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LOVE AND WAR: 
 
 A PHOTOGRAPH OP THE CONFEDERATE 
 WAR IN THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 TAKEN FROM KENTUCKY. 
 
 A. MONUMENT 
 TO ONE 
 
 WHO DIED TO DE 
 EHEE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 VICTORIA PRESS, 85, PRAED STREET, PADDINGTON, W. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
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 of Liberty on the U.S. coins. 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/lovewarphotograpOOunse 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This book, written partly as an outlet to feelings that threatened to overwhelm 
 heart or brain, and partly as a chronicle, is, if I am capable of judging, a true 
 photograph of the Confederate War begun in 1861. 
 
 I have since the end of the contest put as far away as possible all thoughts of it 
 that are of a national character ; to me, as to thousands, that character has long 
 since merged itself into a personal remembrance. Those dearest to us sacrificed 
 heroic lives for a cause that has perished. Shall we allow them to he forgotten ? 
 This literary monument to my Dead will be a memorial to everyone who fell in 
 behalf of the freedom of the South. Our victors will write novels and histories 
 that will condemn them ; shall the Dead find no defender P When some grand- 
 children of Southern politicians hear their ancestors blamed for the doctrines of 
 States’ Rights and Secession, they may not be sorry to find their justification in 
 Laura’s arguments. Virginia’s earnest advocacy of Kentucky hut expressed the 
 pain her condemnation by some Southerners caused the writer. 
 
 I do not publish this book with any feeling of pleasure, because to be true to 
 the Dead and my own past I must send forth to the world many sentences against 
 the Unionists, among whom are my very dearest friends ; yet it is equally true, 
 as far as I can recollect, that I never felt any bitterness against one of them. 
 
 My resolution to print the book was shaken by a fear that I might reawaken 
 feelings Christians had better bury; but although we are commanded to forgive 
 our enemies, God has not bidden us forget, because the Author of the human mind 
 knew memory was not under the control of the will. 
 
 I am truly sorry to leave the strong expressions about our opponents ; but to 
 erase them would be to falsify the era I have truly photographed, and the picture 
 would not be true were the scars and the wens effaced. I do not believe even an 
 enemy can charge me with falsifying the history of the years almost as painful 
 in remembrance as in fact. It is well for men to read hooks in which actions 
 and enactments unnecessarily brutal are held up to detestation ; they will be less 
 likely to. yield to temptations of demons if placed in positions of power. 
 
 When the MSS. were shown to the printer, he thought they would make two 
 volumes ; it was necessary to cut them down to one. Sometimes the “ said Laura,” 
 or “ Keble replied ” is left out, and so confusion created; this is much to be 
 regretted, but was discovered too late to be remedied. A conversation is some- 
 times abruptly begun from the same cause. The great difficulty was to cut out 
 about half of what had been in. Before the printer saw the MSS. they had been 
 twice read and weeded. This labour was far greater than that of writing it, for 
 that was done under a high pressure state of feeling that prevented its being felt 
 as a labour. 
 
 Many of the extracts from private journals were taken from a diary not written 
 for the public, and are given as the- truest photographs of the time. The war 
 must be a part of American history ; let historians learn from such records as 
 mine how one side felt. 
 
11 . 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The three heroines are named after distinguished Southerners ; one of the 
 heroes after a Northern Bishop, whose sentiments must have greatly differed 
 from Lieutenant Huntington’s; but this name was given as indicative of the 
 fact that though the Church was for a while divided by “ military necessity ” she 
 was never rent asunder by Secession, because the Northern Church had not 
 outraged the Southern. Another hero is named after the Poet Laureate of the 
 Anglican Church, and the author of “ Sacra Privata.” 
 
 When I wrote the book I expected it would be a posthumous publication ; but 
 I have learned that whatever we wish to be done after we are dead, we must do 
 or have done while we live. Had I then felt this I should have used fewer names 
 of my contemporaries, and should not have made so much mention of a certain 
 general, whom I had never seen, but who aroused my sympathy because he was 
 more reviled in our newspapers than any other Kentuckian, except, perhaps, Gen. 
 Morgan, whom I was not reluctant always to extol, because he brought into 
 modern warfare much of ancient chivalry. 
 
 It is with great diffidence I publish this work — if I can be said to publish a 
 work of which only 100 copies are printed, and the type distributed, and of these 
 100 copies thirty are for private distribution ; the others will probably find their 
 way to street booksellers ; but my intention will be accomplished if a few are pre- 
 served in Southern colleges. I am like the writer of an ancient manuscript, who 
 expected only two or three of a generation to read that of which it was a mental 
 necessity his brain should be delivered. 
 
LOVE AND 
 
 WAR. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 April 13th, 1861 
 
 “ Heigh-ho ! How do so many charming people happen to be together ? ” 
 shouted, rather than asked, Mr. Myers. It was a very pleasant circle, and 
 seemed harmonious enough before he intruded. The thirteenth of April was 
 one of those favourite afternoons in which people pretend to have fire in the 
 grate, while every door and window is open to woo the capricious loveliness of 
 the oldest of flirts — an early Spring. 
 
 Mr. Urston and Miss Minnie Brickenridge seemed sadly at a loss whether a 
 crimson hyacinth or a scarlet pyrus japonica should be put next to a cluster of 
 irises which were the centre of attraction. Laura Buckner, on a stool at 
 Miss Johnston’s feet, on whose lap were crossed her pretty hands, appeared 
 unconscious of Minnie and her lovers. 
 
 What was to be done with Mr. Myers ? Of course, he should have seated 
 himself by the two ladies who had no beau ; but as neither gave him a second 
 glance, nor made the first longer than politeness required, he went over to 
 laugh at the bouquet for his rival. 
 
 “Why! how did I ever get so many irisis together?” asked Minnie, some- 
 what guiltily. 
 
 “I do not care how thick the sweet lips are,” said Mr. Urston, “if they will 
 bring me pleasant messages.” 
 
 “An admirer of thick lips, eh, Mr. Urston? why not choose an Ethiop 
 beauty? ’’The coarse joke producing silent disgust, Mr. Myers declared he had 
 great news. 
 
 “Do tell us what it is!” exclaimed Minnie, but no other curiosity was 
 excited. 
 
 “Guess.” 
 
 “How can I?” 
 
 “Try.” 
 
 “I can’t.” 
 
 “Play twenty questions.” 
 
 “Well, Laura and Auntie, you must help,” said Minnie. 
 
 “Help about what?” asked Auntie. 
 
 “To play twenty questions.” 
 
 The two applied to, being ladylike enough to stop a pleasant conversation to 
 do a distasteful thing, the oracle took a chair, and said, “Each one in turn.” 
 
 “Does your news belong to the animal kingdom?” 
 
 “Yes; if you class yourself with ourang-outangs on the one hand and 
 Pharisees on the other.” 
 
 “Have we any personal interest therein?” 
 
2 
 
 LOVE AND WAD. 
 
 •‘That depends upon whether you are a politician. ” 
 
 “Is it a national event?” asked Laura. 
 
 “ Not unless the ‘baying of dogs at the moon’ may be so considered.” 
 
 “Will it do anybody any good?” asked Miss Johnston. 
 
 “If it prove to be of any consequence it will benefit persons without con- 
 sciences, and with long heads who will make fortunes. ” 
 
 “How?” 
 
 “By frightening the people.” 
 
 “Have I any interest in the matter?” 
 
 “You may have, Miss Laura, if you are fond of brass buttons.” 
 
 “Quite the contrary.” 
 
 At Mr. Myers’ last remark, Miss Johnston looked up eagerly, and as soon as 
 Laura had answered him, said, — 
 
 “Pray tell us immediately if there is any news from South Carolina?” 
 
 “The fir^-eaters have taken Fort Sumter.” 
 
 “Hurrah!” Minnie sprang up and clapped her hands; Urston rose and 
 planted his feet firmly as he compressed his lips; Laura, whom her most 
 intimate friend had never seen shed a tear, buried her face in Miss Johnston’s 
 lap, trembling in every nerve. Aunt Emily’s face flushed, and she said, more 
 sternly than Minnie had ever heard her — 
 
 “Minnie, child! Are you crazy? Do you know what you are rejoicing 
 over ? The destruction of our Republic, the sacrifice of thousands of lives, the 
 loss of hundreds of immortal souls, widows and orphans’ tears, beggary, uni- 
 versal anarchy and ultimate ruin. ” 
 
 Laura lifted her head. 
 
 “Oh no! Miss Johnston. Our noble government will never force her 
 children to submit to her tender rule. South Carolina is not worthy of her 
 parentage ; so let her go. ” 
 
 “It is only a little bluster,” said Myers, the only one not deeply moved. 
 “Such language as that would make cowards brave.” 
 
 “The Yankees are too cute to war about the thing,” answered Myers. 
 
 “ I don’t know,” responded Urston; “ men whose brains are in their pockets 
 are never to be trusted.” 
 
 “ You are very unjust !” exclaimed Laura, who never could in silence hear an 
 unjust accusation. 
 
 “Time will decide between us, Miss Buckner; I was educated in the 
 North.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ And I have many dear friends there, and go East every summer. I don’t think 
 the Southerners ever did the Northerners justice. I used to have a prejudice 
 against all I classed as Yankees ; but I was willing to acknowledge my mistake 
 and injustice as soon as I found them out.” 
 
 “ Neither North nor South has done justice to its opponent; for neither 
 appreciates the other ; probably this war will teach both a lesson. ” 
 
 “ Why will you talk about a war, Auntie ? The Yankees won’t fight,” said 
 Minnie. 
 
 “ There are other people besides Yankees in the North ; and if it is for the 
 interest of the New Englanders to retain all the Southern States, they will try 
 to the bitter end,” said Urston. 
 
 “ It is a great pity that Colonel Hayne was informed that Fort Sumter could 
 be neither sold nor evacuated.” 
 
 “ Who is Colonel Hayne ?” asked Laura. 
 
 “A Commissioner from South Carolina.” 
 
 “ South Carolina is always too excitable on the slavery question, ’’said Myers. 
 “ Not too easily,” responded Urston,” she has cause to be suspicious. Only 
 last February the House of Representatives decided that Congress has no right 
 to interfere with slavery in the States — (Yeas 161 ; nays 0) — and Lincoln assured 
 the Kentuckians that his administration would treat all the States as brothers.” 
 ‘ ‘ The opinion of one man, even if that man be president, is of small importance 
 except to his own reputation.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 3 
 
 “ But if his Cabinet agree with him ?” 
 
 “ It has a right to its opinions ; but Congress governs this country,” replied 
 Myers. ” 
 
 * * In time of peace. ” 
 
 “ You provoke me, Urston ; we might suppose from your language that 
 Lincoln was Napoleon, Americans Frenchmen, the Cabinet a Star Chamber, 
 and the Congress a Long Parliament.” 
 
 “ I tell you, South Carolina has done right; let every Southern sister join 
 her and we are safe. ” 
 
 “ Safe from what ?” 
 
 “ Oppression.” 
 
 Myers’ laugh was echoed by Minnie’s, and even Miss Johnston looked amused. 
 
 Laura curled her lips, and said, “ Do you fancy we are in Austria ?” 
 
 “ No ; but let the Yankees once establish their inferno-religious government, 
 and we are gone ; you can’t fight Puritans with words. You said, Mr. Myers, 
 that the House refused to interfere with slavery iu the States ; you forgot to 
 mention that the Senate has rejected Crittenden’s proposition ; so let the 
 fifteen Southern States reject the Senate. Governor Magoffin has given voice 
 to the indignation of Kentucky, and everybody knows she will furnish neither 
 men nor money. ” 
 
 “ Then the Governor seems inclined to condemn some Southern States. 
 At least one-third of the fifteen States have openly opposed secession while 
 another third has been bullied or cheated into it. Why should Kentucky 
 drench her soil in blood to please five States, who never cared enough for her 
 opinion to ask it, for her acquiescence to seek it ?” 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ✓ 
 
 ‘ ‘ Laura, what a riddle you are,” exclaimed Minnie, to her confidante. 
 “ Why can’t you love somebody ?” 
 
 “ I love a good many.” 
 
 “ Pshaw ! I mean, why don’t you love some of the men ?” 
 
 “ I don’t know many, and the few I do know happen to be already mated ; 
 at least, yoked.” 
 
 “ Don’t know many men ! There’s Thornton ; how r handsome he is !” 
 
 “ Is he ?” 
 
 “ Are you blind ?” 
 
 “ I can’t see a man through a layer of self-conceit and a visor of brass.” 
 
 “ Well, Millard ?” 
 
 “ I have no fancy for school boys.” 
 
 “ Why, he’s the most intelligent young man I know.” . 
 
 “ I like to find out for myself how much capacity a man has ; if he has to 
 inform me by telling me how many books he has read, the zest of discovery is 
 lost.” 
 
 “ I defy you to abuse Mr. Stark.” 
 
 “ A challenge I’ll never accept in regard to any gentleman.” 
 
 “ Why don’t you take him ? he has been courting you long enough.” 
 
 “ Where did you obtain your information ?” 
 
 “ From observation. Now, Laura, be amiable about answering my questions 
 — just for once — what objection have you to him ?” 
 
 “ He is not sufficiently inquisitive after truth, nor self-reliant enough. But 
 it is my turn to ask a question. I am out of patience with you. How can you 
 flirt so with Mr. Myers ” 
 
4 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 “ How can I help it ? I can’t be rude.” 
 
 “You prefer being barbarous.” 
 
 “ How ?” 
 
 “You think slow torture is preferable to a quick End — pardon me — an easy 
 death. ” 
 
 “ Laura, you are unkind.” 
 
 “ I know he loves you as well as he, or, perhaps, most lovers, can, for people 
 are generally in such a hurry to marry that they see the right persons after- 
 wards. ” 
 
 “ I meant you were unkind to upbraid me. How can I hurt his feelings ?” 
 
 “ Ho you remember when we were children, and Tommie Black tore off 
 the wings of a butterfly ?” 
 
 “ Yes ; I cried and snatched it from him, and held it to my bosom ; but you 
 said it was cruel to let it suffer, and took it from me and put it under your foot ; 
 but I saw you shudder, though you made out you didn’t. ” 
 
 “ Treat Myers as summarily.” 
 
 “Indeed I do not flirt, except a very little, for fun.” 
 
 “If you flirted from any cause but weakness, you would be no friend of mine.” 
 “ It grieves me to see such affection lavished upon me ; it should be treasured 
 as a miser hoards his gold. I have not courage enough to repulse a man. You 
 can cool a man off as if he had entered an ice-house. I have’nt the slightest idea 
 how you do it. ” 
 
 “ And pet, I hope you never will have.” 
 
 “ That’s strange.” 
 
 “ Trees may be very well satisfied with their own height, but they wouldn’t 
 like to lose the flowers by having them assume their dignity. ” 
 
 “ I am selfish ; that is the reason I can’t give pain.” 
 
 “ Would that I were one-tenth as unselfish.” 
 
 “You may have my most devoted. ’Tis true, I believe, I like him rather 
 the best ; but there are half-a-dozen others will suit me as well. Don’t curl your 
 lips. ” 
 
 “ Minnie, how can you so desecrate the idea of love ?” 
 
 “What is love, Lady Wiseacre ?” 
 
 “ If I tell you, will you believe me ?” 
 
 “If it agrees with Auntie’s definition.” 
 
 “ I will tell you, for you grieve me. Sit down here, sweet.” She drew her 
 down on her lap with the air a mother assumes towards a wayward pet child. 
 “Love cannot be defined any more than such words as God and Eternity.” 
 “God is love,” Minnie’s voice lowered, as it always did when she quoted 
 Scripture. 
 
 “And love is eternity.” 
 
 “What?” 
 
 4 ‘ How shall I tell you what I want you to understand. Do you remember 
 when we at Niagara, stood side by side on the bridge which leads to Prospect 
 Tower ?” 
 
 “And you forgot people could see you, and pressed me to you so violently 
 that I cried out.” 
 
 “I did it to prevent myself from leaping into the glorious cataract ; I felt 
 that I was the soul of the grand Niagara, and all my life had wandered without 
 a body, and there it was before me. It seemed that if I could but give myself 
 to it I should never have another longing. To me life and death, heaven and 
 hell were nothing. Only God and I were in the universe. I felt Him ; I was 
 certain that could I but embody myself in Niagara I should be with Him ‘ face 
 to face.’ I felt that one leap into that river — the Jordan of my pilgrimage — 
 and I should be pure for ever more. Do you think anything impure or unholy 
 could become one with Niagara ?” 
 
 “ Oh’ now I know what you mean by all your pretty sayings. Auntie has 
 told me that none can love perfectly unless they are holy ; you mean Niagara 
 is like love. Auntie said she did not believe you would become a Christian 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 5 
 
 until you knew a great joy or a great grief. ” 
 
 “ A great joy — that seems strange.” 
 
 “ Oh no ! It’s when I’m happiest out in the fields or woods by myself, kissing 
 the flowers and singing to the birds, that I love God most *” 
 
 “I have known too much joy ; I feel that my character grows weak. I want 
 to know a great sorrow and be humbled. ” 
 
 “ You frighten me. Hush, Laura, hush !” 
 
 “ Ho I, Birdie ? Then I’m done.” 
 
 “ But you haven’t told me what love is.” 
 
 “It is like Niagara ; it engulphs everything, it loses nothing.” 
 
 “ Niagara runs into the ocean.” 
 
 “And mingles withj.it as will love with eternity.” 
 
 “Will you ever love ?” 
 
 “When I forget myself.” 
 
 “ Like Auntie, again ; she says I have never loved because I never think of 
 anything but my own fun.” 
 
 “That isn’t exactly true.” 
 
 “ Yes, it is ; because Auntie says it ; but I didn’t know it before.” 
 
 “I did not mean what your Auntie did. I meant I would never be so foolish 
 as to give myself up to the absurd exhibition of namby-pamby sentiment that 
 you call love. I am too proud to tolerate absurdity, even in my suitors.” 
 
 “ Oh ! wouldn’t it be fun to see you in love ! But will you be an old maid ?” 
 “ Assuredly. I honour a woman who respects her individuality, more than a 
 ridiculous notion of silly people.” 
 
 “ What sort of a wonderful man could you fall in love with ?” 
 
 “ With one whose brow is always bathed in the clouds of heaven and whose 
 feet never stumble on the earth.” 
 
 “Pity you did not know Jim Porter. But, I believe he was only seven feet. 
 Cousin Tom said he would try to catch you, but you are so grand and strong- 
 looking that only a strong, large man could hold you.” 
 
 Laura’s face was scornful indeed as she replied, “I shall despise your cousin 
 for that speech, as if I were a wild creature to be run down by a beast ! I hate 
 big men ; they seem so like animals. If I could find a man 4 all soul ’ I’d marry 
 him. He could control me by the power of love in his eyes, though no one 
 could by brute strength. I like little men like Wellington and Napoleon, and 
 a host of ‘ little giants, ’ whose force was not in their muscle, but in their 
 brains.” 
 
 “Wouldn’t you make a fine show with some little fellow you could take 
 under your arm and carry over a mud hole ?” 
 
 “I shall not select a husband, as, judging from their talk, some foolish girls 
 would, for the effect he and I should make in a promenade ; we shall not ex- 
 hibit ourselves as a spectacle for a gaping crowd, even on our wedding night ; 
 but angels may look down and en — bah !” 
 
 Minnie threw her arms around her friend’s neck and exclaimed — 
 
 “Oh, Laura, you do delight me ! After all your lectures about my romance, 
 you have written out one on your heart that angels may like to read. Good ! 
 oh, the fortunate coming man ! I wish the dear little specimen of spirituality 
 would come.” 
 
 “Don’t be ridiculous because I was. I only meant to express my contempt 
 for women who would value a man according to the number of cubic inches of 
 air the animal could displace, and would let a man with a grand soul and a 
 capacious brain pass unheeded because he was little. ” 
 
 “Yes, dear.” But Minnie’s eyes were luminous with amusement. After 
 all, her grand friend who lectured her — was more romantic than she. 
 
 “ But, Laura, what did you mean by saying you wanted a man with his head 
 in the clouds ? do you like dreamers ?” 
 
 “Not for husbands ; what I meant was, that my beloved must have practical 
 sense, and yet be sublime in spirit ; he must know how to support me, and yet 
 not think over much of what selfish men call interests ; he must be afraid to 
 flatter me, or to speak aloud in church. ” 
 
6 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “That is a profane combination of ideas.” 
 
 “He must honour woman and reverence God, and yet he must never ask 
 what any man thinks of his actions ; if he thinks it right he must even tear 
 out my heart and put his feet upon it.” 
 
 “And meanwhile what would you he doing in your newly-assumed, and, I 
 fear, ill-fitting character of victim?” 
 
 “Crucifying his very souL The man who could sink so low as to try to 
 wound any loving heart I should ridicule as a zany : the man whom I mean 
 would love, almost idolatrously, not quite ; for he who loves me must love the 
 right still more.” 
 
 “Well, there’s Sam Wright ; I bet he loves the right more than anything in 
 the world. ” 
 
 “I believe I’d rather marry a street-sweeper than a selfish man.” 
 
 “Oh my ! Prospere is selfish.” 
 
 “Set your dress on fire; but never marry a selfish man.” 
 
 “I like company, and who’ll keep me company when I’m old?” 
 
 “Flowers, and birds, and pictures, and the clouds.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ All very charming, when I’ve somebody to think it very charming in me to 
 appreciate them. ” 
 
 “A libel ! Your whole soul lives in nature.” 
 
 “The natural consequence of which is my desire to be natural and love some 
 man, as all the' other girls do — except you ; and I don’t believe you love any- 
 body except Coleridge, and Kant, and Shakespeare, and all such tiresome 
 fellows. You can afford to be an old maid; you can read for ever, and never 
 care whether anybody knows you open a book. ” 
 
 “I like to talk about books, as I do of any other friends, but I don’t care to 
 talk about either with indifferent people.” 
 
 “Mr. Millard loves to talk about books.” 
 
 “Not because he loves them; but to show himself off and please me; a 
 cyclopaedia is a very valuable institution ; but it should stand submissively on 
 the shelf until it is sought for, and not try to be lifting its ponderous self into 
 the place of poets and philosophers. ” 
 
 “Laura, don’t you want a walk? I’m getting sleepy.” 
 
 “ I have finished my sermon ; now you may preach yours, and I’ll promise 
 to profit most by the instruction given.” 
 
 “I preach? a good joke that.” 
 
 “You do always, pet, as soon as you forget the beaux and such trash, and 
 put on your surplice.” 
 
 “What?” 
 
 “Your long white sun-bonnet.” 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 April 26th, 1861. 
 
 “Mr. Buckner, what do you think my old state will do?” asked Miss 
 Johnston. 
 
 “Undoubtedly, the Virginia of 1861 will show the spirit of the Virginia of 
 1773. Ho you remember that the Virginians were preparing to entertain Lady 
 Dunmore, that a ball in her honour was to be given in Williamsburg when the 
 Boston Post Bill was read in the House of Burgesses ; and the noble southern 
 hearts forgot their festivities, disregarded their loyalty, and knew no other 
 business but the effort to intercede for their brethren of Massachusetts ; not 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 7 
 
 only was a protest entered on their journal, but a day of fasting and prayer 
 was appointed. ” 
 
 “Was this only because the liberties of Massachusetts were invaded?” 
 “Certainly not. Long before Washington and Mason had set the example 
 of abstaining from all taxed articles ; but as all taxes except the one on tea had 
 then been repealed, the Virginians were having a gay enough time, until this 
 heavy blow was struck at Massachusetts.” 
 
 “Do you believe slavery to be the cause of the Rebellion ?” 
 
 “One of the causes, in the same sense that wealth is the cause of dishonesty. 
 I think the Fugitive Slave Law was the steel, the Personal Liberty Bills the 
 flint, and Puritanism the tinder that ignited the Union .’ * 
 
 “I never liked the Fugitive Slave Law.” 
 
 “I don’t wonder at that. As an individual, I never would return a slave to 
 a probably harsh master ; but, as a citizen, I never should oppose an officer in 
 the discharge of his duty, which is, to carry out every statute of his Govern- 
 ment. The first authorised violation of the Constitution was the passage of 
 Personal Liberty Bills. ” 
 
 “But how can you object to this, as you area States Bights man ?” 
 
 “I shall not complain of some States exercising their rights therein, if they 
 will allow others an equal exercise of theirs. But if one State can refuse to 
 obey one article of the Constitution, or one decree of the Supreme Court, another 
 can reject all.” 
 
 “There is one good argument I am surprised never to have seen used. 
 When Virginia gratuitously ceded to the United States the tract of land lying 
 between the Ohio and Mississippi to be free States, she received a pledge in- 
 serted in the Ordinance that fugitive slaves should be delivered up.” 
 
 “ I thought Virginia ceded the land gratuitously ?” 
 
 “She did, for, as this clause was only copied from the old Constitution, she 
 had possessed the guarantee before. But as it was again pledged to her when 
 she gave the land, if the North had been honest she would have paid Virginia 
 for that tract before she passed the Personal Liberty Bills. Kentucky lost an 
 immense deal by the Abolitionists. I will read you what Dr. Robert Brecken- 
 ridge says : ‘ Along the border common to Ohio and Kentucky, slaves have 
 been systematically enticed from their owners by organised societies ; the num- 
 ber can hardly be set lower than a yearly average of ten thousand slaves — 
 worth little short of ten millions of dollars — for- some years past. Although 
 large sums of money are contributed by fanatics throughout the North, yet the 
 immediate agents of the work make it very profitable. A few years ago in 
 Kentucky, between fifty and sixty negro men were attempted to be run off at 
 one time. The fee of the white organiser varied according to the success of the 
 negroes in stealing, from twenty-five to one hundred and fifty dollars each.’ ’» 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 “My darling, may I reason with you ?” 
 
 “If you can make me hear reason, Auntie.” 
 
 “ May I ask why you have encouraged Mr. Myers ?” 
 
 “ I fancy I began to because he was a beau who would pay.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Pay ! Rather queer expression so applied. ” 
 
 “ Yes ; I dare say you think all of us queer ; but give me a man who can 
 polka and flirt, quote a poem and sing, and above all, take a girl to any place of 
 amusement that’s the vogue, and bring a hack for her, too.” 
 
 “A man who can honestly bring a hack, does well to do it ; but many young 
 men who do it are no better than thieves ; one steals a dress from a sister, who 
 
8 
 
 LOVE AND WAR, 
 
 never has an extra one ; another robs his father of the power of paying his 
 grocer’s bill ; another defrauds a poor widow of a meal, or — ” 
 
 “Bah!” exclaimed Minnie, laughing to hide her impatience; “no more 
 sermon to-day, preacher Auntie.” 
 
 The old maid turned upward for an instant eyes in which tears often 
 trembled, but from which the children of the family testified none ever fell. 
 
 “ Do I preach ? Am I becoming tiresome ? Oh ! that God would lay me to 
 rest ere I fall into querulous ways.” 
 
 “You querulous ! Never, Auntie ! Come, listen to my secret, and scold 
 me whenever you please ; you know I like novelties, as I inform you daily ; 
 and who but you presumes to scold me ? Now, [for my secret. I’m engaged — 
 guess to whom. Why don’t you try ?’’ 
 
 “ I don’t want to be sarcastic.” 
 
 “ How ?” 
 
 ‘ ‘ I am not aware of a greater sarcasm I could be guilty of than were I to 
 confess that well as I know you and your affairs, I had never been able to read 
 the' secret.” 
 
 “ What a queer notion ! and in an old maid, too ! 
 
 “It is strange now-a-days to be candid ; and I suppose it was in my day” — 
 here an involuntary sigh and a slight quiver of the lip caused her to hesitate an 
 instant — “But truth is my cardinal virtue; your conduct has told so many 
 falsehoods that — ” 
 
 “ I can’t hear such an accusation even from my god-mother.” 
 
 “Then listen to it when your conscience speaks.” 
 
 “Tut !” 
 
 “It is not ‘tut’ to poor Prosper e. Has God given you a right to trifle as 
 long as suits you with one of His creatures, rendering him — as far as in you 
 lies — incapable of due attention to the duties of his station?” 
 
 “ My fiance will be gratified when he hears your opinion of my choice.” 
 “Prospere ! It is not possible that you will — ” 
 
 “The very man whom — ” 
 
 “ He is not a man,” added Emily Johnston, in a very calm tone, remembering 
 that sarcasm was always the most effective weapon against her thoughtless 
 god -child, a weapon she never used when any other would do. 4 ‘ Blumen- 
 bach’s discription of a man is ‘ Erect, two-handed, unarmed, rational, 
 endowed with speech ; a prominent chin, etc. Does your beau answer 
 to this standard ? Let’s see : ‘ Erect ! no ; he carries his head tucked in as 
 though his chin were cold ; he never looks one straight in the eye ; he always 
 appears conscious of something that needs concealment. Two-handed ; they 
 say he is ‘ double-fisted. . ’ Unarmed ? no ; always with a revolver in his 
 pocket ; pooh ! that man is a coward ; brave men are not so dependent on steel 
 or iron ; they have nerve, and ought to have muscle ; there might be some 
 excuse in a woman or a child carrying firearms if there were no higher standard 
 than man’s idea of right. Minnie, marry a man brave enough to take care of 
 you, not one who needs a pistol to protect himself ; moreover, he is breaking a 
 law of the Commonwealth, and a man who can’t keep the laws himself, surely 
 is not fit to rear children — unless for the gallows. Rational ? Is he ? Oh, of 
 course ; it is rational to do nothing but dance attendance on women, let his 
 father support him like a minor while he smokes and reads a novel, but not if it 
 happens to be a religious one. ‘ Endowed with speech. ’ I may not know what 
 ‘ speech ’ means ; but if parrots possess it, so does he ; when an institution is 
 endowed we expect the endowment to be made use of and increased in value ; 
 did he ever give you a new idea or a noble impulse ? Hoot ! toot ! Think of 
 being tied to such a man ! A prominent chin ! Between the goatee, stiff stand- 
 ing collar, and artistically-tied cravat, it is insignificant.” 
 
 Minnie had in high disdain walked into her room, adjoining her god-mother’s, 
 and pushed to the door ere Auntie had half finished her anatomising of 
 Prospere ; but the old lady knew the door was not closed too tightly for her 
 words to enter, and the writhing of the maiden’s lips had told more plainly than 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 9 
 
 words of argument, anger, or reproach could have done, how deeply the sarcasm 
 cut. Minnie, beautiful as a fairy (for she was of a minute pattern), and of a 
 pleasure-loving nature, had been allowed to have her own way until no one 
 but Aunt Emily could have guessed what that way was. Aunt Emily knew ; 
 for often with bitter anguish had she watched the numerous vagaries, the wil- 
 fulness, and thoughtlessness of one who was the idol of her life. Aunt Emily 
 knew that Minnie’s way was to have as much pleasure as was compatible with 
 an easily pacified conscience. And this was the child she had promised should 
 serve G-od ? Not in her own strength had that promise been made ; thinking of 
 Colonel and Mrs. Brickenridge, she had felt keenly what would probably be the 
 contradictory character inherited by their first-born, and she had made her vows, 
 remembering that the condition always was “ with Cod’s help.’’ Colonel Brick- 
 enridge, formerly an officer in the United States army, was seldom at home, and 
 his influence over Minnie, even when present, was generally of a negative cha- 
 racter ; men looked up to him ; his daughter loved him with a fond and doat- 
 ing love that was idolatry ; and yet she never sought sympathy from him ; he 
 could not care for her flirtations any more than he had done for her dolls, and 
 so Minnie’ s only rule of conduct, as regarded him, was never to commit any 
 overt act that could draw out his rarely-manifested displeasure ; or by any very 
 improper speech provoke a sarcasm. Mrs. Brickenridge had more than her hands 
 full ; for she was one of those good-natured people who are always in a stew, 
 and though never worried herself, always worrying other people ; no economy 
 of time or words ever allowed her to leave her household cares long enough to 
 find out anything about Minnie's beaux, and as for her daily life, her wiifulness 
 set poor Mrs. Brickenridge, as she herself declared, “quite distracted,” and she 
 was glad enough to et her do as she pleased. And this is Minnie Brickenridge, 
 the young heiress, the high-born beauty that young girls envy and young men 
 declare they would die for. This last sentiment had been boldly affirmed more 
 than once, in answer to a kind glance from the capricious beauty ; it was 
 extravagant, but she liked extravagant people and extravagant things, and 
 protested that the reason she adored Auntie was because she was so extravagantly 
 good. Minnie’s intellectual education had been carefully tended, and at eighteen 
 the reputation of having been the smartest girl in the school would have ruined her 
 prospects as a belle, had she not by her giddiness and excess of frivolity con- 
 vinced her beaux that this reputation was as fabulous as the old story of Pluto 
 and Proserpine. Poor Auntie ! After the conversation recorded, she went to 
 the window and looked up to see if in the cloud -racked sky there was one 
 glimpse of heavenly light ; but she saw no blue revealing of a Love that never 
 slept, and in vain did her eyes seek a star that might guide her ruffled thoughts 
 to the Star of Bethlehem. No hope was painted on the clouds, and with a 
 childishness too beautiful to be called weak she asked Cod to comfort her by 
 a text ; she opened her Bible (where it was most likely to open) and her eye 
 read, “Best in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;’’ “ Wait patiently — 
 wait patiently,” she murmured ; “might not my years have taught me patience? 
 Lord, I will wait and will try to do it patiently, because it is for Thee I wait. 
 I have proved that I can do nothing ; now I wait for Thee.” The sad eye grew 
 lighter, for though no one’s eye perceived a change, the clouds parted, and an 
 angel entered while she prayed. “Auntie,” saida low voice, “are you asleep ? 
 May I come in ?’’ “Aye, do, my child,” was said without rising, and the god- 
 daughter was drawn to the loving heart, and when the second prayer wag ended 
 and Auntie rose, the maiden still knelt ; then a burst of tears came and she 
 buried the golden curls in the black gown of the mourner; “Oh! Auntie, 
 Auntie, forgive me ! 1 wouldn’t let anybody else talk to me so ; but you may 
 
 say just what you please.” 
 
 “May? nay darling, I must; provided I please to say what I know it to be- 
 my duty to S"ay. Of course I forgive you. ” 
 
 “Have you never wished that you were not my sponsor?” 
 
 “I have sometimes felt that if I had refused the office, Mrs. Cray would 
 have been asked, and might have had more influence over you.” 
 
01 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “Mrs. Gray! More influence over me! no indeed ! I like you best.” 
 
 “Why? Mrs. Gray is so much more loving and winning. I am so brusque.” 
 “You may say that; but when Pros — when somebody else said it — I got so 
 angry, that I told him one more word of disrespect about you, and he never 
 entered my house again. Why ! Do you know, the young people say that I am 
 an enchanted maiden, and that you use unlawful arts to keep me from doing 
 the things I most want to do? I see your incredulous smile. I don’t expect 
 you to believe that you have ever done me any good, because you can’t see how 
 many times I wanted to do things that I absolutely did not dare to do. ” 
 “Thank God ! I little thought how the fear of Him — ” 
 
 “Don’t think me profane; but I must tell the truth; you and everybody 
 know that is my only good characteristic ; it isn’t always fear of God that 
 keeps me from doing naughty things ; but sometimes fear of having you say in 
 a tone from which I know there is no appeal — 4 That was not right.’ Your 
 eternal harping on right is a great nuisance ; I wish you would forget your ugly 
 habit — but if you won’t, why all is, I have to yield. Now, do you think I 
 should succumb to Mrs. Gray? Not I ! instead of dashing like a female 
 Hector, or a certain auntie, into the heart of the subject, and saying in bold 
 tones, ‘ That is wrong, ’ she would always be contriving some way to keep from 
 hurting my feelings when she had to reprove me. ” 
 
 “And do you think me regardless of your feelings ?” 
 
 “Not I. If I did I wouldn’t let you speak to me except to say good- 
 morning or good-night ; but there is in you such an ever-living sense of right 
 (I wish I could find some other word to express what I mean), that when it is 
 outraged, even your delicate sensibilities shrink into numbness, and you pounce 
 on wrong and hurl it aside with the disdain of a queen. ” 
 
 “With disdain ! God forgive me if I show that to the sins of others, when I 
 ought to reserve it for my own.” 
 
 “Deserve it ! — but that is what you can’t do ; you are not conscious of it. 
 Do you know, that when I think of meeting God at the Day of Judgment, I do 
 not expect to see an angry God ; but I dread to see the Omnipotent manifesta- 
 tion of a disdain like yours for all my voluntary commissions of what I knew 
 to be wrong. You are not as pretty as I; and though very intellectual, I could 
 by the time I reached your age be as smart as you ; I am better off in the 
 world’s goods ; everybody bows to me and few people notice you — but that’s 
 your own fault ; you won’t let them; and yet I worship you. Don’t shake 
 your head and say I am talking — I do worship you. Why do I put you above 
 all women and all men ? It is because in you I see a constancy that nothing 
 can shake.’’ 
 
 “Not now, not now; do not speak of him now.” 
 
 “I was not thinking of him,” answered the young girl, lowering her voice 
 and pressing the long thin hand to her rosy lips ; “I meant you are so loyal to 
 what you believe right, that even my self-conceit acknowledges you a superior 
 being. Do you think that if I saw a man suffer himself to be pulled limb from 
 limb because he would not tell a lie about a matter of indifference, I should not 
 worship him? Yes; even if the truth he maintained was that I was unworthy 
 of love or respect, I would worship him. Now, do you suppose I think one- 
 half of the things you pronounce wrong are wrong? Not a bit of it. Do you 
 imagine I believe Apostolic Succession and such ‘old wives fables’ to*have one 
 grain of sense or truth in them? Not I. Don’t scold me — I don’t often talk 
 this way ; let me say all that my heart is so full of to-night. But I do know 
 that you believe to be wrong whatever you pronounce so ; and I do know that 
 you hold conscientiously whatever you say is true. Sometimes I have wearied 
 of your power over me, and the Devil is tired enough of it ; he knows who it 
 is forever interfering with his schemes — and I have listened, watched earnestly, 
 to hear you recede from some point you imagined proved, in order to conciliate 
 an opponent, or to ward off the charge of bigotry. I never saw you flinch ; 
 but I have seen you almost crush these long fingers, when you have borne with 
 a calm face some charge of uncharitableness, made by some charitable 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 11 
 
 Christian ; and then you have come up to this little room, to mend some worn 
 garment that charitable Christian would have put in the rag-bag, if you hadn’t 
 asked for it ; then I have seen first one tear and then another fall on the soiled 
 garment, until it seemed sweet and pure enough for an angel to wear.” 
 
 “Indeed, my child, I can’t allow these rhapsodies; you’ll be ashamed of them 
 to-morrow.’’ 
 
 “Of course I shall. But while I am in a softened mood, you shall see that 
 your quiet suffering has not been unobserved. I know you’ll never let another 
 tear fall until you have locked the door ; but you needn’t put wadding in the 
 key-hole to keep me from peeping — you are the only angel I ever expect to see 
 shed a tear. That’s right. Smile ! hear me talking about a thing being right ! 
 Is there no other word I can substitute for that intolerable pest, that harpy of 
 uneasy consciences?” 
 
 “True will do as well; nothing is right that is not true; at least, truth and 
 right come from God in parallel rays. ” Before the sentence was finished the 
 good-night kiss was given. 
 
 Fearing she might commit herself to another confession — that she sometimes 
 longed to be like Auntie — steadfast in the right, the giddy girl shut the door, 
 and throwing aside her rose-coloured dressing-gown, lay down to read a novel. 
 The room was gorgeously furnished ; for Minnie’s fortune came from an aunt 
 for whom she was named. Emily Johnston’s chamber was plain; but over the 
 mantelpiece was a picture of the Saviour on the cross; life seemed to be 
 extinct in that late-suffering Body ; the laxity of muscles and calmness of 
 expression said plainer than words — “It is finished;” and to the heart of 
 Emily Johnston it often said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation ; but be 
 of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” At the foot of the cross was the 
 Blessed Virgin — not as she is usually represented, wholly absorbed in grief ; 
 she had lived too long with her holy Son for that. A child, bearing a strong 
 likeness to the thief on the right hand, was in the deepest agony, and Mary 
 had folded him to her bosom, and was caressing him and pouring words of 
 consolation in his ear; the Apostle John leaned over her, his face beaming with 
 intense admiration for this self-abnegation. Over the bedstead was a cross of 
 Autumn leaves, bearing a crown of thorns ; beyond this was a little oil-print — • 
 a pilgrim, habited in ragged grey garments and worn to a skeleton, was 
 stretching out his emaciated hand to help a strong man mount the hill on the 
 top of which he stood ; all immediately around the figures was very dark ; but 
 above the stratum of clouds a Hand was held out, and a golden crown gave a 
 brilliant light; the crown was over the old man’s head. Miss Johnston’s 
 nature was ever fresh, like a fountain that has flowed long years and yet is 
 fresh every morn ; the cause of either’s freshness is that both rise upwards and 
 shine in the sunlight of God’s smile, leaving on the lower earth what makes 
 most natures turbid, and men old. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 “Kentucky is virtually out of the Union. You laugh — I wish you would 
 travel about as I have done, and sound the public temper; but there are too 
 many Yankees about these parts for us to show our cards yet.” 
 
 “There are an old lynx and an old skunk in this town who will play the 
 deuce yet, Urston.” 
 
 “Absurd for Mr. Buckner to fear such fellows.” 
 
 “Demagogues, and not statesmen, too often rule republics. Ah! my jmung 
 gentleman, you may change your tune when caught in a trap.” 
 
12 
 
 LOVE AND WAR, 
 
 “You forget it is my party that set the trap.” 
 
 “To catch Yankees ! Ha ! Ha ! 
 
 “Don’t give any more warnings about Yankee ’cuteness; why the fellows 
 haven’t an idea that Neutrality means Secession.” 
 
 “The skunk will frighten all decent people away from the helm of our 
 State Government, while the weasel sucks out Kentucky’s life-blood ; the crow 
 will devour the carcass, while the jackall stands sentinel.” 
 
 “If you believe this, why don’t you cry ‘Fire’ ?” 
 
 “Because I can’t make one of you believe that you are not fooling all crea- 
 tion, Jeff Davis and his and your privy councils excepted. ’ 
 
 “I communicated your suspicions of foul play to some of the gentlemen at 
 the Mayfield Convention. ” 
 
 “All of whom laughed, forgetting that if it had not been for a goose, Borne 
 would have fallen before she did. ” 
 
 “Some were amazed; some did laugh.” 
 
 “Some brayed. I doubt if we shall be allowed to maintain our neutrality. 
 
 I don’t like the source of that policy, ” said Mr. Buckner. 
 
 “It came from Southerners,” replied Mr. Urston. 
 
 “So most think; but Speed says, ‘We proposed the position for Kentucky.’ 
 I’d rather trust to guns than Resolutions, even when they are signed by such 
 names of honour as belong to some of the men of the Union Central Com- 
 mittee ; some persons are too upright to be suspicious. ” 
 
 “But the Legislature resolved that whenever the Northern States send 
 armed forces to the South for the purpose indicated in said resolutions, the 
 people of Kentucky, uniting with their brethren of the South, will, as one 
 man, resist such invasion of the soil of the South at all hazards and to the last 
 extremity. That was the opinion of the lower House of the Legislature, 
 seventy-eight men — a majority of them Union men — against six.” 
 
 “Which of the Southern parties do you represent?” 
 
 “That which understands and will carryout the will of the Confederate 
 Government. The Yankees think they are gulling us, while we are laughing 
 at them in our sleeves. ” 
 
 “I am afraid you never will laugh in the face of the world,” said Mr. 
 Buckner. 
 
 “As soon as President Davis cries, ‘Hey ! Presto ! Six commissioners were 
 sent to Richmond to ask for men and money, to help to equip Kentucky troops. 
 The answer was, neither could be granted and we must remain neutral. He 
 says he has more territory than he can defend at present. The people of the 
 South look to us for provisions. Shall we starve them to feast our squeamish- 
 ness? Some of the Southern Rights Men in Mayfield expressed your repugnance 
 to neutrality, but a clever old gentleman succeeded in convincing them that 
 the neutrality of Kentucky was worth 200,000,000dols. to the Confederacy.” 
 “Yet you must be right, or we should have received a protest from the 
 Southern Cabinet or Congress. As for the secret mission to Richmond, the 
 Yankees of this community know all about it, and if they play mum it will be 
 because they’re afraid of contagion. I don’t think they’ll open the box that 
 Pandora bequeathed to Kentucky. ” 
 
 “But you think we will, not doubting it is filled with sweet spices.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ It will be put beyond your reach for ever, unless Davis sends an army to 
 help you regain it. ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Rely upon it, that if his counsel leads us into temporary disgrace he will be 
 the chevalier sans reproche to rescue us ; and his paladins will not be far 
 behind. ” 
 
 “If the Southern States had wanted the Border ones to join, they would 
 have asked them. ” 
 
 “At the Mayfield Convention it was resolved : — ‘ That we most heartily 
 approve the refusal of our gallant Governor to aid an abolition government in 
 its unholy war, and in vindication thereof, and in defiance of Lincoln, Ken- 
 tucky pledges her own proud valour, inspired by all her holy hopes and 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 13 
 
 memories ; that her imminent peril demands immediate action in thoroughly 
 arming and equipping the State against our Northern enemies, and that a com- 
 mon destiny demands speedy Confederate action. 5 ” 
 
 “How far are you justified in countenancing such sentiments? Were 
 
 not you one of the assembly in the Court House that on the 8th of 
 January applauded the Convention which passed the resolutions inaugurating 
 neutrality ?” 
 
 “ Yes ; and this resolution justifies me : ‘ Resolved — That we deplore the 
 existence of a Union to be held together by the sword, with laws to be enforced 
 by standing armies. It is not such a Union as our fathers intended, and njt 
 worth preserving. ’ There are several parties here, you represent the largest ; 
 believing that the majority is for neutrality, you are a consistent States 
 Rights’ man, and acquiesce. Stark represents another set of noble, unsuspecting 
 fellows, who never think of the absurdity of Kentucky’s maintaining a a posi- 
 tion compared to which South Carolina’s is humilty itself ; she does deign 
 to ask the co-operation of some States. Stark really believes that Linco n 
 will never presume to send his hirelings here ; but will allow her votes to decide 
 our position.” 
 
 “Nobody expects us to vote ourselves into Yankee-land.” 
 
 “ I suppose not ; albeit, a few talk so. Myers represent another party, 
 Yankee at heart, blindfolding Kentucky, thinking to lead her whither it 
 wills. ” 
 
 “Kentucky will hang yet and her self-conceit will furnish the rope. 
 We cheat Yankees ! — ha ! ha !” 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 “ This consciousness I have,” said Laura Buckner, “ I have never uttered one 
 disloyal sentence ; I have never said a word to inflame sectional feeling. I have 
 defended Lincoln and his party as far as truth would allow. 
 
 “ Lincoln is no gentleman,” was her father’s reply ; “ for he is guilty of double- 
 dealing. Some were indignant at what they chose to consider the suspicions of 
 those who denounced his Inaugural as false, and him as a hypocrite ; now he has 
 justified all his worst enemies said ! ” 
 
 “ But the South began the war.” 
 
 iC Of course ; a burglar disturbs a man’s rest ; he does not intend to do any harm 
 to the man — not he ! He’ll merely take possession of that pistol for fear it may 
 be used against him. The aroused man springs up, is first to seize the weapon 
 and fire ; so the burglar is not the aggressor — of course not ! ” 
 
 “ But,” said Laura, “ to make the parallel more complete, suppose that the 
 burglar had once been the guardian of the man, who had made his fortune by 
 robbing him, and he enters his house stealthily by night only to take possession 
 of his own, for, as I am sorry to confess, our Government did not act openly with 
 South Carolina.” 
 
 “ But your supposition would not justify the burglars ; if there is any law, let 
 him appeal. I suppose the United States are not prepared to announce to the 
 world that they have no law. General Anderson’s spiking the cannon of Fort 
 Moutrie, and strengthening Fort Sumter were the most amicable of prognostics. 
 Who could say that meant war ? People need strong fortifications in days of 
 peace.” 
 
 “ It did not require prophetic wisdom to enable the States to seize the forts 
 whose guns otherwise would be turned against them. And as for the fleet sent 
 to Charlestown, that was a gage cTamitie, as one vessel could not carry enough pro- 
 visions for the ravenous men of the fort. If one schoolboy kicks at another and 
 
14 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 gets tripped up, the one who trips is the aggressor.” 
 
 “ By-the-bye, I saw a man in United States’ uniform to-day, who told me he 
 had enlisted to fight in defence of our neutrality ; I laughed at him, hut sorrow- 
 fully, for I never saw a dupe more in earnest. He said many of his friends had 
 enlisted as he had, to keep the Yankees from going South to fight. What will he 
 do when the hour of trial comes ? Throw a noose over his head by deserting ? 
 or feel he is bound to fight for the United States that pays him ? Or wiil the 
 Yankee jugglers induce him to believe that the South first violated our neutral 
 position ? ” 
 
 “ And how^ do you know it will not do so ? ” 
 
 Because it is not for its interests to disturb it.” 
 
 Miss Johnston was spending a few days with Laura, and had sat quietly sewing, 
 listening to the conversation. Now she spoke — 
 
 “We have grievously sinned, and we must receive chastisement — ‘Is not this 
 great Babylon which I have built ? ’ is the language of the American Genius.” 
 
 “ I hate pride and God does. Self-conceit, whether national or individual, is 
 always vulgar to me, as implying a want of delicacy of sentiment. But 1 don’t 
 suppose God will punish all for the sins of a few,” said Laura. 
 
 “ And who in this land has not more or less of these feelings ? Before this 
 war is over each may find wherein his or her pride consists, and be humbled. 
 Years ago I thought that the United States would be punished for their intense 
 self-conceit, complacency, and arrogance. Self-will is probably our national 
 characteristic. The l r ankees have enough Puritanic seasoning to conceive it their 
 duty, i.e., their interests, to keep their neighbour’s pockets and consciences, and 
 the Southerners are hot and rash.” 
 
 “ The North is a growling bear, the South a roaring lion ” 
 
 “ A whelp overgrown, I dare say, of the British Ikon ! But what are the Border 
 States P ” 
 
 “ The Northern ones cubs of the bear, having its instincts, but not its develop- 
 ment of passions ; the Southern ones, the young of the lion, with its roar, but not 
 yet possessed of its strong claws.” 
 
 “ Sadly I say, ‘ let the South go.’ After a child is of full age a parent should 
 not compel him to live with him.” 
 
 “ If you mean to call the South the child of the North, you are guilty of an 
 anachronism. The South was born in 1608 ; the North in 1620.” 
 
 “ And the United States in 1776.” 
 
