull roar and the clamorous tumult went on without cessation.

The Senora lay upon her bed motionless, with hands tightly locked.

She had exhausted feeling, and was passive.

Antonia and Isabel wandered from window to window, hoping to see some token which would indicate the course of events.
Nothing was visible but the ferocious flag flying out above the desperate men fighting below it.

So black! So cruel and defiant it looked! It seemed to darken and fill the whole atmosphere around it.
And though the poor women had not dared to whisper to each other what it said to them, they knew in their own hearts that it meant, if the Americans failed, the instant and brutal massacre of every prisoner.
The husband and father were under its inhuman shadow.