noon
* * * * * Loud and more loud , the discord grows , Till pale Death shuts the scene , And o'er the conqueror and the conquered draws His cold and bloody shroud . '' SHELLEY . The 6th of March rose dark and lowering , and all nature wore an aspect meet for the horrors which that day chronicled in the page of history . Toward noon the dense leaden cloud floated off , as though the uncertainty which veiled the future had suddenly been lifted -- the crisis had come . Santa Anna and his bloodthirsty horde , rendered more savage by the recollection of the 11th December , poured out the vial of their wrath on the doomed town . Oh ! San Antonio , thou art too beautiful for strife and discord to mar thy quiet loveliness .