TEXAS STA.TE LIBRA.RY
driven, noosed and compelled to be present? His magic pen has, how- ever, like Merlin's wand, metamorphosed a hog into a hero, and valiant men into mules I . Rusk and Wharton contemptuously vetoed the erec- tion of one bridge, while Deaf Smith's unsuspected demolition of the other, is alike confiscated to serve as plumes for the scurvy borrower. The subterfuge of Houston was known to be inexhaustible, and his timidity over-mastering; with the dread therefore, that he might again defraud the eager band of a victory at San Jacinto, it was said, that an excellent marksman belonging to Capt. Fishers Company in the early part of the action, thought it safest to temporarily depose the Achilles by a touch on the heel. Sam thought it a mortal stroke, an~ the ruling passion, strong in death, placed his hand upon his heart,- exclaiming, "your General is wounded, Cos has come, all is lost I to the infinite iµnusement of those who conceived that dreams should be interpreted by contraries. It is unnecessary to contest the statements which abound in Sam's biography of his dissent from expeditions and acts which happened to be presently disastrous, or pregnant with future ill. Tra.vis, Fannin and others have been ably vindicated from his slanderous imputations; Ria book, however, openly avows that success is the only true criterion of merit, and accordingly he creeps out of every catastrophe that bears the mark of adversity. Men of the metal of those who fought at San Jacinto, rarely care much who enriches his own fame by appropriating theirs - without their noticing, if they chanced to read, or bestowing a. smile on the ephemeral claims of the soi-disant hero, they would tranquilly return to the plough without the thought of encumbering the press, or the busy public with the fact, that those who insisted on fight- ing have heel!_ represented as reluctant serfs, quickened by Houston's irresistible appeals, and he, the heartless braggart, as a perfect Rinaldo! The prudential down-cooling that took place on the vessel, during his voyage to New Orleans, and the enthusiRstic reception of the news at its termination, recast Houston's intended mould from Othello to that of the Prodigal Son. He and they on the Vessel, who had more real interest in the welfare of Texas, were (however alien in their views in other respects) of one accord in representing what extraordinary advantages might, by taking in its unbounded flow the rapturous liber- ality of their Louisiana friends, accrue to their exhausted means by favoring, or at least not contradicting the impression, that at New Orleans was to be fleen the live prodigv of a. hero! How could thP people of that City have conjectured the unromantic truth that the Leader had been led, driven and compelled to the laurelled field! No one sooner than Sam caught at the vision of plastering over his igno- miny, by converting to the general profit of Texas, and mollifying the acerb feeling towards himself. In the willingness which the Chief men of Louisiana shewed to cherish the young· Republic, his talent of Rhodl!"l"- mantade became in full vibration; and it is only his due to acknowl- edge that he fanned what at first was generosity into frenzied prodi- gality. The members of the Texiim Government, themselves houseless and impoverished, conceived that they had no right to allow their pri- vate aversions to militate agairn;t the financial and political benefits to be derived from a second coalition with one, who although not evidently cut out for daring exploits in arms, was more than a Bachelor in Arts!
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