"We will, Captain," the sailors answered unanimously, as they formed front against the Mexicans.
"Father," said Doña Carmela, "will you let me fall alive into the hands of that tiger?"
"No," said Tranquil, as he kissed her pale forehead; "here is my dagger, child?"
"Thanks!" she replied, as she seized it with eyes sparkling with joy. "Oh, now I am certain of dying free."
Lest they should be surrounded, the Texans leant their backs against a rock, and awaited with levelled bayonets the attack of the Texans.
"Surrender, dogs!" the Scalper shouted contemptuously.
"Nonsense!" the Captain answered; "you must be mad, Señor. Do men like us ever surrender?"
"Forward!" the Scalper shouted.
The Mexicans rushed on their enemies with indescribable rage. A heroic and gigantic struggle then began, a combat impossible to describe of three hundred men against thirty: a horrible and merciless carnage, in which none demanded quarter, while the Texans, certain of all falling, would not succumb till buried under a pile of hostile corpses. After twenty minutes, that lasted an age, only twelve Texans remained on their legs. The Captain, Tranquil, Quoniam, and nine sailors, remained alone, accomplishing prodigies of valour.
"At last!" the Scalper shouted, as he dashed forward to seize Doña Carmela.