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diff --git a/15402.txt b/15402.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3bb5900 --- /dev/null +++ b/15402.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7875 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of What Answer?, by Anna E. Dickinson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: What Answer? + +Author: Anna E. Dickinson + +Release Date: March 18, 2005 [EBook #15402] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT ANSWER? *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Josephine Paolucci and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +WHAT ANSWER? + + +Anna E. Dickinson + +1868 + + + + +WHAT ANSWER? + + + + +CHAPTER I + + "_In flower of youth and beauty's pride._" + + DRYDEN + + +A crowded New York street,--Fifth Avenue at the height of the afternoon; +a gallant and brilliant throng. Looking over the glittering array, the +purple and fine linen, the sweeping robes, the exquisite equipages, the +stately houses; the faces, delicate and refined, proud, self-satisfied, +that gazed out from their windows on the street, or that glanced from +the street to the windows, or at one another,--looking over all this, +being a part of it, one might well say, "This is existence, and beside +it there is none other. Let us dress, dine, and be merry! Life is good, +and love is sweet, and both shall endure! Let us forget that hunger and +sin, sorrow and self-sacrifice, want, struggle, and pain, have place in +the world." Yet, even with the words, "poverty, frost-nipped in a summer +suit," here and there hurried by; and once and again through the +restless tide the sorrowful procession of the tomb made way. + +More than one eye was lifted, and many a pleasant greeting passed +between these selected few who filled the street and a young man who +lounged by one of the overlooking windows; and many a comment was +uttered upon him when the greeting was made:-- + +"A most eligible _parti_!" + +"Handsome as a god!" + +"O, immensely rich, I assure you!" + +"_Isn't_ he a beauty!" + +"Pity he wasn't born poor!" + +"Why?" + +"O, because they say he carried off all the honors at college and +law-school, and is altogether overstocked with brains for a man who has +no need to use them." + +"Will he practise?" + +"Doubtful. Why should he?" + +"Ambition, power,--gratify one, gain the other." + +"Nonsense! He'll probably go abroad and travel for a while, come back, +marry, and enjoy life." + +"He does that now, I fancy." + +"Looks so." + +And indeed he did. There was not only vigor and manly beauty, splendid +in its present, but the "possibility of more to be in the full process +of his ripening days,"--a form alert and elegant, which had not yet all +of a man's muscle and strength; a face delicate, yet strong,--refined, +yet full of latent power; a mass of rippling hair like burnished gold, +flung back on the one side, sweeping low across brow and cheek on the +other; eyes + + "Of a deep, soft, lucent hue,-- + Eyes too expressive to be blue, + Too lovely to be gray." + +People involuntarily thought of the pink and flower of chivalry as they +looked at him, or imagined, in some indistinct fashion, that they heard +the old songs of Percy and Douglas, or the later lays of the cavaliers, +as they heard his voice,--a voice that was just now humming one of these +same lays:-- + + "Then mounte! then mounte, brave gallants, all, + And don your helmes amaine; + Death's couriers, Fame and Honor, call + Us to the field againe." + +"Stuff!" he cried impatiently, looking wistfully at the men's faces +going by,--"stuff! _We_ look like gallants to ride a tilt at the world, +and die for Honor and Fame,--we!" + +"I thank God, Willie, you are not called upon for any such sacrifice." + +"Ah, little mother, well you may!" he answered, smiling, and taking her +hand,--"well you may, for I am afraid I should fall dreadfully short +when the time came; and then how ashamed you'd be of your big boy, who +took his ease at home, with the great drums beating and the trumpets +blowing outside. And yet--I should like to be tried!" + +"See, mother!" he broke out again,--"see what a life it is, getting and +spending, living handsomely and doing the proper thing towards society, +and all that,--rubbing through the world in the old hereditary way; +though I needn't growl at it, for I enjoy it enough, and find it a +pleasant enough way, Heaven knows. Lazy idler! enjoying the sunshine +with the rest. Heigh-ho!" + +"You have your profession, Willie. There's work there, and opportunity +sufficient to help others and do for yourself." + +"Ay, and I'll _do_ it! But there is so much that is poor and mean, and +base and tricky, in it all,--so much to disgust and tire one,--all the +time, day after day, for years. Now if it were only a huge giant that +stands in your way, you could out rapier and have at him at once, and +there an end,--laid out or triumphant. That's worth while!" + +"O youth, eager and beautiful," thought the mother who listened, "that +in this phase is so alike the world over,--so impatient to do, so ready +to brave encounters, so willing to dare and die! May the doing be +faithful, and the encounters be patiently as well as bravely fought, and +the fancy of heroic death be a reality of noble and earnest life. God +grant it! Amen." + +"Meanwhile," said the gay voice,--"meanwhile it's a pleasant world; let +us enjoy it! and as to do this is within the compass of a man's wit, +therefore will I attempt the doing." + +While he was talking he had once more come to the window, and, looking +out, fastened his eyes unconsciously but intently upon the face of a +young girl who was slowly passing by,--unconsciously, yet so intently +that, as if suddenly magnetized, a flicker of feeling went over it; the +mouth, set with a steady sweetness, quivered a little; the eyes--dark, +beautiful eyes--were lifted to his an instant, that was all. The mother +beside him did not see; but she heard a long breath, almost a sigh, +break from him as he started, then flashed out of the room, snatching +his hat in the hall, and so on to the street, and away. + +Away after her, through block after block, across the crowded avenue to +Broadway. "Who is she? where did she come from? _I_ never saw her +before. I wonder if Mrs. Russell knows her, or Clara, or anybody! I will +know where she lives, or where she is going at least,--that will be some +clew! There! she is stopping that stage. I'll help her in! no, I +won't,--she will think I am chasing her. Nonsense! do you suppose she +saw you at the window? Of course! No, she didn't; don't be a fool! +There! I'll get into the next stage. Now I'll keep watch of that, and +she'll not know. So--all right! Go ahead, driver." And happy with some +new happiness, eager, bright, the handsome young fellow sat watching +that other stage, and the stylish little lace bonnet that was all he +could see of his magnet, through the interminable journey down Broadway. + +How clear the air seemed! and the sun, how splendidly it shone! and +what a glad look was upon all the people's faces! He felt like breaking +out into gay little snatches of song, and moved his foot to the waltz +measure that beat time in his brain till the irate old gentleman +opposite, whom nature had made of a sour complexion and art assisted to +corns, broke out with an angry exclamation. That drew his attention for +a moment. A slackening of speed, a halt, and the stage was wedged in one +of the inextricable "jams" on Broadway. Vain the search for _her_ stage +then; looking over the backs of the poor, tired horses, or from the +sidewalk,--here, there, at this one and that one,--all for naught! Stage +and passenger, eyes, little lace bonnet, and all, had vanished away, as +William Surrey confessed, and confessed with reluctance and discontent. + +"No matter!" he said presently,--"no matter! I shall see her again. I +know it! I feel it! It is written in the book of the Fates! So now I +shall content me with something"--that looks like her he did not say +definitely, but felt it none the less, as, going over to the +flower-basket near by, he picked out a little nosegay of mignonette and +geranium, with a tea-rosebud in its centre, and pinned it at his +button-hole. "Delicate and fine!" he thought,--"delicate and fine!" and +with the repetition he looked from it down the long street after the +interminable line of stages; and somehow the faint, sweet perfume, and +the fair flower, and the dainty lace bonnet, were mingled in wild and +charming confusion in his brain, till he shook himself, and laughed at +himself, and quoted Shakespeare to excuse himself,--"A mad world, my +masters!"--seeing this poor old earth of ours, as people always do, +through their own eyes. + +"God bless ye! and long life to yer honor! and may the blessed Virgin +give ye the desire of yer heart!" called the Irishwoman after him, as he +put back the change in her hand and went gayly up the street. "Sure, +he's somebody's darlint, the beauty! the saints preserve him!" she said, +as she looked from the gold piece in her palm to the fair, sunny head, +watching it till it was lost in the crowd from her grateful eyes. + +Evidently this young man was a favorite, for, as he passed along, many a +face, worn by business and care, brightened as he smiled and spoke; many +a countenance stamped with the trade-mark, preoccupied and hard, relaxed +in a kindly recognition as he bowed and went by; and more than one found +time, even in that busy whirl, to glance for a moment after him, or to +remember him with a pleasant feeling, at least till the pavement had +been crossed on which they met,--a long space at that hour of the day, +and with so much more important matters--Bull and Bear, rise and fall, +stock and account--claiming their attention. + +Evidently a favorite, for, turning off into one of the side streets, +coming into his father's huge foundry, faces heated and dusty, tired, +stained, and smoke-begrimed, glanced up from their work, from forge and +fire and engine, with an expression that invited a look or word,--and +look and word were both ready. + +"The boss is out, sir," said one of the foremen, "and if you please, +and have got the time to spare, I'd like to have a word with you before +he comes in." + +"All right, Jim! say your say." + +"Well, sir, you'll likely think I'm sticking my nose into what doesn't +concern me. 'Tain't a very nice thing I've got to say, but if I don't +say it I don't know who in thunder will; and, as it's my private opinion +that somebody ought to, I'll just pitch in." + +"Very good; pitch in." + +"Very good it is then. Only it ain't. Very bad, more like. It's a nasty +mess, and no mistake! and there's the cause of it!" pointing his brawny +hand towards the door, upon which was marked, "Office. Private," and +sniffing as though he smelt something bad in the air. + +"You don't mean my father!" flame shooting from the clear eyes. + +"Be damned if I do. Beg pardon. Of course I don't. I mean the fellow as +is perched up on a high stool in that there office, this very minute, +poking into his books." + +"Franklin?" + +"You've hit it. Franklin,--Abe Franklin,--that's the ticket." + +"What's the matter with him? what has he done?" + +"Done? nothing! not as I know of, anyway, except what's right and +proper. 'Tain't what he's done or's like to do. It's what he is." + +"And what may that be?" + +"Well, he's a nigger! there's the long and short of it. Nobody here'd +object to his working in this place, providing he was a runner, or an +errand-boy, or anything that it's right and proper for a nigger to be; +but to have him sitting in that office, writing letters for the boss, +and going over the books, and superintending the accounts of the +fellows, so that he knows just what they get on Saturday nights, and +being as fine as a fiddle, is what the boys won't stand; and they swear +they'll leave, every man of 'em, unless he has his walking +papers,--double-quick too." + +"Very well; let them. There are other workmen, good as they, in this +city of New York." + +"Hold on, sir! let me say my say first. There are seven hundred men +working in this place: the most of 'em have worked here a long while. +Good work, good pay. There ain't a man of 'em but likes Mr. Surrey, and +would be sorry to lose the place; so, if they won't bear it, there ain't +any that will. Wait a bit! I ain't through yet." + +"Go on,"--quietly enough spoken, but the mouth shook under its silky +fringe, and a fiery spot burned on either cheek. + +"All right. Well, sir, I know all about Franklin. He's a bright one, +smart enough to stock a lot of us with brains and have some to spare; he +don't interfere with us, and does his work well, too, I reckon,--though +that's neither here nor there, nor none of our business if the boss is +satisfied; and he looks like a gentleman, and acts like one, there's no +denying that! and as for his skin,--well!" a smile breaking over his +good-looking face, "his skin's quite as white as mine now, anyway," +smearing his red-flannel arm over his grimy phiz; "but then, sir, it +won't rub off. He's a nigger, and there's no getting round it. + +"All right, sir! give you your chance directly. Don't speak yet,--ain't +through, if _you_ please. Well, sir, it's agen nature,--you may talk +agen it, and work agen it, and fight agen it till all's blue, and what +good'll it do? You can't get an Irishman, and, what's more, a free-born +American citizen, to put himself on a level with a nigger,--not by no +manner of means. No, sir; you can turn out the whole lot, and get +another after it, and another after that, and so on to the end of the +chapter, and you can't find men among 'em all that'll stay and have him +strutting through 'em, up to his stool and his books, grand as a +peacock." + +"Would they work _with_ him?" + +"At the same engines, and the like, do you mean?" + +"Yes." + +"Nary time, so 'tain't likely they'll work under him. Now, sir, you see +I know what I'm saying, and I'm saying it to _you_, Mr. Surrey, and not +to your father, because he won't take a word from me nor nobody +else,--and here's just the case. Now I ain't bullying, you understand, +and I say it because somebody else'd say it, if I didn't, uglier and +rougher. Abe Franklin'll have to go out of this shop in precious short +order, or every man here'll bolt next Saturday night. There! now I've +done, sir, and you can fire away." + +But as he showed no signs of "firing away," and stood still, pondering, +Jim broke out again:-- + +"Beg pardon, sir. If I've said anything you don't like, sorry for it. +It's because Mr. Surrey is so good an employer, and, if you'll let me +say so, because I like you so well," glancing over him +admiringly,--"for, you see, a good engineer takes to a clean-built +machine wherever he sees it,--it's just because of this I thought it was +better to tell you, and get you to tell the boss, and to save any row; +for I'd hate mortally to have it in this shop where I've worked, man and +boy, so many years. Will you please to speak to him, sir? and I hope you +understand." + +"Thank you, Jim. Yes, I understand; and I'll speak to him." + +Was it that the sun was going down, or that some clouds were in the sky, +or had the air of the shop oppressed him? Whatever it was, as he came +out he walked with a slower step from which some of the spring had gone, +and the people's faces looked not so happy; and, glancing down at his +rosebud, he saw that its fair petals had been soiled by the smoke and +grime in which he had been standing; and, while he looked a dead march +came solemnly sounding up the street, and a soldier's funeral went +by,--rare enough, in that autumn of 1860, to draw a curious crowd on +either side; rare enough to make him pause and survey it; and as the +line turned into another street, and the music came softened to his ear, +he once more hummed the words of the song which had been haunting him +all the day:-- + + "Then mounte! then mounte, brave gallants, all, + And don your helmes amaine; + Death's couriers, Fame and Honor, call + Us to the field againe,"-- + +sang them to himself, but not with the gay, bright spirit of the +morning. Then he seemed to see the cavaliers, brilliant and brave, +riding out to the encounter. Now, in the same dim and fanciful way, he +beheld them stretched, still and dead, upon the plain. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + "_Thou--drugging pain by patience._" + + Arnold + + +"Laces cleaned, and fluting and ruffling done here,"--that was what the +little sign swinging outside the little green door said. And, coming +under it into the cosey little rooms, you felt this was just the place +in which to leave things soiled and torn, and come back to find them, by +some mysterious process, immaculate and whole. + +Two rooms, with folding-doors between, in which through the day stood a +counter, cut up on the one side into divers pigeon-holes rilled with +small boxes and bundles, carefully pinned and labelled,--owner's name, +time left, time to be called for, money due; neat and nice as a new pin, +as every one said who had any dealings there. + +The counter was pushed back now, as always after seven o'clock, for the +people who came in the evening were few; and then, when that was out of +the way, it seemed more home-like and less shoppy, as Mrs. Franklin said +every night, as she straightened things out, and peered through the +window or looked from the front door, and wondered if "Abram weren't +later than usual," though she knew right well he was punctual as +clock-work,--good clock-work too,--when he was going to his toil or +hurrying back to his home. + +Pleasant little rooms, with the cleanest and brightest of rag carpets on +the floor; a paper on the walls, cheap enough, but gay with scarlet +rosebuds and green leaves, rivalled by the vines and berries on the +pretty chintz curtains; chairs of a dozen ages and patterns, but all of +them with open, inviting countenances and a hospitable air; a wood fire +that _looked_ like a wood fire crackling and sparkling on the hearth, +shining and dancing over the ceiling and the floor and the walls, +cutting queer capers with the big rocking-chair,--which turned into a +giant with long arms,--and with the little figures on the mantel-shelf, +and the books in their cases, softening and glorifying the two grand +faces hanging in their frames opposite, and giving just light enough +below them to let you read "John Brown" and "Phillips," if you had any +occasion to read, and did not know those whom the world knows; and first +and last, and through all, as if it loved her, and was loath to part +with her for a moment, whether she poked the flame, or straightened a +chair, or went out towards the little kitchen to lift a lid and smell a +most savory stew, or came back to the supper-table to arrange and +rearrange what was already faultless in its cleanliness and simplicity, +wherever she went and whatever she did, this firelight fell warm about a +woman, large and comfortable and handsome, with a motherly look to her +person, and an expression that was all kindness in her comely face and +dark, soft eyes,--eyes and face and form, though, that might as well +have had "Pariah" written all over them, and "leper" stamped on their +front, for any good, or beauty, or grace, that people could find in +them; for the comely face was a dark face, and the voice, singing an old +Methodist hymn, was no Anglo-Saxon treble, but an Anglo-African voice, +rich and mellow, with the touch of pathos or sorrow always heard in +these tones. + +"There!" she said, "there he is!" as a step, hasty yet halting, was +heard on the pavement; and, turning up the light, she ran quickly to +open the door, which, to be sure, was unfastened, and to give the +greeting to her "boy," which, through many a year, had never been +omitted. + +_Her_ boy,--you would have known that as soon as you saw him,--the same +eyes, same face, the same kindly look; but the face was thinner and +finer, and the brow was a student's brow, full of thought and +speculation; and, looking from her hearty, vigorous form, you saw that +his was slight to attenuation. + +"Sit down, sonny, sit down and rest. There! how tired you look!" +bustling round him, smoothing his thin face and rough hair. "Now don't +do that! let your old mother do it!" It pleased her to call herself old, +though she was but just in her prime. "You've done enough for one day, +I'm sure, waiting on other people, and walking with your poor lame foot +till you're all but beat out. You be quiet now, and let somebody else +wait on you." And, going down on her knees, she took up the lame foot, +and began to unlace the cork-soled, high-cut shoe, and, drawing it out, +you saw that it was shrunken and small, and that the leg was shorter +than its fellow. + +"Poor little foot!" rubbing it tenderly, smoothing the stocking over it, +and chafing it to bring warmth and life to its surface. Her "baby," she +called it, for it was no bigger than when he was a little fellow. "Poor, +tired foot! ain't it a dreadful long walk, sonny?" + +"Pretty long, mother; but I'd take twice that to do such work at the +end." + +"Yes, indeed, it's good work, and Mr. Surrey's a good man, and a kind +one, that's sure! I only wish some others had a little of his spirit. +Such a shame to have you dragging all the way up here, when any dirty +fellow that wants to can ride. I don't mind for myself so much, for I +can walk about spry enough yet, and don't thank them for their old +omnibuses nor cars; but it's too bad for you, so it is,--too bad!" + +"Never mind, mother! keep a brave heart. 'There's a good time coming +soon, a good time coming!' as I heard Mr. Hutchinson sing the other +night,--and it's true as gospel." + +"Maybe it is, sonny!" dubiously, "but I don't see it,--not a sign of +it,--no indeed, not one! It gets worse and worse all the time, and it +takes a deal of faith to hold on; but the good Lord knows best, and +it'll be right after a while, anyhow! And now _that's_ straight!" +pulling a soft slipper on the lame foot, and putting its mate by his +side; then going off to pour out the tea, and dish up the stew, and add +a touch or two to the appetizing supper-table. + +"It's as good as a feast,"--taking a bite out of her nice home-made +bread,--"better'n a feast, to think of you in that place; and I can't +scarcely realize it yet. It seems too fine to be true." + +"That's the way I've felt all the month, mother! It has been just like a +dream to me, and I keep thinking surely I'm asleep and will waken to +find this is just an air-castle I've been building, or 'a vision of the +night,' as the good book says." + +"Well, it's a blessed vision, sure enough! and I hope to the good Lord +it'll last;--but you won't if you make a vision of your supper in that +way. You just eat, Abram! and have done your talking till you're +through, if you can't do both at once. Talking's good, but eating's +better when you're hungry; and it's my opinion you ought to be hungry, +if you ain't." + +So the teacups were filled and emptied, and the spoons clattered, and +the stew was eaten, and the baked potatoes devoured, and the +bread-and-butter assaulted vigorously, and general havoc made with the +good things and substantial things before and between them; and then, +this duty faithfully performed, the wreck speedily vanished away; and +cups and forks, spoons and plates, knives and dishes, cleaned and +cupboarded, Mrs. Franklin came, and, drawing away the book over which he +was poring, said, while she smoothed face and hair once more, "Come, +Abram, what is it?" + +"What's what, mother?" with a little laugh. + +"Something ails you, sonny. That's plain enough. I know when anything's +gone wrong with ye, sure, and something's gone wrong to-day." + +"O mother! you worry about me too much, indeed you do. If I'm a little +tired or out of sorts,--which I haven't any right to be, not here,--or +quiet, or anything, you think somebody's been hurting me, or abusing me, +or that everything's gone wrong with me, when I do well enough all the +time." + +"Now, Abram, you can't deceive me,--not that way. My eyes is mother's +eyes, and they see plain enough, where you're concerned, without +spectacles. Who's been putting on you to-day? Somebody. You don't carry +that down look in your face and your eyes for nothing, I found that out +long ago, and you've got it on to-night." + +"O mother!" + +"Don't you 'O mother' me! I ain't going to be put off in that way, +Abram, an' you needn't think it. Has Mr. Surrey been saying anything +hard to you?" + +"No, indeed, mother; you needn't ask that." + +"Nor none of the foremen?" + +"None." + +"Has Snipe been round?" + +"Hasn't been near the office since Mr. Surrey dismissed him." + +"Met him anywhere?" + +"Nein!" laughing, "I haven't laid eyes on him." + +"Well, the men have been saying or doing something then." + +"N-no; why, what an inquisitor it is!" + +"'N-no.' You don't say that full and plain, Abram. Something _has_ been +going wrong with the men. Now what is it? Come, out with it." + +"Well, mother, if you _will_ know, you will, I suppose; and, as you +never get tired of the story, I'll go over the whole tale. + +"So long as I was Mr. Surrey's office-boy, to make his fires, and sweep +and dust, and keep things in order, the men were all good enough to me +after their fashion; and if some of them growled because they thought he +favored me, Mr. Given, or some one said, 'O, you know his mother was a +servant of Mrs. Surrey for no end of years, and of course Mr. Surrey has +a kind of interest in him'; and that put everything straight again. + +"Well! you know how good Mr. Willie has been to me ever since we were +little boys in the same house,--he in the parlor and I in the kitchen; +the books he's given me, and the chances he's made me, and the way he's +put me in of learning and knowing. And he's been twice as kind to me +ever since I refused that offer of his." + +"Yes, I know, but tell me about it again." + +"Well, Mr. Surrey sent me up to the house one day, just while Mr. Willie +was at home from college, and he stopped me and had a talk with me, and +asked me in his pleasant way, not as if I were a 'nigger,' but just as +he'd talk to one of his mates, ever so many questions about myself and +my studies and my plans; and I told him what I wanted,--how hard you +worked, and how I hoped to fit myself to go into some little business of +my own, not a barber-shop, or any such thing, but something that'd +support you and keep you like a lady after while, and that would help me +and my people at the same time. For, of course," I said, "every one of +us that does anything more than the world expects us to do, or better, +makes the world think so much the more and better of us all." + +"What did he say to that?" + +"I wish you'd seen him! He pushed back that beautiful hair of his, and +his eyes shone, and his mouth trembled, though I could see he tried hard +to hold it still, and put up his hand to cover it; and he said, in a +solemn sort of way, 'Franklin, you've opened a window for me, and I +sha'n't forget what I see through it to-day.' And then he offered to set +me up in some business at once, and urged hard when I declined." + +"Say it all over again, sonny; what was it you told him?" + +"I said that would do well enough for a white man; that he could help, +and the white man be helped, just as people were being and doing all the +time, and no one would think a thought about it. But, sir," I said, +"everybody says we can do nothing alone; that we're a poor, shiftless +set; and it will be just one of the master race helping a nigger to +climb and to stand where he couldn't climb or stand alone, and I'd +rather fight my battle alone." + +"Yes, yes! well, go on, go on. I like to hear what followed." + +"Well, there was just a word or two more, and then he put out his hand +and shook mine, and said good by. It was the first time I ever shook +hands with a white _gentleman_. Some white hands have shaken mine, but +they always made me feel that they _were_ white and that mine was black, +and that it was a condescension. I felt that, when they didn't mean I +should. But there was nothing between us. I didn't think of his skin, +and, for once in my life, I quite forgot I was black, and didn't +remember it again till I got out on the street and heard a dirty little +ragamuffin cry, 'Hi! hi! don't that nagur think himself foine?' I +suspect, in spite of my lameness, I had been holding up my head and +walking like a man." + +In spite of his lameness he was holding up his head and walking like a +man now; up and down and across the little room, trembling, excited, the +words rushing in an eager flow from his mouth. His mother sat quietly +rocking herself and knitting. She knew in this mood there was nothing +to be said to him; and, indeed, what had she to say save that which +would add fuel to the flame? + +"Well!"--a long sigh,--"after that Mr. Surrey doubled my wages, and was +kinder to me than ever, and watched me, as I saw, quite closely; and +that was the way he found out about Mr. Snipe. + +"You see Mr. Snipe had been very careless about keeping the books; would +come down late in the mornings, just before Mr. Surrey came in, and go +away early in the afternoons, as soon as he had left. Of course, the +books got behindhand every month, and Mr. Snipe didn't want to stay and +work overhours to make them up. One day he found out, by something I +said, that I understood bookkeeping, and tried me, and then got me to +take them home at night and go over them. I didn't know then how bad he +was doing, and that I had no business to shield him, and all went smooth +enough till the day I was too sick to get down to the office, and two of +the books were at home. Then Mr. Surrey discovered the whole thing. +There was a great row, it seems; and Mr. Surrey examined the books, and +found, as he was pleased to say, that I'd kept them in first-rate style; +so he dismissed Mr. Snipe on the spot, with six months' pay,--for you +know he never does anything by halves,--and put me in his place. + +"The men don't like it, I know, and haven't liked it, but of course they +can't say anything to him, and they haven't said anything to me; but +I've seen all along that they looked at me with no friendly eyes, and +for the last day or two I've heard a word here and there which makes me +think there's trouble brewing,--bad enough, I'm afraid; maybe to the +losing of my place, though Mr. Surrey has said nothing about it to me." + +Just here the little green door opened, and the foreman whom we have +before seen--James Given as the register had him entered, Jim Given as +every one knew him--came in; no longer with grimy face and flannel +sleeves, but brave in all his Sunday finery, and as handsome a b'hoy, +they said, at his engine-house, as any that ran with the machine; having +on his arm a young lady whom he apostrophized as Sallie, as handsome and +brave as he. + +"Evening,"--a nod of the head accompanying. "Miss Howard's traps done?" + +"I wish you wouldn't say 'traps,' Jim," corrected Sallie, _sotto voce_: +"it's not proper. It's for a collar and pair of cuffs, Mrs. Franklin," +she added aloud, putting down a little check. + +"Not proper! goodness gracious me! there spoke Snipe! Come, Sallie, +you've pranced round with that stuck-up jackanapes till you're getting +spoiled entirely, so you are, and I scarcely know you. Not proper,--O +my!" + +"Spoiled, am I? Thank you, sir, for the compliment! And you don't know +me at all,--don't you? Very well, then I'll say good night, and leave; +for it wouldn't be proper to take a young lady you don't know to the +theatre,--now, would it? Good by!"--making for the door. + +"Now don't, Sallie, please." + +"Don't what?" + +"Don't talk that way." + +"Don't yourself, more like. You're just as cross as cross can be, and +disagreeable, and hateful,--all because I happen to know there's some +other man in the world besides yourself, and smile at him now and then. +'Don't,' indeed!" + +"Come, Sallie, you're too hard on a fellow. It's your own fault, you +know well enough, if you will be so handsome. Now, if you were an ugly +old girl, or I was certain of you, I shouldn't feel so bad, nor act so +neither. But when there's a lot of hungry chaps round, all gaping to +gobble you up, and even poor little Snipes trying to peck and bite at +you, and you won't say 'yes' nor 'no' to me, how do you expect a man to +keep cool? Can't do it, nohow, and you needn't ask it. Human nature's +human nature, I suppose, and mine ain't a quiet nor a patient one, not +by no manner of means. Come, Sallie, own up; you wouldn't like me so +well as I hope you do if it was,--now, would you?" + +Mrs. Franklin smiled, though she had heard not a word of the lovers' +quarrel, as she put a pin in the back of the ruffled collar which Sallie +had come to reclaim. A quarrel it had evidently been, and as evidently +the lady was mollified, for she said, "Don't be absurd, Jim!" and Jim +laughed and responded, "All right, Sallie, you're an angel! But come, we +must hurry, or the curtain'll be up,"--and away went the dashing and +handsome couple. + +Abram, shutting in the shutters, and fastening the door, sat down to a +quiet evening's reading, while his mother knitted and sewed,--an evening +the likeness of a thousand others of which they never tired; for this +mother and son, to whom fate had dealt so hard a measure, upon whom the +world had so persistently frowned, were more to each other than most +mothers and sons whose lines had fallen in pleasanter +places,--compensation, as Mr. Emerson says, being the law of existence +the world over. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + "_Every one has his day, from which he dates._" + + OLD PROVERB + + +You see, Surrey, the school is something extra, and the performances, +and it will please Clara no end; so I thought I'd run over, and +inveigled you into going along for fear it should be stupid, and I would +need some recreation." + +"Which I am to afford?" + +"Verily." + +"As clown or grindstone?--to make laugh, or sharpen your wits upon?" + +"Far be it from me to dictate. Whichever suits our character best. On +the whole, I think the last would be the most appropriate; the first I +can swear wouldn't!" + +"_Pourquoi_?" + +"O, a woman's reason,--because!" + +"Because why? Am I cross?" + +"Not exactly." + +"Rough?" + +"As usual,--like a May breeze." + +"Cynical?" + +"As Epicurus." + +"Irritable?" + +"'A countenance [and manner] more in sorrow than in anger.' Something's +wrong with you; who is she?" + +"She!" + +"Ay,--she. That was a wise Eastern king who put at the bottom of every +trouble and mischief a woman." + +"Fine estimate." + +"Correct one. Evidently he had studied the genus thoroughly, and had a +poor opinion of it." + +"No wonder." + +"Amazing! _you_ say 'no wonder'! Astounding words! speak them again." + +"No wonder,--seeing that he had a mother, and that she had such a son. +He must needs have been a bad fellow or a fool to have originated so +base a philosophy, and how then could he respect the source of such a +stream as himself?" + +"Sir Launcelot,--squire of dames!" + +"Not Sir Launcelot, but squire of dames, I hope." + +"There you go again! Now I shall query once more, who is she?" + +"No woman." + +"No?" + +"No, though by your smiling you would seem to say so!" + +"Nay, I believe you, and am vastly relieved in the believing. Take +advice from ten years of superior age, and fifty of experience, and have +naught to do with them. Dost hear?" + +"I do." + +"And will heed?" + +"Which?--the words or the acts of my counsellor? who, of a surety, +preaches wisely and does foolishly, or who does wisely and preaches +foolishly; for preaching and practice do not agree." + +"Nay, man, thou art unreasonable; to perform either well is beyond the +capacity of most humans, and I desire not to be blessed above my +betters. Then let my rash deeds and my prudent words both be teachers +unto thee. But if it be true that no woman is responsible for your grave +countenance this morning, then am I wasting words, and will return to +our muttons. What ails you?" + +"I am belligerent." + +"I see,--that means quarrelsome." + +"And hopeless." + +"Bad,--very! belligerent and hopeless! When you go into a fight always +expect to win; the thought is half the victory." + +"Suppose you are an atom against the universe?" "Don't fight, succumb. +There's a proverb,--a wise one,--Napoleon's, 'God is on the side of the +strongest battalions.'" + +"A lie,--exploded at Waterloo. There's another proverb, 'One on the side +of God is a majority.' How about that?" + +"Transcendental humbug." + +"A truth demonstrated at Wittenberg." + +"Are you aching for the martyr's palm?" + +"I am afraid not. On the whole, I think I'd rather enjoy life than +quarrel with it. But"--with a sudden blaze--"I feel to-day like fighting +the world." + +"Hey, presto! what now, young'un?" + +"I don't wonder you stare"--a little laugh. "I'm talking like a fool, +and, for aught I know, feeling like one, aching to fight, and knowing +that I might as well quarrel with the winds, or stab that water as it +flows by." + +"As with what?" + +"The fellow I've just been getting a good look at." + +"What manner of fellow?" + +"Ignorant, selfish, brutal, devilish." + +"Tremendous! why don't you bind him over to keep the peace?" + +"Because he is like the judge of old time, neither fears God nor +respects his image,--when his image is carved in ebony, and not ivory." + +"What do you call this fellow?" + +"Public Opinion." + +"This big fellow is abusing and devouring a poor little chap, eh? and +the chap's black?" + +"True." + +"And sometimes the giant is a gentleman in purple and fine linen, +otherwise broadcloth; and sometimes in hodden gray, otherwise homespun +or slop-shop; and sometimes he cuts the poor little chap with a silver +knife, which is rhetoric, and sometimes with a wooden spoon, which is +raw-hide. Am I stating it all correctly?" + +"All correctly." + +"And you've been watching this operation when you had better have been +minding your own business, and getting excited when you had better have +kept cool, and now want to rush into the fight, drums beating and colors +flying, to the rescue of the small one. Don't deny it,--it's all written +out in your eyes." + +"I sha'n't deny it, except about the business and the keeping cool. It's +any gentleman's business to interfere between a bully and a weakling +that he's abusing; and his blood must be water that does not boil while +he 'watches the operation' as you say, and goes in." + +"To get well pommelled for his pains, and do no good to any one, himself +included. Let the weakling alone. A fellow that can't save himself is +not worth saving. If he can't swim nor walk, let him drop under or go to +the wall; that's my theory." + +"Anglo-Saxon theory--and practice." + +"Good theory, excellent practice,--in the main. What special phase of it +has been disturbing your equanimity?" + +"You know the Franklins?" + +"Of course: Aunt Mina's son--what's his name?--is a sort of _protege_ +of yours, I believe: what of him?" + +"He is cleanly?" + +"A nice question. Doubtless." + +"Respectable?" + +"What are you driving at?" + +"Intelligent?" + +"Most true." + +"Ambitious?" + +"Or his looks belie him." + +"Faithful, trusty, active, helpful, in every way devoted to my father's +service and his work." + +"With Sancho, I believe it all because your worship says so." + +"Well, this man has just been discharged from my father's employ because +seven hundred and forty-two other men gave notice to quit if he +remained." + +"The reason?" + +"His skin." + +"The reason is not 'so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door, but +it is enough.' Of course they wouldn't work with him, and my uncle +Surrey, begging your pardon, should not have attempted anything so +Quixotic." + +"His skin covering so many excellent qualities, and these qualities +gaining recognition,--that was the cause. They worked with him so long +as he was a servant of servants: so soon as he demonstrated that he +could strike out strongly and swim, they knocked him under; and, proving +that he could walk alone, they ran hastily to shove him to the wall." + +"What! quoting my own words against me?" + +"Anglo-Saxon says we are the masters: we monopolize the strength and +courage, the beauty, intelligence, power. These creatures,--what are +they? poor, worthless, lazy, ignorant, good for nothing but to be used +as machines, to obey. When lo! one of these dumb machines suddenly +starts forth with a man's face; this creature no longer obeys, but +evinces a right to command; and Anglo-Saxon speedily breaks him in +pieces." + +"Come, Willie, I hope you're not going to assert these people our +equals,--that would be too much." + +"They have no intelligence, Anglo-Saxon declares,--then refuses them +schools, while he takes of their money to help educate his own sons. +They have no ambition,--then closes upon them every door of honorable +advancement, and cries through the key-hole, Serve, or starve. They +cannot stand alone, they have no faculty for rising,--then, if one of +them finds foothold, the ground is undermined beneath him. If a head is +seen above the crowd, the ladder is jerked away, and he is trampled into +the dust where he is fallen. If he stays in the position to which +Anglo-Saxon assigns him, he is a worthless nigger; if he protests +against it, he is an insolent nigger; if he rises above it, he is a +nigger not to be tolerated at all,--to be crushed and buried speedily." + +"Now, Willie, 'no more of this, an thou lovest me.' I came not out +to-day to listen to an abolition harangue, nor a moral homily, but to +have a good time, to be civil and merry withal, if you will allow it. Of +course you don't like Franklin's discharge, and of course you have done +something to compensate him. I know--you have found him another place. +No,--you couldn't do that? + +"No, I couldn't." + +"Well, you've settled him somewhere,--confess." + +"He has some work for the present; some copying for me, and translating, +for this unfortunate is a scholar, you know." + +"Very good; then let it rest. Granted the poor devils have a bad time of +it, you're not bound to sacrifice yourself for them. If you go on at +this pace, you'll bring up with the long-haired, bloomer reformers, and +then--God help you. No, you needn't say another word,--I sha'n't +listen,--not one; so. Here we are! school yonder,--well situated?" + +"Capitally." + +"Fine day." + +"Very." + +"Clara will be charmed to see you." + +"You flatter me. I hope so." + +"There, now you talk rationally. Don't relapse. We will go up and hear +the pretty creatures read their little pieces, and sing their little +songs, and see them take their nice blue-ribboned diplomas, and fall in +love with their dear little faces, and flirt a bit this evening, and +to-morrow I shall take Ma'm'selle Clara home to Mamma Russell, and you +may go your ways." + +"The programme is satisfactory." + +"Good. Come on then." + +All Commencement days, at college or young ladies' school, if not twin +brothers and sisters, are at least first cousins, with a strong family +likeness. Who that has passed through one, or witnessed one, needs any +description thereof to furbish up its memories. This of Professor Hale's +belonged to the great tribe, and its form and features were of the old +established type. The young ladies were charming; plenty of white gowns, +plenty of flowers, plenty of smiles, blushes, tremors, hopes, and fears; +little songs, little pieces, little addresses, to be sung, to be played, +to be read, just as Tom Russell had foreshadowed, and proving to be-- + +"Just the least of a bore!" as he added after listening awhile; "don't +you think so, Surrey?" + +"Hush! don't talk." + +Tom stared; then followed his cousin's eye, fixed immovably upon one +little spot on the platform. "By Jove!" he cried, "what a beauty! As +Father Dryden would say, 'this is the porcelain clay of humankind.' No +wonder you look. Who is she,--do you know?" + +"No." + +"No! short, clear, and decisive. Don't devour her, Will. Remember the +sermon I preached you an hour ago. Come, look at this,"--thrusting a +programme into his face,--"and stop staring. Why, boy, she has +bewitched you,--or inspired you,"--surveying him sharply. + +And indeed it would seem so. Eyes, mouth, face, instinct with some +subtle and thrilling emotion. As gay Tom Russell looked, he +involuntarily stretched out his hand, as one would put it between +another and some danger of which that other is unaware, and remembered +what he had once said in talking of him,--"If Will Surrey's time does +come, I hope the girl will be all right in every way, for he'll plunge +headlong, and love like distraction itself,--no half-way; it will be a +life-and-death affair for him." "Come, I must break in on this." + +"Surrey!" + +"Yes." + +"There's a pretty girl." + +No answer. + +"There! over yonder. Third seat, second row. See her? Pretty?" + +"Very pretty." + +"Miss--Miss--what's her name? O, Miss Perry played that last thing very +well for a school-girl, eh?" + +"Very well." + +"Admirable room this, for hearing; rare quality with chapels and halls; +architects in planning generally tax ingenuity how to confuse sound. Now +these girls don't make a great noise, yet you can distinguish every +word,--can't you?" + +No response. + +"I say, can't you?" + +"Every word." + +Tom drew a long breath. + +"Professor Hale's a sensible old fellow; I like the way he conducts this +school." (Mem. Tom didn't know a thing about it.) "Carries it on +excellently." A pause. + +Silence. + +"Fine-looking, too. A man's physique has a deal to do with his success +in the world. If he carries a letter of recommendation in his face, +people take him on trust to begin with; and if he's a big fellow, like +the Professor yonder, he imposes on folks awfully; they pop down on +their knees to him, and clear the track for him, as if he had a right to +it all. Bless me! I never thought of that before,--it's the reason you +and I have got on so swimmingly,--is it not, now? Certainly. You think +so? Of course." + +"Of course,"--sedately and gravely spoken. + +Tom groaned, for, with a face kind and bright, he was yet no beauty; +while if Surrey had one crowning gift in this day of fast youths and +self-satisfied Young America, it was that of modesty with regard to +himself and any gifts and graces nature had blessed him withal. + +"Clara has a nice voice." + +"Very nice." + +"She is to sing, do you know?" + +"I know." + +"Do you know when?" + +No reply. + +"She sings the next piece. Are you ready to listen?" + +"Ready." + +"Good Lord!" cried Tom, in despair, "the fellow has lost his wits. He +has turned parrot; he has done nothing but repeat my words for me since +he sat here. He's an echo." + +"Echo of nothingness?" queried the parrot, smilingly. + +"Ah, you've come to yourself, have you? Capital! now stay awake. There's +Clara to sing directly, and you are to cheer her, and look as if you +enjoyed it, and throw her that bouquet when I tell you, and let her +think it's a fine thing she has been doing; for this is a tremendous +affair to her, poor child, of course." + +"How bright and happy she is! You will laugh at me, Tom, and indeed I +don't know what has come over me, but somehow I feel quite sad, looking +at those girls, and wondering what fate and time have in store for +them." + +"Sunshine and bright hours." + +"The day cometh, and also the night,"--broke in the clear voice that was +reading a selection from the Scriptures. + +Tom started, and Willie took from his button-hole just such a little +nosegay as that he had bought on Broadway a fortnight before,--a +geranium leaf, a bit of mignonette, and a delicate tea-rosebud, and, +seeing it was drooping, laid it carefully upon the programme on his +knee. "I don't want that to fade," he thought as he put it down, while +he looked across the platform at the same face which he had so eagerly +pursued through a labyrinth of carriages, stages, and people, and lost +at last. + +"There! Clara is talking to your beauty. I wonder if she is to sing, or +do anything. If she does, it will be something dainty and fine, I'll +wager. Helloa! there's Clara up,--now for it." + +Clara's bright little voice suited her bright little face,--like her +brother's, only a great deal prettier,--and the young men enjoyed both, +aside from brotherly and cousinly feeling, cheered her "to the echo" as +Willie said, threw their bouquets,--great, gorgeous things they had +brought from the city to please her,--and wished there was more of it +all when it was through. + +"What next?" said Willie. + +"Heaven preserve us! your favorite subject. Who would expect to tumble +on such a theme here?