Page:The Fall of the Alamo.djvu/170

 To remedy his sad mistake. Therefore I pray, forbear to tempt me more ; my choice Is made: my country's fate before my father's. [Aside.] That trump is gone! now for my fourth and last. Miss Bradburn! all to whom I have referred, Although endeared to you by Nature's bonds Or choice of love, are others than yourself. But when you now arrive to contemplate Your own forlorn and unsafe station here, How you, without protectors, without friends, A self-confessed enemy of ours, Are compassed round by strangers and by foes,— Will you then not take pity on yourself.? What I have prized and cherished most of all. My father, lover and my native land. Already are or soon will be your prey. What else on earth is left to me? My life? Oh, take it from me, and my dying breath Shall thank the hand that rid me of its burden. Is e'en in peace a lonely woman's fate Exposed to danger, how the more in war?