Page:The Fall of the Alamo.djvu/186

 So trackless they have vanished out of sight And left us nought but soreness and fatigue. Unlucky news comes alway soon enough; Why then allow its gloomy pinions' beat To scare away the blessed boon of sleep? My men are ordered to participate In the attack; they ought to be recalled From fruitless efforts to restore their strength For the assault by brief repose at least. That is the purport of my coming here. I dare not rouse His Excellency before The time he set, still fifteen minutes hence. His angry mood, swelled by the disappointment Of your report and loss of soothing sleep, Would magnify my little breach of order Into a crime, whose penalty were death. [Moving restlessly on its couch, and speaking aloud in his sleep.] Where leadest me?

He wakes.