 “ Mr. Buckner, I have just read a letter from Mrs. Lee, the wife of General 
 B. E. Lee ; one more touching I never saw — not one word of denunciation, not a 
 thought of bitterness, but the spirit of a suffering Christian and heroic wife and 
 mother. Her husband and all her sons in the army, she can look forward to 
 seeing them all sacrificed, and yet exclaim, ‘ God’s will be done.’ ” 
 
 “ You forget you are speaking of a Hebei. I am surprised at your enthusiasm 
 for the wife of the man who will do the Union more harm than any one else in 
 the South,” smilingly answered Mr. Buckner. 
 
 “ And I am hurt that you should be surprised at my feeling admiration for the 
 noble traits of my enemies.” 
 
 “ But if you consider it your duty to uphold the Union, how can you call a 
 Christian the man who is doing his utmost to overthrow it ? ” 
 
 “ Because he is one. When in the Mexican war, General Scott and his troops 
 were hemmed in by the foe, and their lives depended upon discovering a secret 
 path to a city, he asked who would dare the perilous feat, on a dark, stormy night. 
 The venturesome man would have to climb a mountain dangerous with pits and 
 steep declivities. Lee at once volunteered. Scott was unwilling to have so pre- 
 cious a life perilled ; but Lee went. The path was discovered. Next day. guiding 
 the army up the mountain-pass, Lee shuddered at his many hair- Dread th escapes 
 of the previous night, and felt that his wife’s and mother’s prayers had saved 
 him. Too noble to feel an obligation without acknowledging it, as soon as he 
 returned to the States, he was confirmed.” 
 
 “ I am struck with one thing which might help conciliate you, Miss Johnston ; 
 
LOVE AND ViAR. 
 
 15 
 
 the majority of the noble men who have attained most renown in the Confederacy 
 are Churchmen.” 
 
 “ This, I admit, argues well for her conservatism. It is easy to perceive more of this 
 virtue in the South than in the North, after you have deduced the first and 
 greatest principle of the War Secession.” 
 
 When Scott learned of Lee’s decision to go with the South, he is reported to 
 have wept and said, 1 I should rather have lost half my army ; he saved my life.’ 
 And before Lee decided, I heard it said, that at a public dinner Scott had declared 
 ‘ that if civil war arose in America, it would he well for the United States 
 Government to retain his services at half a million.’ ” 
 
 “ When General Lee was called upon to decide whether he should accept a 
 high offer of the United States, he shut himself up for four days for consideration 
 and earnest prayer ; this was also a season of fasting. On the fifth day he came 
 to breakfast with a bright countenance ; his family felt the decision was made. 
 ‘ Mary,’ he said to his wife, ‘ my mind is made up. Henceforth, I join my fortunes 
 with the South.’ ” (a) 
 
 “ This determination must have been gratifying to his wife, the only daughter 
 of Washington’s adopted son, who could not have been pleased to have seen her 
 husband fighting to crush the great truth the ‘ Father of his country ’ had spent 
 a life in establishing, that only the consent of the governed can maintain a free 
 Government.” 
 
 “ You know T cant’t agree with you, sir ; but I admire and love Mrs. Lee ; she 
 has the spirit of ’76, I acknowledge ; but I wish her head was turned in another 
 direction. Violent declamation and denunciation serve only to disgust me ; but 
 it is impossible to read such an earnest, self-negating, Christian letter as the one 
 T read, and not be moved. My eyes were full of tears. General Lee, told his 
 sons they must choose for themselves conscientiously, (a) and not be guided by his 
 decision ; so you see he was better than Laura’s papa ; moreover she can’t fight, 
 and young men can.” 
 
 “ It is hard for me to see my pet an advocate of despotism.” 
 
 il I am not an advocate for any despotism but that of a loving heart, and I 
 am going to be your tyrant as long as I live,” responded Laura, seating herself on 
 his knee and stroking his goatee. “ Besides, I can do what you can’t — appreciate 
 my enemies. I must love noble spirits wherever they are. I wonder if Lincoln 
 and his cabinet have as easy consciences as many of the Southern leaders. 
 ‘ Fre-eaters,’ are insufferable to me ; but my sense of justice refuses this term 
 to many warmest Rebels.” 
 
 “ Unionists as you both are, I can see you often burn with indignation at 
 Lincoln’s unconstitutional acts.” 
 
 “ And at the brutality of our soldiery in Virginia and Missouri. What is to be 
 the end of it ? It can bring us only ruin and disgrace, demoralization and 
 infidelity. All the evils that follow in the train of war are to be ours, and why P 
 Because of our pride and dreadful cupidity.” 
 
 “ Hurrah, pet ! ” 
 
 “ Alston has just returned from Iowa ; he says he was never aggressive, but as he 
 had Southern sympathies he had to leave, or be placed in a very unpleasant 
 position ; just before he left a man was hung for sympathising with the South.” (a) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 July 22. 
 
 Laura was sitting at her window, and observed her father’s face was unusually 
 bright as he walked up the steps, and in a few minutes sue iieard the cry. “ The 
 South has conquered ! ” 
 
16 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 Several neighbours rushed in to rejoice with the Buckners. Laura, opening 
 her door to go down, heard peals of exultant laughter, and caught several remarks 
 that to her seemed very unfeeling, so, she turned and shut herself in her own 
 room. 
 
 “ Think of exulting ! ” she exclaimed, “ while thousands are dying and tens of 
 thousands mourning ! Suppose that I had had a brother there ! Victory is worse 
 than defeat.” Laura’s desire to learn the full particulars of the battle of Manasses 
 could not overcome her repugnance to the wild rejoicing ; she thought, “Oh, were 
 I in Virginia to soothe the dying, and minister to the wounded ! Never would I 
 ask whence came the sufferer. I cannot understand this sectional bitterness.” 
 Laura had remained a long time in unpleasant reverie, when light feet 
 skipped up the stairs. Hardly waiting for permission to enter, pretty little 
 Minnie sprang into the room. 
 
 “ Oh Laura, I am so sorry for you! Mr. Urston went out to take us the 
 good news, and I was so excited, I accepted his invitation to drive back with 
 him, although mamma was afraid the hollowing might frighten his horse. 
 Poor Laura! Have you been crying? I’m sure if we’d been whipped, I 
 should have cried my eyes out. ” 
 
 ‘ 4 That would have been cruel to Prospere and others.” 
 
 “You can jest; can you? Well then, see if my bows are not pretty.” 
 
 “Bed, white, and red. Bed is not pleasant to my eye; I like cooler 
 colours. ” 
 
 “Oh, it was such gay driving! Gentlemen were rushing up and down on 
 foot, in buggies, and on horseback, hurrahing for Jeff Davis, Beauregard, and 
 Old Virginia. Oh, Laura, I wish you were a Southern Bights’ Woman ! Then 
 you could take a drive now and see the fun. Good-bye. ” 
 
 “Won’t you stay with me?” 
 
 “Much obliged; but couldn’t think of shutting myself up in a darkened 
 room this glorious day ! There are ever so many ladies out in their carriages, 
 waving flags. Mr. Urston has gone to get me one. He had a large one on his 
 horse’s head. Hurrah for the red, white, and red ! Good-bye, dear. ” 
 
 “Indeed, I don’t think you ought to — ” 
 
 “No time to attend a lecture to-day, I’m too happy.” 
 
 Minnie skipped down stairs like a wild young thing. Laura covered her 
 eyes and tried to shut out present and future ; but she could not. She walked 
 the floor impatiently, listening to noises from the street and the explosions of 
 newly-awakenod patriotism below stairs. 
 
 “ I trembled,” she thought, “ for fear my side would beat, and forever disgrace 
 the name of the United States. The soldiery seems to me more like a vast un- 
 governable thing than an army of men. I oppose both parties, so I truly sym- 
 pathise with neither. It is not grief that the North has lost the battle of 
 Manasses that causes these tears ; I weep for my country which I fear is 
 strangling liberty. The North has lost my sympathy and respect. Can it long 
 retain my allegiance ? Yet it seems to me a dreadful thing to trample on the flag 
 under which I was born. If I read the Louisville journal much longer I shall be 
 a Southerner ! I can’t stand such chickanery, I dare not defend a lie. My 
 heart is so low, I fear I can never rally from my shame and grief. Mr. Myers 
 says he can confirm mo in my loyalty. Loyalty ! ah, the bitter sarcasm of that 
 word !” 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 July 23rd. 
 
 “ Oh, Dr. Lawton, I’m sorry to see you ! Don’t look so astounded, or, I’ll think 
 I've said something dreadfully rude. I heard you had gone to the Confederacy, 
 and was glad, for I knew it must need surgeons.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 17 
 
 u And will you keep a secret if I tell you one ?” 
 
 “ Oh, I guess your secret; you write C. S. A. after your name ; and I dare say 
 you have come here as a spy, or to buy something contraband. I have a friend in 
 Tennessee, — you will oblige me by taking her a dozen boxes of lily white.” 
 
 The doctor looked somewhat frightened at having to refuse his sweetheart so 
 simple a request. 
 
 “ I should like to oblige you ; but — really — ” 
 
 “ You are to be the one obliged ; this white will cure chills and fevers.” 
 
 “ That will be no bad way to take quinine ; for no male detective will be apt 
 to be curious about ladies’ powder ; but you must send something else belonging 
 to a lady, for fear of suspicion.” 
 
 “ A coarse white muslin dress, that will make nice bandages.” 
 
 “ Indeed it will. But I don’t know when I’ll be in active service ; my regi- 
 ment is now at Camp Boone, in Tennessee.” 
 
 “ I thought you belonged to a Kentucky regiment !’* 
 
 “ So I do ; but as the State has proclaimed neutrality, well not be the first to 
 violate it ; Camps Boone, Burnett, and Brickenridge are composed of Corncrackers 
 beyond the line.” 
 
 “ How many are there in your camp ?'* 
 
 “ Fifteen hundred. I’m now on my way to Harrison to recruit,” 
 
 “ Is your regiment welt armed ?” 
 
 “ With old fiint-Iock muskets.” 
 
 “ Do tell me all about your camp life.” 
 
 Dr. Lawton probably recalled Othello’s successful wooing, and mentally vowed 
 to win his pretty vis-a-vis by shouldering a musket, as well as by handling surgical 
 instruments. He had no exploits yet to boast of ; but he would get her interested 
 in his surroundings. 
 
 “ In regard to the eating department, I am surprised to find it so well furnished. 
 Certainly, if the rest of the Confederate army has as well supplied a commissary 
 department, old Abe can never reach their stomachs by the blockade. You will be 
 glad to know that the boys have met a cordial reception from the neighbourhood, 
 as proven not only by kind words but by generous deeds. The camp is only a few 
 miles from the Kentucky line. Just beyond the line in Todd county — in which 
 Jeff. Davis was born, by-the-bye, lives a sturdy farmer of wealth, named 
 Merriweather. This morning he sent as a gift to the regiments, a wagon load of 
 provisions, among which were five barbecued mutton, any number of cooked 
 hams, together with other substantial edibles, all of which were received with ap- 
 preciative thanks by all. He also informed the General that he had a large herd 
 of beef cattle which were not for sale, but which were at his service for the use of 
 the camps ; and further said that he and a neighbour had three hundred and 
 fifty acres of very fine wheat which they designed cleaning and presenting to the 
 regiments. This is what I call princely generosity and hospitality, and the name 
 of Merriweather is one of the toasts in camp. If we can hold Kentucky as a 
 granary she’ll be the most serviceable State in the Confederacy. ” 
 
 “ But not the most glorious. ” 
 
 “ Does she love glory more than the good of the Confederacy ? Besides, she 
 will not lack wreaths of honour ; thousands of her children will hang them on 
 her arms crossed in — ■” 
 
 “ Mockery of neutrality and semblance of non-interference.” 
 
 “ I hope you’ll do your best to send us recruits. In other cities young men 
 are shamed into the army, the young ladies refusing to see them if they will 
 not fight. Won’t you do the same P ” 
 
 Minnie’s pretty face grew suddenly very serious. 
 
 “ If there were no hereafter I would ; you look surprised,” she added, colouring 
 slightly, “ but you forget that I believe in retribution. It is a solemn thing 
 going to war, may be to death. No word of mine shall be of a discouraging 
 tendency ; on the contrary, were I a man I would be with you, had not I been 
 before you ; nor is there any right thing I would not do to make prosper our 
 cause. I shrink from the despot’s yoke, and would advise those dear to me to 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 submit to any physical evil rather than submit to tyranny ; therefore, with all 
 my heart, I bid you Grod-speed. But if I detest the idea of a man enduring 
 slavery for a short earthly life, what must be my loathing of servitude 
 to sin and Satan ? Moreover, this mastery of the Emperor of Despots will not 
 cease.” 
 
 Lawton marvelled silently at what seemed to him a very sudden transformation 
 of a girlish flirt into a thinking, reasoning woman. He felt her sentiments were 
 often only echoes of Miss Johnston’s ; but their reverberation had never before 
 impressed him so much. Had the awful shadow of a gigantic national calamity 
 fallen upon her young spirit of joyful thoughtlessness, or, was this only a new 
 phase of Minnie’s variable loveliness ? 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 There was assembled in the drawing-room of the fashionable Mrs. Ellmer, a 
 small select number of “ Southern Sympathizers ” as the States Bights people 
 of Kentucky were called. Put a dozen such together and it is a good deal like 
 shaking up champagne ; so Mrs. Ellmer’s guests were by no means deficient in 
 gaiety. In the battle of Manasses, Mrs. Ellmer’s nephew, Eustace Huntington 
 (who left in one of the four companies that went from Kentucky in April) had 
 greatly distinguished himself ; (three prisoners had he taken by his own prowess, 
 and that before the rout began) (a) after which anybody could take as many 
 prisoners as he pleased. For his bravery the unknown private had been made 
 first lieutenant. Of course, Louisvile, already vised by emissaries from 
 Washington, and watched by Rousseau’s Dutch over the river, was no very safe 
 place for him who had won his spurs at Manasses, the most famous race-ground 
 of the world. 
 
 Miss Minnie Brickenridge had been ensconced in the bay-window for half-an- 
 hour ; Mr. Myers, who had happened to come in, was at her side, when the door 
 opened, and Mrs. Ellmer proudly rose to receive the young hero. The eight or 
 ten favoured guests gathered quickly around him, and each had some particular 
 question which demanded an especial answer ; only two sat apart. Huntington 
 was conscious that there were a maiden and man in the window, but little recked 
 he who she was, or what she was to be to him. Mrs. Ellmer, whose pet Minnie 
 was, had been pouring her nephew’s praises into no inattentive ear, and on the day 
 of the party had indulged rather too freely on what a fancy they might happen 
 to take to each other. The first glance by no means answered to Minnie’s idea of 
 a hero ; he was quite tall, but so wretchedly thin and pale that he seemed to 
 have no strength in him ; and with an admiration for a big strong man, natural 
 in so petite a specimen of Nature’s dainty- work, Minnie at once decided that the 
 man by her side was much the best figure. Besides, to tell the truth, she didn’t 
 care to have him talk to nearly a dozen and herself at the same time ; it was so 
 much pleasanter to listen to one whose very being was admiration for herself. 
 
 “Come, Eustace,” said Mrs. Ellmer, “ there are two guests to whom j’ou have 
 not yet been introduced.” She led him across the room to the bay-window, and 
 touching Minnie’s fair, plump shoulder, caused her to turn round. “ Leiutenant 
 Huntington begs the honour of Miss Brickenridge’s acquaintance.” 
 
 “ What a fib,” thought the one spoken of, who was loth to interrupt the tete-a-tete. 
 As Minnie acknowledged the introduction she looked into his eyes for a moment, 
 and his lids drooped, unconsciously paying mute homage to the spell of a glance 
 that few men had resisted. Weak as he looked, he felt very much inclined to 
 put her in his pocket and walk off with his fairy-queen. What a pity that he 
 had to be introduced to Mr. Myers ! Was it perverseness, coquetry, or accident 
 that Minnie seemed inclined to indulge the broadcloth in a chat while she 
 
LOVE AND WAR 
 
 19 
 
 related a very amusing story to baffled Mrs. Ellmer ? Not very polite in Miss 
 Minnie ; but then the aunt ought not to have said she would find him irresistible. 
 What flirt, conscious or unconscious of her weakness, would stand such an 
 insinuation ? 
 
 A merry, trickling laugh, very like the echo of a gurgling brook in a very 
 happy, child-like heart, made Eustace turn his head to the source of the music. 
 AVliereupon the gay music suddenly ceased, and its creator was as demure .a little 
 “puss” as one ever sees. Mrs. Ellmer wanted to discuss the war ; Minnie was 
 eager to have her opinion on the larger bonnets coming into fashion ; the 
 lieutenant wanted to expatiate on the beauties of a country-life ; Minnie was 
 charmed with the lancers, but believed she liked the waltz even better. 
 
 It was not long before Huntington felt de trop andfound new companions. At the 
 supper-table Minnie’s seat was between Mr. Myers and the lieutenant. The latter 
 did not attempt again to draw her out ; but began a most interesting discussion 
 with Miss Buckner on the question of States Rights. 
 
 Prospere was too much enraptured with his own eloquence to discover that his 
 supposed hearer’s “ no ” and “yes ” sometimes changed places at improper times. 
 Then followed, between Laura and Huntington, a little dissertation on society 
 and flirting ; Minnie remembered, that “ listeners never hear any good of them- 
 selves but she heard all he had to say, and when he finished she felt “ very 
 small,” and then wondered why, for there was nothing he said that her god- 
 mother had not told her fifty times ; but then, nobody ever expected to entertain 
 Aunt Emily’s sublime ideas otherwise than as hj^potheses. Minnie felt very much 
 inclined to quiz, and put to a test such pretty, poetical notions. Not that Hunt- 
 ington had made a fool of himself by any high-flown speeches, but there were 
 several sentences that rang in the girl’s heart : — 
 
 “ A woman who has not sufficient self-respect to save her from flirtation is un- 
 worthy the love of a man.” 
 
 “The fellow who dares deceive a woman ought to be kicked out of society.” 
 
 “ The fact is, one couple out of a hundred may properly be termed man and 
 wife.” There was something thrilling in the way that word wife was uttered — it 
 indicated that in the depth of his heart it dwelt a happy thought ; and one of his 
 hearers unconsciously pronounced herself unworthy of it. Strange verdict in a 
 wild girl ! Had she ever before thought what wife meant ? 
 
 “ Can’t you tell us something about our Kentucky boys in Virginia,” asked Mrs. 
 Ellmer, desirous of drawing attention to her hero nephew. 
 
 “ General Jones, our Brigadier, pronounced my regiment the finest in all 
 respects in his brigade ! ” 
 
 “ Do you get many recruits from Kentucky ? ” 
 
 “ Continually.” 
 
 “ Do tell us something about our men.” 
 
 “ My dear aunt, you know I am not good at description, but here,” he said, 
 taking a scrap from his pocket, “is something Mr. Urston may read to you.” 
 
 “ Mr. Urston, oblige us,” said his hostess. 
 
 i “ The Kentucky Soldiers at Harper’s Ferry. ‘ Personne,’ the army correspon- 
 dent in Virginia of the Charleston Courier draws the following portrait of 
 Colonel Blanton Duncan’s men : 
 
 [The Kentuckians are a class by themselves. They are generally a large, well 
 formed, robust set of men, splendid marksmen, independent as the air ; and in 
 their careless, yet not ungraceful movements, one may almost carry his thoughts 
 back into the past, and imagine our forefathers of the forest borders around him. 
 When they first arrived, being without arms, it was proposed to give them 
 muskets, but these were refused under’ any circumstances. The boys said they 
 didn’t know how to shoot ‘ soger ’ tools, and if they couldn’t have rifles, they 
 ‘ would rather throw rocks.’ Considering the length of time they have now been 
 here, their regiment is probably the worst drilled at Harper’s Ferry. But the 
 fault is entirely their own. They can’t see the use of it ; they won’t be persuaded 
 to learn, and as for attempting to force one of them into anything like systematic 
 discipline, you might as well endeavour to put a hurricane in harness. A military 
 
20 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 gentleman who visited their encampment in the mountains, remarked to a littje 
 group, that he regretted they were not better drilled. 
 
 ‘ What’s the good of that ?’ said one of the men. ‘ We come here to wade in 
 any whar, and when we see a good shot, you may bet your life, stranger, we’re 
 goin’ to shoot.’ ‘ See here,’ continned the bee'f-eater, ‘ here’s our drill,’ and 
 taking his knife from his belt, he fixed it in a tree with the edge of the blade out- 
 wards. Then marching off a distance of sixty or seventy yards aimed his rifle and 
 split a bullet on the blade. ‘You see, stranger, if we ain’t much on sogerin’ we 
 are powerful good at drawin’ a bead.’] 
 
 “ But Lieutenant, this description don’t apply to the city recruits,” 
 
 “ Unfortunately, no ; our grammar is better than our aim ! 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Frankfort, September 9th. 
 
 “Are you a delegate, Myers, to the ‘ Peace St,ate Convention,’ which meets here 
 to-morrow ?” 
 
 “Yes ; ” replied the interrogated, refilling the wine glasses. 
 
 “ Why did you accept ? ” asked Stark. 
 
 “ It is pleasant to serve the people. ” 
 
 “I am not to be gulled.” 
 
 “ Then you had better not come to Frankfort ; the gulls collect in flocks in the 
 Kentucky river.” 
 
 “ Lincoln’s guns will scatter them before they are aware of danger.” 
 
 “ You are an alarmist ! Don’t talk that way before the people.” 
 
 “ Myers, I believe you are smarter than I ; you did not seem surprised and 
 indignant when you heard that Lincoln refused to regard our neutrality, which, 
 before he had an army here, he willingly accepted !” 
 
 “ Of course, better neutral than belligerent.” 
 
 Stark rose to his feet. “ I may be a fool, but I am honest ; I was elected by 
 men of southern sympathies because I was pledged to neutrality.” 
 
 “ Listen to the advice of a longer head than yours. In my heart I hate the 
 Yankees, and like the Southerners as much as I like anybody !” 
 
 “ Except yourself.” 
 
 “ Even so.” 
 
 “ Well, I have always liked the North ; my parents are from there.” 
 
 “ Then your path is easier than mine.” 
 
 ‘‘ What is my path ? ” 
 
 “ That of loyalty.” 
 
 “ Loyalty to myself.” 
 
 “ That sounds sensible ; I always thought you had more wisdom than your 
 years would lead one to expect. Next Monday we are going to get Kentucky 
 straight. We will ignore all conflicting interests until we are organised to 
 suit ourselves.” *. 
 
 ‘‘ Who are ourselves ? ” 
 
 “ We who have the longest heads, and most capacious pock — What was I 
 saying? Oh, yes!” 
 
 “ Don’t tamper with me, Myers.” 
 
 “ Tamper ! What do you mean ? The wine must have gone up instead of 
 down. By-the-bye, do you know General Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame, is to be 
 stationed in Louisville P ” 
 
 “ What ! ” Stark sprang to his feet. “ Would to heaven I had never stood for 
 my district ! ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 21 
 
 “ Sit down, man ! What ails you ? ” 
 
 * ‘‘Lincoln has betrayed us.” 
 
 “ Ha ! ha ! can’t a man do what he chooses with his own ? ” 
 
 “ Kentucky is not his, never was, and never will be. The Lincoln camps in 
 central Kentucky are three wasp-nests of foreign vermin that ought to have been 
 turned out long ago.” 
 
 “ There are few Kentuckians in them. The Courier says of the Union camp 
 in Garrard Co., there are 1500 of Tennesseans only ; also men from Ohio and 
 Indiana.” 
 
 “If we are neutral we ought to offer asylum to refugees of either side. We 
 could not except the Tennesseans, men, women and children, who flocked to 
 Danville for protection.” 
 
 “ I wot they knew where to go ; I was at their encampment last summer. But 
 the rogues would go into Somerset, and help themselves to whatever they 
 wanted, without saying so much as ‘ by your leave.’ ” 
 
 “We legislators will have to be very prudent, Stark. The government is on 
 its metal. A telegram from Washington says — Political arrests are no longer to 
 be published here, as the purposes of the government are thus interfered with.” 
 
 “ Very Republican. The Venetian Council of Ten fore-shadowed the cabinet 
 of Washington.” 
 
 “Captain Muzzy has removed his recruiting office from Jeffersonville to 
 Louisville.” 
 
 “ Give the Yankees ‘ an inch, they’ll take an ell.’ Disgraceful the way they 
 have manoeuverd about that recruiting. Rousseau recruited men in Louisville, 
 made them sleep and eat in Indiana, but parade and drink in Louisville ; being 
 told that they were to maintain our neutrality we paid for his men’s clothing and 
 arms. Our post-offices, railroads and telegraph wires were controlled by 
 Lincolnites ; arrangements made to occupy Columbus and Padnuch — all without 
 Kentucky’s permission ; for all of these neutral acts were committed before the 
 meeting of this legislature, and were, of course, amenable to the actions of the 
 last. They tried to recruit Kentuckians in Indiana, and finding that as slow 
 work as a snail’s crawling, they will now try to recruit Northern men on our 
 soil. Kentucky regiments, forsooth ! you might as well call that conservatory 
 across the street a Kentucky garden. Will you vote money to carry on the war ? 
 Yes or no ? ” 
 
 “ Not exactly. I will vote to support the Government, and so will you. 
 Don’t glare at me. Cool down, my friend ; the role of this Legislature was 
 marked out at Washington. You can’t do anything but keep out of a bastille. 
 Let’s see. You scorn money,” he continued, deceived by Stark’s rage being too 
 great for him to speak with self-control. “ How would you like to be a major ? 
 No — a colonel ? ” 
 
 “ Myers, if I didn’t believe you were drunk, I would knock you down !” 
 
 “ Now I have the cue,” said Myers, to himself, “he’ll not hold mo responsible 
 for anything I say.” He added, aloud, “You know an embargo has already been 
 laid upon our trade.” 
 
 “ By what law ? ” 
 
 “ That to which we have got to submit — the will of the strongest. Every man 
 is watched. Lincoln’s spies, male and female, white and black, are everywhere ; 
 nowhere so omnipresent as in Frankfort.” 
 
 “ You are drunk. Don’t fill your glass again. No more wine for me.” 
 
 “ Drunk am I ? Read what the Rajah of the Administration in Kentucky 
 says.” Stark took the proffered paper and read, while Myers watched him — 
 
 [“ All possible information in regard to suspicious movements among us, even to 
 the minutest circumstance, should be gathered up and reported to the Provost 
 Marshal, and it will be his duty to combine facts, and, in view of them to adopt 
 the proper action.”] 
 
 “Why, old fellow, I never heard you curse before. Be prudent.” 
 
 “ A standing army of detectives here !” 
 
 “ The President was doubtless much obliged to us for the information that we 
 
22 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 would not help him ; it was well-timed. He knew what cards he would have to 
 play, and held a close hand until the time came to throw down the right ones.” 
 
 “ The insulting reply of Lincoln to our Commissioners at Washington imposes 
 upon Gov. Magoffin the necessity of maintaining our neutrality. The Courier is 
 right in calling upon him to issue a proclamation, and 50,000 Kentuckians will 
 rally round his standard in defence of the State, (a) Oh, if we had a Governor 
 Jackson to act before my sleeping country is bound!” 
 
 “To fight against the Union ?” 
 
 “ No ; in defence of the position which the people have decreed.” 
 
 “ I thought you dreaded civil war here.” 
 
 “ No matter about my feelings ; my vote is pledged to my people. I cannot 
 make my life a lie. If not neutrality, then war! The people have so declared.” 
 Myers smiled. “ A steamboat loaded with cannon, muskets and men landed at 
 Louisville yesterday. It is the flag-boat of an extensive fleet. Ten other 
 steamers, each towing ten barges will arrive soon.” (a) 
 
 “ Poor Louisville ! Without war munition of any kind !” 
 
 “ You scorn money ; Mr. Goode has received so much ; the representatives of 
 another country have received so much. Don’t stare so, man ! It makes you 
 seem idiotic. One is to be made colonel. One is to be a captain, — pretty good pay 
 for a man with a thimbleful of brains.” 
 
 “ Well, if you aren’t drunk, I am.” 
 
 “ Don’t you see, Stark, we can’t do anything but succumb ?” 
 
 “ No, I don’t !” 
 
 a Would a vote given in Fort Warren do much good ? Listen ; to-night soldiers 
 have marched here.” 
 
 “ Ridiculous !” 
 
 “ Did you ever hear of the Long Parliament ?” 
 
 “Whose ears weren’t half so long as yours.” 
 
 tc Don’t make a fool of yourself, Stark. Did you ever see a picture of Mrs. 
 Partington and her maid sweeping the ocean out of her house ? Don’t you play 
 maid to Cissell. One might as well be under the ocean as surrounded by Yankees !” 
 Myers hiccoughed. “ I say, Stark, if yon can’t get the heiress, loyalty will prove 
 a kinder mistress. Don’t scowl so, it spoils your eyes, which I heard Miss Laura 
 pronounce very striking. You look handsomer now. Do you think she wouldn’t 
 be pleased to see you in blue cloth and brass buttons? Whew, man! Pd like 
 to see her white veil drooping over a colonel’s strap.” 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 “Good-morning, Miss Emily. How are you Minnie ?” asked Laura Buckner. 
 
 “ Glad to see my darling,” said Minnie, heartily kissing her friend. Miss 
 Johnston’s welcome was not quite so eager, but it was not less cordial. There 
 was something beautiful in Laura’s manner towards the Old Maid ; it reminded 
 one of a bright flower that had laughed in the sunlight, but bowed its head under 
 a weight of dew, the first burden it had ever borne. Laura was queenly- 
 looking and fair enough to craze a man who having once learned to appreciate her 
 uncommon style, dared not approach the inner life by which every feature seemed 
 to be moulded, and from which every action seemed to emanate. Not sparkling 
 and fascinating like Minnie, she did not draw around her a crowd of beaux to vow 
 they could not support existence without her love ; but pure, true, and 
 enthusiastic, as she was, those who bowed at her shrine seldom thought to carry 
 off the goddess, and went away sadder but better men. In one respect the girls 
 were alike ; for neither had a definite idea of a great sorrow. Dwellers on the 
 mountains of youth, they were above the weary work-day world of storm and 
 heat ; but those who are above storm-clouds dwell in a mist. 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 23 
 
 Minnie ’8 representative idea of grief was the rejection of helpless lovers ; for 
 though a flirt through vanity and weakness, she was no coquette from heartlessness 
 and pride. On the other hand, Laura had a very small appreciation of the 
 torments of lovers, and supposed that they forgot the courtships about as soon as 
 she did. To her, sorrow was a mystery, and she sometimes longed to step 
 beyond the mistiness of existence to grasp an untried life heroically ; she 
 was willing to descend the mountain if she might gather such treasures as Emily 
 Johnston cherished in her bosom. To the young girl the old maid was a being 
 to reverence ; she longed to know the history of her life, feeling that beneath 
 the sheet that covered the corpse was an angelic smile of peace, and a celestial 
 beauty. She knew little of the hidden heart, but had several times gained 
 resolution to approach the vestibule, thinking to ask admittance to the Old Maid’s 
 sanctuary ; but like a child, who knows there is only beauty under the winding- 
 sheet, yet dares not lift it, her courage had failed. Unconsciously Laura’s 
 manner was always somewhat subdued in Miss Johnston’s presence ; she had few 
 about her daily walks for whom she entertained any deep sentiments of respect ; 
 and satiated with unfailing sunshine she bowed her heart to receive the dewy 
 influence of a being who had been regenerated in a baptism of tears. But while 
 all this writing has been going on, the three have been busily engaged discussing 
 the party where Minnie had met “ the lion.” 
 
 “ By-the-bye, Laura, do tell me somewhat of this young lieutenant whom 
 Minnie calls the lion ; but confesses herself unable to appreciate.” 
 
 44 Minnie is trying to 4 throw dust in your eyes.’ I assure you I never saw her 
 listen as attentively to any one as she did to him the other night at supper.” 
 
 44 Absurd ! Prospere talked all the time.” 
 
 44 Prosp&re had better keep a strict watch over you.” 
 
 Miss Emily looked quite pleased and evidently was anxious to hear more of one 
 who her godchild’s confidante thought might prove a rival to one she disliked as 
 much as she did Myers. 
 
 “ Is he handsome ? ” 
 
 44 Oh, Auntie, for shame ! To make that the first question.” 
 
 44 Your Auntie was considering on whom he was to make an impression. Yes, 
 indeed he is very handsome ; too delicate looking, perhaps, but Mrs. Ellmer 
 informed me he had been quite ill. Minnie, I imagine, he would dance very 
 gracefully.” 
 
 4 ‘ I hope he will ask you for every cotillon Thursday night.” 
 
 “ Another party Thursday ? Where ? ” 
 
 44 Here. Why is it possible you didn’t get my note yesterday ? I thought you 
 had come to help me get ready for the party.” 
 
 “ So I have, if my services are needed. But Lieutenant Huntington will not 
 be here ? ” 
 
 u He is invited.” 
 
 “ I thought his being in Louisville was not to be generally known.” 
 
 ** Oh, we are to have a masque.” 
 
 4 ‘ A masque ball,” exclaimed Laura, in amazement, glancing at Miss Johnston. 
 44 Oh no ! It was hard work to get Auntie to consent.” 
 
 4< Did I consent,” interrupted Auntie. 44 That a few friends might pass the 
 evening in dominoes without committing a mortal sin. A ball ? Certainly not, I 
 invited none but our particular friends.” 
 
 4 4 The Lieutenant, for example.” 
 
 44 Of course, Mrs. Ellmer, Auntie’s oldest friend, could not be forgotten, and 
 she couln’t be asked without her nephew who is staying with her.” 
 
 44 And all to mask ? ” 
 
 44 Yes.” 
 
 44 Mrs. Ellmer, and Miss Emily, and your mamma ? ” 
 
 44 Auntie won’t go down.” 
 
 44 Then I am quite at a loss to discover why it was necessary to invite Mrs. 
 Ellmer.” 
 
 44 Surely, you would not have me impolite to a stranger ? How will you dress ? 
 
24 
 
 LOVE AND WAD 
 
 il Rather late to ask. I cannot get np a costume in time.” 
 
 “ Oh ! they are all to he impromptu. Besides it is not necessary to go in 
 costume, the domino is the only indispensable article. I am to he South Carolina ; 
 blue dress and a wreath of veronica flowers forming the word Calhown on a 
 ground of white roses. My slippers are to be covered with raw cotton.” 
 
 “ How absurd ! ” 
 
 “ Yes, but it will be so funny. On my scarf is braided, ‘ no tariff.’” 
 
 “ Who arranged your dress ? ” 
 
 “ Auntie ; all except the cotton slippers, which 1 think the best of all. Prospere 
 suggested those. Prospere is to be the United States, wooing me back to my 
 allegiance. Of course, I’ll not heed him.” 
 
 “ I hope the symbolic refusal may prefigure a real and a different one.” 
 
 “ What ? ” 
 
 t( Nothing. How is he to be dressed ? ” 
 
 “ Red pants, blue coat, white vest, a cap of liberty, a golden eagle where the 
 knights of old wore the cross of honour.” 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Washington Republican says [“ since Kentucky has abandoned neutrality 
 at the point of the bayonet, there must be a reliance on the workshops of the South. 
 The South can manufacture rough shoes for about two-fifths of its population.”] 
 
 “ And Kentucky would so cheerfully have smuggled through three-fifths more, 
 had not the Scar Chamber of the 19th century stopped all traffic via the rail- 
 roads,” replied Urston. 
 
 “ I don’t blame the government for seizing the roads. For some time it has 
 been hard to find a drayman not engaged in the Southern neutrality trade ; day 
 and night they are rushing to the depot. Little use in blockading Charleston, 
 and letting Louisville do her work,” said Lawton. 
 
 “ What right has Lincoln to blockade Charleston ? Webster said in Jackson’s 
 Presidency, ‘The president has no authority to blockade Charleston.’ But, even 
 if Lincoln, instead of Congress, had the power, what right has he to blockade a 
 State against which he has never declared war ? General Buckner writes to the 
 President of the L. N. R. R. ‘ It is my purpose to re-open the traffic, 
 which has been recently suspended by direction of the President of the United 
 States. I have possessed myself of a considerable portion of the rolling stock 
 of the road, and now propose to you that, as President of the Company, you 
 continue the management of the portion of the road within the limits of 
 the influence of the forces under my command, and conduct it, as before the 
 existence of the war, in the interest of the people who are interested in its stock.’ 
 Hereby he puts himself above Lincoln, whom, simple-hearted republican, he 
 supposes to be the servant of the people of Kentucky as well as of other States. 
 When Yankee hirelings took possession of the R. R., our contract not to help to 
 coerce the South was violated. General Buckner restores it. What he says to Mr. 
 Guthrie is the voice of a freeman to a free-people.” 
 
 “ Then it is not to us, a free people ! Ah ! ” 
 
 “ Our trouble is that we were educated to believe ourselves our own masters, 
 and that neither Federal nor State Authorities would dare to transgress our 
 will.” He picked up the morning paper. “ At last.” 
 
 “ What’s the news ? Read it, you are white.” 
 
 “ 4 At midnight the Home Guards were drawn up in front of the Court House 
 and Rousseau’s troops on the other side of the river were coming to this side.’ ” 
 
 “ It’s strange we did not hear anything of this last night.” 
 
 “ Bats and mice are not very noisy ; night birds object to publicity ; there 
 might have been difficulty if it had been known that the Yanks were coming- 
 over. It was better to bring our protectors in at midnight that Louisville’s in- 
 gratitude might not be too marked. Dispatches for 7000 more troops have just 
 
LOVE AND WAD. 
 
 25 
 
 been sent to Indianapolis.” 
 
 “H ow such things make my blood boil !” 
 
 “ Up into your face. You’ll never keep quiet enough for this latitude. Come 
 with me,” said Lawton, who was about to return South. 
 
 “ My father is one of the befooled. He tried to make me promise him never 
 to join the C. S. A. He was about to contribute largely to the equipment of a 
 pseudo-Kentucky regiment. I may have been wrong, but I told him if he would 
 be neutral indeed, T would not go South. He gave me the money. You must 
 
 confiscate it. If I could ” 
 
 The door was hastily opened, and Maitland rushed in — 
 
 <£ Be off, Lawton ; don't stay here another hour ! ” 
 
 “ What’s the matter ? ” asked Lawton, very coolly. 
 
 “ The Yankees have taken possession of Louisville ; the State Guard was 
 disbanded only to let in Rousseau and his ranks. The United States’ Marshal has 
 
 just seized the Courier office, arrested one of the editors ” 
 
 “ What ! ” 
 
 “ They’ll rue this day ! ” 
 
 Both of Maitland’s auditors sprang to their feet. 
 
 “ Let us call the people to arms at once.” 
 
 “ There are no arms to call them to : the Yankees have seized them,” said 
 Urston. 
 
 “ We’ve sent them all away. Fools that we were !” exclaimed Maitland. 
 
 “ No, no. Be quiet. I’ll be in General Buckner’s camp in twenty-four hours. 
 You must wait orders.” 
 
 “ If we do, we are ruined.” 
 
 u Nonsense. Buckner has enough men to whip the hirelings back to Hoosierdom” 
 The doctor bade a hasty farewell and was off, 
 
 “ Sit down, Maitland, and get quiet !” 
 
 “ How can I be quiet ? ” 
 
 “ Do you think you can serve the Confederacy best by being imprisoned till the 
 end of the war, or by using a little sense and preparing for action when Buckner 
 comes ? ” 
 
 “ His very name gives me the confidence that quiets,” replied Maitland, taking 
 a chair. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 From Laura’s Journal, September 14. 
 
 My temples ache until it seems as though they would fall in, owing to the 
 excitement of the day. Thirteen steamboats and barges have arrived, filled with 
 armed men. I feel as if savages were about to be let loose on us, so dreadful has 
 been the lesson read us in Missouri and Maryland. I fear that my dear father may 
 not be safe ; he has never taken any active part in politics, but he has given 
 money to equip men for Virginia, and less prominent men for less offence have 
 been shut up in the American black holes. I feel that when Lincoln’s forces 
 appear law shrinks away aghast, and only violence can be heard. I am glad the 
 Confederacy has one general who can deal with Yankees. I think General Polk 
 has rather too much sense to withdraw from Kentucky before the Yankees. The 
 air is thick even to suffocating with rumours. What to believe I know not ; but 
 evidently Louisville is in a bad predicament ; betrayed into the hands of Dutch 
 and Irish brigades. 
 
 September 19, — Oh, God ! be pitiful! I am felled to the earth. Heard this 
 afternoon that Ex- Governor Morehead has been carried to Jeffersonville Peni- 
 tentiary ; that men are on the search for Haldeman, and that writs are out for the 
 arrest of fifteen other citizens. General Morehead was arrested in the dead of 
 night, while armed soldiers surrounded the house. He was taken to the ferry- 
 
26 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 boat ; but it is said he sat down on the bank and refused to leave the State, and 
 so sanction an illegal, unconstitutional act ; if he was taken over the river it must 
 be by force. Brave man, who wished to illustrate his political principles.” 
 
 Laura laid down her journal to open the door for Miss Johnston, and after the 
 usual courtesies of the morning were exchanged, following out her train of 
 thought she said, — 
 
 “Themistocles averred not he who conquers, but he who saves is the greatest 
 of heroes. Whom would the great Grecian rank highest, Scott or Yallandigham ? 
 I heard— an enemy is my authority — that Vallandigham cannot return to the 
 free State of Ohio. It is free for runaways, but not for a man brave enough 
 to question the infallibility of a political pope. I wonder if some French 
 demon is not now wreaking its vengeance on those who used to laugh at the 
 gullibility of the French who have several times imagined themselves a free 
 people? Oh, gullible French, you are avenged!” 
 
 “Would that I were eloquent,” said Miss Johnston, “then would I address 
 Seward an appeal that would make him look into his own heart. I would call 
 from the depths of my grief and my humiliation upon the Prince of Peace and 
 Love, to descend into his heart and make him realize the account he will have 
 to give at the Last Day ; not that he is the only cause of this war, but that he, 
 having the greatest gift of statesmanship, has not done all he could to avert 
 the strife. Oh, ye statesmen ! who are urging on the hell-hounds of war, take 
 your stand before the bar of God ; take it if ye list, on the Right Hand and 
 looking to the Left, see a long line of lost souls, and on the heart of each read, 
 ‘The victim of an unrighteous war/ See turned on you the horror-stricken 
 eye of women whom ye have ruined ! Do not start. Who let loose the demons 
 of war ? And then, oh, sight to make us weep ! crowds of children whom your 
 unrighteous avarice made orphans, and turned loose on the world to steal and 
 lie, to murder and to die. Are there none there to call you murderers? None 
 there to charge you with having destroyed their means of support? Aye, 
 those women and children who died from cold and starvation can not exonerate 
 you. Do not shelter yourselves behind the plea that the South began and is 
 accountable for your country’s near approach to ruin. If a man offend you and 
 you kill him, and his wife dies of a broken heart, and his fairest child sells her 
 soul for bread, and his penniless boy dies by the hand of justice, are you 
 guiltless of their blood ? And though you receive pardon and purification in 
 the blood of the Lamb, and sit on high seats amid cherubim and seraphim, will 
 the shades of those lost souls never cross your paths, nor take the lustre from 
 your crowns? Has there not been a time when the Secretary of State might 
 have been a martyr, might have saved his country? Had he persisted in 
 signing the paper for the evacuation of Fort Sumter, and been therefore 
 thrust from the Cabinet, hooted by his party, deserted by time-serving friends, 
 possibly the victim of lawless violence, his fame had been immortal. Would 
 not the justice of the next generation have buried him by the grave of 
 Washington? Would it not be meet that the ‘Father of his Country’ and its 
 martry should sleep side by side ? Will the Washington Monument never be 
 finished? Shall it stand in all ages the record of our disgrace? — fit emblem of 
 an unfinished nation? Or, shall there yet be granted us by the God of peoples 
 a saviour of our country? Is there any man in this land who dares to retrace 
 his steps ? There are not many men who can save our country ; and the few 
 who can, will they not? Dare they not? Are they so craven-hearted that 
 they dare not brave the tide of popular commotion ? Is there no Samson 
 among us who will pull down his own political temple if he may thereby crush 
 the Philistines of our land — the pride and the prejudice of political dema- 
 gogues? What if he perish in the ruin? The top-stone of the Washington 
 Monument shall bear his name. Little men will grow dizzy climbing the 
 height to read that brightest of all names; but noble men from the North and 
 the South, from the East and the West, will hasten to the Mecca of liberty, 
 forgetting their contemptible squabbles in the overmastering desire to be the 
 first to render homage. Women’s weak limbs will grow strong if they may 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 27 
 
 but press lips to the holy stone, and learn there new lessons of self-devotion 
 and truth, of patriotism and piety, to breathe into the hearts of those who 
 hereafter will govern nations, not from ‘lust of power’ and might, not by the 
 sword, not by shrieks of the wounded and curses of the dying, not by sighs of 
 women and tears of children; but by self-sacrifice and love, by purity and 
 peace. ” 
 
 “What an impossible dream, dear Miss Emily! oh, for a vision of peace! I 
 cannot see it.” 
 
 “The North is suffering. Only this morning I read of a man in Cincinnati 
 who had committed suicide, owing to depression caused by loss of employment. 
 Even now I sicken at the breath of famine and pestilence that I scent in the 
 air of next year. One man dies and the plague begins. Who is accountable 
 for the pestilence? I trust not all of those who cry for blood. The hounds of 
 war, mad with venomous hate, bit the abolition preachers; they bit their 
 political Leaders, who bit the money-lenders, who bit the Thirty Seventh 
 Congress ; and now they are all afraid of the waters of cleansing and peace” 
 
 There was a silence ; then Laura said — 
 
 “ Here is a letter from an old friend. I’ll read it to you to see if you can 
 suggest some soothing thoughts. My brain is too much in the condition of the 
 writer’s. ‘ Help me, oh, my friend 1 Pity me and help me ! What shall I do 
 when my hands point to duties in opposite directions ? Shall I plunge my 
 dagger in my mother’s bosom? Shall I sheathe my sword in my father’s heart? 
 My mother — for I have never known any but my country — calls upon me to 
 take up arms in her cause, to stand by her and fight for her the battle of law 
 and right. In the opposing ranks stands my grey-haired father. My mother 
 cries “On!” my father fixes upon me the eye that never before looked aught 
 but loving tenderness ; and my arm falls nerveless. In an agony that might, 
 aye, that ought to rend my soul from my body, I cry out, “ Oh ! mother, I cannot 
 fight against you. If there be within you bowels of compassion, not yet 
 writhing in the poison of a bloody cup, let me, I beseech you, stand neutral 
 now.” I have told you my grievous trouble, my friend, is there any help for 
 me ? Is not neutrality my only refuge ? Moreover, the woman I love weeps in 
 a Southern home. Shall I, can I, if I be a man, let loose more “ dogs of war” 
 on her? No! no! It can never be. I will stand neutral. Oh, pray earnestly 
 that no demon, delighting in unnatural strife, may force me to turn an armed 
 hand against the mother I love too well.’” 
 
 When Laura finished reading, she said : “Does not that letter move you, who 
 have no such conflicting interests ? Is our political position anomalous ? So is 
 our social.” 
 
 “I doubt if there is a State in the Union where so much is mentally suffered ; 
 a bleeding heart is generally purged of self. Think you we fear the charge of 
 cowardice ? It is a new phase of civilisation when a man is to wear the name of 
 coward because he will not challenge his own brother to fight in a dispute 
 regarding the honour of his mother. Wellington’s words ring like a funeral 
 prophecy in my ears : ‘ I must say this, that if I could avoid by any sacri- 
 fice whatever, even one month of civil war in the country to which I am 
 attached, I would sacrifice my life to do it. ’ I can hardly repress a feeling of 
 bitter contempt when I hear young madcaps and grey-headed dotards clamorous 
 for a civil war, that this greatest of heroes would have averted by the sacrifice 
 of his life. And civil war for how long ? Ah, wise old man, how well you 
 must have felt that a month of civil war bequeathed a rich legacy to hell, and 
 left a debt of hatred and bitterness that years of suffering cannot expiate.” 
 
 “ Oh ! I wish that I could never love another person.” 
 
 “Dear Laura, don’t say that.” 
 
 “ I feel it, Miss Emily, I know it is very wicked ; but I do wish it. ” 
 
 Miss Johnston knew it would be useless to talk to Laura about her sin ; a 
 good physician does not give quinine while fever is raging. 
 
 “What has wounded you, dear?” 
 
 “I am so disgusted with human nature ; it is so unjust, so ungrateful, so 
 contemptible. ” 
 
28 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ That is true ; and yet the same human nature is loving and true and 
 thankful and charming ; a man who always lived in a dissecting-room might 
 pronounce the human body diseased , disorganised, and offensive. You are 
 too thoughtful, Laura, to be happy, unless” — Miss Johnston stopped; she 
 had a delicate dread of introducing cherished themes in a manner, or at a 
 time, that would make them repulsive. 
 
 “ Unless what? If anything can cure me of my morbid desire for perfection, 
 tell it to me for very pity.” 
 
 “My remedy would increase that longing ; but it might be realised in your- 
 self. Yet—” 
 
 “Why do you hesitate so much when you talk to me? Lecture me as you 
 do Minnie ; I never in my life had a friend who loved me well enough to do it 
 for my own sake ; although an abundance of those who can give advice and say 
 disagreeable things when they are in the mood.” 
 
 With these sad words, Laura seated herself on the stool at the old maid’s 
 feet, and laid her hand in hers. This was the second time in Laura’s life she 
 had ever assumed this attitude of humility and confidence ; the other time was 
 when she heard of the capture of Fort Sumter. Miss Johnston pressed her lips 
 on Laura’s forehead — “ I have longed for this permission, and I thank you for 
 it. I have prayed for it. I never saw in any one such capacity for happiness 
 or misery ; it seems to me that in either world of the Hereafter you will feel 
 more than most natures. But next to the desire for your happiness is my 
 anxiety to see you develop a love for doing good. You look surprised.” 
 
 “ It was a natural thought for you ; but it does seem strange to associate it 
 with me. ” 
 
 “Do you remember the parable of the ten talents ?” Miss Johnston saw a 
 shade of distaste on her young friend’s face. “Tell me, first, what grieved 
 you to-day ?” 
 
 “The way Clara treated me ; do you remember how I nursed her day and 
 night when she was ill ? She is poor, and I have made her many presents, and 
 she has no gratitude. ” 
 
 “ I want you to devote your life to doing good with tongue, pen, or action, 
 any or all ; but the first lesson I must teach you is this ; never do anything for 
 thanks. Ninety-nine cases out of a hundred will disappoint you, and you will 
 become embittered. People are very grateful while our favours last, or until 
 they are thrown in the shade by the deeds of another ; natures grateful in 
 their essence I have rarely seen. ” 
 
 “You are full authority on this subject ; so your warning is more effective 
 than you designed it to be ; henceforth I shall confine myself to books and 
 music. I’ll cultivate my mind and sear my heart. ” 
 
 “You cannot.” 
 
