midnight
Seeing his gunners so cruelly decimated by the Texan bullets , he undertook to take their place , loading the guns at his own peril , and firing them at the insurgents . Such courage struck the Texans with so great admiration , that although it would several times have been easy for them to kill their daring foe , their rifles had constantly turned away from this man , who seemed to find a delight in braving death at every moment . The Jaguar , while closely investing the fort , and eagerly desiring to carry it , had given peremptory orders to spare the life of his friend , whom he could not refrain from pitying and admiring , as much for his courage as for his devotion to the cause he served . Although it was near midnight , the Colonel was still up ; at the moment when the hunter was brought to him , he was walking thoughtfully up and down his bedroom , consulting from time to time a detailed plan , of the fortifications that lay open on a table . Tranquil 's arrival caused him great satisfaction , for he hoped to obtain from him news from without . Unfortunately , the hunter did not know much about the political state of the country , owing to the isolated life he led in the forests . Still , he answered with the greatest frankness all the questions the Colonel thought proper to ask him , and gave him the little information he had been enabled to collect ; then he told him the various incidents of his own journey .