--'Slavery; by Francesca Ercildoune.' Odd +name,--and, by Jove! it's the beauty herself." + +They both leaned forward eagerly as she came from her seat; slender, +shapely, every fibre fine and exquisite, no coarse graining from the +dainty head to the dainty foot; the face, clear olive, delicate and +beautiful,-- + + "The mouth with steady sweetness set, + And eyes conveying unaware + The distant hint of some regret + That harbored there,"-- + +eyes deep, tender, and pathetic. + +"What's this?" said Tom. "Queer. It gives me a heartache to look at +her." + +"A woman for whom to fight the world, or lose the world, and be +compensated a million-fold if you died at her feet," thought Surrey, and +said nothing. + +"What a strange subject for her to select!" broke in Tom. + +It was a strange one for the time and place, and she had been besought +to drop it, and take another; but it should be that or nothing, she +asserted,--so she was left to her own device. + +Oddly treated, too. Tom thought it would be a pretty lady-like essay, +and said so; then sat astounded at what he saw and heard. Her face--this +schoolgirl's face--grew pallid, her eyes mournful, her voice and manner +sublime, as she summoned this Monster to the bar of God's justice and +the humanity of the world; as she arraigned it; as she brought witness +after witness to testify against it; as she proved its horrible +atrocities and monstrous barbarities; as she went on to the close, and, +lifting hand and face and voice together, thrilled out, "I look backward +into the dim, distant past, but it is one night of oppression and +despair; I turn to the present, but I hear naught save the mother's +broken-hearted shriek, the infant's wail, the groan wrung from the +strong man in agony; I look forward into the future, but the night grows +darker, the shadows deeper and longer, the tempest wilder, and +involuntarily I cry out, 'How long, O God, how long?'" + +"Heavens! what an actress she would make!" said somebody before them. + +"That's genius," said somebody behind them; "but what a subject to +waste it upon!" + +"Very bad taste, I must say, to talk about such a thing here," said +somebody beside them. "However, one can excuse a great deal to beauty +like that." + +Surrey sat still, and felt as though he were on fire, filled with an +insane desire to seize her in one arm like a knight of old, and hew his +way through these beings, and out of this place, into some solitary spot +where he could seat her and kneel at her feet, and die there if she +refused to take him up; filled with all the sweet, extravagant, +delicious pain that thrills the heart, full of passion and purity, of a +young man who begins to love the first, overwhelming, only love of a +lifetime. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + "_'Tis an old tale, and often told._" + + SIR WALTER SCOTT + + +That evening some people who were near them were talking about it, and +that made Tom ask Clara if her friend was in the habit of doing +startling things. + +"Should you think so to look at her now?" queried Clara, looking across +the room to where Miss Ercildoune stood. + +"Indeed I shouldn't," Tom replied; and indeed no one would who saw her +then. "She's as sweet as a sugar-plum," he added, as he continued to +look. "What does she mean by getting off such rampant discourses? She +never wrote them herself,--don't tell _me_; at least somebody else put +her up to it,--that strong-minded-looking teacher over yonder, for +instance. _She_ looks capable of anything, and something worse, in the +denouncing way; poor little beauty was her cat's-paw this morning." + +"O Tom, how you talk! She is nobody's cat's-paw. I can tell you she does +her own thinking and acting too. If you'd just go and do something +hateful, or impose on somebody,--one of the waiters, for +instance,--you'd see her blaze up, fast enough." + +"Ah! philanthropic?" + +Clara looked puzzled. "I don't know; we have some girls here who are all +the time talking about benevolence, and charity, and the like, and they +have a little sewing-circle to make up things to be sold for the church +mission, or something,--I don't know just what; but Francesca won't go +near it." + +"Democratic, then, maybe." + +"No, she isn't, not a bit. She's a thorough little aristocrat: so +exclusive she has nothing to say to the most of us. I wonder she ever +took me for a friend, though I do love her dearly." + +Tom looked down at his bright little sister, and thought the wonder was +not a very great one, but didn't say so; reserving his gallantries for +somebody else's sister. + +"You seem greatly taken with her, Tom." + +"I own the soft impeachment." + +"Well, you'll have a fair chance, for she's coming home with me. I wrote +to mamma, and she says, bring her by all means,--and Mr. Ercildoune +gives his consent; so it is all settled." + +"Mr. Ercildoune! is there no Mrs. E.?" + +"None,--her mother died long ago; and her father has not been here, so I +can't tell you anything about him. There: do you see that +elegant-looking lady talking with Professor Hale? that is her aunt, Mrs. +Lancaster. She is English, and is here only on a visit. She wants to +take Francesca home with her in the spring, but I hope she won't." + +"Why, what is it to you?" + +"I am afraid she will stay, and then I shall never see her any more." + +"And why stay? do you fancy England so very fascinating?" + +"No, it is not that; but Francesca don't like America; she's forever +saying something witty and sharp about our 'democratic institutions,' as +she calls them; and, if you had looked this morning, you'd have seen +that she didn't sing The Star-Spangled Banner with the rest of us. Her +voice is splendid, and Professor Hale wanted her to lead, as she often +does, but she wouldn't sing that, she said,--no, not for anything; and +though we all begged, she refused,--flat." + +"Shocking! what total depravity! I wonder is she converting Surrey to +her heresies." + +No, she wasn't; not unless silence is more potent than words; for after +they had danced together Surrey brought her to one of the great windows +facing towards the sea, and, leaning over her chair, there was stillness +between them as their eyes went out into the night. + +A wild night! great clouds drifted across the moon, which shone out +anon, with light intensified, defining the stripped trees and desolate +landscape, and then the beach, and + + "Marked with spray + The sunken reefs, and far away + The unquiet, bright Atlantic plain," + +while through all sounded incessantly the mournful roar of buffeting +wind and surging tide; and whether it was the scene, or the solemn +undertone of the sea, the dance music, which a little while before had +been so gay, sounded like a wail. + +How could it be otherwise? Passion is akin to pain. Love never yet +penetrated an intense nature and made the heart light; sentiment has its +smiles, its blushes, its brightness, its words of fancy and feeling, +readily and at will; but when the internal sub-soiling is broken up, the +heart swells with a steady and tremendous pressure till the breast feels +like bursting; the lips are dumb, or open only to speak upon indifferent +themes. Flowers may be played with, but one never yet cared to toy with +flame. + +There are souls that are created for one another in the eternities, +hearts that are predestined each to each, from the absolute necessities +of their nature; and when this man and this woman come face to face, +these hearts throb and are one; these souls recognize "my master!" "my +mistress!" at the first glance, without words uttered or vows +pronounced. + +These two young lives, so fresh, so beautiful; these beings, in many +things such antipodes, so utterly dissimilar in person, so unlike, yet +like; their whole acquaintance a glance on a crowded street and these +few hours of meeting,--looked into one another's eyes, and felt their +whole nature set each to each, as the vast tide "of the bright, rocking +ocean sets to shore at the full moon." + +These things are possible. Friendship is excellent, and friendship may +be called love; but it is not love. It may be more enduring and placidly +satisfying in the end; it may be better, and wiser, and more prudent, +for acquaintance to beget esteem, and esteem regard, and regard +affection, and affection an interchange of peaceful vows: the result, a +well-ordered life and home. All this is admirable, no doubt; an owl is a +bird when you can get no other; but the love born of a moment, yet born +of eternity, which comes but once in a lifetime, and to not one in a +thousand lives, unquestioning, unthinking, investigating nothing, +proving nothing, sufficient unto itself,--ah, that is divine; and this +divine ecstasy filled these two souls. + +Unconsciously. They did not define nor comprehend. They listened to the +sea where they sat, and felt tears start to their eyes, yet knew not +why. They were silent, and thought they talked; or spoke, and said +nothing. They danced; and as he held her hand and uttered a few words, +almost whispered, the words sounded to the listening ear like a part of +the music to which they kept time. They saw a multitude of people, and +exchanged the compliments of the evening, yet these people made no more +impression upon their thoughts than gossamer would have made upon their +hands. + +"Come, Francesca!" said Clara Russell, breaking in upon this, "it is not +fair for you to monopolize my cousin Will, who is the handsomest man in +the room; and it isn't fair for Will to keep you all to himself in this +fashion. Here is Tom, ready to scratch out his eyes with vexation +because you won't dance with him; and here am I, dying to waltz with +somebody who knows my step,--to say nothing of innumerable young ladies +and gentlemen who have been casting indignant and beseeching glances +this way: so, sir, face about, march!" and away the gay girl went with +her prize, leaving Francesca to the tender mercies of half a dozen young +men who crowded eagerly round her, and from whom Tom carried her off +with triumph and rejoicing. + +The evening was over at last, and they were going away. Tom had said +good night. + +"You are to be in New York, at my uncle's, Clara tells me." + +"It is true." + +"I may see you there?" + +For answer she put out her hand. He took it as he would have taken a +delicate flower, laid his other hand softly, yet closely, over it, and, +without any adieu spoken, went away. + +"Tom always declared Willie was a little queer, and I'm sure I begin to +think so," said Clara, as she kissed her friend and departed to her +room. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + "_A breathing sigh, a sigh for answer, + A little talking of outward things._" + + JEAN INGELOW + + +Ah, the weeks that followed! People ate and drank and slept, lived and +loved and hated, were born and died,--the same world that it had been a +little while before, yet not the same to them,--never to seem quite the +same again. A little cloud had fallen between them and it, and changed +to their eyes all its proportions and hues. + +They were incessantly together, riding, or driving, or walking, looking +at pictures, dancing at parties, listening to opera or play. + +"It seems to me Will is going it at a pretty tremendous pace somewhere," +said Mr. Surrey to his wife, one morning, after this had endured for a +space. "It would be well to look into it, and to know something of this +girl." + +"You are right," she replied. "Yet I have such absolute faith in +Willie's fine taste and sense that I feel no anxiety." + +"Nor I; yet I shall investigate a bit to-night at Augusta's." + +"Clara tells me that when Miss Ercildoune understood it was to be a +great party, she insisted on ending her visit, or, at least, staying for +a while with her aunt, but they would not hear of it." + +"Mrs. Lancaster goes back to England soon?" + +"Very soon." + +"Does any one know aught of Miss Ercildoune's family save that Mrs. +Lancaster is her aunt?" + +"If 'any one' means me, I understand her father to be a gentleman of +elegant leisure,--his home near Philadelphia; a widower, with one other +child,--a son, I believe; that his wife was English, married abroad; +that Mrs. Lancaster comes here with the best of letters, and, for +herself, is most evidently a lady." + +"Good. Now I shall take a survey of the young lady herself." + +When night came, and with it a crowd to Mrs. Russell's rooms, the +opportunity offered for the survey, and it was made scrutinizingly. +Surrey was an only son, a well-beloved one, and what concerned him was +investigated with utmost care. + +Scrutinizingly and satisfactorily. They were dancing, his sunny head +bent till it almost touched the silky blackness of her hair. "Saxon and +Norman," said somebody near who was watching them; "what a delicious +contrast!" + +"They make an exquisite picture," thought the mother, as she looked +with delight and dread: delight at the beauty; dread that fills the soul +of any mother when she feels that she no longer holds her boy,--that his +life has another keeper,--and queries, "What of the keeper?" + +"Well?" she said, looking up at her husband. + +"Well," he answered, with a tone that meant, well. "She's thorough-bred. +Democratic or not, I will always insist, blood tells. Look at her: no +one needs to ask _who_ she is. I'd take her on trust without a word." + +"So, then, you are not her critic, but her admirer." + +"Ah, my dear, criticism is lost in admiration, and I am glad to find it +so." + +"And I. Willie saw with our eyes, as a boy; it is fortunate that we can +see with his eyes, as a man." + +So, without any words spoken, after that night, both Mr. and Mrs. Surrey +took this young girl into their hearts as they hoped soon to take her +into their lives, and called her "daughter" in their thought, as a +pleasant preparation for the uttered word by and by. + +Thus the weeks fled. No word had passed between these two to which the +world might not have listened. Whatever language their hearts and their +eyes spoke had not been interpreted by their lips. He had not yet +touched her hand save as it met his, gloved or formal, or as it rested +on his arm; and yet, as one walking through the dusk and stillness of a +summer night feels a flower or falling leaf brush his check, and starts, +shivering as from the touch of a disembodied soul, so this slight +outward touch thrilled his inmost being; this hand, meeting his for an +instant, shook his soul. + +Indefinite and undefined,--there was no thought beyond the moment; no +wish to take this young girl into his arms and to call her "wife" had +shaped itself in his brain. It was enough for both that they were in one +another's presence, that they breathed the same air, that they could see +each other as they raised their eyes, and exchange a word, a look, a +smile. Whatever storm of emotion the future might hold for them was not +manifest in this sunny and delightful present. + +Upon one subject alone did they disagree with feeling,--in other matters +their very dissimilarity proving an added charm. This was a curious +question to come between lovers. All his life Surrey had been a devotee +of his country and its flag. While he was a boy Kossuth had come to +these shores, and he yet remembered how he had cheered himself hoarse +with pride and delight, as the eloquent voice and impassioned lips of +the great Magyar sounded the praise of America, as the "refuge of the +oppressed and the hope of the world." He yet remembered how when the +hand, every gesture of which was instinct with power, was lifted to the +flag,--the flag, stainless, spotless, without blemish or flaw; the flag +which was "fair as the sun, clear as the moon," and to the oppressors of +the earth "terrible as an army with banners,"--he yet remembered how, as +this emblem of liberty was thus apostrophized and saluted, the tears +had rushed to his boyish eyes, and his voice had said, for his heart, +"Thank God, I am an American!" + +One day he made some such remark to her. She answered, "I, too, am an +American, but I do not thank God for it." + +At another time he said, as some emigrants passed them in the street, +"What a sense of pride it gives one in one's country, to see her so +stretch out her arms to help and embrace the outcast and suffering of +the whole world!" + +She smiled--bitterly, he thought; and replied, "O just and magnanimous +country, to feed and clothe the stranger from without, while she +outrages and destroys her children within!" + +"You do not love America," he said. + +"I do not love America," she responded. + +"And yet it is a wonderful country." + +"Ay," briefly, almost satirically, "a wonderful country, indeed!" + +"Still you stay here, live here." + +"Yes, it is my country. Whatever I think of it, I will not be driven +away from it; it is my right to remain." + +"Her right to remain?" he thought; "what does she mean by that? she +speaks as though conscience were involved in the thing. No matter; let +us talk of something pleasanter." + +One day she gave him a clew. They were looking at the picture of a +great statesman,--a man as famous for the grandeur of face and form as +for the power and splendor of his intellect. + +"Unequalled! unapproachable!" exclaimed Surrey, at last. + +"I have seen its equal," she answered, very quietly, yet with a shiver +of excitement in the tones. + +"When? where? how? I will take a journey to look at him. Who is he? +where did he grow?" + +For response she put her hand into the pocket of her gown, and took out +a velvet case. What could there be in that little blue thing to cause +such emotion? As Surrey saw it in her hand, he grew hot, then cold, then +fiery hot again. In an instant by this chill, this heat, this pain, his +heart was laid bare to his own inspection. In an instant he knew that +his arms would be empty did they hold a universe in which Francesca +Ercildoune had no part, and that with her head on his heart the world +might lapse from him unheeded; and, with this knowledge, she held +tenderly and caressingly, as he saw, another man's picture in her hand. + +His own so shook that he could scarcely take the case from her, to open +it; but, opened, his eyes devoured what was under them. + +A half-length,--the face and physique superb. Of what color were the +hair and eyes the neutral tints of the picture gave no hint; the brow +princely, breaking the perfect oval of the face; eyes piercing and full; +the features rounded, yet clearly cut; the mouth with a curious +combination of sadness and disdain. The face was not young, yet it was +so instinct with magnificent vitality that even the picture impressed +one more powerfully than most living men, and one involuntarily +exclaimed on beholding it, "This man can never grow old, and death must +here forego its claim!" + +Looking up from it with no admiration to express for the face, he saw +Francesca's smiling on it with a sort of adoration, as she, reclaiming +her property, said,-- + +"My father's old friends have a great deal of enjoyment, and amusement +too, from his beauty. One of them was the other day telling me of the +excessive admiration people had always shown, and laughingly insisted +that when papa was a young man, and appeared in public, in London or +Paris, it was between two police officers to keep off the admiring +crowd; and," laughing a gay little laugh herself, "of course I believed +him! why shouldn't I?" + +He was looking at the picture again. "What an air of command he has!" + +"Yes. I remember hearing that when Daniel Webster was in London, and +walked unattended through the streets, the coal-heavers and workmen took +off their hats and stood bareheaded till he had gone by, thinking it was +royalty that passed. I think they would do the same for papa." + +"If he looks like a king, I know somebody who looks like a princess," +thought the happy young fellow, gazing down upon the proud, dainty +figure by his side; but he smiled as he said, "What a little aristocrat +you are, Miss Ercildoune! what a pity you were born a Yankee!" + +"I am not a Yankee, Mr. Surrey," replied the little aristocrat, "if to +be a Yankee is to be a native of America. I was born on the sea." + +"And your mother, I know, was English." + +"Yes, she was English." + +"Is it rude to ask if your father was the same? + +"No!" she answered emphatically, "my papa is a Virginian,--a Virginia +gentleman,"--the last word spoken with an untransferable accent,--"there +are few enough of them." + +"So, so!" thought Willie, "here my riddle is read. +Southern--Virginia--gentleman. No wonder she has no love to spend on +country or flag; no wonder we couldn't agree. And yet it can't be +that,--what were the first words I ever heard from her mouth?" and, +remembering that terrible denunciation of the "peculiar institution" of +Virginia and of the South, he found himself puzzled the more. + +Just then there came into the picture-gallery, where they were wasting a +pleasant morning, a young man to whom Surrey gave the slightest of +recognitions,--well-dressed, booted, and gloved, yet lacking the +nameless something which marks the gentleman. His glance, as it rested +on Surrey, held no love, and, indeed, was rather malignant. + +"That fellow," said Surrey, indicating him, "has a queer story connected +with him. He was discharged from my father's employ to give place to a +man who could do his work better; and the strange part of it"--he +watched her with an amused smile to see what effect the announcement +would have upon her Virginia ladyship--"is that number two is a black +man." + +A sudden heat flushed her cheeks: "Do you tell me your father made room +for a black man in his employ, and at the expense of a white one?" + +"It is even so." + +"Is he there now?" + +Surrey's beautiful Saxon face crimsoned. "No: he is not," he said +reluctantly. + +"Ah! did he, this black man,--did he not do his work well?" + +"Admirably." + +"Is it allowable, then, to ask why he was discarded?" + +"It is allowable, surely. He was dismissed because the choice lay +between him and seven hundred men." + +"And you"--her face was very pale now, the flush all gone out of +it--"you have nothing to do with your father's works, but you are his +son,--did you do naught? protest, for instance?" + +"I protested--and yielded. The contest would have been not merely with +seven hundred men, but with every machinist in the city. Justice +_versus_ prejudice, and prejudice had it; as, indeed, I suppose it will +for a good many generations to come: invincible it appears to be in the +American mind." + +"Invincible! is it so?" She paused over the words, scrutinizing him +meanwhile with an unconscious intensity. + +"And this black man,--what of him? He was flung out to starve and die; +a proper fate, surely, for his presumption. Poor fool! how did he dare +to think he could compete with his masters! You know nothing of _him _?" + +Surely he must be mistaken. What could this black man, or this matter, +be to her? yet as he listened her voice sounded to his ear like that of +one in mortal pain. What held him silent? Why did he not tell her, why +did he not in some way make her comprehend, that he, delicate exclusive, +and patrician, as the people of his set thought him, had gone to this +man, had lifted him from his sorrow and despondency to courage and hope +once more; had found him work; would see that the place he strove to +fill in the world should be filled, could any help of his secure that +end. Why did the modesty which was a part of him, and the high-bred +reserve which shrank from letting his own mother know of the good deeds +his life wrought, hold him silent now? + +In that silence something fell between them. What was it? But a moment, +yet in that little space it seemed to him as though continents divided +them, and seas rolled between. "Francesca!" he cried, under his +breath,--he had never before called her by her Christian +name,--"Francesca!" and stretched out his hand towards her, as a +drowning man stretches forth his hand to life. + +"This room is stifling!" she said for answer; and her voice, dulled and +unnatural, seemed to his strangely confused senses as though it came +from a far distance,--"I am suffering: shall we go out to the air?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + "_But more than loss about me clings._" + + Jean Ingelow + + +"No! no, I am mad to think it! I must have been dreaming! what could +there have been in that talk to have such an effect as I have conjured +up? She pitied Franklin! yes, she pities every one whom she thinks +suffering or wronged. Dear little tender heart! of course it was the +room,--didn't she say she was ill? it must have been awful; the heat and +the closeness got into my head,--that's it. Bad air is as bad as whiskey +on a man's brain. What a fool I made of myself! not even answering her +questions. What did she think of me? Well." + +Surrey in despair pushed away the book over which he had been bending +all the afternoon, seeing for every word Francesca, and on every page an +image of her face. "I'll smoke myself into some sort of decent quiet, +before I go up town, at least"; and taking his huge meerschaum, +settling himself sedately, began his quieting operation with appalling +energy. The soft rings, gray and delicate, taking curious and airy +shapes, floated out and filled the room; but they were not soothing +shapes, nor ministering spirits of comfort. They seemed filmy garments, +and from their midst faces beautiful, yet faint and dim, looked at him, +all of them like unto her face; but when he dropped his pipe and bent +forward, the wreaths of smoke fell into lines that made the faces appear +sad and bathed in tears, and the images faded from his sight. + +As the last one, with its visionary arms outstretched towards him, +receded from him, and disappeared, he thought, "That is Francesca's +spirit, bidding me an eternal adieu"--and, with the foolish thought, in +spite of its foolishness, he shivered and stretched out his arms in +return. + +"Of a verity," he then cried, "if nature failed to make me an idiot, I +am doing my best to consummate that end, and become one of free choice. +What folly possesses me? I will dissipate it at once,--I will see her in +bodily shape,--that will put an end to such fancies,"--starting up, and +beginning to pull on his gloves. + +"No! no, that will not do,"--pulling them off again. "She will think I +am an uneasy ghost that pursues her. I must wait till this evening, but +ah, what an age till evening!" + +Fortunately, all ages, even lovers' ages, have an end. The evening came; +he was at the Fifth Avenue,--his card sent up,--his feet impatiently +travelling to and fro upon the parlor carpet,--his heart beating with +happiness and expectancy. A shadow darkened the door; he flew to meet +the substance,--not a sweet face and graceful form, but a servant, big +and commonplace, bringing him his own card and the announcement, "The +ladies is both out, sir." + +"Impossible! take it up again." + +He said "impossible" because Francesca had that morning told him she +would be at home in the evening. + +"All right, sir; but it's no use, for there's nobody there, I know"; and +he vanished for a second attempt, unsuccessful as the first. Surrey went +to the office, still determinedly incredulous. + +"Are Mrs. Lancaster and Miss Ercildoune not in?" + +"No, sir; both out. Keys here,"--showing them. "Left for one of the +five-o'clock trains; rooms not given up; said they would be back in a +few days." + +"From what depot did they leave?" + +"Don't know, sir. They didn't go in the coach; had a carriage, or I +could tell you." + +"But they left a note, perhaps,--or some message?" + +"Nothing at all, sir; not a word, nor a scrap. Can I serve you in any +way further?" + +"Thanks! not at all. Good evening." + +"Good evening, sir." + +That was all. What did it mean?--to vanish without a sign! an engagement +for the evening, and not a line left in explanation or excuse! It was +not like her. There must be something wrong, some mystery. He tormented +himself with a thousand fancies and fears over what, he confessed, was +probably a mere accident; wisely determined to do so no longer,--but +did, spite of such excellent resolutions and intent. + +This took place on the evening of Saturday, the 13th of April, 1861. The +events of the next few days doubtless augmented his anxiety and +unhappiness. Sunday followed,--a day filled not with a Sabbath calm, but +with the stillness felt in nature before some awful convulsion; the +silence preceding earthquake, volcano, or blasting storm; a quiet broken +from Maine to the Pacific slope when the next day shone, and men roused +themselves from the sleep of a night to the duty of a day, from the +sleep of generations, fast merging into death, at the trumpet-call to +arms,--a cry which sounded through every State and every household in +the land, which, more powerful than the old songs of Percy and Douglas, +"brought children from their play, and old men from their +chimney-corners," to emulate humanity in its strength and prime, and +contest with it the opportunity to fight and die in a deathless cause. + +A cry which said, "There are wrongs to be redressed already long enough +endured,--wrongs against the flag of the nation, against the integrity +of the Union, against the life of the republic; wrongs against the cause +of order, of law, of good government, against right, and justice, and +liberty, against humanity and the world; not merely in the present, but +in the great future, its countless ages and its generations yet unborn." + +To this cry there sounded one universal response, as men dropped their +work at loom, or forge, or wheel, in counting-room, bank, and merchant's +store, in pulpit, office, or platform, and with one accord rushed to +arms, to save these rights so frightfully and arrogantly assailed. + +One voice that went to swell this chorus was Surrey's; one hand quick to +grasp rifle and cartridge-box, one soul eager to fling its body into the +breach at this majestic call, was his. He felt to the full all the +divine frenzy and passion of those first days of the war, days +unequalled in the history of nations and of the world. All the elegant +dilettanteism, the delicious idleness, the luxurious ease, fell away, +and were as though they had never been. All the airy dreams of a renewed +chivalrous age, of courage, of heroism, of sublime daring and +self-sacrifice, took substance and shape, and were for him no longer +visions of the night, but realities of the day. + +Still, while flags waved, drums beat, and cannon thundered; while +friends said, "Go!" the world stood ready to cheer him on, and fame and +honor and greater things than these beckoned him to come; while he felt +the whirl and excitement of it all,--his heart cried ceaselessly, "Only +let me see her--once--if but for a moment, before I go!" It was so +little he asked of fate, yet too much to be granted. + +In vain he went every day, and many times a day, in the brief space left +him, to her hotel. In vain he once more questioned clerk and servants; +in vain haunted the house of his aunt, with the dim hope that Clara +might hear from her, or that in some undefined way he might learn of +her whereabouts, and so accomplish his desire. + +But the days passed, too slowly for the ardent young patriot, all too +rapidly for the unhappy lover. Friday came. Early in the day multitudes +of people began to collect in the street, growing in numbers and +enthusiasm as the hours wore on, till, in the afternoon, the splendid +thoroughfare of New York from Fourth Street down to the Cortlandt +Ferry--a stretch of miles--was a solid mass of humanity; thousands and +tens of thousands, doubled, quadrupled, and multiplied again. + +Through the morning this crowd in squads and companies traversed the +streets, collected on the corners, congregating chiefly about the armory +of their pet regiment, the Seventh, on Lafayette Square,--one great mass +gazing unweariedly at its windows and walls, then moving on to be +replaced by another of the like kind, which, having gone through the +same performance, gave way in turn to yet others, eager to take its +place. + +So the fever burned; the excitement continued and augmented till, +towards three o'clock in the afternoon, the mighty throng stood still, +and waited. It was no ordinary multitude; the wealth, refinement, +fashion, the greatness and goodness of a vast city were there, pressed +close against its coarser and darker and homelier elements. Men and +women stood alike in the crowd, dainty patrician and toil-stained +laborer, all thrilled by a common emotion, all vivified--if in unequal +degree--by the same sublime enthusiasm. Overhead, from every window and +doorway and housetop, in every space and spot that could sustain one, on +ropes, on staffs, in human hands, waved, and curled, and floated, flags +that were in multitude like the swells of the sea; silk, and bunting, +and painted calico, from the great banner spreading its folds with an +indescribable majesty, to the tiny toy shaken in a baby hand. Under all +this glad and gay and splendid show, the faces seemed, perhaps by +contrast, not sad, but grave; not sorrowful, but intense, and luminously +solemn. + +Gradually the men of the Seventh marched out of their armory. Hands had +been wrung, adieus said, last fond embraces and farewells given. The +regiment formed in the open square, the crowd about it so dense as to +seem stifling, the windows of its building rilled with the sweetest and +finest and fairest of faces,--the mothers, wives, and sweethearts of +these young splendid fellows just ready to march away. + +Surrey from his station gazed and gazed at the window where stood his +mother, so well beloved, his relations and friends, many of them near +and dear to him,--some of them with clear, bright eyes that turned from +the forms of brothers in the ranks to seek his, and linger upon it +wistfully and tenderly; yet looking at all these, even his mother, he +looked beyond, as though in the empty space a face would appear, eyes +would meet his, arms be stretched towards him, lips whisper a fond +adieu, as he, breaking from the ranks, would take her to his embrace, +and speak, at the same time, his love and farewell. A fruitless +longing. + +Four o'clock struck over the great city, and the line moved out of the +square, through Fourth Street, to Broadway. Then began a march, which +whoso witnessed, though but a little child, will remember to his dying +day, the story of which he will repeat to his children, and his +children's children, and, these dead, it will be read by eyes that shall +shine centuries hence, as one of the most memorable scenes in the great +struggle for freedom. + +Hands were stretched forth to touch the cloth of their uniforms, and +kissed when they were drawn back. Mothers held up their little children +to gain inspiration for a lifetime. A roar of voices, continuous, +unbroken, rent the skies; while, through the deafening cheers, men and +women, with eyes blinded by tears, repeated, a million times, "God +bless--God bless and keep them!" And so, down the magnificent avenue, +through the countless, shouting multitude, through the whirlwind of +enthusiasm and adoration, under the glorious sweep of flags, the grand +regiment moved from the beginning of its march to its close,--till it +was swept away towards the capital, around which were soon to roll such +bloody waves of death. + +Meanwhile, where was Miss Ercildoune? Surrey had thought her behavior +strange the last morning they spent together. How much stranger, how +unaccountable, indeed, would it have seemed to him, could he have seen +her through the afternoon following! + +"What is wrong with you? are you ill, Francesca?" her aunt had inquired +as she came in, pulling off her hat with the air of one stifling, and +throwing herself into a chair. + +"Ill! O no!"--with a quick laugh,--"what could have made you think so? I +am quite well, thank you; but I will go to my room for a little while +and rest. I think I am tired." + +"Do, dear, for I want you to take a trip up the Hudson this afternoon. I +have to see some English people who are living at a little village a +score of miles out of town, and then I must go on to Albany before I +take you home. It will be pleasant at Tanglewood over the +Sabbath,--unless you have some engagements to keep you here?" + +"O Aunt Alice, how glad I am! I was going home this afternoon without +you. I thought you would come when you were ready; but this will do just +as well,--anything to get out of town." + +"Anything to get out of town? why, Francesca, is it so hateful to you? +'Going home! and this do almost as well!'--what does the child mean? is +she the least little bit mad? I'm afraid so. She evidently needs some +fresh country air, and rest from excitement. Go, dear, and take your +nap, and refresh yourself before five o'clock; that is the time we +leave." + +As the door closed between them, she shook her head dubiously. '"Going +home this afternoon!' what does that signify? Has she been quarrelling +with that young lover of hers, or refusing him? I should not care to ask +any questions till she herself speaks; but I fear me something is +wrong." + +She would not have feared, but been certain, could she have looked then +and there into the next room. She would have seen that the trouble was +something deeper than she dreamed. Francesca was sitting, her hands +supporting an aching head, her large eyes fixed mournfully and immovably +upon something which she seemed to contemplate with a relentless +earnestness, as though forcing herself to a distressing task. What was +this something? An image, a shadow in the air, which she had not evoked +from the empty atmosphere, but from the depths of her own nature and +soul,--the life and fate of a young girl. Herself! what cause, then, for +mournful scrutiny? She, so young, so brilliant, so beautiful, upon whom +fate had so kindly smiled, admired by many, tenderly and passionately +loved by at least one heart,--surely it was a delightful picture to +contemplate,--this life and its future; a picture to bring smiles to the +lips, rather than tears to the eyes. + +Though, in fact, there were none dimming hers,--hot, dry eyes, full of +fever and pain. What visions passed before them? what shadows of the +life she inspected darkened them? what sunshine now and then fell upon +it, reflecting itself in them, as she leaned forward to scan these +bright spots, holding them in her gaze after other and gloomier ones had +taken their places, as one leans forth from window or doorway to behold, +long as possible, the vanishing form of some dear friend. + +Looking at these, she cried out, "Fool! to have been so happy, and not +to have known what the happiness meant, and that it was not for +me,--never for me! to have walked to the verge of an abyss,--to have +plunged in, thinking the path led to heaven. Heaven for me! ah,--I +forgot,--I forgot. I let an unconscious bliss seize me, possess me, +exclude memory and thought,--lived in it as though it would endure +forever." + +She got up and moved restlessly to and fro across the room, but +presently came back to the seat she had abandoned, and to the inspection +which, while it tortured her, she yet evidently compelled herself to +pursue. + +"Come," she then said, "let us ask ourself some questions, constitute +ourself confessor and penitent, and see what the result will prove." + +"Did you think fate would be more merciful to you than to others?" + +"No, I thought nothing about fate." + +"Did you suppose that he loved you sufficiently to destroy 'an +invincible barrier?'" + +"I did not think of his love. I remembered no barrier. I only knew I was +in heaven, and cared for naught beyond." + +"Do you see the barrier now?" + +"I do--I do." + +"Did _he_ help you to behold it; to discover, or to remember it? did he, +or did he not?" + +"He did. Too true,--he did." + +"Does he love you?" + +"I--how should I know? his looks, his acts--I never thought--O Willie, +Willie!"--her voice going out in a little gasping sob. + +"Come,--none of that. No sentiment,--face the facts. Think over all that +was said, every word. Have you done so?" + +"I have,--every word." + +"Well?" + +"Ah, stop torturing me. Do not ask me any more questions. I am going +away,--flying like a coward. I will not tempt further suffering. And +yet--once more--only once? could that do harm? Ah, God, my God, be +merciful!" she cried, clasping her hands and lifting them above her +bowed head. Then remembering, in the midst of her anguish, some words +she had been reading that morning, she repeated them with a bitter +emphasis,--"What can wringing of the hands do, that which is ordained to +alter?" As she did so she tore asunder her clasped hands, to drop them +clinched by her side,--the gesture of despair substituted for that of +hope. + +"It is not Heaven I am to besiege!" she exclaimed. "Will I never learn +that? Its justice cannot overcome the injustice of man. My God!" she +cried then, with a sudden, terrible energy, "our punishment should be +light, our rest sure, our paradise safe, at the end, since we have to +make now such awful atonement; since men compel us to endure the pangs +of purgatory, the tortures of hell, here upon earth." + +After that she sat for a long while silent, evidently revolving a +thousand thoughts of every shape and hue, judging from the myriads of +lights and shadows that flitted over her face. At last, rousing herself, +she perceived that she had no more time to spend in this sorrowful +employment,--that she must prepare to go away from him, as her heart +said, forever. "Forever!" it repeated. "This, then, is the close of it +all,--the miserable end!" With that thought she shut her slender hand, +and struck it down hard, the blood almost starting from the driven nails +and bruised flesh, unheeding; though a little space thereafter she +smiled, beholding it, and muttered, "So--the drop of savage blood is +telling at last!" + +Presently she was gone. It was a pleasant spot to which her aunt took +her,--one of the pretty little villages scattered up and down the long +sweep of the Hudson. Pleasant people they were too,--these English +friends of Mrs. Lancaster,--who made her welcome, but did not intrude +upon the solitude which they saw she desired. + +Sabbath morning they all went to the little chapel, and left her, as she +wished, alone. Being so alone, after hearing their adieus, she went up +to her room and sat down to devote herself once again to sorrowful +contemplation,--not because she would, but because she must. + +Poor girl! the bright spring sunshine streamed over her where she +sat;--not a cloud in the sky, not a dimming of mist or vapor on all the +hills, and the broad river-sweep which, placid and beautiful, rolled +along; the cattle far off on the brown fields rubbed their silky sides +softly together, and gazed through the clear atmosphere with a lazy +content, as though they saw the waving of green grass, and heard the +rustle of wind in the thick boughs, so soon to bear their leafy burden. +Stillness everywhere,--the blessed calm that even nature seems to feel +on a sunny Sabbath morn. Stillness scarcely broken by the voices, +mellowed and softened ere they reached her ear, chanting in the village +church, to some sweet and solemn music, words spoken in infinite +tenderness long ago, and which, through all the centuries, come with +healing balm to many a sore and saddened heart: "Come unto me," the +voices sang,--"come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and +I will give you rest." + +"Ah, rest," she murmured while she listened,--"rest"; and with the +repetition of the word the fever died out of her eyes, leaving them +filled with such a look, more pitiful than any tears, as would have made +a kind heart ache even to look at them; while her figure, alert and +proud no longer, bent on the window ledge in such lonely and weary +fashion that a strong arm would have involuntarily stretched out to +shield it from any hardness or blow that might threaten, though the +owner thereof were a stranger. + +There was something indescribably appealing and pathetic in her whole +look and air. Outside the window stood a slender little bird which had +fluttered there, spent and worn, and did not try to flit away any +further. Too early had it flown from its southern abode; too early +abandoned the warm airs, the flowers and leafage, of a more hospitable +region, to find its way to a northern home; too early ventured into a +rigorous clime; and now, shivering, faint, near to death, drooped its +wings and hung its weary head, waiting for the end of its brief life to +come. + +Francesca, looking up with woeful eyes, beheld it, and, opening the +window, softly took it in. "Poor birdie!" she whispered, striving to +warm it in her gentle hand and against her delicate cheek,--"poor little +wanderer!