 “Why not?” 
 
 “ Because your heart is too noble to submit to such treatment.” 
 
 “My will is strong.” 
 
 “My faith is stronger still in the power of prayer.” 
 
 Laura coloured. “I wonder if anybody prays for me. It is the sweetest 
 proof of love. I have often envied Minnie because she had sponsers whose 
 especial duty it is to pray for her. I think I could do almost anything for one 
 who prayed for me habitually.” 
 
 “1 do.” 
 
 “ What shall I do for you ?” 
 
 “Promise me that you will strive not to require more of your fellow-beings 
 than you render to God.” 
 
 “ That would be nothing. I am afraid to promise.” 
 
 “ I thought you had before I asked.” 
 
 “ Then I will keep my agreement ; but it will be very hard.” 
 
 “Not after you have got in the habit of doing good. Benevolence is the most 
 luxurious emotion of our nature ; a person who is accustomed to do good 
 whenever and wherever he or she can is more thankful for the opportunity of 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 29 
 
 enjoyment than the objects of his or her kindness are pleased at being so 
 favoured. I believe, Laura, that some day you will understand why it was the 
 Highest of all beings spent life in doing good. God has a universe from which to 
 select His field of enjoyment. He, the All-wise, chooses benevolence.” 
 
 44 And so have you chosen ; but I cannot .” 
 
 “ I thought as you do, and chose for myself, love ; yet love is but benevolence 
 in its narrowest, though holiest, sense. Will you remember the verdict of my 
 experience if you are ever tried ?” 
 
 “I could not love an unworthy person,” said Laura, proudly. ^ 
 
 s ( The one I Love was worthy of the society of Christ and His angels. 
 
 44 But I will not love any one in that way.” 
 
 “Will you love the next beautiful poem or fine piece of music you hear ? 
 
 44 Then you think there are persons we cannot help loving ?” 
 
 44 1 don’t approve of young ladies catechising old maids. Trials come soon 
 enough. I never prophesy unpleasant things.” 
 
 “ Pray do not for me. I have enough to bear for my country. Hid you 
 know, Miss Emily, that I am no longer a Unionist ? 
 
 44 1 heard so ; tell me what caused the change.” 
 
 44 At first I felt only bitter regret at the idea of separation and shame for all 
 my country. My first cause of disgust was with Lincoln ; my contempt for 
 his double-dealing shook what people called my loyalty ; I pronounced him no 
 gentleman, because a liar. I never said a word in defence of Lincoln after his 
 violation of the Habeas Corpus Act. Can you like me as well now ?” 
 
 44 So you have not heard of my change of sentiment ?” 
 
 44 Miss Emily ! I am so glad ! What converted you ?” 
 
 44 1 heard Mrs. Lee’s letter read, and felt that those as true at heart and 
 better Christians far than I, believed right what I thought wrong, a clear reason 
 for me to investigate farther. Perhaps, General Lee s test of his course by 
 praying and fasting, and his consequent decision was the lever that first began 
 to turn me round. I no longer regarded hatred of Yankees and bogus enthusiasm 
 as the prime movers in the Revolution. Next, my conservatism acknowledged 
 that of the South, as it had impugned the demagogism of the North. One 
 of my Union friends said the Southern Constitution had the amendments 
 the Northern one needed ; so I examined the new Constitution. As I saw 
 Lincoln violate one article of the Constitution after another, I hoped— 
 inwardly, I suppose — that Congress would not separate without a vote of 
 censure for his usurpations of unconstitutional power. Can I tell you my 
 anguish when at last forced to admit that by only one vote was the 
 United States saved from the everlasting infamy of justifying tyranny that no 
 sovereign in Europe would dare ? But L prayed for divine guidance. I couldn t 
 stand everything that the Government countenanced, and all the outrages of its 
 officials. Christians ought not to uphold it ; justice is better than the Union ; 
 liberty a greater object than the integrity of the political boundaries of my 
 country. Ah, if politicians had but waited till 1 died before they ruined my 
 country !” 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 44 Heigh — ho ! Let’s go to Austria,” exclaimed Maitland. 
 
 44 What for,” asked Myers. 
 
 44 I’d rather swallow all despotism at once than take it in small doses. Bettor 
 be poisoned than be kept in a state of nausea forever ; a small quantity of 
 morphine nauseates me ; a large renders me oblivious.” 
 
 44 What’s up now ?” 
 
30 
 
 LOVE AND WAD. 
 
 “ Think of making medicines contraband of war ! Combating women and sick 
 men is enough to turn a warrior’s stomach. To prevent an ounce of quinine, a 
 sword buckle, a case of darning needles, or a copy of Hardee’s Tactics from being 
 taken from the city, a servant of servants, a deputy of the subordinate of a 
 subordinate, is authorized to subject to insult, annoyance, and delay any number 
 of men or women who may have trunks or carpet bags with them. It is 
 enough to give a Kentuckian a fever to see the pitiful interference of the 
 Yankees in everything.” 
 
 “ Blood letting is good for fever.” 
 
 “ Tut ! Mr. Earle told me he had to get a permit to take a bundle of tea to his 
 wife, and he lives only twenty miles frOm the city.” 
 
 “ I have heard of men who could not be governed by paying deference to 
 them ; but I have never seen one. Kentucky is governed, as are sister States, by a 
 little body of politicians. To those the South paid no count, seemed quite 
 unconscious of their existence; the North courted them every hour of the day 
 and very late at night. In the first part of February, Kentucky sent a memorial 
 to Congress calling for a convention to make amendments to the Constitution. 
 The Northern president complimented her ; the Southern lias always ignored her.” 
 “ And do you remember what Phillips said in his public speech at Hartford?” 
 asked Myers. 
 
 “ I am so disgusted with the infidel Fourierite.” 
 
 “ Is what you call him ?” 
 
 “ I judge so from his own words ; you remember the Washington correspondent 
 of the New York Journal of Commerce attributes to him, apparently with 
 justice, a socialistic scheme for the territories the Abolitionists are to make out of 
 the States. Phillips said thst the timid Republicans sat at the feet of Kentucky.” 
 “I wish she’d kick them over, but when our Legislature petitioned for 
 Fremont’s removal he was removed. Morover,” he said, “Lincoln meant well 
 enough ; but he had left his brains and his conscience in Kentucky.” 
 
 “ They won’t enrich our soil much; Lincoln’s chief business seems to be to 
 keep us in a good humour.” 
 
 “ It is the clown that cracks the whip.” 
 
 11 Davis cannot blame us for being loth to fight ; not long has it been since he, 
 according to Douglas, was ready at all times to compromise on the Crittenden 
 proposition, and so was Mr. Toombs. Both were wise men. It was the senseless 
 fanatics that brought on the war. The Little Giant said the sole responsibility of 
 our disagreement and the only difficulty in the way of an amicable readjustment 
 is with the Republican party.” 
 
 “ If the real object of this war had been to restore the Union, the traitors of the 
 North would have been the first victims. This fact makes it evident that the 
 extinction of slavery is the real object of this war.” 
 
 “ Had Kentucky thought so her present position would be much more decided. 
 Crittenden and Guthrie offered resolutions which were as hostile to Abolitionism, 
 as friendly to peace.” 
 
 “ How have Brickenridge, Powell, Menzies, Burnett, and Harding battled for 
 the South, though they knew a cell in Fort Warren might answer their calls for 
 justice! But they obeyed Kentucky, and my prime political doctrine of States 
 Rights is like General Buckner’s. I obey Kentucky.” 
 
 “ Kentucky is only an abstraction ; wo politicians govern her.” 
 
 “ I hope you may not ruin her. Ah, if the people would use common sense.” 
 
 “ Ha ! ha ! ha ! Let us politicians manage one month longer, and the dear 
 people will be of as much importance to us as any other nursery of babies. This 
 babble about popular government is the best joke of the century ; popular 
 gullibility would be a better name.” 
 
 “ The more shame for those who pander to the people’s vanity. They are 
 opening their eyes.” 
 
 “ If you blindfold a man while the sun shines you need not fear to take the 
 bandage off at night Frankfort will be a big fly-trap ; and golden A>eads of 
 liberty will invite the legislators in.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 31 
 
 (t Suppose we have to vote on the question of Secession ? ” 
 
 “ What if we do P Every fellow will have his sweetheart before him, and will 
 be faithful.” 
 
 “ What stuff are you talking now ? ” 
 
 “ Of the aforesaid goddess. Don’t look disgusted. I believe you affect ornith- 
 ology, and may like eagles. I was only jesting.” 
 
 “ Then talk seriously. We have been sworn to observe the Constitution of the 
 State, and that says ‘ that all power is inherent in the people, and all free govern- 
 ments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their peace, safety, 
 and happiness, and the protection of their property. For the advancement of these 
 ends they have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, 
 or abolish their government as they may think proper.’ ” 
 
 “ That’s treason !” 
 
 “ Capital ! The Constitution treason ! I grant it is Southern.” 
 
 ‘‘And treasonable,” said Myers, more decidedly. 
 
 “ Neither President Jefferson nor his Cabinet nor Congress thought so ; not a 
 man in the nation raised a voice against Kentucky. As far as my reading serves 
 me, neither Clay nor Webster impugned this doctrine, for they were Republicans. 
 This was declared by only the small population of one State, and was un- 
 rebuked by true Statesmen ; now 10,000,000 declare the same to the sound of the 
 drum.” 
 
 “ Oh, if old Jackson were only alive ! ” 
 
 “ To rescue his character from the soiling grasp of tyranny. He taught of 
 such a war as this. If such a struggle is once begun, and the citizens of one 
 section of the country are arrayed in arms against those of the other in doubful 
 conflict, let the battle result as it may, there will be an end of the Union, and 
 with it an end of the hope of freedom. The Constitution cannot be maintained, 
 nor the Union preserved in opposition to public feeling, by the mere coercive 
 powers confided to the Government.” 
 
 “ Was not he a States Rights man ? I think most democrats are, if they under- 
 stand the genius of their organization.” 
 
 “ Confound State Rights !” 
 
 “ And establish despotism !” 
 
 “ The time has past when such language is prudent, my friend.” 
 
 “ Not in Kentucky, which is neutral.” 
 
 “ Her neutrality is abolished ; the sham exploded.” 
 
 “ By a despot, then, and we are subjects of its Majesty the Union. Henceforth 
 let the name of Union be the watchword of tyrants, the abhorrence of freemen !” 
 
 “ Be less excitable. All men might not keep your secret as well as I.” 
 
 “ I have no secret. I shall vote for Secession.” 
 
 “ Good. Where do you propose to cast your vote — in Camp Chase, or in the 
 Lunatic Asylum ? [There are five regiments of Federal troops in Kentucky, 
 opposite Cairo ; 10,000 at Paducah; 6,000 at Cairo, and 800 at Mound City, six 
 miles above Cairo. Important news was expected from Columbus and Paducah 
 when our informant left.] Don’t grit your teeth, it injures the enamel.” 
 
 “The State Guard, where it still maintained an organization, has been disarmed. 
 
 * Since Governor Morehead’s arrest at midnight no man feels himself safe.’ He 
 was charged with no crime. * The day the Battle of Manasses was lost he passed 
 the Courier office, and being cheered, arose in his buggy and huzzaed fur the 
 South. General Anderson denies having had anything to do with his arrest, 
 which was made by order of the Government that he had strenuously endeavoured 
 to uphold. I read a speech of his last night, and marked several passages, which, 
 with permission, I will now read. And, remember, he is Kentucky’s representa- 
 tive ; as he felt, feels, and will feel, she also ; as he suffers she will suffer ; for as 
 he thinks she has thought, and would speak now, if not gagged. [* I went to New 
 York upon my own expenses, and there I appeared before more than ten thousand 
 people, and in a speech I urged upon them with all the earnestness and 
 zeal with which the importance of a subject of that kind was calculated to inspire 
 in my heart that they should unite — no matter whether they were for Bricken- 
 
32 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 ridge, Douglas, or Bell, laying aside their predilections — against that man whose 
 elevation, in all human probability, was to sunder the ties that bound us together 
 as a common people. Allow me to say that in a more fervent appeal than ever I 
 offered to mortal man, I implored Abraham Lincoln, before he was installed Presi- 
 dent of the United States, to withdraw the troops from Fort Sumter, in order to 
 prevent the possibility of any collision.’] ” 
 
 Maitland read more of the noble speech ; when he finished he was standing 
 in the centre of his office, his eyes glowing, and his whole frame trembling with 
 emotion. This speech of one of Kentucky’s favourite orators had seemed to him 
 all a matter of course last summer, and now he was reading it over the newly- 
 made grave of Liberty, and in the ears of one who heard it only to scoff, and 
 dared to answer his proud glances of deep feeling with a cold and sardonic grin — - 
 because the traitor knew he had hut to throw up the window by which he sat, 
 call for Lincoln’s armed minions, and bury the noble youth in the filth and 
 secrecy of a prison. 
 
 “ Hand me the paper,” said Myers, as Maitland sank into a chair, and realizing 
 more strongly than ever before, the bondage he despised, covered his face with 
 his fair scholarly hands. 
 
 “ Now I will read you the reasons of his arrest; from his own lips I will prove 
 him a traitor. And if his sentiments represent Kentucky’s, let his fate image forth 
 hers.” 
 
 “ Scoundrel ! ” muttered Maitland, in a low voice, not from fear but from the 
 physical weakness induced by the strength of his passion. Myers heard, but pre- 
 tended not to, and read some sentences from another of Morehead’s speeches. [‘ The 
 question is, in the present state of the case, are you going to conquer, subjugate, 
 and bring them back by whipping them into this Union, and make them partners 
 with haughty masters in an unwilling Union ? — (Voices, ‘ No, never ! ’) Let me 
 tell you, in the languageof Senator Douglas before his Indianapolis speech, ‘ War 
 is disunion ; war is a final and eternal separation ; and the man who is for pro- 
 secuting this war, though he may have Union in his heart, is a disunionist.’] 
 (Applause.) Kentucky needs no such teaching as that ; she is rebellious enough 
 by nature ; those who strive to corrupt her will be placed where they cannot 
 injure her.” 
 
 “ My poor mother is to be left to the chicanery and jugglery of the political 
 dancing-master, born on her soil, but not of her blood, who will call the figures 
 for the legislature to go through while a Yankee plays the fiddle,” With these 
 words Maitland, forgetful of the courtesy due to one in his office, rushed down 
 the street. 
 
 Myers curled his lips. “ This is a verv pleasant office. Damils made a joke the 
 other day ; he is now in Newport Barracks. An Italian might as well talk 
 against the Pope, as a Kentuckian against the man whom Maitland detests.” 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 “ Miss Brickenridge,” said Lieutenant Huntington, “it is hard for us poor 
 fellows to go off to the wars and feel by the time we come back the lazy peace-men 
 will have married all the pretty girls.” 
 
 “No fear of that, I can assure you, there are at least fifty pretty school girls 
 who’ll be ready for you if the present set should have been shut up in private 
 nunneries.” 
 
 “ Nunneries ? ” 
 
 “Aye. What difference is there between a married woman and a nun ? ” 
 
LOVE AND WAN 
 
 33 
 
 Huntington looked pleased ; that did not seem much like the sentiment of an 
 engaged lady ; by some strange association of ideas he sighed. 
 
 “ Was that sigh for the poor victims of matrimony ? ” 
 
 “ By no means, may be it was for Mr. Myers.” 
 
 “ I don’t see why you should pity him.” 
 
 “ But you may guess why I might envy him.” 
 
 ‘‘For his political status probably.” 
 
 “ For nothing less.” 
 
 There was a slight embarrassment between the two young people. After a 
 few moments’ silence, Eustace whispered to himself, “ Faint heart never won fair 
 lady.” 
 
 “ Miss Brickenridge, I’ve heard you called a flirt.” 
 
 “Have you?” 
 
 “Yes.” 
 
 “So have I, very often.” 
 
 “You take the accusation very philosophically.” 
 
 “People don’t mind what they are used to.” 
 
 Eustace looked provoked ; but he said — 
 
 “You are the strangest flir — pardon me, you are an enigma.” 
 
 “So all the beaux say, and to all the other girls, I suppose.” 
 
 “You’re not a flirt from vanity, nor from heartlessness.” 
 
 “How do you know? Did Laura tell you that?” 
 
 Eustace was amazed ; she was too fair a child not to be worth an effort, so 
 with a dash of impudence he said — 
 
 “You are fickle as a butterfly.” 
 
 “Do you mean that as a reproach?” 
 
 Eustace’s confusion did not permit him to reply instantly, so Minnie 
 continued, “I don’t care what you say about me” — here the lieutenant bit his 
 lips in mortification; “but I am not going to hear my friends slandered.” 
 “Your friends?” 
 
 “Yes, the butterflies.” 
 
 “Like to like.” 
 
 “I cannot receive so unmerited a compliment.” 
 
 “I am going to send you a butterfly from every battle-field on which I risk 
 my life; it will be a delicious way to torture myself.” 
 
 “Do butterflies hover over battle-fields? I won’t like them half as much if 
 they do.” 
 
 “No,” said Eustace, smiling, “but Southern Kentucky, where I suppose I 
 shall be most of the time, abounds in them, and meadows or fields are generally 
 the sites of battles. I’ll catch them and stick them before the contest 
 begins.” 
 
 “Stick them! then don’t dare to send them to me; I never should like you 
 again if you were to mock me by sending me a tortured friend. ” 
 
 “ It’s wonderful to me how so tender hearted a young lady can be a flirt.” 
 “Is it? How do you know I am?” 
 
 “I thought you admitted it.” 
 
 “Did I?” 
 
 “So you love a butterfly more than a human being? ” 
 
 “ Nonsense.” 
 
 “Do you ever pet your fickle types?” 
 
 “You are not to call a butterfly fickle — I’m as tired of the absurd talk about 
 butterflies’ fickleness as of our neutrality. Yes. I pet butterflies. Oh! I 
 caught such a darling yesterday, he quite covered my hand. ” 
 
 “What a monster! And did you tame him?” 
 
 “See if it is on that basket of flowers.” 
 
 Lieutenant Huntington crossed the room and bent over a large straw work 
 stand which Minnie’s taste had converted into a very pretty flower-basket ; 
 through the interstices of straw, delicate vines, one end of which was in the 
 flower-bowl, were carried, forming a pretty arabesque of maurandrias, cypresses 
 and honeysuckles. 
 
 o 
 
34 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “May I have my favourite flower?” 
 
 “As many as you want.” He took a dandelion. “You surprise me by your 
 selection. Everybody but Auntie laughs at me for putting dandelions in my 
 baskets ; but I love them because they seem to me concentrated extracts of 
 sunbeams. ” 
 
 “Again, Tike to like,’” murmured Eustace. “I am fond of the dandelion 
 because it is always bright and ready for love ; it is so unconscious of its 
 brightness; it never raises its pretty face above the grass.” 
 
 “Oh, yes ! Don’t you remember the puffs?” 
 
 “Well then, I’ll add till its beauty has departed, its identity forgotton, and 
 it is ugly and of no consequence.” 
 
 “What a slanderer you are ! I don’t think we’ll ever get along together; 
 you are forever abusing my pets. As long as God bids the dandelion be pretty, 
 it’s thoughtless of everything but being happy and receiving the sunbeams, but 
 when God says its beauty must fade, then it throws out all its strength to rise 
 above its surroundings, and having perfected its good thoughts, scatters them 
 over the fields to spring up as new deeds of joy and good. Auntie says she 
 hopes I may be like a dandelion.” 
 
 Minnie was so unconscious of the compliment she repeated, that Eustace’s 
 admiration for her was only increased. 
 
 “You are so eloquent in defence of the dandelion, and I am so entirely 
 convinced of my injustice to a flower which henceforth will to me be dearer 
 than ever, that I feel a desire to hear you undertake a defence of the butter- 
 fly.” 
 
 “By-the-bye, isn’t one on the basket?” 
 
 “No, indeed! The fickle — ” 
 
 “Don’t abuse him. I didn’t put any fresh flowers in there for him to-day, 
 and that is the reason he has forsaken me.” 
 
 “If he had been possessed of the noblest attribute, fidelity, he would have 
 perished on a dead flower before he would have left you. ” 
 
 “And shown he had as little sense as the human beings who pine away or 
 make themselves disagreeable, because they have happened to have a fancy for 
 some who were not worth a button. No; my butterfly did right. God made 
 him to gather sweets that he may live until his mission is accomplished ; in 
 obedience to his instincts he braves the morning coolness, the noonday heats, 
 passes fearlessly by his hovering enemies, and unweariedly pursues his calling, 
 rejoicing in the work that God hath given him to do. From one flower he 
 gathers all that the Creator has stored therein for him, and then, thankful for 
 that, passes cheerily on to the next, without stopping to repine that the first 
 held no more nectar. The butterfly is a much abused simile of unthinking 
 poets ; he is ever constant to one object, gathering into his life all that our 
 Father hath scattered hither and thither to excite his diligence, and quicken 
 his enjoyment. Are you as constant to the object of your existence? Do you 
 turn to the city, to the country, to fellowmen, to children, to books and to 
 nature that you may gather into your life all that your Creator hath scattered 
 for your use?” 
 
 “Be my teacher in Botany and Natural History, Miss Brickenridge. ” 
 
 “So I’ve converted you to respect two of my friends,” said Minnie, with the 
 pleased look of a child. 
 
 “Yes; and your arguments have convinced me that when I entered your 
 house this morning I was a fool — pardon me for applying such a word even to 
 myself in your presence.” 
 
 “I used to be shocked to think of anybody using such a word, but I am 
 getting used to hearing it called since this war began. ” 
 
 A pang, quick and sharp, cut Eustace’s heart ; he felt it the more that it was 
 the first he had ever felt for a beloved, and by that pang he knew that he, who 
 had come to Yinelea with as much inclination to condemn as to love the fair 
 child before him, now bowed his manhood before the purity of the most artless 
 being he had ever known. Just how he had arrived at this conclusion he could 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 35 
 
 not have told; but he, like a knight of the olden times, will henceforth live to 
 maintain the truth of his mistress before all the world , and in the stillness of 
 his blessed heart. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 October 24 . 
 
 “Oh, Laura, how can you stay in this horrid house,” said Minnie, as with 
 sparkling eyes and a bloom which showed her summer did not wear its “last 
 rose,” she appeared before Laura, who sat weary and listless, weary of nothing, 
 listless because she dared not feel. 
 
 “ What exquisite flowers ! Why, you magician ! how do you manage to 
 have such roses, verbenas, portulaccas, golden-rods, chrysanthemums, and 
 zinnias in such gloomy weather ?” Laura looked first at the bouquet and then 
 at the yet brighter giver. 
 
 “ Gloomy weather ? Where are your eyes ? What’s the use of God making 
 a beautiful world for people who never see anything but books ?” 
 
 “ But I can see something else, Miss Impertinence,” answered Laura tenderly, 
 drawing the sunshine down close to her heart. “ Where do you get all your 
 brightness from ?” 
 
 “From the trees, to-day. There never was such a picture painted as now 
 stands near Vinelea. Do you remember the field which lies fallow, where I 
 gathered the beautiful grasses you went .into extacies over — General Buckner ? 
 It is now of the richest brown and amber and sienna tints. Back of it is a 
 turnip-field — what are you laughing at ?” 
 
 “ Nothing ; I am fond of turnips.” 
 
 “And I don’t think they were intended to be eaten, but to be put in the 
 ground only as pedestals for brilliant green when most other vegetables look as 
 stupid as the people who generally eat them.” 
 
 “ Go on. What’s beyond the turnip field ?” 
 
 “ The picture. But I must first tell you that in the foreground, beside the 
 turnip-field, is a pasture where our cows feed. Nobody ever ought to paint a 
 landscape without cows,” 
 
 “ And turnip-patches. ” 
 
 “You need not take the trouble to ridicule me ; for I no more expect you to 
 understand nature’s colouring than you expect me to comprehend the State 
 Papers and other waste papers. Can you remember the foreground ?” 
 
 “ Perfectly ; I see it all and you in the field-eating a raw turnip.” 
 
 “I was in the pasture, chasing a butterfly.” 
 
 “ If I were an artist I could paint the picture now.” 
 
 “Oh ! I’m so glad I’ve made you see it all. Now, Laura, shut your eyes and 
 try to see the woods. The dark stems of the trees can now be seen ; they are 
 centres for the most gorgeous radiating of — of — oh, I can’t tell you ! I wish 
 I could. But some of the trees look as if they were dipped in melted gold— 
 these are the sugar-maples, and the buckeyes are still intensely green, and the 
 beeches are the most splendid ormulu ornaments you ever saw.” 
 
 “ I thought beeches were ugly in the Fall.” 
 
 “ Of course you did, because you never looked at them.” 
 
 “I did only yesterday.” 
 
 “How? Where? In the bright sunlight and in a proper position? Any- 
 body who talks about art as much as you do, ought to know that a picture 
 shows to most advantage in only one light, and in only one position. I forgot 
 to tell you that just to the left of the woods is an apple orchard, red and green. 
 And this is what you call gloomy ! Take off your political blue -glass spectacles 
 and be happy like I am.” 
 
36 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 4 4 I am now ; but Autumn is a very gloomy time. ” 
 
 “ Doubtless ; crimson and orange are proper colours for mourning. Of all the 
 months October is my favourite, because it is the most brilliant. ” 
 
 44 It is sad to look at dead leaves, and listen to their mournful rustling, crying 
 out like our lost days for a beauty they will know no more. ” 
 
 “If you would live more out of doors you would not have so many lost days 
 to talk about. But what makes you look at the leaves on the ground ? I look 
 only at the gorgeous trees and the beautiful sky, and I listen to the birds, 
 instead of trying to be romantic, and communing with myself. I may be good 
 enough company for myself when it is raining ; but when the sun shines I like 
 nature best. Come, go home with me, and let us make bright crosses of leaves 
 and white wreaths of everlasting for our bedrooms.” 
 
 “I am glad to go with you, darling ; for may be when with you I can forget 
 my poor country and its invaders. ” The last was said with a bitter accent. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Frankfort, October 24 . 
 
 “Why, Lawton, you here !” Stark was glad to see his old friend. 
 
 “Speak lower. Don’t you see my red wig? I’ve only a little time to talk 
 with you. I must be off before daylight. I came to find out what the Legisla- 
 ture is doing.” 
 
 “ Disgracing itself. Would you suppose the extra eight senators are allowed 
 to take their seats ?” 
 
 “Certainly, for only two of them are really States’ Bights men, and even 
 Speed’s Legislature won’t dare to reject two and accept six, selected in a precisely 
 similar way ; besides one must be smuggled in to disgrace the people he doesn’t 
 represent.” 
 
 4 4 There’s no telling what cowards can dare when only their tools are armed. ” 
 
 44 1 hear Johnston made a good thrust at Fremont.” 
 
 4 4 For effect, may be; the Unionists make a great deal more fuss about 
 Abolitionism than we do. But the best hit that has been made so far, was a 
 petition from Christian County asking the Senate to have read the address of 
 the Union State Convention. Twenty-four senators were afraid even to hear 
 it ; for fear, I presume, they might see its ghost at night. But is not that 
 Goodloe a delightful specimen of a representative of a republic objecting to 
 have a poor harmless paper printed ? It was too expensive to put on record the 
 people’s protest that the members had been elected to oppose the war. ” (a) 
 
 44 It would be more than their reputations could afford. Gower said he could 
 bear the expense of printing the one he had presented ; but the Yankees 
 thought they could not countenance such extravagance.” 
 
 4 4 What can Burns and such as he do with a frightened herd, governed by a 
 few bull- dogs ?” (b) 
 
 44 This may not be manly; but it is more honourable a thousand times than 
 voting against the wishes of constituencies. If a man, after he is elected, changes 
 his mind, and cannot conscientiously vote as would please the people who sent 
 him to his post to carry out their desires, he should resign,” 
 
 44 Or in casting a vote he can say, 4 mine must be 4 4 yea” because I am morally 
 pledged to vote for this measure ; but I do not approve of it. ’ ” 
 
 4 4 He had better resign. One day I counted the members ; there were twenty- 
 three absentees, thirteen of whom had not asked leave of absence. Another 
 day twenty-one were absent. I am ashamed to stay or to go. ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 37 
 
 “Poor fellow ! Even of this vile Legislature, the minority, honest and true, 
 is like diamonds in a heap of charcoal.” 
 
 “Then they cannot shine. But even here there were only three who voted 
 against the resolution which declared : [‘That in using the means which duty 
 and honour require shall be used to expel the invaders from the soil of Ken- 
 tucky, no citizen shall be molested on account of his political opinions.’]” 
 
 “I have heard a great deal of indignation at Huston s Bill, which the ladies 
 think was made to entrap them, as they, by contempt for those whom, with- 
 out good reason, stay at home, drive many into the army. I’d like to see the 
 infamous bill, if it is on that file. ” 
 
 Stark turned over some numbers of them and read — [“Any person who shall 
 within the limits of this State persuade or induce any person to enlist or take 
 service in the army of the so-called Confederate States, and the person so 
 persuaded or induced who does enlist or take service in the same, shall be deemed 
 guilty of a high misdemeanour, and, upon conviction, shall be fined in a sum 
 not exceeding 1,000 dollars and imprisonment not exceeding six months.”] 
 
 “Pity Huston was not Minister of State to Nero. To carry out such a law 
 here would be beyond expression cruel. ” 
 
 “Myers attacked me about G-eneral Polk’s violation of our neutrality as he 
 called it. ” 
 
 “What did you say ?” 
 
 “I exclaimed, — ‘His violation of it ! If my father and you have sworn not 
 to meet, and he sees you coming into his house and kicks you out, who is the 
 guilty party ? ’ General Polk wrote that he had information on which he could 
 roly that the Federal forces were preparing to seize Columbus, and that he 
 need not describe the danger to West Tennessee from such a success ; there- 
 fore, his responsibility could not permit jhim quietly to lose so important 
 a position ! He stated his willingness to withdraw his troops as soon as 
 the Yankee commander on the opposite bank of the river would withdraw 
 his.” 
 
 “The people of Columbus are suspected of having invited General Polk to 
 take possession.” 
 
 “They had a right to ask for protection from Yankee cannon. He says in 
 his letter to the Government, that the citizens had fled with terror, and not 
 one word of assurance of protection had been addressed to them l (a) In his 
 proclamation, he says what no Yankee general could say — ‘ it is gratifying to 
 know that the presence of his troops is acceptable. ’ The Mountain News says, 
 
 [ ‘ On the 6th instant, General Grant took forcible possession of Paducah with 
 10,000 armed soldiers.’] Since then the Confederate States’ War Department 
 has authorised opening recruiting offices in Kentucky. ” 
 
 “As one among many of my observations as regards Kentucky’s true position, 
 
 I may state that, in a neighbourhood where I was lately of forty-three who 
 voted for the Union or neutrality ticket, but four considered themselves 
 Unionists, and three of these were not born in the State. We, in the 
 army, have been afraid the arrest of the Maryland Legislature would intimidate 
 this.” 
 
 “It has, even more than you, who are under a free government, can imagiue. 
 All prudent Southerns keep quiet, for to speak out is to be arrested ; and the 
 most timid vote with the majority, which would not be a majority, were it not 
 for them ; and each satisfies his disreputable conscience by asking it, ‘ What 
 difference can one vote make ? ’ ” 
 
 “And you have begun regal prosecutions of your subjects, having declared, 
 [‘That whoever has voluntarily joined, or shall hereafter voluntarily join, any 
 military force that has or may invade this State, or shall give aid and comfort 
 to any military force invading this State, shall be incapable of taking any estate 
 in Kentucky by bequest, descent, or distribution. ’] ” 
 
 “Let us talk of something else; the very title of Legislature makes me 
 sick !” 
 
 “It will be to you and the minority a glory that those in more favoured 
 States can never learn.” 
 
38 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 Mr. Stark drew along sigh. 
 
 “I was in Franklin last Tuesday. I find the women, almost every where, are 
 rabid Secessionists. Badly off as most families are for woollen and cotton 
 goods, in many instances they are known to give their last rag and their last 
 blanket to the volunteers going to the war. Many of them are in the habit of 
 assembling at the Town Hall, in Franklin, and other places, every evening, to 
 practise rifle-shooting and the use of other arms, in order to take care of the 
 plantations in case the men there should be all drawn off for the war. ”] 
 
 ‘ ‘ Governor Maguffin so far has done nobly. ” 
 
 “Poor man ! He must put out a Yankee buoy, or sink, since the appoint- 
 ment of a military board to supervise his action. If the necessity for a mililary 
 board doesn’t show our true position, I don’t know what could.” 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 It is one . of those clear, bright November days that seem like a sparkling 
 draught of iced-champagne. Laura, ever too susceptible to every change of the 
 atmosphere, throws down a volume of history — not the best companion for a 
 champagne-mood — and picks up the mitten that lay beside her. Deftly go the 
 bright needles, and rapidly go her thoughts, round after round. I am trying to 
 analyse her mood ; but in truth I cannot, any more than she herself could. One 
 thing only she is quite certain of ; she is knitting these mittens to be added to 
 a pile of socks and gentlemen’s wear that awaits its chance of being sent to 
 the Southern army. Loyal she, aye to the core, but not to a tyrant who broods 
 over despotic schemes in Washington ; before she was concious of it as a virtue 
 she was loyal to truth and independence. When a little child, if a book was 
 given her, the first question she asked was, “Is it true?” If not, the story 
 was cast aside. Now she reads many a novel knowing that it is true, even if 
 the characters be not all real. She deserves no more credit for her love of truth 
 than for her appreciation of music ; it is this instinctive devotion to the true 
 which has made her a Southerner in heart and language. Now, after all this, 
 can I confess the woman’s thoughts are on a Northern officer ? Is that the 
 reason she knits so briskly for the South ? Possibly ; but I think not. A friend 
 would not hint to her that she could love any particular man, certainly not one 
 of Lincoln’s officials. No, no, Laura is in a sweet trance of the fancy, she lets 
 her will nap while very absurd imaginations float through her brain. Ah ! now 
 her will awakes and exclaims, ‘ ‘ I will be an old maid ; the weather makes me 
 childish. If I were a Yankee woman I’d soon have on a pair of skates, but as 
 as I am only a Kentuckian, what shall I do ? ” She curled her pretty lips in 
 self-disdain. “I’ve lost my senses— ice enough in Kentucky to skate in 
 November.” 
 
 In a little while it is arranged that her mother and she will go into the 
 country and pay some visits. 
 
 “You know, Mamma, some of the Unionists are exceedingly civil, and I 
 love Mrs. Murray and Miss Young too much to sacrifice them to Lincoln’s 
 whim for despotic dominion ; and so we’ll go to see them. The friendships of 
 political opponents that live through these days may be written down as sure 
 for all time. ” 
 
 “Yes,” answers Mrs. Bucnker, “avoid the sore point of disputation and all 
 will be pleasant enough.” 
 
 “Pleasant enough to sit beside a friend, reach out your hand to her in an 
 impulse of love, and feel it fall against a barrier of ice ! Pleasant ? No, the in- 
 tercourse between Northern and Southern friends is not exactly that ; but it is 
 precious. I cannot say how precious to me. I feel as I should if a fearful 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 39 
 
 epidemic were raging and they or I might be next to fall. Then it seems to me 
 several of my dearest Union friends are singularly tender to me. I wonder if it 
 is 'because they pity me as I do them? Ah ! there are none whom I will pity as I 
 shall the honest Unionists when they awake to find out they have put weapons 
 into the hands of negroes to cut the throats of their own wives and children ! 
 Mrs. Crohyier passed me yesterday with scarce a nod ; she used to make a 
 great fuss over me. I liked her no more, so her coldness can’t distress me. 
 But she was always narrow-minded, and how can I expect her to like Lincoln 
 and me at the same time ?” 
 
 The visits to the country paid, they are now on their way to the city. The 
 afternoon before a heavy rain had fallen, and a very cold wind having risen in 
 the night, the road is crusted with frost. Merrily clatter the horses swift 
 feet. A Yankee regiment is resting by the wayside, but she does not turn her 
 head to see. 
 
 “Look,” says Mrs. Buckner, “looking can’t do you any harm.” 
 
 “ It is not my habit to pay attention to disagreeable objects. Why are these 
 fellows here ?” 
 
 “ Because they love the Union.” 
 
 “ Stuff ! I’d have more respect for the North if it would tell the truth 
 and say, ‘ We are fighting for interests. ’ These miscreants are only fighting 
 for pay. ” 
 
 “Are not our soldiers paid?” 
 
 “Not universally ; I might perhaps say, not generally. Mr. Marks said in 
 his letter that there [were 117 men in his company, and when they were called 
 up to receive their pay, all but three refused acceptance, and they drew only 
 half] Captain Lloyd’s sister told me he [drew only a small part of his pay, and 
 that was to surport the few men in his company who were not independent 
 gentlemen.] Marks and Lloyd both belong to Morgan’s cavalry. Do you 
 ever hear of Lincoln’s officers doing this ? Do you ever hear of Lincoln’s 
 soldiers refusing their wages ?” 
 
 “ Here is a noble-looking man sitting on the fence eating ham and bread.” 
 
 “A company of youngsters,” is the reply of Laura, who contemptously 
 looks half around — “There ! See those two Lincolnites talking to half-a-dozen 
 Blacks.” 
 
 “ What have they to say to them ?” 
 
 “That’s more of the North’s deceit. It loves the negro — does it? Then 
 why don’t it take care of those in its midst ? Why do our runaways write 
 such piteous appeals to their masters, and so often return ? Why do not more 
 slaves go North, when there is hardly one near the Border that could not go 
 whenever he or she liked ? Those who have been North don’t bring back 
 reports of Hesperian gardens. I have a respect for even fanatics ; but for 
 simulated fanaticism I have no words strong enough to express my contempt. 
 There are, I dare say, zealous Abolitionists from principle in this regiment. 
 What, then ? Am I bound to like the conscientious Samson who ties foxes by 
 the tails and applies a fire-brand and sends them through the land ? Is it my 
 duty to love and shelter the foxes, thereby setting my house on lire ?” 
 
 “ I thought you were opposed to slavery ?” 
 
 “ I loathe it. I’ll never hold a slave in my own name if I can help it ; but if 
 I do, and they can be fitted for missionaries of civilisation, I’ll hand them over 
 to Miss Johnston, who may ship them to Bishop Payne, as she did her own, 
 but I’d as soon go to the Alms House and House of Correction and set the 
 inmates adrift in the cold world, as emancipate negroes to send North.” 
 
 “ I thought you respected true Abolitionists ?” 
 
 “ I do ; but they are not numerous enough to take care of the free negroes 
 already on their hands. Those who use Abolitionism as a war-cry for home- 
 bred fools, or as a trap-bait for Europeans, need as many prayers as the 
 Pharisees of old. Look ! ” A smile plays over the lips that have been firmly 
 enough closed to destroy the “ curve of beauty ? ” 
 
 “ You bidding me notice soldiers !” 
 
40 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ Oil ! I’m not looking back at the soldiers ; but at a lover. Is not that a 
 picture worthy of Hogarth ? The Falstaffian-looking blue-coat with a buxom 
 lassie on his arm — see, how they have lagged behind the others. ” 
 
 “ Both faces in a grin ; they don’t look much like lovers. ” 
 
 “Do you think lovers ought to be sad ? I think they should be the jolliest — 
 no, the most intensely happy — people in the world. ” 
 
 “ I suppose these half dozen women will leave the company soon. There a 
 valiant votary of an untried gun takes leave of his lady of ‘ rueful countenance 
 she’s inside the fence, just by the cedar.” 
 
 “ Poor things ! they may never meet again.” 
 
 “ Um ! That fellow on the curb-stone is actually taking a biscuit from that 
 little darkey ! ” 
 
 The ladies are now in the city limits. A sudden movement on the part of 
 one of the soldiers frightens one of the carriage horses, which begins to prance 
 menacingly ' an injudicious lash of the driver’s whip stings him to fury, and 
 he dashes on at a mad pace. Everybody springs out of the way at first, and 
 then, when the horses have passed, start after them to increase their fury. 
 Laura’s strength is almost exhausted in her efforts to prevent her mother 
 springing from the carriage. Happily, the clatter of the horse’s feet draws the 
 attention of a United States’ officer on the side walk. 
 
 The ungovernable fury of the beasts is more appalling than the enemy 
 drawn up in battle array. Shall he throw himself before them ? Madness ! 
 Another glance, he recognizes the livery. Is it self-sacrifice, or is it impulse 
 that makes him leap into the street, and as the wild animals reach him, seize 
 the bit, and throw the one at his right hand — and, as it chanced, the mover of 
 this mad frolic — back on his haunches T 
 
 ‘ ‘ Take them out ! ” he shouts to the men nearest, guessing that some ladies 
 and she , of course, are within. The vicious horse has given his conqueror a 
 kick on the knee. Hardly are the ladies on the ground before he rears, 
 plunges, and this time breaks from the man who had seemed endowed with 
 superhuman strength. Who can understand the mysterious impulses of a 
 man’s heart ? Surely, he had not risked his life for a woman to whom he had 
 never spoken? The God Who had cared for His children, alone can comprehend 
 the workings of the inner life. 
 
 “ Who is our deliverer?” rapidly articulates Laura. 
 
 “ There.” Several point to the hero. 
 
 “ It is impossible for me to thank one who has saved my mother’s life !” 
 
 “ And yours,” says a smith, who still holds an iron in his hand. 
 
 “ No, 1 should not have jumped out ; but it may be so,” she added, turning 
 pale, as though her danger is but now realized. She looks up at her deliverer ; 
 he has laid his hand on the shoulder of a bystander, and his leg is bent ; there 
 are some drops of blood where he stands. 4 ‘You are wounded,” exclaims 
 Laura in a tone of mingled horror, surprise and grief. Again she raises 
 her eyes. He wears the United States’ buttons ! Hid he fancy it, or, was 
 there an almost imperceptible drawing back as she catches sight of the hated 
 uniform ? 
 
 “ May I send you a surgeon ?” 
 
 She will not be indebted to a Federal officer, is the thought which brings the 
 hot blood to his face before white with emotion. Hoes the blood now surge in 
 anger or disgust ? So ignoble a feeling in presence of her rescuer might be 
 intruded on Laura’s mind for an instant ; but could not be entertained. She 
 hastily adds — 
 
 “As you are a stranger, I thought you might not know whom to call. Pray 
 do not stand any longer. I cannot express my grief that you are wounded. ” 
 
 “ A mere scratch,” he replies, losing his momentary indignation in her gentle 
 mood. 
 
 “I assure you, my daughter and myself can never be grateful enough,” saj^s 
 Mrs. Buckner, still trembling. 
 
 “Such an action as yours is above any reward but the consciousness of 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 41 
 
 having performed it,” quickly adds Laura, with freshened emotion. There is 
 no haughty Southern light in the eyes that look at him now. 
 
 “Ladies, walk into my store,” said a fruiterer, standing by, who was not 
 experiencing such overpowering sensations as the three most interested. 
 
 “ Mamma, do you go in. I’ll step round the corner to papa’s office, that he 
 may look after the driver. 
 
 “ Oh, poor Henry ! How could I have forgotten him so long !” 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Mr. Buckner had suggested that his wife and daughter should have respect 
 enough for the man who had risked his life to save theirs, to send him every 
 day, while he was confined to his room, some mementoes of their gratitude. 
 Captain Wilson had politely declined Mr. Buckner’s offer to be immediately 
 removed to his house, to stay until his knee was well enough to allow him to 
 walk without a crutch. The kick inflicted by the horse had been more serious 
 than he had at first supposed. The morning after the accident Mrs. Buckner 
 sent him a large bowl of whipped cream and a basket of French fruits. Laura, 
 who had an original tasteful way of doing everything, took from a wine-glass 
 on her dressing-table a camellia, traced the word “ thanks ” on a petal, and 
 laid it on the foamy cream. Mrs. Buckner protested it would spoil the flavour ; 
 but her daughter said “ No,” and the camellia was sent. When Captain Wilson 
 saw it he thought of the pretty fable about Venus rising from the sea, but 
 wished it had been his favourite flower, the fragrant Devoniensis and not the 
 cold, impassable japonica. 
 
 When Henry returned from the hotel, he said with the customary gratuitous 
 criticism of the negro, “Miss Laura must have written mighty bad ; the 
 gentleman read Missus’ note very quick, but it took him longer to read what 
 was on the Howler. He must have mighty good smell, cause he seemed to 
 be smelling the flower as if he liked it ‘mazingly, and I smell it when 
 you brought it down stairs, for I love roses, and I thought it was not sweet 
 one bit.” 
 
 Laura was bending over her flowers, and turned to her mother, saying — 
 
 ‘ ‘ Oh, is it possible that I have got to see and entertain that man ?” 
 
 “Who,” asked Mrs. Buckner, more from surprise than ignorance. 
 
 “ That horrid fellow who saved my life.” 
 
 “ Laura ! ” 
 
 “ Oh, I am ashamed of it already ! ashamed of my feelings, ashamed of my 
 sin, for, truly it sometimes excites me so to think he saved me that I feel I 
 would rather die than be under an obligation to a man whose business it is to 
 enslave us. ” 
 
 “ I am shocked at such a sentiment.” 
 
 “ I am in a very bad humour.” 
 
 “With yourself, I hope.” 
 
 “Of course. I feel mean. I owe gratitude. I feel detestation, ” said Laura 
 with emphasis, to drown in her own brain the word “fear ’’she had so un- 
 accountably begun to utter. “How can I help it ? Suppose a man had saved 
 my life, only that I might see him put his foot upon your neck ? Kentucky is 
 my mother, just as surely as you are.” 
 
 “You are always extravagant.” 
 
 “ Oh, if he were only a poor soldier, and could be paid with one half of my 
 fortune ! That is just what I hate so about him,” said Laura, referring to an 
 unspoken thought. 
 
42 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ What ?” asked her mother, not knowing it. 
 
 “ Why, as Lincoln’s officer I owe him contempt, aversion ; but I feel that he 
 is — Well ! there’s no use talking.” 
 
 Laura went out of the room, vexed enough to cry. Alas ! poor Laura ! 
 the detested Lincolnite was the man she had paid such unconscious obeisance 
 to a few Sundays previous; and he had not a face that a woman like 
 Laura, gifted with eager eyes for all that is beautiful and true, could feel averse 
 to looking at. The complexion was of a clearness not often seen in a man, and 
 his quiet life on the Northern frontier had not exposed him to bronzing ; his 
 eye was remarkable for clearness, but whether open or shut you would as soon 
 suspect a little fair-haired child of guile as Keble Wilson ; translucent was 
 the one word that suited his face, and Laura felt that the light transmitted 
 from the inner man was just the ray that was the complement of hers. It was 
 undefined presentiment that made her shrink so from being exposed to his 
 influence ; might not he be her worst enemy ? For to know him might be to 
 give herself up to the most exquisite pain. 
 
 “ Freedom forever !” was generally her exclamation after thinking of him; 
 or else it was “ Sie semper tyr annus 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 “Always glad to see you, Dr. Lawton.” 
 
 “ I am sure, Mr. Buckner, that is a generous welcome, for if the Yanks knew I 
 was here, a speedy arrest would be the reward of your hospitality. How is 
 Yankee recruiting progressing ? Kentucky regiments are famous exotics.” 
 
 “ Enlisting here is slow, according to Prentice, who says, [‘ The soldiers are 
 about the only people that are now making a livelihood. The Government pays 
 most liberal wages — fourteen dollars per month, board, clothing, and doctor-bills 
 paid.’] ” 
 
 “ We can’t ensure our soldiers’ pay. Many say, as Blanton did, ‘ I’d rather 
 fight for the South, but I hadn’t rather my family should starve ; even if Jeff 
 Davis pays me, I’ll have a hard time to find a way to get the money through the 
 lines, and then if the Yankees catch the bearer my children will starve. No, sir, 
 I love the South, but I love my own flesh and bone better !’ Colonel Hecker 
 said he came here to help us and he found Kentuckians on one side of the ques- 
 tion and the Yankees on the other, (a) A stranger here asked a Dutchman where 
 were all the big Kentuckians he had heard so much of, ‘ If you wants to see big 
 Kentucks, just go down farder to one man named Buckner,’ was the answer. The 
 Courier says, [‘ Regiment after regiment, full to the last man, has been raised in 
 Kentucky for the Confederate cause, and others are being raised.’ A letter from 
 Owensborough says, ‘ The fact is, Kentuckians in this section are not willing to 
 fight for the Union, but on the contrary the presence of Union men. seems to 
 annoy them greatly. Three full companies of rebels have been raised here, and 
 are in the Confederate Army, whilst not a single company is yet full ready to 
 fight for our flag. Indeed, I believe that two-thirds of the people of Southern 
 Kentucky are ready and willing to fall into the arms of Jeff Davis at any time, 
 and nothing but the presence of gunboats and a large foiceof Union troops on the 
 border prevents a general uprising in favour of the Southern Confederacy.’ ” 
 
 “ The Evansville journal says, [‘ There is not a single full regiment from 
 Kentucky in the Federal service.’] ” 
 
 “The Yankees have sixteen encampments in the State. I think we have five. 
 General Thomas, in liis Report to the United States’ Government [states that after 
 visiting important points in Kentucky, he found that the Union sentiment in that 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 43 
 
 State was not near so strong as had been represented; that ‘the young and active 
 men in Kentucky were nearly all secessionists and had joined the rebel armies 
 there ; 5 ‘that although the aged men were Unionists, yet they had not, and 
 would not, enroll themselves to engage in conflict with their sons and relations. 
 But few regiments of Union men can be raised in Kentucky; 5 that ‘the arms 
 which the present administration had sent to Kentucky 5 — over 20,000 in number 
 — ‘had passed into the possession of the Home Guards of Kentucky, and could 
 not be recovered ; that they refused to surrender them, expressing a desire to use 
 them in defence of their homes; and that many of them were already in the 
 hands of the rebels.’] General Thomas continues : — [‘Before we left Kentucky, 
 we were convinced that no large bodies of Union troops can be raised in that 
 State, and that the defence of Kentucky must devolve upon the free States of the 
 West and Northwest. 5 ] 55 
 
 “One Yankee official can’t be bought or frightened by the Unionists here. 55 
 
 “Sherman was superseded for telling the truth. He said it would require 
 
 200.000 men to hold Kentucky. A captain offered the Home Guard to him as a 
 body-guard ; he courteously sent them to h — 55 
 
 “ It was not strange that he didn’t receive them. The day the Home Guards 
 were ordered out to meet General Buckner, who was supposed to be marching 
 here, one whole company could not find its arms. The members of the Home 
 Guard are in the possession of the public arms. But of what use are ai ms to 
 men who will not shoulder them when their State and their country call ? Of just 
 about as much as spectacles to the eyeless fish of the Mammoth Cave! The 
 young Southerners clapped their hands when General Anderson was removed, 
 because he was too gentlemanly to make rebels of peacemen. Sherman was never 
 severe to us. We need a man to commit illegal acts in the true spirit of the 
 Government. To remove the cataract from the eye of the blind may be con- 
 sidered very cruel by a child; I am not such a child. But confound such a doctor 
 as Buell ; he is too fond of chloroform.” 
 
