ADVENTURES OF A  FRENCH  CAPTAIN.       175
lery. Half the Mexican army remained on
the field of battle. The other half laid down
their arms.
Though I have seen many a fight during
the seven years of my service under the Em-
pire, I had never witnessed such wild ex-
citement. I felt twenty years younger. Our
Texans were real heroes, and what is most
wonderful in this feat of a handful of volun-
teers, and proves that the enemy did not try
to resist us, is the fact that we had only two
soldiers killed and twenty-three wounded.
Santa Anna had fled at the beginning of the
fight. He was found, the next day, hiding in the
tall prairie grass. He humbly kissed the hand of
the poor soldier who found him, and tried to
bribe the others with unlimited gifts of gold
and jewels. He wept when they resisted his
offers, and when he was carried before Hous-
ton, he said to him, significantly :
" You were born for great things ; you have
conquered the Napoleon of the West?
His conscience smote him about the massa-
cre of Goliad, and he feared to be called to ac-
count for it, but still, from policy or from pity,
General   Houston  promised  to  protect him.