--didst thou think to find thy mate, and build thy tiny nest, +and be a happy mother through the long bright summer-time? Ah, my pet, +what a sad close is this to all these pleasant dreams!" + +The frail little creature could not eat even the bits of crumbs which +she put into its mouth, nor taste a drop of water. All her soothing +presses failed to bring warmth and life to the tiny frame that presently +stretched itself out, dead,--all its sweet songs sung, its brief, bright +existence ended forever. "Ah, my little birdie, it is all over," +whispered Francesca, as she laid it softly down, and unconsciously +lifted her hand to her own head with a self-pitying gesture that was +sorrowful to behold. + +"Like me," she did not say; yet a penetrating eye looking at them--the +slight bird lying dead, its brilliant plumage already dimmed, the young +girl gazing at it--would perceive that alike these two were fitted for +the warmth and sunshine, would perceive that both had been thwarted and +defrauded of their fair inheritance, would perceive that one lay spent +and dead in its early spring. What of the other? + +"Aunt Alice," said Francesca a few days after that, "can you go to New +York this afternoon or to-morrow morning?" + +"Certainly, dear. I purposed returning to-day or early in the morning to +see the Seventh march away. Of course you would like to be there." + +"Yes." She spoke slowly, and with seeming indifference. It was because +she could scarcely control her voice to speak at all. "I should like to +be there." + +Francesca knew, what her aunt did not, that Surrey was a member of the +Seventh, and that he would march away with it to danger,--perhaps to +death. + +So they were there, in a window overlooking the great avenue,--Mrs. +Lancaster, foreigner though she was, thrilled to the heart's core by the +magnificent pageant; Francesca straining her eyes up the long street, +through the vast sea of faces, to fasten them upon just one face that +she knew would presently appear in the throng. + +"Ah, heavens!" cried Mrs. Lancaster, "what a sight! look at those young +men; they are the choice and fine of the city. See, see! there is +Hunter, and Winthrop, and Pursuivant, and Mortimer, and Shaw, and +Russell, and, yes--no--it is, over there--your friend, Surrey, himself. +Did you know, Francesca?" + +Francesca did not reply. Mrs. Lancaster turned to see her lying white +and cold in her chair. Endurance had failed at last. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + "_The plain, unvarnished tale of my whole course of love._" + + Shakespeare + + +"What a handsome girl that is who always waits on us!" Francesca had +once said to Clara Russell, as they came out of Hyacinth's with some +dainty laces in their hands. + +"Very," Clara had answered. + +The handsome girl was Sallie. + +At another time Francesca, admiring some particular specimen of the +pomps and vanities with which the store was crowded, was about carrying +it away, but first experimented as to its fit. + +"O dear!" she cried, in dismay, "it is too short, and"--rummaging +through the box--"there is not another like it, and it is the only one I +want." + +"How provoking!" sympathized Clara. + +"I could very easily alter that," said Sallie, who was behind the +counter; "I make these up for the shop, and I'll be glad to fix this for +you, if you like it so much." + +"Thanks. You are very kind. Can you send it up to-morrow?" + +"This evening, if you wish it." + +"Very good; I shall be your debtor." + +"Well!" exclaimed Clara, as they turned away, this is the first time in +all my shopping I ever found a girl ready to put herself out to serve +one. They usually act as if they were conferring the most overwhelming +favor by condescending to wait upon you at all." + +"Why, Clara, I'm sure I always find them civil." + +"I know they seem devoted to you. I wonder why. Oh!"--laughing and +looking at her friend with honest admiration,--"it must be because you +are so pretty." + +"Excellent,--how discerning you are!" smiled Francesca, in return. + +If Clara had had a little more discernment, she would have discovered +that what wrought this miracle was a friendly courtesy, that never +failed to either equal or subordinate. + +Six weeks after the Seventh had marched out of New York, Francesca, +sitting in her aunt's room, was roused from evidently painful thought by +the entrance of a servant, who announced, "If you please, a young woman +to see you." + +"Name?" + +"She gave none, miss." + +"Send her up." + +Sallie came in. "Bird of Paradise" Francesca had called her more than +once, she was so dashing and handsome; but the title would scarcely fit +now, for she looked poor, and sad, and woefully dispirited. + +"Ah, Miss Sallie, is it you? Good morning." + +"Good morning, Miss Ercildoune." She stood, and looked as though she had +something important to say. Presently Francesca had drawn it from +her,--a little story of her own sorrows and troubles. + +"The reason I have come to you, Miss Ercildoune, when you are so nearly +a stranger, is because you have always been so kind and pleasant to me +when I waited on you at the store, and I thought you'd anyway listen to +what I have to say." + +"Speak on, Sallie." + +"I've been at Hyacinth's now, over four years, ever since I left school. +It's a good place, and they paid me well, but I had to keep two people +out of it, my little brother Frank and myself; Frank and I are orphans. +And I'm very fond of dress; I may as well confess that at once. So the +consequence is, I haven't saved a cent against a rainy day. Well," +blushing scarlet, "I had a lover,--the best heart that ever beat,--but I +liked to flirt, and plague him a little, and make him jealous; and at +last he got dreadfully so about a young gentleman,--a Mr. Snipe, who was +very attentive to me,--and talked to me about it in a way I didn't +like. That made me worse. I don't know what possessed me; but after that +I went out with Mr. Snipe a great deal more, to the theatre and the +like, and let him spend his money on me, and get things for me, as +freely as he chose. I didn't mean any harm, indeed I didn't,--but I +liked to go about and have a good time; and then it made Jim show how +much he cared for me, which, you see, was a great thing to me; and so +this went on for a while, till Jim gave me a real lecture, and I got +angry and wouldn't listen to anything he had to say, and sent him away +in a huff"--here she choked--"to fight; to the war; and O dear! O dear!" +breaking down utterly, and hiding her face in her shawl, "he'll be +killed,--I know he will; and oh! what shall I do? My heart will break, I +am sure." + +Francesca came and stood by her side, put her hand gently on her +shoulder, and stroked her beautiful hair. "Poor girl!" she said, softly, +"poor girl!" and then, so low that even Sallie could not hear, "You +suffer, too: do we all suffer, then?" + +Presently Sallie looked up, and continued: "Up to that time, Mr. Snipe +hadn't said anything to me, except that he admired me very much, and +that I was pretty, too pretty to work so hard, and that I ought to live +like a lady, and a good deal more of that kind of talk that I was silly +enough to listen to; but when he found Jim was gone, first, he made fun +of him for 'being such a great fool as to go and be shot at for +nothing,' and then he--O Miss Ercildoune, I can't tell you what he +said; it makes me choke just to think of it. How dared he? what had I +done that he should believe me such a thing as that? I don't know what +words I used when I did find them, and I don't care, but they must have +stung. I can't tell you how he looked, but it was dreadful; and he said, +'I'll bring down that proud spirit of yours yet, my lady. I'm not +through with you,--don't think it,--not by a good deal'; and then he +made me a fine bow, and laughed, and went out of the room. + +"The next day Mr. Dodd--that's one of our firm--gave me a week's notice +to quit: 'work was slack,' he said, 'and they didn't want so many +girls.' But I'm just as sure as sure can be that Mr. Snipe's at the +bottom of it, for I've been at the store, as I told you, four years and +more, and they always reckoned me one of their best hands, and Mr. Dodd +and Mr. Snipe are great friends. Since then I've done nothing but try to +get work. I must have been into a thousand stores, but it's true work is +slack; there's not a thing been doing since the war commenced, and I +can't get any place. I've been to Miss Russell and some of the ladies +who used to come to the store, to see if they'd give me some fine +sewing; but they hadn't any for me, and I don't know what in the world +to do, for I understand nothing very well but to sew, and to stand in a +store. I've spent all my money, what little I had, and--and--I've even +sold some of my clothes, and I can't go on this way much longer. I +haven't a relative in the world; nor a home, except in a boarding-house; +and the girls I know all treat me cool, as though I had done something +bad, because I've lost my place, I suppose, and am poor. + +"All along, at times, Mr. Snipe has been sending me things,--bouquets, +and baskets of fruit, and sometimes a note, and, though I won't speak to +him when I meet him on the street, he always smiles and bows as if he +were intimate; and last night, when I was coming home, tired enough from +my long search, he passed me and said, with such a look, 'You've gone +down a peg or two, haven't you, Sallie? Come, I guess we'll be friends +again before long.' You think it's queer I'm telling you all this. I +can't help it; there's something about you that draws it all out of me. +I came to ask you for work, and here I've been talking all this while +about myself. You must excuse me; I don't think I would have said so +much, if you hadn't looked so kind and so interested"; and so she +had,--kind as kind could be, and interested as though the girl who +talked had been her own sister. + +"I am glad you came, Sallie, and glad that you told me all this, if it +has been any relief to you. You may be sure I will do what I can for +you, but I am afraid that will not be a great deal, here; for I am a +stranger in New York, and know very few people. Perhaps--Would you go +away from here?" + +"Would I?--O wouldn't I? and be glad of the chance. I'd give anything to +go where I couldn't get sight or sound of that horrid Snipe. Can't I go +with you, Miss Ercildoune?" + +"I have no counter behind which to station you," said Francesca, +smiling. + +"No, I know,--of course; but"--looking at the daintily arrayed +figure--"you have plenty of elegant things to make, and I can do pretty +much anything with my needle, if you'd like to trust me with some work. +And then--I'm ashamed to ask so much of you, but a few words from you to +your friends, I'm sure, would send me all that I could do, and more." + +"You think so?" Miss Ercildoune inquired, with a curious intonation to +her voice, and the strangest expression darkening her face. "Very well, +it shall be tried." + +Sallie was nonplussed by the tone and look, but she comprehended the +closing words fully and with delight. "You will take me with you," she +cried. "O, how good, how kind you are! how shall I ever be able to thank +you?" + +"Don't thank me at all," said Miss Ercildoune, "at least not now. Wait +till I have done something to deserve your gratitude." + +But Sallie was not to be silenced in any such fashion, and said her say +with warmth and meaning; then, after some further talk about time and +plans, went away carrying a bit of work which Miss Ercildoune had found, +or made, for her, and for which she had paid in advance. + +"God bless her!" thought Sallie; "how nice and how thoughtful she is! +Most ladies, if they'd done anything for me, would have given me some +money and made a beggar of me, and I should have felt as mean as +dish-water. But now"--she patted her little bundle and walked down the +street, elated and happy. + +Francesca watched her out of the door with eyes that presently filled +with tears. "Poor girl!" she whispered; "poor Sallie! her lover has gone +to the wars with a shadow between them. Ah, that must not be; I must try +to bring them together again, if he loves her dearly and truly. He might +die,"--she shuddered at that,--"die, as other men die, in the heat and +flame of battle. My God! my God! how shall I bear it? Dead! and without +a word! Gone, and he will never know how well I love him! O Willie, +Willie! my life, my love, my darling, come back, come back to me." + +Vain cry!--he cannot hear. Vain lifting of an agonized face, beautiful +in its agony!--he cannot see. Vain stretching forth of longing hands and +empty arms!--he is not there to take them to his embrace. Carry thy +burden as others have carried it before thee, and learn what multitudes, +in times past and in time present, have learned,--the lesson of +endurance when happiness is denied, and of patience and silence when joy +has been withheld. Go thou thy way, sorrowful and suffering soul, alone; +and if thy own heart bleeds, strive thou to soothe its pangs, by +medicining the wounds and healing the hurts of another. + +A few days thereafter, when Miss Ercildoune went over to Philadelphia, +Sallie and Frank bore her company. She had become as thoroughly +interested in them as though she had known and cared for them for a long +while; and as she was one who was incapable of doing in an imperfect or +partial way aught she attempted, and whose friendship never stopped +short with pleasant sounding words, this interest had already bloomed +beautifully, and was fast ripening into solid fruit. + +She had written in advance to desire that certain preparations should be +made for her _proteges_,--preparations which had been faithfully +attended to; and thus, reaching a strange city, they felt themselves not +strangers, since they had a home ready to receive them, and this +excellent friend by their side. + +The home consisted of two rooms, neat, cheerful, high up,--"the airier +and healthier for that," as Sallie decided when she saw them. + +"I believe everything is in order," said the good-natured-looking old +lady, the mistress of the establishment. "My lodgers are all gentlemen +who take their meals out, and I shall be glad of some company. Any one +whom Friend Comstock recommends will be all right, I know." + +As Mrs. Healey's style of designation indicated, Friend Comstock was a +Quakeress, well known, greatly esteemed, an old friend of Miss +Ercildoune, and of Miss Ercildoune's father. She it was to whom +Francesca had written, and who had found this domicile for the +wanderers, and who at the outset furnished Sallie with an abundance of +fine and dainty sewing. Indeed, without giving the matter special +thought, she was surprised to discover that, with one or two exceptions, +the people Miss Ercildoune sent her were of the peaceful and quiet +sect. This bird of brilliant plumage seemed ill assorted with the +sober-hued flock. + +She found in this same bird a helper in more ways than one. It was not +alone that she gave her employment and paid her well, nor that she sent +her others able and willing to do the same. She found Frankie a good +school, and saw him properly installed. She never came to them +empty-handed; through the long, hot summer-time she brought them fruit +and flowers from her home out of town; and when she came not herself, if +the carriage was in the city it stopped with these same delightful +burdens. Sallie declared her an angel, and Frank, with his mouth stuffed +full, stood ready to echo the assertion. + +So the heated term wore away,--before it ended, telling heavily on +Sallie. Her anxiety about Jim, her close confinement and constant work, +the fever everywhere in the spiritual air through that first terrible +summer of the war, bore her down. + +"You need rest," said Miss Ercildoune to her one day, looking at her +with kindly solicitude,--"rest, and change, and fresh air, and freedom +from care. I can't give you the last, but I can the first if you will +accept them. You need some country living." + +"O Miss Ercildoune, will you let me do your work at your own home? I +know it would do me good just to be under the same roof with you, and +then I should have all the things you speak of combined and another one +added. If you only will!" + +This was not the plan Francesca had proposed to herself. She had +intended sending Sallie away to some pleasant country or seaside place, +till she was refreshed and ready to come to her work once more. Sallie +did not know what to make of the expression of the face that watched +her, nor of the exclamation, "Why not? let me try her." But she had not +long to consider, for Miss Ercildoune added, "Be it so. I will send in +for you to-morrow, and you shall stay till you are better and stronger, +or--till you please to come home,"--the last words spoken in a bitter +and sorrowful tone. + +The next day Sallie found her way to the superb home of her employer. +Superb it was, in every sense. Never before had she been in such a +delightful region, never before realized how absolutely perfect breeding +sets at ease all who come within the charm of its magic +sphere,--employed, acquaintance, or friend. + +There was a shadow, however, in this house,--a shadow, the premonition +of which she had seen more than once on the face of its mistress ere she +ever beheld her home; a shadow to which, for a few days, she had no +clew, but which was suddenly explained by the arrival of the master of +this beautiful habitation; a shadow from which most people would have +fled as from the breath of a pestilence, or the shade of the tomb; nay, +one from which, but a few short months before, Sallie herself would have +sped with feet from which she would have shaken the very dust of the +threshold when she was beyond its doors,--but not now. Now, as she +beheld it, she sat still to survey it, with surprise that deepened into +indignation and compassion, that many a time filled her eyes with tears, +and brought an added expression of respect to her voice when she spoke +to these people who seemed to have all the good things that this world +can offer, upon whom fortune had expended her treasures, yet-- + +Whatever it was, Sallie came from that home with many an old senseless +prejudice destroyed forever, with a new thought implanted in her soul, +the blossoming of which was a noxious vapor in the nostrils of some who +were compelled to inhale it, but as a sweet-smelling savor to more than +one weary wayfarer, and to that God to whom the darkness and the light +are alike, and who, we are told by His own word, is no respecter of +persons. + +"Poor, dear Miss Ercildoune!" half sobbed, half scolded Sallie, as she +sat at her work, blooming and, fresh, the day after her return. "What a +tangled thread it is, to be sure," jerking at her knotty needleful. +"Well, I know what I'll do,--I'll treat her as if she was a queen born +and crowned, just so long as I have anything to do with her,--so I +will." And she did. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + "_For hearts of truest mettle + Absence doth join, and time doth settle._" + + Anonymous + + +It were a vain endeavor to attempt the telling of what filled the heart +and soul of Surrey, as he marched away that day from New York, and +through the days and weeks and months that followed. Fired by a sublime +enthusiasm for his country; thirsting to drink of any cup her hand might +present, that thus he might display his absolute devotion to her cause; +burning with indignation at the wrongs she had suffered; thrilled with +an adoring love for the idea she embodied; eager to make manifest this +love at whatever cost of pain and sorrow and suffering to +himself,--through all this the man never once was steeped in +forgetfulness in the soldier; the divine passion of patriotism never +once dulled the ache, or satisfied the desire, or answered the prayer, +or filled the longing heart, that through the day marches and the night +watches cried, and would not be appeased, for his darling. + +"Surely," he thought as he went down Broadway, as he reflected, as he +considered the matter a thousand times thereafter,--"surely I was a fool +not to have spoken to her then; not to have seen her, have devised, have +forced some way to reach her, not to have met her face to face, and told +her all the love with which she had filled my heart and possessed my +soul. And then to have been such a coward when I did write to her, to +have so said a say which was nothing"; and he groaned impatiently as he +thought of the scene in his room and the letter which was its final +result. + +How he had written once, and again, and yet again, letters short and +long, letters short and burning, or lengthy and filled almost to the +final line with delicate fancies and airy sentiment, ere he ventured to +tell that of which all this was but the prelude; how, at the conclusion +of each attempt, he had watched these luminous effusions blaze and burn +as he regularly committed them to the flames; how he found it difficult +to decide which he enjoyed the most,--writing them out, or seeing them +burn; how at last he had put upon paper some such words as these:-- + +"After these delightful weeks and months of intercourse, I am to go away +from you, then, without a single word of parting, or a solitary sentence +of adieu. Need I tell you how this pains me? I have in vain besieged the +house that has held you; in vain made a thousand inquiries, a thousand +efforts to discover your retreat and to reach your side, that I might +once more see your face and take your hand ere I went from the sight and +touch of both, perchance forever. This I find may not be. The hour +strikes, and in a little space I shall march away from the city to which +my heart clings with infinite fondness, since it is filled with +associations of you. I have again and again striven to write that which +will be worthy the eyes that are to read, and striven in vain. 'Tis a +fine art to which I do not pretend. Then, in homely phrase, good by. +Give me thy spiritual hand, and keep me, if thou wilt, in thy gentle +remembrance. Adieu! a kind adieu, my friend; may the brighter stars +smile on thee, and the better angels guard thy footsteps wherever thou +mayst wander, keep thy heart and spirit bright, and let thy thoughts +turn kindly back to me, I pray very, very often. And so, once more, +farewell." + +Remembering all this, thinking what he would do and say were the doing +and saying yet possible in an untried future, the time sped by. He +waited and waited in vain. He looked, yet was gratified by no sight for +which his eyes longed. He hoped, till hope gave place to despondency and +almost despair: not a word came to him, not a line of answer or +remembrance. This long silence was all the more intolerable, since the +time that intervened did but the more vividly stamp upon his memory the +delights of the past, and color with softer and more exquisite tints the +recollection of vanished hours,--hours spent in galloping gayly by her +side in the early morning, or idly and deliciously lounged away in +picture-galleries or concert-rooms, or in a conversation carried on in +some curious and subtle shape between two hearts and spirits with the +help of very few uttered words; hours in which he had whirled her +through many a fairy maze and turn of captivating dance-music, or in +some less heated and crowded room, or cool conservatory, listened to the +voice of the siren who walked by his side, "while the sweet wind did +gently kiss the flowers and make no noise," and the strains of "flute, +violin, bassoon," and the sounds of the "dancers dancing in tune," +coming to them on the still air of night, seemed like the sounds from +another and a far-off world,--listened, listened, listened, while his +silver-tongued enchantress builded castles in the air, or beguiled his +thought, enthralled his heart, his soul and fancy, through many a golden +hour. + +Thinking of all this, his heart well found expression for its feelings +in the half-pleasing, half-sorrowful lines which almost unconsciously +repeated themselves again and again in his brain:-- + + "Still o'er those scenes my memory wakes, + And fondly broods with miser care; + Time but the impression deeper makes, + As streams their channels deeper wear." + +Thinking of all this, he took comfort in spite of his trouble. +"Perhaps," he said to himself, "he was mistaken. Perhaps"--O happy +thought!--it was but make-believe displeasure which had so tortured +him. Perhaps--yes, he would believe it--she had never received his +letter; they had been careless, they had failed to give it her or to +send it aright. He would write her once again, in language which would +relieve his heart, and which she must comprehend. He loved her; perhaps, +ah, perhaps she loved him a little in return: he would believe so till +he was undeceived, and be infinitely happy in the belief. + +Is it not wondrous how even the tiniest grain of love will permeate the +saddest and sorest recesses of the heart, and instantly cause it to +pulsate with thoughts and emotions the sweetest and dearest in life? O +Love, thou sweet, thou young and rose lipped cherubim, how does thy +smile illuminate the universe! how does thy slightest touch electrify +the soul! how gently and tenderly dost thou lead us up to heaven! + +With Surrey, to decide was to act. The second letter, full of sweetest +yet intensest love,--his heart laid bare to her,--was written; was sent, +enclosed in one to his aunt. Tom was away in another section, fighting +manfully for the dear old flag, or the precious missive would have been +intrusted to his care. He sent it thus that it might reach her sooner. +Now that he had a fresh hope, he could not wait to write for her +address, and forward it himself to her hands; he must adopt the +speediest method of putting it in her possession. + +In a little space came answer from Mrs. Russell, enclosing the letter he +had sent: a kindly epistle it was. He was a sort of idol with this same +aunt, so she had put many things on paper that were steeped in +gentleness and affection ere she said at the end, "I re-enclose your +letter. I have seen Miss Ercildoune. She restores it to you; she +implores you never to write her again,--to forget her. I add my +entreaties to hers. She begs of me to beseech you not to try her by any +further appeals, as she will but return them unopened." That was all. + +What could it mean? He loved her so absolutely, he had such exalted +faith in her kindness, her gentleness, her fairness and superiority,--in +_her_,--that he could not believe she would so thrust back his love, +purely and chivalrously offered, with something that seemed like +ignominy, unless she had a sufficient reason--or one she deemed +such--for treating so cruelly him and the offering he laid at her feet. + +But she had spoken. It was for him, then, when she bade silence, to keep +it; when she refused his gift, to refrain from thrusting it upon her +attention and heart. But ah, the silence and the refraining! Ah, the +time--the weary, sore, intolerable time--that followed! Summer, and +autumn, and winter, and the seasons repeated once again, he tramped +across the soil of Virginia, already wet with rebel and patriot blood; +he felt the shame and agony of Bull Run; he was in the night struggle at +Ball's Bluff, where those wondrous Harvard boys found it "sweet to die +for their country," and discovered, for them, "death to be but one step +onward in life." He lay in camp, chafing with impatience and +indignation as the long months wore away, and the thousands of graves +about Washington, filled by disease and inaction, made "all quiet along +the Potomac." He went down to Yorktown; was in the sweat and fury of the +seven days' fight; away in the far South, where fever and pestilence +stood guard to seize those who were spared by the bullet and bayonet; +and on many a field well lost or won. Through it all marching or +fighting, sick, wounded thrice and again; praised, admired, heroic, +promoted,--from private soldier to general,--through two years and more +of such fiery experience, no part of the tender love was burned away, +tarnished, or dimmed. + +Sometimes, indeed, he even smiled at himself for the constant thought, +and felt that he must certainly be demented on this one point at least, +since it colored every impression of his life, and, in some shape, +thrust itself upon him at the most unseemly and foreign times. + +One evening, when the mail for the division came in, looking over the +pile of letters, his eye was caught by one addressed to James Given. The +name was familiar,--that of his father's old foreman, whom he knew to be +somewhere in the army; doubtless the same man. Unquestionably, he +thought, that was the reason he was so attracted to it; but why he +should take up the delicate little missive, scan it again and again, +hold it in his hand with the same touch with which he would have pressed +a rare flower, and lay it down as reluctantly as he would have yielded a +known and visible treasure,--that was the mystery. He had never seen +Francesca's writing, but he stood possessed, almost assured, of the +belief that this letter was penned by her hand; and at last parted with +it slowly and unwillingly, as though it were the dear hand of which he +mused; then took himself to task for this boyish weakness and folly. +Nevertheless, he went in pursuit of Jim, not to question him,--he was +too thorough a gentleman for that,--but led on partly by his desire to +see a familiar face, partly by this folly, as he called it with a sort +of amused disdain. + +Folly, however, it was not, save in such measure as the subtle +telegraphings between spirit and spirit can be thus called. Unjustly so +called they are, constantly; it being the habit of most people to +denounce as heresy or ridicule as madness things too high for their +sight or too deep for their comprehension. As these people would say, +"oddly enough," or "by an extraordinary coincidence," this very letter +was from Miss Ercildoune,--a letter which she wrote as she purposed, and +as she well knew how to write, in behalf of Sallie. It was ostensibly on +quite another theme; asking some information in regard to a comrade, but +so cunningly devised and executed as to tell him in few words, and +unsuspiciously, some news of Sallie,--news which she knew would delight +his heart, and overthrow the little barrier which had stood between +them, making both miserable, but which he would not, and she could not, +clamber over or destroy. It did its work effectually, and made two +hearts thoroughly happy,--this letter which had so strangely bewitched +Surrey; which, in his heart, spite of the ridicule of his reason, he +was so sure was hers; and which, indeed, was hers, though he knew not +that till long afterward. + +"So," he thought, as he went through the camp, "Given is here, and near. +I shall be glad to see a face from home, whatever kind of a face it may +be, and Given's is a good one; it will be a pleasant rememberance." + +"Whither away?" called a voice behind him. + +"To the 29th," he answered the questioner, one of his officers and +friends, who, coming up, took his arm,--"in pursuit of a man." + +"What's his name?" + +"Given,--christened James. What are you laughing at? do you know him?" + +"No, I don't know him, but I've heard some funny stories about him; he's +a queer stick, I should think." + +"Something in that way.--Helloa! Brooks, back again?" to a fine, +frank-looking young fellow,--"and were you successful?" + +"Yes, to both your questions. In addition I'll say, for your rejoicing, +that I give in, cave, subside, have nothing more to say against your pet +theory,--from this moment swear myself a rank abolitionist, or anything +else you please, now and forever,--so help me all ye black gods and +goddesses!" + +"Phew! what's all this?" cried Whittlesly, from the other side of his +Colonel; "what are you driving at? I'll defy anybody to make head or +tail of that answer." + +"Surrey understands." + +"Not I; your riddle's too much for me." + +"Didn't you go in pursuit of a dead man?" queried Whittlesly. + +"Just that." + +"Did the dead man convert you?" + +"No, Colonel, not precisely. And yet yes, too; that is, I suppose I +shouldn't have been converted if he hadn't died, and I gone in search of +him." + +"I believe it; you're such an obstinate case that you need one raised +from the dead to have any effect on you." + +"Obstinate! O, hear the pig-headed fellow talk! You're a beauty to +discourse on that point, aren't you!" + +"Surrey laughed, and stopped at the call of one of his men, who hailed +him as he went by. Evidently a favorite here as in New York, in camp as +at home; for in a moment he was surrounded by the men, who crowded about +him, each with a question, or remark, to draw special attention to +himself, and a word or smile from his commander. Whatever complaint they +had to enter, or petition to make, or favor to beg, or wish to urge, +whatever help they wanted or information they desired, was brought to +him to solve or to grant, and--never being repulsed by their +officer--they speedily knew and loved their friend. Thus it was that the +two men standing at a little distance, watching the proceeding, were +greatly amused at the motley drafts made upon his attention in the shape +of tents, shoes, coats, letters to be sent or received, books borrowed +and lent, a man sick, or a chicken captured. They brought their +interests and cares to him,--these big, brown fellows,--as though they +were children, and he a parent well beloved. + +"One might think him the father of the regiment," said Brooks, with a +smile. + +"The mother, more like: it must be the woman element in him these +fellows feel and love so." + +"Perhaps; but it would have another effect on them, if, for instance, he +didn't carry that sabre-slash on his hand. They've seen him under steel +and fire, and know where he's led them." + +"What is this you were joking about with him, a while ago?" + +"What! about turning abolitionist?" + +"Precisely." + +"O, you know he's rampant on the slavery question. I believe it's the +only thing he ever loses his temper over, and he has lost it with me +more than once. I've always been a rank heretic with regard to Cuffee, +and the result was, we disagreed." + +"Yes, I know. But what connection has that with your expedition?" + +"Just what I want to know," added Surrey, coming up at the moment. + +"Ah! you're in time to hear the confession, are you?" + +"'An honest confession--'You know what the wise man says." + +"Come, don't flatter yourself we will think you so because you quote +him. Be quiet, both of you, and let me go on to tell my tale." + +"Attention!" + +"Proceed!" + +"Thus, then. You understand what my errand was?" + +"Not exactly; Lieutenant Hunt was drowned somewhere, wasn't he?" + +"Yes: fell overboard from a tug; the men on board tried to save him, and +then to recover his body, and couldn't do either. Some of his people +came down here in pursuit of it, and I was detailed with a squad to help +them in their search. + +"Well, the naval officers gave us every facility in their power; the +river was dragged twice over, and the woods along-shore ransacked, +hoping it might have been washed in and, maybe, buried; but there wasn't +sight or trace of it. While we were hunting round we stumbled on a +couple of darkies, who told us, after a bit of questioning, that darky +number three, somewhere about, had found the body of a Federal officer +on the river bank, and buried it. On that hint we acted, posted over to +the fellow's shanty, and found, not him, but his wife, who was ready +enough to tell us all she knew. She showed us some traps of the buried +officer, among them a pair of spurs, which his brother recognized +directly. When she was quite sure that we were all correct, and that the +thing had fallen into the right hands, she fished out of some safe +corner his wallet, with fifty-seven dollars in it. I confess I stared, +for they were slaves, both of them, and evidently poor as Job's turkey, +and it has always been one of my theories that a nigger invariably +steals when he gets a chance. However, I wasn't going to give in at +that." + +"Of course you weren't," said the Colonel. "Did you ever read about the +man who was told that the facts did not sustain his theory, and of his +sublime answer? 'Very well,' said he, 'so much the worse for the +facts!'" + +"Come, Colonel, you talk too much. How am I ever to get on with my +narrative, if you keep interrupting me in this style? Be quiet." + +"Word of command. Quiet. Quiet it is. Continue." + +"No, I said, of course they expect some reward,--that's it." + +"What an ass you must be!" broke in Whittlesly. + +"Hadn't you sense enough to see they could keep the whole of it, and +nobody the wiser? and of course they couldn't have supposed any one was +coming after it,--could they? + +"How am I to know what they thought? If you don't stop your comments, +I'll stop the story; take your choice." + +"All right: go ahead." + +"While I was considering the case, in came the master of the mansion,--a +thin, stooped, tired-looking little fellow,--'Sam,' he told us, was his +name; then proceeded to narrate how he had found the body, and knew the +uniform, and was kind and tender with it because of its dress, 'for you +see, sah, we darkies is all Union folks'; how he had brought it up in +the night, for fear of his Secesh master, and made a coffin for it, and +buried it decently. After that he took us out to a little spot of fresh +earth, covered with leaves and twigs, and, digging down, we came to a +rough pine box made as well as the poor fellow knew how to put it +together. Opening it, we found all that was left of poor Hunt, +respectably clad in a coarse, clean white garment which Sam's wife had +made as nicely as she could out of her one pair of sheets. 'It wa'n't +much,' said the good soul, with tears in her eyes, 'it wa'n't much we's +could do for him, but I washed him, and dressed him, peart as I could, +and Sam and me, we buried him. We wished, both on us, that we could have +done heaps more for him, but we did all that we could,'--which, indeed, +was plain enough to be seen. + +"Before we went away, Sam brought from a little hole, which he burrowed +in the floor of his cabin, a something, done up in dirty old rags; and +when we opened it, what under the heavens do you suppose we found? +You'll never guess. Three hundred dollars in bank-bills, and some +important papers, which he had taken and hid,--concealed them even from +his wife, because, he said, the guerillas often came round, and they +might frighten her into giving them up if she knew they were there. + +"I collapsed at that, and stood with open mouth, watching for the next +proceeding. I knew there was to be some more of it, and there was. +Hunt's brother offered back half the money; _offered_ it! why, he tried +to force it on the fellow, and couldn't. His master wouldn't let him +buy himself and his wife,--I suspect, out of sheer cussedness,--and he +hadn't any other use for money, he said. Besides, he didn't want to +take, and wouldn't take, anything that looked like pay for doing aught +for a 'Linkum sojer,' alive or dead. + +"'They'se going to make us all free, sometime,' he said, 'that's enough. +Don't look like it, jest yet, I knows; but I lives in faith; it'll come +byumby' When the fellow said that, I declare to you, Surrey, I felt like +hiding my face. At last I began to comprehend what your indignation +meant against the order forbidding slaves coming into our lines, and +commanding their return when they succeed in entering. Just then we all +seemed to me meaner than dirt." + +"As we are; and, as dirt, deserve to be trampled underfoot, beaten, +defeated, till we're ready to stand up and fight like men in this +struggle." + +"Amen to that, Colonel," added Whittlesly. + +"Well, I'm pretty nearly ready to say so myself," finished Brooks, half +reluctantly. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + "_The best-laid schemes o' mice and men + Gang aft agley._" + + BURNS + + +They didn't find Jim in the camp of his regiment, so went up to +head-quarters to institute inquiries. + +"Given?" a little thought and investigation. "Oh! Given is out on picket +duty." + +"Whereabouts?" + +The direction indicated. "Thanks! we'll find him." + +Having commenced the search, Surrey was determined to end it ere he +turned back, and his two friends bore him company. As they came down the +road, they saw in the distance a great stalwart fellow, red-shirted and +conspicuous, evidently absorbed in some singular task,--what they did +not perceive, till, coming to closer quarters, they discovered, perched +by his side, a tin cup filled with soap-suds, a pipe in his mouth, and +that by the help of the two he was regaling himself with the pastime of +blowing bubbles. + +"I'll wager that's Jim," said Surrey, before he saw his face. + +"It's like him, certainly: from what I've heard of him, I think he would +die outright if he couldn't amuse himself in some shape." + +"Why, the fellow must be a curiosity worth coming here to see." + +"Pretty nearly." + +Surrey walked on a little in advance, and tapped him on the shoulder. +Down came the pipe, up went the hand in a respectful military salute, +but before it was finished he saw who was before him. + +"Wow!" he exclaimed, "if it ain't Mr. Willie Surrey. My! Ain't I glad to +see you? How _do_ you do? The sight of you is as good as a month's pay." + +"Come, Given, don't stun me with compliments," cried Surrey, laughing +and putting out his hand to grasp the big, red paw that came to meet it, +and shake it heartily. "If I'd known you were over here, I'd have found +you before, though my regiment hasn't been down here long." + +Jim at that looked sharply at the "eagles," and then over the alert, +graceful person, finishing his inspection with an approving nod, and the +emphatic declaration, "Well, if I know what's what, and I rayther reckon +I do, you're about the right figger for an officer, and on the whole I'd +sooner pull off my cap to you than any other fellow I've seen +round,"--bringing his hand once more to the salute. + +"Why, Jim, you have turned courtier; army life is spoiling you," +protested the inspected one; protesting,--yet pleased, as any one might +have been, at the evidently sincere admiration. + +"Nary time," Jim strenuously denied; and, these little courtesies being +ended, they talked about enlistment, and home, and camp, and a score of +things that interested officer and man alike. In the midst of the confab +a dust was seen up the road, coming nearer, and presently out of it +appeared a family carriage somewhat dilapidated and worse for wear, but +still quite magnificent; enthroned on the back seat a fullblown F.F.V. +with rather more than the ordinary measure of superciliousness belonging +to his race; driven, of course, by his colored servant. Jim made for the +middle of the road, and, holding his bayonet in such wise as to threaten +at one charge horse, negro, and chivalry, roared out, "Tickets!" + +At such an extraordinary and unceremonious demand the knight flushed +angrily, frowned, made an expressive gesture with his lips and his nose +which suggestively indicated that there was something offensive in the +air between the wind and his gentility, ending the pantomime by finding +a pass and handing it over to his "nigger," then--not deigning to +speak--motioned him and it to the threatening figure. As this black man +came forward, Brooks, looking at him a moment, cried excitedly, "By +Jove! it's Sam." + +"No? Hunt's Sam?" + +"Yes, the very same; and I suppose that's his cantankerous old master." + +Surrey ran forward to Jim, for the three had fallen back when the +carriage came near, and said a few sentences to him quickly and +earnestly. + +"All right, Colonel! just as you please," he replied. "You leave it to +me; I'll fix him." Then, turning to Sam, who stood waiting, demanded, +"Well, have you got it?" + +"Yes, massa." + +"Fork over,"--and looking at it a moment pronounced "All right! Move +on!" elucidating the remark by a jerk at the coat-collar of the +unsuspecting Sam, which sent him whirling up the road at a fine but +uncomfortable rate of speed. + +"Now, sir, what do you want?" addressing the astounded chevalier, who +sat speechlessly observant of this unlooked-for proceeding. + +"Want?" cried the irate Virginian, his anger loosening his tongue, +"want? I want to go on, of course; that was my pass." + +"Was it now? I want to know! that's singular! Why didn't you offer it +yourself then?" + +"Because I thought my nigger a fitter person to parley with a Lincoln +vandal," loftily responded his eminence. + +"That's kind of you, I'm sure. Sorry I can't oblige you in +return,--very; but you'll just have to turn tail and drive back again. +That bit of paper says 'Pass the bearer,' and the bearer's already +passed. You can't get two men through this picket on one man's pass, not +if one is a nigger and t'other a skunk; so, sir, face about, march!" + +This was an unprepared-for dilemma. Mr. V. looked at the face of the +"Lincoln vandal," but saw there no sign of relenting; then into the +distance whither he was anxiously desirous to tend; glanced reflectively +at the bayonet in the centre and the narrow space on either side the +road; and finally called to his black man to come back. + +Sam approached with reluctance, and fell back with alacrity when the +glittering steel was brandished towards his own breast. + +"Where's your pass, sirrah?" demanded Jim, with asperity. + +"Here, massa," said the chattel, presenting the same one which had +already been examined. + +"Won't do," said Jim. "Can't come that game over this child. That passes +you to Fairfax,--can't get any one from Fairfax on that ticket. Come," +flourishing the shooting-stick once more, "move along"; which Sam +proceeded to do with extraordinary readiness. + +"Now, sir," turning to the again speechless chevalier, "if you stay here +any longer, I shall take you under arrest to head-quarters: +consequently, you'd better accept the advice of a disinterested friend, +and make tracks, lively." + +By this time the scion of a latter-day chivalry seemed to comprehend the +situation, seized his lines, wheeled about, and went off at a spanking +trot over the "sacred soil,"--Jim shouting after him, "I say, Mr. +F.F.V. if you meet any 'Lincoln vandals,' just give them my respects, +will you?" to which as the knight gave no answer, we are left in doubt +to this day whether Given's commission was ever executed. + +"There! my mind's relieved on that point," announced Jim, wiping his +face with one hand and shaking the other after the retreating dust. +"Mean old scoot! I'll teach him to insult one of our boys,--'Lincoln +vandals' indeed! I'd like to have whanged him!" with a final shake and a +final explosion, cooling off as rapidly as he had heated, and continuing +the interrupted conversation with recovered temper and _sangfroid_. + +He was delighted at meeting Surrey, and Surrey was equally glad to see +once more his old favorite, for Jim and he had been great friends when +he was a little boy and had watched the big boy at work in his father's +foundry,--a favoritism which, spite of years and changes, and wide +distinctions of social position, had never altered nor cooled, and which +showed itself now in many a pleasant shape and fashion so long as they +were near together. + +They aided and abetted one another in more ways than one. Jim at +Surrey's request, and by a plan of his proposing, succeeded in getting +Sam's wife away from her home,--not from any liking for the expedition, +or interest in either of the "niggers," as he stoutly asserted, but +solely to please the Colonel. If that, indeed, were his only purpose, he +succeeded to a charm, for when Surrey saw the two reunited, safe from +the awful clutch of slavery, supplied with ample means for the journey +and the settlement thereafter, and on their way to a good Northern home, +he was more than pleased,--he was rejoiced, and said, "Thank God!" with +all his heart, and reverently, as he watched them away. + +Before the summer ended Jim was down with what he called "a scratch"; a +pretty ugly wound, the surgeon thought it, and the Colonel remembered +and looked after him with unflagging interest and zeal. Many a book and +paper, many a cooling drink and bit of fruit delicious to the parched +throat and fevered lips, found their way to the little table by his +side. Surrey was never too busy by reason of his duties, or among his +own sick and wounded men, to find time for a chat, or a scrap of +reading, or to write a letter for the prostrate and helpless fellow, who +suffered without complaining, as, indeed, they did all about him, only +relieving himself now and then by a suppressed growl. + +And so, with occasional episodes of individual interest, with marches +and fightings, with extremes of heat and cold, of triumph and defeat, +the long months wore away. These men were soldiers, each in his place in +the great war with the record of which all the world is familiar, a tale +written in blood, and flame, and tears,--terrible, yet heroic; ghastly, +yet sublime. As soldiers in such a conflict, they did their duty and +noble endeavor,--Jim, a nameless private in the ranks,--Surrey, not +braver perchance, but so conspicuous with all the elements which fit for +splendid command, so fortunate in opportunities for their display, so +eminent in seizing them and using them to their fullest extent, +regardless of danger and death, as to make his name known and honored by +all who watched the progress of the fight, read its record with +interest, and knew its heroes and leaders with pride and love. + +In the winter of '63 Jim's regiment was ordered away to South Carolina; +and he who at parting looked with keen regret on the face of the man who +had been so faithful and well tried a friend, would have looked upon it +with something deeper and sadder, could he at the same time have gazed a +little way into the future, and seen what it held in store for him. + +Four months after he marched away, Surrey's brigade was in that awful +fight and carnage of Chancellorsville, where men fought like gods to +counteract the blunders, and retrieve the disaster, induced by a stunned +and helpless brain. There was he stricken down, at the head of his +command, covered with dust and smoke; twice wounded, yet refusing to +leave the field,--his head bound with a handkerchief, his eyes blazing +like stars beneath its stained folds, his voice cheering on his men; +three horses shot under him; on foot then; contending for every inch of +the ground he was compelled to yield; giving way only as he was forced +at the point of the bayonet; his men eager to emulate him, to follow him +into the jaws of death, to fall by his side,--thus was he prostrated; +not dead, as they thought and feared when they seized him and bore him +at last from the field, but insensible, bleeding with frightful +abundance, his right arm shattered to fragments; not dead, yet at +death's door--and looking in. + +May blossoms had dropped, and June harvests were ripe on all the fields, +ere he could take advantage of the unsolicited leave, and go home. +Home--for which his heart longed! + +He was not, however, in too great haste to stop by the way, to pause in +Washington, and do what he had sooner intended to accomplish,--solicit, +as a special favor to himself, as an honor justly won by the man for +whom he entreated it, a promotion for Jim. "It is impossible now," he +was informed, "but the case should be noted and remembered. If anything +could certainly secure the man an advance, it was the advocacy of +General Surrey"; and so, not quite content, but still satisfied that +Jim's time was in the near future, he went on his way. + +As the cars approached Philadelphia his heart beat so fast that it +almost stifled him, and he leaned against the window heavily for air and +support. It was useless to reason with himself, vain to call good +judgment to his counsels and summon wisdom to his aid. This was her +home. Somewhere in this city to which he was so rapidly hastening, she +was moving up and down, had her being, was living and loving. After +these long years his eyes so ached to see her, his heart was so hungry +for her presence, that it seemed to him as though the sheer longing +would call her out of her retreat, on to the streets through which he +must pass, across his path, into the sight of his eyes and reach of his +hand. He had thought that he felt all this before. He found, as the +space diminished between them,--as, perchance, she was but a stone's +throw from his side,--that the pain, and the longing, and the +intolerable desire to behold her once again, increased a hundred-fold. + +Eager as he had been a little while before to reach his home, he was +content to remain quietly here now. He laughed at himself as he stepped +into a carriage, and, tired as he was,--for his amputated arm, not yet +thoroughly healed, made him weak and worn,--drove through all the +afternoon and evening, across miles and miles of heated, wearisome +stones, possessed by the idea that somewhere, somehow, he should see +her, he would find her before his quest was done. + +After that last painful rebuff, he did not dare to go to her home, could +he find it, till he had secured from her, in some fashion, a word or +sign. "This," he said, "is certainly doubly absurd, since she does not +live in the city; but she is here to-day, I know,--she must be here"; +and persisted in his endeavor,--persisted, naturally, in vain; and went +to bed, at last, exhausted; determined that to-morrow should find him on +his journey farther north, whatever wish might plead for delay, yet with +a final cry for her from the depths of his soul, as he stretched out his +solitary arm, ere sinking to restless sleep, and dreams of battle and +death--sleep unrefreshing, and dreams ill-omened; as he thought, again +and again, rousing himself from their hold, and looking out to the +night, impatient for the break of day. + +When day broke he was unable to rise with its dawn. The effect of all +this tension on his already overtaxed nerves was to induce a fever in +the unhealed arm, which, though not painful, was yet sufficient to hold +him close prisoner for several days; a delay which chafed him, and which +filled his family at home with an intolerable anxiety, not that they +knew its cause,--_that_ would have been a relief,--but that they +conjectured another, to them infinitely worse than sickness or +suffering, bad and sorrowful as were these. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + "_Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you._" + + Izaak Walton + + +Car No. 14, Fifth Street line, Philadelphia, was crowded. Travelling +bags, shawls, and dusters marked that people were making for the 11 A.M. +New York train, Kensington depot. One pleasant-looking old gentleman +whose face shone under a broad brim, and whose cleanly drabs were +brought into distasteful proximity with the garments of a drunken +coal-heaver, after a vain effort to edge away, relieved his mind by +turning to his neighbor with the statement, "Consistency is a jewel." + +"Undoubtedly true, Mr. Greenleaf," answered the neighbor, "but what +caused the remark?" + +"That,"--looking with mild disgust at the dirty and ragged leg sitting +by his own. "Here's this filthy fellow, a nuisance to everybody near +him, can ride in these cars, and a nice, respectable colored person +can't. So I couldn't help thinking, and saying, that consistency is a +jewel." + +"Well, it's a shame,--that's a fact; but of course nobody can interfere +if the companies don't choose to let them ride; it's their concern, not +ours." + +"There's a fine specimen now, out there on the sidewalk." The fine +specimen was a large, powerfully made man, black as ebony, dressed in +army blouse and trousers, one leg gone,--evidently very tired, for he +leaned heavily on his crutches. The conductor, a kindly-faced young +fellow, pulled the strap, and helped him on to the platform with a +peremptory "Move up front, there!" to the people standing inside. + +"Why!" exclaimed the old Friend,--"do my eyes deceive me?" Then getting +up, and taking the man by the arm, he seated him in his own place: "Thou +art less able to stand than I." + +Tears rushed to his eyes as he said, "Thank you, sir! you are too kind." +Evidently he was weak, and as evidently unaccustomed to find any one +"too kind." + +"Thee has on the army blue; has thee been fighting any?" + +"Yes, sir!" he answered, promptly. + +"I didn't know black men were in the army; yet thee has lost a leg. +Where did that go?" + +"At Newbern, sir." + +"At Newbern,--ah! long ago? and how did it happen?" + +"Fourteenth of March, sir. There was a land fight, and the gunboats +came up to the rescue. Some of us black men were upon board a little +schooner that carried one gun. 'Twasn't a great deal we could do with +that, but we did the best we could; and got well peppered in return. +This is what it did for me,"--looking down at the stump. + +"I guess thee is sorry now that thee didn't keep out of it, isn't thee?" + +"No, sir; no indeed, sir. If I had five hundred legs and fifty lives, +I'd be glad to give them all in such a war as this." + +Here somebody got out; the old Friend sat down; and the coal-heaver, +roused by the stir, lifted himself from his drunken sleep, and, looking +round, saw who was beside him. + +A vile oath, an angry stare from his bloodshot eyes. + +"Ye ----, what are ye doin' here? out wid ye, quick!" + +"What's the matter?" queried the conductor, who was collecting +somebody's fare. + +"The matther, is it? matther enough! what's this nasty nagur doin' here? +Put him out, can't ye?" + +The conductor took no notice. + +"Conductor!" spoke up a well-dressed man, with the air and manner of a +gentleman, "what does that card say?" + +The conductor looked at the card indicated, upon which was printed +"Colored people not allowed in this car," legible enough to require less +study than he saw fit to give it. "Well!" he said. + +"Well," was the answer,--"your duty is plain. Put that fellow out." + +The conductor hesitated,--looked round the car. Nobody spoke. + +"I'm sorry, my man! I hoped there would be no objection when I let you +in; but our orders are strict, and, as the passengers ain't willing, +you'll have to get off,"--jerking angrily at the bell. + +As the car slackened speed, a young officer, whom nobody noticed, got +on. + +There was a moment's pause as the black man gathered up his crutches, +and raised himself painfully. "Stop!" cried a thrilling and passionate +voice,--"stand still! Of what stuff are you made to sit here and see a +man, mangled and maimed in _your_ cause and for _your_ defence, insulted +and outraged at the bidding of a drunken boor and a cowardly traitor?" +The voice, the beautiful face, the intensity burning through both, +electrified every soul to which she appealed. Hands were stretched out +to draw back the crippled soldier; eyes that a moment before were turned +away looked kindly at him; a Babel of voices broke out, "No, no," "let +him stay," "it's a shame," "let him alone, conductor," "we ain't so bad +as that," with more of the same kind; those who chose not to join in the +chorus discreetly held their peace, and made no attempt to sing out of +time and tune. + +The car started again. The _gentleman_, furious at the turn of the tide, +cried out, "Ho, ho! here's a pretty preacher of the gospel of equality! +why, ladies and gentlemen, this high-flyer, who presumes to lecture us, +is nothing but a"-- + +The sentence was cut short in mid-career, the insolent sneer dashed out +of his face,--face and form prone on the floor of the car,--while over +him bent and blazed the young officer, whose entrance, a little while +before, nobody had heeded. + +Spurning the prostrate body at his feet, he turned to Francesca, for it +was she, and stretched out his hand,--his left hand,--his only one. It +was time; all the heat, and passion, and color, had died out, and she +stood there shivering, a look of suffering in her face. + +"Miss Ercildoune! you are ill,--you need the air,--allow me!" drawing +her hand through his arm, and taking her out with infinite deference and +care. + +"Thank you! a moment's faintness,--it is over now," as they reached the +sidewalk. + +"No, no, you are too ill to walk,--let me get you a carriage." + +Hailing one that was passing by, he put her in, his hand lingering on +hers, lingering on the folds of her dress as he bent to arrange it; his +eyes clinging to her face with a passionate, woeful tenderness. "It is +two years since I saw you, since I have heard from you," he said, his +voice hoarse with the effort to speak quietly. + +"Yes," she answered, "it is two years." Stooping her head to write upon +a card, her lips moved as if they said something,--something that +seemed like "I must! only once!" but of course that could not be. "It is +my address," she then said, putting the card in his hand. "I shall be +happy to see you in my own home." + +"This afternoon?" eagerly. + +She hesitated. "Whenever you may call. I thank you again,--and good +morning." + +Meanwhile the car had moved on its course: outwardly, peaceful enough; +inwardly, full of commotion. The conservative gentleman, gathering +himself up from his prone estate, white with passion and chagrin, saw +about him everywhere looks of scorn, and smiles of derision and +contempt, and fled incontinently from the sight. + +His coal-heaving _confrere_, left to do battle alone, came to the charge +valiant and unterrified. Another outbreak of blasphemy and obscenity +were the weapons of assault; the ladies looked shocked, the gentlemen +indignant and disgusted. + +"Friend," called the non-resistant broad-brim, beckoning peremptorily to +the conductor,--"friend, come here." + +The conductor came. + +"If colored persons are not permitted to ride, I suppose it is equally +against the rules of the company to allow nuisances in their cars. Isn't +it?" + +"You are right, sir," assented the conductor, upon whose face a smile of +comprehension began to beam. + +"Well, I don't know what thee thinks, or what these other people think, +but I know of no worse nuisance than a filthy, blasphemous drunkard. +There he sits,--remove him." + +There was a perfect shout of laughter and delight; and before the irate +"citizen" comprehended what was intended, or could throw himself into a +pugilistic attitude, he was seized, _sans_ ceremony, and ignominiously +pushed and hustled from the car; the people therein, black soldier and +all, drawing a long breath of relief, and going on their way rejoicing. +Everybody's eyes were brighter; hearts beat faster, blood moved more +quickly; everybody felt a sense of elation, and a kindness towards their +neighbor and all the world. A cruel and senseless prejudice had been +lost in an impulse, generous and just; and for a moment the sentiment +which exalted their humanity, vivified and gladdened their souls. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + "_The future seemed barred + By the corpse of a dead hope._" + + OWEN MEREDITH + + +So, then, after these long years he had seen her again. Having seen her, +he wondered how he had lived without her. If the wearisome months seemed +endless in passing, the morning hours were an eternity. "This +afternoon?" he had said. "Be it so," she had answered. He did not dare +to go till then. + +Thinking over the scene of the morning, he scarcely dared go at all. She +had not offered her hand; she had expressed no pleasure, either by look +or word, at meeting him again. He had forced her to say, "Come": she +could do no less when he had just interfered to save her insult, and had +begged the boon. + +"Insult!" his arm ached to strike another blow, as he remembered the +sentence it had cut short. Of course the fellow had been drinking, but +outrage of her was intolerable, whatever madness prompted it. The very +sun must shine more brightly, and the wind blow softly, when she passed +by. Ah me! were the whole world what an ardent lover prays for his +mistress, there were no need of death to enjoy the bliss of heaven. + +What could he say? what do? how find words to speak the measured +feelings of a friend? how control the beatings of his heart, the passion +of his soul, that no sign should escape to wound or offend her? She had +bade him to silence: was he sufficiently master of himself to strike the +lighter keys without sounding some deep chords that would jar upon her +ear? + +He tried to picture the scene of their second meeting. He repeated again +and again her formal title, Miss Ercildoune, that he might familiarize +his tongue and his ear to the sound, and not be on the instant betrayed +into calling the name which he so often uttered in his thoughts. He said +over some civil, kindly words of greeting, and endeavored to call up, +and arrange in order, a theme upon which he should converse. "I shall +not dare to be silent," he thought, "for if I am, my silence will tell +the tale; and if that do not, she will hear it from the throbbings of my +heart. I don't know though,"--he laughed a little, as he spoke +aloud,--bitterly it would have been, had his voice been capable of +bitterness,--"perhaps she will think the organism of the poor thing has +become diseased in camp and fightings,"--putting his hand up to his +throat and holding the swollen veins, where the blood was beating +furiously. + +Presently he went down stairs and out to the street, in pursuit of some +cut flowers which he found in a little cellar, a stone's throw from his +hotel,--a fresh, damp little cellar, which smelt, he could not help +thinking, like a grave. Coming out to the sunshine, he shook himself +with disgust. "Faugh!" he thought, "what sick fancies and sentimental +nonsense possess me? I am growing unwholesome. My dreams of the other +night have come back to torment me in the day. These must put them to +flight." + +The fancy which had sent him in pursuit of these flowers he confessed to +be a childish one, but none the less soothing for that. He had +remembered that the first day he beheld her a nosegay had decorated his +button-hole; a fair, sweet-scented thing which seemed, in some subtle +way, like her. He wanted now just such another,--some mignonette, and +geranium, and a single tea-rosebud. Here they were,--the very +counterparts of those which he had worn on a brighter and happier day. +How like they were! how changed was he! In some moods he would have +smiled at this bit of girlish folly as he fastened the little thing over +his heart; now, something sounded in his throat that was pitifully like +a sob. Don't smile at him! he was so young; so impassioned, yet gentle; +and then he loved so utterly with the whole of his great, sore heart. + +By and by the time came to go, and eager, yet fearful, he went. It was +a fresh, beautiful day in early June; and when the city, with its heat, +and dust, and noise, was left behind, and all the leafy greenness--the +soothing quiet of country sights and country sounds--met his ear and +eye, a curious peace took possession of his soul. It was less the +whisper of hope than the calm of assured reality. For the moment, +unreasonable as it seemed, something made him blissfully sure of her +love, spite of the rebuffs and coldness she had compelled him to endure. + +"This is the place, sir!" suddenly called his driver, stopping the +horses in front of a stately avenue of trees, and jumping down to open +the gates. + +"You need not drive in; you may wait here." + +This, then, was her home. He took in the exquisite beauty of the place +with a keen pleasure. It was right that all things sweet and fine should +be about her; he had before known that they were, but it delighted him +to see them with his own eyes. Walking slowly towards the +house,--slowly, for he was both impelled and retarded by the conflicting +feelings that mastered him,--he heard her voice at a little distance, +singing; and directly she came out of a by-path, and faced him. He need +not have feared the meeting; at least, any display of emotion; she gave +no opportunity for any such thing. + +A frankly extended hand,--an easy "Good afternoon, Mr. Surrey!" That was +all. It was a cool, beautiful room into which she ushered him; a room +filled with an atmosphere of peace, but which was anything but peaceful +to him. He was restless, nervous; eager and excited, or absent and +still. He determined to master his emotion, and give no outward sign of +the tempest raging within. + +At the instant of this conclusion his eye was caught by an exquisite +portrait miniature upon an easel near him. Bending over it, taking it +into his hands, his eyes went to and fro from the pictured face to the +human one, tracing the likeness in each. Marking his interest, Francesca +said, "It is my mother." + +"If the eyes were dark, this would be your veritable image." + +"Or, if mine were blue, I should be a portrait of mamma, which would be +better." + +"Better?" + +"Yes." She was looking at the picture with weary eyes, which he could +not see. "I had rather be the shadow of her than the reality of myself: +an absurd fancy!" she added, with a smile, suddenly remembering herself. + +"I would it were true!" he exclaimed. + +She looked a surprised inquiry. His thought was, "for then I should +steal you, and wear you always on my heart." But of course he could +speak no such lover's nonsense; so he said, "Because of the fitness of +things; you wished to be a shadow, which is immaterial, and hence of the +substance of angels." + +Truly he was improving. His effort to betray no love had led him into a +ridiculous compliment. "What an idiot she will think me to say anything +so silly!" he reflected; while Francesca was thinking, "He has ceased +to love me, or he would not resort to flattery. It is well!" but the +pang that shot through her heart belied the closing thought, and, +glancing at him, the first was denied by the unconscious expression of +his eyes. Seeing that, she directly took alarm, and commenced to talk +upon a score of indifferent themes. + +He had never seen her in such a mood: gay, witty, brilliant,--full of a +restless sparkle and fire; she would not speak an earnest word, nor hear +one. She flung about bonmots, and chatted airy persiflage till his heart +ached. At another time, in another condition, he would have been +delighted, dazzled, at this strange display; but not now. + +In some careless fashion the war had been alluded to, and she spoke of +Chancellorsville. "It was there you were last wounded?" + +"Yes," he answered, not even looking down at the empty sleeve. + +"It was there you lost your arm?" + +"Yes," he answered again, "I am sorry it was my sword-arm." + +"It was frightful,"--holding her breath. "Do you know you were reported +mortally wounded? worse?" + +"I have heard that I was sent up with the slain," he replied, +half-smiling. + +"It is true. I looked for your name in the columns of 'wounded' and +'missing,' and read it at last in the list of 'killed.'" + +"For the sake of old times, I trust you were a little sorry to so read +it," he said, sadly, for the tone hurt him. + +"Sorry? yes, I was sorry. Who, indeed, of your friends would not be?" + +"Who, indeed?" he repeated: "I am afraid the one whose regret I should +most desire would sorrow the least." + +"It is very like," she answered, with seeming +carelessness,--"disappointment is the rule of life." + +This would not do. He was getting upon dangerous ground. He would change +the theme, and prevent any farther speech till he was better master of +it. He begged for some music. She sat down at once and played for him; +then sang at his desire. Rich as she was in the gifts of nature, her +voice was the chief,--thrilling, flexible, with a sympathetic quality +that in singing pathetic music brought tears, though the hearer +understood not a word of the language in which she sang. In the old time +he had never wearied listening, and now he besought her to repeat for +him some of the dear, familiar songs. If these held for her any +associations, he did not know it; she gave no outward sign,--sang to him +as sweetly and calmly as to the veriest stranger. What else had he +expected? Nothing; yet, with the unreasonableness of a lover, was +disappointed that nothing appeared. + +Taking up a piece at random, without pausing to remember the words, he +said, spreading it before her, "May I tax you a little farther? I am +greedy, I know, but then how can I help it?" + +It was the song of the Princess. + +She hesitated a moment, and half closed the book. Had he been standing +where he could see her face, he would have been shocked by its pallor. +It was over directly: she recovered herself, and, opening the music with +a resolute air, began to sing:-- + + "Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea; + The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shape, + With fold to fold, of mountain and of cape; + But, O too fond, when have I answered thee? + Ask me no more. + + "Ask me no more: what answer should I give? + I love not hollow cheek or faded eye; + Yet, O my friend, I will not have thee die! + Ask me no more, lest I should bid thee live: + Ask me no more." + +She sang thus far with a clear, untrembling voice,--so clear and +untrembling as to be almost metallic,--the restraint she had put upon +herself making it unnatural. At the commencement she had estimated her +strength, and said, "It is sufficient!" but she had overtaxed it, as she +found in singing the last verse:-- + + "Ask me no more: thy fate and mine are sealed; + I strove against the stream and all in vain; + Let the great river take me to the main; + No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield: + Ask me no more." + +All the longing, the passion, the prayer of which a human soul is +capable found expression in her voice. It broke through the affected +coldness and calm, as the ocean breaks through its puny barriers when, +after wind and tempest, all its mighty floods are out. Surrey had +changed his place, and stood fronting her. As the last word fell, she +looked at him, and the two faces saw in each but a reflection of the +same passion and pain: pallid, with eyes burning from an inward +fire,--swayed by the same emotion,--she bent forward as he, stretching +forth his arms, in a stifling voice cried, "Come!" + +Bent, but for an instant; then, by a superhuman effort, turned from him, +and put out her hand with a gesture of dissent, though she could not +control her voice to speak a word. + +At that he came close to her, not touching her hand or even her dress, +but looking into her face with imploring eyes, and whispering, +"Francesca, my darling, speak to me! say that you love me! one word! You +are breaking my heart!" + +Not a word. + +"Francesca!" + +She had mastered her voice. "Go!" she then said, beseechingly. "Oh, why +did you ask me? why did I let you come?" + +"No, no," he answered. "I cannot go,--not till you answer me." + +"Ah!" she entreated, "do not ask! I can give no such answer as you +desire. It is all wrong,--all a mistake. You do not comprehend." + +"Make me, then." + +She was silent. + +"Forgive me. I am rude: I cannot help it. I will not go unless you say, +'I do not love you.' Nothing but this shall drive me away." + +Francesca's training in her childhood had been by a Catholic governess; +she never quite lost its effect. Now she raised her hand to a little +gold cross that hung at her neck, her fingers closing on it with a +despairing clasp. "Ah, Christ, have pity!" her heart cried. "Blessed +Mother of God, forgive me! have mercy upon me!" + +Her face was frightfully pale, but her voice did not tremble as she gave +him her hand, and said gently, "Go, then, my friend. I do not love you." + +He took her hand, held it close for a moment, and then, without another +look or word, put it tenderly down, and was gone. + +So absorbed was he in painful thought that, passing down the long avenue +with bent head, he did not notice, nor even see, a gentleman who, coming +from the opposite direction, looked at him at first carelessly, and then +searchingly, as he went by. + +This gentleman, a man in the prime of life, handsome, stately, and +evidently at home here, scrutinized the stranger with a singular +intensity,--made a movement as though he would speak to him,--and then, +drawing back, went with hasty steps towards the house. + +Had Willie looked up, beheld this face and its expression, returned the +scrutiny of the one, and comprehended the meaning of the other, while +memory recalled a picture once held in his hands, some things now +obscured would have been revealed to him, and a problem been solved. As +it was, he saw nothing, moved mechanically onward to the carriage, +seated himself and said, "Home!" + +This young man was neither presumptuous nor vain. He had been once +repulsed and but now utterly rejected. He had no reason to hope, and +yet--perhaps it was his poetical and imaginative temperament--he could +not resign himself to despair. + +Suddenly he started with an exclamation that was almost a cry. What was +it? He remembered that, more than two years ago, on the last day he had +been with her, he had begged the copy of a duet which they sometimes +sang. It was in manuscript, and he desired to have it written out by her +own hand. He had before petitioned, and she promised it; and when he +thus again spoke of it, she laughed, and said, "What a memory it is, to +be sure! I shall have to tie a bit of string on my finger to refresh +it." + +"Is that efficacious?" he had asked. + +"Doubtless," she had replied, searching in her pocket for a scrap of +anything that would serve. + +"Will this do?" he then queried, bringing forth a coil of gold wire +which he had been commissioned to buy for some fanciful work of his +mother. + +"Finely," she declared; "it is durable, it will give me a wide margin, +it will be long in wearing out." + +"Nay, then, you must have something more fragile," he had objected. + +At that they both laughed, as he twisted a fragment of it on the little +finger of her right hand. "There it is to stay," he asserted, "till your +promise is redeemed." That was the last time he had seen her till +to-day. + +Now, sitting, thinking of the interview just passed, suddenly he +remembered, as one often recalls the vision of something seemingly +unnoticed at the time, that, upon her right hand, the little finger of +the right hand, there was a delicate ring,--a mere thread,--in fact, a +wire of gold; the very one himself had tied there two years ago. + +In an instant, by one of those inexplicable connections of the brain or +soul, he found himself living over an experience of his college youth. + +He had been spending the day in Boston with a dear friend, some score of +years his senior; a man of the rarest culture, and of a most sweet and +gentle nature withal; and when evening came they had drifted naturally +to the theatre,--the fool's paradise it may be sometimes, but to them on +that occasion a real paradise. + +He remembered well the play. It was Scott's _Bride of Lammermoor_. He +had never read it, but, before the curtain rose, his friend had +unfolded the story in so kind and skilful a manner as to have imbued him +as fully with the spirit of the tale as though he had studied the book. + +What he chiefly recalled in the play was the scene in which Ravenswood +comes back to Emily long after they had been plighted,--long after he +had supposed her faithless,--long after he had been tossed on a sea of +troubles, touching the seeming decay in her affections. Just as she is +about to be enveloped in the toils which were spread for her,--just as +she is about to surrender herself to the hated nuptials, and submit to +the embrace of one whom she loathed more than she dreaded +death,--Ravenswood, the man whom Heaven had made for her, presents +himself. + +What followed was quiet, yet intensely dramatic. Ravenswood, wrought to +the verge of despair, bursts upon the scene at the critical moment, +detaches Emily from her party, and leads her slowly forward. He is +unutterably sad. He questions her very tenderly; asks her whether she is +not enforced; whether she is taking this step of her own free will and +accord; whether she has indeed dismissed the dear, old fond love for him +from her heart forever? He must hear it from her own lips. When timidly +and feebly informed that such is indeed the case, he requests her to +return a certain memento,--a silver trinket which had been given her as +the symbol of his love on the occasion of their betrothal. Raising her +hand to her throat she essays to draw it from her bosom. Her fingers +rest upon the chain which binds it to her neck, but the o'erfraught +heart is still,--the troubled, but unconscious head droops upon his +shoulder,--he lifts the chain from its resting-place, and withdraws the +token from her heart. + +Supporting her with one hand and holding this badge of a lost love with +the other, he says, looking down upon her with a face of anguish, and in +a voice of despair, "_And she could wear it thus!_" + +As this scene rose and lived before him, Surrey exclaimed, "Surely that +must have been the perfection of art, to have produced an effect so +lasting and profound,--'and she could wear it thus!'--ah," he said, as +in response to some unexpressed thought, "but Emily loved Ravenswood. +Why--?" Evidently he was endeavoring to answer a question that baffled +him. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + "_And down on aching heart and brain + Blow after blow unbroken falls._" + + BOKER + + +"A letter for you, sir," said the clerk, as Surrey stopped at the desk +for his key. It was a bulky epistle, addressed in his aunt Russell's +hand, and he carried it off, wondering what she could have to say at +such length. + +He was in no mood to read or to enjoy; but, nevertheless, tore open the +cover, finding within it a double letter. Taking the envelope of one +from the folds of the other, his eye fell first upon his mother's +writing; a short note and a puzzling one. + + * * * * * + +"My dear Willie:-- + +"I have tried to write you a letter, but cannot. I never wounded you if +I could avoid it, and I do not wish to begin now. Augusta and I had a +talk about you yesterday which crazed me with anxiety. She told me it +was my place to write you what ought to be said under these trying +circumstances, for we are sure you have remained in Philadelphia to see +Miss Ercildoune. At first I said I would, and then my heart failed me. I +was sure, too, that she could write, as she always does, much better +than I; so I begged her to say all that was necessary, and I would send +her this note to enclose with her letter. Read it, I entreat you, and +then hasten, I pray you, hasten to us at once. + +"Take care of your arm, do not hurt yourself by any excitement; and, +with dear love from your father, which he would send did he know I was +writing, believe me always your devoted + +"MOTHER." + + * * * * * + +"'Trying circumstances!'--'Miss Ercildoune!'--what does it mean?" he +cried, bewildered. "Come, let us see." + +The letter which he now opened was an old and much-fingered one, +written--as he saw at the first glance--by his aunt to his mother. Why +it was sent to him he could not conjecture; and, without attempting to +so do, at once plunged into its pages:-- + + * * * * * + + "CONTINENTAL HOTEL, + PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 27, 1861 + + "MY DEAR LAURA:-- + +"I can readily understand with what astonishment you will read this +letter, from the amazement I have experienced in collecting its details. +I will not weary you with any personal narration, but tell my tale at +once. + +"Miss Ercildoune, as you know, was my daughter's intimate at school,--a +school, the admittance to which was of itself a guarantee of +respectability. Of course I knew nothing of her family, nor of +her,--save as Clara wrote me of her beauty and her accomplishments, and, +above all, of her style,--till I met Mrs. Lancaster. Of her it is +needless for me to speak. As you know, she is irreproachable, and her +position is of the best. Consequently when Clara wrote me that her +friend was to come to New York to her aunt, and begged to entertain her +for a while, I added my request to her entreaty, and Miss Ercildoune +came. Ill-fated visit! would it had never been made! + +"It is useless now to deny her gifts and graces. They are, reluctantly I +confess, so rare and so conspicuous--have so many times been seen, and +known, and praised by us all,--that it would put me in the most foolish +of attitudes should I attempt to reconsider a verdict so frequently +pronounced, or to eat my own words, uttered a thousand times. + +"It is also, I presume, useless to deny that we were well pleased--nay, +delighted--with Willie's evident sentiment for her. Indeed, so +thoroughly did she charm me, that, had I not seen how absolutely his +heart was enlisted in her pursuit, she is the very girl whom I should +have selected, could I have so done, as a wife for Tom and a daughter +for myself. + +"I knew full well how deep was this feeling for her when he marched +away, on that day so full of supreme splendor and pain, unable to see +her and to say adieu. His eyes, his face, his manner, his very voice, +marked his restlessness, his longing, and disappointment. I was +positively angry with the girl for thwarting and hurting him so, and, +whatever her excuse might be, for her absence at such a time. How +constantly are we quarrelling with our best fates! + +"She remained in New York, as you know, for some weeks after the 19th; +in fact, has been at home but for a little while. Once or twice, so +provoked with her was I for disappointing our pet, I could not resist +the temptation of saying some words about him which, if she cared for +him, I knew would wound her: and, indeed, they did,--wounded her so +deeply, as was manifest in her manner and her face, that I had not the +heart to repeat the experiment. + +"One week ago I had a letter from Willie, enclosing another to her, and +an entreaty, as he had written one which he was sure had miscarried, +that I would see that this reached her hands in safety. So anxious was I +to fulfil his request in its word and its spirit, and so certain that I +could further his cause,--for I was sure this letter was a +love-letter,--that I did not forward it by post, but, being compelled +to come to Burlington, I determined to go on to Philadelphia, drive out +to her home, and myself deliver the missive into her very hands. A most +fortunate conclusion, as you will presently decide. + +"Last evening I reached the city,--rested, slept here,--and this morning +was driven to her father's place. For all our sakes, I was somewhat +anxious, under the circumstances, that this should be quite the thing; +and I confess myself, on the instant of its sight, more than satisfied. +It is really superb!--the grounds extensive, and laid out with the most +absolute taste. The house, large and substantial, looks very like an +English mansion; with a certain quaint style and antique elegance, +refreshing to contemplate, after the crude newness and ostentatious +vulgarity of almost everything one sees here in America. It is within as +it is without. Although a great many lovely things are scattered about +of recent make, the wood-work and the heavy furniture are aristocratic +from their very age, and in their way, literally perfection. + +"Miss Ercildoune met me with not quite her usual grace and ease. She +was, no doubt, surprised at my unexpected appearance, and--I then +thought, as a consequence--slightly embarrassed. I soon afterwards +discovered the constraint in her manner sprang from another cause. + +"I had reached the house just at lunch-time, and she would take me out +to the table to eat something with her. I had hoped to see her father, +and was disappointed when she informed me he was in the city. All I saw +charmed me. The appointments of the table were like those of the house: +everything exquisitely fine, and the silver massive and old,--not a new +piece among it,--and marked with a monogram and crest. + +"I write you all this that you may the more thoroughly appreciate my +absolute horror at the final _denouement_, and share my astonishment at +the presumption of these people in daring to maintain such style. + +"I had given her Willie's letter before we left the parlor, with a +significant word and smile, and was piqued to see that she did not +blush,--in fact, became excessively white as she glanced at the writing, +and with an unsteady hand put it into her pocket. After lunch she made +no motion to look at it, and as I had my own reasons for desiring her to +peruse it, I said, 'Miss Francesca, will you not read your letter? that +I may know if there is any later news from our soldier.' + +"She hesitated a moment, and then said, with what I thought an unnatural +manner, 'Certainly, if you so desire,' and, taking it out, broke the +seal. 'Allow me,' she added, going towards a window,--as though she +desired more light, but in reality, I knew, to turn her back upon +me,--forgetting that a mirror, hanging opposite, would reveal her face +with distinctness to my gaze. + +"It was pale to ghastliness, with a drawn, haggard look about the mouth +and eyes that shocked as much as it amazed me; and before commencing to +read she crushed the letter in her hands, pressing it to her heart with +a gesture which was less of a caress than of a spasm. + +"However, as she read, all this changed; and before she finished said, +'Ah, Willie, it is clear your cause needs no advocate.' Positively, I +did not know a human countenance could express such happiness; there was +something in it absolutely dazzling. And evidently entirely forgetful of +me, she raised the paper to her mouth, and kissed it again and again, +pressing her lips upon it with such clinging and passionate fondness as +would have imbued it with life were that possible." + +Here Willie flung down his aunt's epistle and tore from his pocket this +self-same letter. He had kept it,--carried it about with him,--for two +reasons: because it was _hers_, he said,--this avowal of his love was +hers, whether she refused it or no, and he had no right to destroy her +property; and because, as he had nothing else she had worn or touched, +he cherished this sacredly since it had been in her dear hands. + +Now he took it into his clasp as tenderly as though it were Francesca's +face, and kissed it with the self-same clinging and passionate fondness +as this of which he had just read. Here had her lips rested,--here; he +felt their fragrance and softness thrilling him under the cold, dead +paper, and pressed it to his heart while he continued to read:-- + +"Before she turned, I walked to another window,--wishing to give her +time to recover calmness, or at least self-control, and was at once +absorbed in contemplating a gentleman whom I felt assured to be Mr. +Ercildoune. He stood with his back to me, apparently giving some order +to the coachman: thus I could not see his face, but I never before was +so impressed with, so to speak, the personality of a man. His physique +was grand, and his air and bearing magnificent, and I watched him with +admiration as he walked slowly away. I presume he passed the window at +which she was standing, for she called, 'Papa!' 'In a moment, dear,' he +answered, and in a moment entered, and was presented; and I, raising my +eyes to his face,--ah, how can I tell you what sight they beheld! + +"Self-possessed as I think I am, and as I certainly ought to be, I +started back with an involuntary exclamation, a mingling doubtless of +incredulity and disgust. This man, who stood before me with all the ease +and self-assertion of a gentleman, was--you will never believe it, I +fear--_a mulatto_! + +"Whatever effect my manner had on him was not perceptible. He had not +seated himself, and, with a smile that was actually satirical, he bowed, +uttered a few words of greeting, and went out of the room. + +"'How dared you?' I then cried, for astonishment had given place to +rage, 'how dared you deceive me--deceive us all--so? how dared you palm +yourself off as white and respectable, and thus be admitted to Mr. +Hale's school and to the society and companionship of his pupils?' I +could scarcely control myself when I thought of how shamefully we had +all been cozened. + +"'Pardon me, madam,' she answered with effrontery,--effrontery under the +circumstances,--'you forget yourself, and what is due from one lady to +another.' (Did you ever hear of such presumption!) 