 “ I should think Seward would cure them. Colonel Throof and some other 
 Kentuckians went to see him about the illegal visits made to some of our citizens. 
 [They opened their mission by remarking that they had called to see him in 
 reference to the Maysville prisoners. He abruptly replied that those prisoners 
 would not be released. Frederick asked ‘ what are the charges against my 
 brother ? 5 Mr. Seward replied, ‘ there are no charges against him on file ; I do 
 not care a d — n whether they are guilty or innocent. I saved Maryland by similar 
 arrests, and so I mean to hold Kentucky. 5 To this it was remarked, that the 
 Legislature and public sentiment of Kentucky were averse to such arrests. ‘ I do 
 not care a d — n for the opinion of Kentucky. 5 ] Senator Powell we can trust, he 
 has never betrayed his constituents.” 
 
 “ Garrett Davis accused him of being popular.” 
 
 “An accusation the representative of a popular government did not see 
 necessary to controvert.’ 5 
 
 “ Have you heard Crittenden’s last speech ? [ ‘ Glory be to God,’ shouted an 
 
 excitable gentleman to John J. Crittenden this morning, ‘ McClellan is sending 
 
 20.000 men from Washington to Cincinnati, for Kentucky. We’re safe now. 5 
 ‘ Safe !’ exclaimed the veteran Senator, * Doesn’t it blister your tongue to tell 
 it ? Safe / by Ohio and Indiana troops, while Kentuckians allow themselves to be 
 protected by others. It’s a shame to old Kentucky, sir.’ ] It would please you 
 to see foreign regiments march through our streets without a cheer or nod except 
 from the negroes. Some troops the others day were so impressed by the silent 
 reception, and scowling faces, that they refused to eat the dinner provided in the 
 depot for fear it was poisoned, (a) I must give you an anecdote too character- 
 istic of the times not to be repeated. The other day a procession was advancing 
 through a crowded street, when the officer very peremptorily ordered a 
 gentleman standing on the kerbstone, to move a wagon. He replied, ‘My 
 servant has stepped aside. He will move it directly.’ The Yankee cried out, 
 ‘ Do it yourself, sir ! that is always the way with you Kentuckians ; you ask us 
 to come here and fight your battles, and when we come this is the way we are 
 
44 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 treated.’ A modest lady of my acquaintance was standing very close to the 
 officer. So offensive was his manner, that she naturally, and I presume, almost 
 unconsciously, exclaimed, ‘Nobody wants you here, Lincoln hirelings, go back 
 where you came from !’ ” 
 
 “ Good ! I wish Louisville had a thousand ladies as bold.” 
 
 “ This lady was much mortified afterwards, and said she intended to stay at 
 home until the war is over. Henceforth that lady will be ‘ spotted/ ” 
 
 “ How P ” asked the doctor. 
 
 “ Happy man, who has been out of Louisville long enough to forget the mean- 
 ing of that phrase ! It is a peculiarity which I have adopted in these times to 
 give illustrative answers. Mrs. Goddard was walking behind two blue-coats, and 
 heard one say to the other in rather an under tone, 1 Every Secessionist in the 
 city is marked, and if Buckner comes their houses will be burned, and their 
 throats cut in their beds.’ ” 
 
 “ Nonsense !” 
 
 “ The lady is a friend of mine, and I know this to be true.” 
 
 “ The rascal was drunk.” 
 
 “ She could not perceive it ; but drunken brains let out only what sober ones 
 take in. She said the soldier’s scowl was horrible, and she had no doubt he would 
 do his part of the work with a good will. Some poor women are almost dis- 
 tracted with fear ; it is common to hear remarks of houses and men being 
 ‘ spotted.’ ” 
 
 “If the women are distracted, General Buckner must come quickly; for, I 
 observe that whenever women go distracted men need strait- jackets.” 
 
 “Our population is well supplied with them. Louisville is improving with 
 every Yankee who enters. They search our houses now, policemen come here 
 and look in places so small that you would suppose they were searching for 
 weapons for Lilliput. ” 
 
 “ Confound them !” Dr. Lawton ground his teeth, and said, “ I must give you 
 Laura’s experience of the other evening. As she was entering Care Hill, she 
 heard piteous cries, and saw some soldiers beating a little boy unmercifully ; 
 he begged they would not kill him. Laura tried to make Henry interfere, but 
 he was afraid, so she told him to tell the ruffians that she would pay them if 
 they would stop ; then the cowards ceased. The boy’s cause of offence was 
 that he had huzzahed for Jeff. Davis.” (a) 
 
 “ I can believe such a rascality only because Miss Laura witnessed it.” 
 
 “I was returning to Vinelea with Minnie and another friend, when our 
 carriage was stoppod. The ladies had to jump out into the mud ; it was too 
 dark for them to see where they put their feet. They examined my person to 
 see if I was carrying weapons to Jeff. Davis, in the company of two ladies in 
 party costume.” 
 
 “ I met Mrs. Brady on my way to the country. She was going to Camp 
 Sherman, her little babe in her arms ; she looked so weak and worn she 
 excited my sympathy, and I gave her a seat in my buggy. My courtesy gained 
 her sympathy, and she told me her story. The day before she had been to the 
 camp to see her husband, and found him lying in a pit on a pile of wood. 
 There he lay all day. The poor wife spoke with some bitterness of the way 
 she would always hate the Unionists, often affirming that they were the most 
 wicked set she ever saw. Her husband had been made drunk and then enticed 
 to enlist. Against his sober will he was forced to the camp, though he was 
 sick. She said they don’t care whether the men are serviceable or not, if they 
 can make up the companies. She sent to General Sherman. He told her he 
 could do nothing. ” (a) 
 
 “ When will our noble Buckner come ? It will be fatal if he waits too long. 
 He must not let the people learn to be slaves. As soon as you teach a man 
 that he has a master you implant a feeling of fear. Every day that Buckner 
 waits adds to our fear, and fear is always cowardly. ” 
 
 “ I am ashamed of human nature very often ; but is it possible to live here 
 without being cautious ? A bold man is at once put in Castle Thomas or the 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 45 
 
 Military Prison. Caution, when it become habit, is apt to produce cowardice. 
 Besides, the Southern party in the State gets weaker every day by our best 
 men leaving, and as fast as they leave jackals from over the river fill their 
 places. ” 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Laura was lying on the sofa in her boudoir ; Minnie sitting beside her. 
 
 “ And so you have been trying to get up a scene with a blue-coat ! Who would 
 have thought it ?” 
 
 “ Minnie, touch lightly,” said Laura, half deprecatingly, half jestingly. 
 
 “ I suppose now I’m to enjoy a romance. Papa must often call and be polite ; 
 mamma must be cordial (for he saved her too) and, of course, Miss is very 
 grateful.’ 
 
 “ Minnie Brickenridge, you have gone far enough ; you know how I detest the 
 sight of a blue-coat — it is galling sufficiently, abundantly so — to be obliged to be a 
 lady in my present circumstances. If I had intended to acknowledge no obliga- 
 tion to a Lincolnite hire official.” 
 
 “ That’s right ; speak respectfully of your chevalier.” 
 
 “ I should have sprung back in the carriage, and waited until a Southerner had 
 stopped the horses.” 
 
 “ I doubt if you could have escaped an obligation already incurred by the 
 effort. But, Laura, I wonder if the Roundhead may not be the same who eyed 
 you so closely the other night.” 
 
 “ Where ? ” said Laura, blushing as though she knew quite well. 
 
 “ At the Mozart. He was a little in advance of you, to the right. He was a 
 magnificent-looking man ; I repent of calling him a Roundhead — his hair was 
 not cropped like the old English fanatics, but fell as softly as a woman’s about his 
 noble face.” 
 
 “ Take care, Minnie, or I’ll prophesy another flirtation.” 
 
 “ With him ! But I believe I won’t flirt any more. I never profess to be en- 
 raptured with what I can’t understand, and so, at the concert, I found less 
 amusement in the music than in observing — ” 
 
 il What nonsense to say it is necessary to understand music before you can 
 enjoy it ; of course, the more highly cultivated the taste the greater the capacity 
 to appreciate. Although you profess to love intensely all rural sights and sounds , 
 am I to believe you except the songs of birds ? ” 
 
 “ There is no music in the world half as sweet, except 1 Cheer, boys, cheer,’ and 
 ‘ Dixie.’ ” 
 
 “ But you can’t understand what the birds say.” 
 
 “ They don’t say anything to anybody except Auntie.” 
 
 “ Still you can enjoy their songs.” 
 
 “ Ah, you sly thing ! you have made me condemn my own — ” 
 
 “Nonsense. Do you understand instrumental music?” 
 
 “ I’m afraid the adventure with the officer hasn’t put you in a good humour ; 
 I wonder if such a Yankee propensity as guessing is becoming in a Southerner.” 
 
 “ Not if it be accompanied by Yankee curiosity.” 
 
 “ I confess to as much of that commodity as any man, woman, or child in the 
 New England States. I was about to guess whether I could account for your 
 excitability.” 
 
 “ Excitability ! ” 
 
 “ If I were in your place and exhibited your composure, I should consider my- 
 self worthy of adoption by the Indians, but you — ” 
 
 “ Ought to be what I am — impassable to every emotion but love of country.” 
 
46 
 
 LOVE AND WAD. 
 
 Minnie’s eyes twinkled now ; the idea of Laura condescending even to compre- 
 hend her insinuations was good ; hut that she should seek to deny them was 
 capital. 
 
 “ Don’t you remember I’ve always told you I’d have my revenge when your 
 time for surrender came ! The man who undertakes you ought to have as much 
 courage as he who starts out with a lasso on the prairie, or — throws himself in 
 front of two furious horses ! Ah ! but the proud, wild, untamed quarry will be 
 worth the struggle and risk. Swell out your nostrils a little more, dear. I wish 
 Captain, Major, Colonel, General, or whatever he is, could see you now.” 
 
 “ Minnie, I’ve some beautiful flowers in a vase in my room, if you’ll go for 
 them you may have them.” 
 
 “ So I will ; but I’ve a question to ask when I come back ! ” 
 
 ‘‘Never! never! never!” ejaculated Laura, after the door was closed, and 
 raising herself up she gazed fixedly in the fire. 
 
 It was scarce a minute before Minnie rushed back. 
 
 “ Oh, Laura ! What an exquisite basket ! I never saw anything so beautiful ! ” 
 “ I thought you did not have much admiration for camellias.” 
 
 “ Because they are cold and scentless j but what an exquisite idea — under the 
 surface of cold purity to hide the delicious heliotropes ! ” 
 
 “ Heliotropes ? ” 
 
 “ Yes. Don’t you smell them ? ” 
 
 “A perfume like theirs, and I considered its presence an evidence of vitiated 
 taste ; artificial sweetness in the representations of immaculate purity.” 
 
 “What are you talking about ? I’ll leave you the camellias and I’ll take the 
 sweet flowers.” 
 
 Laura looked surprised as Minnie gently lifted flower after flower and appro- 
 priated the hidden perfumers. 
 
 “Leave some, please. I never suspected that, how did you discover them?” 
 
 “ By my sense of smell. I wonder you didn’t by the common sense you prate 
 about so much. The idea of not being able to tell essences from flowers ! ” 
 
 Laura unconsciously sighed, but very gently. 
 
 “ What are you thinking of ? ” 
 
 “ The difference between us.” 
 
 “ I’m obliged for your pity,” said Minnie, giving her a child-like kiss because 
 she felt something was wrong. 
 
 “Pity! It was envy. You laugh.” 
 
 “Indeed, I am electrified.” 
 
 “You well may laugh; for in truth,” said Laura, getting up and taking her 
 work-basket, “ I would not give one ounce of my pride and resolution for your 
 whole weight of thoughtless joy.” 
 
 “Very poor judgment.” 
 
 “No , sweet ; I need all the pride I have.” 
 
 “What for?” 
 
 “To choke down fearful presentiments.” 
 
 “Oh Laura! your brain must have been wofully shaken by your fast drive.” 
 They were quiet for a time ; Minnie lost in the pleasure of holding a lapful of 
 heliotropes — and Laura? Had she not seen the stolen glances of those magni- 
 ficent eyes which were as eloquent as half-a-dozen tongues whose clatter she was 
 inured to? 
 
 “Well, Lady Boastful, do you remember how you felt when Judith was sung 
 the other night ? ” 
 
 “Yes; my heart was on fire. I could have died then and there for my country; 
 my hands burned so that I pulled off my gloves, but didn’t know it until the 
 song was over and Mr. Stark laughed at me.” 
 
 “ I saw your great eyes growing larger and more luminous ; I saw the rich 
 blood reaching to the white ‘cloud ’ that touched your forehead ; I saw the lips 
 part, the hot breath rush out panting and exulting.” 
 
 ‘‘Are you crazy?” asked Laura, laughing heartily, and entirely unconscious 
 that Minnie was drawing a true picture. “Besides, you were behind me and could 
 not see all this.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 47 
 
 “Ah, but I did! I saw it in the face of another; and I knew when the piece 
 was finished and he felt it was time to turn away, that he sighed.” 
 
 “Don’t you think it’s time for luncheon? Let’s go down.” 
 
 “Ahem! The room is somewhat close.” 
 
 “Is it?” 
 
 “I judged from your complexion ; you are usually pale.” 
 
 Laura turned hastily — 
 
 “Minnie, you have always said what you pleased to me, and I loved you well 
 enough to enjoy your licence; but I warn you to try no more jokes on this 
 subject.” 
 
 “By-the-bye, Laura,” replied her wilful friend, not in the least intimidated as 
 others would have been by her dignity, “who sent you the basket?” 
 
 “I don’t know.” 
 
 “Whew! No card?” 
 
 “None.” 
 
 “ Can’t you guess who sent it ? ” 
 
 “My beaux are not so numerous as to defy your curiosity.” 
 
 “I shrewdly suspect — ” 
 
 “You’d better tell your suspicion to the one you think sent it, and you may be 
 able to judge by his countenanced” 
 
 On descending they found Mr. Buckner, who had stopped for lunch; he said, 
 “Laura, I’ve been to see Captain Wilson; I found him so weakened by the loss 
 of blood that I talked but little with him. The surgeon was in attendance ; he 
 said the bone was not broken, but the limb was so stiff his patient could not go 
 about for some days, so, of course, I invited him to stay here.” 
 
 “I am glad you did,” said benevolent Mrs. Buckner. 
 
 “Papa did what was gentlemanly,” said Laura in a tone of dismay. 
 
 “ Minnie, this is for you,” said the host, handing her a letter. 
 
 “Indeed,” said Minnie, blushing and looking delighted, “where did you get it? 
 There’s no postmark on it.” 
 
 “A little bird dropped it.” 
 
 “I see I’m to ask no questions.” 
 
 “Bead it here. Minnie; you needn’t mind us.” 
 
 “No, why should I?” said she opening the envelope. “It is written in 
 Somerset.” 
 
 “Don’t be selfish. Give us the news.” 
 
 “It is an account of a battle, I believe,” was Minnie’s remark, after she had 
 glanced over it, “do you want to hear it!” 
 
 “Yes, indeed.” 
 
 “Somerset, November 17, 1861. 
 
 Miss Brickenridge, — I suppose when you favoured me with permission to 
 write you an account of our adventures in Eastern Kentucky, you felt well 
 assured I would not long neglect a privilege which I so highly value. I am by 
 no means certain that this may not be captured by the Yankees, and made to 
 figure in their journals as one of the legitimate trophies of Yankee warfare, so I 
 must try to make my letter acceptable to those in whose hands it may fall. [If 
 you look at a map of Kentucky, you will find that two roads lead from the blue- 
 grass country — the heart of the State — toward Cumberland Gap. The first is a 
 good turnpike road as far as Crab Orchard, eighteen miles from this camp. The 
 other is an equally good road until it reaches the ‘Big Hill,’ nineteen miles south 
 of Kichmond, when it becomes as '‘hard a road to travel’ as ever Jordan was. 
 We passed a great deal of magnificent mountain scenery, high cliffs and 
 toppling crags. In many places one would think that they viewed the ruins of 
 some mighty castle on the mountain tops, as the rocks would rise in walls and 
 spires high above the particoloured forest.] You know my fondness for adventure ; 
 so one day, assuming the garb of a mountaineer, I ventured into Camp Wildcot. 
 I gave the sentinel some old Bourbon and he examined my pass — a note written 
 in your city by a certain beau of yours (who I hope will find a sweetheart in 
 Dixie, ‘settle,’ and keep out of other people’s way). I was soon on easy terms 
 
48 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 with the soldiers and gained from them some items interesting to a young lady so 
 anxious for the success of the Federals. They were especially eloquent on the 
 antiquity of army crackers. One said, [‘The crackers we eat are stamped “1801,” 
 and the hoys say they have seen several marked “B.C.”’] 
 
 In the early part of October, I was one of many scouts (some of them guerillas, 
 properly so called) whose principle amusement was worrying Colonel Sill’s 
 troops in his advance to Piketon from Camp Hopeless Chase; (that is the best 
 name I ever heard of for a starting point for those trying to catch us. Don’t 
 sneer and say it should have been Wild Goose Chase.) I expressed to Colonel 
 Sill’s Regiment a great desire to hear of their marvellous march through the 
 country of treacherous sheep whom these valiant wolves had come to defend. 
 They said, [‘The march was truly a severe one. We took no train but one wagon 
 and our ambulances, accordingly our men were without tents. The road was 
 very narrow, and in many places precipitous. Often it was difficult to find suffi- 
 cient room for our cannon, and more than once the expediency of not only 
 unlimbering, but of making artificial carriage ways was calculated, so narrow was 
 the road upon the mountain side. 
 
 A messenger came from Colonel Garrard, saying that General Zollicoffer was 
 advancing by forced marches toward London and would certainly attack one of us. 
 The Home Guard camp was almost deserted, and nearly three hundred gallant 
 fellows lay wasting with dysentery and measles. 
 
 The nearest assistance that could be obtained was from the 17th regiment, 
 which could only come by venturing to reach the Winding Glades road in the 
 face of the enemy, scouring the country with his cavalry, or by crossing moun- 
 tains traversed by a single bridle path. At Crab Orchard lay the 33rd Indiana, 
 which could advance only by disobeying orders. Forty-five miles to the north 
 was General Thomas at Camp Dick, but so swift was Zollicoffer’s swoop down 
 from his mountains that he was within thirty miles of his coveted prize before 
 the danger was ascertained and a messenger despatched for aid. 
 
 We lay down that night fearing that day would break to the thunder of rebel 
 guns attacking us. The sick were hastened through the short night across the 
 swollen river. 
 
 The morning came. I went among the boys as they arose from their comfort- 
 less bivouac, with no prospect of anything to eat before midday. You must 
 remember that orders to join Colonel Garrard at all hazards had reached our 
 Colonel only at midnight the night before, and there was no time to prepare 
 rations. 
 
 It was a scene dismal enough. There seemed to be no spirit left in our hearts. 
 But suddenly a messenger dashed down the hill from Garrard’s camp two miles 
 distant. The sound of Zollicoffer’s morning gun had not been a dream. Our 
 pickets are driven in. The enemy is attacking. The long roll was beaten. In 
 three minutes the regiment was in line of battle, and in a moment more the 
 column was rushing up the hill at double quick, cheering as though the victory 
 was already gained. A little after ten o’clock, three unearthly yells broke from 
 the fatal woods, and their echoes were drowned in the sharp rattle of musketry. 
 Protected by the thickets and trees, the enemy had ascended unseen to within a 
 hundred and thirty yards of the hill top — then forming, were advancing on two 
 sides and in four ranks. Two regiments, 17th and 2nd Tennessee, made the 
 attack on the brave little band of less than six hundred, commanded by 
 Colonels Coburn and Wolford. The firing was so sharp that we could not 
 distinguish that of our friends from our foes. While the battle was raging 
 some of the Kentucky cavalry were panic-stricken and retreated. Colonel 
 Woolf ord, who was brave as a lion, and Colonel Coburn threw them- 
 selves before the fugitives and threatened them with instant death unless 
 they returned to duty. Never did soldiers behave more admirably than did 
 that small force. But the enemy was brave, too. They advanced to within 
 twenty-five yards of a small breastwork of logs, thrown up on the summit, 
 and behind which parts of tw^o companies were stationed. There was a pause, 
 when suddenly, whiz came a cannon ball from the valley below, and immediately 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 49 
 
 after a long chain followed it whirling through the air. Ball and chain — fit shot 
 for the slave aristocracy to fire ! But then there hurst forth a sound which 
 shivered the air above us, and before it had ceased to deafen us boom went the 
 shell far down the valley, then a ball, then another shell, and when their last 
 eehoes had died away among the mountains, there was silence as of death, till 
 Garrard’s men on the right raised a genuine old Kentucky yell, and the friends 
 on the hill answered it, and then we joined in with a right good will, for the 
 enemy had fled, broken and discomfited. From the summits of the Bound 
 Hill we could see the lights of the enemy’s camp-fires blazing in a narrow valley 
 two miles away, in easy range of our artillery if it had been furnished with 
 shell enough to experiment a little on the shattered nerves of the Secessionists. 
 Through the night our boys lying on the hill could hear the tread of men and 
 horses and the word of command, and at morning we found they had fled but 
 we could not pursue them. Our cavalry was too few and our infantry too tired 
 and unprepared. So sudden had been the danger, so rapid the efforts to give 
 aid, that not a regiment was ready to undertake a twenty miles’ march. Zolli- 
 coffer fell back to prevent his supply trains from being cut off. ”] I asked the 
 boaster if that was not a rather imprudent position for a whipped foe ? He 
 shook his head, and said, ‘ Those plucky fellows are not afraid of anything. ’ 
 My companion of the Thirty-Third Ohio enlarged on the victory, which my 
 incog did not permit me to claim. Last week my commander would like to 
 find out something about the Yankee force at Crab Orchard ; of, course I was 
 ready for a frolic. Before I reached the camp I stopped at the house of a good 
 Secessionist, a poor woman whose husband is with General Marshall. As in 
 most places in this unfortunate corner of the earth, everything wore the aspect 
 of ruin ; her two sons had begun guerilla warfare, as she said, ‘ bush- whack- 
 ing.’ They could not go off to join any regular troops as the old woman had ho 
 support but theirs. At night they would bring her something they had 
 captured from the strolling Yankee soldiers, or, failing that, some wild game. 
 One always tried to sleep at home — (oh, to think of calling such fearful nights 
 being at home !) Sometimes the enemy was too near, or they could not elude 
 the pickets ; then the poor mother spent the weary hours in prayer until sleep 
 or morning came to her relief. She said one of her sons was a tender-hearted 
 child, and sometimes ‘ threatened ’ to take the oath so as he could stay with 
 her ; but she always answered 4 No,’ and that if he should ever come to the 
 spot where their home now stands and find nothing but ashes, and maybe their 
 dead mother, not to reproach himself, but say, ‘ Better have a mother safe in 
 heaven than for her to have a perjured son.’ But I am getting gloomy over the 
 poor creature, and heart-rending histories are so common they have lost their 
 old romance. I used to think a spy contemptible ; but there is nothing I 
 would not now do to help to rid my State of her tyrants. The old woman 
 arrayed me in her only dress, beside the one she wore, and to make it long 
 enough to reach my feet, before I knew what she was doing, tore half her bed- 
 spread up to make a flounce. I put on the cap she took off (I presume her 
 only one), and then came the crowning sacrifice of this mountain heroine. She 
 let down her hair from the back part, cut out two locks and fixed them — I’m 
 sure I don’t know how — under the ruffle of the cap. I took her largest basket 
 and went to Crab Orchard. This little town has suffered greatly and can 
 testify that our neutrality was broken by Ohioans and Tennesseans long before 
 General Polk seized Columbus. I soon got into camp two miles below ; by a 
 fire sat several men discussing their triumphal march consequent upon the great 
 victory claimed by the warriors. I have so largely quoted, I think even a 
 gentle girl cannot help rejoicing over some parts of their experience, par- 
 ticularly after reading the episode of the old woman and her hair. The next 
 day they were aroused by a heavy rain. [The Wildcat brigade, or sorrowful 
 fragments of it, had but just staggered into camp after its disastrous retreat 
 from London, and its tattered remains were still struggling up the rugged road 
 miles in the rear, animated by hope of finally reaching a haven of rest. As that 
 wretched struggle with the elements, over execrable roads, will be remembered 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 by 5,000 abused volunteers as long as they retain their faculty of memory, it 
 deserves description. You will remember that Wednesday afternoon, Nov- 
 13th, General Schoepf issued an order requiring all the troops to.be ready to 
 march at eight o’clock that evening. Commanders of corps were directed to 
 carry with them all their sick, leaving such baggage and stores as could not be 
 transported. The Surgeon of the Twenty-Third Indiana, horrified at the order, 
 protested vehemently, but he was informed decisively, the order from Head- 
 quarters is that all the sick must be removed, and orders must be obeyed. He 
 still protested that removal would certainly result in the death of some of his 
 patients, and he was told to quarter them with private families at London. The 
 Fourteenth Ohio had the right of the column. Shortly before eight o’clock, it 
 marched solemnly by the camp of the Seventeenth Ohio, its band mournfully 
 playing the ‘Dead March ’ — thus expressing the emotions of the troops. The 
 Seventeenth Ohio fell in their rear, and its sarcastic lads, keenly appreciating 
 the occasion, burst into a satirical paraphrase of their favourite regimental 
 ditty, one strain of which runs somewhat thus : — 
 
 ‘ Old Zollicoffer can’t take us, 
 
 Can’t take us, can’t take us, 
 
 On a long summer day. ’ 
 
 It was impromptu at the Wildcat fight, so was the song as they retreated : — 
 
 ‘ Old Zollicoffer can’t catch us, 
 
 Can’t catch us, can’t catch us, 
 
 ’Cause we’re running away. ’ 
 
 I am told we left twenty-two tons of ammunition at London. And yet we are 
 making a forced march to prevent the enemy from cutting us off, or to save 
 Blue Grass. Strange that the soldiers should leave their ammunition and 
 march to meet the enemy.’] ‘Oh,’ exclaimed one, ‘if a stranger had seen 
 us, he would have said, “here’s a terrified army fleeing from a pursuing 
 enemy.” I dare say Miss Brickenridge is willing for the Yanks to have a good 
 many more Picton victories if they will have such triumphal processions after 
 them. Let those who like boast of their late victory ; would any of noble 
 Zollicoffer ’s men have changed places with Nelson’s or Schoepf ’s ? The poor 
 fellows had a right to burn fences ; for a human life is of more value than a 
 potato-field ; but I have heard Yanks in Louisville say their armies never 
 destroyad fences, etc. I wish such could look at the fields adjacent to camp. 
 Cerro Goods Williams, of Kentucky, commanded the Confederates, and Nelson, 
 the Yankees. I have hoped to interest you in our out-of-the-way region. If 
 my letter has not offended by its length a mere card of yours will encourage 
 me to write another. — You know who Writes.” 
 
 “ What an interesting letter,” exclaimed Laura. 
 
 “ I hope he’ll write again,” said her mother. 
 
 “ Prentice says, [ 4 A Nashville paper announced that the national troops were 
 fortifying Muldrow’s Hill ! Not a whisper of this had been breathed in Northern 
 newspapers, but the rebels had full particulars. Yet to reach Muldrow’s Hill 
 the rebel spies have to pass not only through all the lines of this army, but also 
 through those of the forces at Elizabethtown.’ ” ] 
 
 “ I should think the very fact that the YanRes are informed of nothing that 
 goes on in the State and that the Southerners are always posted would be enough 
 to prove which side the people are for.” 
 
 “I am sorry to see bow many of the Southern recruits are captured ; it will 
 deter many from trying to pass the lines, as few young men can look forward 
 with equanimity to some years in a bastille, and those taken before they are 
 sworn in the service will not be exchanged.” 
 
 “ Minnie, I understand you narrowly escaped capture on Fast-Day. Don’t 
 you know you are disloyal if you don’t pray as the authorities here direct r” 
 
 Minnie laughed. 
 
 “Indeed, my dear,” said Mrs. Buckner, “it is true that there was talk of 
 going to Calvary Church and arresting the congregation.” (a) 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 51 
 
 “Why, there is always morning-service there on Wednesday and Friday ; hut 
 they couldn’t have arrested all of us.” 
 
 “ Why not, pray ? ” 
 
 “ Because they haven’t any prison big enough to hold the crowd. It seemed 
 to me nearly all my acquaintances were there. If the hour of service had not 
 been misunderstood there would not have been room for all. [ The medical 
 students, with four exceptions, are Southerners ; and as the doctor whose Union 
 sentiments are more offensive to them than those of any other professor, was to 
 lecture at eleven, they resolved to attend service in Calvary at that hour.” ] 
 
 “ To spite the Yankee professor ?” 
 
 “ I suppose that was the general object, though I doubt not some of them 
 must have had the fire of devotion — which, I believe, smoulders even where it is 
 most concealed — fanned by the beautiful Proclamation of President Davis, which 
 I don’t see how any one could resist. It is easy to one who reads his various 
 proclamations to see that he is a child of the Church.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 “What do you think of the capture of Mason and Slidell, Myers?” asked 
 Stark. 
 
 “ That it is the best thing that has been done this century. I wish I was in 
 the East to attend some of the glorifications gotten up in honour of Commodore 
 Wilkes. In Boston, all the officers of the San Jacinto are to be received with 
 music, hurrahs, etc.” 
 
 “ Do you justify the seizure ? ” 
 
 “ To be sure, and so do all Union men, I suppose.” 
 
 “ I hope there are still some who ask whether a thing is right, and not only 
 whether it is popular.” 
 
 “ Tut ! everything is fair in war.” 
 tc For barbarians.” 
 
 [“Everitt says that the question arising out of the arrest of Slidell and Mason 
 is easily disposed of under the Law of Nations. He says there is no doubt that 
 their seizure was legal, and can be defended as such. Edward M. Stanton, 
 Buchanan’s Attorney General, says that there is nothing more clearly laid down 
 in the International Law than the right of such a seizure, and it extends even to 
 the right of seizing the steamer herself. Moreover, it seems quite clear that 
 Wilkes acted under orders from the War Department.”] 
 
 “ Then you don’t think the government has self-respect enough to give them 
 up unless it is made to do so.” 
 
 “ I’d like to know who can make it.” 
 
 “I bet before we are through with this business the eagle will come down from 
 its untenable and ridiculous perch of buncombe, and that the paw of the British 
 Lion will break one of its wings so as it will never flap so lustily again ; the 
 Confederacy will clip the other.” 
 
 “ What are the wings ? ” 
 te Naval and military power.” 
 
 “ I’ll take the bet — a thousand dollars.” 
 
 “ Agreed ! It’s my belief that Uncle Sam will have the palsy when John Bull 
 roars.” 
 
 “ What has become of your beautiful Provisional Government ? ” 
 
 “ It’s in force where Kentucky or other Confederate arms scare away your 
 Dutch troopers.” 
 
 “ It is a ridiculous scarecrow.” 
 
52 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ Which the Abolition blackbirds are terribly afraid of ; bnt is treason a 
 farce ? ” 
 
 “ No.” 
 
 “ Then, what did you mean when by your vote in the Legislature you pro- 
 nounced the Provisional Government unprovoked and unmitigated treason of the 
 deepest dye ? Had you not better run if Buckner is coming ? ” 
 
 “ Oh ! there is no danger. ’Buckner is too smart to come to Louisville.” 
 
 “ Why ? He would meet a warm reception.” 
 
 “ From the Indiana shore and from gunboats. It is fortunate for us that you 
 Southerners knew it is impossible for you to hold this city except as Neutralists.” 
 “ When the Confederates came in General Anderson said [this invasion of 
 Kentucky was pure madness. It opens along four hundred miles the route for 
 armies into the South, and it makes the secession of Kentucky from the Union 
 surely and eternally impossible.]” 
 
 “ This reminds me of the most spiteful, contemptible scraps I ever saw. Did 
 you see the article in the Journal headed, ‘ Dupe, Demon, or Assassin ? ’ ” 
 
 “ No.” . 
 
 “ Here it is. Read it.” 
 
 Stark handed it to Myers, and kept his eye fixed on him while the former read. 
 “ [When numbers of men and women in this city were known to be aiding the 
 public enemy in various ways — in sending money, provisions, and clothing to the 
 traitors, the strength of the loyalists in this city was sufficient then to crush out 
 everything of this kind, as it is now. And long before Buckner’s piratical crew 
 could place their fingers upon anything prepared by the loyal women of this city 
 for the soldiers, each one of the sympathizing horde would be converted into a 
 hostage beyond the reach of an oatli of allegiance. Everything is already pre- 
 pared for this climax.]” 
 
 “ Can you imagine who wrote that ? ” 
 
 “ No.” 
 
 Stark had suspected from a remark made by one of the legislators of Myers’ 
 stripe, that he had written it and had put it in his pocket with the intention of 
 making him read it. 
 
 Myers was either innocent or brazen, for he gave no evidence of guilt. The 
 day after the insulting offer of a bribe to Stark, Myers kept his bed, and sent for 
 his companion of the previous evening, who was sent for three times before he 
 could sufficiently conquer his loathing to answer the summons. His first impulse 
 had been to challenge the wretch who had dared to treat him as a rogue ; but 
 Laura Buckner was never long absent from his thoughts, and he remembered 
 most painfully how she ridiculed duelling as weak, childish, absurd. It would 
 have been a great pleasure to have branded Myers before the world, but then he 
 would have to fight him, for he was not physically a coward ; but it would be a 
 poor satisfaction to sacrifice Laura for such a contemptible puppy. So he 
 swallowed his wrath and went to Myers’ room ; found him in bed suffering, as 
 he said, from intolerable nausea and headache ; and heard him avow that he had 
 drunk so much the night before that he feared he might have said something 
 offensive as his friend had been so slow to come to him. He had a faint idea that 
 their parting had been somewhat abrupt. Stark received the apology ; but made 
 his call short. After that he avoided Myers. 
 
 This evening Myers had come to his room. Stark, irritated at the sight of the 
 hypocrite, who never failed to arouse his indignation, hoped to fasten the authority 
 of the article on him ; he had shown it to Laura, and her scorn was so great she 
 had exclaimed, “ How can anyone calling himself a man allow that to pass un- 
 noticed P” It would be charming to give the miscreant a thrashing for Laura 
 and his own honour at the same time, but Myers was not kind enough even to 
 defend the offensive paragraphs, and abused the writer. 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 53 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Laura was uncommonly introspective ; she had treated her heart much as a girl 
 does her dolls, set up one feeling there and another here and told them to behave 
 themselves ; sometimes she would chastise an emotion and pretend it cried and 
 was forgiven ; at other times she would array her feelings to please her critical 
 tastes and let them play “come to see,” and she would talk prettily and very 
 properly for them, “making believe ” that they and not her brains were carry- 
 ing on the conversation. True, Miss Buckner is old enough to have outgrown 
 such childish ways, for she has long been out of her teens ; but I doubt whether 
 a female ever ceases to be a girl until some strong feeling knocks the dolls off 
 the seats where they were behaving themselves ; then she finds they can’t cry, 
 if they could they never would have been good so long. The surprise over, the 
 girl finds herself a woman, and looks at her lifeless toys and laughs scornfully, 
 thinking, “ I was so foolish.” Perchance, she turns her head to see what has 
 created all this confusion, and there at the door of her heart stands a living 
 man, and it was his grotesque overacting that did all the mischief ; though 
 only spectators would call the performance grotesque, or suspect it of exaggera- 
 tion ; the woman does not see aught but nature in all this. How could 
 “ a great big man” be expected to treat dolls with proper respect ? Such is 
 the way most girls pass into womanhood ; but for so long a time Laura had 
 been taking notes about lovers that even when her pet feelings fell as dolls fall, 
 unassisting, unhurt, unconscious, she was determined not to see who had dis- 
 turbed her “make-believe.” No one had a right to have done so without 
 knocking at the door of her heart and waiting till she said, “ come in.” A good 
 many beaux had tried that and gone away as they came, and Laura began to feel 
 herself rather above her sex ; she need not fall in love till she chose, and 
 certainly she does not choose to now. What ! think about conquering any man 
 while her country is enslaved ! He would be a bold man who dared to ask her 
 to stop knitting for the soldiers and reading the newspapers, to think about 
 himself and herself. Was any man absurd enough to think she could lay aside 
 the Congressional Globe and the Constitution — which she read together, being a 
 professed lover of paradox— to open his love-letters ? And then, even if he had 
 the patience to wait until she had knitted up all the yarn in her region, there 
 would still be cotton left to make shirts for the expected Southern army. 
 Besides, Laura protested that she had no respect for any unmarried man not in 
 the Southern Army, and, as she had there nearly a hundred acquaintances of all 
 ages she was not much pestered with hearing about the time the horses thought 
 it would be fine to run away. Laura was very glad she had heard all Minnie had 
 had to say a few days after the rescue ; but quite provoked that she had allowed 
 her to say it. She had seen and watched the handsome stranger before Minnie 
 had. I hope she will never see this or she will not forgive me for letting it be 
 known that she had condescended to observe one who wore United States’ 
 buttons. Seated in Minnie’s pew in Christ Church, and not having learned how 
 to pray for herself, she had had leisure to take notes. In front of her was a 
 magnificently-formed man, whose attitude expressed a fitting devotion which 
 touched Laura more than a sermon. She had great appreciation of fitness of 
 time, place, and conduct. She always prided herself upon being able to judge 
 of persons’ dispositions and intellects by their physiognomy, manners, voice, and 
 dress. There was reverence in the attitude of the worshipper before her, and 
 although she had never developed much of that ennobling characteristic she 
 must have had capacity for it, or she would not have been so irresistibly 
 attracted by it now. 
 
 The worshipper — he was no dandy listener — spoke in low but firm tones ; 
 voices had great power over her ; there was something in this that she shrank 
 
54 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 from. Did she not like it ? More than any she had ever heard. She was glad 
 when the Litany was over. ‘‘ Now,” she thought, “ I’ll hear some music, and 
 that man will keep quiet awhile.” In this she was mistaken. I said Laura had 
 little reverence ; hut there was an attribute that ever floated where she moved, 
 while to her it was an invisible thing, and that was purity. She once said to 
 Minnie, “ How can you let Prospere hold your hand F surely you cannot marry 
 him.” “I don’t believe what Sue said about his having a mistress,” replied her 
 friend. To whom Laura quickly responded, “ I never thought whether lie did or 
 not, but before a man presses his lips to mine I must feel sure that they are as 
 unsullied,” and she drew up her figure to its fulness of proud height, aud thought, 
 “ Catch me laying a pure white rose on a dung-hill !” 
 
 To woman purity is but an abstract thing, and Laura had never thought of it 
 until one of her lovers in addressing her had quoted the sixth Beatitude. She 
 had laughed at the time, and had she spoken her thoughts she would have said, 
 
 Of course I am pure ; did the simpleton take me for a ? ” But afterwards 
 
 she had thought, ‘‘ And so he sought me for my purity ; could I have accepted 
 him for the same ? ” 
 
 These thoughts were doubtless the result of novel -reading, for until that 
 Sunday morning she had but once connected such a characteristic as purity with 
 any individual ; and now a Psalm had suggested the idea, for in looking for the 
 one given out her eye had fallen first on the second part of the ninety-seventh 
 Psalm. She was not a worshipper, only a spectator and listener in God’s house, so 
 she kept her seat, and, without being observed by anyone, could watch the officer’s 
 countenance, as his head was slightly and unconsciously turned to the choir, at 
 the right hand of the chancel. His eyes were luminous with calm purity, and the 
 impressible woman felt it would rest her to have him look at her. His features 
 were not insipidly perfect, but very manly ; the forehead and contour of the head 
 denoted more than ordinary intellect. In the Church sooner than elsewhere is 
 manifest true elegance, by which I mean a compound of one-fourth reverence, 
 one-fourth refinement, and two-fourtlis unconsciousness. Laura had never thought 
 of this before, and w T ould not have liked to have been judged by it ; but she felt it 
 now ; she felt that the man before her was pure, refined, devotional, and brave ; 
 for, it is not every man who dares to kneel down and say his prayers, who dares 
 to stand up and praise God. She was sorry when the Psalm ended ; hut only 
 because she particularly liked the tune, and she regretted she had not come in before 
 the chanting was over ; she liked to hear a rich voice chant. When the sermon 
 was finished Laura bowed her head while the Benediction was pronounced — not 
 that it brought any peace or blessedness to her —how could it when she had not 
 joined in the Confession and petitions ? 
 
 She was not a churchwoman, and only went to Minnie’s House of Prayer, 
 because she had fine taste. The unsuspecting friend beside her, when she saw 
 Laura bend forward for the last prayer, was glad to think the sermon had had 
 some effect; how should she guess that the only sermon which had entered 
 her heart was admiration for a young man who was not ashamed to be 
 devoted and capable of being so, therefore, her superior ? I think he is the first 
 young gentleman who Miss Buckner has ever felt her superior. She measured by a 
 higher -guage than genius, intellect or age. Laura reflected everything around her ; 
 whatever she took info her heart she threw out in her tones, sentiments and 
 actions. As the congregation rose from silent prayer and turned into the aisles, 
 the organ breathed forth sweet, humbling, yearning strains, and Laura thought, 
 
 ‘ Oh if I could only enjoy church as that man, Miss Johnston, and many 
 episcopalians do ! ” Sad wistfulness was in her eyes as she turned her head to 
 speak to Minnie whom she supposed at her side ; she looked into the eyes of the 
 United States’ officer. From that one glance Keble Wilson drank sweetness ; 
 and the wistfulness of her expression fell upon his spirits The complexion and 
 hair made him think of a little child, but the eyes, forehead and mouth spoke of 
 intellectual and moral power. ‘‘ I hope she is a Unionist and that I may meet her 
 again,” he thought, and yielded to his fate. What it is, time may show. 
 
 As she walked home Laura' was thinking, “I wish I knew 7 what good thoughts 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 55 
 
 he is thinking now.” As he wended his way to the Galt House' the officer’s 
 heart was murmuring dreamily, “ Only her eyes remind me — ” 
 
 Is there such a thing as unconscious animal magnetism ? Do you answer 
 “ No ? ” Then you cannot understand all this ; but another can. Have not most 
 of us seen a flower, a picture, a landscape, a face, and loved it at first sight ? It 
 may not have been beautiful by man’s law of criticism ; but to us it was beauty 
 and music and poetry and love. Ah ! What if an angel had rested the tip of one 
 wing on Keble Wilson’s bowed head, and the tip of the other on the irreligious 
 Laura, and so what I have called unconscious animal magnetism might be termed 
 angelic influence, or better still, a thought of the all loving Father ? 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 <l The one proverb of the Yankees used to be ‘ All men are born free and equal, 
 and are capable of self government , like father, like child. The Puritans 
 clamoured for religious freedom until they had a chance to establish that or a 
 despotism, when they, under Cromwell, forgot their old war-cry. The American 
 chips of the old English block wanted Church and State divided, and as soon as 
 they had a Church and State they united them and persecuted with all the zest 
 of new converts to a long opposed theory. The . American Roundheads of ’61 
 have forgotten the motto of those of ’60, and their present one is, Nobody is equal 
 to the Yankees and negroes, and nobody else deserves to be free ; therefore, 
 nobody but Yankees shall govern themselves and the rest of the world, and 
 nobody but negroes shall be considered equal to them.” 
 
 “ Are you not rather hard on Yankees ? ” 
 
 “ Ask history, and the events of to-day ; but I am not polite to regale a U. S., 
 officer on such a subject. I felt combative this morning and tried to be quiet ; 
 but you would not let me.” 
 
 “ I only stopped to inquire about your health after the party,” said Captain 
 Wilson, rising. 
 
 “ Please sit down. I ask pardon for offending you, but I do not think j ou 
 would consider me unladylike if you could understand how those buttons offend 
 my eyes. I cannot forget that you have come to help to enslave us.” 
 
 Keble stood irresolute, he never could come back again ; but must he leave her 
 now without one smile ? His soul was thirsty for one more draught of 
 her fresh, sweet nature, which offended him only because it was true to itself ! 
 One more draught and he would leave her for ever. Hers was the nature that 
 for years he had been seeking, in boyhood as a friend’s, in manhood as a wife’s. 
 All his life long, in joy and in sorrow, he had been waiting — waiting before he 
 knew it — waiting when he knew not wherefore. And was the rest of his life to 
 be only regretting ? Yes ; but he would take with him into the desert one more 
 smile ; he would hoard it carefully and it would cool his parched soul by the 
 lonely watch-fire and in the weary march, on the field of battle and of death ; he 
 did not now, even in his thoughts, say of victory; for what to him was victory 
 was anguish, and might be death to the woman whose every thought was for 
 what she called her country. He had once tried to make her feel that as her 
 State was slandered in the South her country was still in the North ; but she 
 answered in a tone which touched his heart, “ Catch the birds of our woods, put 
 them in Yankee cages, and tell them to be happy, for their brethren in the woods 
 scorn them ; no, no. We shall wait until the South learns that Kentucky is a 
 subjugated province, captured by treachery as Northern Virginia by the sword.” 
 
56 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 Keble did not feel impatient for his cause to be triumphant; the victory would 
 come after he had gone and could not know how Laura and thousands like her 
 in fervid Southern enthusiasm would be suffering. He had some minutes for 
 meditation, for Laura was on the library steps looking for something. His un- 
 consciously manifested sadness touched her more than words would have done. 
 Besides, she had been unkind, and she would not be excelled in politeness by a 
 Yankee, she said to herself as a salve to a choking sensation in her throat. She 
 came towards him. “ Here is a relic of your General Anderson.*’ He looked 
 amazed. She smiled — the first time to-day that the dense cloud of overpowering 
 feeling had been lifted from her face. “ You see I can appreciate a gentleman, 
 even if he is a Yankee.” 
 
 “ But General Anderson is not a Yankee ? ” 
 
 “ Far worse.” * 
 
 ‘‘Worse than a Yankee ! I didn’t suppose your brain could contain such an 
 idea.” He answered her smile with one that showed he enjoyed the discovery 
 very much. He was appeased more than he knew to find that she regarded any- 
 thing connected with a United States’ officer with other feelings than of abhorrence, 
 “ but why is he worse than a Yankee? ” 
 
 “ Because, he is a Kentuckian and fights against his country. I always feel 
 inclined to distrust myself when I can’t see anything to admire in an enemy, but 
 when he was here he forced me to admit he had done nothing unworthy of 
 a gentleman, as I believe it is not considered unbefitting to a gentleman to help 
 maintain the power of a despot, so he does not do or order to be done any of his 
 master’s dirty work. I am never happy when in a bad humour with myself, and 
 the General restored me to equanimity by convincing me that I had not been to 
 blame for not appreciating what was not to be found. He who shows me how to 
 admire a foe becomes my benefactor.” Laura inclined her head towards the 
 Captain. 
 
 “ Miss Buckner, will you promise to answer plainly a plain question ? ” 
 
 “ Not until I hear it.” 
 
 “ Do you remember promising me a favour ? I claim it now by your leave.” 
 
 The blood mounted to the temples of both ; to his, that he had hinted at his 
 agency in saving her life, to her’s, that her rudeness of the morning had shown, 
 it was for the time, at least, forgotton. She answered, “If the question involves 
 no one else I will- answer it.” 
 
 He was very confused, and did not look at her as he said : — “ Pride, perhaps I 
 should say, self-respect, tells me that I should never again offend by my presence ; 
 but a strange power has subdued what used to be my chief characteristic. Laugh 
 at me if you will ; but I cannot resolve never to see you again unless you bid 
 me. Shall I ?” 
 
 “Not as a mere formality, but with real regret for my rudeness, I ask pardon 
 for the way I have talked this morning. Let me finish. If you have no 
 pleasanter place of resort in this city of strangers and en — ; come here when 
 you like !” 
 
 “ I thank you. Did I think that you had any personal objection — ” 
 
 “None in the world, except to your buttons.” 
 
 “ They are not my principles ; henceforth they shall not irritate your eye 
 unless you chance to see me in the street.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXIY. 
 
 “ Good-evening, Miss Buckner,” 
 
 “ Good evening, Captain Wilson.” 
 
 The lady was very stiff and formal, and the Union officer surmised he could 
 not be mistaken in thinking Laura’s eyes had begun to flash as they rested on 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 57 
 
 his buttons ; though the delicate impulse of a woman had as quickly forced them 
 to the cold calmness which was usually Laura’s glance of welcome. At first he 
 has not minded such receptions ; he had always professed a fancy for icicles, 
 camellias, and snow-flakes, valuing purity more than animation. Yet Laura 
 was sparkling when he was by, but so were his inanimate favourites when the 
 sun shone on them . 
 
 She had s private theory not whispered even to Minnie, that Keble was above 
 petty weaknesses ; what would she have said if she could have known that he 
 gloried in' the consciousness that he — Federal officer as he was — could rouse 
 the cold rebel into an enthusiastic woman ! There was a newspaper on Laura’s 
 knees, but she wes tapping with caressing finger a charm upon her watch-chain. 
 The Captain had wondered that she, unlike the ladies of her circle, wore no 
 ponderous bunch of tiny charms, a key surmounted by a dove which held a 
 snake in its mouth, was the only appendage to her watch-chain he had ever 
 observed. 
 
 44 Pardon my impertinent curiosity, Miss Buckner, but I should like to 
 know what trinket you, who disdain all silly ornaments, are petting so 
 assiduously ?” 
 
 44 Sic semper tyr annus,” she answered, and her eyes glowed so strangely that 
 the hot blood mounted to his forehead. She could not have felt so triumphant 
 as the dove who held the snake in its mouth or she would not have been so 
 malicious. 
 
 44 Why do you colour so, Captain Wilson of his Majesty’s service ? I but told 
 you what I touched.” 
 
 “ Lincoln is not 4 his Majesty ’ to me.” 
 
 “ I may not have meant him.” 
 
 “ Who then ?” 
 
 “ His Satanic Majesty.” 
 
