Our undertaking's ultimate success,
To which, besides, our soldiers' discipline,
Our leaders' bravery and experience,
Withal our might and numbers clearly point.
But albeit my detention hindered me
To be a witness to this morning's fight,
So render me, Castrillon, thy report.
Castrillon,
According to Your Excellency's command
I was to storm the Alamo, so soon
I had arrived here with the army's van
Of thirteen hundred men. In steadfast march.
Though flew the bullets thick and fast, we reached
The ramparts of the forteress, which we scaled.
In vain. No sooner had the crest been gained,
When madly, like a wounded grizzly bear.
The garrison flung headlong down our ranks
And boldly opening then the gates, rushed forth,
—Travis their leader—on our wavering men.
They fled and stopped not in their maddened run,
Till they had reached the refuge of our camp.
One single captive, whom, attacking me,
I with my sabre cut across his brow,
Is all the trophy which we have obtained,
While of my thirteen hundred men
More than one-fourth are either killed or wounded.
