Page:The Fall of the Alamo.djvu/104

 Are clearly, sternly pointed out to them, I doubt not but they will relent and yield. Besides, is Travis not the fort's commander, Whose future prospects, brotherly concern And cherished love, if they are truly felt. Must overbalance his defiant pride, Whose end can only be a wretched death?

A glorious death, which he—I know—will choose A thousand times, ere he descends to shame. [Beseechingly.] My father! see, I know thy love for me, A love, as true as blind and ill-advised. Which, like the glitter of a will-o'-whisp. Has led thee unaware but steadily Deeper and deeper on thy erring way. As sailors on a dangerous coast sometimes Are lured to ruin through a glaring light, By wicked pirates lit to imitate A beacon-light, so has thy ill-judged love Ensnared thy reason with deceptive power. [Fervedly.] Fall back! turn round! reverse thy life-ship's course, Ere yet it strikes against the fatal rocks. Ere yet the fiends, who watch with secret joy Its fast approaching doom, leap on its deck And feast upon the downfall of thy hopes.