And when they reached San Felipe and found it in ashes, a bitter cry of hopeless suffering came from every woman's lips.

They had thought to find there a little food, and a day's sheltered resting-place.

Even Antonia's brave soul fainted, at the want and suffering around her.

She had gold, but it could not buy bread for the little ones, weeping with hunger and terrified by the fretfulness of mothers suffering the pangs of want and in the last stage of human weariness.
It was on this night Houston wrote: "I will do the best I can; but be assured the fame of Jackson could never compensate me for my anxiety and mental pain." And yet, when he was told that a blind woman and her seven children had been passed by, and did not know the enemy were approaching, he delayed the march until men had been sent back to bring them into safety.
During these days of grief and privation Isabel's nature grew to its finest proportions.

Her patient efforts to arouse her mother, and her cheerfulness under the loss of all comforts, were delightful.