 44 Miss Buckner, you will pardon the abruptness of my visit ; good evening.” 
 Her pulse fell from 100° to 8(K>; but her judgment whispered, 44 Easier now,” 
 then after a while, 
 
 44 Good night,” she said in an indifferent tone. 
 
 He had reached the door ; would she not speak another word ? Ho. The door 
 was opened ; there was a mirror on the mantelpiece by the door, as he turned the 
 knob he saw her in that, pale, cold, and defiant. It is well for us, His passionate 
 children, that a God is ever about our path. 
 
 44 Ho, Captain Wilson ! going already ? I had just come down to speak with 
 you. I want your advice,” said Mr. Buckner. 
 
 44 1 shall be most happy to call at you office any hour to-morrow you may 
 appoint.” 
 
 44 Going so soon ? Are you ill ?” Keble was white ; possibly with anger 
 probably with pain. He knew what he was doing He had foreseen this hour 
 which was to be to him the 44 flaming sword ” to shut him out from the Eden 
 of his pilgrimage. Laura, poor child ! knew not what she did ; but he knew 
 only too well. 
 
 Mr. Buckner, Southern as he was, was too much of a gentleman to forget his 
 indebtedness to Captain Wilson : — 4< Laura, certainly you cannot have offended 
 the man who so lately saved your life ?’ ’ 
 
 Her tones were as proud as the flash of his eyes — hers were downcast — as she 
 replied, 
 
 44 Captain Wilson, I beg pardon for having answered your question in a 
 manner offensive to one to whom I am so great a debtor.” 
 
 He bowed very low : — 44 The apology is more — your apology is accepted, 
 though I am sorry your filial duty required it. Mr. Buckner, will you grant me 
 a favour ?” 
 
 44 A hundred, my dear Captain. I cannot express — ” 
 
 44 The favour you have just promised me is silence so far as respects Miss 
 Buckner’s conduct towards me. You have pledged yourself to me not to mention 
 my name to her — this is the favour I ask.” 
 
58 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 (i Zounds, man ! Excuse me, I don’t understand you young people of this 
 generation.” 
 
 Neither do I, sir,” answered the Captain in a gay tone. “ But allow me to 
 say that I am not offended with Miss Buckner ; she has repaid me a thousand-fold 
 for any trifling service I may have rendered her. Nor has she to-night, sir, said 
 anything she had not a perfect right to say, and I how respectfully to her decree. 
 I was very presumptuous to think that I, a Federal officer, could be an acceptable 
 guest to so enthusiastic a Southern as your daughter. Good evening.” 
 
 “ Laura !” exclaimed her father. 
 
 “ I need not remind you of your promise,” said Keble. 
 
 iC Wait a moment, sir, Laura, you are opening your lips to speak — it is time, I 
 should think ; what have you to say ?” 
 
 “ Nothing, except to answer the question you cannot ask. Captain Wilson 
 desired to know what I was tapping ? It was the seal of Virginia, and I replied, 
 
 ‘ Sic semper tyr annus' ” 
 
 “ Is that all?” 
 
 “ All.” 
 
 “ Captain Wilson ! ” 
 
 “ I am aware, sir, I must seem in a somewhat ridiculous position ; but Miss 
 Buckner’s eye told me I, an officer of the Government, was not a welcome 
 visitor. I ought not to have needed a reminder of our relative positions. Her 
 taste surpasses my judgment. I apologise most humbly.” 
 
 “ Fiddlesticks ! This might do if you had not sa — ” 
 
 “ You cannot, sir, imagine the deep pain you inflict whenever you remind me 
 that you consider your daughter and yourself as under obligations to me. I 
 have been too slow to take offence. Good night.” 
 
 As Keble said “good night ” for the third time, Laura, feeling her pride 
 strengthened by the cold pride of his indifferent tones, raised her eyes. His has 
 not lost the expression they assumed as they had turned away from her cold, 
 passionless face — he would have been comforted to have found an expression of 
 anger or scorn, anything but this indifference. He could not melt the icicle ; 
 but she could freeze his blood into a hopeless, dull stream, yet he had virtually 
 vowed never to yield his heart except to a perfect woman. 
 
 Why need he, independent of the sex as he had always been, now suddenly 
 know that he had given all the hoarded wealth of a lifetime to one who but 
 scorned him P This self -revelation was the work of a minute ; it was made 
 while she spoke, and her father’s eye was fixed on her, and hers on him, and he 
 could dare to look at her eagerly, greedily, as at the face of the dying. She 
 spone as though she were dismissing a troublesome servant ; she ceased, and to 
 him she was dead. It was then he turned his eyes away with a shudder, as 
 though he had laid his hand on her heart and it had ceased to beat. J ust then 
 she looked at him and read his story ; should she let him leave her with that 
 expression on his face it would haunt her for ever. 
 
 ‘‘ Captain Wilson !” 
 
 Eagerly he turned to her ; she was not yet quite dead ; one more sign of life, 
 then she would be lost to him for ever. 
 
 “ Captan Wilson.” His face was still so utterly hopeless it pained her ; 
 involuntarily she moved towards him. A servant entered, “ Master, a gentleman 
 in the hall says he wants to speak with you just a minute.’* Papa was glad 
 enough to get out of this fool’s play. “I’ll be back directly, Captain.” The 
 officer had to step farther into the room to let Mr. Buckner pass. Laura had 
 raised her hand, was it only to protest ? I don’t know, nor did she' ; but it fell 
 in his. 
 
 “ I did not mean to insult you.” She waited for an answer, it seemed a 
 minute ; still he held her hand, why not ? it was the last time. 
 
 He was so deadly white, she added, “ Indeed, I did not.” 
 
 “You will not mourn for me ; not even when you hear I have fallen in battle.” 
 The hand he held drew back with a quiver. Must Laura stand up all the 
 evening to bid good-night to him who was so slow in going? He, too, sat down, 
 this time beside her. 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 59 
 
 “ Mourn for you ?” Why should I, when there would be one enemy less to 
 fight against my country.” 
 
 The tone was so like her usual banter he did not seem hurt. Even bitterness 
 was better than death. 
 
 “ But I should not suppose you would want our numbers lessened ; the greater 
 the resistance the greater the glory of conquest.” 
 
 “ But you might kill one whom I love.” 
 
 “ God forbid !” His tone was so earnest she started. 
 
 “ You would not ?” 
 
 “ Not if his bayonet was at my breast.” 
 
 I don’t know whether it is customary for lovers to have as many long silences 
 as Keble and Laura kept ; but neither ever thought them awkward. I suppose 
 that was because neither was conscious how many seconds were consumed in 
 delicious reverie. At last Keble spoke. 
 
 “ Miss Buckner, I promise you not to wear military dress again in your 
 presence. I deserve to suffer what you have inflicted to-night for being in such 
 haste to see you. I had been out of the city and returning by your house the 
 temptation to call was so great that I forgot not only my brass buttons, but my 
 dusty appearance.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Minnie was staying with Laura when Myers called. After they had talked 
 some sentimentality, she said, “ I want your opinion on a subject which is 
 troubling my brain very much.” 
 
 “ I should rather hear you complain of trouble in the heart than in the head, 
 Miss Minnie; but if my little wit can serve you I shall be most happy.” 
 
 “ I thought I heard you say Cushing, Beverdy Johnson, Case, and Everitt 
 maintained that the seizure of our commissioners by Captain Wilkes was right.” 
 
 “ Y — e — s.” 
 
 “ Well, if it was right last week, why is it not right now ? You know I 
 never professed to have a logical mind, and I confess this question sorely puzzles 
 me.” 
 
 “ I would not blame so fair a mind as yours for anything.” 
 
 “ Oh, I have another question, Mr. Myers ! Why is it that whenever a man 
 don’t know what to say to a woman he begins to flatter her ?” 
 
 “ No one flatters you. Your mind is — ” 
 
 “ Very far inferior to those of the people of N*w England. 1 remember what a 
 fuss they made over Wilkes’s seizure of the Trent ; I couldn’t then understand 
 why they made it; if Mason and Slidell had been the only men who could have 
 been sent to Europe there might have been some sense in all that Yankee 
 rejoicing ; but — ” 
 
 “ Wasn’t it strange to send the author of the Fugitive Slave Law to 
 England?” 
 
 “ May be the English are like me in one thing, and can acknowledge the 
 justness of an act that they dislike, But tell me why the Yankees are just as 
 glad to let our commissioners go out of Fort Lagitte as they were to put 
 them in ?” 
 
 “ W— e— 1— 1— ” 
 
 “But is this inconsistency well ? Let me tell you a story about a little boy 
 who was so happy after he had robbed a bird’s nest, and put the young ones in 
 a cage ; then a big boy came by and told him if he didn’t let out the birds he 
 
60 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 would whip him. A short time after the same little urchin was rejoicing that 
 the birds were gone ; his sister asked him why he was glad ; he said, 4 Oh, I 
 won’t get a beating now. 5 ” 
 
 “ If you think we are afraid of England, you are mistaken.” 
 
 “ I expect I am. The story I was telling you says, that the little boy slapped 
 his sister when she told him he let the birds out because he was afraid of the 
 big boy,” Miss Buckner entered and spoke to Myers. 
 
 “ Oh, Laura ! you are just in time to be enlightened on a recondite subject. 
 Mr. Myers is going to tell me why it was right for Lincoln to hold our 
 commissioners before England interfered, and wrong afterwards. ” 
 
 4 4 I pray you mercy, ladies. ” 
 
 44 Why, Mr. Myers, have not you learned the tune of your party? If not, 
 I can give you a valuable hint. On the 28th the National Republican , speaking 
 of Boston said [ 4 The city was much excited last night by the rumour that 
 Mason and Slidell had been handed over to the British authorities, and that 
 the telegraph operators had been ordered not to dispatch the news until 
 Saturday night. What the truth is we cannot say, but we understand the 
 character of Boston well enough to know that these arch traitors will never 
 leave the shores of New England alive, unless they are stolen away.’] On the 
 31st it said [‘ In Boston the public received the announcement of the surrender 
 very philosophically, having generally anticipated such a finale. The street 
 talk is that Mason and Slidell were not worth their board there or elsewhere. ’] 
 Learn the lesson, Mr. Myers, you’ll have it to practice often enough before the 
 war is over. I had supposed that for very shame the United States would 
 retain those commissioners. ” 
 
 44 When they knew their role was opposed to international law?” 
 
 “As a paper blockade ! When I hear of the United States disavowing one 
 wrong act because it is wrong, not because it is dangerous, I shall entertain 
 some respect for them. I have another nut for you to crack. If the Yankees 
 should insist upon a war for the annexation of Canada, would not that justify 
 the South for dissolving so unequal a partnership ?” 
 
 44 The man who dares defend such a theoiy should be hung, drawn, and 
 quartered,” said Myers, mock heroically. 
 
 44 Then you had better take up the remains of John Quincy Adams for your 
 elegant revenge.” 
 
 “ Why, Miss Minnie ? ” 
 
 44 Indeed, I heard Mr. Buckner say that he with Giddings — and — and — I don’t 
 remember the other names, for I never heard of them before— but there was a 
 baker’s dozen, who in ’43 (I haven’t forgotten the year because it was the one in 
 which I was born), signed a manifesto against the annexation of Texas, and said 
 that it would fully justify a dissolution of the Union. And mamma said if that 
 was loyal twenty years ago — 
 
 44 You are not twenty yet.” 
 
 44 Listen to what mamma said, and see if she wasn’t right. She said that if the 
 annexation of slave territory would justify dissolution on the part of the North, 
 the annexation of free territory would justify the South for the same. And 
 Laura said that now she would pitch in — no ; she don’t use such words as that.” 
 44 Weigh ? ” 
 
 44 No ; she had something about preponderating Adams against Calhown.” 
 
 44 But what harm could adding a little more dirt to the Union have done ?” 
 
 44 A great deal ; considering it was much too dirty already. The North has 
 been prancing about on her Bosinante, spattering the South with mud long 
 enough.” 
 
 44 1 don’t think she would have hurt her sister.” 
 
 44 No ; only told somebody to cut her throat. Wait a minute and answer this 
 argument.” Minnie went to the centre table and came back with a soiled 
 pamphlet. “ Bead the name.” 
 
 4< Catechism for Free Working-Men, published by the American Tract and 
 Book Society of Cincinnati,’ I am amazed. Where was this procured ? I did not 
 know there was such a publishing society.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 61 
 
 “ I suppose not ; you Kentucky Unionists never know anything except what 
 Prentice and Harvey choose to tell you. A soldier gave the tract to our carriage 
 driver, who reads very well.” 
 
 “ I’ll see to this.” 
 
 “ You are rather late, Harry said that thousands of tracts, some much worse 
 than this, had been distributed among the soldiers and their pets, our servants. 
 Can’t the governor drive away the carrion crows waiting to feast on Kentucky, 
 that they are trying to deliver to Lincoln to be slain ? ” 
 
 “ The North loves the South too much to part ! ” 
 
 “ There is no pretest for which I have such contempt ; it is too much like 
 Satan’s logic, particularly in its conclusions. I am heartily disgusted with this 
 farrago ; one might suppose that Barnum had educated the politicians, so ac- 
 complished are they in political ragtaggery. Call things by their right names. 
 But I suppose it would not be so grand to elocutionize about your interests. It is 
 thought to be for the material interests of the North to make the South abolish 
 slavery ; so the descendants of the puritans suddenly discover that they have to 
 keep the spiritual accounts of their rivals, and endeavour to apply the principles of 
 witch-burning and ecclessiastical persecution to the Bible and the constitution.” 
 We are right in calling the Puritans old fogies ; had they not been they 
 would have been more under the softening influence of young witches, and less 
 afraid of old ones.” 
 
 “ Governer Robinson asks for an appropriation of secret service money, some 
 Senators, afraid to vote for it or unwilling to second it, higgle and stammer 
 excuse and ask time to consider.” 
 
 “ A-hem ! ” 
 
 “It is easier to clear your throat than your conscience in answering this 
 question,” interposed Minnie maliciously. “ Are you aware that the state policy 
 of your confederacy is buried in the Tombs. I dare say its ghost will giv.e you 
 legislators a fit.” 
 
 “May I have the honour of escorting you young ladies to see Anderson this 
 evening P ” 
 
 “ The juggler ? my juggler acts at all hours for my convenience,” said Minnie, 
 “Mr. Lin—” 
 
 “ Thank you,” said Laura, “but I have no heart fortrifling amusements now.” 
 “ Miss Minnie, pray go.” 
 
 “ I have heard him. That night someone wrote on the card that he was to 
 read without seeing, ‘ Hurrah for Jeff Davis! ’ What an outburst of applause 
 then ! ” 
 
 “ What delightful weather ! ” 
 
 “ I don’t think so. I shrink from the atmosphere in winter because I feel it.” 
 “ Because you feel it ? Don’t you always feel it ? ” 
 
 “ In spring I drink it in and seem to be wafted over fresh flowers with birds 
 and butterflies ; in summer it wraps me in gratitude.” Myers smiled and so did 
 Laura. “ I mean it would if people would only let me alone.” 
 
 “ But there is an irresistible fascination about you — ” 
 
 “ And the South ; How can we get rid of our pests ? ” 
 
 “ By uniting with them.” 
 
 “ But tell us, Minnie, how does the autumn air affect you ? ” asked Laura. 
 
 “ Oh ! that is the picture-forming atmosphere, which I love. I look with a 
 lover’s longing at the magical picture-veil it hangs over earth and sky.” A short 
 silence. 
 
 ' “ Laura, please play for us,” said Minnie, who had a slightly abstracted air, 
 and did not feel as much interested in Myers as usual. “ Play us some waltzes 
 or marches ; you’ve been nervous lately, and they’ll be as good for your nerves 
 as laughing.” 
 
 “But I prefer operas and nocturnes.” 
 
 li Because operas turn your heart inside out ; nocturnes concentrate all your 
 life in a moment.” 
 
 Laura looked up, somewhat surprised. 
 
 “ I had no idea that you felt music so deeply.” 
 
62 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “Nor do I. But I remember your own expressions, and like to quote in 
 company sentiments you are too shy or too proud to tell to others. ” 
 
 After Laura had played several waltzes, Minnie asked her to play the nocturne 
 she had composed while hearing her Auntie sing the Te Deum to an old and beau- 
 tiful chant. When she had played it, Myers remarked : “ Miss Minnie, your 
 enthusiasm is the Church.” 
 
 “ It is to me what music is to Laura. 
 
 “ Do you belong to the Church North or South ?” 
 
 “ To both. It is the one thing in the North which I do not loathe. I feel as 
 if the United States were a foreign nation, their enormous sin is an ocean between 
 us. But the Church of the North still commands my homage and owns my love. 
 There, for the sake of humanity, I think God has said- to the devil-tossed sea of 
 passion and strife, ‘ Thus far shalt thou come and no farther, and here shall thy 
 proud waves be stayed.’ How delightful to feel that while the United States 
 seem as far off as the Czar of Russia, and more abhorrent, yet the Church is a 
 Milky Way of heavenly spirits, binding in one brotherhood those whom war and 
 cruelty have torn asunder.” 
 
 Laura sighed, and played the 4< Lancers.” When she had finished she said she 
 would talk a while with her papa. She went into the library. 
 
 “ Papa, Ellen would not come this evening as Mr. Myers is here, and she says 
 she scorns him because he is a traitor ! I wish Minnie did not like him.” 
 
 “ I must see about that. Why, he is going ! Minnie must be teasing him 
 that he is leaving so early. Go out, dear. I’ll call him in and sound him for her 
 sake.” After they had talked a while, Mr. Buckner said, “ Iiumour affirms you 
 have a rebel sweetheart. What’s the reason you loyal men nearly all have 
 rebel wives and sweethearts ? ” 
 
 “ Because it isn’t easy to find loyal ones in our circle, nor, I believe, in the tier, 
 belowr. Women like fine acting and, confound our men! entre nous the 
 Southerners have most of the eclat. As for disloyal wives, most of the loyal 
 men — alas, that I have to confess it ! were born north of the Ohio, and have 
 married Southern women and raised Southern children.” 
 
 “ You zealous loyalists may overdo the thing ; even a Federal lieutenant was 
 shut up by a sentry because he jestingly said he was Secesh. (a) Sentries ought 
 not to have such power ; but so many of our law officials are not trustworthy ; 
 even in the Court of Appeals three of our four judges are disloyal, (a) Think 
 you you will be able to hold your own to the end in the Legislature ? ” 
 
 “Yes ; by putting on grand airs, and acting as if the whole State belonged to 
 us, and as if we were assured of her loyalty.” 
 
 “ That’s your best plan for success.” 
 
 “ Yes,” said Myers, thinking the man in his presence loyal henceforth for 
 prudence’ sake. 
 
 “ But,” said Mr. Buckner, “ some of your members must be very green not to 
 * discern the signs of the times.’ Some young one professes to pass resolutions 
 that any attempt on the part of either branch of the Government to assume 
 power delegated to it, is an infringement upon our Constitution, and he will 
 resist it. That the trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by 
 jury. That no person shall be held to answer for infamous crime, unless on a 
 presentment or by a grand jury ; and that the accused shall enjoy the right to a 
 speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. That whenever Congress assumes 
 such power, that they are making war upon our constitutional rights, and they 
 are in rebellion against our government. If you permit such impudence to pa^s 
 uncensured, the Legislature is gone. I wonder such men as the mover of these 
 resolutions haven’t sense enough to see the inconsistency of such declarations, and 
 of allowing any little clique that you may befool or buy up to control the elec- 
 tions.” 
 
 “I don’t think you property-holders need feel uneasy; no more agitators 
 will be put in office.” 
 
 “And those now in will be expelled?” 
 
 “We’ve already cleared the Legislature of its worst hornets, by the expul- 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 63 
 
 sion of John Q. A. King, of McCracken county ; George W. Ewing, of Logan ; 
 George W. Silvertooth, of Hickman; John M. Elliott, of Floyd; John G. 
 Gilbert, of Marshall; George R. Merritt, of Livingston; Daniel Matthewson, 
 of Calloway; and A. R. .Boon, of Graves. The Southern men show their 
 impudence in the field ; we must show ours in the council. Debtors will swell 
 our ranks, for it was resolved [that no service of a summons in a civil action 
 shall be valid, if at the time of its execution the defendant is engaged as a 
 soldier in the army. ] This will be effectual ; a rogue, to prevent foreclosure of 
 a mortgage, or forfeiture of prepayment, has only to write United States’ Army 
 after his name.” 
 
 ‘ 4 There are men who won’t or can’t read, and never travel out of sight of 
 their homes to learn anything ; but every man knows something of his repre- 
 sentative’s opinions. ” 
 
 “Or thinks he does, which is better.” 
 
 “Can you trust the fate of Kentucky in the hands of a Republican (so called) 
 Administration ? ” 
 
 “Very easily, Mr. Buckner.” 
 
 “You approve of its platform?” 
 
 “By no means; but it has individually pledged itself to let the slaves alone; 
 (perhaps Chase should be excepted) ; but Seward is its head and Lincoln its 
 tail.” 
 
 “And Chase its backbone, you will find before long.” 
 
 “One of the self-chosen Kentucky delegates to Chicago told me his party 
 was so pledged. ” 
 
 “And you are green enough to trust to a party of whose platform the first 
 eight declarations are virtually or inferentially false?” 
 
 “How, sir?” 
 
 “As to the first, if they expect to destroy slavery, why do they pronounce 
 it ‘permanent’ in its nature? In the third, they declare that they hold in 
 abhorrence all schemes for disunion ; yet their principal men have called for it 
 on stumps in the wood, and on stump-pulpits, in lyceums and in Congress, by 
 the press and in private conversation. And some of the very men who were 
 then in Chicago had done this. ” 
 
 “As you have passed over the second, you have no fault to find with it.” 
 “Did I? That is the most contemptible lie of all. A man who quotes things 
 in a connection which falsifies them, is beneath the contempt of my boot. 
 This Platform quotes sentences from the Declaration of Independence, which 
 was drawn up and signed by slave-holders, and says the same sentiments are 
 embodied in the Constitution, drawn up and established principally by slave- 
 holders, to prove that negroes should all be free. ” 
 
 “Jefferson was opposed to slavery.” 
 
 “Then he was not very honest, for he held them till he died ; he couldn’t 
 hold them any longer. In the fourth declaration these men denounced the 
 lawless invasion by armed force, of any State or territory ‘no matter under 
 what pretext, as the gravest of crimes. ’ This referred to Kansas particularly, 
 I presume ; in which case preachers took up collections to send men to cut 
 their brothers’ throats. I had a ward at Yale College at the time and the 
 church doors were locked to give Southern boys a premonition of what Aboli- 
 tionists meant by liberty, until a collection was taken up for this most 
 Christian work. One of the principal professors told them how many pistols 
 they should give. ” (a) 
 
 “You removed your ward?” 
 
 “Yes; wrote him word to try Trinity College, Hartford, to see if Christians 
 inculcated the same sort of Gospel there ; and if they did, to travel down to 
 the University of Virginia as fast as he could; for, though Alfred needed 
 Northern air, I thought he had better suffer with weakness of body, than 
 congestion of the heart, or liquefaction of the brain. Yankee boys will be 
 Yankees; but if the heads of a college have common-sense, a spirited fellow 
 like Alfred can take care of the hands. But I forget my text. The fifth 
 
64 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 declaration says the Democratic Congress cares for only a strictly legal interest ; 
 here the tariff-bill is the best exemplar. But I won’t examine this, as my 
 party-politics might blind me ; at any rate, a Whig like you would say so. 
 The sixth insinuates that men who want to steal Southern property, will be 
 honest when they get hold of public money. ” 
 
 “Oh! Mr.—” 
 
 “Please, sir, wait until I get through with my tiny Philippic, and then 
 answer a question. The seventh declaration shows the most astonishing 
 effrontery, or the most egregious ignorance. If I thought it was the latter, I’d 
 send them the State Papers and Congressional proceedings. I laughed aloud to 
 see Washington, Madisnix, Monroe, Pinckney, Rutledge, Henry, Lee and others, 
 pronounced Abolitionists in the eighth declaration. This was as amusing as 
 the writer’s forgetfulness of when the United States came into political 
 existance, and of what they were composed. Interpret this administration by 
 the light of these articles, written by Lincoln’s supporters. Don’t you see 
 that the fourth makes him and all advocates of the war, the greatest of 
 criminals? The fifth denounces all Abolitionists as they now are. The sixth, 
 read by the light of late investigations, is more farcical than Mother Goose’s 
 ditties. ” 
 
 “The Journal ?” 
 
 “ I wish it would come out for Abolitionism ; one can't make the ganders about 
 here believe that this is an Abolition war because Prentice is so bitterly opposed 
 to emancipation by Congressional action or force of arms. No other man 
 could have gulled the people so long about neutrality — a blue Yankee of 
 Connecticut ! I heard Mr. Adams say that he felt that he and the others who 
 brought him here had got their reward. They invited him to Louisville, 
 supposing his surpassing powers of vituperation would drive away Shadrach 
 Penn, who so tormented the Whigs. Who but Prentice could have palmed off 
 neutrality as — ” 
 
 “Curse neutrality for a humbug ! We knew from the first that it could not 
 be maintained. 
 
 “ Leave my house, sir. A man who confesses himself a liar cannot visit my 
 daughter or myself !” 
 
 “You will receive my card ?” 
 
 “ To throw it in the fire.” 
 
 “I challenge you now.” 
 
 “Do you suppose me so contemptible as to put myself on terms of equality 
 with a liar ? or, to take time to chastise a puppy, when my State is betrayed ?” 
 “You shall repent this insolence!” hissed Myers, as he left the house. 
 
 “I don’t doubt I shall, in some dungeon,” was Mr. Buckner’s reflection. 
 “Well, a man can’t stand everything.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 “ If you had been bom in a heathen land and left to choose the object of 
 your admiration, what, or whom should you select ?” asked Laura. 
 
 “The Invisible,” answered Captain Wilson. 
 
 “ I like your idea, and see the reason you would.” 
 
 “Why ?” 
 
 “Because you could attribute to it imaginary virtues, and then worship 
 them. Do you know I consider you the most romantic person I ever saw ?” 
 “Oh!” 
 
 “ I do not mean reproach. When copper becomes better than gold then will 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 65 
 
 practicality be of more intrinsic value than ideality. Truly copper is very 
 necessary ; one wouldn’t wish to have the kitchen utensils made of gold ; but 
 if you get a wedding ring let it be of gold,” said Laura. 
 
 44 To remind one of the golden streets which husband and wife may tread 
 when life’s drop-curtain falls, and we can turn weary eyes from fallacious 
 glitter, or from the mournful and false scene which formerly attracted, and 
 gaze, heart into heart, at the one by our side,” said Keble, in a low voice. 
 
 44 There are not many women who could stand that. The heroine of the 
 stage,” continued Laura, catching the picture in his mind, 44 painted and 
 bedecked with flowers and gems, whose beauty is enhanced ten-fold by the 
 witchery of foot-lights, would fascinate a man’s imagination, when the plain 
 woman in plain dress, with no ornament but a true heart, would pass 
 unappreciated. ” 
 
 “By no true man. There may be those who may find gas-light more 
 glorious than the sun ; such deserve to pine in darkness whenever they are 
 called to the loneliness of the country, or of a sick bed, or — ” 
 
 44 When coals get scarce. Don’t look insulted. I understand your fancy, but 
 am not worthy to entertain it. ” 
 
 “I should rather not be comprehended than be understood only to be 
 ridiculed.” 
 
 “Do you, then, think me so exceedingly matter-of-fact? I inquire what I 
 would worship?” 
 
 “lean imagine. A compound of Dixie and Utopia; but differing from 
 both, inasmuch as you would tolerate nothing so weak as love except from 
 such a hero as Lee, or such a statesman as Davis. ” 
 
 “ Guess again.” 
 
 “ Then I was wrong ?” 
 
 “ As you generally are when you attempt to read one of my fancies.” 
 Keble’s heart grew lighter ; would she for one morning be herself, forget 
 that he was a United States’ officer, and ignore politics and the war? 
 
 “You would worship mere intellect ?” 
 
 “Bah ! I should always be struggling with that. I must rest on whatever 
 I adore.” 
 
 “ Then moral perfection united to Infinite Power ?” 
 
 “As no great mind of the age even imagined such — or if a philosopher did, 
 it was a dream too dim to be worshipped — I do not suppose I could.” 
 
 4 4 1 must confess it puzzles me as much to study your fancies as yourself. 
 What would you adore ?” 
 
 44 Music.” 
 
 A perceptible change came over Keble’s face ; he could not tune an 
 instrument, op turn a tune ; but he asked why she would worship music? 
 
 44 Because it is creative. My mind under its influence can create almost 
 anything. I can be played into tears or laughter ; can be nerved to the work 
 of a patriot, or made weaker than a child. ” 
 
 44 So there is one power to which you submit without cavil ?” 
 
 44 Two ; but what the other is I have told to none. Under music I am like 
 Minnie, who used to say she would never be accountable for what she said on 
 horseback, not even if it was 4 yes ’ to a lover. ” 
 
 44 Oh ! this I can understand. Me, too, does the motion of a splendid horse 
 intoxicate. The proudest moment of my youth was that of the conquest of a 
 favourite mare, so beautiful an animal that she satisfied the eye ; her movements 
 were the very poetry of motion, dignified as though conscious of superiority, and 
 yet as full of frolic as a colt. She defied my father’s groom, and so his master 
 never tried to mount her. But I loved the animal for her sympathetic beauty of 
 form, motion and colour; she was a pure silvery white. So when my father bade 
 me buy myself a horse, I replied, 4 give me Eratoline. ’” 
 
 44 What a pretty name ! ” 
 
 44 Do not you understand its meaning ? ” 
 
 44 Erato — love.” 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 “ Yes. I invented the name for her, because she pleased my fancy better than 
 any woman I had ever seen.” 
 
 “ Oh ! for shame, and she a brute ! ” 
 u Less so than many a fine lady I have known.” 
 
 “ Horrid ! Did you ever ride her P ” 
 
 “ Yes, I was determined she should never feel whip or spur ; then she might 
 have feared me, and I meant to conquer her by persuasion — I knew I could.” 
 
 “ Vanity ! ” 
 
 “ Only consciousness of power.” 
 
 “ I’ll remember this,” thought Laura to herself. 
 
 “ I walked directly up to her ; she shook in my face her mane that looked like 
 crumpled silver, she doubtless supposed I should draw back ; for thus she had 
 intimidated others.” 
 
 “ Who did not love her.” 
 
 “ I let her shake her mane in my face as long as she liked. Then she turned and 
 looked at me, seeming to confess my courage.” 
 
 “ Or impudence.” 
 
 “ Eratoline was to true a lady too accuse me of so ungentlemanly an attribute.’' 
 il Well,” said Laura haughtily. 
 
 “ Surely, I have not offended you ? you only spoke in jest. Next to untruth- 
 fulness I think impudence most despicable.” 
 
 “ I but jested,” said Laura, somewhat mortified. “ Did you tame Eratoline ? ” 
 “ When she saw I could not be frightened at any play as pretty as the tossing 
 of her mane, she turned in defiance and raised her foot to kick me. T was a 
 powerful youth and she rather light. I caught her foot, and as I took her by 
 surprise threw her to the ground. Then I sat down very quietly on her, smoothed 
 her mane, called her Eratoline and fed her with some turnips I had put in my 
 pocket for a lure.” 
 
 “ Did the coward submit without more efforts to be free ? ” 
 
 “ No, indeed, but they were fruitless, as I am not easily moved ; she soon dis- 
 covered I was rather too heavy to be discarded at her will. I caressed and 
 soothed her till she, worn out with struggling to rise, went to sleep, at least 
 seemed to do so, after I threw my handkerchief over her eyes.” 
 
 “ What an idea ! ” 
 
 “ I knew that if I could gain her confidence our strife would be over ; I had a 
 pocket edition of* Wordsworth ; so I read until I thought she had rested enough, 
 when I whispered Eratoline in her ear. I kept her mane in my hand until I 
 mounted her, and did not let her go until I had ridden her miles. Afterwards, she 
 knew my voice, and as I gave orders no one else was ever to call her Eratoline, 
 she always answered my summons.” 
 
 “ Where is she ? ” * 
 
 “ In the far North-west, on the prairies. When my company was ordered to 
 Kentucky, I could not bear to have her undergo all the horrors of steam-boat and 
 rail-travelling and long, hot, dusty marches and then, perhaps, perish lingeringly on 
 a battle-field, and so I let her go free.” 
 
 “ To suffer.” 
 
 “ How ? ” 
 
 “ Had not you taught her to love you ? I could not be more cruel to Coleridge 
 than to banish him from my side.” 
 
 “ That I believe.” 
 
 “ You should have brought Eratoline here.” 
 
 “She is blessed to have excited your sympathies. If she can be reclaimed, will 
 you permit her to stand in your stable and — ” 
 
 “ Certainly, papa would be very glad to do so small a favour for — ” She saw 
 him bite his lip and stopped. 
 
 “ Would you love Eratoline — only because she is so beautiful — and ride her P 
 I assure you you could do it without danger. You would have but to allow me 
 to raise you on her back, and learn to say Eratoline as I do.’’ 
 
 (l Your offer is very kind.” 
 
LOVE AND WAIL 
 
 67 
 
 “ A-liem ! ” 
 
 “ But I do not care much for riding these days ; I have no pet but Coleridge 
 now.” 
 
 “ Is your dog named after the great writer ? ” 
 
 “ Yes, English authors are my chief friends, and Coleridge the dearest of all.” 
 
 “ I am pleased to discover in you a partiality for English writers ; I consider 
 it a mark of good taste and a guarantee of improvement. Bulwer is your favourite 
 novelist ? ” 
 
 “ None can be compared to him.” 
 
 “ Your favourite poets and philosophers are English ? ” 
 
 “Yes; and yet I think I enjoy Novalis more than any English poet. By-the- 
 bye, who is your favourite German author ? Goethe P ” 
 
 “ By no means ; Faust disappointed me.” 
 
 “ For the same reason that the Mammoth Cave disappoints some persons of 
 true taste.” 
 
 “I could not read a fifth of Wilhelm Meister.” 
 
 “ Indeed ! It was to read that book I principally desired to learn German ; but 
 I have not yet got it.” 
 
 “ May I ask you never to read it? ” 
 
 “ You can ask me, certainly ! ” 
 
 “Oh! I beg you to promise me. I can’t tolerate the idea of seeing a camellia 
 spattered with mud. I know the descriptions of art in it are very fine ; if you 
 will promise me never to read it I’ll engage to get up an expurgated edition for 
 you.” 
 
 “ Oh ?io,” exclaimed Laura, quickly. His countenance fell. 
 
 “Pardon, then, the impertinence of my request.” 
 
 “ Impertinence ! If I were about to open a vial of carbonic acid gas, would it 
 be impertinent for you to take it from my hand ? Yet you need to be pardoned 
 for supposing I should wish to read anything that had disgusted you.” 
 
 “ I misunderstood your negative.” 
 
 “ I meant I would not have you go through a coal mine to get me a chaplet of 
 diamonds ? ” 
 
 “ I should not have made the selection. Metcalfe knows his works as well as you 
 do Calhown’s Disquisition on Government. But you have emboldened me to make 
 another request.” 
 
 “ Not to read Calhown ? I can’t grant it.” 
 
 “ I don’t like him ; but he was too good a man to injure any one. Will you 
 let me give you a list of books I don’t want you to read ? Works which such an 
 omnivorous reader as yourself will be very likely to light upon ? ” 
 
 “ And have you read them all ?” she exclaimed, in a disappointed tone. What, 
 if after all, her angel’s wings had been beating about in smoke and soot ? 
 
 “ I never read through one of the books on my Index Expurgatorius.” 
 
 “ Oh, tell me every one ! I will never open one of them. 1 have no respect 
 for the person who would sacrifice purity of thought to any desire for intellectual 
 benefit or amusement.” 
 
 “Then never read Don Juan, Byron’s Cain, The Sentimental Journey, 
 Tristram Shandy, Anatomy of Melancholy, Rousseau’s Confessions, Musset’s 
 poems.” 
 
 “Never ; I pledge myself.” With a sudden impulse she laid her hand in his. 
 He did not press it, nor did it tremble, but a groan unconsciously burst from his 
 lips. Laura withdrew her hand and looked up quickly. 
 
 “ What is the matter ? ” Perhaps her thought was of sudden physical pain. 
 
 “ I never can ask it,” he replied, as calmly as though speaking of a ribbon. It 
 was a strange scene. Neither blushed, nor showed the least consciousness of 
 love ; Keble did not, because he felt utterly hopeless of winning such a Southern 
 heart, and would not have tried if he had thought he could have succeeded. 
 Had not he pledged his word never to marry any but a Christian ? Laura did 
 not blush, for her emotions were too little like any love she had read or heard of 
 for her to know what it was she felt ; she had heard the absurd remark that men 
 
68 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 were never so pure as women, and never had she done so without an involuntary- 
 shrinking from the idea of intimacy with one. She would never commit her 
 unsullied purity — which no school-girl had ever dared to insult with vulgar 
 confidences — to the keeping of one less pure than an angel. When Kehle con- 
 fessed to her that he could not read a book of talent because it was vulgar, she 
 made him instantly the guardian of her heart ; he must never know this, for he 
 was the enemy of her country, but henceforth she acknowledged a guardian - 
 angel. He could not ask her hand — that was a very sweet assurance ; the 
 Southerner was now quite safe with the United States’ officer ; no more fear that 
 he would insult her patriotism by asking for her Southern heart. Why he could 
 not ask it she had not time to question herself. Was he engaged ? Would he 
 leave her and forget her just as she felt that he was elevating her into a higher 
 world, would he forsake her and let her fall back into the selfism and isolation of 
 her old life ? 
 
 “ Captain Wilson, I have always wanted a brother. Will you be my brother ? 
 I need a great many lectures ; will you undertake to give them ? I’ll be way- 
 ward enough, I promise you. But did you not say that you would rather give 
 birth to noble thoughts which would be acted out in other people’s lives than 
 have any personal gratification ?” 
 
 “ Don’t ridicule me — not now,” he said. 
 
 “Have you then so soon concluded me to be incorrigible? ” 
 
 He had not raised his eyes since she had laid her hand so unwittingly in his ; 
 but now looked up in amazement ; was this the proud woman who so often 
 forced him to bow to her intellect ? “What do you mean, Miss Laura ?” 
 
 “ That I want to be a better woman. You have lectured me.” 
 
 “Oh ! ” 
 
 “ Into being ashamed of myself, and now refuse to reinstate me in my own 
 opinion. ” 
 
 “Can I have been of any service in arousing you ? If this is true, I care 
 not how soon I am called to battle and death.” He added, but in his heart 
 only, “then she may be mine for ever.” 
 
 Laura found herself shuddering ; so she laughed and said : — “ Do you think I 
 am so zealous in propagating the opinions I adopt, that I shall try to advance 
 your ideas as I do my master Calhown’s ?” 
 
 “I scarcely know what you are talking of.” 
 
 “ Neither do the stars ; but they and you have a mission to accomplish in 
 me.” 
 
 A sudden hope must have risen in his heart, for his cold sorrow seemed to 
 fall from him, and he looked into her eyes so eagerly that she blushed. The 
 dream was over, Laura awoke. 
 
 “As you sympathise in my appreciation of the English, I suppose you like 
 them as much. Would you like to be under English rule ? Why do you 
 laugh ? We had no cause of complaint against the mother-country sufficient 
 to justify our Devolution.” 
 
 “ Miss Laura, I believe you have been trying to quiz me all the evening.” 
 “Ah!” she said in an acquiescing tone; for, as I said before, Laura was 
 awake now, “ the grievances of our forefathers justified their inducing a seven 
 years’ war.” 
 
 “ The guilt of that rests with those who endeavoured to coerce freemen. 
 What grievance ? Taxation can never be acknowledged by freemen unless 
 they have representation. Parliament took away their right of trial by jury ; 
 ordered that persons should be tried in another country from that in which 
 the offence was committed ; it closed the port of Boston.” 
 
 “ And refused to acknowledge the right of self-government. I amglad to 
 know that you approve of Kentucky’s rebelling against the United States.” 
 
 “ But I do not.” 
 
 “Which cause of complaint that you have just mentioned has she not 
 endured ?” 
 
 “ Do you not really think it absurd to compare this Rebellion with the 
 Devolution ?” 
 
LOVE AND WAN 
 
 69 
 
 “ What caused the Revolution ?” 
 
 “The Stamp Act lit the flame ; but the fuel was ready long before.” 
 
 “ What was the Stamp Act to the duty paid by the South? the tairiff throws 
 it into the shade.” 
 
 “Is it not right to protect home-manufactures ?” 
 
 “If you can do it without robbing your neighbour. The tariff robbed the 
 South. Why are the Northern cities richer than the Southern? They have 
 reaped all the benefits of the duties on import. The North derived from $40 
 to $50,000,000 of annual tariff from the South, and the aggregate of the trade 
 of the South in Northern markets was $400,000,000 per annum. It was 
 calculated by a Northern writer that the gain reaped from unequal taxation 
 and the courses of trade between the two sections exceeded $200,000,000 per 
 annum. ” (a) 
 
 “But the North has paid back what you consider fraudulent gain. Who 
 carries your mails and conducts public improvements ?” 
 
 “Give an atlas to any school-boy, and he can tell you. But we are quite 
 willing to pay for our own railroads instead of those in the North, and to pay 
 our own men to carry our mails. Remember King Solomon’s decision that 
 first gained him a reputation for wisdom. He gave the disputed babe to the 
 woman unwilling to have it divided. ” 
 
 “ So, ho !” Laura did not mind the interruption, 
 
 “ In other words, his good sense taught him to trust to people’s instinct 
 where their interests are concerned.” 
 
 “All nations are governed by their interests.” 
 
 “ Which in civilised lands are supposed to be synonymous with riches.” 
 
 “ Rightly so in nine cases out of ten, unless principle or liberty is involved. 
 No government has a right to disregard the money-interests of the nation ; if 
 it does it steals from its own children. ” 
 
 “If the North and South were to plead before King Solomon he would say, 
 that as the former claims to spend so much money on the latter, she had better 
 part company with her. I, King Solomon, thought I had nothing new to find, 
 but I have yet to learn that the Yankees are celebrated for indifference to 
 expenditure.” 
 
 “ You believe yourself capable of seeing an argument even though it prove 
 you wrong ?” 
 
 “ I do, and am equally capable of seeing when an opponent is not.” 
 
 “ I am not afraid of your sharpsightedness there. And you have the moral 
 courage to say, ‘ I am wrong’ ! — hardest lesson to learn.” 
 
 “To confess that I have not would be to own myself capable of falsehood,” 
 said Laura. 
 
 “I hope, ” answered Keble, with a smile, “that when you draw a conclusion 
 you will not be hasty in pronouncing it as plain as twice two are four. Remem- 
 ber I can’t challenge a woman.” 
 
 “You are not the man I presume you to be if you are capable of challenging 
 a man. ” 
 
 This was a proud moment for Keble ; such deep respect was there in tone 
 and expression. She caught the gleam of his eye and laughed. “But you 
 have already challenged a woman. ” 
 
 “Then it is for you to appoint the ground and choose weapons.” 
 
 “ The ground : The Constitution of the United States, as interpreted by its 
 designers ; the weapons, plain-speaking and good temper. Is it a fancy that 
 you looked uneasy when I mentioned the Constitution ?” 
 
 “It is not fair to test the nerve of an opponent until the word ‘ Fire’ is 
 given.” 
 
 “Fire ! My first bullet is aimed at the heart of a man who would overthrow 
 Constitutional liberty. ” 
 
 “Ah! I had supposed myself your adversary.” 
 
 “You are.” 
 
 “Then it is my turn to fire. I aim at the heart of a rebel.” 
 
70 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 ‘‘Who would rather be the victim than the abettor of a tyrant.” 
 
 “You are caustic as usual.” 
 
 “I ask pardon, once for all, for my frequent rude speeches; but you can’t 
 comprehend how one’s nervous organization is disturbed by the daily papers. ” 
 “I should not have supposed they could trouble you.” 
 
 “I dread their effect. The papers are not only brains but consciences also 
 for many men. The Journal published a falsehood about there being 2,000 
 Indians in Buckner’s army to massacre men, women, and children. The 
 infamous falsehoods that paper tells about him and his noble men are 
 the cause of terror. I’ll give you one sample that I know of. A Mr. Wing, a 
 Mexican volunteer, died just after General Buckner took possession of Bowling- 
 Green. He had been a warm Union man and an opponent of our general ; but 
 when he was dead, Buckner sent to Mrs. Wing to ask permission to bury her 
 husband with the honours of war. She refused the favour proffered, and the 
 general actually withdrew his army from the little town that perfect quiet 
 might be preserved. Such an act as this must not be known to the people of 
 Louisville, who would not be likely to have any terror of such a general ; so 
 Prentice told a story about his not allowing the dead soldier to be interred with 
 the United States’ flag and other such trash. Young Wing saw the Journal 
 and came here to have the truth published. Prentice refused, saying that if 
 Buckner was not guilty of that, he was of acts quite as bad. He added that 
 he had to correct something every day. Mr. Wing was so outraged by the 
 infamous refusal, that he went in the street in a passion of honour, and told me 
 and others of the case, (a) I see by the morning papers that ten Yankees 
 have offered $10,000 each for General Buckner’s head. What have you to say 
 in defence of that?” 
 
 “Hot one word as I value my own self-respect. Anything more unblushingly 
 infamous I never read. ” 
 
 “I respect you because you won’t tell a falsehood for fear of being called a 
 Southern sympathizer ; you are not a coward. It is as necessary to put a stop 
 to the Journal, as it would be to take chloroform from those you wanted to 
 listen to reason. ” General Buckner was the {first who drew my heart to the 
 South, though my head had gone thither when I found there was no other hope 
 of civil liberty. I have occupied a position that I blush at. What if lam but a 
 woman? Is my honour the less precious because I take no part in the govern- 
 ment of my State?” 
 
 “Did you hear Gottschalk last night?” 
 
 “I did.” 
 
 “Can’t you ever go into a woman’s usual raptures over the elephant?” 
 “When the elephant can excite them.” 
 
 “It is not possible that you did not like Gottschalk? What can be more 
 perfect than his — ” 
 
 “ Nothing. His was the perfection of perfect execution.” 
 
 “ I don’t like your tone.” 
 
 “I’m sorry.” 
 
 “You are not in a complimentary mood.” 
 
 “Say something about Generals Lee or Brickenridge, or of Burnett, 
 Washington, or Davis.” 
 
 “ I had rather not, one name excepted. Can’t you and I keep off the great 
 vexed question for one half hour ? I long for thirty minutes ’uninterrupted 
 enjoyment. 
 
 “ The town has quite a number of male and female Union shriekers.” 
 
 “ I am not easily dismissed,” replied Keble in his calmness, looking upon 
 Laura’s present mood as he often was constrained to do, as the interesting, if 
 somewhat unpleasant petulance of a spoiled child. “ If I cannot have un- 
 interrupted enjoyment, I’ll accept your mood and pay willing penance.” 
 
 Laura did not exactly like his tone ; it had an introductory sound. And in 
 spite of her bellicose conversations with the officer, she had too entire a respect 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 71 
 
 for the man to let him ever have the advantage of choosing the throne of 
 discourse. She liked to say the bitter, harsh things her own heart must hear ; 
 but Keble was determined to find out why she did not appreciate Gottschalk, 
 and he pressed for an answer with a dim feeling that her musical nature might 
 help him to interpret her spiritual. 44 I don’t want to produce a false opinion 
 of my appreciation of Gottschalk, but I like a musician to master me ; that he 
 did not do, and I doubt if he could.” 
 
 44 To master you ?” 
 
 44 Yes ; make me laugh one minute and cry the next ; thrill for war, or sigh 
 for peace. To master me a man must make me forget that I am. ” 
 
 44 A hopeless effort then ; for who would try to master you — I use the word 
 because you did — unless he was filled with you ? And how could he make you 
 forget the only subject of which he was thinking ?” 
 
 Laura did not choose to see any but a musical allusion. 
 
 “Nevertheless, I have been so mastered,” she said, and could not resist a 
 womanly glance ; he was quite pale, and she regretted her rashness when she 
 was conscious his changed face and expression of pain was the cause of a little 
 tremor in her voice ; so she quickly added, 44 Thalberg did it.” 
 
 She did not care to have their eyes meet then ; she had a superstitious 
 horror of subjecting herself to his earnest look unless she was discussing a 
 party question. She often thought of the story about birds and snakes. 
 
 44 Did you ever read Charles Anchester when it first came out ? Did Thalberg 
 remind you of Seraphiel ?” 
 
 44 In every department — I use this term because I don’t know a better — of life 
 I have an ideal model, or a model of flesh and blood. Seraphiel is mine in the 
 musical world, and when I heard Thalberg I realized Seraphiel whose musical 
 being interpenetrated my heart, and swayed it as he pleased.” 
 
 Keble sighed, so low he was not probably conscious of it ; a couple of minutes 
 ensued before she remembered to say, 4 4 Do I admire Gottschalk ? Exceedingly. 
 Do I love him ? No.” 
 
 44 Do you love anybody ? ” 
 
 44 Yes, every strong Southern heart that will pour out its life-blood for my 
 country’s freedom.” 
 
 44 1 am determined I won’t talk, though I shall cheerfully listen to politics 
 to-day.” 
 
 44 Bah! then I’ll have no more fun ; I’m not to be caught at Captain Fry’s 
 game.” 
 
 44 Captain Fry’s ! What can he have done ? ” 
 
 44 The one you are thinking of, nothing. Not only General Buell, hut, as far as 
 I know, his staff are gentlemen. I was speaking of General Zollicoffer’s assassin.” 
 44 Assassin ! If he had been a brave man he would have said — 4 Draw and 
 defend yourself, The general was virtually his prisoner ; he might as well have 
 stabbed him in the back.” 
 
 Captain Wilson’s face was scarlet. He had loathed the praise bestowed upon 
 Captain Fry for what he considered a dastardly act; how could he say a word to 
 cool Laura’s indignation? 
 
 4 4 1 ought to defend my — ” 
 
 44 Brother patriot, of course you should ; you needn’t be particular about w T hat 
 you really think ; Unionists have an unmitigated salve for mitigated and un- 
 mitigated falsehoods. It won’t do to let the Secessionists know what we think of 
 this ? ” 
 
 44 Positively, Miss Buckner, you are too severe.” 
 
 44 1 do not mean to include all Unionists in my sentence of condemnation, I 
 except you, for instance. From your countenance I perceive that you did not 
 intend to defend a crime because the perpetrator was of your party ; are you 
 appeased ? ” 
 
 44 1 ought to he ; but I am more grieved to-day than I should have believed 
 it possible for one to be by any opinions I could not pronounce sinful.” 
 
 44 Why ? ” He shook his head. 
 
72 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 ‘ ‘ Tell me what you think. I like people who are not afraid to tell me what 
 they think.” 
 
