In her story of "Inez," founded upon the most tragic event in the
history of the Lone Star State, the defence of the Alamo, Miss Evans
thus described the scene from the viewpoint of the newly arrived
immigrant:

The river wound around the town like an azure girdle, gliding
along the surface and reflecting in its deep blue waters the
rustling tule which fringed the margin. An occasional pecan
or live-oak flung a majestic shadow athwart its azure bosom.
Now and then a clump of willows sigh low in the evening breeze.
Far away to the north stretched a mountain range, blue in the
distance; to the south lay the luxuriant valley of the stream.
The streets were narrow and laid out with a total disregard of
the points of the compass.

By this river of romantic beauty and old-time myth Augusta Evans spent
two of youth's impressionable years. On Main Plaza, near the Alamo,
where the Frost National Bank now stands, was the Evans store, where
she, the daughter of the store-keeper, lived. Almost under the shadow
of the tragically historic old mission, by the park near which Santa
Ana had his headquarters, she received the incentive and gathered the
material for her first novel, "Inez," written in her own room at night
as a gift with which to surprise her father and mother. The work of a
girl of fifteen, it did not appeal to many readers, but it contained a
vivid description of the inspired heroism and self-sacrifice of the
men whose deeds crowned the history of Texas with the sanctity of the
supreme glory of self-immolation upon the altar of patriotism. We have
fallen upon commercial days now, and the traditions of the old Alamo
circle around a warehouse. Alamo Plaza is now the scene of the annual