'I practised no +deceit upon Professor Hale. He knew papa well,--was his intimate friend +at college, in England,--and was perfectly aware who was Mr. +Ercildoune's daughter when she was admitted to his school. For myself, I +had no confessions to make, and made none. I was your daughter's friend; +as such, went to her house, and invited her here. I trust you have seen +in me nothing unbecoming a gentlewoman, as, _up to this time_, I have +beheld in you naught save the attributes of a lady. If we are to have +any farther conversation, it must be conducted on the old plan, and not +the extraordinary one you have just adopted; else I shall be compelled, +in self-respect, to leave you alone in my own parlor.' + +"Imagine if you can the effect of this speech upon me. I assure you I +was composed enough outwardly, if not inwardly, ere she ended her +sentence. Having finished, I said, 'Pardon me, Miss Ercildoune, for any +words which may have offended your dignity. I will confine myself for +the rest of our interview to your own rules!' + +"'It is well,' she responded. I had spoken satirically, and expected to +see her shrink under it, but she answered with perfect coolness and +_sang froid_. I continued, 'You will not deny that you are a negro, at +least a mulatto.' + +"'Pardon me, madam,' she replied; 'my father is a mulatto, my mother was +an Englishwoman. Thus, to give you accurate information upon the +subject, I am a quadroon.' + +"'Quadroon be it!' I answered, angrily again, I fear. 'Quadroon, +mulatto, or negro, it is all one. I have no desire to split hairs of +definition. You could not be more obnoxious were you black as Erebus. I +have no farther words to pass upon the past or the present, but +something to say of the future. You hold in your hands a letter--a +love-letter, I am sure--a declaration, as I fear--from my nephew, Mr. +Surrey. You will oblige me by at once sitting down, writing a peremptory +and unqualified refusal to his proposal, if he has made you one,--a +refusal that will admit of no hope and no double interpretation,--and +give it into my keeping before I leave this room.' + +"When I first alluded to Willie's letter she had crimsoned, but before I +closed she was so white I should have thought her fainting, but for the +fire in her eyes. However, she spoke up clear enough when she said, 'And +what, madam, if I deny your right to dictate any action whatever to me, +however insignificant, and utterly refuse to obey your command?' + +"'At your peril do so,' I exclaimed. 'Refuse, and I will write the whole +shameful story, with my own comments; and you may judge for yourself of +the effect it will produce.' + +"At that she smiled,--an indescribable sort of smile,--and shut her +fingers on the letter she held,--I could not help thinking as though it +were a human hand. 'Very well, madam, write it. He has already told +me'-- + +"'That he loves you,' I broke in. 'Do you think he would continue to do +so if he knew what you are?' + +"'He knows me as well now,' she answered, 'as he will after reading any +letter of yours.' + +"'Incredible!' I exclaimed. 'When he wrote you that, he did not know, he +could not have known, your birth, your race, the taint in your blood. I +will never believe it.' + +"'No,' she said, 'I did not say he did. I said he knew _me_; so well, I +think, judging from this,'--clasping his letter with the same curious +pressure I had before noticed,--'that you could scarcely enlighten him +farther. He knows my heart, and soul, and brain,--as I said, he knows +_me_.' + +"'O, yes,' I answered,--or rather sneered, for I was uncontrollably +indignant through all this,--'if you mean _that_, very likely. I am not +talking lovers' metaphysics, but practical common-sense. He does not +know the one thing at present essential for him to know; and he will +abandon you, spurn you,--his love turned to scorn, his passion to +contempt,--when he reads what I shall write him if you refuse to do what +I demand!' + +"I expected to see her cower before me. Conceive, then, if you can, my +sensations when she cried, 'Stop, madam! Say what you will to me; +insult, outrage me, if you please, and have not the good breeding and +dignity to forbear; but do not presume to so slander him. Do not presume +to accuse him, who is all nobility and greatness of soul, of a +sentiment so base, a prejudice so infamous. Study him, madam, know him +better, ere you attempt to be his mouth-piece.' + +"As she uttered these words, a horrible foreboding seized me, or, to +speak more truthfully, I so felt the certainty of what she spoke, that a +shudder of terror ran over me. I thought of him, of his character, of +his principles, of his insane sense of honor, of his terrible will under +all that soft exterior,--the hand of steel under the silken glove; I saw +that if I persisted and she still refused to yield I should lose all. On +the instant I changed my attack. + +"'It is true,' I said, 'having asked you to become his wife, he will +marry you; he will redeem his pledge though it ruin his life and blast +his career, to say nothing of the effect an unending series of outrages +and mortifications will have upon his temper and his heart. A pretty +love, truly, yours must be,--whatever his is,--to condemn him to so +terrible an ordeal, so frightful a fate.' + +"She shivered at that, and I went on,--blaming my folly in not +remembering, being a woman, that it was with a woman and her weakness I +had to deal. + +"'He is young,' I continued; 'he has probably a long life before him. +Rich, handsome, brilliant,--a magnificent career opening to +him,--position, ease, troops of friends,--you will ruthlessly ruin all +this. Married to you, white as you are, the peculiarity of your birth +would in some way be speedily known. His father would disinherit him (it +was not necessary to tell her he has a fortune in his own right), his +family disown him, his friends abandon him, society close its doors upon +him, business refuse to seek him, honor and riches elude his grasp. If +you do not know the strength of this prejudice, which you call infamous, +pre-eminently in the circle to which he belongs, I cannot tell it you. +Taking all this from him, what will you give him in return? Ruining his +life, can your affection make amends? Blasting his career, will your +love fill the gap? Do you flatter yourself by the supposition that you +can be father, mother, relatives, friends, society, wealth, position, +honor, career,--all,--to him? Your people are cursed in America, and +they transfer their curse to any one mad enough, or generous enough +(that was a diplomatic turn), to connect his fate with yours.' + +"Before I was through, I saw that I had carried my point. All the fine +airs went out of my lady, and she looked broken and humbled enough. I +might have said less, but I ached to say more to the insolent. + +"'Enough, madam,' she gasped, 'stop.' And then said, more to herself +than to me, 'I could give heaven for him,'--the rest I rather guessed +from the motion of her lips than from any sound,--'but I cannot ask him +to give the world for me.' + +"'Will you write the letter?' I asked. + +"'No.'--She said the word with evident effort, and then, still more +slowly, 'I will give you a message. Say "I implore you never to write me +again,--to forget me. I beseech of you not to try me by any farther +appeals, as I shall but return them unopened."' I wrote down the words +as she spoke them. 'This is well,' I said when she finished; 'but it is +not enough. I must have the letter.' + +"'The letter?' she said. 'What need of a letter? surely that is +sufficient.' + +"'I do not mean your letter. I mean his,--the one which you hold in your +hands.' + +"'This?' she queried, looking down on it,--'this?' + +"I thought the repetition senseless and affected, but I answered, +'Yes,--that. He will not believe you are in earnest if you keep his +avowal of love. You must give him up entirely. If you let me send that +back, with your words, he shall never--at least from me--have clew or +reason for your conduct. That will close the whole affair.' + +"'Close the whole affair,' she repeated after me, mechanically,--'close +the whole affair.' + +"I was getting heartily tired of this, and had no desire to listen to an +echo conversation; so, without answering, I stretched out my hand for +it. She held it towards me, then drew it back and raised it to her heart +with the same gesture I had marked when she first opened it,--a gesture +as I said, of that, which was less of a caress than a spasm. Indeed, I +think now that it was wholly physical and involuntary. Then she handed +it to me, and, motioning towards the door, said, 'Go!' + +"I rose, and, infamous as I thought her past deceit, wearied as I was +with the interview, small claim as she had upon me for the slightest +consideration, I said 'You have done well, Miss Ercildoune! I commend +you for your sensible decision, and for your ability, if late, to +appreciate the situation. I wish you all success in life, I am sure; +and, permit me to add, a future union with one of your own race, if that +will bring you happiness.' + +"Heavens! what a face and what eyes she turned upon me as, rising, she +once more pointed to the door, and cried, 'Go!' And indeed I went,--the +girl actually frightened me. + +"When I got on to the lawn, I missed my bag and parasol, and had to +return for them. I opened the door with some slight trepidation, but had +no need for fear. She was lying prostrate upon the floor, as I saw on +coming near, in a dead faint. She had evidently fallen so suddenly and +with such force as to have hurt herself; her head had struck against an +ornament of the bookcase, near which she had been standing; and a little +stream of blood was trickling from her temple. It made me sick to behold +it. As I looked at her where she lay, I could not but pity her a little, +and think what a merciful fate it would be for her, and such as she, if +they could all die,--and so put an end to what, I presume, though I +never before thought of it, is really a very hard existence. + +"It was no time, however, to sentimentalize. I rang for a servant, and, +having waited till one came, took my leave. + +"Of course all this is very shocking and painful, but I am glad I came. +The matter is ended now in a satisfactory manner. I think it has been +well done. Let us both keep our counsel, and the affair will soon +become a memory with us, as it is nothing with every one else. + + "Always your loving sister, + + "AUGUSTA." + + * * * * * + +It is better to be silent upon some themes than to say too little. Words +would fail to express the emotions with which Willie read this history: +let silence and imagination tell the tale. + +Flinging down the paper with a passionate cry, he saw yet another +letter,--the one in which these had been enfolded,--a letter written to +him, and by Mrs. Russell. As by a flash, he perceived that there had +been some blunder here, by which he was the gainer; and, partly at +least, comprehended it. + +These two, mother and aunt, fearing the old fire had not yet burned to +ashes,--nay, from their knowledge of him, sure of it,--hearing naught of +his illness, for he did not care to distress them by any account +thereof, were satisfied that he had either met, or was remaining to +compass a meeting, with Miss Ercildoune. His mother had not the courage, +or the baseness, to write such a letter as that to which Mrs. Russell +urged her,--a letter which should degrade his love in his own eyes, and +recall him from an unworthy pursuit. "Very well!" Mrs. Russell had then +said, "It will be better from you; it will look more like unwarranted +interference from me; but I will write, and you shall send an +accompanying line. Let me have it to-morrow." + +The next morning Mrs. Surrey was not well enough to drive out, and thus +sent her note by a servant, enclosing with it the letter of June +27th,--thinking that her sister might want it for reference. When it +reached Mrs. Russell, it was almost mail-time, and with the simple +thought, "So,--Laura has written it, after all," she enclosed it in her +own, and sent it off, post-haste; not even looking at the unsealed +envelope, as Mrs. Surrey had taken for granted she would, and thus +failing to know of its double contents. + +Thus the very letter which they would have compassed land and sea to +have prevented coming under his eyes, unwisely yet most fortunately kept +in existence, was sent by themselves to his hands. + +Without pausing to read a line of that which his aunt had written him, +he tore it into fragments, flung it into the empty grate; and, bounding +down the stairs and on to the street, plunged into a carriage and was +whirled away, all too slowly, to the home he had left but a little space +before with such widely, such painfully different emotions. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + "_I could not love thee, dear, so much, + Loved I not honor more._" + + LOVELACE + + +Just after Surrey, for the third time, had passed through the avenue of +trees, two men appeared in it, earnestly conversing. One, the older, was +the same who had met Willie as he was going out, and had examined him +with such curious interest. The other, in feature, form, and bearing, +was so absolutely the counterpart of his companion that it was easy to +recognize in them father and son,--a father and son whom it would be +hard to match. "The finest type of the Anglo-Saxon race I have seen from +America," was the verdict pronounced upon Mr. Ercildoune, when he was a +young man studying abroad, by an enthusiastic and nationally ignorant +Englishman; "but then, sir," he added, "what very dark complexions you +Americans have! Is it universal?" + +"By no means, sir," was Mr. Ercildoune's reply. "There are some +exceedingly fine ones among my countrymen. I come from the South: that +is a bad climate for the tint of the skin." + +"Is it so?" exclaimed John Bull,--"worse than the North?" + +"Very much worse, sir, in more ways than one." + +Perhaps Robert Ercildoune was a trifle fairer than his father, but there +was still perceptible the shade which marked him as effectually an +outcast from the freedom of American society, and the rights of American +citizenship, as though it had been the badge of crime or the strait +jacket of a madman. Something of this was manifested in the conversation +in which the two were engaged. + +"It is folly, Robert, for you to carry your refinement and culture into +the ranks as a common soldier, to fight and to die, without thanks. You +are made of too good stuff to serve simply as food for powder." + +"Better men than I, father, have gone there, and are there to-day; men +in every way superior to me." + +"Perhaps,--yes, if you will have it so. But what are they? white men, +fighting for their own country and flag, for their own rights of manhood +and citizenship, for a present for themselves and a future for their +children, for honor and fame. What is there for you?" + +"For one thing, just that of which you spoke. Perhaps not a present for +me, but certainly a future for those that come after." + +"A future! How are you to know? what warrant or guarantee have you for +any such future? Do you judge by the past? by the signs of to-day? I +tell you this American nation will resort to any means--will pledge +anything, by word or implication--to secure the end for which it fights; +and will break its pledges just so soon as it can, and with whomsoever +it can with impunity. You, and your children, and your children's +children after you, will go to the wall unless it has need of you in the +arena." + +"I do not think so. This whole nation is learning, through pain and +loss, the lesson of justice; of expediency, doubtless, but still of +justice; and I do not think it will be forgotten when the war is ended. +This is our time to wipe off a thousand stigmas of contempt and +reproach: this"-- + +"Who is responsible for them? ourselves? What cast them there? our own +actions? I trow not. Mark the facts. I pay taxes to support the public +schools, and am compelled to have my children educated at home. I pay +taxes to support the government, and am denied any representation or any +voice in regard to the manner in which these taxes shall be expended. I +hail a car on the street, and am laughed to scorn by the conductor,--or, +admitted, at the order of the passengers am ignominiously expelled. I +offer my money at the door of any place of public amusement, and it is +flung back to me with an oath. I enter a train to New York, and am +banished to the rear seat or the 'negro car.' I go to a hotel, open for +the accommodation of the public, and am denied access; or am requested +to keep my room, and not show myself in parlor, office, or at table. I +come within a church, to worship the good God who is no respecter of +persons, and am shown out of the door by one of his insolent creatures. +I carry my intelligence to the polls on election morning, and am elbowed +aside by an American boor or a foreign drunkard, and, with opprobrious +epithets by law officers and rabble, am driven away. All this in the +North; all this without excuse of slavery and of the feeling it +engenders; all this from arrogant hatred and devilish malignity. At +last, the country which has disowned me, the government which has never +recognized save to outrage me, the flag which has refused to cover or to +protect me, are in direct need and utmost extremity. Then do they cry +for me and mine to come up to their help ere they perish. At least, they +hold forth a bribe to secure me? at least, if they make no apology for +the past, they offer compensation for the future? at least, they bid +high for the services they desire? Not at all! + +"They say to one man, 'Here is twelve hundred dollars bounty with which +to begin; here is sixteen dollars a month for pay; here is the law +passed, and the money pledged, to secure you in comfort for the rest of +life, if wounded or disabled, or help for your family, if killed. Here +is every door set wide for you to rise, from post to post; money yours, +advancement yours, honor, and fame, and glory yours; the love of a +grateful country, the applause of an admiring world.' + +"They say to another man,--you, or me, or Sam out there in the +field,--'There is no bounty for you, not a cent; there is pay for you, +twelve dollars a month, the hire of a servant; there is no pension for +you, or your family, if you be sent back from the front, wounded or +dead; if you are taken prisoner you can be murdered with impunity, or be +sold as a slave, without interference on our part. Fight like a lion! do +acts of courage and splendor! and you shall never rise above the rank of +a private soldier. For you there is neither money nor honor, rights +secured, nor fame gained. Dying, you fall into a nameless grave: living, +you come back to your old estate of insult and wrong. If you refuse +these tempting offers, we brand you cowards. If, under these infamous +restraints and disadvantages, you fail to equal the white troops by your +side, you are written down--inferiors. If you equal them, you are still +inferiors. If you perform miracles, and surpass them, you are, in a +measure, worthy commendation at last; we consent to see in you human +beings, fit for mention and admiration,--not as types of your color and +of what you intrinsically are, but as exceptions; made such by the habit +of association, and the force of surrounding circumstances.' + +"These are the terms the American people offer you, these the terms +which you stoop to accept, these the proofs that they are learning a +lesson of justice! So be it! there is need. Let them learn it to the +full! let this war go on 'until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, +and the houses without man, and the land be utterly destroyed.' Do not +you interfere. Leave them to the teachings and the judgments of God." + +Ercildoune had spoken with such impassioned feeling, with such fire in +his eyes, such terrible earnestness in his voice, that Robert could not, +if he would, interrupt him; and, in the silence, found no words for the +instant at his command. Ere he summoned them they saw some one +approaching. + +"A fine looking fellow! fighting has been no child's play for him," said +Robert, looking, as he spoke, at the empty sleeve. + +Mr. Ercildoune advanced to meet the stranger, and Surrey beheld the same +face upon whose pictured semblance he had once gazed with such intense +feelings, first of jealousy, and then of relief and admiration; the same +splendor of life, and beauty, and vitality. Surrey knew him at once, +knew that it was Francesca's father, and went up to him with extended +hand. Mr. Ercildoune took the proffered hand, and shook it warmly. "I am +happy to meet you, Mr. Surrey." + +"You know me?" said he with surprise. "I thought to present myself." + +"I have seen your picture." + +"And I yours. They must have held the mirror up to nature, for the +originals to be so easily known. But may I ask where you saw mine? +_yours_ was in Miss Ercildoune's possession." + +"As was yours," was answered after a moment's hesitation,--Surrey +thought, with visible reluctance. His heart flew into his throat. "She +has my picture,--she has spoken of me," he said to himself. "I wonder +what her father will think,--what he will do. Come, I will to the point +immediately." + +"Mr. Ercildoune," said he, aloud, "you know something of me? of my +position and prospects?" + +"A great deal." + +"I trust, nothing disparaging or ignoble." + +"I know nothing for which any one could desire oblivion." + +"Thanks. Let me speak to you, then, of a matter which should have been +long since proposed to you had I been permitted the opportunity. I love +your daughter. I cannot speak about that, but you will understand all +that I wish to say. I have twice--once by letter, once by speech--let +her know this and my desire to call her wife. She has twice +refused,--absolutely. You think this should cut off all hope?" + +Ercildoune had been watching him closely. "If she does not love you," he +answered, at the pause. + +"I do not know. I went away from here a little while ago with her +peremptory command not to return. I should not have dared disobey it had +I not learned--thought--in fact, but for some circumstances--I beg your +pardon--I do not know what I am saying. I believed if I saw her once +more I could change her determination,--could induce her to give me +another response,--and came with that hope." + +"Which has failed?" + +"Which has thus far failed that she will not at all see me; will hold no +communication with me. I should be a ruffian did I force myself on her +thus without excuse or reason. My own love would be no apology did I not +think, did I not dare to hope, that it is not aversion to me that +induces her to act as she has done. Believing so, may I beg a favor of +you? may I entreat that you will induce her to see me, if only for a +little while?" + +Ercildoune smiled a sad, bitter smile, as he answered, "Mr. Surrey, if +my daughter does not love you, it would be hopeless for you or for me to +assail her refusal. If she does, she has doubtless rejected you for a +reason which you can read by simply looking into my face. No words of +mine can destroy or do that away." + +"There is nothing to destroy; there is nothing to do away. Thank you for +speaking of it, and making the way easy. There is nothing in all the +wide world between us,--there can be nothing between us,--if she loves +me; nothing to keep us apart save her indifference or lack of regard for +me. I want to say so to her if she will give me the chance. Will you not +help me to it?" + +"You comprehend all that I mean?" + +"I do. It is, as I have said, nothing. That love would not be worth the +telling that considered extraneous circumstances, and not the object +itself." + +"You have counted all the consequences? I think not. How, indeed, should +you be able? Come with me a moment." The two went up to the house, +across the wide veranda, into a room half library, half lounging-room, +which, from a score of evidences strewn around, was plainly the special +resort of the master. Over the mantel hung the life-size portrait of an +excessively beautiful woman. A fine, _spirituelle_ face, with proud +lines around the mouth and delicate nostrils, but with a tender, +appealing look in the eyes, that claimed gentle treatment. This face +said, "I was made for sunshine and balmy airs, but, if darkness and +storm assail, I can walk through them unflinching, though the progress +be short; I can die, and give no sign." Willie went hastily up to this, +and stood, absorbed, before it. "Francesca is very like her mother," +said Ercildoune, coming to his side. It was his own thought, but he made +no answer. + +"I will tell you something of her and myself; a very little story; you +can draw the moral. My father, who was a Virginian, sent my brother and +me to England when we were mere boys, to be trained and educated. After +his fashion, doubtless, he loved us; for he saw that we had every +advantage that wealth, and taste, and care could provide; and though he +never sent for us, nor came to us, in all the years after we left his +house,--and though we had no legal claim upon him,--he acknowledged us +his children, and left us the entire proceeds of his immense estates, +unincumbered. We were so young when we went abroad, had been so tenderly +treated at home, had seen and known so absolutely nothing of the society +about us, that we were ignorant as Arabs of the state of feeling and +prejudice in America against such as we, who carried any trace of negro +blood. Our treatment in England did but increase this oblivion. + +"We graduated at Oxford; my brother, who was two years older than I, +waiting upon me that we might go together through Europe; and together +we had three of the happiest years of life. On the Continent I met +_her_. You see what she is; you know Francesca: it is useless for me to +attempt to describe her. I loved her,--she loved me,--it was confessed. +In a little while I called her wife; I would, if I could, tell you of +the time that followed: I cannot. We had a beautiful home, youth, +health, riches, friends, happiness, two noble boys. At last an evil fate +brought us to America. I was to look after some business affairs which, +my agent said, needed personal supervision. My brother, whose health had +failed, was advised to try a sea-voyage, and change of scene and +climate. My wife was enthusiastic about the glorious Republic,--the +great, free America,--the land of my birth. We came, carrying with us +letters from friends in England, that were an open sesame to the most +jealously barred doors. They flew wide at our approach, but to be shut +with speed when my face was seen; hands were cordially extended, and +drawn back as from a loathsome contact when mine went to meet them. In +brief, we were outlawed, ostracised, sacrificed on the altar of this +devilish American prejudice,--wholly American, for it is found nowhere +else in the world,--I for my color, she for connecting her fate with +mine. + +"I was so held as to be unable to return at once, and she would not +leave me. Then my brother drooped more and more. His disease needed the +brightest and most cheerful influences. The social and moral atmosphere +stifled him. He died; and we, with grief intensified by bitterness, laid +him in the soil of his own country as though it had been that of the +stranger and enemy. + +"At this time the anti-slavery movement was provoking profound thought +and feeling in America. I at once identified myself with it; not because +I was connected with the hated and despised race, but because I loathed +all forms of tyranny, and fought against them with what measure of +strength I possessed. Doubtless this made me a more conspicuous mark for +the shafts of malice and cruelty, and as I could nowhere be hurt as +through her, malignity exhausted its devices there. She was hooted at +when she appeared with me on the streets; she was inundated with +infamous letters; she was dragged before a court of _justice_ upon the +plea that she had defied the law of the state against amalgamation, +forbidding the marriage of white and colored; though at the time it was +known that she was English, that we were married in England and by +English law. One night, in the midst of the riots which in 1838 +disgraced this city, our house was surrounded by a mob, burned over us; +and I, with a few faithful friends, barely succeeded in carrying her to +a place of safety,--uncovered, save by her delicate night-robe and a +shawl, hastily caught up as we hurried her away. The yelling fiends, the +burning house, the awful horror of fright and danger, the shock to her +health and strength, the storm,--for the night was a wild and +tempestuous one, which drenched her to the skin,--from all these she +might have recovered, had not her boy, her first-born, been carried into +her, bruised and dead,--dead, through an accident of burning rafters and +falling stones; an accident, they said; yet as really murdered as though +they had wilfully and brutally stricken him down. + +"After that I saw that she, too, would die, were she not taken back to +our old home. The preparations were hastily made; we turned our faces +towards England; we hoped to reach it at least before another pair of +eyes saw the light, but hoped in vain. There on the broad sea Francesca +was born. There her mother died. There was she buried." + +It was with extreme difficulty Ercildoune had controlled his face and +voice, through the last of this distressing recital, and with the final +word he bowed his forehead on the picture-frame,--convulsed with +agony,--while voiceless sobs, like spasms, shook his form. Surrey +realized that no words were to be said here, and stood by, awed and +silent. What hand, however tender, could be laid on such a wound as +this? + +Presently he looked up, and continued: "I came back here, because, I +said, here was my place. I had wealth, education, a thousand advantages +which are denied the masses of people who are, like me, of mixed race. I +came here to identify my fate with theirs; to work with and for them; to +fight, till I died, against the cruel and merciless prejudice which +grinds them down. I have a son, who has just entered the service of this +country, perhaps to die under its flag. I have a daughter,"--Willie +flushed and started forward;--"I asked you when I began this recital, if +you had counted all the consequences. You know my story; you see with +what fate you link yours; reflect! Francesca carries no mark of her +birth; her father or brother could not come inside her home without +shocking society by the scandal, were not the story earlier known. The +man whom you struck down this morning is one of our neighbors; you saw +and heard his brutal assault: are you ready to face more of the like +kind? Better than you I know what sentence will be passed upon +you,--what measure awarded. It is for your own sake I say these things; +consider them. I have finished." + +Surrey had made to speak a half score of times, and as often checked +himself,--partly that he should not interrupt his companion; partly that +he might be master of his emotions, and say what he had to utter without +heat or excitement. + +"Mr. Ercildoune," he now said, "listen to me. I should despise myself +were I guilty of the wicked and vulgar prejudice universal in America. I +should be beneath contempt did I submit or consent to it. Two years ago +I loved Miss Ercildoune without knowing aught of her birth. She is the +same now as then; should I love her the less? If anything hard or cruel +is in her fate that love can soften, it shall be done. If any painful +burdens have been thrown upon her life, I can carry, if not the whole, +then a part of them. If I cannot put her into a safe shelter where no +ill will befall her, I can at least take her into my arms and go with +her through the world. It will be easier for us, I think,--I hope,--to +face any fate if we are together. Ah, sir, do not prevent it; do not +deny me this happiness. Be my ambassador, since she will not let me +speak for myself, and plead my own cause." + +In his earnestness he had come close to Mr. Ercildoune, putting out his +one hand with a gesture of entreaty, with a tone in his voice, and a +look in his face, irresistible to hear and behold. Ercildoune took the +hand, and held it in a close, firm grasp. Some strong emotion shook him. +The expression, a combination of sadness and scorn, which commonly held +possession of his eyes, went out of them, leaving them radiant. "No," he +said, "I will say nothing for you. I would not for worlds spoil your +plea; prevent her hearing, from your own mouth, what you have to say. I +will send her to you,"--and, going to a door, gave the order to a +servant, "Desire Miss Francesca to come to the parlor." Then, motioning +Surrey to the room, he went away, buried in thought. + +Standing in the parlor, for he was too restless to sit, he tried to plan +how he should meet her; to think of a sentence which at the outset +should disarm her indignation at being thus thrust upon him, and convey +in some measure the thought of which his heart was full, without +trespassing on her reserve, or telling her of the letter which he had +read. Then another fear seized him; it was two years since he had +written,--two years since that painful and terrible scene had been +enacted in the very room where he stood,--two years since she had +confessed by deed and look that she loved him. Might she not have +changed? might she not have struggled for the mastery of this feeling +with only too certain success? might she not have learned to regard him +with esteem, perchance,--with friendship,--sentiment,--anything but that +which he desired or would claim at her hands? Silence and absence and +time are pitiless destructives. Might they not? Aye, might they not? He +paced to and fro, with quick, restless tread, at the thought. All his +love and his longing cried out against such a cruel supposition. He +stopped by the side of the bookcase against which she had fallen in that +merciless and suffering struggle, and put his hand down on the little +projection, which he knew had once cut and wounded her, with a strong, +passionate clasp, as though it were herself he held. Just then he heard +a step,--her step, yet how unlike!--coming down the stairs. Where he +stood he could see her as she crossed the hall, coming unconsciously to +meet him. All the brightness and airy grace seemed to have been drawn +quite out of her. The alert, slender figure drooped as if it carried +some palpable weight, and moved with a step slow and unsteady as that of +sickness or age. Her face was pathetic in its sad pallor, and blue, +sorrowful circles were drawn under the deep eyes, heavy and dim with +the shedding of unnumbered tears. It almost broke his heart to look at +her. A feeling, pitiful as a mother would have for her suffering baby, +took possession of his soul,--a longing to shield and protect her. Tears +blinded him; a great sob swelled in his throat; he made a step forward +as she came into the room. "Papa," she said, without looking up, "you +wanted me?" There was no response. "Papa!" In an instant an arm enfolded +her; a presence, tender and strong, bent above her; a voice, husky with +crowding emotions, yet sweet with all the sweetness of love, breathed, +"My darling! my darling!" as _his_ fair, sunny hair swept her face. + +Even then she remembered another scene, remembered her promise; even +then she thought of him, of his future, and struggled to release herself +from his embrace. + +What did he say? what could he say? Where were the arguments he had +planned, the entreaties he had purposed? where the words with which he +was to tell his tale, combat her refusal, win her to a willing and happy +assent? All gone. + +There was nothing but his heart and its caresses to speak for him. +Silent, with the ineffable stillness he kissed her eyes, her mouth, held +her to his breast with a passionate fondness,--a tender, yet masterful +hold, which said, "Nothing shall separate us now." She felt it, +recognized it, yielded without power to longer contend, clasped her arms +about his neck, met his eyes, and dropped her face upon his heart with a +long, tremulous sigh which confessed that heaven was won. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + "_The golden hours, on angel wings, + Flew o'er me and my dearie._" + + BURNS + + +The evening that followed was of the brightest and happiest; even the +adieus spoken to the soldier who was just leaving his home did not +sadden it. They were in such a state of exaltation as to see everything +with courageous and hopeful eyes, and sent Robert off with the feeling +that all these horrible realities they had known so long were but bogies +to frighten foolish children, and that he would come back to them +wearing, at the very least, the stars of a major-general. Whatever +sombre and painful thoughts filled Ercildoune's heart he held there, +that no gloom might fall from him upon these fresh young lives, nor +sadden the cheery expectancy of his son. + +Surrey, having carried the first line of defence, prepared for a +vigorous assault upon the second. Like all eager lovers, his primary +anxiety was to hear "Yes"; afterwards, the day. To that end he was +pleading with every resource that love and impatience could lend; but +Francesca shook her head, and smiled, and said that was a long way +off,--that was not to be thought of, at least till the war was over, and +her soldier safe at home; but he insisted that this was the flimsiest, +and poorest of excuses; nay, that it was the very reverse of the true +and sensible idea, which was of course wholly on his side. He had these +few weeks at home, and then must away once more to chances of battle and +death. He did not say this till he had exhausted every other entreaty; +but at last, gathering her close to him with his one loving arm,--"how +fortunate," he had before said, "that it is the left arm, because if it +were the other I could not hold you so near my heart!"--so holding her, +he glanced down at the empty sleeve, and whispered, "My darling! who +knows? I have been wounded so often, and am now only a piece of a fellow +to come to you. It may be something more next time, and then I shall +never call you wife. It would make no difference hereafter, I know: we +belong to each other for time and eternity. But then I should like to +feel that we were something more to one another than even betrothed +lovers, before the end comes, if come it does, untimely. Be generous, +dearie, and say yes." + +He did not give utterance to another fear, which was that by some device +she might again be taken away from him; that some cruel plan might be +put in execution to separate them once more. He would not take the +risk; he would bind her to him so securely that no device, however +cunning,--no plan, however hard and shrewd,--could again divide them. + +She hesitated long; was long entreated; but the result was sure, since +her own heart seconded every prayer he uttered. At last she consented; +but insisted that he should go home at once, see the mother and father +who were waiting for him with such anxious hearts, give to them--as was +their due--at least a part of the time, and then, when her hasty +bride-preparations were made, come back and take her wholly to himself. +Thus it was arranged, and he left her. + +Into the mysteries which followed--the mysteries of hemming and +stitching, of tucking and trimming, ruffling, embroidering, of all the +hurry and delicious confusion of an elegant yet hasty bridal +trousseau--let us not attempt to investigate. + +Doubtless through those days, through this sweet and happy whirl of +emotion, Francesca had many anxious and painful hours: hours in which +she looked at the future--for him more than for herself--with sorrowful +anticipations and forebodings. But with each evening came a letter, +written in the morning by his dear hand; a letter so full of happy, +hopeful love, of resolute, manly spirit, that her cares and anxieties +all took flight, and were but as a tale that is told, or as a dream of +darkness when the sun shines upon a blessed reality. + +He wrote her that he had told his parents of his wishes and plans; and +that, as he had known before, they were opposed, and opposed most +bitterly; but he was sure that time would soften, and knowledge destroy +this prejudice utterly. He wrote as he believed. They were so fond of +him, so devoted to him who was their only child, that he was assured +they would not and could not cast him off, nor hate that which he loved. +He did not know that his father, who had never before been guilty of a +base action,--his mother, who was fine to daintiness,--were both so +warped by this senseless and cruel feeling--having seen Francesca and +known all her beautiful and noble elements of personal character--as to +have written her a letter which only a losel should have penned and an +outcast read. She did not tell him. Being satisfied that they two +belonged to one another; that if they were separated it would be as the +tearing asunder of a perfect whole, leaving the parts rent and +bleeding,--she would not listen to any voice that attempted, nor heed +any hand that strove to drive an entering wedge, or to divide them. Why, +then, should she trouble him by the knowledge that this effort had again +been made, and by those he trusted and honored. Let it pass. The future +must decide what the future must be, meanwhile, they were to live in a +happy present. + +He learned of it, however, before he left his home. Finding that neither +persuasions, threats, nor prayers could move him,--that he would be true +to honor and love,--they told him of what they had done; laid bare the +whole intensity of their feeling; and putting her on the one side, +placing themselves on the other, said, "Choose,--this wife, or those who +have loved you for a lifetime. Cleave to her, and your father disowns +you, your mother renounces, your home shuts its doors upon you, never to +open. With the world and its judgment we have nothing to do; that is +between it and you; but no judgment of indifferent strangers shall be +more severe than ours." + +A painful position; a cruel alternative; but not for an instant did he +hesitate. Taking the two hands of father and mother into his solitary +one, he said,--"Father, I have always found you a gentleman; mother, you +have shown all the graces of the Christian character which you profess; +yet in this you are supporting the most dishonorable sentiment, the most +infidel unbelief, with which the age is shamed. You are defying the +dictates of justice and the teachings of God. When you ask me to rank +myself on your side, I cannot do it. Were my heart less wholly enlisted +in this matter, my reason and sense of right would rebel. Here, then, +for the present at least, we must say farewell." And so, with many a +heart-ache and many a pang, he went away. + +As true love always grows with passing time, so his increased with the +days, and intensified by the cruel heat which was poured upon it. He +realized the torture to which, in a thousand ways, this darling of his +heart had for a lifetime been subjected; and his tenderness and love--in +which was an element of indignation and pathos--deepened with every +fresh revelation of the passing hours. When he came back to her he had +few words to speak, and no airy grace of sentence or caress to bestow; +he followed her about in a curious, shadow-like way, with such a strain +on his heart as made him many a time lift his hand to it, as if to check +physical pain. For her, she was as one who had found a beloved master, +able and willing to lighten all her burdens; a physician, whose +slightest touch brought balm and healing to every aching wound. And so +these two when the time came, spite of the absence of friends who should +have been there, spite of warnings and denunciations and evil +prophecies, stood up and said to those who listened what their hearts +had long before confessed, that they were one for time and eternity; +then, hand in hand, went out into the world. + +For the present it was a pleasant enough world to them. Surrey had a +lovely little place on the Hudson to which he would carry her, and +pleased himself by fitting it up with every convenience and beauty that +taste could devise and wealth supply. + +How happy they were there! To be sure, nobody came to see them, but then +they wished to see nobody; so every one was well satisfied. The +delicious lovers' life of two years before was renewed, but with how +much richer and deeper delights and blissfulness! They galloped on many +a pleasant morning across miles and miles of country, down rocky slopes, +and through wild and romantic glens. They drove lazily, on summer noons, +through leafy fastnesses and cool forest paths; or sat idly by some +little stream on the fresh, green moss, with a line dancing on the +crystal water, amusing themselves by the fiction that it was fishing +upon which they were intent, and not the dear delight of watching one +another's faces reflected from the placid stream. They spent hours at +home, reading bits of poems, or singing scraps of love-songs, talking a +little, and then falling away into silence; or she sat perched on his +knee or the elbow of his chair, smoothing his sunny hair, stroking his +long, silky mustache, or looking into his answering eyes, till the world +lapsed quite away from them, and they thought themselves in heaven. + +An idle, happy time! a time to make a worker sigh only to behold, and a +Benthamite lift his hands in deprecation and despair. A time which would +not last, because it could not, any more than apple-blossoms and May +flowers, but which was sweet and fragrant past all describing while it +endured. + +Some _kindly_ disposed person sent Surrey a city paper with an item +marked in such wise as to make him understand its unpleasant import +without the reading. "Come," he said, "we will have none of this; this +owl does not belong to our sunshine,"--and so destroyed and forgot it. +Others, however, saw that which he scorned to read. He had not been into +the city since he called at his father's house, and walked into the +reception room of his aunt, and been refused interview or speech at +either place. "Very well," he thought, "I will go from this painful +inhospitality and coldness to my Paradise"; and he went, and remained. + +The only letter he wrote was to his old friend and favorite cousin, Tom +Russell,--who was away somewhere in the far South, and from whom he had +not heard for many a day,--and hoped that he, at least, would not +disappoint him; would not disappoint the hearty trust he had in his +breadth of nature and manly sensibility. + +And so, with clouds doubtless in the sky, but which they did not +see,--the sun shone so bright for them; and some discords in the minor +keys which they did not heed,--the major music was so sweet and +intoxicating,--the brief, glad hours wore away, and the time for +parting, with hasty steps, had almost reached and faced them. Meanwhile, +what was occurring to others, in other scenes and among other +surroundings? + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + "_There are some deeds so grand + That their mighty doers stand + Ennobled, in a moment, more than kings._" + + BOKER + + +It was towards the evening of a blazing July day on Morris Island. The +mail had just come in and been distributed. Jim, with some papers and a +precious missive from Sallie in one hand, his supper in the other, +betook himself to a cool spot by the river,--if, indeed, any spot could +be called cool in that fiery sand,--and proceeded to devour the letter +with wonderful avidity while the "grub," properly enough, stood +unnoticed and uncared for. Presently he stopped, rubbed his eyes, and +re-read a paragraph in the epistle before him, then re-rubbed, and read +it again; and then, laying it down, gave utterance to a long whistle, +expressive of unbounded astonishment, if not incredulity. + +The whistle was answered by its counterpart, and Jim, looking up, +beheld his captain,--Coolidge by name,--a fast, bright New York boy, +standing at a little distance, and staring with amazed eyes at a paper +he held in his hands. Glancing from this to Jim, encountering his look, +he burst out laughing and came towards him. + +"Helloa, Given!" he called: Jim was a favorite with him, as indeed with +pretty much every one with whom he came in contact, officers and +men,--"you, too, seem put out. I wonder if you've read anything as queer +as that," handing him the paper and striking his finger down on an item; +"read it." Jim read:-- + +"MISCEGENATION. DISGRACEFUL FREAK IN HIGH LIFE. FRUIT OF AN ABOLITION +WAR.