 “ The fact is, what you mean by telling the truth is not a pleasant thing and 
 people are not apt to risk their quiet for those in whom they feel no deep interest, 
 therefore, to do so is an indirect compliment.” 
 
 “ Do you think so ? I would tell the truth to any who would listen.” 
 
 “ Do you go to your old friends among the Unionists and try to teach them 
 Secession truths ? I mean what you think such.” 
 
 “I plead guilty. I have Union friends whom I love dearly ; yet I avoid them, 
 actuated solely by the fear that something unpleasant may be said. You cannot 
 conceive how nervously fastidious I am about those who are very dear to me. 
 Do you remember Curtis’s pleasant little story in which the lover solaces him- 
 self for not being invited to the dinner where his sweetheart has gone, by think- 
 ing that somebody will spill gravy on her dress, and his rival will see her in a 
 greasy robe, and so have a blot in his picture ? I have never forgotten it, it was 
 so like me.” 
 
 “ I am not willing to think you wanting in the sweet charity that not only 
 forgives, but covers over with fair flowers the barren places in the nature of 
 man.” 
 
 “ I see.” 
 
 “ See what?” Keble asked, surprised. A brighter light on Laura’s face, and a 
 peculiar look almost tearful in the eye, were her only answer. What she saw 
 was why she was his beloved ; although he had not striven to win her, he could 
 no more conceal his feeling for her than a rose can its perfume. And well it was 
 that he could not, for the odor of his love and life was permeating Laura’s nature. 
 As one scatters the most fragrant flowers in a room where liquid chloride of lime 
 has been sprinkled to prevent infection from a death laden atmosphere, so had 
 Keble’ s thoughts neutralized the oppressive, earthy savour of the cold contempt 
 with which she had sprinkled her heart to save it from the putrifying breath of 
 wars. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 “ Laura, you won’t be angry if I ask you just one question ? ” 
 
 “ Angry with you, pet! That’s not likely.” 
 
 “ How many men have you seen that you would be willing to marry ?” 
 
 “ Really,” said Laura, laughing, “ it would be a good thing if you were married, 
 for then you might find time to consider some questions of less importance than 
 matrimony.” 
 
 “ Who thinks more about the war than I do ? Who loves her country more ?” 
 “Not I, if deeds are to prove where the heart is. I don’t believe you ever let 
 an hour pass without writing letters.” 
 
 “Half of which never reach their destination, fortunately ; I am not going to 
 forget my first question.” 
 
 “ It is easily answered ; none.” 
 
 “ Honour bright ? ” 
 
 “ Yes.” 
 
 “ Captain — ” 
 
 “ Stop ! His title is enough to answer you.” 
 
 “ But if C. S. A. was written after his name ? ” 
 
 “ Tut, child ! it’s bed-time.” 
 
 “ Not for me until I know the truth. Please, please, tell me ! ” 
 
 “ Then — ” Laura hesitated as if too conscious to answer. 
 
 “ I know it,” exclaimed Minnie, clapping her hands. “ Why do you look so sad, 
 Laura ? ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 73 
 
 “ Do you remember the Yankee barbarian wbo made his prisoners dig their 
 own graves ? I feel as they did when they looked at their work.” 
 
 “ If I were a man I’d challenge you for comparing my friend’s beloved to that 
 savage. Why do you laugh ? ” 
 
 “ Destiny is my savage general. I have dug my own grave, Minnie. Oh, that 
 destiny would as soon hide me from life ! But in digging that grave I brought 
 such gems to the light that I would rather look into its chilling loneliness than 
 again pass unheeding over the jewels, which now form the crown of my life.” 
 
 “ Then you think as I. do — there is nothing so sweet as being loved. ” 
 
 “ Something far sweeter.” 
 
 “What?” 
 
 “Go to bed, sweet, I’m so tired.” 
 
 “You mean it is sweeter to love ?” 
 
 “No — yes, I do think so. To be loved is to enjoy music ; to love is to be 
 music. ” 
 
 “But what did you mean first ? What is better than loving or being loved ?” 
 “To honour and respect. To be able to say, * I have seen a man that it is 
 impossible I should ever despise — one who is positively incapable of exciting 
 disgust.’ ” 
 
 “I heard you say that you were afraid to marry any man for fear that in 
 time you might lose your respect for him. In fact, I don’t believe you ever 
 had a lover who did not disgust you. ” 
 
 “That is my misfortune. Eustace never loved me,” said Laura, trying to 
 talk about indifferent things. 
 
 “But Captain Wilson does. You feel he could not disgust you. Why 
 Laura ?” 
 
 “ A man who never forgets that he is an heir of eternity, who always takes 
 Jesus for his councillor, need not be afraid of the scrutiny of the most 
 fastidious wife.” 
 
 “You’ll be a Christian now ?” 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 “One should love the ambassador for the sake of the king, not honour the 
 king for the sake of the servant. ” 
 
 “Oh, Laura, I cannot imagine such a rebel bringing herself to swear 
 allegiance to one of Lincoln’s — ” 
 
 “Stop, Minnie, stop ! Lincoln does not own him. Not pay, nor office, nor 
 fear can influence one who asks but one question, ‘Is it right ? ” ’ 
 
 “You are worse in love than I am ! what a good joke !” 
 
 “ In love ! What do you mean, child ?” 
 
 “ Why haven’t you confessed as much ?” 
 
 “ Never.” 
 
 “Why, Laura !” 
 
 “ I said there was something better than love.” 
 
 “Ah! Ahem! You honour Captain Wilson.” 
 
 “I ought to. When talking with him I feel as I used to when with your 
 Auntie. I’d like to take a hassock at his feet. ” 
 
 “You are an amazing woman. You lecture him — 
 
 “Teach him some facts, you mean. Any Southern child can teach any 
 Yankee officer some wholesome truths.” 
 
 “I thought you were giving a course of lectures on Calhown.” 
 
 “You are ridiculous.” 
 
 “Wise enough to see that while you are drilling him in politics, he is 
 surrounding you with an army of remembrances from which you’ll never 
 escape. He’ll pretend to cry for quarter ; but when you open your eyes, you’ll 
 find yourself his prisoner. ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Shall I ? He’ll be merciful I hope. ” 
 
 “You needn’t laugh. Stop giving lessons, or make up your mind to marry 
 a Yankee.” 
 
 “ I’m taking lessons ; I am learning that the bravest is the first to acknow- 
 
74 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 ledge an error, that the noblest is never afraid of the truth. I do not love 
 Captain Wilson ; but I honour him. If you had to marry either a man whom 
 you did love and feared you might lose your respect for in course of time, 
 or a man whom you did not love, but did honour, and knew you never could 
 lose your respect for, whom would you marry ?” 
 
 “The one I honoured. I would rather be honoured than loved by my 
 husband, if I could not be both. God pity the woman whom her husband 
 cannot or does not respect !” 
 
 CHAPTER XXYIII. 
 
 “So, Captain Wilson, you are not an Abolitionist?” 
 
 “An old-line Democrat, sir.” 
 
 “Then,” said Mr. Buckner, “we can shake hands on one question. But 
 living in the North, how have you escaped the infection ? ” 
 
 “When a small boy, I read the History of our. Colonies to my father, and 
 remember the lesson he taught me about minding my own business. ” 
 
 4 4 I am glad of that expression, I understood Laura to say you had been 
 lecturing her about Foreign Missions.” 
 
 “Could she have used the word lecture? If she did I shall hasten to 
 apologise. But I consider helping missions a part of my business ; Christ’s 
 last command was, 4 Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
 creature. ’ ” 
 
 44 1 am no theologian.” 
 
 4 4 Nor I, nor yet a banker, but I consider that my business may lead me 
 to investigate the callings of both, as I do not wish to be bankrupt either in 
 this world or the next. ” Mr. Buckner gave the officer a glance of respect and 
 felt his opponent a braver man than himself. 
 
 44 You were speaking of what your father taught you.” 
 
 44 To mind my own business ; but to do good to all.” 
 
 4 4 Paradoxical.” 
 
 44 A paradox rather hard to illustrate in daily conduct, I admit. But I 
 remember my father’s giving me a history of Jesuitism. He joined his thumbs, 
 named one of his forefingers Jesuit, and the other Puritan, engaged them in a 
 mimic contest until each drew off, supposing itself conqueror. Whereupon 
 began a long dialogue as to their respective principles ; and I recall the Jesuit 
 and Puritan at last met. Then he said, ‘Recollect, my boy, extremes generally 
 meet, and if you wish to be a wise man you will learn to avoid them.’” 
 
 44 Good advice. Your anecdote reminds one of a speech of that hare-brained 
 fanatic, Phillips — he declared he had 4 laboured nineteen years to take nineteen 
 States out of the Union, and if he had spent any nineteen years to the satis- 
 faction of his Puritan conscience, it was those. ’ ” 
 
 44 Truly, their Puritan ancestors would be startled to come to life and see 
 what their legitimate descendants have done. What would they think of 
 Garrison’s motto — that the framers of the Constitution had made an agreement 
 with death and a covenant with hell ?” 
 
 44 Were you ever struck by the absurd position of such men ? They, by such 
 phrases, declare that the Constitution justifies slavery ; yet when it suits their 
 purpose some declare it not unconstitutional to destroy slavery.” 
 
 4 4 Strange I never observed that inconsistency.” 
 
 44 You have to look close to see a black spot on a black garment. I can’t 
 understand how a Republican Government can force itself upon a reluctant 
 people ; such freedom is like that of Cromwell and the Independents ; freedom 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 75 
 
 of conscience for ourselves, and the submission of consciences not our own. 
 Won’t it be hard for a Coercionist of ’61 to write a history of our War of 
 Independence, and condemn Great Britain without giving Lincoln and his 
 cabinet a hit ? ” 
 
 “I believe the South is governed by an aristocracy; I do not believe the 
 people in general desire disunion. ” 
 
 “In the beginning of the first Revolution the people were not generally in 
 favour of separation. The statesmen were farther-sighted. ” 
 
 “My second lesson was learned from Bonaparte. He said, 4 Had any of 
 your philanthropic liberals come out to proclaim liberty to the Blacks or the 
 Arabs, I would have hung him from the masthead. In the West Indies similar 
 enthusiasts have delivered over the whites to the ferocity of the Blacks, and 
 yet they complain of the victims of such madness being discontented.’ 
 Speaking of the fanatics’ scheme of his day, he says, 4 After the experience we 
 have had to maintain the same principles it can not be done in good faith, it 
 can be the result only of overweening self-confidence or hypocrisy.” 
 
 44 Add, or of ignorance, or* ill- judgment, and you have my dictum.” 
 
 4 4 Very shame, if not conscience, will prevent Lincoln’s emancipating slaves 
 by law or proclamation. ” 
 
 44 To do it by the first I consider impossible ; to do it by the second would 
 be only an absurdity and a moral outrage ; so I am by no means certain he 
 mayn’t try that. I like individual cases of emancipation. I freed my old 
 mammy. ” 
 
 44 Sir?” 
 
 44 Southerners acknowledge practically what Northerners ignore, except in 
 theory — that the Blacks are of our blood. We claim mammies, uncles, and 
 aunts among them,” he added laughing. 
 
 44 1 suppose the mammy is a nurse.” 
 
 44 Yes, and very apt to be the autocrat of the family. Southerners free slaves 
 from a spirit of kindliness, for their law requires them to take care of them if 
 they need it, even after they are free. But there is Miss Brickenridge ; go 
 help her out of the carriage. Isn’t Laura a strange creature. Captain Wilson ?” 
 44 I hope so.” 
 
 4 4 You do ! You are fond of rarities ?” 
 
 44 When I feel that the article in the market is below par.” 
 
 44 In the market — whew ! I wish Laura had heard that. She says God made 
 her for a nobler end than marriage. ” 
 
 A sigh trembled in Keble’s heart. 4 4 She says truly, and the man who would 
 desire to have her sink into a mere housewife would be unworthy of her. God 
 sent her on earth to ennoble — ” 
 
 44 And not to marry ?” asked Minnie archly. 
 
 44 1 did not say that ; though I think she is capable of realising my beau 
 ideal of an old maid. ” 
 
 44 Well ! you are as queer as she is.” 
 
 44 From what I have heard of Miss Johnston I should not have supposed that 
 her god- child would show such surprise at my idea of perpetual maidenhood. ” 
 44 Faugh ! I never call Auntie an old maid.” 
 
 44 Rejecting a positive example for a popular opinion.” 
 
 44 Here comes Laura. Oh, Laura ; what do you think Captain Wilson wants 
 you to be ? An old maid.” 
 
 44 Unless he can provide me with a Jefferson Davis or a Robert E. Lee he 
 will be gratified. ” 
 
 44 Oh, Laura ? You told me you had an ambition.” 
 
 44 You do not understand her, Miss Brickenridge. She needs something to 
 reverence ; all high natures do ; hogs, monkeys, parrots, and their like do not. 
 Do I not interpret the case, Miss Buckner ?” 
 
 Never had Captain Wilson made so powerful a charge on her heart — he 
 understood her — the woman whom the world pronounced peculiar ! 
 
 She answered with a soul-glance, 44 You interpret me aright. Those two 
 
76 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 men are the only heroes whose hands I could how my haughty head to kiss. ” 
 
 44 Captain Wilson, why did you sigh ?” asked Minnie. 
 
 He hesitated, but did not look at all confused. “Tell me.” she added. 
 
 “Miss Buckner might call me impertinent. ” 
 
 “I will not,” Laura answered, certain his sigh had no such origin as her 
 friend had attributed to it. He turned to Laura, “I sighed because I foresaw 
 the great grief in your life. ” 
 
 “ And that ?” asked Laura meekly, awed by his tone. 
 
 “You reject Him 4 Who is altogether lovely,’ and you will lean on a reed and 
 it will pierce you through.” 
 
 “I can bear suffering ; nor shall I seek aid from aught save my own pride,” 
 she responded haughtily. 
 
 Keble Wilson closed his eyes unconsciously, and Laura knew he prayed ; from 
 that hour he had power over her. The veriest Republican respects a man who 
 is on intimate terms with a noble king. Keble, lost in prayer and love, Laura 
 in reverence — the most delicious of all sensations, felt no awkardness in the 
 pause ; but Minnie did, and feared she had been the instigator of an offence. 
 “ Captain Wilson, don’t you like Byron’s heroines ?” was the first thought. 
 
 “I may have when I was twelve; since I have read nothing of his but 
 * Childe Harold.’” 
 
 “ Um ! Don’t you like Moore’s love-poems ?” 
 
 “I dare say I shall if you will sing me Stevenson’s interpretations of them. 
 I think Moore owes his celebrity as a song-writer principally to him. ” 
 
 “ That means you don’t like love-songs; at least not Moore’s.” 
 
 “Not exactly.” 
 
 4 4 Did you put your notions into Laura’s head ? That is just the way she 
 talked yesterday.” 
 
 “I am not so happy as to have given her an idea.” 
 
 “ Laura says Byron never knew a true woman and Moore never a noble one, 
 and that neither was noble enough to love. ” 
 
 “ Of Byron certainly this is true ; perhaps of Moore. Miss Buckner, what 
 love-poem is your ideal ?” 
 
 “ In Memoriam. I know no love I would as soon choose to be loved with 
 as that Tennyson feels for Hallam. ” Dreamily she repeated — 
 
 44 And what delight can equal those, 
 
 That stir the spirit’s inner deeps, 
 
 When one that loves, but knows not, reaps 
 A truth from one that loves and knows ? ” 
 
 There was a moment’s stillness, and Minnie’s laughter startled two. Laura 
 was dreaming very vaguely that Keble was capable of being her Hallam ; but 
 felt even at that moment of love-born reverie that if so it could only be as one 
 afar off. In heaven are no brass buttons. Keble was not more delighted than 
 amazed at this new phase of Laura’s character. Did either really love ? Not 
 yet. They were only feeling their way through the infinitude of being, 
 striving— unconsciously one — to catch each other’s hands. Angels looked on 
 and smiled. Keble felt that the laughing Minnie’s presence took half the 
 charm from his new deliciousness of feeling. Aroused from his dream by her 
 laugh he said the first thing that occurred to him. He had been reading of 
 Jefferson Thompson that afternoon. “ What a simple fellow Jeff. Thompson must 
 be !” 
 
 “ Judging from what you know of him ?” asked Laura. 
 
 “ From what I read of him.” 
 
 “ Iago’s testimony was conclusive with Othello.” 
 
 “Indeed, Miss Buckner, this is not the first time I have been convicted of 
 hasty judgment, when I learn the truth from you.” 
 
 4 4 Captain Wilson, ” asked Minnie, with a very demure glance first at Laura 
 and then at him, 44 why is it that you always believe what Laura says, and that 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 77 
 
 she, notwithstanding her contempt for your buttons, always believes what 
 you say ?” 
 
 Not choosing to give the giddy girl an answer that would disclose at least 
 one secret of his mental life, Captain Wilson answered the last question only — 
 “ Because she believes me to be a gentleman. Probably she holds one of my 
 theories of gentility, that no true gentleman will falsify a fact, even to save 
 himself from sarcasm or injustice. ” There was a slight accent on the last 
 word as he gave Laura what Minnie considered a defiant look. 
 
 “ So truth being your lady-love, you are willing to do battle in her behalf 
 against all comers ? Eeally, Sir Knight, you ought to wear her colours — blue 
 and grey.” 
 
 “No, no,” responded Keble, laughing. 
 
 “ What then is her colour ? ” 
 
 “White ; she is pure, cold, and passionless.” 
 
 “ What an enviable wife she would make !” 
 
 “ She is a somewhat exacting mistress.” 
 
 “ But you do not mind that ?” 
 
 “ In truth, I do not.” 
 
 “ In truth ! Why I thought we were talking of truth. Who under heaven 
 are you thinking of, Captain Wilson ?” 
 
 “A lady-love of flesh and blood, I trow,” answered Laura. “Convicted, 
 Captain ; your looks betray you. Ah ! Iam sadly disappointed in you.” 
 
 “ Why ?” he asked with a bright, stolen glance. 
 
 “I had hoped there was one man rational enough to eschew such an 
 infirmity as love.” 
 
 “ Love an infirmity !” 
 
 “Certainly,” said Minnie, trying to be very sedate. “ Laura says she’d like 
 to find a man above human passions, like an angel. ” 
 
 “ She might search through every ‘ mansion’ of the land of the immortals 
 and she would not find an angel who had not his or her chosen friend. ” 
 
 “ Friend !” said Laura. “ I’d like to have a gentleman friend who was half 
 as loveable as a woman. I differ from many women, Captain Wilson, for I 
 never saw a man whom I could love and appreciate as I can a woman. ” 
 
 “Nor I.” 
 
 “How dreadfully namby-pamby you two are becoming,” said Minnie; 
 “you make me sick ; good bye.” She was gone. 
 
 “ You should not notice her,” said Laura, observing that her remaining 
 companion seemed somewhat confused ; “she is such a bewitching darling, we 
 let her do and say what she pleases. Indeed I could not live without her. ” 
 “Yet two persons could not be more dissimilar.” 
 
 “ I get enough of myself at all times ; I want variety in my friendships. But 
 to return to our first subject — Jeff. Thompson, who issued such a savage order ; 
 history, even that of the Yankees if they will give dates, will prove that all 
 acts of barbarism on the part of the Southerners, if any such are enacted, are 
 retaliatory.” 
 
 “ You cannot approve of retaliation ?” 
 
 “Not unless it is preventive of future outrages. Hike threats of retaliation ; 
 for nothing else can keep the Yankees in check. What does General Thompson 
 say ? Fremont has threatened to shoot any citizen-soldier found in arms within 
 certain limits, also to confiscate the property and free the negroes belonging to 
 the members of the State Guard. ” 
 
 “ Which decree of Fremont, the dictator, has caused his supercedure ?” 
 
 “ Lincoln’s fear caused it ; did not you see his letter to Fremont, published in 
 the New York Herald , wherein he approves of the act, but says the time for such 
 has not yet come ? ” 
 
 “ I did not ; it must be a forgery.” 
 
 i( General Thompson’s order is not cruel. If I had brother, father, or lover, 
 i a citizen soldier ’ in Missouri should I consider it wrong for a general of the 
 State Guard to say that if Fremont, the miscreant, dared to murder him he 
 
78 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 would hang a minion of Lincoln’s ? I should not wish to have the latter hung ; 
 but to have a life dear to me saved. Aud I do not need to suffer personal appre- 
 hension to enable me to feel for my countrywomen in a sister-State.” 
 
 “ But you would not like to see a man drawn and quartered ? ” 
 
 “ No ; nor would 1 like to see a guerillo burned after he was murdered in cold 
 blood, as has been done in Virginia.” 
 
 “ Do not refer to this disgraceful act ; if Lincoln does not punish the authors 
 of such barbarity he will prove himself a savage. Still, I would not scalp an 
 Indian.” 
 
 “ Nor in warring with such as Generals Anderson, McClellan, and Buell, would 
 there be any need of retaliatory orders. But such men are heretics in Puritanic 
 Land ; they do not worship the Yankee’s patyon saint, John Brown, who suffered 
 martyrdom in the cause of Lucifer. But hear Thompson in his own defence : — - 
 ‘ I am anxious that this unfortunate war should be conducted as far as possible on 
 the most liberal principles of civilized warfare, and every order that I have 
 issued has been with that object ; yet, if this rule be abandoned (and it must first 
 be done by our enemies), I intend to excel General Fremont in his excesses.’ I 
 wish he had not said, ‘ excel but suppose dozens of your friends were at the mercy 
 of the worshippers of old Brown.” 
 
 “ I have heard you were not always a rebel,” 
 
 “ Never, sir ! ” 
 
 “ Not now ? ” 
 
 “ The South owes no allegiance to the Yankees. Suppose the Northern States 
 should establish a monarchy and try to coerce the Southern into acquiescence ; 
 would they be rebellious to resist P ” 
 
 “ Certainly not ; but I cannot see the parallel I presume you draw.” 
 
 “ It is as much usurpation to try to enforce Abolitionism as monarchy.” 
 
 “ If Lincoln ever attempts to free all the negroes I will throw my shoulder 
 straps in the fire. It will gratify me very much if you will tell me what caused- 
 you to change your politics.” 
 
 “ I have not. My politics consisted of two propositions : Liberty is the 
 
 greatest of earthly blessings ! Whatever is unconstitutional is subversive of 
 liberty. Lincoln soon demonstrated that he was as lawless as the autocrat of the 
 Russians ; but I could not willingly give up what I then thought my country, 
 and I called myself a neutral, hoping Congress would show that freemen might 
 entrust their interests to it. Mr. Wilson’s motion approving of all of the acts of 
 the President was negatived by but one vote. Let the “ Nays ” be remembered 
 that posterity may know whom to exempt from curses. Nays — Brickenridge, 
 Bright, Browning, Clark, Cowan, Foster, Grimes, Howe, Johnston of Tennessee, 
 Johnston of Missouri, Kennedy, Lane of Indiana, Latham, McDougal, Polk, 
 Pomeroy, Sherman, Sumner, Wade, Wilkinson, and "Wilson — 21. Then I knew 
 
 I must cease to defend the Union, or lie against truth. Could I hesitate ? For 
 some time after its publication I would not read J. C. Brickenridge’s speech. I 
 may say it was an accident that impelled me to do so. I learned from him but 
 of one violation of law on the part of Lincoln new to me ; but Mr. Brickenridge 
 had thrown together all the unconstitutional acts, and such a heap ! I recoiled, 
 utterly aghast. Holding this famous speech in my hand, I summed up the acts 
 of usurpation. 1, The Blockade; 2, Increase of the Army, and for an unconstitu- 
 tional period ; 3, Increase of the Navy ; 4, Violation of the Habeas Corpus Act ; 
 5, Military law ; 6, Illegal searches ; 7, Violation of private correspondence ; 8, 
 Declaring war ; 9, Unconstitutional appropriation of money in the Treasury ; 
 10, Prohibition of freedom of speech ; 11, Oppression of the Press. Does the 
 loyalist tell me these violations were right because necessary ? Will you please 
 get some of your Yankee casuists to write a new code of morals for the enlighten- 
 ing of my ignorance ! Yes, they were necessary ; it was necessary for Csesar to 
 cross the Rubicon ; it was equally necessary for him to devote Liberty to the fate 
 ere long to be his. It was necessary for the Romanists to establish the Inquisi- 
 tion. It was necessary for Napoleon to crush independence abroad, and liberty 
 at home. Is there any scheme originated in Lucifer’s domains that does not 
 consider it necessary to destroy whatever stands in its way ? ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 79 
 
 “ I have no respect for the South’s political position, nor sympathy for the 
 selfishness of her social status ; hut I do not pretend to say her wrong-doing can 
 justify ours, it may extenuate it. I am not a politician. As a soldier, educated 
 by the nation, and sworn into its service, I uphold its rights.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Minnie Brickenridge was taking a walk on the lawn in front of the house 
 when Mr. Buckner joined her. Colonel Brickenridge, his friend from boyhood, 
 was so much from home that Mr. Buckner considered himself, and was considered 
 by Minnie, in the light of a guardian. 
 
 “ Come here, Minnie.” He drew her down by his side on a rustic chair, and 
 stroked her hair, trying to find a pleasant way of saying an unpleasant thing. 
 
 “ Do you love me, child ? ” 
 
 “ Have I not two fathers ? ” 
 
 “ Can. you trust me i ” 
 
 “ Trust you ! ” 
 
 “ Yes ; if I were to tell you something you did not want to believe, would you 
 have enough confidence in me to credit it if I did not feel I ought to give you all 
 my reasons ? ” 
 
 How could I doubt you ? But what can you mean ? ” 
 
 4 ‘Minnie, I Enow most persons think you a wild, thoughtless girl, but I under- 
 stand you better than you understand yourself. I don’t think you a child to 
 cry for candy if you knew it would make you sick ; I don’t think you would do 
 what you knew to be wrong ? ” 
 
 i( Oh, no ! Auntie has taught me better.” 
 
 “Would your Auntie consent to your marrying a man who was not a 
 Christian P ” 
 
 “ Why do you care for such a thing, Mr. Buckner ? ” He felt mortified, but 
 replied — 
 
 “ More than you think, when a young girl’s happiness is at stake.” 
 
 “ Oh, ho ! ” exclaimed Minnie. 
 
 a Do you guess now what I want to talk to you about ? ’ 
 
 “ But Mr. Myers is a Christian.” 
 
 “ He may be. That isn’t exactly the point. Do you feel, my child, that so 
 zealous a little church woman would be happy with the man who ridiculed her 
 church and refused to let her help its cause ? ” 
 
 “ Oh ! I’ve settled all that. I told Prospere at once that I was a little bigot 
 and always intended to be, and that I never would marry any man who w’ould 
 not go to church with me. He has never missed a Sunday since. That will be 
 all right, my kind guardian ; he has too much good taste not to be an Episcopalian ; 
 besides,” she added naively, “ he likes to be thought elegant and refined in his 
 taste and I am sure he will never go back to to the sect he joined at twelve years 
 of age.” 
 
 “ I know he likes to be considered aristocratic, my child ; but I don’t care 
 about his churchmanship. I only wanted to know whether you would marry a 
 man who could not sympathize with you in your dearest feelings. You answer 
 no ? ” 
 
 “ Of course I do ! ” 
 
 “ Do you love the South, Minnie ? ” 
 
 “ Next to the Church.” 
 
80 
 
 LOVE AND WAD. 
 
 “ I thought even more. ” 
 
 “ Perhaps I do.” She looked like a child convicted of a trespass. “ But,” she 
 added after a moment’s pause, “ I hope not. It would grieve Auntie and God, 
 too. I love them both too much to distress them.” 
 
 “ I might as well come out with my secret at once. I see you won’t understand 
 me unless I do. You are a naughty little puss not to have told me you were 
 engaged to Mr. Myers ; but I know it, and I’m afraid you are not flirting now, 
 Minnie.” 
 
 “Do you like me to flirt,” she queried with a laugh. “ I thought I had had 
 the honour of electing you Aunties’ assistant lecturer.” 
 
 “ I’d rather you’d flirt with than marry Myers.” 
 
 Minnie looked piqued. 
 
 “ Don’t he angry, pet. I am talking to you as I would have Colonel Bricken- 
 ridge talk to Laura, if I were away. Do you think Prospere loves the South ? 
 “ Child, what I tell you I know. Prospere hates the South ; he knows that only 
 neutrality could keep us from secession ; but as surely as Arnold — ” 
 
 “ Oh, I can’t hear you say that ; indeed I can’t ! ” 
 
 He laid her head on his bosom, and patted her cheek. “ I know Myers is false ! 
 he will betray Kentucky to the Yankees.” 
 
 “ Never ! ” 
 
 “ Do you love him very much ? ” 
 
 “ Not as much as I ought to love one who is so devoted to me ; he often makes 
 me feel ashamed ; but he says I have frittered away my heart on a few women 
 and birds and flowers.” 
 
 “ Do you love him better than you did your riding-horse when he was first 
 given to you P ” 
 
 “ This is too bad ! ” said the poor girl, ready to cry with vexation. 
 
 “ Minnie, I talked with him last night.” 
 
 “ What did he say ? ” 
 
 Mr. Buckner then related to her as nearly verbatim as he could their conversa- 
 tion. He had scarcely finished before he saw Myers approach, and kissing her 
 hot cheek, he left. 
 
 “ Good-morning,” fell coldly from Minnie. Her hand was pressed nervously by 
 her lover, who felt his dishonourable secret had been told. “ The morning is 
 fine.” 
 
 “Very,” replied Myers, his eyes unconsciously fixed on a huge, black cloud 
 which hung threateningly over them. 
 
 Minnie drew her cloak closer and echoed — “ Very, very, indeed.” God pity 
 me ! she inwardly ejaculated, and the good God, who ever seems watching to save 
 His children’s tenderest feelings, caused the third person to join them just at this 
 time — so thought the simple-hearted girl, who forgetting her late assurances of the 
 beauty of the weather, suddenly discovered that as a storm was brewing the air 
 was very chill and she needed more wrappings ; so she ran to the house, leaving 
 her companion to keep pace with her mother’s more leisurely step. The door of 
 her own room once closed upon her she pressed her cold hands over a heart that 
 scarcely seemed to beat, so stunned was she by her first acquaintance with deceit. 
 She seemed to have just escaped the embrace of a serpent whose head was even 
 now reared to spit its venom on her mother. 
 
 Falling on her knees, for a long time she knelt gazing at a little space of clear 
 blue sky left by the increasing thunder-clouds, as though she were gazing into the 
 pitiful face of her dear Saviour. It seemed so strange that He had allowed her 
 to be deceived. Not a word did lip or heart utter ; it was enough that her 
 Father was looking at her. She did not need to quote texts to satisfy her mind 
 that in “all her afflictions He was afflicted.” Auntie had taught her that 
 there was “a need be” in letters of soft brilliancy over every human anguish. 
 She clasped an invisible Hand and felt the upholding presence of an everlasting 
 Arm. A demon in the room laughed and said, “ Her faith is gone ; she cannot 
 pray.” An angel hovering in the air softly whispered, “Her peace thou canst 
 not understand ; neither love nor the world gave it ; neither love nor the 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 81 
 
 world can take it away. ” Slowly, and with disappointment, the demon passed 
 from her as she arose, calm as one of G-od’s little ones. Minnie has looked sin 
 in the face, is shaking hands with sorrow, not bitter, but humiliating before she 
 had learned more of either than every child of Adam who has lived twenty 
 years must know. It hurt her feelings to think Myers had been trifling with 
 her, playing upon her unsuspecting innocence to disguise his true sentiments, 
 and as Mr. Buckner had suggested, probably also to learn through her from her 
 Southern lovers what he could of the great contest. Her mind could scarcely 
 tolerate the idea that any man had dared to use her as a spy ; but the idea of 
 justice had been instilled by so true a mind that she could not help confessing 
 it was just that she, who from weakness of amiability and love of amusement, 
 had trifled with others, should now be trifled with. She had been playing 
 “ April fool ” just for fun, and because it was the fashion in the April of life to 
 fool and be fooled ; but had Prospere been flirting with her, it would not 
 have hurt her half so much as to find out he had been telling her falshoods ; 
 he had tried to win her love under a mask. Minnie received her punishment 
 very meekly ; it was sinful to rebel against the chastisement of a parent. She 
 remembered that when her papa had once punished her she had gone screaming 
 to her godmother, who had taken her in her lap and held her hands kindly, 
 and taught her it was her papa’s duty to punish her when she was naughty, 
 and her’s to bear it patiently, and she remembered how she had sat for two 
 minutes gazing into her Auntie’s eyes and feeling her loving clasp, and said, 
 “ This is true, because you said it ; and I don’t mind being punished, because I 
 never felt before just exactly how much you loved me. Mamma shut me out of 
 her room because my crying disturbed her. ” Blessed godmother, whose early 
 instructions and example had for her darling secured that inestimable blessing 
 the spirit of a little child to be a safeguard in this dreary world of hollowness 
 and sin ! Minnie took her writing desk on her lap and wrote : — 
 
 Mr. Myers, — Please never come here again ; you hate the South and I love 
 it better than anything else; besides, I could never like you again, because you 
 have deceived me. 
 
 Vinelea, Dec. 18, 1861. Minnie Breckenridge. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 “ Oh, mother! Keble’s mind is a deep river; hundreds of flowers are floating 
 over its unruffled surface, and you will say his ideas are beautiful when I tell 
 them to you.” 
 
 ' “ Why does he never express such before me?” 
 
 “He does not know he does to me ; but his mind is open to me and I read for 
 myself ; he is not conscious of a curious gaze. I look down, down, down into 
 the quiet depths, and see thoughts that do lie too deep for tears. But there are 
 depths I cannot reach ; when I approach them I veil my eyes ; yet I know that 
 if I could look still farther down, I should see an under-current gushing from the 
 river of the water of life,’ and losing itself in the ocean of Eternity. Ah ! it is 
 the grandeur of his spirit that I bow down before. His intellect arouses me to 
 combat ; but his piety is so far beyond the reach of my untutored powers that 
 
 “Adore him. Beware, my daughter; an idol will fall.’* 
 
 “He fall!” 
 
 “ Aye, and grind your heart to powder.” 
 
 “ I should be willing to have my old life crushed to the earth, if from its dust 
 could arise a spirit which might be meet companion for his.” 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ I can not understand why you feel an awe of him. I never saw a man with 
 whom even children seemed to be more at home.” 
 
 “Those ‘whose angels do always behold the face of their Father,’ do well to 
 recognise his likeness to their guardians. Yet it is true ; he can entertain 
 children ; a thing I never could do. He, not I, could talk to the angels. ” 
 
 “Not as he talks to children, I hope. He isjverv gay with them.” 
 
 “Flowers, bright and beautiful, floating on the river,” said Laura, referring to 
 her first simile, “allure little children to danc8 in harmony with their joyfulness 
 and innocence.” 
 
 “Innocent is not a complimentary term applied to a man.” 
 
 “What,” Laura’s eyes expressed intensest surprise. “Was not the God-Man 
 innocent? Are not the angels innocent? Only children of the Evil one can 
 do otherwise than revere innocence.” 
 
 Her mother gazed at the enthusiast, and saw she meant no hit at her coarser 
 nature. 
 
 “ If a stone is in the -way of the river it will run and leap over it, gurgling 
 around it, with all the gusto of a boy at play. Yet its course is ever onward, 
 onward, fulfilling its bright destiny.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ And the Captain’s seems to be to captivate a rebel, having first blind- 
 folded her.” 
 
 “He blindfold me 1 He would tear out his heart, aye, and mine too, before 
 he would trifle with or deceive me. ” 
 
 “ Then he will never convert you to his political views ?” 
 
 “Certainly not.” 
 
 “ Marriage then — ” 
 
 “ Is a forbidden subject, even to my mother.” 
 
 “Ah, child ! what misery are you storing away for the future years ? ” 
 
 “ I know it, and I do not care. He will be farther off from me than if he 
 were dead.” 
 
 “He may marry another.” 
 
 Laura laughed. 
 
 “ Such men as he never betray themselves.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 “Captain Wilson, has the stiffness entirely left your knee? ” 
 
 “ The little that remains is only a source of pleasant thoughts, Mr. Buckner. ” 
 It still hurt him to walk, though he would not say so. 
 
 Laura had longingly watched for him to come in without a cane, and not 
 limping. She, too, was reminded of an eventful day. 
 
 “ Papa, Captain Wilson has just been calling forth my enthusiasm about 
 Kossuth — our subject of argument.” 
 
 “Kossuth, indeed ! Impertinent meddler !” 
 
 “ How so, sir?” asked the Captain, in feigned surprise. “What did he 
 interfere with, or wish to meddle with ?” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Our foreign relations. He was aware that our policy regarding European 
 affairs was non-intervention. If he had been listened to, a fine war we should 
 have had ! ” 
 
 “But, papa, as I always told you, Austria would not have attempted to 
 whip us. Had we espoused the cause of Hungary it would be free.” 
 
 “Other nations might have been jealous or afraid of our interference in 
 trails- Atlantic politics. ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 83 
 
 “ What if they had ? Surely we should have helped the oppressed ? You 
 cannot deny the depth of Austrian despotism ? ” said the Captain. 
 
 Mr. Buckner gave a quick glance of suspicion at his companion, who seemed 
 innocent of any design to entrap him, and answered — 
 
 “No more than I can that of the North.” 
 
 “Then, sir, should not we have acknowledged Hungary?” 
 
 “Is it possible your ideas of international relations are so radical ? ” 
 
 “Is it radical to acknowledge a people striving for independence ? ” 
 
 “ A — h — e — m I I’m an old fool to have been so nearly caught.” 
 
 “ Pardon me. I think you have committed yourself to a defence of England 
 and France.” 
 
 “ Oh ! Now I understand you. Captain; you remembered what papa said 
 Saturday about England not acknowledging us. ” 
 
 “And, Miss Buckner, you shall be judge. Has not he pronounced Mr. 
 Mason an impertinent meddler ? ” 
 
 “I don’t like such a term applied to one who has so trustworthy a face. 
 When I first saw his photograph, I said, ‘ I could lay my hand in his in any 
 emergency, conscious of protection.’ For my part, I never expected foreign 
 aid — except what we could pay for ; history is not lost on me. There must 
 be at least one in the Southern Cabinet who does not abuse England and 
 France for non-intervention.” 
 
 “ Hunter ? I remember his powerful speech on the proposition to suspend 
 diplomatic relations with Austria because of Hungary. ” 
 
 “ I can’t expect England, that owes us nothing, to fight for us.” 
 
 “ Us ? ” asked Captain Wilson, in a quizzing tone. 
 
 “Yes. Kentucky seceded last October.” 
 
 “ Hid her delegates assemble in Frankfort ? ” 
 
 “They had no desire to secede to Camp Chasel” 
 
 ‘‘Were all her counties represented?” 
 
 “Whenever it was practicable. Men standing in the shadow of a bastille give 
 signs of acquaintance other than viva voce votes. Two-thirds of the counties were 
 represented. Had we publicly proclaimed our intention of assembling, we 
 should now be in bastilles. . I am told that in most of the Southern States, 
 although there were no Federal troops among the people, they were not 
 informed they could vote until everything was arranged ( a). The populace 
 must always be in leading-strings. The people of Kentucky have many 
 times declared that if they took sides it would be with the South ; the 
 Neutrality they proclaimed was violated, so by their own decree we place them 
 where times innumerable, in private and often in public, they have proclaimed 
 they would be found if not allowed to remain neutral. The only way that the 
 declared will of the people — Speed and Wolfe included — can be carried into 
 effect, is by a Provisional Government. I leave it to any honest man who has 
 travelled here, or read the papers since Lincoln’s election, if we do not better 
 represent them than the unreliable Legislature that has abdicated as surely as a 
 king who sells himself and crown to an enemy. Are they who see the design 
 and meet it with counter-influences traitors?” 
 
 “The Legislature could not have acted as you wish; for the State Treasurer 
 says there ‘ is no money in the Treasury even for ordinary purposes of 
 revenue ’” (a). 
 
 “But, Mr. Buckner, I like to see things done with military precision.” 
 
 “ So did Lincoln when he increased the overawing force in Frankfort the 
 night before the Legislature met.’’ 
 
 “Miss Buckner, with all the poetry of your nature, can not you understand 
 what we mean when we say ‘Our Flag?’” 
 
 “I know what it once signified to me when I thought it could never wave save 
 ‘o’er the land of the free ;’ the moment that a despot seized it and hoisted it over 
 a reluctant people, it was degraded. I felt towards it as I imagine I should 
 about my wedding-ring if I were to find myself in the power of a tyrannical, 
 unfeeling husband. I should never look at it without being reminded that I had 
 
84 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 married an impostor; for he, having vowed ‘to love, honour, and cherish me/ 
 had made a slave of me. The ring that should have been the proud badge of 
 union, would be the insignia of a bond-servant, and loathed as though it were the 
 coil of a serpent.” 
 
 “ I’ll advise your husband that is to be to ask you once a week how you feel 
 towards your troth-ring. But I did not suppose you anticipated being married 
 with a ring.” 
 
 “ Why not F some non -Episcopalians are married by the Prayer Book. As 
 for me, I like great occasions graced with suitable language and won’t let any 
 pious drawler drive the poetry out of my marriage-service. Nor do I want a 
 sermon preached over me before I am in my coffin.” 
 
 “ Is marriage only a splendid festive occasion, a poetical pageant ? ” 
 
 “ Pray, what is it to you P ” 
 
 “ If the Roman error had not rendered the use of the word sacrament suspicious, 
 I should say it was a sacrament, typical of Christ’s union with the Church, and 
 yielding in holiness to no rites save those of Baptism and the Eucharist, Confirma- 
 tion and Ordination.” 
 
 “ How sorry I shall be for the poor creature who throws herself in your 
 power ! ” 
 
 “ Why ? ” asked quickly and very nervously. 
 
 “I imagine she would feel much like a crazy patient putting on a strait- 
 jacket.” 
 
 “You ! ” but he bit his lip and was silent. 
 
 “ There is only one thing I don’t like about your marriage service. I’ll make 
 the preacher leave out that hateful word ‘ obey.’ ” 
 
 “ He can’t.” 
 
 “ Not if the bishop says he ma^ ?” 
 
 “ It was not a bishop who made the law,” said Mr. Buckner. 
 
 “ The first bishop of the Gentile Church did.” 
 
 “But, Captain, really I think St. Paul was much harder on us husbands than 
 on our wives ; they are to obey, but we are to love to a degree that only a 
 husband can comprehend 4 Even as He loved the Church and gave himself for 
 it.’ Which command is the hardest ? This conversation reminds me I have left 
 Mrs. Buckner alone. Good-evening.” 
 
 When her father had gone, Laura said — “ You know my theory that every- 
 thing means something.” 
 
 “That poor, unfortunate man is to be judged by his countenance, voice, 
 manners, even his dress and hand-writing ? ” 
 
 “ Nothing concerning him is to be left out of the account if we would have a 
 thorough understanding of his inner life.” 
 
 “ Was anything about me so unfortunate as to call out one of your severe tests 
 for the condemnation of an individual whom I protest you do not understand 
 at all ? ” 
 
 “ My thoughts were where they are most apt to be.” 
 
 “In Dixie?” 
 
 “ No; but her sufferings called up the idea. Did you ever think of the 
 significance of this filibustering notion ? ” 
 
 “ Take care ! That’s a hit at your beloved South.” 
 
 “ When there was a contest of words about filibustering between the North 
 and South, I sided with the former; but now the North finds her pockets in 
 danger she changes her mind and gets up the grandest filibustering expedition 
 the world ever saw.” 
 
 Keble closed his eyes as Laura had observed him do occasionally, when he felt 
 nervous about his position, so she changed somewhat her theme. 
 
 4 ‘ I have been looking at a United States coin and thinking of the characteristic 
 story the eagle tells ; a bird of rapine not challenging to fight, but pouncing on 
 its quarry unawares, unless its great black shadow rouses suspicion ; seeing with 
 only one eye, blind to its neighbours’ interest. A hooked bill better to seize than 
 to retain prey ; professing to have a home above the atmosphere breathed by 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 85 
 
 ordinary mortals, yet delighting in the sight of corpses that may increase its 
 strength. The right claw on the coin obtrudes the olive while the left clutches a 
 bundle of sticks to scourge those who cannot be wheedled by the olive branch ; but 
 the Yankee bird forgets one thing — her strong right hand holds the olive branch 
 and the rods are almost harmless in the left.” 
 
 44 She can 4 change hands ; ’ you might have respected her more if she had done 
 it in the beginning of this contest.” 
 
 “ It would not have been unbecoming in a bird of prey, provided she had not 
 professed to hold forth the symbol of peace while her beak was stained with the 
 blood of her friends.” 
 
 44 How can you condemn Buchanan and his cabinet and condemn Lincoln and 
 his?” 
 
 “ I am not one of those exceedingly rare individuals who undertakes that. 
 But I always bore you with political themes. Would you like to see the unlucky 
 coin that called forth my last tirade ? ” 
 
 She walked to a little cabinet and drew out a drawer of coins. 
 
 44 Did it ever strike you that the Liberty Cap of ’76 was too small for the 4 big 
 head ’ it is supposed to belong to ? Too straitened in its proportions for the old 
 Union, it will better suit her daughter whose brain has not such wonderful 
 convolutions as the Habeas Corpus Act, a free press, etc. to lose itself in.” 
 
 “ Ah ! here’s a Connecticut coin, 4 Auetore Connec.’ ” 
 
 44 I had forgotten that legend. What is the date?” 
 
 44 Seventeen eighty- seven. ” 
 
 44 Rather early for States’ Rights’ doctrine.” 
 
 44 1 don’t understand.” 
 
 44 I wonder if any Northman since the close of the Mexican war has under- 
 stood an allusion to States’ Rights , for, since that time they have had none 
 endangered. Is it not the act of a sovereign to issue metallic currency ?” 
 
 44 I suppose you think this Massachusetts coin characteristic, as 4 cent ’is 
 engraved just over the place where the heart is supposed to be.” 
 
 44 And how utterly unconscious of what it publishes to the world is the 
 sublime bird whose head is turned away from such an ignoble object of con- 
 templation, and is generously attending to the interests of its neighbour ! On 
 the reverse is 4 Commonwealth ’ and there is only oue star before the eye of the 
 presiding genius. ” 
 
 44 And here is a Kentucky coin. How proud you should be of its interpre- 
 tation of 4 E pluribus unum. ’ A pyramid of stars, bearing the initials of the 
 States — Kentucky the apex. ” 
 
 44 Very significant of our self-conceit. How many stars are there ?” 
 
 4 4 Fifteen ; I presume the number of States at the time of its issue.” 
 
 44 Kentucky beat the Yankees at guessing when she formed the pyramids of 
 only fifteen stars. Besides, see her idea ; each star complete in itself, while 
 the rays of all mingle in one bright light. ” 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 44 Miss Minnie, there’s an old woman wants to see you. She said she 
 reckoned, may be, the same young lady who was good to poor people and 
 taught poor children, American, Dutch, Irish and Darkies in the same Sunday 
 School, might do something for her. ” 
 
 44 Good afternoon,” said Minnie, going out on the porch. 
 
 44 Good evening, Miss. I thought, may be, you’d be so good as to help a poor 
 woman along a little.” 
 
86 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ Where do you live ?” 
 
 “ In Lexington, m’am ; slept last night on the road side.” 
 
 “ Surely some lady would have let you stay in her house all night. You can 
 stay here to-night ; our servants’ cabins are comfortable brick rooms, and one 
 of them is empty now. 1 ’ll have a pallet laid for you. ” 
 
 “ Heaven bless you, sweet lady ! But I fear I cannot delay so long.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Good evening,” said Mrs. Breckenridge. 
 
 “Hope you are well, ma’am.” 
 
 “You seem very old to be going about begging.” 
 
 “Yes, ma’am, old, and tired too. This young lady, like one of God’s 
 angels of mercy — as without a doubt she is — has just offered me shelter for the 
 night, and if you will be so good as to let me go to it I will be glad to lie down 
 now, ” said the beggar, her eyes fixed on a buggy coming up the avenue. 
 
 “You may go to the kitchen, and I’ll send a servant with you.” 
 
 “You be Unionist, ma’am ? I see Yankee buttons in the buggy. Let me 
 tell your fortune,” said the beggar suddenly stopping before Minnie and peering 
 into her face. 
 
 An elegant-looking officer stepped up to Minnie and bowed profoundly. 
 “Major Glenn, my mother.” 
 
 Mrs. Breckenridge’s eyes showed surprise even as she paid the compliment 
 of a hostess. 
 
 The major was about to toss a quarter to the beggar, but the old woman 
 turned off with an impetuosity akin to rudeness, and seized Minnie’s hand. — 
 “Let me tell your fortune, fair lady.” 
 
 “Aye, do let her,” said the Blue Coat, “Let it be a good one, old woman, 
 and a dollar is yours. Take this quarter as an earnest. ” 
 
 “Life-money! I would die of starvation, eat my flesh to the bone before 
 even my old withered hand ” (which was rather warmly gloved) “stained as 
 it is by many a sin, should be degraded by the touch of blood-money ! ” 
 
 “ Whom do you take me for,” said the officer angrily, biting his lips lest 
 Minnie should ridicule his passion. 
 
 “Whom do I take you for ? For a victim of fanaticism or a worshipper of 
 gold, the befooled tool of — ” 
 
 “Hush, hush!” said Minnie gently. ” 
 
 “And is it you who bids me hush? Can a man or a woman ” (in a less 
 excited tone) “think of the fate which threatens every Southern home without 
 a thrill of agony keener than death ? Oh God ! to think that those we love 
 may be at the mer — ” 
 
 “ It strikes me that this is a very remarkable beg — ” 
 
 But before the Major had finished his sentence the old woman had tottered, 
 and might have fallen had not Minnie’s weak arm suddenly strengthened to 
 support her and seat her on the bench. 
 
 “You must not get so excited,” she expostulated ; “we are of ‘ more value 
 than the sparrows ;’ God will take care of us.” 
 
 The officer reddened more and turned on his heel ; but the beggar glanced at 
 the young girl while a sweet smile played about her lips that made her look 
 young and almost handsome. “You are right ; God will take care of you. 
 May I tell your fortune now ?” 
 
 “ I know that you cannot. ” 
 
 “If I tell you what you know, will you believe me when I tell you what yon 
 don’t know ?” 
 
