Nothing on earth could catch them asleep, nor could anything on earth or under it frighten them into laying down their arms.
Ned began to shout, but only hoarse cries came from a dry throat through dry lips.

The great pulses in his throat were leaping again, and he was saying: "The Texans! The Texans! Oh, the brave Texans!" But nobody heard him.

Santa Anna, Filisola, Castrillon, Tolsa, Gaona and the other generals were leaning against the earthwork, absorbed in the tremendous spectacle that was passing before them.

The soldiers who were to guard the prisoner forgot him and they, too, were engrossed in the terrible and thrilling panorama of war.

Ned might have walked away, no one noticing, but he, too, had but one thought, and that was the Alamo.
He saw the Mexican columns shiver when the first volley was poured upon them from the walls.