--We are credibly informed that a young man belonging to one of the +first families in the city, Mr. W.A.S.,--we spare his name for the sake +of his relatives,--who has been engaged since its outset in this +fratricidal war, has just given evidence of its legitimate effect by +taking to his bosom a nigger wench as _his wife_. Of course he is +disowned by his family, and spurned by his friends, even radical +fanaticism not being yet ready for such a dose as this. However--" Jim +did not finish the homily of which this was the presage, but, throwing +the paper on the ground, indignantly drove his heel through it, tearing +and soiling it, and then viciously kicked it into the river. + +Said the Captain when this operation was completed, having watched it +with curious eyes, "Well, my man, are you aware of the fact that that is +_my_ paper?" + +"Don't care if it is. What in thunder did you bring the damned +Copperhead sheet to me for, if you didn't want it smashed? Ain't you +ashamed of yourself having such a thing round? How'd you feel if you +were picked up dead by a reb, with that stuff in your pocket? Say now!" + +Coolidge laughed,--he was always ready to laugh: that was probably why +the men liked him so well, and stood in awe of him not a bit. "Feel? +horridly, of course. Bad enough, being dead, to yet speak, and tell 'em +that paper didn't represent my politics: 'd that do?" + +Jim shook his head dubiously. + +"What are you making such a devil of a row for, I'd like to know? it's +too hot to get excited. 'Tain't likely you know anything about Willie +Surrey." + +"O ho! it is Mr. Will, then, is it? Know him,--don't I, though? Like a +book. Known him ever since he was knee-height of a grasshopper. I'd like +to have that fellow"--shaking his fist toward the floating +paper--"within arm's reach. Wouldn't I pummel him some? O no, of course +not,--not at all. Only, if he wants a sound skin, I'd advise him, as a +friend, to be scarce when I'm round, because it'd very likely be +damaged." + +"You think it's all a Copperhead lie, then! I should have thought so, at +first, only I know Surrey's capable of doing any Quixotic thing if he +once gets his mind fixed on it." + +"I know what I know," Jim answered, slowly folding and unfolding +Sallie's letter, which he still held in his hand. "I know all about that +young lady he's been marrying. She's young, and she's +handsome--handsome as a picture--and rich, and as good as an angel; +that's about what she is, if Sallie Howard and I know B from a bull's +foot." + +"Who is Sallie Howard?" queried the Captain. + +"She? O,"--very red in the face,--"she's a friend of mine, and she's +Miss Ercildoune's seamstress." + +"Ercildoune? good name! Is she the _lady_ upon whom Surrey has been +bestowing his--?" + +"Yes, she is; and here's her photograph. Sallie begged it of her, and +sent it to me, once after she had done a kind thing by both of us. Looks +like a 'nigger wench,' don't she?" + +The Captain seized the picture, and, having once fastened his eyes upon +it, seemed incapable of removing them. "This? this her?" he cried. +"Great Caesar! I should think Surrey would have the fellow out at twenty +paces in no time. Heavens, what a beauty!" + +Jim grinned sardonically: "She is rather pretty, now,--ain't she?" + +"Pretty! ugh, what an expression! pretty, indeed! I never saw anything +so beautiful. But what a sad face it is!" + +"Sad! well, 'tain't much wonder. I guess her life's been sad enough, in +spite of her youth, and her beauty, and her riches, and all the rest." + +"Why, how should that be?" + +"Suppose you take another squint at that face." + +"Well." + +"See anything peculiar about it?" + +"Nothing except its beauty." + +"Not about the eyes?" + +"No,--only I believe it is they that make the face so sorrowful." + +"Very like. You generally see just such big mournful-looking eyes in the +faces of people that are called--octoroons." + +"What?" cried the Captain, dropping the picture in his surprise. + +"Just so," Jim answered, picking it up and dusting it carefully before +restoring it to its place in his pocket-book. + +"So, then, it is part true, after all." + +"True!" exclaimed Jim, angrily,--"don't make an ass of yourself, +Captain." + +"Why, Given, didn't you say yourself that she was an octoroon, or some +such thing?" + +"Suppose I did,--what then?" + +"I should say, then, that Surrey has disgraced himself forever. He has +not only outraged his family and his friends, and scandalized society, +but he has run against nature itself. It's very plain God Almighty never +intended the two races to come together." + +"O, he didn't, hey? Had a special despatch from him, that you know all +about it? I've heard just such talk before from people who seemed to be +pretty well posted about his intentions,--in this particular +matter,--though I generally noticed they weren't chaps who were very +intimate with him in any other way." + +The Captain laughed. "Thank you, Jim, for the compliment; but come, you +aren't going to say that nature hasn't placed a barrier between these +people and us? an instinct that repels an Anglo-Saxon from a negro +always and everywhere?" + +"Ho, ho! that's good! why, Captain, if you keep on, you'll make me talk +myself into a regular abolitionist. Instinct, hey? I'd like to know, +then, where all the mulattoes, and the quadroons, and the octoroons come +from,--the yellow-skins and brown-skins and skins so nigh white you +can't tell 'em with your spectacles on! The darkies must have bleached +out amazingly here in America, for you'd have to hunt with a long pole +and a telescope to boot to find a straight-out black one anywhere +round,--leastwise that's my observation." + +"That was slavery." + +"Yes 'twas,--and then the damned rascals talk about the +amalgamationists, and all that, up North. 'Twan't the abolitionists; +'twas the slaveholders and their friends that made a race of half-breeds +all over the country; but, slavery or no slavery, they showed nature +hadn't put any barriers between them,--and it seems to me an enough +sight decenter and more respectable plan to marry fair and square than +to sell your own children and the mother that bore them. Come, now, +ain't it?" + +"Well, yes, if you come to that, I suppose it is!" + +"You _suppose_ it is! See here,--I've found out something since I've +been down here, and have had time to think; 'tain't the living together +that troubles squeamish stomachs; it's the marrying. That's what's the +matter!" + +"Just about!" assented the Captain, with an amused look, "and here's a +case in point. Surrey ought to have been shot for marrying one of that +degraded race." + +"Bah! he married one of his own race, if I know how to calculate." + +"There, Jim, don't be a fool! If she's got any negro blood in her veins +she's a nigger, and all your talk won't make her anything else." + +"I say, Captain, I've heard that some of your ancestors were Indians: is +that so?" + +"Yes: my great-grandmother was an Indian chief's daughter,--so they say; +and you might as well claim royalty when you have the chance." + +"Bless me! your great-grandmother, eh? Come, now, what do you call +yourself,--an Injun?" + +"No, I don't. I call myself an Anglo-Saxon." + +"What, not call yourself an Injun,--when your great-grandmother was one? +Here's a pretty go!" + +"Nonsense! 'tisn't likely that filtered Indian blood can take precedence +and mastery of all the Anglo-Saxon material it's run through since +then." + +"Hurray! now you've said it. Lookee here, Captain. You say the +Anglo-Saxon's the master race of the world." + +"Of course I do." + +"Of course you do,--being a sensible fellow. So do I; and you say the +negro blood is mighty poor stuff, and the race a long way behind ours." + +"Of course, again." + +"Now, Captain, just take a sober squint at your own logic. You back +Anglo-Saxon against the field; very well! here's Miss Ercildoune, we'll +say, one eighth negro, seven eighths Anglo-Saxon. You make that one +eighth stronger than all the other seven eighths: you make that little +bit of negro master of all the lot of Anglo-Saxon. Now I have such a +good opinion of my own race that if it were t'other way about, I'd think +the one eighth Saxon strong enough to beat the seven eighths nigger. +That's sound, isn't it? consequently, I call anybody that's got any +mixture at all, and that knows anything, and keeps a clean face,--and +ain't a rebel, nor yet a Copperhead,--I call him, if it's a him, and +her, if it's a she, one of us. And I mean to say to any such from +henceforth, 'Here's your chance,--go in, and win, if you can,--and +anybody be damn'd that stops you!'" + +"Blow away, Jim," laughed the Captain, "I like to hear you; and it's +good talk if you don't mean it." + +"I'll be blamed if I don't." + +"Come, you're talking now,--you're saying a lot more than you'll live up +to,--you know that as well as I. People always do when they're gassing." + +"Well, blow or no blow, it's truth, whether I live up to it or not." And +he, evidently with not all the steam worked off, began to gather sticks +and build a fire to fry his bit of pork and warm the cold coffee. + +Just then they heard the plash of oars keeping time to the cadence of a +plantation hymn, which came floating solemn and clear through the +night:-- + + "My brudder sittin' on de tree ob life, + An' he yearde when Jordan roll. + Roll Jordan, roll Jordan, roll Jordan, roll, + Roll Jordan, roll!" + +They both paused to listen as the refrain was again and again repeated. + +"There's nigger for you," broke out Jim, "what'n thunder'd they mean by +such gibberish as that?" + +The Captain laughed. "Come, Given, don't quarrel with what's above your +comprehension. Doubtless there's a spiritual meaning hidden away +somewhere, which your unsanctified ears can't interpret." + +"Spiritual fiddlestick!" + +"Worse and worse! what a heathen you're demonstrating yourself! Violins +are no part of the heavenly chorus." + +"Much you know about it! Hark,--they're at it again"; and again the +voices and break of oars came through the night:-- + + "O march, de angel march! O march, de angel march! + O my soul arise in heaven, Lord, for to yearde when Jordan roll! + Roll Jordan, roll Jordan, roll Jordan, roll." + +"Well, I confess that's a little bit above my comprehension,--that is. +Spiritual or something else. Lazy vermin! they'll paddle round in them +boats, or lie about in the sun, and hoot all day and all night about +'de good Lord' and 'de day ob jubilee,'--and think God Almighty is going +to interfere in their special behalf, and do big things for them +generally." + +"It's a fact; they do all seem to be waiting for something." + +"Well, I reckon they needn't wait any longer. The day of miracles is +gone by, for such as them, anyway. They ain't worth the salt that feeds +them, so far as I can discover." + +Through the wash of the waters they could hear from the voices, as they +sang, that their possessors were evidently drawing nearer. + +"Sense or not," said the Captain, "I never listen to them without a +queer feeling. What they sing is generally ridiculous enough, but their +voices are the most pathetic things in the world." + +Here the hymn stopped; a boat was pulled up, and presently they saw two +men coming from the sands and into the light of their fire,--ragged, +dirty; one shabby old garment--a pair of tow pantaloons--on each; +bareheaded, barefooted,--great, clumsy feet, stupid and heavy-looking +heads; slouching walk, stooping shoulders; something eager yet +deprecating in their black faces. + +"Look at 'em, Captain; now you just take a fair look at 'em; and then +say that Mr. Surrey's wife belongs to the same family,--own kith and +kin,--you ca-a-n't do it." + +"Faugh! for heaven's sake, shut up! of course, when it comes to this, I +can't say anything of the kind." + +"'Nuff said. You see, I believe in Mr. Surrey, and what's more, I +believe in Miss Ercildoune,--have reason to; and when I hear anybody +mixing her up with these onry, good-for-nothing niggers, it's more'n I +can stand, so don't let's have any more of it"; and turning with an air +which said that subject was ended, Jim took up his forgotten coffee, +pulled apart some brands and put the big tin cup on the coals, and then +bent over it absorbed, sniffing the savory steam which presently came up +from it. Meanwhile the two men were skulking about among the trees, +watching, yet not coming near,--"at their usual work of waiting," as the +Captain said. + +"Proper enough, too, let 'em wait. Waiting's their business. Now," +taking off his tin and looking towards them, "what d'ye s'pose those +anemiles want? Pity the boat hadn't tipped over before they got here. +Camp's overrun now with just such scoots. Here, you!" he called. + +The men came near. "Where'd you come from?" + +One of them pointed back to the boat, seen dimly on the sand. + +"Was that you howling a while ago, 'Roll Jordan,' or something?" + +"Yes, massa." + +"And where did you come from?--no, you needn't look back there again,--I +mean, where did you and the boat too come from?" + +"Come from Mass' George Wingate's place, massa." + +"Far from here?" + +"Big way, massa." + +"What brought you here? what did you come for?" + +"If you please, massa, 'cause the Linkum sojers was yere, an' de big +guns, an' we yearde dat all our people's free when dey gets yere." + +"Free! what'll such fellows as you do with freedom, hey?" + +The two looked at their interrogator, then at one another, opened their +mouths as to speak, and shut them hopelessly,--unable to put into words +that which was struggling in their darkened brains,--and then with a +laugh, a laugh that sounded woefully like a sob, answered, "Dunno, +massa." + +"What fools!" cried Jim, angrily; but the Captain, who was watching them +keenly, thought of a line he had once read, "There is a laughter sadder +than tears." "True enough,--poor devils!" he added to himself. + +"Are you hungry?" Jim proceeded. + +"I hope massa don't think we's come yere for to git suthin' to eat," +said the smaller of the two, a little, thin, haggard-looking +fellow,--"we's no beggars. Some ob de darkies is, but we's not dem +kind,--Jim an' me,--we's willin' to work, ain't we, Jim?" + +"Jim!" soliloquized Given,--"my name, hey? we'll take a squint at this +fellow." + +The squint showed two impoverished-looking wretches, with a starved look +in their eyes, which he did not comprehend, and a starved look in their +faces and forms, which he did. + +"Come, now, are you hungry?" he queried once more. + +"If ye please, massa," began the little one who was spokesman,--'little +folks always are gas-bags,' Jim was fond of saying from his six feet of +height,--"if ye please, massa, we's had nothin' to eat but berries an' +roots an' sich like truck for long while." + +"Well, why by the devil haven't you had something else then? what've you +been doing with yourselves for 'long while'? what d'ye mean, coming here +starved to death, making a fellow sick to look at you? Hold your gab, +and eat up that pork," pushing over his tin plate, "'n' that bread," +sending it after, "'n' that hard tack,--'tain't very good, but it's +better'n roots, I reckon, or berries either,--'n' gobble up that coffee, +double-quick, mind; and don't you open your heads to talk till the +grub's gone, slick and clean. Ugh!" he said to the Captain,--"sight o' +them fellows just took my appetite away; couldn't eat to save my soul; +lucky they came to devour the rations; pity to throw them away." The +Captain smiled,--he knew Jim. "Poor cusses!" he added presently, "eat +like cannibals, don't they? hope they enjoy it. Had enough?" seeing they +had devoured everything put before them. + +"Thankee, massa. Yes, massa. Bery kind, massa. Had quite 'nuff." + +"Well, now, you, sir!" looking at the little one,--"by the way, what's +your name?" + +"'Bijah, if ye please, massa." + +"'Bijah? Abijah, hey? well, I don't please; however, it's none of my +name. Well, 'Bijah, how came you two to be looking like a couple of +animated skeletons? that's the next question." + +"Yes, massa." + +"I say, how came you to be starved? Hai'n't they nothing but roots and +berries up your way? Mass' George Wingate must have a jolly time, +feasting, in that case. Come, what's your story? Out with the whole pack +of lies at once." + +"I hope massa thinks we wouldn't tell nuffin but de truf," said Jim, who +had not before spoken save to say, "Thankee,"--"cause if he don't bleeve +us, ain't no use in talkin'." + +"You shut up! I ain't conversing with you, rawbones! Speak when you're +spoken to! Come, 'Bijah, fire away." + +"Bery good, massa. Ye see I'se Mass' George Wingate's boy. Mass' George +he lives in de back country, good long way from de coast,--over a +hundred miles, Jim calklates,--an' Jim's smart at calklating; well, +Mass' George he's not berry good to his people; never was, an' he's been +wuss'n ever since the Linkum sojers cum round his way, 'cause it's made +feed scurce ye see, an' a lot of de boys dey tuck to runnin' away,--so +what wid one ting an' anoder, his temper got spiled, an' he was mighty +hard on us all de time. + +"At las' I got tired of bein' cuffed an' knocked round, an' den I yearde +dat if our people, any of dem, got to de Fedral lines dey was free, so I +said, 'Cum, 'Bijah,--freedom's wuth tryin' for'; an' one dark night I +did up some hoe-cake an' a piece of pork an' started. I trabbeled +hard's I could all night,--'bout fifteen mile, I reckon,--an' den as +'twas gittin' toward mornin' I hid away in a swamp. Ye see I felt +drefful bad, for I could year way off, but plain enuff, de bayin' of de +hounds, an' I knew dat de men an' de guns an' de dogs was all after me; +but de day passed an' dey didn't come. So de next night I started off +agen, an' run an' walked hard all night, an' towards mornin' I went up +to a little house standen off from de road, thinking it was a nigger +house, an' jest as I got up to it out walked a white woman scarin' me +awfully, an' de fust ting she axed me was what I wanted." + +"Tight slave!" interrupted Jim,--"what d'ye do then?" + +"Well, massa, ye see I saw mighty quick I was in for a lie anyhow, so I +said, 'Is massa at home?' 'Yes,' says she,--an' sure nuff, he cum right +out. 'Hello, nigger!' he said when he seed me, 'whar you cum from? so I +tells him from Pocotaligo, an' before he could ax any more queshuns, I +went on an' tole him we cotched fifty Yankees down dere yesterday, an' +massa he was so tickled dat he let me go to Barnwells to see my family, +an' den I said I'd got off de track an' was dead beat an' drefful +hungry, an' would he please to sell me suthin to eat. At dat de woman +streaked right into de house, an' got me some bread an' meat, an' tole +me to eat it up an' not talk about payin,'--'we don't charge good, +faithful niggers nothin',' she said,--so I thanked her an' eat it all +up, an' den, when de man had tole me how to go, I went right long till I +got out ob sight ob de little house, an' den I got into de woods, an' +turned right round de oder way an' made tracks fast as I could in dat +direcshun." + +"Ho! ho! you're about what I call a 'cute nigger," laughed Jim. "Come, +go on,--this gets interesting." + +"Well, directly I yearde de dogs. Dere was a pond little way off; so I +tuck to it, an' waded out till I could just touch my toes an' keep my +nose above water so's to breathe. Presently dey all cum down, an' I +yearde Mass' George say, 'I'll hunt dat nigger till I find him if takes +a month. I'se goin' to make a zample of him,'--so I shook some at dat, +for I know'd what Mass' George's zamples was. Arter while one ob de men +says, 'He ain't yere,--he'd shown hisself before dis, if he was,' an' I +spose I would, for I was pretty nearly choked, only I said to myself +when I went in, 'I'll go to de bottom before I'll come up to be tuck,' +so I jest held on by my toes an' waited. + +"I didn't dare to cum out when dey rode away to try a new scent, an' +when I did I jest skulked round de edge ob de pond, ready to take to it +agen if I yearde dem, an' when night cum I started off an' run an' +walked agen hard's I could, an' den at day-dawn I tuck to anoder pond, +an' went on a log dat was stickin' in de water, and broke down some +rushes an' bushes enuf to lie down on an' cover me up, an' den I slept +all day, for I was drefful tired an' most starved too. Next evenin' when +it got dark, I went on agen, an' trabblin through de woods I seed a +little light, an' sartin dis time dat it was a darkey's cabin, I made +for it, an' it was. It was his'n,"--pointing to the big fellow who +stood beside him, and who nodded his head in assent. + +"I had a palaver before he'd let me in, but when I was in I seed what de +matter was. He had a sojer dere, a Linkum sojer, bad wounded, what he'd +found in de woods,--he was a runaway hisself, ye see, like me,--an' he'd +tuck him to dis ole cabin an'd been nussin him on for good while. When I +seed dat I felt drefful bad, for I knowed dey was a huntin for me yet, +an' I tought if de dogs got on de trail dey'd get to dis cabin, sure: +an' den dey'd both be tuck. So I up an' tole dem, an' de sojer he says, +'Come, Jim, you've done quite enuff fur me, my boy. If you're in danger +now, be off with you fast as you can,--an' God reward you, for I never +can, for all you've done for me.' + +"'No,' says Jim, 'Capen, ye needn't talk in dat way, for I'se not goin +to budge widout you. You got wounded fur me an' my people, an' now I'll +stick by you an' face any thing fur you if it's Death hisself!' That's +just what Jim said; an' de sojer he put his hand up to his face, an' I +seed it tremble bad,--he was weak, you see,--an' some big tears cum out +troo his fingers onto de back ob it. + +"Den Jim says, 'Dis isn't a safe place for any on us, an' we'll have to +take to our heels agen, an' so de sooner we's off de better.' So he did +up some vittels,--all he had dere,--an' gave 'em to me to tote,--an' den +before de Capen could sneeze he had him up on his back, an' we was off. + +"It was pretty hard work I kin tell you, strong as Jim was, an' we'd +have to stop an' rest putty ofen; an' den, Jim an' I, we'd tote him +atween us on some boughs; an' den we had to lie by, some days, all +day,--an' we trabbled putty slow, cause we'd lost our bearing an' was in +a secesh country, we knowed,--an' we had nudin but berries an' sich to +eat, an' got nigh starved. + +"One night we cum onto half a dozen fellows skulkin' in de woods, an' at +fust dey made fight, but d'rectly dey know'd we was friends, fur dey was +some more Linkum sojers, an' dey'd lost dere way, or ruther, dey know'd +where dey was, but dey didn't know how to git way from dere. Dey was +'scaped pris'ners, dey told us; when I yearde where 'twas I know'd de +way to de coast, an' said I'd show 'em de way if dey'd cum long wid us, +so dey did; an' we got 'long all right till we got to de ribber up by +Mass' Rhett's place." + +"Yes, I know where it is," said the Captain. + +"Den what to do was de puzzle. De country was all full ob secesh +pickets, an' dere was de ribber, an' we had no boat,--so Jim, he says, +'I know what to do; fust I'll hide you yere,' an' he did all safe in de +woods; 'an' den I'll git ye suthin to eat from de niggers round,' an' he +did dat too, do he couldn't git much, for fear he'd be seen; an' den we, +he and I, made some ropes out ob de tall grass like dat we'd ofen made +fur mats, an' tied dem together wid some oder grass, an' stuck a board +in, an' den made fur de Yankee camp, an' yere we is." + +"Yes," said the black man Jim, here,--breaking silence,--"we'll show you +de way back if you kin go up in a boat dey can rest in, fur dey's most +all clean done out, an' de capen's wound is awful bad yit." + +"This captain,--what's his name?" inquired Coolidge. + +"His name is here," said Jim, carefully drawing forth a paper from his +rags,--"he has on dis some figgers an' a map of de country he took +before he got wounded, an' some words he writ wid a bit of burnt stick +just before we cum away,--an' he giv it to me, an' tole me to bring it +to camp, fur fear something might happen to him while we was away." + +"My God!" cried Coolidge when he had opened the paper, and with hasty +eyes scanned its contents, "it's Tom Russell; I know him well. This must +be sent up to head-quarters, and I'll get an order, and a boat, and some +men, to go for them at once." All of which was promptly done. + +"See here! I speak to be one of the fellows what goes," Jim emphatically +announced. + +"All right. I reckon we'll both go, Given, if the General will let +us,--and I think he will,"--which was a safe guess and a true one. The +boat was soon ready and manned. 'Bijah, too weak to pull an oar, was +left behind; and Jim, really not fit to do aught save guide them, still +insisted on taking his share of work. They found the place at last, and +the men; and taking them on board,--Russell having to be moved slowly +and carefully,--they began to pull for home. + +The tide was going out, and the river low: that, with the heavy laden +boat, made their progress lingering; a fact which distressed them all, +as they knew the night to be almost spent, and that the shores were so +lined with batteries, open and masked, and the country about so scoured +by rebels, as to make it almost sure death to them if they were not +beyond the lines before the morning broke. + +The water was steadily and perceptibly ebbing,--the rowing growing more +and more insecure,--the danger becoming imminent. + +"Ease her off, there! ease her off!" cried the Captain,--as a harsh, +gravelly sound smote on his ear, and at the same moment a shot whizzed +past them, showing that they were discovered,--"ease her off, there! or +we're stuck!" + +The warning came too late,--indeed, could not have been obeyed, had it +come earlier. The boat struck; her bottom grating hard on the wet sand. + +"Great God! she's on a bar," cried Coolidge, "and the tide's running +out, fast." + +"Yes, and them damned rebs are safe enough from _our_ fire," said one of +the men. + +A few scattering shot fell about them. + +"They're going to make their mark on us, anyway," put in another. + +"And we can't send 'em anything in return, blast 'em!" growled a third. + +"That's the worst of it," broke out a fourth, "to be shot at like a rat +in a hole." + +All said in a breath, and the balls by this time falling thick and +fast,--a fiery, awful rain of death. The men were no cowards, and the +captain was brave enough; but what could they do? To stand up was but to +make figure-heads at which the concealed enemy could fire with ghastly +certainty; to fire in return was to waste their ammunition in the air. +The men flung themselves face foremost on the deck, silent and watchful. + +Through it all Jim had been sitting crouched over his oar. He, unarmed, +could not have fought had the chance offered; breaking out, once and +again, into the solemn-sounding chant which he had been singing when he +came up in his boat the evening before:-- + + "O my soul arise in heaven, Lord, for to yearde when + Jordan roll, + Roll Jordan, roll Jordan, roll Jordan, roll,"-- + +the words falling in with the sound of the water as it lapsed from them. + +"Stop that infernal noise, will you?" cried one of the men, impatiently. +The noise stopped. + +"Hush, Harry,--don't swear!" expostulated another, beside whom was lying +a man mortally wounded. "This is awful! 'tain't like going in fair and +square, on your chance." + +"That's so,--it's enough to make a fellow pray," was the answer. + +Here Russell, putting up his hand, took hold of Jim's brawny black one +with a gesture gentle as a woman's. It hurt him to hear his faithful +friend even spoken to harshly. All this, while the hideous shower of +death was dropping about them; the water was ebbing, ebbing,--falling +and running out fast to sea, leaving them higher and drier on the sands; +the gray dawn was steadily brightening into day. + +At this fearful pass a sublime scene was enacted. "Sirs!" said a +voice,--it was Jim's voice, and in it sounded something so earnest and +strange, that the men involuntarily turned their heads to look at him. +Then this man stood up,--a black man,--a little while before a +slave,--the great muscles swollen and gnarled with unpaid toil, the +marks of the lash and the branding-iron yet plain upon his person, the +shadows of a lifetime of wrongs and sufferings looking out of his eyes. +"Sirs!" he said, simply, "somebody's got to die to get us out of dis, +and it may as well be me,"--plunged overboard, put his toil-hardened +shoulders to the boat; a struggle, a gasp, a mighty wrench,--pushed it +off clear; then fell, face foremost, pierced by a dozen bullets. Free at +last! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + "_Ye died to live._" + + BOKER + + +The next day Jim was recounting this scene to some men in camp, +describing it with feeling and earnestness, and winding up the narration +by the declaration, "and the first man that says a nigger ain't as good +as a white man, and a damn'd sight better'n those graybacks over yonder, +well"-- + +"Well, suppose he does?"--interrupted one of the men. + +"O, nothing, Billy Dodge,--only he and I'll have a few words to pass on +the subject, that's all"; doubling up his fist and examining the big +cords and muscles on it with curious and well-satisfied interest. + +"See here, Billy!" put in one of his comrades, "don't you go to having +any argument with Jim,--he's a dabster with his tongue, Jim is." + +"Yes, and a devil with his fist," growled a sullen-looking fellow. + +"Just so,"--assented Jim,--"when a blackguard's round to feel it." + +"Well, Given, do you like the darkies well enough to take off your cap +to them?" queried a sergeant standing near. + +"What are you driving at now, hey?" + +"O, not much; but you'll have to play second fiddle to them to-night. +The General thinks they're as good as the rest of us, and a little bit +better, and has sent over for the Fifty-fourth to lead the charge this +evening. What have you got to say to that?" + +"Bull, for them! that's what I've got to say. Any objection?" looking +round him. + +"Nary objec!" "They deserve it!" "They fought like tigers over on James +Island!" "I hope they'll pepper the rebs well!"--"It ought to be a free +fight, and no quarter, with them!" "Yes, for they get none if they're +taken!" "Go in, Fifty-fourth!" These and the like exclamations broke +from the men on all sides, with absolute heartiness and good will. + +"It seems to me," sneered a dapper little officer who had been looking +and listening, "that the niggers have plenty of advocates here." + +Two or three of the men looked at Jim. "You may bet your pile on that, +Major!" said he, with becoming gravity; "we love our friends, and we +hate our enemies, and it's the dark-complected fellows that are the +first down this way." + +"Pretty-looking set of friends!" + +"Well, they ain't much to look at, that's a fact; but I never heard of +anybody saying you was to turn a cold shoulder on a helper because he +was homely, except,"--this as the Major was walking away, "except a +secesh, or a fool, or one of little Mac's staff officers." + +"Homely? what are you gassing about?" objected a little fellow from +Massachusetts; "the Fifty-fourth is as fine-looking a set of men as +shoulder rifles anywhere in the army." + +"Jack's sensitive about the credit of his State," chaffed a big Ohioan. +"He wants to crack up these fellows, seeing they're his comrades. I say, +Johnny, are all the white men down your way such little shavers as you?" + +"For a fellow that's all legs and no brains, you talk too much," +answered Johnny. "Have any of you seen the Fifty-fourth?" + +"I haven't." "Nor I." "Yes, I saw them at Port Royal." "And I." "And I." + +"Well, the Twenty-third was at Beaufort while they were there, and I +used to go over to their camp and talk with them. I never saw fellows so +in earnest; they seemed ready to die on the instant, if they could help +their people, or walk into the slaveholders any, first. They were just +full of it; and yet it seemed absurd to call 'em a black regiment; they +were pretty much all colors, and some of 'em as white as I am." + +"Lord," said Jim, "that's not saying much, you've got a smutty face." + +The men laughed, Jack with the rest, as he dabbed at his heated, +powder-stained countenance. "Come," said he, "that's no fair,--they're +as white as I am, then, when I've just scrubbed; and some of them are +first-raters, too; none of your rag, tag, and bobtail. There's one I +remember, a man from Philadelphia, who walks round like a prince. He's a +gentleman, every inch,--and he's rich,--and about the handsomest-looking +specimen of humanity I've set eyes upon for an age." + +"Rich, is he? how do you know he's rich?" + +"I was over one night with Captain Ware, and he and this man got to +talking about the pay for the Fifty-fourth. The government promised them +regular pay, you see, and then when it got 'em refused to stick to its +agreement, and they would take no less, so they haven't seen a dime +since they enlisted; and it's a darned mean piece of business, that's my +opinion of the matter, and I don't care who knows it," looking round +belligerently. + +"Come, Bantam, don't crow so loud," interrupted the big Ohioan; +"nobody's going to fight you on that statement; it's a shame, and no +mistake. But what about your paragon?" + +"I'll tell you. The Captain was trying to convince him that they had +better take what they could get till they got the whole, and that, after +all, it was but a paltry difference. 'But,' said the man, 'it's not the +money, though plenty of us are poor enough to make that an item. It's +the badge of disgrace, the stigma attached, the dishonor to the +government. If it were only two cents we wouldn't submit to it, for the +difference would be made because we are colored, and we're not going to +help degrade our own people, not if we starve for it. Besides, it's our +flag, and our government now, and we've got to defend the honor of both +against any assailants, North or South,--whether they're Republican +Congressmen or rebel soldiers.' The Captain looked puzzled at that, and +asked what he meant. 'Why,' said he, 'the United States government +enlisted us as soldiers. Being such, we don't intend to disgrace the +service by accepting the pay of servants.'" + +"That's the kind of talk," bawled Jim from a fence-rail upon which he +was balancing. "I'd like to have a shake of that fellow's paw. What's +his name, d'ye know?" + +"Ercildoune." + +"Hey?" + +"Ercildoune." + +"Jemime! Ercildoune,--from Philadelphia, you say?" + +"Yes,--do you know him?" + +"Well, no,--I don't exactly know him, but I think I know something about +him. His pa's rich as a nob, if it's the one I mean,"--and then finished +sotto voce, "it's Mrs. Surrey's brother, sure as a gun!" + +"Well, he ought to be rich, if he ain't. As we, that's the Captain and +me, were walking away, the Captain said to one of the officers of the +Fifty-fourth who'd been listening to the talk, 'It's easy for that man +to preach self-denial for a principle. He's rich, I've heard. It don't +hurt him any; but it's rather selfish to hold some of the rest up to +his standard; and I presume that such a man as he has no end of +influence with them!' + +"'As he should,' said his officer. 'Ercildoune has brains enough to +stock a regiment, and refinement, and genius, and cultivation that would +assure him the highest position in society or professional life anywhere +out of America. He won't leave it though; for in spite of its wrongs to +him he sees its greatness and goodness,--says that it is _his_, and that +it is to be saved, it and all its benefits, for Americans,--no matter +what the color of their skin,--of whom he is one. He sees plain enough +that this war is going to break the slave's chain, and ultimately the +stronger chain of prejudice that binds his people to the grindstone, and +he's full of enthusiasm for it, accordingly; though I'm free to confess, +the magnanimity of these colored men from the North who fight, on faith, +for the government, is to me something amazing.'" + +"'Why,' said the Captain,--'why, any more from the North than from the +South?'" + +"Why? the blacks down here can at least fight their ex-masters, and pay +off some old scores; but for a man from the North who is free already, +and so has nothing to gain in that way,--whose rights as a man and a +citizen are denied,--for such a man to enlist and to fight, without +bounty, pay, honor, or promotion,--without the promise of gaining +anything whatever for himself,--condemned to a thankless task on the one +side,--to a merciless death or even worse fate on the other,--facing +all this because he has faith that the great republic will ultimately be +redeemed; that some hands will gather in the harvest of this bloody +sowing, though he be lying dead under it,--I tell you, the more I see of +these men, the more I know of them, the more am I filled with admiration +and astonishment. + +"Now here's this one of whom we are talking, Ercildoune, born with a +silver spoon in his mouth: instead of eating with it, in peace and +elegance, in some European home, look at him here. You said something +about his lack of self-sacrifice. He's doing 'what he is from a +principle; and beyond that, it's no wonder the men care for him: he has +spent a small fortune on the most needy of them since they +enlisted,--finding out which of them have families, or any one dependent +on them, and helping them in the finest and most delicate way possible. +There are others like him here, and it's a fortunate circumstance, for +there's not a man but would suffer, himself,--and, what's more, let his +family suffer at home,--before he'd give up the idea for which they are +contending now." + +"'Well, good luck to them!' said the Captain as we came away; and so say +I," finished Jack. + +"And I,"--"And I," responded some of the men. "We must see this man when +they come over here." + +"I'll bet you a shilling," said Jim, pulling out a bit of currency, +"that he'll make his mark to-night." + +"Lend us the change, Given, and I'll take you up," said one of the men. + +The others laughed. "He don't mean it," said Jim: which, indeed, he +didn't. Nobody seemed inclined to run any risks by betting on the other +side of so likely a proposition. + +This talk took place late in the afternoon, near the head-quarters of +the commanding General; and the men directly scattered to prepare for +the work of the evening: some to clean a bayonet, or furbish up a rifle; +others to chat and laugh over the chances and to lay plans for the +morrow,--the morrow which was for them never to dawn on earth; and yet +others to sit down in their tents and write letters to the dear ones at +home, making what might, they knew, be a final-farewell,--for the fight +impending was to be a fierce one,--or to read a chapter in a little book +carried from some quiet fireside, balancing accounts perchance, in +anticipation of the call of the Great Captain to come up higher. + +Through the whole afternoon there had been a tremendous cannonading of +the fort from the gunboats and the land forces: the smooth, regular +engineer lines were broken, and the fresh-sodded embankments torn and +roughened by the unceasing rain of shot and shell. + +About six o'clock there came moving up the island, over the burning +sands and under the burning sky, a stalwart, splendid-appearing set of +men, who looked equal to any daring, and capable of any heroism; men +whom nothing could daunt and few things subdue. Now, weary, +travel-stained, with the mire and the rain of a two days' tramp; +weakened by the incessant strain and lack of food, having taken nothing +for forty-eight hours save some crackers and cold coffee; with gaps in +their ranks made by the death of comrades who had fallen in battle but a +little time before,--under all these disadvantages, it was plain to be +seen of what stuff these men were made, and for what work they were +ready. + +As this regiment, the famous Fifty-fourth, came up the island to take +its place at the head of the storming party in the assault on Wagner, it +was cheered from all sides by the white soldiers, who recognized and +honored the heroism which it had already shown, and of which it was soon +to give such new and sublime proof. + +The evening, or rather the afternoon, was a lurid and sultry one. Great +masses of clouds, heavy and black, were piled in the western sky, +fringed here and there by an angry red, and torn by vivid streams of +lightning. Not a breath of wind shook the leaves or stirred the high, +rank grass by the water-side; a portentous and awful stillness filled +the air,--the stillness felt by nature before a devastating storm. +Quiet, with the like awful and portentous calm, the black regiment, +headed by its young, fair-haired, knightly colonel, marched to its +destined place and action. + +When within about six hundred yards of the fort it was halted at the +head of the regiments already stationed, and the line of battle formed. +The prospect was such as might daunt the courage of old and well-tried +veterans, but these soldiers of a few weeks seemed but impatient to take +the odds, and to make light of impossibilities. A slightly rising +ground, raked by a murderous fire, to within a little distance of the +battery; a ditch holding three feet of water; a straight lift of +parapet, thirty feet high; an impregnable position, held by a desperate +and invincible foe. + +Here the men were addressed in a few brief and burning words by their +heroic commander. Here they were besought to glorify their whole race by +the lustre of their deeds; here their faces shone with a look which +said, "Though men, we are ready to do deeds, to achieve triumphs, worthy +the gods!" here the word of command was given:-- + +"We are ordered and expected to take Battery Wagner at the point of the +bayonet. Are you ready?" + +"Ay, ay, sir! ready!" was the answer. + +And the order went pealing down the line, "Ready! Close ranks! Charge +bayonets! Forward! Double-quick, march!"--and away they went, under a +scattering fire, in one compact line till within one hundred feet of the +fort, when the storm of death broke upon them. Every gun belched forth +its great shot and shell; every rifle whizzed out its sharp-singing, +death-freighted messenger. The men wavered not for an +instant;--forward,--forward they went; plunged into the ditch; waded +through the deep water, no longer of muddy hue, but stained crimson with +their blood; and commenced to climb the parapet. The foremost line fell, +and then the next, and the next. The ground was strewn with the wrecks +of humanity, scattered prostrate, silent, where they fell,--or rolling +under the very feet of the living comrades who swept onward to fill +their places. On, over the piled-up mounds of dead and dying, of wounded +and slain, to the mouth of the battery; seizing the guns; bayoneting the +gunners at their posts; planting their flag and struggling around it; +their leader on the walls, sword in hand, his blue eyes blazing, his +fair face aflame, his clear voice calling out, "Forward, my brave +boys!"