The red flag now flaunted its folds very near to him. He
could not repress a shiver.
"I am here," he replied, "because some one who has power has told
General Santa Anna that I am not to be put to death."
"It is well for you, then," said Fernando, "that you have a friend of
such weight. It is a pity to die when one is so young and so straight
and strong as you. Ah, my young senor, the world is beautiful. Look how
green is the grass there by the river, and how the sun lies like gold
across it!"
Ned had noticed before the love of beauty that the humblest peon
sometimes had, and there was a certain touch of brotherly feeling
between him and this man, his jailer.
"The world is beautiful," said the boy, "and I am willing to tell you
that I have no wish to leave it."
"Nor I," said Fernando. "Why are the Texans so foolish as to oppose the
great Santa Anna, the most illustrious and powerful of all generals and
rulers? Did they not know that he would come and crush them, every one?"
Ned did not reply. The peon, in repose at least, had a gentle heart, and
the boy knew that Santa Anna was to him omnipotent and omniscient. He
turned his attention anew to the Alamo, that magnet of his thoughts.
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