The man of wild and desperate life seemed at this moment to be clothed about with the mantle of the seer.
The Mexican batteries fired very little that day, and Santa Anna's soldiers kept well out of range.

They had learned a deep and lasting respect for the Texan rifles.

Hundreds had fallen already before them, and now they kept under cover.
The silence seemed ominous and brooding to Ned.

The day was bright, and the flag of no quarter burned a spot of blood-red against the blue sky.
Ned saw Mexican officers occasionally on the roofs of the higher buildings, but he took little notice of them.

He felt instinctively that the supreme crisis had not yet come.