--then plunging into the hell of battle before him. Forward it +was. They followed him, gathered about him, gained an angle of the fort, +and fought where he fell, around his prostrate body, over his peaceful +heart,--shielding its dead silence by their living, pulsating +ones,--till they, too, were stricken down; then hacked, hewn, battered, +mangled, heroic, yet overcome, the remnant was beaten back. + +Ably sustained by their supporters, Anglo-African and Anglo-Saxon vied +together to carry off the palm of courage and glory. All the world knows +the last fought with heroism sublime: all the world forgets this and +them in contemplating the deeds and the death of their compatriots. Said +Napoleon at Austerlitz to a young Russian officer, overwhelmed with +shame at yielding his sword, "Young man, be consoled: those who are +conquered by my soldiers may still have titles to glory." To say that on +that memorable night the last were surpassed by the first is still to +leave ample margin on which to write in glowing characters the record of +their deeds. + +As the men were clambering up the parapet their color-sergeant was shot +dead, the colors trailing stained and wet in the dust beside him. +Ercildoune, who was just behind, sprang forward, seized the staff from +his dying hand, and mounted with it upward. A ball struck his right arm, +yet ere it could fall shattered by his side, his left hand caught the +flag and carried it onward. Even in the mad sweep of assault and death +the men around him found breath and time to hurrah, and those behind him +pressed more gallantly forward to follow such a lead. He kept in his +place, the colors flying,--though faint with loss of blood and wrung +with agony,--up the slippery steep; up to the walls of the fort; on the +wall itself, planting the flag where the men made that brief, splendid +stand, and melted away like snow before furnace-heat. Here a bayonet +thrust met him and brought him down, a great wound in his brave breast, +but he did not yield; dropping to his knees, pressing his unbroken arm +upon the gaping wound,--bracing himself against a dead comrade,--the +colors still flew; an inspiration to the men about him; a defiance to +the foe. + +At last when the shattered ranks fell back, sullenly and slowly +retreating, it was seen by those who watched him,--men lying for three +hundred rods around in every form of wounded suffering,--that he was +painfully working his way downward, still holding aloft the flag, bent +evidently on saving it, and saving it as flag had rarely, if ever, been +saved before. + +Some of the men had crawled, some had been carried, some hastily caught +up and helped by comrades to a sheltered tent out of range of the fire; +a hospital tent, they called it, if anything could bear that name which +was but a place where men could lie to suffer and expire, without a +bandage, a surgeon, or even a drop of cooling water to moisten parched +and dying lips. Among these was Jim. He had a small field-glass in his +pocket, and forgot or ignored his pain in his eager interest of watching +through this the progress of the man and the flag, and reporting +accounts to his no less eager companions. Black soldiers and white were +alike mad with excitement over the deed; and fear lest the colors which +had not yet dipped should at last bite the ground. + +Now and then he paused at some impediment: it was where the dead and +dying were piled so thickly as to compel him to make a detour. Now and +then he rested a moment to press his arm tighter against his torn and +open breast. The rain fell in such torrents, the evening shadows were +gathering so thickly, that they could scarcely trace his course, long +before it was ended. + +Slowly, painfully, he dragged himself onward,--step by step down the +hill, inch by inch across the ground,--to the door of the hospital; and +then, while dying eyes brightened,--dying hands and even shattered +stumps were thrown into the air,--in brief, while dying men held back +their souls from the eternities to cheer him,--gasped out, "I did--but +do--my duty, boys,--and the dear--old flag--never once--touched the +ground,"--and then, away from the reach and sight of its foes, in the +midst of its defenders, who loved and were dying for it, the flag at +last fell. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, other troops had gone up to the encounter; other regiments +strove to win what these men had failed to gain; and through the night, +and the storm, and the terrific reception, did their gallant +endeavor--in vain. + + * * * * * + +The next day a flag of truce went up to beg the body of the heroic young +chief who had so led that marvellous assault. It came back without him. +A ditch, deep and wide, had been dug; his body, and those of twenty-two +of his men found dead upon and about him, flung into it in one common +heap and the word sent back was, "We have buried him with his niggers." + +It was well done. The fair, sweet face and gallant breast lie peacefully +enough under their stately monument of ebony. + +It was well done. What more fitting close of such a life,--what fate +more welcome to him who had fought with them, had loved, and believed in +them, had led them to death,--than to lie with them when they died? + +It was well done. Slavery buried these men, black and white, +together,--black and white in a common grave. Let Liberty see to it, +then, that black and white be raised together in a life better than the +old. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + + "_Spirits are not finely touched + But to fine issues._" + + SHAKESPEARE + + +Surrey was to depart for his command on Monday night, and as there were +various matters which demanded his attention in town ere leaving, he +drove Francesca to the city on the preceding Sunday,--a soft clear +summer evening, full of pleasant sights and sounds. They scarcely spoke +as, hand in hand, they sat drinking in the scene whilst the old gray, +for they wished no high-stepping prancers for this ride, jogged on the +even tenor of his way. Above them, the blue of the sky never before +seemed so deep and tender, while in it floated fleecy clouds of delicate +amber, rose, and gold, like gossamer robes of happy spirits invisible to +human eyes. The leaves and grass just stirred in the breeze, making a +slight, musical murmur, and across them fell long shadows cast by the +westering sun. A sentiment so sweet and pleasurable as to be tinged with +pain, took possession of these young, susceptible souls, as the +influences of the time closed about them. In our happiest moments, our +moments of utmost exaltation, it is always thus:--when earth most nearly +approaches the beatitudes of heaven, and the spirit stretches forward +with a vain longing for the far off, which seems but a little way +beyond; the unattained and dim, which for a space come near. + +"Darling!" said Surrey softly, "does it not seem easy now to die?" + +"Yes, Willie," she whispered, "I feel as though it would be stepping +over a very little stream to some new and beautiful shore." + +Doubtless, when a pure and great soul is close to eternity, ministering +angels draw nigh to one soon to be of their number, and cast something +of the peace and glory of their presence on the spirit yet held by its +cerements of clay. + +At last the ride and the evening had an end. The country and its dear +delights were mere memories,--fresh, it is true, but memories still, and +no longer realities,--in the luxurious rooms of their hotel. + +Evidently Surrey had something to say, which he hesitated and feared to +utter. Again and again, when Francesca was talking of his plans and +purposes, trusting and hoping that he might see no hard service, nor be +called upon for any exposing duty, "not yet awhile," she prayed, at +least,--again and again he made as if to speak, and then, ere she could +notice the movement, shook his head with a gesture of silence, or--she +seeing it, and asking what it was he had to say--found ready utterance +for some other thought, and whispered to himself, "not yet; not quite +yet. Let her rest in peace a little space longer." + +They sat talking far into the night, this last night that they could +spend together in so long a time,--how long, God, with whom are hid the +secrets of the future, could alone tell. They talked of what had passed, +which was ended,--and of what was to come, which was not sure but full +of hope,--but of both with a feeling that quickened their heart-throbs, +and brought happy tears to their eyes. + +Twice or thrice a sound from some far distance, undecided, yet full of a +solemn melody, came through the open window, borne to their ears on the +still air of night,--something so undefined as not consciously to arrest +their attention, yet still penetrating their nerves and affecting some +fine, inner sense of feeling, for both shivered as though a chill wind +had blown across them, and Surrey--half ashamed of the confession--said, +"I don't know what possesses me, but I hear dead marches as plainly as +though I were following a soldier's funeral." + +Francesca at that grew white, crept closer to his breast, and spread out +her arms as if to defend him by that slight shield from some impending +danger; then both laughed at these foolish and superstitious fancies, +and went on with their cheerful and tender talk. + +Whatever the sound was, it grew plainer and came nearer; and, pausing to +listen, they discovered it was a mighty swell of human voices and the +marching of many feet. + +"A regiment going through," said they, and ran to the window to see if +it passed their way, looking for it up the long street, which lay solemn +and still in the moonlight. On either side the palace-like houses stood +stately and dark, like giant sentinels guarding the magnificent avenue, +from whence was banished every sight and sound of the busy life of day; +not a noise, not a footfall, not a solitary soul abroad, not a wave nor +a vestige of the great restless sea of humanity which a little space +before surged through it, and which, in a little while to come, would +rise and swell to its full, and then ebb, and fall, and drop away once +more into silence and nothingness. + +Through this white stillness there came marching a regiment of men, +without fife or drum, moving to the music of a refrain which lifted and +fell on the quiet air. It was the Battle Hymn of the Republic,--and the +two listeners presently distinguished the words,-- + + "In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me; + As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on." + +The effect of this; the thousand voices which sang; the marching of +twice one thousand feet; the majesty of the words; the deserted street; +the clear moonlight streaming over the men, reflected from their +gleaming bayonets, brightening the faded blue of their uniforms, +illumining their faces which, one and all, seemed to wear--and probably +_did_ wear--a look more solemn and earnest than that of common life and +feeling,--the combined effect of it all was something indescribably +impressive:--inspiring, yet solemn. + +They stood watching and listening till the pageant had vanished, and +then turned back into their room, Francesca taking up the refrain and +singing the line, + + "As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on." + +Surrey's face brightened at the rapt expression of hers. "Sing it again, +dearie!" he said. She sang it again. "Do you mean it?" he asked then. +"Can you sing it, and mean it with all your heart, for me?" + +She looked at him with an expression of anxiety and pain. "What are you +asking, Willie?" + +He sat down; taking her upon his knee, and with the old fond gesture, +holding her head to his heart,--"I should have told you before, dearie, +but I did not wish to throw any shadow on the happy days we have been +spending together; they were few and brief enough without marring them; +and I was certain of the effect it would have upon you, by your +incessant anxiety for Robert." + +She drew a long, gasping sigh, and started away from his hold: "O +Willie, you are not going to--" + +His arm drew her back to her resting-place. "I do not return to my +command, darling. I am to raise a black brigade." + +"Freedmen?" + +"Yes, dearie." + +"O Willie,--and that act just passed!" + +"It is true; yet, after all, it is but one risk more." + +"One? O Willie, it is a thousand. You had that many chances of escape +where you were; you might be wounded and captured a score of times, and +come home safe at last; but this!" + +"I know." + +"To go into every battle with the sentence of death hanging over you; to +know that if you are anywhere captured, anyhow made prisoner, you are +condemned to die,--O Willie, I can't bear it; I can't bear it! I shall +die, or go mad, to carry such a thought all the time." + +For answer he only held her close, with his face resting upon her hair, +and in the stillness they could hear each other's heart beat. + +"It is God's service," he said, at last. + +"I know." + +"It will end slavery and the war more effectually than aught else." + +"I know." + +"It will make these freedmen, wherever they fight, free men. It will +give them and their people a sense of dignity and power that might +otherwise take generations to secure." + +"I know." + +"And I. Both feeling and knowing this, who so fit to yield and to do for +such a cause? If those who see do not advance, the blind will never +walk." + +Silence for a space again fell between them. Francesca moved in his arm. + +"Dearie." She looked up. "I want to do no half service. I go into this +heart and soul, but I do not wish to go alone. It will be so much to me +to know that you are quite willing, and bade me go. Think what it is." + +She did. For an instant all sacrifices appeared easy, all burdens light. +She could send him out to death unfaltering. One of those sublime moods +in which martyrdom seems glorious filled and possessed her. She took +away her clinging arms from his neck, and said, "Go,--whether it be for +life or for death; whether you come back to me or go up to God; I am +willing--glad--to yield you to such a cause." + +It was finished. There was nothing more to be said. Both had climbed the +mount of sacrifice, and sat still with God. + +After a while the cool gray dawn stole into their room. The night had +passed in this communion, and another day come. + +There were many "last things" which claimed Surrey's attention; and he, +wishing to get through them early so as to have the afternoon and +evening undisturbed with Francesca, plunged into a stinging bath to +refresh him for the day, breakfasted, and was gone. + +He attended to his business, came across many an old acquaintance and +friend, some of whom greeted him coldly; a few cut him dead; whilst +others put out their hands with cordial frankness, and one or two +congratulated him heartily upon his new condition and happiness. These +last gave him fresh courage for the task which he had set himself. If +friends regarded the matter thus, surely they--his father and +mother--would relent, when he came to say what might be a final adieu. + +He ran up the steps, rang the bell, and, speaking a pleasant word to the +old servant, went directly to his mother's room. His father had not yet +gone down town; thus he found them together. They started at seeing him, +and his mother, forgetting for the instant all her pride, chagrin, and +anger, had her arms about his neck, with the cry, "O Willie, Willie," +which came from the depths of her heart; then seeing her husband's face, +and recovering herself, sat down cold and still. + +It was a painful interview. He could not leave without seeing them once +more; he longed for a loving good by; but after that first outburst he +almost wished he had not forced the meeting. He did not speak of his +wife, nor did they; but a barrier as of adamant was raised between them, +and he felt as though congealing in the breath of an iceberg. At length +he rose to go. + +"Father!" he said then, "perhaps you will care to know that I do not +return to my old command, but have been commissioned to raise a brigade +from the freedmen." + +Both father and mother knew the awful peril of this service, and both +cried, half in suffering, half in anger, "This is your wife's work!" +while his father added, with a passionate exclamation, "It is right, +quite right, that you should identify yourself with her people. Well, go +your way. You have made your bed; lie in it." + +The blood flushed into Surrey's face. He opened his lips, and shut them +again. At last he said, "Father, will you never forego this cruel +prejudice?" + +"Never!" answered his mother, quickly. "Never!" repeated his father, +with bitter emphasis. "It is a feeling that will never die out, and +ought never to die out, so long as any of the race remain in America. +She belongs to it, that is enough." + +Surrey urged no further; but with few words, constrained on their +part,--though under its covering of pride the mother's heart was +bleeding for him,--sad and earnest on his, the farewell was spoken, and +they watched him out of the room. How and when would they see him again? + +There was one other call upon his time. The day was wearing into the +afternoon, but he would not neglect it. This was to see his old +_protege_, Abram Franklin, in whom he had never lost interest, and for +whose welfare he had cared, though he had not seen him in more than two +years. He knew that Abram was ill, had been so for a long time, and +wished to see him and speak to him a few friendly and cheering +words,--sure, from what the boy's own hand had written, that this would +be his last opportunity upon earth to so do. + +Thus he went on from his father's stately palace up Fifth Avenue, turned +into the quiet side street, and knocked at the little green door. Mrs. +Franklin came to open it, her handsome face thinner and sadder than of +old. She caught Surrey's hand between both of hers with a delighted cry: +"Is it you, Mr. Willie? How glad I am to see you! How glad Abram will +be! How good of you to come!" And, holding his hand as she used when he +was a boy, she led him up stairs to the sick-room. This room was even +cosier than the two below; its curtains and paper cheerfuller; its +furniture of quainter and more hospitable aspect; its windows letting in +more light and air; everything clean and homely, and pleasant for weary, +suffering eyes to look upon. + +Abram was propped up in bed, his dark, intelligent face worn to a +shadow, fiery spots breaking through the tawny hue upon cheeks and lips, +his eyes bright with fever. Surrey saw, as he came and sat beside him, +that for him earthly sorrow and toil were almost ended. + +He had brought some fruit and flowers, and a little book. This last +Abram, having thanked him eagerly for all, stretched out his hand to +examine. + +"You see, Mr. Willie, I have not gotten over my old love," he said, as +his fingers closed upon it. "Whittier? 'In War-Time'? That is fine. I +can read about it, if I can't do anything in it," and he lay for a while +quietly turning over the pages. Mrs. Franklin had gone out to do an +errand, and the two were alone. + +"Do you know, Mr. Willie," said Abram, putting his finger upon the +titles of two successive poems, "The Waiting," and "The Summons," "I had +hard work to submit to this sickness a few months ago? I fought against +it strong; do you know why?" + +"Not your special reason. What was it?" + +"I had waited so long, you see,--I, and my people,--for a chance. It +made me quite wild to watch this big fight go on, and know that it was +all about us, and not be allowed to participate; and at last when the +chance came, and the summons, and the way was opened, I couldn't answer, +nor go. It's not the dying I care for; I'd be willing to die the first +battle I was in; but I want to do something for the cause before death +comes." + +The book was lying open where it had fallen from his hand, and Surrey, +glancing down at the very poem of which he spoke, said gently, "Here is +your answer, Franklin, better than any I can make; it ought to comfort +you; listen, it is God's truth! + + 'O power to do! O baffled will! + O prayer and action! ye are one; + Who may not strive may yet fulfil + The harder task of standing still, + And good but wished with God is done!'" + +"It is so," said Abram. "You act and I pray, and you act for me and +mine. I'd like to be under you when you get the troops you were telling +me about; but--God knows best." + +Surrey sat gazing earnestly into space, crowded by emotions called up by +these last words, whilst Abram lay watching him with admiring and loving +eyes. "For me and mine," he repeated softly, his look fastening on the +blue sleeve, which hung, limp and empty, near his hand. This he put out +cautiously, but drew it back at some slight movement from his companion; +then, seeing that he was still absorbed, advanced it, once more, and +slowly, timidly, gently, lifted it to his mouth, pressing his lips upon +it as upon a shrine. "For me and mine!" he whispered,--"for me and +mine!" tears dimming the pathetic, dying eyes. + +The peaceful quiet was broken by a tempest of awful sound,--groans and +shrieks and yells mingled in horrible discord, blended with the +trampling of many feet,--noises which seemed to their startled and +excited fancies like those of hell itself. The next moment a door was +flung open; and Mrs. Franklin, bruised, lame, her garments torn, blood +flowing from a cut on her head, staggered into the room. "O Lord! O Lord +Jesus!" she cried, "the day of wrath has come!" and fell, shuddering and +crying, on the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + "_Will the future come? It seems that we may almost ask + this question, when we see such terrible shadow._" + + VICTOR HUGO + + +Here it will be necessary to consider some facts which, while they are +rather in the domain of the grave recorder of historical events, than in +that of the narrator of personal experiences, are yet essential to the +comprehension of the scenes in which Surrey and Francesca took such +tragic parts. + +Following the proclamation for a draft in the city of New York, there +had been heard on all sides from the newspaper press which sympathized +with and aided the rebellion, premonitions of the coming storm; +denunciations of the war, the government, the soldiers, of the harmless +and inoffensive negroes; angry incitings of the poor man to hatred +against the rich, since the rich man could save himself from the +necessity of serving in the ranks by the payment of three hundred +dollars of commutation money; incendiary appeals to the worst passions +of the most ignorant portion of the community; and open calls to +insurrection and arms to resist the peaceable enforcement of a law +enacted in furtherance of the defence of the nation's life. + +Doubtless this outbreak had been intended at the time of the darkest and +most disastrous days of the Republic; when the often-defeated and sorely +dispirited Army of the Potomac was marching northward to cover +Washington and Baltimore, and the victorious legions of traitors under +Lee were swelling across the border, into a loyal State; when Grant +stood in seemingly hopeless waiting before Vicksburg, and Banks before +Port Hudson; and the whole people of the North, depressed and +disheartened by the continued series of defeats to our arms, were +beginning to look each at his neighbor, and whisper with white lips, +"Perhaps, after all, this struggle is to be in vain." + +Had it been attempted at this precise time, it would, without question, +have been, not a riot, but an insurrection,--would have been a portion +of the army of rebellion, organized and effective for the prosecution of +the war, and not a mob, hideous and devilish in its work of destruction, +yet still a mob; and as such to be beaten down and dispersed in a +comparatively short space of time. + +On the morning of Monday, the thirteenth of July, began this outbreak, +unparalleled in atrocities by anything in American history, and +equalled only by the horrors of the worst days of the French Revolution. +Gangs of men and boys, composed of railroad _employees_, workers in +machine-shops, and a vast crowd of those who lived by preying upon +others, thieves, pimps, professional ruffians,--the scum of the +city,--jail-birds, or those who were running with swift feet to enter +the prison-doors, began to gather on the corners, and in streets and +alleys where they lived; from thence issuing forth they visited the +great establishments on the line of their advance, commanding their +instant close and the companionship of the workmen,--many of them +peaceful and orderly men,--on pain of the destruction of one and a +murderous assault upon the other, did not their orders meet with instant +compliance. + +A body of these, five or six hundred strong, gathered about one of the +enrolling-offices in the upper part of the city, where the draft was +quietly proceeding, and opened the assault upon it by a shower of clubs, +bricks, and paving-stones torn from the streets, following it up by a +furious rush into the office. Lists, records, books, the drafting-wheel, +every article of furniture or work in the room was rent in pieces, and +strewn about the floor or flung into the street; while the law officers, +the newspaper reporters,--who are expected to be everywhere,--and the +few peaceable spectators, were compelled to make a hasty retreat through +an opportune rear exit, accelerated by the curses and blows of the +assailants. + +A safe in the room, which contained some of the hated records, was +fallen upon by the men, who strove to wrench open its impregnable lock +with their naked hands, and, baffled, beat them on its iron doors and +sides till they were stained with blood, in a mad frenzy of senseless +hate and fury. And then, finding every portable article +destroyed,--their thirst for ruin growing by the little drink it had +had,--and believing, or rather hoping, that the officers had taken +refuge in the upper rooms, set fire to the house, and stood watching the +slow and steady lift of the flames, filling the air with demoniac +shrieks and yells, while they waited for the prey to escape from some +door or window, from the merciless fire to their merciless hands. One of +these, who was on the other side of the street, courageously stepped +forward, and, telling them that they had utterly demolished all they +came to seek, informed them that helpless women and little children were +in the house, and besought them to extinguish the flames and leave the +ruined premises; to disperse, or at least to seek some other scene. + +By his dress recognizing in him a government official, so far from +hearing or heeding his humane appeal, they set upon him with sticks and +clubs, and beat him till his eyes were blind with blood, and he--bruised +and mangled--succeeded in escaping to the handful of police who stood +helpless before this howling crew, now increased to thousands. With +difficulty and pain the inoffensive tenants escaped from the rapidly +spreading fire, which, having devoured the house originally lighted, +swept across the neighboring buildings till the whole block stood a mass +of burning flames. The firemen came up tardily and reluctantly, many of +them of the same class as the miscreants who surrounded them, and who +cheered at their approach, but either made no attempt to perform their +duty, or so feeble and farcical a one, as to bring disgrace upon a +service they so generally honor and ennoble. + +At last, when there was here nothing more to accomplish, the mob, +swollen to a frightful size, including myriads of wretched, drunken +women, and the half-grown, vagabond boys of the pavements, rushed +through the intervening streets, stopping cars and insulting peaceable +citizens on their way, to an armory where were manufactured and stored +carbines and guns for the government. In anticipation of the attack, +this, earlier in the day, had been fortified by a police squad capable +of coping with an ordinary crowd of ruffians, but as chaff before fire +in the presence of these murderous thousands. Here, as before, the +attack was begun by a rain of missiles gathered from the streets; less +fatal, doubtless, than more civilized arms, but frightful in the ghastly +wounds and injuries they inflicted. Of this no notice was taken by those +who were stationed within; it was repeated. At last, finding they were +treated with contemptuous silence, and that no sign of surrender was +offered, the crowd swayed back,--then forward,--in a combined attempt to +force the wide entrance-doors. Heavy hammers and sledges, which had been +brought from forges and workshops, caught up hastily as they gathered +the mechanics into their ranks, were used with frightful violence to +beat them in,--at last successfully. The foremost assailants began to +climb the stairs, but were checked, and for the moment driven back by +the fire of the officers, who at last had been commanded to resort to +their revolvers. A half-score fell wounded; and one, who had been acting +in some sort as their leader,--a big, brutal, Irish ruffian,--dropped +dead. + +The pause was but for an instant. As the smoke cleared away there was a +general and ferocious onslaught upon the armory; curses, oaths, +revilings, hideous and obscene blasphemy, with terrible yells and cries, +filled the air in every accent of the English tongue save that spoken by +a native American. Such were there mingled with the sea of sound, but +they were so few and weak as to be unnoticeable in the roar of voices. +The paving stones flew like hail, until the street was torn into gaps +and ruts, and every window-pane, and sash, and doorway, was smashed or +broken. Meanwhile, divers attempts were made to fire the building, but +failed through haste or ineffectual materials, or the vigilant +watchfulness of the besieged. In the midst of this gallant defence, word +was brought to the defenders from head-quarters that nothing could be +done for their support; and that, if they would save their lives, they +must make a quick and orderly retreat. Fortunately, there was a side +passage with which the mob was unacquainted, and, one by one they +succeeded in gaining this, and vanishing. A few, too faithful or too +plucky to retreat before such a foe, persisted in remaining at their +posts till the fire, which had at last been communicated to the +building, crept unpleasantly near; then, by dropping from sill to sill +of the broken windows, or sliding by their hands and feet down the rough +pipes and stones, reached the pavement,--but not without injuries and +blows, and broken bones, which disabled for a lifetime, if indeed they +did not die in the hospitals to which a few of the more mercifully +disposed carried them. + +The work thus begun, continued,--gathering in force and fury as the day +wore on. Police stations, enrolling-offices, rooms or buildings used in +any way by government authority, or obnoxious as representing the +dignity of law, were gutted, destroyed, then left to the mercy of the +flames. Newspaper offices, whose issues had been a fire in the rear of +the nation's armies by extenuating and defending treason, and through +violent and incendiary appeals stirring up "lewd fellows of the baser +sort" to this very carnival of ruin and blood, were cheered as the crowd +went by. Those that had been faithful to loyalty and law were hooted, +stoned, and even stormed by the army of miscreants who were only driven +off by the gallant and determined charge of the police, and in one place +by the equally gallant, and certainly unique defence, which came from +turning the boiling water from the engines upon the howling wretches, +who, unprepared for any such warm reception as this, beat a precipitate +and general retreat. Before night fell it was no longer one vast crowd +collected in a single section, but great numbers of gatherings, +scattered over the whole length and breadth of the city,--some of them +engaged in actual work of demolition and ruin; others with clubs and +weapons in their hands, prowling round apparently with no definite +atrocity to perpetrate, but ready for any iniquity that might +offer,--and, by way of pastime, chasing every stray police officer, or +solitary soldier, or inoffensive negro, who crossed the line of their +vision; these three objects--the badge of a defender of the law,--the +uniform of the Union army,--the skin of a helpless and outraged +race--acted upon these madmen as water acts upon a rabid dog. + +Late in the afternoon a crowd which could have numbered not less than +ten thousand, the majority of whom were ragged, frowzy, drunken women, +gathered about the Orphan Asylum for Colored Children,--a large and +beautiful building, and one of the most admirable and noble charities of +the city. When it became evident, from the menacing cries and groans of +the multitude, that danger, if not destruction, was meditated to the +harmless and inoffensive inmates, a flag of truce appeared, and an +appeal was made in their behalf, by the principal, to every sentiment of +humanity which these beings might possess,--a vain appeal! Whatever +human feeling had ever, if ever, filled these souls was utterly drowned +and washed away in the tide of rapine and blood in which they had been +steeping themselves. The few officers who stood guard over the doors, +and manfully faced these demoniac legions, were beaten down and flung +to one side, helpless and stunned whilst the vast crowd rushed in. All +the articles upon which they could seize--beds, bedding, carpets, +furniture,--the very garments of the fleeing inmates, some of these torn +from their persons as they sped by--were carried into the streets, and +hurried off by the women and children who stood ready to receive the +goods which their husbands, sons, and fathers flung to their care. The +little ones, many of them, assailed and beaten; all,--orphans and +caretakers,--exposed to every indignity and every danger, driven on to +the street,--the building was fired. This had been attempted whilst the +helpless children--some of them scarce more than babies--were still in +their rooms; but this devilish consummation was prevented by the heroism +of one man. He, the Chief of the Fire Department, strove by voice and +arm to stay the endeavor; and when, overcome by superior numbers, the +brands had been lit and piled, with naked hands, and in the face of +threatened death, he tore asunder the glowing embers, and trod them +under foot. Again the effort was made, and again failed through the +determined and heroic opposition of this solitary soul. Then, on the +front steps, in the midst of these drunken and infuriate thousands, he +stood up and besought them, if they cared nothing for themselves nor for +these hapless orphans, that they would not bring lasting disgrace upon +the city by destroying one of its noblest charities, which had for its +object nothing but good. + +He was answered on all sides by yells and execrations, and frenzied +shrieks of "Down with the nagurs!" coupled with every oath and every +curse that malignant hate of the blacks could devise, and drunken, Irish +tongues could speak. It had been decreed that this building was to be +razed to the ground. The house was fired in a thousand places, and in +less than two hours the walls crashed in,--a mass of smoking, blackened +ruins; whilst the children wandered through the streets, a prey to +beings who were wild beasts in everything save the superior ingenuity of +man to agonize and torture his victims. + +Frightful as the day had been, the night was yet more hideous; since to +the horrors which were seen was added the greater horror of deeds which +might be committed in the darkness; or, if they were seen, it was by the +lurid glare of burning buildings,--the red flames of which--flung upon +the stained and brutal faces, the torn and tattered garments, of men and +women who danced and howled around the scene of ruin they had +caused--made the whole aspect of affairs seem more like a gathering of +fiends rejoicing in Pandemonium than aught with which creatures of flesh +and blood had to do. + +Standing on some elevated point, looking over the great city, which +presented, as usual, at night, a solemn and impressive show, the +spectator was thrilled with a fearful admiration by the sights and +sounds which gave to it a mysterious and awful interest. A thousand +fires streamed up against the sky, making darkness visible; and from all +sides came a combination of noises such as might be heard from an +asylum in which were gathered the madmen of the world. + +The next morning's sun rose on a city which was ruled by a reign of +terror. Had the police possessed the heads of Hydra and the arms of +Briareus, and had these heads all seen, these arms all fought, they +would have been powerless against the multitude of opposers. Outbreaks +were made, crowds gathered, houses burned, streets barricaded, fights +enacted, in a score of places at once. Where the officers appeared they +were irretrievably beaten and overcome; their stand, were it ever so +short, but inflaming the passions of the mob to fresh deeds of violence. +Stores were closed; the business portion of the city deserted; the large +works and factories emptied of men, who had been sent home by their +employers, or were swept into the ranks of the marauding bands. The city +cars, omnibuses, hacks, were unable to run, and remained under shelter. +Every telegraph wire was cut, the posts torn up, the operators driven +from their offices. The mayor, seeing that civil power was helpless to +stem this tide, desired to call the military to his aid, and place the +city under martial law, but was opposed by the Governor,--a governor, +who, but a few days before, had pronounced the war a failure; and not +only predicted, but encouraged this mob rule, which was now crushing +everything beneath its heavy and ensanguined feet. This man, through +almost two days of these awful scenes, remained at a quiet seaside +retreat but a few miles from the city. Coming to it on the afternoon of +the second day,--instead of ordering cannon planted in the streets, +giving these creatures opportunity to retire to their homes, and, in the +event of refusal, blowing them there by powder and ball,--he first went +to the point where was collected the chiefest mob, and proceeded to +address them. Before him stood incendiaries, thieves, and murderers, who +even then were sacking dwelling-houses, and butchering powerless and +inoffensive beings. These wretches he apostrophized as "My friends," +repeating the title again and again in the course of his harangue, +assuring them that he was there as a proof of his friendship,--which he +had demonstrated by "sending his adjutant-general to Washington, to have +the draft stopped"; begging them to "wait for his return"; "to separate +now as good citizens"; with the promise that they "might assemble again +whenever they wished to so do"; meanwhile, he would "take care of their +rights." This model speech was incessantly interrupted by tremendous +cheering and frantic demonstrations of delight,--one great fellow almost +crushing the Governor in his enthusiastic embrace. This ended, he +entered a carriage, and was driven through the blackened, smoking scenes +of Monday's devastations; through fresh vistas of outrage, of the day's +execution; bland, gracious, smiling. Wherever he appeared, cheer upon +cheer rent the air from these crowds of drunken blasphemers; and in one +place the carriage in which he sat was actually lifted from the ground, +and carried some rods, by hands yet red with deeds of arson and murder; +while from all sides voices cried out, "Will ye stop the draft, +Gov'nur?" "Bully boy!" "Ye're the man for us!" "Hooray for Gov'nur +Saymoor!" Thus, through the midst of this admiring and applauding crowd, +this high officer of the law, sworn to maintain public peace, moved to +his hotel, where he was met by a despatch from Washington, informing him +that five regiments were under arms and on their way to put an end to +this bloody assistance to the Southern war. + +His allies in newspaper offices attempted to throw the blame upon the +loyal press and portion of the community. This was but a repetition of +the cry, raised by traitors in arms, that the government, struggling for +life in their deadly hold, was responsible for the war: "If thou wouldst +but consent to be murdered peaceably, there could be no strife." + +These editors outraged common sense, truth, and decency, by speaking of +the riots as an "uprising of the people to defend their liberties,"--"an +opposition on the part of the workingmen to an unjust and oppressive +law, enacted in favor of the men of wealth and standing." As though the +_people_ of the great metropolis were incendiaries, robbers, and +assassins; as though the poor were to demonstrate their indignation +against the rich by hunting and stoning defenceless women and children; +torturing and murdering men whose only offence was the color God gave +them, or men wearing the self-same uniform as that which they declared +was to be thrust upon them at the behest of the rich and the great. + +It was absurd and futile to characterize this new Reign of Terror as +anything but an effort on the part of Northern rebels to help Southern +ones, at the most critical moment of the war,--with the State militia +and available troops absent in a neighboring Commonwealth,--and the +loyal people unprepared. These editors and their coadjutors, men of +brains and ability, were of that most poisonous growth,--traitors to the +Government and the flag of their country,--renegade Americans. Let it, +however, be written plainly and graven deeply, that the tribes of +savages--the hordes of ruffians--found ready to do their loathsome +bidding, were not of native growth, nor American born. + +While it is true that there were some glib-tongued fellows who spoke the +language without foreign accent, all of them of the lowest order of +Democratic ward-politicians, of creatures skulking from the outstretched +arm of avenging law; while the most degraded of the German population +were represented; while it is also true that there were Irish, and +Catholic Irish too,--industrious, sober, intelligent people,--who +indignantly refused participation in these outrages, and mourned over +the barbarities which were disgracing their national name; it is +pre-eminently true,--proven by thousands of witnesses, and testified to +by numberless tongues,--that the masses, the rank and file, the almost +entire body of rioters, were the worst classes of Irish emigrants, +infuriated by artful appeals, and maddened by the atrocious whiskey of +thousands of grog-shops. + +By far the most infamous part of these cruelties was that which wreaked +every species of torture and lingering death upon the colored people of +the city,--men, women, and children, old and young, strong and feeble +alike. Hundreds of these fell victims to the prejudice fostered by +public opinion, incorporated in our statute-books, sanctioned by our +laws, which here and thus found legitimate outgrowth and action. The +horrors which blanched the face of Christendom were but the bloody +harvest of fields sown by society, by cultured men and women, by speech, +and book, and press, by professions and politics, nay, by the pulpit +itself, and the men who there make God's truth a lie,--garbling or +denying the inspired declaration that "He has made of one blood all +people to dwell upon the face of the earth"; and that he, the All-Just +and Merciful One, "is no respecter of persons." + +This riot, begun ostensibly to oppose the enforcement of a single law, +developed itself into a burning and pillaging assault upon the homes and +property of peaceful citizens. To realize this, it was only necessary to +walk the streets, if that were possible, through those days of riot and +conflagration, observe the materials gathered into the vast, moving +multitudes, and scrutinize the faces of those of whom they were +composed,--deformed, idiotic, drunken, imbecile, poverty-stricken; +seamed with every line which wretchedness could draw or vicious habits +and associations delve. To walk these streets and look upon these faces +was like a fearful witnessing in perspective of the last day, when the +secrets of life, more loathsome than those of death, shall be laid bare +in all their hideous deformity and ghastly shame. + +The knowledge of these people and their deeds was sufficient to create a +paralysis of fear, even where they were not seen. Indeed, there was +terror everywhere. High and low, rich and poor, cultured and ignorant, +all shivered in its awful grasp. Upon stately avenues and noisome alleys +it fell with the like blackness of darkness. Women cried aloud to God +with the same agonized entreaty from knees bent on velvet carpets or +bare and dingy floors. Men wandered up and down, prisoners in their own +homes, and cursed or prayed with equal fury or intensity whether the +homes were simple or splendid. Here one surveyed all his costly store of +rare and exquisite surroundings, and shook his head as he gazed, ominous +and foreboding. There, another of darker hue peered out from garret +casement, or cellar light, or broken window-pane, and, shuddering, +watched some woman stoned and beaten till she died; some child shot +down, while thousands of heavy, brutal feet trod over it till the hard +stones were red with its blood, and the little prostrate form, yet warm, +lost every likeness of humanity, and lay there, a sickening mass of +mangled flesh and bones; some man assaulted, clubbed, overborne, left +wounded or dying or dead, as he fell, or tied to some convenient tree or +lamp-post to be hacked and hewn, or flayed and roasted, yet living, +where he hung,--and watching this, and cowering as he watched, held his +breath, and waited his own turn, not knowing when it might come. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + "_In breathless quiet, after all their ills._" + + ARNOLD + + +A body of these wretches, fresh from some act of rapine and pillage, had +seen Mrs. Franklin, hastening home, and, opening the hue and cry, had +started in full chase after her. Struck by sticks and stones that +darkened the air, twice down, fleeing as those only do who flee for +life, she gained her own house, thinking there to find security. Vain +hope! the door was battered in, the windows demolished, the puny +barriers between the room in which they were gathered and the creatures +in pursuit, speedily destroyed,--and these three turned to face death. + +By chance, Surrey had his sword at his side, and, tearing this from its +scabbard, sprang to the defence,--a gallant intent, but what could one +weapon and one arm do against such odds as these? He was speedily beaten +down and flung aside by the miscreants who swarmed into the room. It +was marvellous they did not kill him outright. Doubtless they would have +done so but for the face propped against the pillows, which caught their +hungry eyes. Soldier and woman were alike forgotten at sight of this +dying boy. Here was a foeman worthy their steel. They gathered about +him, and with savage hands struck at him and the bed upon which he lay. + +A pause for a moment to hold consultation, crowded with oaths and jeers +and curses; obscenity and blasphemy too hideous to read or record,--then +the cruel hands tore him from his bed, dragged him over the prostrate +body of his mother, past the senseless form of his brave young defender, +out to the street. Here they propped him against a tree, to mock and +torment him; to prick him, wound him, torture him; to task endurance to +its utmost limit, but not to extinguish life. These savages had no such +mercy as this in their souls; and when, once or twice he fell away into +insensibility, a cut or blow administered with devilish skill or +strength, restored him to anguish and to life. + +Surrey, bewildered and dizzy, had recovered consciousness, and sat +gazing vacantly around him, till the cries and yells without, the +agonized face within, thrilled every nerve into feeling. Starting up, he +rushed to the window, but recoiled at the awful sight. Here, he saw, +there was no human power within reach or call that could interfere. The +whole block, from street to street, was crowded with men and boys, armed +with the armory of the street, and rejoicing like veritable fiends of +hell over the pangs of their victim. + +Even in the moment he stood there he beheld that which would haunt his +memory, did it endure for a century. At last, tired of their sport, some +of those who were just about Abram had tied a rope about his body, and +raised him to the nearest branch of an overhanging tree; then, heaping +under him the sticks and clubs which were flung them from all sides, set +fire to the dry, inflammable pile, and watched, for the moment silent, +to see it burn. + +Surrey fled to the other side of the room, and, cowering down, buried +his head in his arm to shut out the awful sight and sounds. But his +mother,--O marvellous, inscrutable mystery of mother-love!