Dave Alvin - Texas Rangers lyrics

Come all ye Texas Rangers wherever you may be I'll tell to you a story that happened unto me One night the age of fifteen years I joined a royal band We marched from San Antonio unto the Rio Grande And yet the captain told us Perhaps he thought it right "Before we reach the station, boys I'm sure we'll have to fight" We saw the Indians coming We heard them give their yell My feelings at that moment No tongue could ever tell We saw their glittering lances Their arrows round us hailed My heart was sink (sic) within me My courage almost failed I thought of my old mother Who in tears to me did say: "To you they all are strangers With me you'd better stay." I thought her weak and childish And that she did not know For I was bent on roaming And I was bound to go We fought them full five hours Before the fight gave o'er Three hundred of our soldiers Lay weltering in their gore Three hundred noble rangers As ever trod the West We laid them by their comrades Sweet peace to be their rest Perhaps you have a mother Likewise a sister too And maybe so a sweetheart To weep and mourn for you If this should be your condition And you are bound to roam I advise you from experience You'd better stay at home