 “It would not be right for me to listen to such stuff.” Seeing the woman 
 about to speak, she added, “ Pray don’t tell me any stories about it ; even if 
 you could convince me that you know more of me than you ought to, I should 
 be tempted to believe your information came from a worse world. ” 
 
 “You will not let me tell you anything about yourself ; but this I know — 
 that while a Southern arm is fighting for you a Southern heart is bleeding 
 because you smile upon one of his country’s foes.” The beggar gave a scornful 
 look at the back of the Federal officer, who had followed Mrs. Breckenridge to 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 87 
 
 the terrace ; then she turned an eager eye on Minnie’s flushed face. The latter 
 moved nervously off, though she could not have told why. Looking back, she 
 said, “ Go to the kitchen and tell the servants to show you to the empty 
 cabin, and I will send you some supper. ” 
 
 There came in a servant to say to Minnie about ten that night, “ Miss Minnie, 
 the old woman what you sent to the cabin is mighty sick ; she begs a thousand 
 pardons for troubling you ; but says won’t you please come and see her. Poor 
 white folks is a heap of trouble, but I declare the way she was groaning wasn’t 
 slow.” 
 
 “ Give me a shawl, Patty, and come with me. Bring the cologne from my 
 dressing-table.” 
 
 The groans were certainly quite alarming when Minnie and her maid entered 
 the cabin ; the old woman was sitting by the fire. 
 
 “ Why don’t you take off your bonnet and go to bed ? ” 
 
 “ I think I’ve got a cold in my head, and its no use going to bed when I can’t 
 sleep.” 
 
 “ I’ll send you one of my night-caps.” An amused look came over the old 
 beggar’s face.” “ How strange,” thought Minnie, “ when she is suffering so.” 
 Perhaps her expression was observed ; for the old woman added in a whining 
 tone, “ I’m afraid your cap wouldn’t fit me ; you fine ladies have a world of 
 trimming, but precious little cap. ” 
 
 “ Then I’ll send you one of my old silk aprons to tie up your head in; but I 
 came to see what is the matter with you.” 
 
 “ Matter enough ; there is no sleep for me to-night.” 
 
 If you will tell me what hurts you, I may be able to relieve you.” 
 
 “ I don’t doubt you could ; but you won’t think I’m worth the trouble.” 
 
 “ Don’t be afraid of that. If you are suffering, I’ll see that you have every 
 necessary attention. You can’t be very sick or you would not talk so much.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ It relieves me to talk to you ; the more I think about my troubles the worse 
 I get.” 
 
 “ Let me read a Psalm to you. I happened to be reading in my Prayer Book 
 when Patty called me, and I brought it along ; you may be able to think more 
 quietly afterwards.” 
 
 “ Isn’t it late ? Won’t your mamma be sending for you in a minute ? ” 
 
 “ She doesn’t know I am here ; nobody does.” Without waiting for an answer, 
 Minnie read the twenty-fifth Psalm. Then shutting the book, she said, “ Are 
 you calm enough now to tell me what is the matter with you, or shall I wait till 
 to-morrow ? ” 
 
 Minnie had concluded the old woman was not in much physical pain ; indeed, 
 the piteous groans had long since ceased. 
 
 11 There is a great burden on my heart ; if I wasn’t afraid to confess it to you 
 I think I should be — no, no ! I dare not tell you for fear you give me up to 
 despair.” 
 
 “ That I will not. It is wicked to despair.” 
 
 “ Say again that you will not ; it is sweet to hear such words, although you 
 know not what you are saying.” 
 
 “ Have you been a beggar all your life ? Neither the officer,” (here such a 
 cloud came over the old woman’s face, that Minnie hastily said), “ nor I thought 
 you seemed a beggar.” 
 
 The mendicant bowed her head in her hands for a few minutes, and then, with- 
 out raising it, said, “ If you will send your servant out for a few minutes, I will 
 make my confession. I cannot shut up the volcano any longer in my heart. If 
 there is no hope I had better know it.” 
 
 “ Patty, go into Rachel’s room, and wait till I call you.” 
 
 “ Please lock the door, I wish to show you some things.” 
 
 Minnie wondered what would come next, did as she was bidden, and leaned 
 against the mantel-piece, trying not to be disappointed if she did not receive some 
 memento from Lieutenant Huntington ; she couldn’t forget the old woman’s words 
 about a Southern heart. u Please sit down.” Minnie obeyed the old woman. 
 
88 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 “I was young when the war of 1812 broke over the land. My father, like 
 most of the Yankees, could only lose by it and was so bitterly opposed to it that 
 he strongly advocated Secession; in fact voted for it in the Hartford Convention. 
 
 I had a warrior-lover ; he was nothing remarkable, you would have said, but he 
 did not know what fear meant; yes, one thing he feared — my disapprobation. I 
 was very gentle and refined, and shrank from contact with any one bold and 
 daring.” 
 
 “If you were so gentle, I should have thought you would have liked a lover 
 to be bold as a lion.” 
 
 “ Oh ! Is that the way with all gentle women ? But his hand was stained 
 with blood — could I let him touch mine ? He did not dare to.” 
 
 “ Not if that blood was shed in avenging personal wrongs or in family feuds : * 
 not if it was shed by a duellist or bully.” 
 
 “ It was not ; the blood was that of my country’s foes; but knowing how my 
 father had educated me to feel, and how I loathed war, he never asked me to be 
 his, for fear, he said, that I’d shrink from him; that in my sleep I should murmur, 
 
 4 Blood.’” 
 
 “Did you love him? And did he know it? If he did, he did not love you 
 truly, or he would not have stabbed your heart through any imaginary chivalry. 
 You did not really love him, or you would not have shrunk from the touch of a 
 patriot.” 
 
 The beggar rose suddenly ; but re-seated herself before Minnie observed her 
 emotion, and continued — 
 
 “ He was bold as a lion with men, but he seemed afraid of my helpless 
 innocence ; did you never see a strong man afraid to handle a babe ? ” 
 
 “ Not if he loved it tenderly.” 
 
 “ What ? ” 
 
 “Not if he loved it tenderly.” 
 
 “Will you promise me to remember your words if you think unpardonable 
 what I shall tell you?” 
 
 “ There is but one unpardonable sin, and that is to reject and disparage the 
 claims of Him who died to save you,” answered Minnie, anticipating the 
 confession of a crime. 
 
 “ In such times of danger there should always be a strong arm near to defend 
 you.” 
 
 “There is!” Her lowered tone told whose arm she meant. 
 
 “But if God were to send you a strong human arm, would you scornfully 
 reject it?” 
 
 “I should say it had belter be uplifted in the defence of my country.” 
 
 “ Do you think a man would strike feebly because he was nerved by your 
 love and prayers ? Besides, he would take you within the Confederate lines 
 and not leave you here exposed to negro insurrections and brutal — but I 
 forget : I saw an officer here this afternoon.” 
 
 Minnie coloured. “They say a blush speaks of love.” 
 
 “ I should have silenced you long since had not you been so much older than 
 I ; if you have nothing else to say, good-night !” 
 
 “ Stop, if you have any pity in your soul, and answer one question.” 
 Minnie’s hand was on the door-knob ; but she turned round. 
 
 “Let it be of yourself, or of public affairs. What the officer hinted may be 
 true ; the Confederatss may think you no bad spy. ” 
 
 “ Did he say that ? ” 
 
 “Yes, he was ridiculous enough to say you might be Morgan himself. I 
 think you may have come from beyond Buell’s lines — may have seen — ” 
 
 “ Whom ? ” 
 
 “I am as crazy as you seem to be ; good-night ! ” 
 
 “Stay one moment, I beseech you. You have guessed right.” 
 
 Minnie looked frightened. 
 
 “ But the officer did not. ” She seemed reassured, as though she had said, 
 “ I am only an old woman, but I am a spy.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 89 
 
 “ And so you have come to get information for Morgan ? Would that I 
 could help you ! ” 
 
 “ Will you be very angry if I ask what that officer said to-night ? ” 
 
 “ Too angry to answer. Do you suppose I have so little honour as to take 
 advantage of a man’s weakness for me ? ” 
 
 “ You misunderstand me. There is one thing I want very much to tell you, 
 but I am afraid.” 
 
 “I can pardon more impertinence from an old woman,” said Minnie, thinking 
 of a Confederate. 
 
 The sudden lighting up of the face and the closing of the eyes determined 
 the beggar. 
 
 “ Promise me not to be frightened if I show you something.” 
 
 ‘‘You must think I am easily terrified.” Then the colour suddenly left her 
 cheek. “ Has anything happened ? ” 
 
 The silence of a minute alarmed her so she could not at once repeat her 
 question ; when she recovered her voice she turned round, for she was conscious 
 the beggar had passed behind her. As she did so, Lieutenant Huntington was 
 about to step from a pile of skirts. An old bonnet, a gray wig, and green glasses 
 lay on a table by him. Minnie was not frightened, but giving him a look full of 
 anger, laid her hand on the door-knob. He threw himself on his knees to detain 
 her. She looked at him, and not a muscle relaxed. 
 
 “ Get up,” was said in a tone of rare contempt. 
 
 He obeyed, and as he did so, asked in a stifled voice, 
 
 “When I fall — the first in the next battle — will you forgive me?” 
 
 A cold tremor passed from limb to limb; the proud muscles relaxed, the lips 
 quivered ; unconsciously she leaned against the door. 
 
 “Will you hear me for one moment? I have offended for the last time. May 
 I plead for pardon in few words?” 
 
 She did not answer nor move. 
 
 “I will not speak without permission. I have been rash enough. Not until I 
 saw your anger did I realize what I had dared.” 
 
 “The major suspects the truth. Put on your dress and go ; get past Louisville 
 to-night.” 
 
 “I will; it is better to die fighting for my country and the heart that scorns 
 me, than to hang from a post,” 
 
 Minnie put her hand to her head and leaned more heavily against the door. 
 He brought a chair and seated her, then drew back several feet. 
 
 “You were right when you said I was crazy; I cannot blame you for your 
 scorn — I have deserved it. Will death on the battle field atone for my folly?” 
 
 “ Don’t ! ” she entreated. 
 
 Does a “drowning man catch at a straw?” So did he at her tone. He came 
 close to her. 
 
 “ May I ask your forgiveness now ? Time is precious.” 
 
 She bowed her head. 
 
 “ It was necessary that Captain Morgan should have certain information from 
 Louisville. He had risked his life — exceedingly important to our cause —so often 
 that I begged I might undertake this mission. At first he refused, saying he did 
 not have much reason to value his life, except for the service it might be to his 
 his country. I replied, ‘ Nor have I.’ ‘ Is it so ? ’ he asked, ‘ I had understood 
 
 you loved a favourite belle near Louisville.’ It was strange that I should have 
 said so much, but I exclaimed, ‘Captain Morgan, which is worse? to have the 
 lips you love closed in death, or in indifference ? ’ Then he entered eagerly into 
 the arrangement for my coming to Louisville, and he suggested the begging from 
 you. Had it not been for your mother and that Yankee, I should have managed 
 to have seen you alone in the afternoon ; but I saw my only chance was to accept 
 your offer of a room and feign illness, I have but one apology to plead — it may 
 be years before — who can measure Yankee obstinacy ? — before I can visit you in 
 my true character. I am not as hopeful as most of my comrades about our 
 ability to hold even the Southern part of the State; it may be years before I can 
 
90 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 see you again ; now you will not even look at me. You cannot forgive my 
 rashness P ” This last was said in saddest tones. “ When you hear that I am dead 
 you will pardon a man who offended only through excess of love ; remember then 
 that I forgive you for your heartlessness ; it is easy for those who love to forgive. 
 I cannot ask the question that I dared to send for you to-night that I might 
 ask. . Will you call Patty ? If my disguise is suspected I have waited too long.” 
 
 Minnie sprang up hastily. 
 
 “ Oh, he quick! he quick!” In her excitement she lifted the grey wig and 
 reached up to put it on his head ; there was such a look of terror in her face and 
 she trembled so, that before he himself knew what he would do, he had clasped 
 her to his bosom, and pressed a long and burning kiss upon her forehead. She 
 drew back, and said very softly, “ Be quick ! good-night.” 
 
 “ Am I forgiven ? ” 
 
 “ Yes,” she answered, trying to open the door she had forgotten was locked. 
 
 “ And if I fall.” 
 
 “ Hush ! ” 
 
 “ Would you care ? ” 
 
 “ Yes.” 
 
 “ Is this true ?” 
 
 iC Yes.” Another fruitless effort to open the door ; but it was a kiss that stopped 
 the trembling hand this time ! 
 
 “ Will you not kiss me once — only once ? You will not see my corpse if — ” 
 
 Her head fell upon his bosom, and he kissed away the tears and promised to be 
 very careful of his life, which suddenly grew to be so very precious. He was 
 quite afraid he should disgrace himself as a coward, he said merrily, longing to 
 see her smile. She did not seem like the Minnie of his dreams when her face was 
 sad. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXIII. 
 
 It was midnight ; but one heart was too happy to lay its dreams aside and sleep. 
 Minnie had given herself up ; she was revelling in the unselfishness of love. So 
 perfectly did she love another that she had no feeling for herself ; his glory, his 
 true service to her country absorbed all sense of pity for the lonely girl who was 
 to pass the weary hours wondering where he was, torturing herself by supposing 
 he might be in danger. Moreover, she might never see him again. True ; but 
 he loved her and she loved him — what could separate them now ? Man could 
 not ; and God would not, for both were His. Her face was bowed on the window- 
 sill, resting in the moonbeams, glowing with light of the inner sanctuary, when a 
 sudden sound of tramping feet broke the holy stillness. She could soon see 
 twenty Blue Coats, who surrounded the house; some stopping in fiont, others 
 passing on either side. Two helpless women in a house surrounded at midnight 
 by armed men ! but Minnie’s first thoughts were of thankfulness. Eustace had 
 been gone for an hour. The old beggar woman’s clothes were in her wardrobe, 
 and a man dressed in blue jean pants and torn linen jacket had crossed the 
 country to enter Louisville from another point of the compass when the day 
 should dawn. Minnie felt certain that the new arrivals, had come to arrest 
 Eustace, for she knew well that Yankees and foxes generally start on their bold 
 expeditions about midnight. Morehead and other names flashed through her 
 head as she rushed into her mother’s room to prepare her for her visitors. She 
 said Major Glover had suspected the old woman to be a Confederate spy, and she 
 supposed these men had been sent to make an arrest. 
 
 Mrs. Breckenridge was one of those persons who are, when greatly terrified, too 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 91 
 
 powerless even to shriek ; she lay as blanched as the sheet which she drew over 
 her damp face ; but Minnie’s maid, with more thought than her mistress, had 
 already aroused the overseer who slept there as a protector to the family. Mr. 
 Marks knocked at Mrs. Breckenridge’s door to assure her she need have no fear, 
 and then boldly advanced to answer the furious ringing of the bell. 
 
 When he opened the door, he was imperiously ordered to deliver up the old 
 woman*; he replied that he had not seen her, but that she had permission to 
 sleep in a cabin and they might go there after her if they thought it was just the 
 thing for a dozen men to go to arrest an old woman at midnight. With severe 
 curses, they ordered him to accompany them. When they entered the cabin, a 
 candle still burned on the table, but the pallet had not been pressed, nor was 
 there sign, save a piece of chicken . and a biscuit, that the beggar had been there. 
 An explanation was demanded. Mr. Marks could give none, and was suspected 
 of aiding a spy ; he was willing to take an oath that he knew nothing of the 
 suspicious beggar. Said one, “ Let’s take him along to prison, anyhow ; he’s 
 Secesh.” 
 
 “ Gentlemen, show me your warrant, please.” 
 
 “ A warrant ! ” and the speaker laughed in his face, or in that of the law. 
 Mr. Marks was left with a guard while several went to search the outhouses, and 
 some went into the main building. Every wardrobe and closet was opened, and 
 many places too small for a man to enter were thoroughly searched, (a) Antici- 
 pating this, Minnie had taken the beggar’s clothes and thrown them upon the 
 canopy of her bed, which was fortunately so high that they did not think it worth 
 while to get a ladder to look on it. The poor child was uncomfortable enough, for 
 she had under her corset a flag, the staff of which was a half-yard long, and 
 several smaller Secession badges were similarly concealed. When the brave sbirri 
 had departed the ladies locked up the house and went to bed. 
 
 The next morning, Mrs. Breckenridge lost no time in hurrying with Mrs. 
 Marks into the city to inquire after the overseer’s fate ; she had no doubt he was 
 lodged in the military prison. Fortunately, Captain Wilson was in a restless 
 mood, owing to his conversation with Laura the night previous, and passed up the 
 street just as Mrs. Breckenridge’s carriage stopped at the Galt House. He looked 
 surprised at seeing her in town at so early an hour, and hearing the sobbing of 
 Mrs. Marks, stepped to the carriage and with some hesitancy offered his services 
 if anything was wrong. She related the circumstances. Captain Wilson’s face 
 grew very stern as he listened, and he begged Mrs. Breckenridge to allow him to 
 see to the case ; as soon as he could see General Buell he would report at Vinelea. 
 With many thanks, Mrs. Breckenridge said she would await him at Mr. Buckner’s. 
 At the mention of the last name his face grew darker, it would he mortifying to 
 have Laura hear of this. The overseer’s wife was not willing to trust the case in 
 any Federal officer’s hands, and insisted upon seeing General Buell herself — she 
 had “heard he was the only gentleman in the lot.” Captain Wilson did not seem 
 to hear the last remark ; but helped Mrs. Marks out of the carriage and escorted 
 her into the Galt House. He spoke a few cheering words and then left her to 
 see if General Buell had come down to breakfast. In a little while he returned 
 with orders to investigate the case, and if there was no cause of suspicion in the 
 man to release him. Mrs. Marks accompanied the Captain to prison. Here in 
 a wet, cold room, without a pallet or blanket, they found Marks. (a) Captain 
 Wilson spoke cheeringly to him, and then sent his wife to tell Mrs. Breckenridge 
 that he had no doubt she would see her overseer as soon as he could examine the 
 soldiers who had arrested him. Keble little knew what a powerful advocate 
 he had sent to Laura. 
 
92 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 “ I wish to discuss with you the present great national question.” 
 
 “ Pray excuse me. I shrink from controversy. I feel too strongly to express 
 myself as quietly as I always wish to do. Convinced by study of the justice of 
 my present position, I cannot see that any good can result from our having 
 discussions unless I convert you,” said Laura. 
 
 “I, at least, am not afraid to hear arguments on the opposite side. Only 
 when my mind holds an idea in abeyance do I fear to hear its merits impartially 
 canvassed,” replied Keble. 
 
 “ Your last remark is strange.” 
 
 (i I do not wish to be convinced on several points, but nobody suspects what 
 they are unless Miss J ohnston does. In all argument it is necessary to have some 
 authority from which there is no appeal. My believing a thing to be so does not 
 prove it to be so, and my disbelief of a thing is small argument for its non- 
 existence.” 
 
 “ True ; if we dispute as to whether twice two is four or six, the multiplication 
 table settles the point ; if we disagree as to the meaning of a word only the 
 dictionary can decide between us. In religious controversy concerning a doctrine, 
 the Bible is the ne plus ultra ; concerning a rite or custom not decided in the 
 Scriptures the writings or other monuments of the primitive ages of Christianity 
 must settle the dispute.” 
 
 “ They would not for me.” 
 
 “ Pardon me ; I think they would, I do not mean to flatter, but I fancy you 
 capable of perceiving arguments.” 
 
 “ Is that a very flattering remark ? ” asked Laura, smiling. 
 
 “ It is ; because few men or women are capable of seeing beyond their own 
 immediate atmosphere. Moon-struck lads and lasses are by no means astro- 
 nomers. Devotion to a principle does not enlighten the intellect ; it would have 
 been somewhat troublesome to have made the old worshippers of the heavenly 
 bodies confess that they knew nothing about their real nature, and quite as hard 
 to have taught them what it is.” 
 
 “ Go on ; remember my memory is moderately retentive.” 
 
 “ You are ridiculing my prolixity.” 
 
 “ No ; only taking notes to be used against you after a while. Go on, 
 please.” 
 
 “ There are two questions I shall first answer for myself that I may b§ pardoned 
 for proposing them to you.” 
 
 “ No ; ask me first, if we are to argue we must not be mealy-mouthed, afraid 
 of soiling our dainty lips with common-sense, or shocking each others fastidiou’s 
 ears wim downright truth.” 
 
 “ Question first. Will you never say anything you do not think ?” 
 
 *‘l might feel insulted at this did not I know that many persons who would be 
 shocked to be suspected of falsehood do not hesitate to convey false impressions for 
 the sake of winning in a strife of words ; I assure you I am not of that class.” 
 
 “ Question second. If convinced of the falsity of any position you assume, 
 will you at once confess it P ” 
 
 “ If Captain Wilson knew me I should feel insulted by that query.” 
 
 “ I beg—” 
 
 “ No asking pardon. It is not necessary. Experience dictated your second 
 question, and bids me excuse it. I, too have, often argued with persons who 
 considered it more becoming to maintain what they were convinced was false, 
 rather than yield a point.” 
 
 “ I think we can argue without losing temper.” 
 
 “ I shall ask a test question ; for, I am practical. If you uphold a man in 
 office whose principles of public policy are avowedly wrong (that is to you) do 
 not you become a partner of his sins ? ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 93 
 
 Keble Wilson winced a little, but was too much of a man to give a prevaricating 
 answer. 
 
 “ Yes.” 
 
 “What do you think of the John Brown raid ? ” asked Laura. Very much 
 relieved at what he supposed to be a change of subject, he held forth quite 
 eloquently on the horrors the fanatic had wished to enact, and as he loved a 
 Southern woman his speech was not the less impassioned. Whenever these 
 moods of eloquence came on him Laura listened like a little child, judgment quite 
 absorbed in wondering admiration. It was not only gratified vanity that made 
 Keble at such times find her as irresistible as she evidently thought his words ; 
 probably there is no mood so fascinating as that of unconscious enthusiasm. 
 After enjoying such a dissertation as Keble occasionally favoured her with, she 
 was wont to whisper to Minnie that she felt as she used to on the seashore when 
 she had taken a bath in the glorious ocean, not a romp with a set of collapsed 
 epitomes of fashion, but as she liked best, with no one but her father by and he 
 not interrupting her communion with the mystic language of the waves that 
 embraced her, Laura had quite forgotton her mischievous intention of worrying 
 Wilson, and gazed dreamily into the fire, not willing to admit that a Federal officer 
 had made any personal allusion when he spoke of the dangers to which Southern 
 women would be liable during the prosecution of this dreadful war and how the 
 chivalry of the North would find its only solace in caring for those whom the 
 chivalry of the South had left defenceless. 
 
 Laura had probably gazed five minutes in the fire after he ceased speaking, 
 before she perceived that his gaze was riveted on her as surely as was hers upon 
 the coals. Then she rallied. 
 
 “ You hold Brown the Fanatic’s opinion in utter detestation ; Lincoln in fact 
 upholds Brown and you defend Lincoln.” 
 
 “On some points. But pardon me if I ask you for proof of your assertion 
 concerning Mr. Lincoln.” 
 
 “In his letter to J. A. Spencer, he says ‘Brown committed no offence 
 against the Federal Government, meriting such severe punishment as he 
 received. ’ ” Laura was surprised at the black expression which gathered like 
 a cloud over Captain Wilson’s very placid face. “I feel as though you had 
 led me to a dark cave full of devious paths and bade me enter,” he said. 
 
 “I am dull and do not catch your thought.” 
 
 “I have always held that a man will, if sufficient inducement be offered, do 
 whatever he justifies.” 
 
 “ What then ?” 
 
 “Lincoln may command what I will never do or see done. If I resign, Fort 
 Warren will be my hotel.” He laughed, and then, fixing his eyes steadfastly on 
 his companion, “ The world will say I am disgraced, and those whose opinions 
 are my only cause of vanity, will avoid me as — ” 
 
 “ Too noble for them.” 
 
 “ Ah ! How so ? ” 
 
 “I should have thought many of your New York friends would agree with 
 you and applaud you ; if not, they are too unworthy for you to value their 
 opinion. ” 
 
 “ Then you consider it no disgrace to be imprisoned ?” 
 
 “Disgrace ! There are few Kentuckians whom I honour more than ex- 
 Governor Morehead.” 
 
 “Then a woman’s sympathy may conquer her pride and regard for appear- 
 ances?” 
 
 “ What an artificial man you are ! Appearances — bah ! ” 
 
 “You do not mean to say you are indifferent to them? I judged you very 
 proud. ” 
 
 “ In the extreme of those who fear imprisonment less than falsehood. How- 
 ever, this word imprisonment reminds me I forgot to tell you that your lord 
 said of Brown, that as a monomaniac, ‘ close confinement might have been more 
 in accordance with the principles of justice ! ’” 
 
 “You will please not call him my lord.” 
 
94 
 
 LOVE AND WAB. 
 
 “ I beg pardon, you are loyal ; I should have said your king.” 
 
 ‘ ‘Loyal to justice, Miss Buckner.” 
 
 “ And therefore you are fighting for the man who has declared the decision 
 of the highest judicial tribunal in the land not binding in the Dred Scott case.” 
 “I am not long from the North-West, and therefore Mr. Lincoln’s opinions 
 on these points I have never before heard. I shall investigate this subject.” 
 Laura went to bed that night with a very happy heart ; when such an honest, 
 undisturbed mind as his begins to investigate, it will influence action. 
 
 When Keble bade Laura good-night she put into his hand Brigadier-General 
 Phelps’ Proclamation to the People of the South-West, in which these passages 
 were marked by her pencil : “ Slaves are kept in comparative idleness and 
 ease — ” 
 
 4 ‘ Yes,” said the Captain to himself, “until I came to a Slave State I had 
 no idea any race of men in this ‘ fast ’ country could be so slow. Their masters 
 know they cannot do the work of white freemen, and that it would be unjust 
 to require it of them.” He glanced at the next marked passage. [“Free 
 labour ... is especially the right of five millions of our fellow-country- 
 men in the State,” (“Humph! the Southerners clamour enough about their 
 Bights ; I think a United States’ officer need not trouble himself on that 
 score !”) “as well as of the four millions of Africans there, and all of our efforts 
 therefore, shall be for free labour. ” ( “ If you have read the history of the 
 
 negroes in Africa or on this continent, you ought to know they don’t appreciate 
 the blessing of free labour, so, General Phelps, I cannot agree to help you turn 
 half of my country into another Hayti.”) “ Free labour and working men’s 
 rights (“are not to be acquired by injustice.”) “it is on this basis, and this 
 alone, that our munificent government can be perpetuated.” ( “ Then let it perish ! 
 Munificent indeed ! Oh, God ! any punishment but a slave insurrection ! 
 Since the night I dreamed I saw my pure, beautiful darling in the strong arms 
 of a brutal negro, I can never hear of universal negro emancipation, which can 
 be inaugurated only by insurrection — without bitterest agony. ”) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXY. 
 
 “I want something to encounter that I may have to overcome,” thought 
 Minnie ; “it is much easier for Eustace than for me. He has to fight men who 
 are very visible targets ; but I have to contend with phantoms that I cannot 
 seize.” Minnie was no less a child of nature than was Wordsworth’s “Lucy.” 
 She was rambling here and there, anywhere but in the paths, stopping now to 
 pick a flower, and then resting her hands on her knees and her head in her 
 hands, while she tried to make out what words certain birds were saying. 
 One seemed to say “Picayune.” “That’s a Yankee,” thought the Southern 
 woman. Another said, “Pretty.” “He’s talking about his sweetheart.” Then 
 her darling, as she called the blue bird, began the courtship that she fancied 
 sounded wonderfully like what Eustace would warble to her, were they both 
 little birds. Suddenly, “Will you ? will you? ” fell on her ear and she raised 
 her head, smiling to herself, thinking of the day when Eustace had interpreted 
 the notes of the Carolina wren, and named it Minnie’s Southern lover. It was 
 after this reverie that the poor victim of the war sprang up hastily and wished 
 for something tangible to resist. Before her was a meadow ; she always had a 
 fancy for walking through it. Soon only a pretty little head, crowned with a 
 peasant’s hat, was visible above the grass, and that was closely followed by a 
 pair of very bright eyes that were peering over the fence. When Minnie 
 arrived at the fence where her struggle with the long thick grass must terminate, 
 she was startled by, “Aren’t you afeard of snakes? ” 
 
LOVE AND WAN 
 
 95 
 
 The one addressed was about to reprove the impertinence of a straggler by a 
 very proper look of decorum ; but the sight of a venerable snow white beard 
 changed her mood. 
 
 “I never saw any snakes in the grass; why should. I be afraid of them? 
 Besides, the only snakes in this country that are poisonous, are the black and 
 rattle, and moccasin ; I believe there is one more, but it’s a stranger here. I 
 never saw but one black snake, and that was dead, and the rattlesnake gives 
 warning that you may get out of its way, and the moccasin, I suppose, won’t 
 bite unless somebody provokes it. ” 
 
 “-Surely you be’s a remarkable young woman. Aren’t* you got no garter 
 snakes in these parts?” 
 
 “Plenty; but they don’t bite; one of our negro men makes pets of them, 
 and generally carries one about in the breast pocket of his coat ; queer bosom 
 friend, is it not?” 
 
 “No worse than the young scapegraces, the abominable rebels who win the 
 young gals’ hearts only to contaminate ’em. ” 
 
 Minnie walked off. 
 
 In a louder tone the stranger continued — 
 
 “I say, Miss, can’t you send no word of comfort to my gal, whose gallant’s 
 gone off with all the other young men of our village, to that dare-devil, John 
 Morgan ? ” 
 
 Minnie never resisted an appeal for sympatny, she turned round. 
 
 “Tell your daughter she ought to be proud to have a sweetheart who’s man 
 enough to follow so brave a leader. If you will tell me his name, I’ll ask some 
 body to keep an eye on him, and if he’s wounded to care for him. ” 
 
 “So far as that is concerned. Miss, he’ll do well enough ; John Morgan takes 
 as much care of his men as a hen does of her chicks. I like Mor — ” 
 
 “Oh, do you know him?” 
 
 Minnie sat down. 
 
 The stranger did not seem to relish his position, for after several ineffectual 
 attempts to get a look at her face, he said, 44 If you’d just be so good as to take 
 off your hat, you see I have a hespecial aversion to them things — I’ll tell you a 
 story about Morgan and his men.” 
 
 Minnie threw her hat behind her. 
 
 “ Tell the truth, stranger, and then I won’t be afraid to hear it ? 99 
 44 What do you mean ? ” 
 
 44 Oh ! the people that fear Morgan and his men tell outrageous stories, and I 
 won’t listen to anything about them but the truth.” 
 
 44 Wal, I was one of the workmen as was working the telegraph by the rail- 
 road. A man looking just like any other man came to us, sat down on a log, and 
 began talking. He took out of his pocket a rusty old musket that I, who was 
 used to seeing the fine things of the Federals, laughed at. Howsoever, he took no 
 notice of my laughing, but axed a heap of questions about the cars and the 
 people in our part of the country. Presently, the cars were heard — bang went 
 the old musket, by chance, I thought ; but just like you see in a theatre, ever so 
 many horsemen — but them’s were horses as were horses ! come right in a circle 
 about our former customer, and he drew a fine sword, and somebody said, 
 4 Colonel Morgan ! ’ Wal, I guess it was ; for then he took the cars and when 
 he got the money he burnt some cars ; he took us telegraph men prisoners, but 
 he let us go ; he never hurts nobody, ’cept those people he’s obliged to kill in 
 battle.” 
 
 44 You seem tired, old man ; shan’t I go to the house and get you some fresh 
 butter-milk P ” 
 
 44 Thank you ; I couldn’t eat nothing.” 
 
 44 Would you dislike my sketching your face ? I do like a long, white beard so 
 very much.” 
 
 44 1 haven’t got an objection in the world.” 
 
 Minnie threw down her flowers, which the old man lifted quite tenderly ; a 
 little pocket sketch-book was drawn out, and the outlines of the stranger’s face 
 
96 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 were jotted down. 
 
 Presently, the artist said, 11 1 hope you are not tired ? I don’t like this sketch, 
 it’s too young. Isn’t it funny how people sometimes draw, not what they are 
 looking at, but something they’ve been thinking about ? ” 
 
 (i Are you tired,” asked Minnie, who began sketching the second head. 
 
 “ Tired ! I could sit here for ever ; I am not only daguerreotyping a picture ; I 
 am reading a poem ! ” 
 
 Minnie looked blank amazement, and the old man laughed at his forgetfulness. 
 
 “Did you think that was pretty? I heard Jane’s sweetheart tell her that. 
 But what makes you sigh ? ” 
 
 “ Nothing ; it was strange, but I was drawing the nose when you spoke, and it 
 was so like that of another face in this book that I really thought I heard the 
 voice of — ” 
 
 “Your sweetheart. I’ve got a paper — I thought ’twant no harm to look at it, 
 it’s a poem — and one of Morgan’s fellows told me to bring it to Miss Brecken- 
 ridge.” 
 
 “Oh, give it to me ! Quick.” 
 
 “ Wal, first you must come down to the foot of this hill, ’cause the chap told 
 me to go at sunset to a place where the trees and rocks were mighty close 
 together, and that you would be there.” 
 
 “ How did he know that ? ” 
 
 “ Wal, I guess how you and him’s made a agreement for you to go there and 
 think of him at that time.” 
 
 Minnie blushed and looked at the sun ; it was an hour high. “ Give it to me, 
 here.” She had no idea of introducing the old man’s uncouth figure into Eustace’s 
 sanctuary. 
 
 “ He said as I was to give it to you there.” The old man picked up his crutch 
 and started down the hill ; Minnie followed ; her heart in a wild tumult of 
 delight. Eustace had written her a poem. Oh, what happiness ! 
 
 When they were safely hidden in the dense thicket, where a few sunbeams were 
 the only intruders, the old man said, “ Let me go behind you for a minute ; I 
 don’t want you to see all as I’ve got in my pocket.” 
 
 In a minute, Eustace Huntington, dressed in broad-cloth, stood before her. 
 
 “ Eustace ! ” 
 
 “ My darling ! ” and he kissed her hand. Can all the world show a more 
 poetical way of offering homage ? Sweet privilege of the lover, who has not yet 
 attained the husband’s right to kiss the brow and lips. 
 
 We’ll let them talk an hour for themselves only. 
 
 ‘ * My darling ! let me hold you in my arms once, once only before I go from 
 you.” He could not say “for ever,” and his trembling lips buried them- 
 selves in Minnie’s hair. Oh, that long moment of intense agony, but deeper 
 bliss ! for could death separate them now ? 
 
 “ You will kill me, Eustace.” Then his strong arms were passed around the 
 little trembling figure, and she was silently lifted to what should be her resting- 
 place for life ; but in that moment both heard those words, “ Once, once only.” 
 Like a babe in its mother’s bosom she wept long and unrestrainedly ; and every 
 now and then a burning tear fell on her hair that glistened in the mocking sun- 
 light which shimmered through the secrecy of love’s sweet trysting-place. At last, 
 a tear fell on her forehead ; she started wildly ; one glance at the deep anguish 
 in his eye, and her arms twined around his neck as in years gone by she had 
 twined them round her mother when asking for what she feared she ought not 
 to have. 
 
 “ Eustace, you shall not go ! What right have you to win me only to kill 
 me ? You are killing me, Eustace, as surely as though you had run your sword 
 through my heart.” 
 
 “ You can bear it, darling.” 
 
 “ I cannot ! ” 
 
 “ God will help you, dearest.” 
 
 “ He will let me die ; He has always given me what I have prayed for.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 97 
 
 “ Then, Minnie, ask Him to preserve my life.” 
 
 “ No ; yon must die ; I know you will. Did you not say ‘ once only ? ’ You 
 never told me anything that did not come to pass.” 
 
 “How strange I should have spoken such words to you ! I was very foolish, 
 sweet ; don’t be silly enough to think that they meant anything. ” 
 
 His words belied his heart ; but he could have crushed that heart for 
 permitting him to inflict such suffering ; her arms fell away from his neck, and 
 before he could prevent it she slipped from his lap and lay at his feet. 
 
 Emotion shook her violently; he could not endure this agony. Was she 
 dying then ? Could a man who could crush the heart that he had captured, 
 dare to fight for justice and for freedom ? He took her in his arms ; she was 
 so cold and stiff he could not bend her limbs ; but he laid her across his knees 
 and whispered in a hoarse voice, 
 
 “Speak to me, Minnie.” 
 
 She took no notice. A few agonized moments while he rubbed her hands 
 till they were warm and moist as his ; and the burning of his face, on which 
 the perspiration of intense suffering stood in large drops, heated her pale, cold 
 cheeks. And then he said in a still hoarser voice, 
 
 “Darling, whatever you ask I will do.” With a wild scream she opened her 
 eyes ; but the joy of hers was met by a glance which seemed to wither her very 
 soul. “Listen, my precious one; hear what I have to say and decide our 
 future. The sun is low ; my time is short ; I mean, if — What shall I do, 
 Minnie? Shall I resign my position in the army and come home to revel in 
 the luxury of love, while the tyrant binds chains upon us both ? You said I 
 had no right to kill you ; I have not. I have given myself to you ; it is for 
 you to choose the man that I shall be.” He fixed his eyes on her. 
 
 “Go on.” 
 
 Already she felt the selfishness and cruelty of her words. 
 
 “Will you have a man whom the world will stigmatize as coward, a man 
 who urged Kentucky to resist tyranny, and when the hour of danger came, 
 sought refuge in the chamber of his wife ? Or, shall it be said he could not 
 withstand the pleading of the beautiful woman he loved — a woman too weak 
 to bear suffering? ” 
 
 A deep blush overspread Minnie’s face. 
 
 “I deserve it.” 
 
 “Pardon me, darling, but all this will be said and more. And will it not be 
 the truth ? ” 
 
 She hid her blushes on his bosom. He pressed her very closely, and 
 whispered, half afraid : — “ One thing more, darling ; bear with me. Shall we 
 be parents of a race of slaves ? There is one picture; if that is the man whom 
 you wish, he shall be yours. But remember, sweet, if at times my conscience 
 and a sense of degradation weigh me to the earth, and you cannot cheer me — ” 
 ‘ ‘ Hush ! Give me the other picture. ” 
 
 “A triumphant warrior returns, a free man to a happy bride, who loves her 
 country better than happiness, and values her lover’s honour more than his 
 safety ! ” 
 
 “ But if you should be killed ? ” 
 
 “ Then you will be mine always, and no tyranny can ever break the dreams 
 of heaven. Now, darling, choose.” 
 
 “Go.” 
 
 She glided down from his lap, and together they knelt on the green earth. 
 Minnie had meant to pray — she only said, “Spare us, Good Lord !” 
 
 A minute, and he answered — 
 
 “ Oh, God ! for her sake, ‘cover my head in the day of battle ! ’ ” 
 
 Then both arose ; she was the bravest now ; the hour of separation had 
 come ; he leaned against a tree and watched her greedily, as though trying to 
 impress every change of countenance upon his memory, while she slowly 
 opened the little ring that fastened a cross to her watch-chain. Then she 
 came to him, took his watch from his pocket, attached the cross to it and put 
 
 ♦ (J 
 
98 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 it back. He seemed to have no power to move. He dared not trust himself 
 to speak. With a woman’s quick intuition she looked at him, and suddenly- 
 exclaimed — 
 
 “ Pardon, darling, my selfishness. I would not give my hero for all the 
 happiness of earth.” 
 
 Her glance was almost a smile. He felt that he folded an angel in his arms. 
 Minnie’s only earthliness — a thoughtless selfishness — had been burned out, and 
 she stood in his embrace — the angel of his life. 
 
 “ Go, Eustace, the sun is down. You must learn to run fast, for my sake,” 
 and she gave, or she thought she gave, a very reassuring glance. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 There was for Keble Wilson a novel pleasure in Laura’s company. Always 
 accustomed to command, the unconscious despot of his childhood’s home, the 
 very superior youth of whom the cadets of West Point asked assistance in 
 studies, or council in scrapes, who stood aloof from all except one favoured 
 friend ; the lieutenant and then the captain, in a far post when lieutenant and 
 captain were much more imposing terms than since Lincoln’s accession. His 
 sensitiveness passed for haughtiness and was tinctured with fastidious reserve. 
 Few cared enough for his opinions to dispute them, and those who did seldom 
 dared or had the opportunity. 
 
 But this cold reserve is a wearisome thing, and it was exhilarating to feel it 
 melting in a woman’s gentle majesty of presence, to feel the warm glow of youth 
 come back like the first genial day of spring to sing of hope and summer cheer. 
 Yet except when Laura forgot in the fascination of the man, the condemning 
 evidence that he was a United States’ officer, he had to bend his pride to over- 
 come her chilling politeness, or enthusiastic brusqueness ; that was not humiliating ; 
 but it was to feel she did not care whether he did or not. I never think of a 
 man distinguished for bravery, moral or physical, without a feeling that with his 
 wife or sweetheart he is gentler and tenderer than others. Ah, it must be sweet 
 for such to bow before the gentleness of woman ! Is it not pleasant to lay the 
 cheek glowing with pride of victory in the soft and cooling snow ? 
 
 Laura’s and Keble’s conversations were generally of an argumentative, or, at 
 least, of a combative nature. With an inborn dislike of controversy, because it 
 usually leads to disputation, an intellectual rioting, Keble had regarded it with 
 proud contempt and was not inclined to yield his opinions to gabblings which he 
 disdained as so many varieties of self-assertion, not capable of conducting a logical 
 argument ; or, worse still, mere parroting of stereotyped ideas. Was it not 
 strange that such a man should be dragged by his own self-will into a political 
 controversy with the woman of his love P He had, in his supposed insensibility 
 to rebel argument undertaken to make a loyalist of Laura ; and not yet had any 
 doubt of his ground caused him any uneasiness, though he was often ashamed of 
 individuals who disgraced the cause he upheld. Keble seated in his pleasant 
 room at the Galt House, thinking of Laura, was roused from his reverie by a 
 knock at his door. He admitted an old friend, a brother officer passing through 
 Louisville. He had been Keble’s college friend and ever since correspondent ; 
 from Keble’s letters he had probably discovered the danger of the loyalist while 
 the latter rested in fancied security. It was not long before Laura became the 
 subject of conversation. 
 
 “ She has a fresh gay nature, has she not ? ” 
 
 “ Gay ? No ; fresh ? Yes. She impresses upon me very much the same sensation 
 that the first tender green of spring produces. I do not mean the verdure of the 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 99 
 
 trees, but the haze that envelopes the sweet-briar when the leaves are half 
 unfolded.” 
 
 “ And I presume she also impresses you with a strong desire to protect her 
 from the biting frosts which are soon to blight the prosperity of rebels. ’Ron 
 honour, you can’t take a joke. ” 
 
 “ Admirably, on fitting subjects.” 
 
 “ Well, don’t look so serious ; only take care of your loyalty.” 
 
 “ Loyalty ! I hate the word, very descriptive of republican sentiments ! ” 
 
 “ Why not ? one may be loyal to anything.” 
 
 “ Yes ; but those who read much have a way of circumscribing the meaning of 
 terms according to common usage, so that it seems mal-apropos to go beyond 
 conventional limits. History teaches me that the term loyalist is never applied 
 to a true Kepublican. Think of describing Brutus, Tell, Washington, etc., as 
 loyalists ! ” 
 
 “ Nonsense ! ” 
 
 “ Here’s Webster’s Dictionary.” 
 
 After turning to the word, Metcalfe exclaimed, “I declare you’re right.” 
 
 “ What is the definition ? ” 
 
 “ Fidelity to a prince or sovereign, or to a husband or lover.” 
 
 “ As I supposed — Webster was too old-fashioned a Republican to have any 
 other idea. Do you think that if a year ago you had asked any boy in the 
 United States who a loyalist was he would not have said, one who adheres to a 
 King ? ” 
 
 “We had not thought about it much then.” 
 
 “ Except in South Carolina, perhaps.” 
 
 “ Oh I you have so many absurd ideas.” 
 
 <c But all await enlightening ; as for the word loyalist, I challenge you to find 
 it applied to any Republican in any history of standard authority. Am I 
 worried about little things ? Only when I consider them significant of greater. 
 As surely as straws show the way the wind blows, the general application of a 
 term shows the way men’s minds are tending.” 
 
 “ Do you mean to insinuate that the loyal Americans are preparing for a 
 king ? ” 
 
 “ Alas ! I fear I mean even worse. Did ever any minister of despotism have 
 greater power than Seward P ” 
 
 “What do you mean? Are you going to turn traitor for a pretty face?” 
 The wonderful disdain of Keble’s countenance was more forceful than any words, 
 and his friend sprang to his feet. 
 
 “ How absurd I am to carry every idea that gets in my crochety brain to its 
 extreme iimits ! ” 
 
 There was the accent of true friendship in Metcalfe’s tone, and the captain, to 
 show that he relented, exclaimed, “ I would let a woman tear my heart out 
 before she should, God being my Helper, trifle with my rectitude ; but before I 
 would let the fear of any aspersion the world might cast on my name prevent 
 me from following where my conscience called, I would become the butt of scorn,, 
 and die by the hangman’s hand ! His form, always majestic in its proportions, 
 seemed to tower above his friend, and his eye spoke a hero’s soul. Metcalfe felt 
 his heart shrivel up — he was no longer the friend of the man under whose glance 
 he quailed. The two old companions held a constrained conversation for a, short 
 while, and Metcalfe was glad to leave. Then Keble slowly put on his hat, and as 
 slowly turned and left his room? His spirit was oppressed ; it felt an undefinable 
 fear of coming darkness and storm, and in that darkness he saw no angel whose 
 white wings could melt half the gloom away. Keble started for a walk in the 
 back part of the city where he might have time to think. He was not conscious 
 of pretty girls curling their lips, or tossing their heads as they caught sight of his 
 buttons ; he did not observe the superfluity of pavement accorded to him by 
 those who did not turn up their noses. Alone with God, he resolved to face the 
 momentous question, “ Where do I stand ?” As he passed up Gray Street, the 
 door of a pretty little church stood open, and some one touched his shoulder. 
 
100 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “You look at the church with the eye of a stranger ; won’t you walk in, sir ? 
 We’re rather late,” continued the old gentleman as they walked up the flower- 
 bound path. 
 
 a A stranger ! ” Yes ; stranger was he to every man. 
 
 As Keble bowed his head he felt more vividly than ever before what it was to 
 have one Friend, Almighty and Unchangeable. It was sweet to hold communion 
 with One who had suffered as no other man had — alone. His dearest friends had 
 slept while He, in agony, sweated drops of blood. 
 
 When the short evening service was over, Keble with calmed mind, un- 
 consciously turned his steps towards Mr. Buckner’s ; but on the way he forgot to 
 ask any question of self. 
 
V GLUME II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 January, 1862 , 
 
 * 4 Those slender fingers in my fevered hand, 
 
 Their coldness chills me like the touch of death. ” 
 
 Keble was murmuring half-unconsciously these lines of Grace Greenwood, that 
 he had learned one pleasant summer night more than two years ago on a 
 prairie of Wisconsin, because he had fancied he would like to love and woo a 
 statue, one who was, and ever must be, immaculate ; he would, he said then, 
 rather give reverence than demand tenderness. Yet more than once had 
 Keble, a votary of astronomy, turned from his study of the heavens, to press 
 to his caressing lip some delicate prairie flower that seemed purer than the 
 starlight ; and in those lone nights when he held communion high and holy 
 with his Maker, he would often fancy that a golden- winged angel swept through 
 the pale, blue air, and bowed her cold lips to his cooler brow, and he was then 
 content to feel that such an one was by, and never longed to demand an avowal 
 of love ; so when he had first met Laura and felt the purity and nobility of her 
 presence folded around him like the bright wings of his angel of the prairie, he 
 said, “I shall never ask her love; it would not become an officer of the 
 Government to sue for the favour of a rebel. I do not desire her love, only 
 her companionship ; while there is a pause in the war I shall sit down by this 
 pure woman, as a way-worn traveller by a fountain on the verge of a desert ; 
 her sweet tones will lull the unwonted fever of my brain and I shall find 
 refreshment and repose. ” So, day after day, he had fearlessly lingered to yield 
 himself to a study more engrossing than that of the stars, and more perplexing ; 
 for, it often kept him awake until the morning ; yet so refreshed was his spirit 
 by waking visions that he felt not the loss of rest. Keble liked Laura because 
 she seemed so cold and far away ; so separate from the raging life around her ; 
 true, she had more fire when she was aroused by the Southern question than 
 any woman he knew ; but what of that ? Is not the rainbow far above us and 
 separate from us, though it be brighter than the ribbons which earth’s children 
 wear ? So, Keble said to himself, this was the principal reason he loved her : 
 but his biographer thinks that he loved her chiefly because the woman who was 
 so individualized from all other beings allowed her thoughts and sympathies 
 to run parallel and very close to his. True, she professed herself wedded to 
 her country ; but what did Keble care for that ? No more than had he been a 
 sculptor, he would have been jealous if her thoughts were generally bestowed 
 on a great painting. He liked to hear her talk about the South, because it was 
 inspiring to see her soft, dewy eyes flash into eager passion ; to hear her low, 
 and generally monotonous voice, rise into high, though never loud, enthusiasm. 
 He was proud of the brightness and purity of the star which he loved, nor 
 cared that it shone for others than himself. Why it was, Keble had never 
 
102 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 asked himself ; but he had been unlike most men in that he had had no desire 
 to marry. It had been pleasanter for him to bow his proud soul in the light of 
 a star, than woo to indifferent arms the woman whom he loved from afar. It 
 was not long before he learned that Laura was not one of the heavenly ones ; 
 the light upon his spirit came from the blue sky of purity far above the world, 
 beyond the influence of its smoke and fog, but farther still was it from the 
 Throne of Deity. And then in the prairie-like loneliness of a disappointed 
 heart, he prayed more earnestly than he had ever done before, that to him 
 might be given wings of boldness and faith which could carry him up to the 
 height of his star, that so his arms, now yearning with a still and hidden 
 human longing, might manfully clasp her to his awakened heart and bear her 
 higher and higher, even to the footstool of the Eternal One, Whose name is 
 “Love.” Admiration had become reverence for purity, nobility, and intellect, 
 and reverence had become love ere the dreamer knew that he, too, was as other 
 men, born to hope and to grieve. He awoke from his dream and welcomed the 
 pain which told of a hitherto unsuspected life ; but he awoke to toil and to 
 prayer ; for, he first discovered his hidden treasure by a fear that he should 
 lose Laura forever. Knowing now that he loved, he thought of her coldness 
 with a sinking of the heart very unlike the pleasant excitement it had before 
 created. His soul burning with the new pain, he threw off his uniform and 
 donned broadcloth, and walked to Mr. Buckner’s. He did not ring the bell at 
 once. 
 
