Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/107



BATTLES ON THE RIO GRANDE.

he fiery cross, borne by the swift-footed Walise, as the signal for the marshalling of the Scottish clans, did not arouse a deeper or more intense feeling of anxiety, than the intelligence of the capture of Thornton and his command on the banks of the Bravo. With the rapidity of the electric fire, it was communicated from one extremity of the country to the other. One rumor followed close upon another. Exaggerated accounts of the forces of the enemy, and the dangers that beset the army of occupation, were circulated far and near; each new repetition affording wider scope to the imagination, and magnifying the causes of alarm, until the public mind was actually prepared for any disaster or reverse. Cut off from all communication with his depot of provisions and supplies, hemmed in and surrounded by a force trebling his own in numbers, General Taylor was represented to be in a most perilous position. The information that he was authorized to call on the governors of the neighboring states for