n of free
States. This was the hope of Houston. 'We can have help,' he often said
to his little army; 'a word will call help from Nacogdoches,--but we
will emancipate ourselves. If we go into the American States, we will go
as equals; we will go as men who have won the right to say: LET US DWELL
UNDER THE SAME FLAG, FOR WE ARE BROTHERS!'"

CHAPTER XVIII. UNDER ONE FLAG.

"And through thee I believe
In the noble and great, who are gone."

"Yes! I believe that there lived
Others like thee in the past.
Not like the men of the crowd.
Who all around me to-day,
Bluster, or cringe, and make life
Hideous, and arid, and vile,
But souls temper'd with fire,
Fervent, heroic, and good;
Helpers, and friends of mankind."
--ARNOLD.

"Our armor now may rust, our idle scimitars
Hang by our sides for ornament, not use.
Children shall beat our atabals and drums;
And all the noisy trades of war no more
Shall wake the peaceful morn."
--DRYDEN.

As the years go on they bring many changes--changes that come as
naturally as the seasons--that tend as naturally to anticipated
growth and decay--that scarcely startle the subjects of them, till
a lengthened-out period of time discloses their vitality and extent.
Between the ages of twenty and thirty, ten years do not seem very
destructive to life. The woman at eighteen, and twenty-eight, if
changed, is usually ripened and improved; the man at thirty, finer and
more mature than he was at twenty. But when this same period is placed
to women and men who are either approaching fifty, or have passed it,
the change is distinctly felt.

It was even confessed by the Senora one exquisite morning in the
beginning of March, though the sun was shining warmly, and the flowers
blooming, and the birds singing, and all nature rejoicing, as though it
was the first season of creation.

"I am far from being as gay and strong as I wish to be, Roberto,"
she, said; "and today, consider what a company there is coming! And if
General Houston is to be added to it, I shall be as weary as I shall be
happy."

"He is the simplest of men; a cup of coffee, a bit of steak--"

"SAN BLAS! That is how you talk! But is, it possible to receive him like
a common mortal? He is a hero, and, bes