--his mother +knelt by the open window, near which hung her boy, and prayed aloud, +that he might hear, for the wrung body and passing soul. Great God! that +such things were possible, and thy heavens fell not! Through the sound +of falling blows, reviling oaths, and hideous blasphemy, through the +crackling of burning fagots and lifting flames, there went out no cry +for mercy, no shriek of pain, no wail of despair. But when the torture +was almost ended, and nature had yielded to this work of fiends, the +dying face was turned towards his mother,--the eyes, dim with the veil +that falls between time and eternity, seeking her eyes with their latest +glance,--the voice, not weak, but clear and thrilling even in death, +cried for her ear, "Be of good cheer, mother! they may kill the body, +but they cannot touch the soul!" and even with the words the great soul +walked with God. + + * * * * * + +After a while the mob melted out of the street to seek new scenes of +ravage and death; not, however, till they had marked the house, as those +within learned, for the purpose of returning, if it should so please +them, at some future time. + +When they were all gone, and the way was clear, these two--the mother +that bore him, the elegant patrician who instinctively shrank from all +unpleasant and painful things--took down the poor charred body, and +carrying it carefully and tenderly into the house of a trembling +neighbor, who yet opened her doors and bade them in, composed it +decently for its final rest. + +It was drawing towards evening, and Surrey was eager to get away from +this terrible region,--both to take the heart-stricken woman, thus +thrown upon his care, to some place of rest and safety, and to reassure +Francesca, who, he knew, would be filled with maddening anxiety and fear +at his long absence. + +At length they ventured forth: no one was in the square;--turned at +Fortieth Street,--all clear;--went on with hasty steps to the +Avenue,--not a soul in sight. "Safe,--thank God!" exclaimed Surrey, as +he hurried his companion onward. Half the space to their destination had +been crossed, when a band of rioters, rushing down the street from the +sack and burning of the Orphan Asylum, came upon them. Defence seemed +utterly vain. Every house was shut; its windows closed and barred; its +inmates gathered in some rear room. Escape and hope appeared alike +impossible; but Surrey, flinging his charge behind him, with drawn +sword, face to the on-sweeping hordes, backed down the street. The +combination--a negro woman, a soldier's uniform--intensified the mad +fury of the mob, which was nevertheless held at bay by the heroic front +and gleaming steel of their single adversary. Only for a moment! Then, +not venturing near him, a shower of bricks and stones hurtled through +the air, falling about and upon him. + +At this instant a voice called, "This way! this way! For God's sake! +quick! quick!" and he saw a friendly black face and hand thrust from an +area window. Still covering with his body his defenceless charge, he +moved rapidly towards this refuge. Rapid as was the motion, it was not +speedy enough; he reached the railing, caught her with his one powerful +arm, imbued now with a giant's strength, flung her over to the waiting +hands that seized and dragged her in, pausing for an instant, ere he +leaped himself, to beat back a half-dozen of the foremost miscreants, +who would else have captured their prey, just vanishing from sight. +Sublime, yet fatal delay! but an instant, yet in that instant a thousand +forms surrounded him, disarmed him, overcame him, and beat him down. + +Meanwhile what of Francesca? The morning passed, and with its passing +came terrible rumors of assault and death. The afternoon began, wore +on,--the rumors deepened to details of awful facts and realities; and +he--he, with his courage, his fatal dress--was absent, was on those +death-crowded streets. She wandered from room to room, forgetting her +reserve, and accosting every soul she met for later news,--for +information which, received, did but torture her with more intolerable +pangs, and send her to her knees; though, kneeling, she could not pray, +only cry out in some dumb, inarticulate fashion, "God be merciful!" + +The afternoon was spent; the day gone; the summet twilight deepening +into night; and still he did not come. She had caught up her hat and +mantle with some insane intention of rushing into the wide, wild city, +on a frenzied search, when two gentlemen passing by her door, talking of +the all-absorbing theme, arrested her ear and attention. + +"The house ought to be guarded! These devils will be here +presently,--they are on the Avenue now." + +"Good God! are you certain?" + +"Certain." + +"You may well be," said a third voice, as another step joined theirs. +"They are just above Thirtieth Street. I was coming down the Avenue, and +saw them myself. I don't know what my fate would have been in this +dress,"--Francesca knew from this that he who talked was of the police +or soldiery,--"but they were engaged in fighting a young officer, who +made a splendid defence before they cut him down; his courage was +magnificent. It makes my blood curdle to think of it. A fair-haired, +gallant-looking fellow, with only one arm. I could do nothing for him, +of course, and should have been killed had I stayed; so I ran for life. +But I don't think I'll ever quite forgive myself for not rushing to the +rescue, and taking my chance with him." + +She did not stay to hear the closing words. Out of the room, past them, +like a spirit,--through the broad halls,--down the wide stairways,--on +to the street,--up the long street, deserted here, but O, with what a +crowd beyond! + +A company of soldiers, paltry in number, yet each with loaded rifle and +bayonet set, charged past her at double-quick upon this crowd, which +gave way slowly and sullenly at its approach, holding with desperate +ferocity and determination to whatever ghastly work had been employing +their hands,--dropped at last,--left on the stones,--the soldiers +between it and the mob,--silent, motionless,--she saw it, and knew it +where it lay. O woful sight and knowledge for loving eyes and bursting +heart! + +Ere she reached it some last stones were flung by the retreating crowd, +a last shot fired in the air,--fired at random, but speeding with as +unerring aim to her aching, anguished breast, death-freighted and +life-destroying,--but not till she had reached her destined point and +end; not till her feet failed close to that bruised and silent form; not +till she had sunk beside it, gathered it in her fair young arms, and +pillowed its beautiful head--from which streamed golden hair, dabbled +and blood-bestained--upon her faithful heart. + +There it stirred; the eyes unclosed to meet hers, a gleam of divine love +shining through their fading fire; the battered, stiffened arm lifted, +as to fold her in the old familiar caress. "Darling--die--to +make--free"--came in gasps from the sweet, yet whitening lips. Then she +lay still. Where his breath blew across her hair it waved, and her bosom +moved above the slow and labored beating of his heart; but, save for +this, she was as quiet as the peaceful dead within their graves,--and, +like them, done with the noise and strife of time forever. + +For him,--the shadows deepened where he lay,--the stars came out one by +one, looking down with clear and solemn eyes upon this wreck of fair and +beautiful things, wrought by earthly hate and the awful passions of +men,--then veiled their light in heavy and sombre clouds. The rain fell +upon the noble face and floating, sunny hair,--washing them free of +soil, and dark and fearful stains; moistening the fevered, burning lips, +and cooling the bruised and aching frame. How passed the long night with +that half-insensible soul? God knoweth. The secrets of that are hidden +in the eternity to which it now belongs. Questionless, ministering +spirits drew near, freighted with balm and inspiration; for when the +shadows fled, and the next morning's sun shone upon these silent forms, +it revealed faces radiant as with some celestial fire, and beatified as +reflecting the smile of God. + +The inmates of the house before which lay this solemn mystery, rising to +face a new-made day, looking out from their windows to mark what traces +were left of last night's devastations, beheld this awful yet sublime +sight. + +"A prejudice which, I trust, will never end," had Mr. Surrey said, in +bidding adieu to his son but a few short hours before. This prejudice, +living and active, had now thus brought death and desolation to his own +doors. "How unsearchable are the judgments of God, and his ways past +finding out!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + "_Drink,--for thy necessity is yet greater than mine._" + + Sir Philip Sidney + + +The hospital boat, going out of Beaufort, was a sad, yet great sight. It +was but necessary to look around it to see that the men here gathered +had stood on the slippery battle-sod, and scorned to flinch. You heard +no cries, scarcely a groan; whatever anguish wrung them as they were +lifted into their berths, or were turned or raised for comfort, found +little outward sign,--a long, gasping breath now and then; a suppressed +exclamation; sometimes a laugh, to cover what would else be a cry of +mortal agony; almost no swearing; these men had been too near the awful +realities of death and eternity, some of them were still too near, to +make a mock at either. Having demonstrated themselves heroes in action, +they would, one and all, be equally heroes in the hour of suffering, or +on the bed of lingering death. + +Jim, so wounded as to make every movement a pang, had been carefully +carried in on a stretcher, and as carefully lifted into a middle berth. + +"Good," said one of the men, as he eased him down on his pillow. + +"What's good?" queried Jim. + +"The berth; middle berth. Put you in as easy as into the lowest one: bad +lifting such a leg as yours into the top one, and it's the comfortablest +of the three when you're in." + +"O, that's it, is it? all right; glad I'm here then; getting in didn't +hurt more than a flea-bite,"--saying which Jim turned his face away to +put his teeth down hard on a lip already bleeding. The wrench to his +shattered leg was excruciating, "But then," as he announced to himself, +"no snivelling, James; you're not going to make a spooney of yourself." +Presently he moved, and lay quietly watching the others they were +bringing in. + +"Why!" he called, "that's Bertie Curtis, ain't it?" as a slight, +beautiful-faced boy was carried past him, and raised to his place. + +"Yes, it is," answered one of the men, shortly, to cover some strong +feeling. + +Jim leaned out of his berth, regardless of his protesting leg, canteen +in hand. "Here, Bertie!" he called, "my canteen's full of fresh water, +just filled. I know it'll taste good to you." + +The boy's fine face flushed. "O, thank you, Given, it would taste +deliriously, but I can't take it,"--glancing down. Jim followed the +look, to see that both arms were gone, close to the graceful, boyish +form; seeing which his face twitched painfully,--not with his own +suffering,--and for a moment words failed him. Just then came up one of +the sanitary nurses with some cooling drink, and fresh, wet bandages for +the fevered stumps. + +Great drops were standing on Bertie's forehead, and ominous gray shadows +had already settled about the mouth, and under the long, shut lashes. +Looking at the face, so young, so refined, some mother's pride and +darling, the nurse brushed back tenderly the fair hair, murmuring, "Poor +fellow!" + +The eyes unclosed quickly: "There are no poor fellows here, sir!" he +said. + +"Well, brave fellow, then!" + +"I did but do my duty,"--a smile breaking through the gathering mists. + +Here some poor fellow,--poor indeed,--delirious with fever, called out, +"Mother! mother! I want to see my mother!" + +Tears rushed to the clear, steady eyes, dimmed them, dropped down +unchecked upon the face. The nurse, with a sob choking in his throat, +softly raised his hand to brush them away. "Mother," Bertie +whispered,--"mother!" and was gone where God wipes away the tears from +all eyes. + +For the space of five minutes, as Jim said afterwards, in telling about +it, "that boat was like a meeting-house." Used as they were to death in +all forms, more than one brave fellow's eye was dim as the silent shape +was carried away to make place for the stricken living,--one of whom was +directly brought in, and the stretcher put down near Jim. + +"What's up?" he called, for the man's face was turned from him, and his +wounded body so covered as to give no clew to its condition. "What's +wrong?" seeing the bearers did not offer to lift him, and that they were +anxiously scanning the long rows of berths. + +"Berth's wrong," one of them answered. + +"What's the matter with the berth?" + +"Matter enough! not a middle one nor a lower one empty." + +"Well," called a wounded boy from the third tier, "plenty of room up +here; sky-parlor,--airy lodgings,--all fine,--I see a lot of empty +houses that'll take him in." + +"Like enough,--but he's about blown to pieces," said the bearer in a low +voice, "and it'll be aw--ful putting him up there; however,"--commencing +to take off the light cover. + +"Helloa!" cried Jim, "that's a dilapidated-looking leg,"--his head out, +looking at it. "Stop a bit!"--body half after the head,--"you just stop +that, and come here and catch hold of a fellow; now put me up there. I +reckon I'll bear hoisting better'n he will, anyway. Ugh! ah! um! owh! +here we are! bully!" + +If Jim had been of the fainting or praying order he would certainly have +fainted or prayed; as it was, he said "Bully!" but lay for a while +thereafter still as a mouse. + +"Given, you're a brick!" one of the boys was apostrophizing him. Jim +took no notice. "And your man's in, safe and sound"; he turned at that, +and leaned forward, as well as he could, to look at the occupant of his +late bed. + +"Jemime!" he cried, when he saw the face. "I say, boys! it's +Ercildoune--Robert--flag--Wagner--hurray--let's give three cheers for +the color-sergeant,--long may he wave!" + +The men, propped up or lying down, gave the three cheers with a will, +and then three more; and then, delighted with their performance, three +more after that, Jim winding up the whole with an "a-a-ah,--Tiger!" that +made them all laugh; then relapsing into silence and a hard battle with +pain. + +A weary voyage,--a weary journey thereafter to the Northern +hospitals,--some dying by the way, and lowered through the shifting, +restless waves, or buried with hasty yet kindly hands in alien +soil,--accounted strangers and foemen in the land of their birth. God +grant that no tread of rebellion in the years to come, nor thunder of +contending armies, may disturb their peace! + +Some stopped in the heat and dust of Washington to be nursed and tended +in the great barracks of hospitals,--uncomfortable-looking without, +clean and spacious and admirable within; some to their homes, on +long-desired and eagerly welcomed furloughs, there to be cured speedily, +the body swayed by the mind; some to suffer and die; some to struggle +against winds and tides of mortality and conquer,--yet scarred and +maimed; some to go out, as giants refreshed with new wine, to take their +places once more in the great conflict, and fight there faithfully to +the end. + +Among these last was Jim; but not till after many a hard battle, and +buffet, and back-set did life triumph and strength prevail. One thing +which sadly retarded his recovery was his incessant anxiety about +Sallie, and his longing to see her once more. He had himself, after his +first hurt, written her that he was slightly wounded; but when he +reached Washington, and the surgeon, looking at his shattered leg, +talked about amputation and death, Jim decided that Sallie should not +know a word of all this till something definite was pronounced. + +"She oughtn't to have an ugly, one-legged fellow," he said, "to drag +round with her; and, if she knows how bad it is, she'll post straight +down here, to nurse and look after me,--I know her! and she'll have me +in the end, out of sheer pity; and I ain't going to take any such mean +advantage of her: no, sir-ee, not if I know myself. If I get well, safe +and sound, I'll go to her; and, if I'm going to die, I'll send for her; +so I'll wait,"--which he did. + +He found, however, that it was a great deal easier making the decision, +than keeping it when made. Sallie, hearing nothing from him,--supposing +him still in the South,--fearful as she had all along been that she +stood on uncertain ground,--Mrs. Surrey away in New York,--and Robert +Ercildoune, as the papers asserted in their published lists, mortally +wounded,--having no indirect means of communication with him, and +fearing to write again without some sign from him,--was sorrowing in +silence at home. + +The silence reacted on him; not realizing its cause he grew fretful and +impatient, and the fretfulness and impatience told on his leg, +intensified his fever, and put the day of recovery--if recovery it was +to be--farther into the future. + +"See here, my man,"--said the quick little surgeon one day, "you're +worrying about something. This'll never do; if you don't stop it, you'll +die, as sure as fate; and you might as well make up your mind to it at +once,--so, now!" + +"Well, sir," answered Jim, "it's as good a time to die now, I reckon, as +often happens; but I ain't dead yet, not by a long shot; and I ain't +going to die neither; so, now, yourself!" + +The doctor laughed. "All right; if you'll get up that spirit, and keep +it, I'll bet my pile on your recovery,--but you'll have to stop +fretting. You've got something on your mind that's troubling you; and +the sooner you get rid of it, if you can, the better. That's all I've +got to say." And he marched off. + +"Get rid of it," mused Jim, "how in thunder'll I get rid of it if I +don't hear from Sallie? Let me see--ah! I have it!" and looking more +cheerful on the instant he lay still, watching for the doctor to come +down the ward once more. "Helloa!" he called, then. "Helloa!" responded +the doctor, coming over to him, "what's the go now? you're improved +already." + +"Got any objection to telling a lie?"--this might be called coming to +the point. + +"That depends--" said the doctor. + +"Well, all's fair in love and war, they say. This is for love. Help a +fellow?" + +"Of course,--if I can,--and the fellow's a good one, like Jim Given. +What is it you want?" + +"Well, I want a letter written, and I can't do it myself, you +know,"--looking down at his still bandaged arm,--"likewise I want a lie +told in it, and these ladies here are all angels, and of course you +can't ask an angel to tell a lie,--no offence to you; so if you can take +the time, and'll do it, I'll stand your everlasting debtor, and shoulder +the responsibility if you're afraid of the weight." + +"What sort of a lie?" + +"A capital one; listen. I want a young lady to know that I'm wounded in +the arm,--you see? not bad; nor nothing over which she need worry, and +nothing that hurts me much; and I ain't damaged in any other way; legs +not mentioned in this concern,--you understand?" The doctor nodded. "But +it's tied up my hand, so that I have to get you to say all this for me. +I'll be well pretty soon; and, if I can get a furlough, I'll be up in +Philadelphia in a jiffy,--so she can just prepare for the infliction, +&c. Comprendy? And'll you do it?" + +"Of course I will, if you don't want the truth told, and the fib'll do +you any good; and, upon my word, the way you're looking I really think +it will. So now for it." + +Thus the letter was written, and read, and re-read, to make sure that +there was nothing in it to alarm Sallie; and, being satisfactory on that +head, was finally sent away, to rejoice the poor girl who had waited, +and watched, and hoped for it through such a weary time. When she +answered it, her letter was so full of happiness and solicitude, and a +love that, in spite of herself, spoke out in every line, that Jim +furtively kissed it, and read it into tatters in the first few hours of +its possession; then tucking it away in his hospital shirt, over his +heart, proceeded to get well as fast as fast could be. + +"Well," said the doctor, a few weeks afterwards, as Jim was going home +on his coveted sick-leave, "Mr. Thomas Carlyle calls fibs wind-bags. If +that singular remedy would work to such a charm with all my men, I'd +tell lies with impunity. Good by, Jim, and the best of good luck to +you." + +"The same to you, Doctor, and I hope you may always find a friend in +need, to lie for you. Good by, and God bless you!" wringing his hand +hard,--"and now, hurrah for home!" + +"Hurrah it is!" cried the little surgeon after him, as, happy and proud, +he limped down the ward, and turned his face towards home. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + "_Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm._" + + Gray + + +Jim scarcely felt the jolting of the ambulance over the city stones, and +his impatience and eagerness to get across the intervening space made +dust, and heat, and weariness of travel seem but as feather weights, not +to be cared for, nor indeed considered at all; though, in fact, his arm +complained, and his leg ached distressingly, and he was faint and weak +without confessing it long before the tiresome journey reached its end. + +"No matter," he said to himself; "it'll be all well, or forgotten, at +least, when I see Sallie once more; and so, what odds?" + +The end was gained at last, and he would have gone to her fast as +certain Rosinantes, yclept hackhorses, could carry him, but, stopping +for a moment to consider, he thought, "No, that will never do! Go to +her looking like such a guy? Nary time. I'll get scrubbed, and put on a +clean shirt, and make myself decent, before she sees me. She always used +to look nice as a new pin, and she liked me to look so too; so I'd +better put my best foot foremost when she hasn't laid eyes on me for +such an age. I'm fright enough, anyway, goodness knows, with my +thinness, and my old lame leg; so--" sticking his head out of the +window, and using his lungs with astonishing vigor--"Driver! streak like +lightning, will you, to the 'Merchants'? and you shall have extra fare." + +"Hold your blab there," growled the driver; "I ain't such a pig yet as +to take double fare from a wounded soldier. You'll pay me well at +half-price,--when we get where you want to go,"--which they did soon. + +"No!" said Jehu, thrusting back part of the money, "I ain't agoin' to +take it, so you needn't poke it out at me. I'm all right; or, if I +ain't, I'll make it up on the next broadcloth or officer I carry; never +you fear! us fellows knows how to take care of ourselves, you'd better +believe!" which statement Jim would have known to be truth, without the +necessity of repetition, had he been one of the aforesaid "broadcloths," +or "officers," and thus better acquainted with the genus hack-driver in +the ordinary exercise of its profession. + +As it was; he shook hands with the fellow, pocketed the surplus change, +made his way into the hotel, was in his room, in his bath, under the +barber's hands, cleaned, shaved, brushed, polished, shining,--as he +himself would have declared, "in a jiffy" Then, deciding himself to be +presentable to the lady of his heart, took his crutch and sallied forth, +as good-looking a young fellow, spite of the wooden appendage, as any +the sun shone upon in all the big city, and as happy, as it was bright. + +He knew where to go, and, by help of street-cars and other legs than his +own, he was there speedily. He knew the very room towards which to turn; +and, reaching it, paused to look in through the half-open +door,--delighted thus to watch and listen for a little space unseen. + +Sallie was sitting, her handsome head bent over her sewing,--Frankie +gambolling about the floor. + +"O sis, _don't_ you wish Jim would come home?" queried the youngster. "I +do,--I wish he'd come right straight away." + +"Right straight away? What do _you_ want to see Jim for?" + +"O, 'cause he's nice; and 'cause he'll take me to the Theayter; and +'cause he'll treat,--apples, and peanuts, and candy, you know, +and--and--ice-cream," wiping the beads from his little red face,--the +last desideratum evidently suggested by the fiery summer heat. "I say, +Sallie!"--a pause--"won't you get me some ice-cream this evening?" + +"Yes, Bobbity, if you'll be a good boy." + +Frankie looked dubious over that proposition. Jim never made any such +stipulations: so, after another pause, in which he was probably +considering the whole subject with due and becoming gravity,--evidently +desiring to hear his own wish propped up by somebody else's +seconding,--he broke out again, "Now, Sallie, don't you just wish Jim +would come home?" + +"O Frankie, don't I?" cried the girl, dropping her work, and stretching +out her empty arms as though she would clasp some shape in the air. + +Frankie, poor child! innocently imagining the proffered embrace was for +him, ran forward, for he was an affectionate little soul, to give Sallie +a good hug, but found himself literally left out in the cold; no arms to +meet, and no Sallie, indeed, to touch him. Something big, burly, and +blue loomed up on his sight,--something that was doing its best to crush +Sallie bodily, and to devour what was not crushed; something that could +say nothing by reason of its lips being so much more pleasantly engaged, +and whose face was invisible through its extraordinary proximity to +somebody else's face and hair. + +Frankie, finding he could gain neither sight nor sound of notice, began +to howl. But as neither of the hard-hearted creatures seemed to care for +the poor little chap's howling, he fell upon the coat-tails of the big +blue obstruction, and pulled at them lustily,--not to say +viciously,--till their owner turned, and beheld him panting and fiery. + +"Helloa, youngster! what's to pay now?" + +"Wow! if 'tain't Jim. Hooray!" screeched the youngster, first embracing +the blue legs, and then proceeding to execute a dance upon his head. +"Te, te, di di, idde i-dum," he sang, coming feet down, finally. + +Evidently the bad boy's language had been corrupted by his street +_confreres_; it was a missionary ground upon which Sallie entered, more +or less faithfully, every day to hoe and weed; but of this last +specimen-plant she took no notice, save to laugh as Jim, catching him +up, first kissed him, then gave him a shake and a small spank, and, +thrusting a piece of currency into his hand, whisked him outside the +door with a "Come, shaver, decamp, and treat yourself to-day," and had +it shut and fastened in a twinkling. + +"O Jim!" she cried then, her soul in her handsome eyes. + +"O Sallie!"--and he had her fast and tight once more. + +An ineffable blank, punctuated liberally with sounding exclamation +points, and strongly marked periods,--though how or why a blank should +be punctuated at all, only blissful lovers could possibly define. + +"Jim, dear Jim!" whispering it, and snuggling her blushing face closer +to the faded blue, "can you love me after all that has happened?" + +"Come now! _can_ I love you, my beauty? Slightly, I should think. O, te, +te, di di, idde i-dum,"--singing Frank's little song with his big, gay +voice,--"I'm happy as a king." + +Happy as a king, that was plain enough. And what shall be said of her, +as he sat down, and, resting the wounded leg--stiff and sore yet,--held +Sallie on his other knee,--then fell to admiring her while she stroked +his mustache and his crisp, curling hair, looking at both and at him +altogether with an expression of contented adoration in her eyes. + +Frank, tired of prowling round the door, candy in hand, here thrust his +head in at the window, and, unfortunately for his plans, sneezed. +"Mutual-admiration society!" he cried at that, seeing that he was +detected in any case, and running away,--his run spoiled as soon as it +began. + +"We are a handsome couple," laughed Jim, holding back her face between +both hands,--"ain't we, now?" + +Yes, they were,--no mistake about that, handsome as pictures. + +And merry as birds, through all of his short stay. They would see no +danger in the future: Jim had been scathed in time past so often, yet +come out safe and sound, that they would have no fear for what was to +befall him in time to come. If they had, neither showed it to the other. +Jim thought, "Sallie would break her heart, if she knew just what is +down there,--so it would be a pity to talk about it"; and Sallie +thought, "It's right for Jim to go, and I won't say a word to keep him +back, no matter how I feel." + +The furlough was soon--ah! how soon--out, the days of happiness over; +and Jim, holding her in a last close embrace, said his farewell: "Come, +Sallie, you're not to cry now, and make me a coward. It'll only be for a +little while; the Rebs _can't_ stand it much longer, and then--" + +"Ah, Jim! but if you should--" + +"Yes, but I sha'n't, you see; not a bit of it; don't you go to think it. +'I bear'--what is it? O--'a charmed life,' as Mr. Macbeth says, and +you'll see me back right and tight, and up to time. One kiss more, dear. +God bless you! good by!" and he was gone. + +She leaned out of the window,--she smiled after him, kissed her hand, +waved her handkerchief, so long as he could see them,--till he had +turned a corner way down the street,--and smile, and hand, and +handkerchief were lost to his sight; then flung herself on the floor, +and cried as though her very heart would break. "God send him +home,--send him safe and soon home!" she implored; entreaty made for how +many loved ones, by how many aching hearts, that speedily lost the need +of saying amen to any such petition,--the prayer for the living lost in +mourning for the dead. Heaven grant that no soul that reads this ever +may have the like cause to offer such prayer again! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + "_When we see the dishonor of a thing, then it is time to + renounce it._" + + Plutarch + + +A letter which Sallie wrote to Jim a few weeks after his departure tells +its own story, and hence shall be repeated here. + + * * * * * + +Philadelphia, October 29, 1863. + +Dear Jim:-- + +I take my pen in hand this morning to write you a letter, and to tell +you the news, though I don't know much of the last except about Frankie +and myself. However, I suppose you will care more to hear that than any +other, so I will begin. + +Maybe you will be surprised to hear that Frankie and I are at Mr. +Ercildoune's. Well, we are,--and I will tell you how it came about. Not +long after you went away, Frank began to pine, and look droopy. There +wasn't any use in giving him medicine, for it didn't do him a bit of +good. He couldn't eat, and he didn't sleep, and I was at my wits' ends +to know what to do for him. + +One day Mrs. Lee,--that Mr. Ercildoune's housekeeper,--an old English +lady she is, and she's lived with him ever since he was married, and +before he came here,--a real lady, too,--came in with some sewing, some +fine shirts for Mr. Robert Ercildoune. I asked after him, and you'll be +glad to know that he's recovering. He didn't have to lose his leg, as +they feared; and his arm is healing; and the wound in his breast getting +well. Mrs. Lee says she's very sorry the stump isn't longer, so that he +could wear a Palmer arm,--but she's got no complaints to make; they're +only too glad and thankful to have him living at all, after such a +dreadful time. + +While I was talking with her, Frankie called me from the next room, and +began to cry. You wouldn't have known him,--he cried at everything, and +was so fretful and cross I could scarcely get along at all. When I got +him quiet, and came back, Mrs. Lee says, "What's the matter with Frank?" +so I told her I didn't know,--but would she see him? Well, she saw him, +and shook her head in a bad sort of way that scared me awfully, and I +suppose she saw I was frightened, for she said, "All he wants is plenty +of fresh air, and good, wholesome country food and exercise." I can +tell you, spite of that, she went away, leaving me with heavy enough a +heart. + +The next day Mr. Ercildoune came in. How he is changed! I haven't seen +him before since Mrs. Surrey died, and that of itself was enough to kill +him, without this dreadful time about Mr. Robert. + +"Good morning, Miss Sallie," says he, "how are you? and I'm glad to see +you looking so well." So I told him I was well, and then he asked for +Frankie. "Mrs. Lee tells me," he said, "that your little brother is +quite ill, and that he needs country air and exercise. He can have them +both at The Oaks; so if you'll get him ready, the carriage will come for +you at whatever time you appoint. Mrs. Lee can find you plenty of work +as long as you care to stay." He looked as if he wanted to say something +more, but didn't; and I was just as sure as sure could be that it was +something about Miss Francesca, probably about her having me out there +so much; for his face looked so sad, and his lips trembled so, I knew +that must be in his mind. And when I thought of it, and of such an awful +fate as it was for her, so young, and handsome, and happy, like the +great baby I am, I just threw my apron over my head, and burst out +crying. + +"Don't!" he said,--"don't!" in O, such a voice! It was like a knife +going through me; and he went quick out of the room, and downstairs, +without even saying good by. + +Well, we came out the next day,--and I have plenty to do, and Frankie is +getting real bright and strong. I can see Mr. Ercildoune likes to have +us here, because of the connection with Miss Francesca. She was so +interested in us, and so kind to us, and he knows I loved her so very +dearly,--and if it's any comfort to him I'm sure I'm glad to be here, +without taking Frankie into the account,--for the poor gentleman looks +so bowed and heart-broken that it makes one's heart ache just to see +him. Mr. Robert isn't well enough to be about yet, but he sits up for a +while every day, and is getting on--the doctor says--nicely. They both +talk about you often; and Mr. Ercildoune, I can see, thinks everything +of you for that good, kind deed of yours, when you and Mr. Robert were +on the transport together. Dear Jim, he don't know you as well as I do, +or he'd know that you couldn't help doing such things,--not if you +tried. + +I hope you'll like the box that comes with this. Mr. Robert had it +packed for you in his own room, to see that everything went in that +you'd like. Of course, as he's been a soldier himself, he knows better +what they want than anybody else can. + +Dear Jim, do take care of yourself; don't go and get wounded; and don't +get sick; and, whatever you do, don't let the rebels take you prisoner, +unless you want to drive me frantic. I think about you pretty much all +the time, and pray for you, as well as I know how, every night when I go +to bed, and am always + +Your own loving + +Sallie. + + * * * * * + +"Wow!" said Jim, as he read, "she's in a good berth there." So she +was,--and so she stayed. Frankie got quite well once more, and Sallie +began to think of going, but Mr. Ercildoune evidently clung to her and +to the sunshine which the bright little fellow cast through the house. +Sallie was quite right in her supposition. Francesca had cared for this +girl, had been kind to her and helped her,--and his heart went out to +everything that reminded him of his dear, dead child. So it happened +that autumn passed, and winter, and spring,--and still they stayed. In +fact, she was domesticated in the house, and, for the first time in +years, enjoyed the delightful sense of a home. Here, then, she set up +her rest, and remained; here, when the "cruel war was over," the armies +disbanded, the last regiments discharged, and Jimmy "came marching +home," brown, handsome, and a captain, here he found her,--and from here +he married and carried her away. + +It was a happy little wedding, though nobody was there beside the +essentials, save the family and a dear friend of Robert's, who was with +him at the time, as he had been before and would be often again,--none +other than William Surrey's favorite cousin and friend, Tom Russell. + +The letter which Surrey had written never reached his hand till he lay +almost dying from the effects of wounds and exposure, after he had been +brought in safety to our lines by his faithful black friends, at Morris +Island. Surrey had not mistaken his temper; gay, reckless fellow, as he +was, he was a thorough gentleman, in whom could harbor no small spite, +nor petty prejudice,--and without a mean fibre in his being. At a glance +he took in the whole situation, and insisting upon being propped up in +bed, with his own hand--though slowly, and as a work of +magnitude--succeeded in writing a cordial letter of congratulation and +affection, that would have been to Surrey like the grasp of a brother's +hand in a strange and foreign country, had it ever reached his touch and +eyes. + +But even while Tom lay writing his letter, occasionally muttering, +"They'll have a devilish hard time of it!" or "Poor young un!" or "She's +one in a million!" or some such sentence which marked his feeling and +care,--these two of whom he thought, to whose future he looked with such +loving anxiety, were beyond the reach of human help or hindrance,--done +alike with the sorrows and joys of time. + +From a distance, with the help of a glass, and absorbing interest, he +had followed the movements of the flag and its bearer, and had cheered, +till he fainted from weakness and exhaustion, as he saw them safe at +last. It was with delight that he found himself on the same transport +with Ercildoune, and discovered in him the brother of the young girl for +whom, in the past, he had had so pleasing and deep a regard, and whose +present and future were so full of interest for him, in their new and +nearer relations. + +These two young men, unlike as they were in most particulars, were drawn +together by an irresistible attraction. They had that common bond, +always felt and recognized by those who possess it, of the gentle +blood,--tastes and instincts in common, and a fine, chivalrous +sentiment which each felt and thoroughly appreciated in the other. The +friendship thus begun grew with the passing years, and was intensified a +hundred fold by a portion of the past to which they rarely referred, but +which lay always at the bottom of their hearts. They had each for those +two who had lain dead together in the streets of New York the strongest +and tenderest love,--and though it was not a tie about which they could +talk, it bound them together as with chains of steel. + +Russell was with Ercildoune at the time of the wedding, and entered into +it heartily, as they all did. The result was, as has been written, the +gayest and merriest of times. Sallies dress, which Robert had given her, +was a sight to behold; and the pretty jewels, which were a part of his +gift, and the long veil, made her look, as Jim declared, "so handsome he +didn't know her,"--though that must have been one of Jim's stories, or +else he was in the habit of making love to strange ladies with +extraordinary ease and effrontery. + +The breakfast was another sight to behold. As Mary the cook said to Jane +the housemaid, "If they'd been born kings and queens, Mrs. Lee couldn't +have laid herself out more; it's grand, so it is,--just you go and see;" +which Jane proceeded to do, and forthwith thereafter corroborated Mary's +enthusiastic statement. + +There were plenty of presents, too: and when it was all over, and they +were in the carriage, to be sent to the station, Mr. Ercildoune, +holding Sallie's hand in farewell, left there a bit of paper, "which is +for you," he said. "God protect, and keep you happy, my child!" Then +they were gone, with many kind adieus and good wishes called and sent +after them. When they were seated in the cars, Sallie looked at her bit +of paper, and read on its outer covering, "A wedding-gift to Sallie +Howard from my dear daughter Francesca," and found within the deed of a +beautiful little home. God bless her! say we, with Mr. Ercildoune. God +bless them both, and may they live long to enjoy it! + +That afternoon, as Tom and Robert were driving, Russell, noting the +unwonted look of life and activity, and the gay flags flung to the +breeze, demanded what it all meant. "Why," said he, "it is like a field +day." + +"It is so," answered Robert, "or what is the same; it is election day." + +"Bless my soul! so it is; and a soldier to be elected. Have you voted?" + +"No!" + +"No? Here's a nice state of affairs! a fellow that'll get his arm blown +off for a flag, but won't take the trouble to drop a scrap of paper for +it. Come, I'll drive you over." + +"You forget, Russell!" + +"Forget? Nonsense! This isn't 1860, but 1865. I don't forget; I +remember. It is after the war now,--come." + +"As you please," said Robert. He knew the disappointment that awaited +his friend, but he would not thwart him now. + +There was a great crowd about the polling-office, and they all looked on +with curious interest as the two young men came up. No demonstration was +made, though a half-dozen brutal fellows uttered some coarse remarks. + +"Hear the damned Rebs talk!" said a man in the army blue, who, with keen +eyes, was observing the scene. "They're the same sort of stuff we licked +in Carolina." + +"Ay," said another, "but with a difference; blue led there; but gray'll +come off winner here, or I'm mistaken." + +Robert stood leaning upon his cane; a support which he would need for +life, one empty sleeve pinned across his breast, over the scar from a +deep and yet unhealed wound. The clear October sun shone down upon his +form and face, upon the broad folds of the flag that waved in triumph +above him, upon a country where wars and rumors of wars had ceased. + +"Courage, man! what ails you?" whispered Russell, as he felt his comrade +tremble; "it's a ballot in place of a bayonet, and all for the same +cause; lay it down." + +Robert put out his hand. + +"Challenge the vote!" "Challenge the vote!" "No niggers here!" sounded +from all sides. + +The bit of paper which Ercildoune had placed on the window-ledge +fluttered to the ground on the outer side, and, looking at Tom, Robert +said quietly, "1860 or 1865?--is the war ended?" + +"No!" answered Tom, taking his arm, and walking away. "No, my friend! so +you and I will continue in the service." + +"Not ended;--it is true! how and when will it be closed?" + +"That is for the loyal people of America to decide," said Russell, as +they turned their faces towards home. + +How and when will it be closed? a question asked by the living and the +dead,--to which America must respond. + +Among the living is a vast army: black and white,--shattered and maimed, +and blind: and these say, "Here we stand, shattered and maimed, that the +body politic might be perfect! blind forever, that the glorious sun of +liberty might shine abroad throughout the land, for all people, through +all coming time." + +And the dead speak too. From their crowded graves come voices of +thrilling and persistent pathos, whispering, "Finish the work that has +fallen from our nerveless hands. Let no weight of tyranny, nor taint of +oppression, nor stain of wrong, cumber the soil nor darken the land we +died to save." + + + + +NOTE + + +Since it is impossible for any one memory to carry the entire record of +the war, it is well to state, that almost every scene in this book is +copied from life, and that the incidents of battle and camp are part of +the history of the great contest. + +The story of Fort Wagner is one that needs no such emphasis, it is too +thoroughly known; that of the Color-Sergeant, whose proper name is W.H. +Carney, is taken from a letter written by General M.S. Littlefield to +Colonel A.G. Browne, Secretary to Governor Andrew. + +From the _New York Tribune_ and the _Providence Journal_ were taken the +accounts of the finding of Hunt, the coming of the slaves into a South +Carolina camp, and the voluntary carrying, by black men, ere they were +enlisted, of a schooner into the fight at Newbern. Than these two +papers, none were considered more reliable and trustworthy in their war +record. + +Almost every paper in the North published the narrative of the black man +pushing off the boat, for which an official report is responsible. The +boat was a flat-boat, with a company of soldiers on board; and the +battery under the fire of which it fell was at Rodman's Point, North +Carolina. In drawing the outlines of this, as of the others, I have +necessarily used a somewhat free pencil, but the main incident of each +has been faithfully preserved. + +The disabled black soldier my own eyes saw thrust from a car in +Philadelphia. + +The portraits of Ercildoune and his children may seem to some +exaggerated; those who have, as I, the rare pleasure of knowing the +originals, will say, "the half has not been told." + +Every leading New York paper, Democratic and Republican, was gone over, +ere the summary of the Riots was made; and I think the record will be +found historically accurate. The _Anglo-African_ gives the story of poor +Abram Franklin; and the assault on Surrey has its likeness in the death +of Colonel O'Brien. + +In a conversation between Surrey and Francesca, allusion is made to an +act the existence of which I have frequently heard doubted. I therefore +copy here a part of the "Retaliatory Act," passed by the Rebel +Government at Richmond, and approved by its head, May 1, 1863:-- + +"Sec. 4. Every white person, being a commissioned officer, or acting as +such, who, during the present war, shall command negroes or mulattoes in +arms against the Confederate States, or who shall arm, train, organize, +or prepare negroes or mulattoes for military service against the +Confederate States, or who shall voluntarily aid negroes or mulattoes in +any military enterprise, attack, or conflict in such service, shall be +deemed as inciting servile insurrection; and shall, if captured, be put +to death." + +I have written this book, and send it to the consciences and the hearts +of the American people. May God, for whose "little ones" I have here +spoken, vivify its words. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of What Answer?, by Anna E. 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