The Yellow Rose

Free The Yellow Rose by Gilbert Morris Page B

Book: The Yellow Rose by Gilbert Morris Read Free Book Online
Authors: Gilbert Morris
Tags: Ebook, book
and formed their companies. Now astride Saracen, Houston took up his position in the center of the line. At three-thirty he drew his sword and waved the army forward. There was no band, but two men, a black drummer and a German fifer, began to play, and the men began to sing along with it. The only tune they knew was a bawdy tune played and sung in brothels:
    Will you come to the bow’r I have shaded for you?
    Our bed shall be roses all spangled with dew.
    There under the bow’r on roses you’ll lie
    With a blush on your cheek but a smile in your eye.
    To the tune of a song usually sung in the houses of ill-repute, the Texans, tired, dirty, bearded, and terribly angry, leveled their long rifles and marched forward across the open plain. Brodie looked to his left and saw Sam Houston astride his white horse. His knees felt weak, and he gripped his musket so hard that his knuckles were white. He moved forward with the battle line and said to Zane, who was on his left, “Zane, I guess you’d better know now I’m scared plumb to death.”
    “So are the rest of us.” Zane turned and grinned. “The older you get, the better you get at coverin’ that up.”
    “You’ll be all right,” Rice said, who was on Brodie’s right. “Listen to that song. Not a very good fighting song.”
    Neither of them said anything else, and there was a strange silence as the line advanced across the plain. Brodie could not believe that the Mexican army was not there to meet them. A slight hill stood between the two armies with some scattered oak trees, but even so, it was amazing that there was not line after line of armed, uniformed soldiers waiting there to attack them.
    It soon became apparent that Santa Anna’s overconfidence had led him to post no scouts and no sentries. Most of his troops were fast asleep. None of the senior officers were aware of the advance of the Texans.
    Brodie found himself in a strange mood. He knew he could not run. He could not bear the thought of his friends seeing him fleeing like a coward. He seemed to be caught and marched on with the rest of the advancing men in his company. They emerged from a ravine in the center of the plain, and there, not five hundred yards away, lay the Mexican lines. He saw the tents and men moving about and the horses picketed far to his right. His mouth was dry, and his throat seemed to close up, but Zane laughed.
    “Will you look at ’em? They act like they’re out on a blasted picnic! They don’t even know we’re coming.”
    “Well, devil throw smoke!” Rice said and actually laughed. “Look at them! They act like men in a play.”
    Suddenly, a bugler somewhere to the right sounded the alarm, and men began scurrying around. A cannon cut loose with grape shot, but the fire was too high and went over the heads of the advancing troops. The Texas artillery opened up then. The two guns called the Twin Sisters unlimbered and let fly at two hundred yards in the Mexican lines. Lamar’s cavalry began swinging around to the right as a feint, and the infantry rushed forward. As the Texas line moved forward, the gunners manhandled the Twin Sisters to within seventy yards and then brought them into action. As they opened fire, Brodie heard a cry go up and down the line, and he heard himself shouting. He moved forward at a trot and heard Zane say, “Look, Houston’s gone down.” He turned to see Sam Houston’s horse down, but Houston mounted another horse and pressed on, shouting and waving his sword as his men advanced.
    All up and down the line, the Texans were shouting, “Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember the Alamo!” Suddenly, the line dissolved, and every man ran screaming toward the enemy. When they were no more than twenty yards away, the Texas rifles began to explode in a tremendous roar. Brodie drew his rifle, pulled the trigger, and saw one of the fleeing Mexicans fall down. The eight hundred rifles had left gray uniforms of the dead and dying scrambled

Similar Books

Oblivion

Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Lost Without Them

Trista Ann Michaels

The Naked King

Sally MacKenzie

Beautiful Blue World

Suzanne LaFleur

A Magical Christmas

Heather Graham

Rosamanti

Noelle Clark

The American Lover

G E Griffin

Scrapyard Ship

Mark Wayne McGinnis