His concerns turned out to be well-founded. Don José de la Garza, political chief in Bexar, wrote the governor of Coahuila that the request was but a symptom of mounting insurrection, that “a true Mexican can but bitterly deplore his misfortune and feel sore at the foreign hand that has come boldly to rob him of his rights.” In his view, an assemblage to voice public sentiment was tantamount to revolution, for inevitably that was where such meetings had always led in Mexico.

Andrew rode home from the convention feeling that it had done good work, in the main. When all the Lewis families gathered on a Sunday afternoon, which was their custom, he told Michael, James, and cousin Frank, “I think they’ll know down in Mexico that we’re still loyal to the government, that all we want is for Texas to blossom and grow.”

Not until much later would he discern that the effect had been the opposite, that slowly but certainly the stage was being prepared for conflagration.

PART III

TO

ARMS!

TO

ARMS!

1835

XIX

JAMES WORRIED about Annie. After five years in Texas, she still gave no sign that she was ever going to marry. He could see himself in his old age, supporting an old-maid sister who never had been totally satisfied with anything he did and would probably outlive him just for the cussedness of it. Times, he would almost be satisfied to see her marry Isaac Blackwood. Isaac still came around now and again, doing little favors for Annie, bringing her things like jugs of honey or bear grease for cooking or an occasional backstrap and hindquarter of venison—anything to earn a smile from her. He would go away as happy as a dog granted a few pats on the head.

Nor was Isaac the only suitor. Others came from as far away as San Felipe, for men still outnumbered women in the Texas colonies. Annie gave them even less encouragement than she offered Isaac.

James was pretty sure he knew what the trouble was. She still yearned after Sly Shipman, though she had not seen or heard from him once since he had ridden away that summer day not long after the battle at Velasco. She would occasionally talk about her other suitors. She never mentioned Shipman’s name. That was how James knew.

But he had worries more pressing than Annie’s lack of romance. He was well aware that the pot was bubbling in Mexico, that sooner or later it would boil over, and that Texas was likely to be scalded. Each traveler passing through the colony, especially if he came from Bexar or the direction of Mexico, was closely questioned for news, for any information that might yield some hint of what was to come. James would not have been overly surprised if he had looked up from his plowing one day and had seen the whole Mexican army marching down the hill toward him.