 Laura was at her grand piano, drawing out strains so powerful he wondered 
 how her slender fingers could produce such, until self-consciousness reminded 
 him how easily their owner could sway him. He did not think that a worn-out 
 piano would no more have responded to her power than would a roue have 
 yielded unresistingly to such influence. But Laura knew that the reason she 
 had more power over him than over any other lover was because he was purer 
 and truer as a man. While he stood on the piazza listening to her she was 
 playing a symphony to this thought : “ Keble hearkened to the crude melodies 
 murmuring in my heart, caught their wild notes, and sent them back to me, all 
 dissonances hushed, all sweet notes rightly pitched, a glorious harmony.” 
 
 The bell rang and she received the officer, who, emboldened by a new fear, 
 begged her to take a walk. 
 
 She would not ; could she be seen walking by the side of a Yankee ? She 
 remembered that his power could not hush all dissonances, a political one 
 defied him. He asked her to play, that he might have time to wrestle with 
 his wounded pride, for he knew well enough why she refused his request. 
 
 She reseated herself gladly at the piano, and began with an inharmonious 
 air, and went over a short list of non-melodies, turning over page after page 
 of a long scorned music-book. It was the first time her music had not touched 
 Keble ; but he had the happy faculty of not hearing bad playing. If strains 
 stole into his soul he welcomed them ; but nobody ever banged a tune into 
 him. So he withdrew his thoughts from the waltz she was fumbling over. 
 A great longing came over him as, after a time, the music passed into strains 
 like low and ill-subdued wailing ; he looked to see if she played from notes 
 and was persuaded she was improvizing. He could not tell what troubled her; 
 but felt it would be very sweet to take the spoiled child to his bosom, and 
 with gentlest words blow away her ill-humour, as the breeze drives away 
 clouds from the pure sky. If he could but shield her from the rough winds 
 that had blown away the bloom from lives as fair ! Laura’s hands fell 
 harshly on the keys ; they were heavy -weighted by the thoughts of her troubled 
 brain. 
 
 4 ‘ Darling ! ” 
 
 That one word and nothing more ; but it filled the room and a self-dis- 
 trustful heart as the voice of the nightingale fills the night ; the gloom vanished. 
 
 Shocked at his impetuosity, which had burst forth like a torrent ere it was 
 known to be necessary that the flood-gates should be strengthened, the lover 
 dared not ask pardon. But why should he ask pardon ere he knew whether 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 103 
 
 she had heard the outcry of his heart beginning its first struggle? The piano 
 changed its petulancy into a strain so sweet that his eye and ear seemed to be 
 wedded in indistinguishable melody. 
 
 Laura, having finished a prelude born of “Darling,” played that exquisite 
 poem of Mason’s, “The Silver Spring.” The music seemed to trickle from her 
 closed eyes and slightly-parted lips ; like a veil of moonlight it enhanced the 
 peach bloom of her cheeks. The spray enveloped Keble ; a mistiness stole 
 over heart and soul. What was the fair, wilful woman but a spirit — the in- 
 habitant of a musical world into which he was just admitted, and, as men are 
 wont to be in fairy realms, by a dream? Would he not soon awake and find 
 himself in a parched and thirsty land of hopes suddenly found to be the smiles 
 of a delirium — the “Silver Spring ” and its Spirit beyond his grasp? He 
 questioned himself as one does when under the last consciousness that chloro- 
 form permits. Is the delicious, painless stupor a natural dream, or the subtle 
 influence of a power that oft produces death ? Keble must answer a like 
 question. Can he grasp the dream and prove it a reality ? or, shall he clasp 
 reality, and hear he has been dreaming ? He will try to decide the question; 
 and too eagerly, as men are wont to snatch at bubbles, forgetful that they 
 may scare away the child that makes them, Keble pressed the magical fingers 
 nervously upon a heart almost stilled. The dream was real. The pulses he 
 felt came from a living heart. 
 
 “ Let me sing you something sentimental,” said Laura, starting from him like 
 a fawn caught when it thought itself alone in the woods. She struck up a mock- 
 heroic air and sang it in mock-sentimental style. What could Keble do ? get up 
 and go away. Where ? anywhere, to escape from the nightmare was his wish ; 
 but its victim could not move. Her voice was the incubus ; how he longed to 
 have it hushed that he might go ! she got up and he wished she had continued 
 to sing; even her gibes were better than the cold, haughty look she gave him. 
 “ Did I ever show you my manuscript volume of Animal Physiognomy P ” 
 
 “No.” He could not force out more words. She opened a book-case and 
 taking a volume pointed to a grinning Sambo pressing his mistress’s red woollen 
 mitten to his right side, while she looked on laughing. Keble’s anger mastered 
 him for a minute ; but he was not a man to let it keep the mastery, and Laura 
 never felt his superiority as she did when he said, while he held the book, “ My 
 sympathies have been excited for ex-governor Morehead, and I should like to 
 know why he was arrested P ” 
 
 “You must think me a sphinx to be able to answer that question ; I should as 
 soon attempt to pry into the mysteries of Egypt, as the reasons which actuate 
 our present rulers. He is a traitor, I guess ; it is well to adopt the Yankee style 
 when you give a Yankee dictum. Louisville’s Loyal Committee of ten, who 
 fooled the people into neutrality, said — ‘ Will Kentucky throw overboard such 
 tried and trusted pilots as Morehead and some others who with him were in the 
 Union ticket for the Border Conference ?’ ” 
 
 “ Union ticket ! Why did he change sides ? ” 
 
 “ Because he was too honest to maintain a government which he believed 
 false.” 
 
 Little could Laura know how her words stung the conscience of the soldier of 
 a corrupt government ! 
 
 “ The cloud of a dark thought is coming over your face.” 
 
 “ I am thinking,” replied Laura, but did not add, “ of you and him, and how I 
 hoped the answer might yet suit you.” 
 
 “ A penny for your thoughts.” 
 
 “ Quite a Yankee offer ; everything is to be bought with money, even a woman’s 
 thoughts.” 
 
 Keble smiled. “ Then I shall offer sympathy,” and this was said in a very 
 different tone. Laura dreaded he would say words too tender for a Southern 
 woman to hear from him ; so it was with somewhat of an effort that she thought 
 of another subject for attack. Her policy did her better service than she knew ; 
 for he often thought, “ What a heartless woman ! No feeling but for her country, 
 as she calls one portion of it.” 
 
104 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ Did you ever observe, Captain Wilson, bow often a nation’s idols are God’s 
 appointed instruments of vengeance ? As all of the Egyptian plagues, save one, 
 cast dishonour upon some particular god of the idolaters, so it often is now. In 
 this war do you not see the same thing ? Money and reason are the gods of the 
 North. To make money, or to save it was the moving spring of this war ; it may 
 end in the poverty of the invaders. Then the Yankees pride themselves on their 
 reason. The ‘ hub of the universe ’ is in their midst ; in literature, philosophy 
 and history, every nation must speak their shibboleth or be found unworthy to go 
 forward with them to the conquest of ignorance and sin.” 
 
 “ What you have said is too true. Saddest of all, it is equally true in religion. 
 The Christianity of Jesus is not elevated enough for Yankee aesthetics ; there is 
 no beauty in human depravity, and the need of atonement ; the prayers and 
 praises of a thousand years are too inane for their lofty comprehension. How can 
 they be expected to be content with what satisfied Newton, Shakespeare, Bacon, 
 Taylor, Wilson and others ? And as for a government instituted by Apostles, it 
 is much too old-fashioned for such elegant people. It is my theory that what a 
 nation is in religion it will soon be in politics.” 
 
 “ Pardon me. But I think the history of the North does not tally with this 
 theory, unless, indeed you mean for me to infer headstrong in religion, headstrong 
 in politics ; bigoted in one as in the other.” 
 
 “ Those who deny the authority of contemporary evidence in the history of the 
 Church, invalidate or deny the same in the history of the Constitution.” Laura 
 looked a little condemned, but thought he could not cut her on the subject of 
 bigotry, so she said — 
 
 “ Deliver me from the liberality of the Liberals in Church or State. They 
 generally pity as ignoramuses and denounce as bigoted all who differ from them ; 
 however superior the objects of their liberality may be.” 
 
 “ I am surprised at such sentiments from you whom I am happy to discover 
 do not claim to be a Liberal.” 
 
 “ In religion I claim to be a Nothingarian ; in politics I am a decided Re- 
 publican, and am perfectly willing for the North to be ruled by a military 
 despotism if she so wills.” 
 
 “ Charitable, if not liberal ; ” laughingly responded her hearer. 
 
 ‘‘Not even that. I wish you to try despotic rule for awhile.” 
 
 “ Why ? Do not you think I should submit to authority as readily in State as 
 in Church questions ? ” 
 
 “Yes ; if it were as near akin to Methusaleh. Well, I suppose despotism is.” 
 “ But my Church’s government is eminently Republican.” 
 
 “ What an idea ! ” 
 
 “ Will you point out to me the difference in the Government of the old United 
 States and the Episcopal Church of this land ? ” 
 
 “ Do not you regard the connection between the General and State Government 
 as a compact ? ” 
 
 “ Undoubtedly; as do all writers on the Constitution, I presume.” 
 
 “ And the Constitution is the compact ?” 
 
 “ Yes ! ” 
 
 “ Tf one party violates or annuls the compact, is not the other released from 
 it P ” 
 
 “ So the law decides. ” 
 
 “ If a legislative body hears any strong assertion of a novel character made 
 of itself and takes no notice of it, is it not fair to infer it acquiesces ?” 
 
 “ I should say yes, but you are so fond of laying traps for me, I am afraid 
 to.” 
 
 “ Wade said in the presence of the Senators that the Constitution of the 
 United States was suspended. If this be so it might as well, for present 
 security, be annihilated. ” 
 
 “Yes.” 
 
 “Has not Kentucky now a legal right to let fall the bond broken by her 
 ally?” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 105 
 
 “ You ought to be a lawyer, so as you might indulge in special pleading. ” 
 
 “ For the truth ; thank you. You may have observed my penchant for con- 
 trasts, so resign yourself to an extract from President Davis’s Inaugural : — 
 4 Under all the necessities of our unequal struggle there has been no act on our 
 part to impair personal liberty or the freedom of speech, of thought, or of the 
 press.’ Is it strange with such contrasts between the Northern and Southern 
 Governments, ’we should long to be under the latter ? In Mr. Davis’s Inaugural 
 he says : f The right of each State to judge of and redress its own wrongs was 
 laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1788, and they were 
 sanctioned at the elections of Jefferson, Madison, and Pierce.’ I wish the 
 children in our public schools were taught the history of our land.” 
 
 “ The doctrine of Secession would be a bad one to innoculate boys and girls 
 with, especially the girls ; they might want to practise their doctrine in married 
 
 “The simile from which your idea is taken is false. Suppose a woman, 
 whose husband is thought to have been lost at sea, marries another man, and 
 the first husband returns, to whom does she owe allegiance ? ” 
 
 “ To her first husband, of course ; but that is a question you have asked only 
 to trap me. ” 
 
 “I have found an easy way to settle this question of State Rights.” 
 
 “ Ah ! The world will be obliged to you.” 
 
 “Not in the least, because the world will be like you, let it go in at one ear and 
 out the other. You have admitted that a subsequent allegiance cannot in- 
 validate a former.” 
 
 “ Certainly not. ” 
 
 “ Which is the oldest — State Government or the Federal ?” 
 
 “Ah ! I see. But only the original Thirteen can urge this.” 
 
 “Did the subsequent ones agree to delegate any right their older sisters had 
 retained ? If South Carolina is the mother of this present movement, Virginia 
 and Kentucky are its grand-parents. ” 
 
 “What new discovery have you made now, Lady Columbus of Politics? ” 
 
 “ It is easier to ridicule — ” 
 
 “ I beg pardon ; I did not.” 
 
 “ Than to follow facts to their legitimate conclusions. Do you remember 
 the great outcry against the Alien and Sedition Laws ? ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Rather too young for that. ” 
 
 “ Oh ! You understand me. Do you remember it in history ? ” 
 
 “Yes, and I opposed know-nothingism on the same principles that my father 
 had opposed those laws. Virginia was the first to protest against them, and 
 Kentucky followed hard after. Virginia, not South Carolina, was the first 
 whose Legislature passed resolutions, declaratory of States’ Rights.” 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 “Minnie, such logic as that is incontrovertible; I’d as soon attempt to ride 
 down a hippogriff, or — ” 
 
 “Reconcile Mr. Sumner to common sense,” interposed Mr. Buckner. 
 
 “Have you seen the Resolutions he lately introduced in the Senate?” 
 
 “ I think not. ” 
 
 “In his preamble he calls the Southern States, ‘ certain States’; his first 
 Resolution declares that a 4 vote of secession is inoperative and void against the 
 Constitution. ’ ” 
 
106 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “Good English !” 
 
 “Yet notwithstanding its inoperativeness it is powerful enough to ‘ annihilate 
 itself. ’ ” 
 
 “ Annihilate itself ! ” 
 
 “Yes. His next Resolution asserts that it is only, ‘ a combination of men 
 which assumed to act in the place of a State. ’ ” 
 
 “If these men only assumed to represent the State, can the State he held 
 responsible therefor ? ” 
 
 “Just as easily as it can ‘annihilate itself.’ Moreover, Mr. Sumner admits 
 the decline of State Rights. He says ‘slavery has no origin in the Constitution 
 or in natural rights ’ ; but is ‘derived from local or State laws.’ If slavery has 
 not its origin in the Constitution, it is recognized by it. Yet he says, ‘It is the 
 duty of Congress to see the Constitution maintained ; and again, that Congress 
 should destroy slavery, for which it had previously provided a safeguard. 
 Yet he has the senselessness to declare that, to return fugitive slaves is to the 
 exclusion of the jurisdiction of Congress under the Constitution.’ Again, he 
 says, ‘ By the extinction of the States, slaves become free. ’ ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ One would presume he had never read history, or the logic of politics or of 
 honesty, nor had ever heard that slavery existed in the colonies before the 
 States were. He says the Government owes protection to every man, and yet 
 should destroy the political rights of millions of freemen, and reduce States to 
 territories.” 
 
 “ He might as well try to make a man put on a child’s dress.” 
 
 “His last Resolution takes for granted the extinction of the States.’’ 
 
 “He will be like a man who shuts his eyes and says the candle is out ; but 
 who changes his mind when he finds his bed on fire. ” 
 
 “Yet he thinks Congress forbids them to do certain things which have been 
 ‘ done by those pretended Governments. ’ ” 
 
 “ Government ? ” 
 
 “No ; governments of the States.” 
 
 “ Oh ! so the States came to life even before he had finished writing his 
 resolutions P ” 
 
 “ He says,” ‘ In pursuance of the positive injunction of the constitution, whereby 
 every state is guaranteed a Republican form of Government, Congress will proceed 
 to declare them territories.” 
 
 “As an illustration of Rupublicanism.” 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 January, 1862. 
 
 “ Who is your hero of these warlike times ? ” asked CaptainWilson. 
 
 “ General Buckner,” answered Laura. 
 
 “ Are you an exception to the rest of Kentuckians ? I mean, can you talk of 
 him without getting excited ? ” 
 
 “ As calmly as I can of Washington.” 
 
 “ Hyperbole to begin with.” 
 
 “ It is my turn to ask a question. Can you hear General Buckner discussed 
 without becoming impatient ? ” 
 
 ‘‘I can ; I want to find out his claims to your admiration.” 
 
 “Please remember that no matter how personal a remark may appear, I do 
 not intend it to apply to you. The reason I shrink from political discussion is 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 107 
 
 that a man’s politics are like his religion ; no, his ideas of religion, always 
 regarded as private property.” 
 
 “Not by persons who understand the art of discussion.” 
 
 “ Then I shall tell you what I think of General Buckner ; he is my hero because 
 to me he is the noblest spirited of Southern braves. I say to me ; I can measure 
 men only by my knowledge of their species. One item in his favour, that you 
 will acknowledge, is that he attends what you call ‘ the Church.’ ” 
 
 44 I cannot allow that to weigh much ; as most West Pointers do.” 
 
 4 4 This much I can say in favour of West Point. I never knew a man who 
 had been educated there who was not, at least in appearance, a gentleman. I 
 make a wide distinction between volunteers whom avarice, vanity, or fanaticism 
 have lured into the service, and United States’ officers who are fighting, as they 
 say, for the Government that has educated and supported them. I can forgive 
 the Northern fanatic more readily than the Southern who raises his arm to 
 strike his mother. ” 
 
 44 Whom? ” 
 
 44 His State. You need not smile; no logic can prove that the Northern 
 States Government is nearer to us and has stronger claims on our allegiance 
 than that of our own State, unless it can prove that a grandmother is nearer 
 than a mother. 
 
 44 A novel argument.” 
 
 “Natural enough to a woman’s reason.” 
 
 4 4 1 dare not answer you lest you accuse me of breaking the Fifth Command- 
 ment,” said the captain, smiling. 
 
 44 Have no fear on that score ; I am not given to making badinage of Scripture ; 
 wanting in reverence as you Episcopalians think we, who stand bolt upright 
 when we address the Sovereign of the Universe, are wont to be.” 
 
 44 Oh ! ” 
 
 44 Spare me a religio-ecclesiastical controversy ; politics rather. ” 
 
 44 1 suspect you are surer of your arguments on the last subject.” 
 
 4 4 More given to newspapers than to tracts ? — yes. ” 
 
 A light that Laura had never before seen in his eye made her heart beat a little 
 nervously — the light was very sad, but intensified by feeling. Did you never 
 on a day of sunshine, see a soft, fleecy cloud, which nothing but intervening 
 distance prevented your tossing your sin-stained heart upon as a naughty child 
 throws itself on its mother’s bosom? Laura threw back her soft wealth of hair 
 and felt as a man may when, on the eve of battle with an enemy whom he has 
 prided himself upon despising, he finds in his heart not only respect, but a 
 softer feeling ; so quickly the proud woman began a controversy in which she 
 hoped her opponent would lose temper, that she might not be uncomfortably 
 conscious that a Federal officer was the superior of so good a Southern as 
 herself. 
 
 44 As for General Buckner, what do you Northmen know about him? 
 Nothing but what you have learned from his foes, the secret of whose 
 enmity lies in their fear of him. Base fear is the one word that tells the 
 foundation of all calumny against my hero. Fear laid the foundation ; 
 ignorance builds the superstructure, the Louisville Journal being chief 
 hodman. ” 
 
 44 Why do you despise that paper so ? Do you fear it ? ” 
 
 44 No ; I cannot fear what I despise, any more than I can love what I can- 
 not respect. You shake your head.” 
 
 44 You despise all whom you are pleased to denominate Yankees, yet you do 
 not scorn to be afraid of the soldiers. ” 
 
 44 1 despise your cause ; but I neither despise nor fear you.” 
 
 4 4 What! Would you not be frightened if you thought there was any 
 possibility that I could make a convert of you ? ” 
 
 An incredulous, low laugh. Then a new idea struck Laura. 
 
 44 Would it be honourable ? ” 
 
108 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 44 Honourable ! What do you mean? Honourable to let in the light of 
 truth upon an overclouded mind ? ” 
 
 44 Thank you.” 
 
 44 Pardon if I have offended. I almost unconsciously expressed a hope that 
 is almost constantly in my thoughts. You seem to me a bright, warm, yet soft 
 day of June ; flowers bloom for you ; birds sing for you ; you inhale the 
 sweetness of these and drink in the harmony of those ; but not with the full 
 free power of womanhood. There is a spell upon your life.” 
 
 Laura’s eyes fell ; but Keble may not have seen he had struck deeper than he 
 had thought to do. 
 
 “I feel as I used to when a boy I imagined myself the hero of some 
 enchanted lady’s story. I am near enough to touch you ; but I dare not. The 
 air of witchery is stealing over me — what must I do ? Escape while I can ? 
 or boldly advance and 4 waken the maiden who sleeps and knows it not ? ” 
 
 “Let her sleep.” 
 
 “Must I?” 
 
 “Yes.” 
 
 44 Is that a command? I beseech you do not answer without a thought. Am 
 I to blame if I have unwittingly found myself in an enchanted bower ? ” 
 
 His words were easy to banter, not so his tone ; so she sprang up gaily, tore 
 a sprig of white jessamine from her breastpin, threw it at his feet. 
 
 “ There is my defiance ; make a Yankee of me if you can.” 
 
 He had his hand upon it. 
 
 “ Stop ! Don’t take it up yet. ” 
 
 He bent over it. “ Why not ?” 
 
 “You may be vanquished.” 
 
 He raised the flower. “This is my badge ; white for the purity of truth.” 
 His blue eyes grew very dark and in tremulous tones, addressed to higher ears 
 than hers, he whispered, 4 4 4 May God judge and defend the right.’ ” 
 
 Laura turned away from this new mood and went to the piano ; a long time 
 she played, but not well ; there was no expression in her fingers, which were 
 cold and stiff, albeit her cheeks wore the flush of June. He waited patiently. 
 A son of Adam, he drank in the strange, weird beauty of his Eve, and in his 
 Eden heard the old, old voice, 44 It is not good for man to be alone.” But he 
 was also a son of the 4 4 Second Adam,” and while he waited for her to turn 
 again to him, he prayed that God might give him power to make her see the 
 truth. A Unionist she must be, and a church woman as well. A divided 
 family — heaven forbid ! such conception was not entertained by the lonely man 
 whose idea of matrimony, begotten by the Bible, nourished by the Church, 
 and fed from time to time on the pure dew of true novels and poems, could 
 not tolerate any light, unholy, or uncongenial companionship. Why was 
 Laura’s music so soulless ? Her fingers were but making an apology for silence, 
 which to her seemed throbbing with some precious triumph woman never won 
 before ; other women had been as much admired, of course ; but not by just 
 such a man. Yet after all her high speeches, was this proud Southern head to 
 rest on the bosom of a Northman ? No ! no ! and she prayed — probably for the 
 first time in her life, though nearly every Sunday she heard prayers long enough 
 to try her standing posture and her patience sorely. There was such a tremu- 
 lousness in the succeeding notes that Keble noticed it, and was about to speak, 
 when she ceased playing, and said — 
 
 44 1 beg your pardon.” 
 
 44 For what ? ” he asked, with a conscious smile. 
 
 44 Did you like my playing ?” 
 
 44 1 liked your playing very much.’’ 
 
 44 Don’t consider yourself bound to flatter me like a preux chevalier , because 
 you have accepted my challenge.” 
 
 44 1 wish very much that you would learn a piece of music for me. Will you ?” 
 
 44 Yes, if you will hear me sing one of my few songs, and behave like a dutiful 
 knight during and after the performance.’’ 
 
LOVE AND WAR , . 
 
 109 
 
 “ I have so seldom heard you sing that I can afford to bear a little raillery, or 
 even enjoy your rebellious enthusiasm.” 
 
 i{ ‘ Ye shall be free 
 
 The right to rule yourselves reads but one way, 
 
 That ye must will as we, 
 
 Govern yourselves ye may — if as we say, 
 
 Ye shall be free ! 
 
 Napoleon Europe forced to Liberty ; 
 
 And we will do as he ; 
 
 Nor he, nor we can bear a tyranny, 
 
 Ye shall be free ! 
 
 Ye shall be free, 
 
 Or with the lash we will stand over you, 
 
 Choke on our Liberty, 
 
 If so ye list ; but what we say is true ; 
 
 Ye shall be free ! 
 
 * All men are free and equal born,’ we say ; 
 
 Ye shall not greater be 
 
 Than we ; else die, fit prey for Liberty ! 
 
 Ye shall be free !” 
 
 Laura had composed this song one day after Keble had told her this was a 
 War of the Aristocracy, and he was fighting for the masses ; happily for him 
 he knew not this. The song mastered Laura, and when she had finished she 
 was strong in present resolution, fearing she might want it in the future. 
 With tears on either cheek she stood before him, hands clasped very tightly. 
 
 “Oh! can you ask me longer to tolerate the visits of a man whose aim, 
 whose employment, is to shoot down men whose only crime is love of freedom? 
 Go from me now ! go. I am very strong ; it will not hurt either of us now to 
 part forever. Go ! I cannot touch a hand dyed in the blood of my countrymen. 
 Go ! I entreat you, go from me, or I will leave you and forever.” 
 
 Keble seized her hands and by his man’s force gently seated her. 
 
 “ Laura, will you kill me ? ” 
 
 She struggled to go. He retained his hold of her hands. 
 
 “ Let go my hands instantly ! ” she said angrily, while her eyes flashed. 
 “It is like you Northmen, to compel a woman’s attention. It is nothing to 
 you whether you are wanted or not. ” 
 
 Keble grew very pale and bit his lip as he released her ; not until she had 
 last spoken was he conscious of what he had done. Not the assurance of hope, 
 but desperation like that of a man who clings to his wife’s corpse, had impelled 
 him to hold her for a long, lingering gaze. He had let go her hands, but she 
 sat still for a moment. He became calm and knelt before her ; but his words 
 were not to her. The high colour left her cheek, and when he arose she said. 
 
 “You have prayed for guidance; you thought of my error, I of yours. 
 When I threw down the jessamine I had resolved to make a Southerner of you ; 
 but I thought of the mortification and danger you would have to incur, and I 
 relented. You impelled me to the resolution when you said, ‘honourable’ in 
 such a tone. ” 
 
 “I, too, had formed a resolution.” 
 
 “But I am not afraid of yours,” said Laura in her natural voice. 
 
 “Nor I of yours,” he answered, growing bright. 
 
 “ I make up my mind now, God being my Helper, you shall know the truth. 
 I have learned to pray ; you have taught me ; now you may come back when 
 you like ; but before you return, count the cost. I do not speak so because of 
 any confidence in my powers of argumentation ; but I am sure I possess the 
 truth, and an earnest seeker like you God will bless. I know now what faith 
 means. Go,” she repeated, as he 3till stood beside her, dreaming the sweetest 
 of mortal’s reveries, and evidently without intention of interrupting her and 
 
110 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 so rendering her conscious of the self -revelation his heretofore parched heart 
 was revelling in. “Go now, and if you never come hack, I will not have one 
 harsh thought of you. ” 
 
 “ I will come hack ; I am not afraid. I will he as candid as you. I, hy God’s 
 help, will make of you Unionist and churchwoman.” When their hands met 
 neither said good-bye. 
 
 Very dejected was Laura and helpless her attitude the night of the day on which 
 she had thrown down the challenge. Her thoughts were on this wise : “ What 
 
 is the matter with me P my hooks seem stupid ; a vague cloud of apprehension 
 covers everything. I know only one thing — I am weary. A strange feeling of 
 pity possesses me. I pity everybody. The other night most of the time while 
 Patti was singing, I was thinking what a lonely desolate life hers must he. To 
 her what is a houseful of admirers ? Machines to clap hands. And those who travel 
 with her ? Machines to extort money from the machines that go to hear her 
 because she is the fashion for a few nights in ‘ Vanity Fair.’ Few people really 
 appreciate music, and perhaps a majority of those who do are too poor to buy 
 concert-tickets. I declare I am positively ridiculous. I think I shall soon have 
 a nervous system to prate about. That man who was here to-day — how different 
 from other people ! Men are blockheads and women dolls. Heigh-ho ! I am glad 
 one individual dares to he a man and scorns fal-lal. But what have I to do with 
 him ? What if he does love me ? Other men have done the same and most of 
 them have forgotten me as soon as it became highly proper for them to do so, and, 
 he is like the rest. That’s a slander — but no matter. 1 wish he would give me 
 a chance to despise him. Why don’t he justify some of the outrages of Lincoln 
 or his hirelings ? Why will he be so provokingly true, even when he thinks he 
 is increasing the difference between us ? That’s a mistake, unluckily. How can 
 I hate even a Yankee when Bight, and not Union, is the standard by which he 
 judges ? It’s queer he loves me ; for I know I don't satisfy him ; rather im- 
 pertinent in him to let me know it. And I’m to be double convert, forsooth ! 
 Audacious ! I a churchwoman ! I’d like to see either the Church or the man that 
 can trammel me ! I wish I had punished him for his impudence ; but then he 
 ■was not impudent — he is by far the politest man I ever knew ; he spoke those 
 disagreeable words just as he does everything else, because he thought it right. 
 I should like to please him, I mean without ‘ getting religion,’ or, talking like a 
 Puseyite. I have it. I’ll quiz him about Puseyism. I hope he won’t ask me 
 what I mean. Bah ! How much time I do waste on the Blue Coat ! ” Laura, 
 tired of these thoughts, began to walk up and down her room, but feeling there 
 was only one way to quiet herself sat down to her journal and wrote — “ I am lost 
 in the emotions he has called forth. On the deep waters of my heart are 
 reverberating the echoes of his voice ; my soul is stirred within me. Fleets of 
 fairy-like ships, all freighted with diamonds, rubies and pearls are dashed hither 
 and thither in wild commotion. The deep-toned thunderings of an immortal 
 soul rouse me to exertion ; then the flashing of genius blinds me ; I sink cower- 
 ing in despair. Trembling in spirit, I dare to lift my eyes, and the e) r es of a 
 brother fascinate me. In his confidence in my better nature, in his firm trust in 
 God I got a glimpse of what faith means ; then the troubled waters ceased their 
 tumult and the Star of Bethlehem was reflected in my tranquillized soul. I have 
 to acknowledge Christ when in Keble’s presence. His look commands my better 
 nature, for his face is but the revelation of a noble soul ; often there is pensive 
 sadness in his eye, but are not all of nature’s harmonies in the minor key ? ” 
 
 I shall turn back to last week’s journal to trace Laura’s feeling. 
 
 “ Hitherto, I have really lived alone, completely shut up in myself. Beautiful 
 images were brooding over my heart, but all was chaos ; melodies were floating 
 there, the music lost in interminable echoes. Then Keble said, ‘ Let there 
 be light.’ Chaos was lost in the light of his smile ; he commanded a melody and 
 the floating harmonies obeyed him. Keble heard the rustling of cherubic wings, 
 called up the slumbering angels of his life, and bade them enter unsuspected into 
 the depths of my closed heart, and lure its inmates to the sunshine of his 
 sympathy. Not perceiving the ruse, the beings of my secluded breast were 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 Ill 
 
 charmed with their loveliness and flew up to meet them, and he and I are 
 gladdened with their mystic dance.” 
 
 CHA.PTEK IY. 
 
 Eustace Huntington’s Letter to Minnie Breckenridge. — February 1. 
 
 “ My darling ! Oh, let me in this letter lavish every term of affection that I 
 can find ! I have been writing such stilted letters to Miss Breckenridge for fear 
 they should be opened that I can’t bear the constraint any longer, and so have 
 bribed a man who wishes to visit his mother in L. to take two to you. He is an 
 honest fellow, has been serving as attach^ to our coloured cook in Camp Ash, 
 and excited my sympathy by his lugubrious face. 1 A fellow feeling makes us 
 wondrous kind.’ One night I discovered him not far distant, with his head buried 
 in his hands, and from the oscillations of his rotund body, I soon surmised he 
 was engaged in a sentimental occupation, in fact crying. I called him to me, 
 and he unburdened himself. He had a sweetheart in L. and they used 
 to get along finely, but her father was a regular Yankee, and the poor swain 
 could no more help being Southern than he could change the colour of his hair — 
 fiery enough ; but he says he likes now to have red hair. He has turned out a 
 red moustache, and as he has a remarkably fair complexion, he says he carries his 
 colours before all the world 4 red, white and red.* The father refused to let him 
 have his daughter, who is very much such a neutral as is Kentucky — Southern at 
 heart, but finding herself under the power of the North, and being apparently 
 deserted by the South, for Harry stayed away when he was bidden, she says she 
 takes no part in politics. I was sick for a few days, and the faithful fellow 
 watched me night and day, and confided to me in a most confidential tone that 
 when I was asleep, I talked about 4 Minnie,’ and one night exclaimed, 4 Oh, 
 that I could but get one letter full of thoughts of love to her without fear of its 
 being opened by the petty tyrants who surround her ! ’ I must have been more 
 eloquent asleep than awake, or Harry must have imagination, for he repeated 
 quite a pretty speech. I had a fever ; but don’t feel uneasy, my sweet ; for I am 
 perfectly well now. As soon as I got well Harry manifested great impatience to 
 see his mother, whom I know you will henceforth care for, and if she needs any- 
 thing, remember you are my agent with unlimited powers. I told him I thought 
 he would run a great risk as there are so many foreign troops about L., but I 
 fear I have not used my best arguments to keep him here.” 
 
 The rest of the love-letter I omit ; let old and young look in their escritoires, 
 or hearts, and read it there. 
 
 Harry had strict orders that the note in the little envelope was to be swallowed 
 before it was to be given up to the Yankees ; moreover, a lover writing to his 
 beloved would be rather hard to identify, and no proper names were used except 
 Harry’s, who was warned of the consequences of allowing it to be seen. Besides 
 the small envelope, Harry bore a large one, which had been filled a week before, 
 and that he was not necessitated to swallow in case of search. It was as follows : — 
 
 “ Dear Cousin Minnie, 
 
 I never hear from you, and if I could only forget the sweet- 
 ness of your countenance, and the tones of your voice, I would get angry enough 
 to write a very stirring letter. If you wrote a fifth as many as I do some would 
 be received. You asked for a description of camp life ; I don’t live here, though 
 .1 eat, drink, sleep, and drill here very regularly ; my heart has two abiding places, 
 one where lives — (will you give her my adoration?), the other abiding place 
 
112 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 is in the heart of dear old Kentucky, vilified by those who cannot understand 
 her position, loved and pitied by those who know her to be bound hand and foot. 
 We will come to set her free. I joined Captain Morgan’s cavalry company the 
 latter part of October when he had about thirty men. He was recruiting: at Glasgow ; 
 we occupied two buildings at the Fair Grounds and were fed extravagantly well 
 by the people who looked on us as their promise of freedom. Farmers, often 
 without any hint, brought us in loads of corn and oats ; not a day passed 
 without bringing us bounteous samples of womanly gratitude — bread, meat, 
 (especially turkeys ; they thought us worthy of their best) pies, cakes, cider, 
 apples ; and not a cent would be taken as compensation. Sometimes a hospi- 
 table farmer invited all of us to come and pass the night, and seemed to feel 
 highly honoured at our acceptance. How such beautiful appreciation of our 
 cause touched our hearts you can readily imagine. Do you think any position 
 in the Confederacy could ever draw our hearts from old Kentucky ? For six 
 weeks we lived in this way, when General Johnston ordered us to Bowling 
 Green. But I must not forget the high compliment paid our company. 
 Captain John Hunt Morgan (remember his name; it will be famous soon) 
 expressed great pleasure at our manly, genteel appearance, and good drill, and 
 invited us to join his squadron. If I am not a bad prophet, you will be as 
 proud of this invitation as if we had been summoned to Richmond to be 
 President Davis’s body-guard. How would you like us to be the body-guard 
 of our old Mother Kentucky’s liberty? To let you see I am honoured to be in 
 the ranks, I’ll tell — no, this is absurd ; it is honour enough to fight for liberty 
 and be in Morgan’s squadron. You must remember serving in the ranks in the 
 Northern and Southern armies is very different. You look at the rank and file 
 of the armed mob passing through Louisville, and shudder at the idea of 
 receiving any but an officer (I imagine you entertaining a Lincoln officer ! !) ; 
 but, as I heard our Captain say, there were in his company but two or three 
 who were not independent gentlemen, (a) My bed is of rails laid on the ground, 
 and on this, straw, blankets, and sheets. Does Cousin Minnie remember the 
 half dozen dainty pillow-cases confided to my care? I have an India-rubber 
 pillow, and am accused of putting on airs by my comrades who have no pillows, 
 or have calico bags with a string at one end so as they can put in fresh straw. 
 Picture me in a roundabout ! In truth our company might be termed The 
 Picturesque ; our Captain, the most prominent figure, in roundabout of 
 variously coloured stripes, suspected to have once been his robe de chambre. 
 Don’t be alarmed for the state of our purses ; we have more money than we 
 want. Do you know the flower I enclose ? It is the chamomile, and was used 
 emblematically in our first Revolution, and with the same meaning now — ‘The 
 more we are trampled upon the more we grow.’ ” (a) 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 February 5th. 
 
 “ Do you know there is talk of imprisoning you rebel ladies P It isn’t much 
 use to cage the male if the female is always cooing outside. But there are so 
 many Southern Rights’ ladies, as you call yourselves, that I fancy it would be a 
 difficult matter to imprison a fifth of you,” said Captain Wilson. 
 
 “ The easiest thing in the world,” responded Laura. 
 
 “ Oh ! How so ? ” 
 
 “ I suppose you have no qualms of conscience about confining the Southern 
 gentlemen at the same time ? ” 
 
 “ Not the least,” he laughingly replied. “Then send Yankee, and Dutch, and 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 113 
 
 the comparatively few Kentuckians out of the town, and declare Louisville one 
 grand military prison.’’ 
 
 “ That is the only feasible plan I have heard of ; but you make a sweeping 
 accusation.” 
 
 “ Is it an accusation to say that Southern men and women have Southern 
 hearts ? ” 
 
 “ But you exaggerate your party’s strength.” 
 
 “ You underrate it ; the city officials are nearly all Lincolnists, would be one 
 of your arguments. I reply, it is proverbial that the truest Kentuckians have 
 always avoided the gifts of the people ; they have quite enough to do to make 
 money and enjoy themselves. I grant they are culpable, and I can afford to 
 censure them, for, I do not believe that this generation will again be caught 
 napping.” 
 
 “But your legislators and congressmen were elected on a Union ticket.” 
 
 “ I beg pardon for denying what to you must seem a fact ; nevertheless, I do. 
 Let me give you one sample ; a friend of mine paid a visit last spring to a strong 
 Union neighbourhood ; that is, everybody talked about the Union and expressed 
 antipathy to an anti-Clay, Calhoun political creed.” 
 
 “ I think the Union owes more to Henry Clay than the Unionists themselves 
 are aware of. The Secessionists better understand that being dead he yet 
 speaketh. Why do you suppose is his influence so great ? His voice and his 
 fascinating address have been silent fourteen years. As for his great talent, 
 Calhoun had greater.” 
 
 “ I can’t admit that.” 
 
 “ Possibly you had better say you are not prepared to admit it. I cannot 
 allow that you are prepared to deny it, unless you are equally, or nearly as 
 conversant with the one as the other. May I ask how many of Calhoun’s speeches 
 you have read ? ” 
 
 “ Two.” 
 
 “ And how many pages of his Works on Government ? ” 
 
 “None.” 
 
 “ Well prepared then to judge of his mental qualifications ! ” 
 
 “ But his followers have been guilty of so much — A-hem ! so much that I 
 cannot approve of, that I judge of his political doctrines by their acts. But you 
 who are such an advocate of States’ Bights, refuse to heed the voice of the 
 Kentucky Legislature.” 
 
 “ The loudest advocate of States’ Rights would not complain if Lincoln were to 
 remove our Legislature to Washington. Why not ? It belongs to him. Of 
 course, all members are not silenced by fear or bribery ; there are some honour- 
 able ‘ Nays ; ’ a few are so blind they can’t see ; some too good to be capable of 
 estimating other people’s baseness while they hear only good words. Prentice 
 says — 4 the great object of neutrality was to so order events that Kentucky might 
 encounter the issue as a governmental unit in the full panoply of her constitutional 
 authority.’ ” (a) 
 
 “ Pray do not talk of this any more,” said Keble with manifest embarrassment 
 and pity ; “you tremble so.” 
 
 “ At those words ‘ a governmental unit.’ I wonder if those three words will 
 ever cease to burn my brain. Ah ! if I were a man to stand before the world and 
 avow Kentucky’s folly while I cleared her of all suspicion of treachery ! ” 
 
 Laura in great agitation arose and walked away to hide her excitement from 
 Keble. 
 
 “ May the subsidiary politicians see and bewail their grievous mistake. They 
 were deceived — but let them now see their true position, as panderers of lies to 
 the people. Have you read Lane’s speech in Kansas F ” 
 
 ‘ * I have not ; for I knew his style would be offensive to every gentleman, even 
 were the matter acceptable.” 
 
 “I have read it, and with the same feeling that I should have in a vault had I 
 a presentiment that I should be put in my coffin, in the midst of corruption, 
 while I still lived.” 
 
 H 
 
114 
 
 LOVE AND WAN 
 
 “ I cannot understand the simile,” answered Keble. 
 
 “ I believe that what Lane advocates will yet be done.” 
 
 “ I hope not, unless your comparison is hyperbolical.” 
 
 “ Judge for yourself. Please hand me that paper on the piano.” 
 
 “I should rather hear your sweet tones, or the music you can call forth from 
 that cold, insensate thing.” 
 
 “Iam not going to let you cast such a slur on my friend. I love it because 
 no matter what my mood is, it echoes it.” 
 
 “ A sensible thing could do that better, a man—” 
 
 “ Would be apt to excite my disgust.” 
 
 “ You would not refuse a love that though it emanated from a heart defiled by 
 sin, was in itself pure as that of an angel? Do you reject the lily because it 
 draws nourishment from corruption ? ” 
 
 “ But the lily can’t talk to disgust me.” 
 
 “ Did you ever read Andersen’s story of the girl who trod upon bread ? Pray 
 beware lest your dainty fastidiousness trample even unto death the human heart 
 whose dearest wish is tq nourish yours.” 
 
 There was a sadness in the officer’s tone that made Laura say — “ Let me have 
 the Journal pffiase.” And she held the paper up, pretending to be looking for 
 certain paragraphs until a blush, called up by his sad and anxious glance, had 
 faded from her cheek. “ Aye, but the loaf that he would offer me is marked 
 ‘ United States ; ’ better tread upon it than be poisoned. Better starve to death, 
 than eat the bread of dissension.” Having said that to her well-drilled heart, 
 she lowered the paper and commenced reading Lane’s speech. *‘ I told him I 
 wanted to see every soldier a knight errant and behind him his squire. He is a 
 Republican and would have every abolition soldier keep a darkee for servant.” 
 
 “ Don Quixote Sancho Panzas by the thousands, all in sable armour clad.” 
 
 “ But don’t laugh. Hear this : ‘ If the squires get guns I don’t propose to 
 banish a negro, if he kills a traitor.’ ” (a) 
 
 “ Cold blooded murderer ! ” 
 
 “‘I take stock in every negro insurrection, and I don’t care how many there 
 are.”’ (a) 
 
 “ The demon ! ” exclaimed the true son of chivalry. 
 
 “ Oh no ! he is your brother-soldier, your superior officer.” 
 
 Laura’s tone was very cutting. 
 
 “ Never! If Lane is not turned out of the army, I resign.” 
 
 A bright glow rose to his companion’s face, but the captain did not see it ; his 
 eyes glared on the coals, showing as much fire as they. She continued, 
 
 “ And go to Fort Warren. In your republican army an officer is thrown in a 
 bastille if he resigns.” 
 
 “ Then be it so.” The sternness of his voice showedhe felt her words might be 
 proved true. 
 
 “Pray don’t put yourself in Fort Warren before your lord and master sends 
 you there.” 
 
 He rallied. 
 
 “Have you any more lanes to the bastille?” 
 
 “ I have not shown you all the beauties of this one. Speaking of drilling 
 his black peers, the Federal General says, ‘You can see that in the innermost 
 recesses of their soul the devil is in them. Give them a fair chance and they 
 will do the balance of the fighting. ’ ” 
 
 “Ha! the coward!” 
 
 “ ‘ I care not who involves the traitors in ruin and death. I care not whether 
 the punishment is inflicted on the battle field, on the gallows, or from the 
 bush by a negro. ’ ” 
 
 “The cowardly, infamous assassin !’ ” 
 
 “Now calm yourself to consider the business-like reason of your brother- 
 officer’s ferocity. ‘We want Kansas a square State, with as much front north 
 and south, as east and west. ” 
 
 “Please throw that paper in the fire. I have had as much as I can endure 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 115 
 
 in one morning. The infamous brigand ! He is not even a fanatic ; were he, I 
 could pity him a very little ; but if he wants to free Missouri to add the land 
 to Kansas, then — ” 
 
 “I believe he wishes to add the Cherokee land, not Missouri, to Kansas ; 
 though I am not prepared to say he would be unwilling afterwards to spoil the 
 square if he could do it by robbery. ” 
 
 “ I rejoice to think I was always a Democrat and never an Abolitionist.” 
 
 “So was Lane once.” 
 
 “But he had to leave us before he could give utterance to such sentiments 
 as you have read. ” 
 
 “By-the-bye, you have one man you need not be ashamed of.” 
 
 “I am grateful for your wonderful concession. Who is so happy as to gain 
 your approbation?” 
 
 “Senator Bright. I liked his last speech in Congress, it was spoken by a 
 man ; but I cannot say that all who heard it were men. ” 
 
 “Oh! I protest — ” 
 
 “To as little purpose as my ‘bright, particular star ’ in your Congress. Is 
 not this fine? T do not understand that my constituents are asking my expul- 
 sion, and I want that fact understood before the country, that I am to be 
 expelled because of my political antecedents. That fact cannot be disguised. ’ 
 And he ends by calling on Indiana to ‘vindicate the truth of history, by 
 showing to the world that this partisan blow levelled at his head is not 
 merited. ’ ” 
 
 “And the people of Indiana will do it. Whether Bright gave a gunsmith a 
 letter to Davis or not, he has never been proven a traitor; therefore, Indiana 
 is insulted by this expulsion of her representative. ” 
 
 “If you are ashamed to claim Jim Lane as a brother- officer, what do you 
 think of Brigadier General Jennison?” 
 
 “I don’t know anything of him, except that he is one of the bush-whackers 
 in Kansas.” 
 
 “He served under the notorious Montgomery, was one of St. John Brown’s 
 pupils. You shall hear one of his orders. ‘Hallo there, you Mr. Man! Take 
 a squad of men and go down to yonder house and burn it to the ground, as 
 quick as the devil will let you.’ ” 
 
 “I fear, Miss Buckner, I shall never make a loyal woman of you — ” 
 
 “ While I lay claim to gentility ? ” 
 
 “ While you persist in reading so many papers.” 
 
 “ Honest loyalists must be ignorant or blind.” 
 
 “I beg pardon for asking if that is the decision of the purblind ?” 
 
 He saw Laura’s lips make the peculiar, unconscious motion that always 
 preceded a bitter answer, and hastily begged for a song. She restrained the 
 sarcasm, and immediately went to the piano and sang one she had lately 
 composed. 
 
 “ Heigh — ho ! Sing high ! sing low, 
 
 For I am ashamed of woe; 
 
 Don’t I know when fresh flowers blow, 
 
 That I’ll gather when the snow 
 Is melted off by soft spring rains 
 I shall be rid of this pain 
 Which now covers up my brain 
 In tears, till to die I’m fain ? 
 
 Heigh — ho ! Sing low ! sing high, 
 
 High enough to drown a sigh 
 When my lover passeth by ; 
 
 For he says, ‘ Who’s gay as I ? ’ 
 
 Well, the butterfly is gay, 
 
 Though one wing was torn in play. 
 
 On other wing he flies away ; 
 
 I’ll do as he without delay.” 
 
116 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 As she arose there was a nervous excitement about Keble she had not before 
 seen ; he did not thank her, nor seem conscious that he had not ; so she said — 
 “ Can you show me in the literature of politics any parallel cases which are so 
 very far apart as the speeches of the President-elect of the North in his journey 
 from Springfield to Washington, and those of the President-elect of the South in 
 his passage from Mississippi to Montgomery ? ” 
 
 Willing to avoid a direct answer by complimenting Laura on her weakest 
 point, pride of her State, Keble said — 
 
 44 But Davis was born in a State where orators are indigenous to the soil.” 
 
 44 Lincoln is a Kentuckian by birth.” 
 
 44 1 wonder you confess it.” 
 
 44 I never deny facts. And, truth to say, from the notorious Montgomery of 
 the Border, and the rash Jackson of Alexandria to the two Presidents, many of 
 the principal actors and talkers on both sides are Kentuckians. Sidney Johnson 
 and Sumter Anderson, Buckinridge and Crittenden, Buckner and Blair, Hood 
 and Nelson, Yankee Morgan and Gustavus Smith, Tom Taylor and Boyle, 
 Saunders and Holt. But you are not to beguile me from my first thought. I 
 want to know if you have compared the speeches of the Presidents-elect ? ” 
 
 “ Well, well ! Never very particularly, I believe.’ ’ 
 
 44 Then I shall give you a chance to do so,” Laura arose, took a scrap-book off 
 the table, opened it, and laid it on his knees. 
 
 44 Twilight ? ” he read aloud in an interrogating tone. There were, on several 
 successive pages, a column of Davis’s speeches, and a column of Lincoln’s ; over 
 the first was written 44 Day,” over the last 44 Night,” and the space between was 
 marked 44 Twilight.” 
 
 44 Yes,” said Laura, answering his tone ; “ goodness and evil meeting make 
 twilight ; the sun of the South and the fog of the North are striving for mastery. 
 Surely, my friend, you won’t seek evil when good is so close at hand. Between 
 Montgomery and his home Mr. Davis made twenty-five speeches, and I defy you 
 to find any such expressions as 4 1 appear merely to see you and to let you see me, 
 and to bid you farewell.’ ( c) It reminds me of a child’s letter : ‘I am in good health 
 and hope this will find you in the same.’ Davis, worn with excitement and 
 fatigue, says 4 he comes before the people to assure them of his gratitude ; ’ his 
 dignity forbids him to make a show of himself.” 
 
 44 No one denies the superiority of Davis’s education.” 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 If there was one subject which could arouse Minnie’s temper, it was abuse 
 of Morgan, 44 Cousin John ” as she loved to call him ; the brave and true Ken- 
 tuckian who more than any other individual had redeemed his State from the 
 reproach to which her credulity had exposed her. Nor was it strange that she 
 should be thus roused by any disrespectful allusion to him, for, was not her 
 lover identified with him as far as the honourableness and legality of his mode 
 of warfare were concerned ? The gentle, merry girl, who had trifled with her 
 own fair name by allowing it to be associated with more than one fool’s, had, by 
 the awakening influence of patriotism, and afterwards by the almost omnipotent 
 power of love, developed into the noble woman. A child in the valley, whose 
 most serious care was to gather the sweetest flowers, suddenly lifted by an 
 angel and seated on a mountain. Her cheek would flush with shame when she 
 remembered that the name which was to be absorbed in another’s had been so 
 lately associated with that of a traitor — not to Lincoln, for Minnie acknow- 
 ledged no king but God — but to sincerity and honour. Prospere was a traitor to 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 117 
 
 his constituency, yet he had clasped and held her hand with the right of a man 
 who expected to claim her as his own ; no farther than this had any man but one 
 ever dared to go with the pure-hearted child, and the surest proof which she could 
 find in her heart that her love for Eustace was no girlish desire for amusement, 
 was that when he had pressed his lips upon her brow she had felt that he had 
 a right to this inalienable privilege of a pure and holy love. As far as was 
 possible for Minnie to indulge in philosophical retrospection, her thoughts had 
 been on this wise when Mr. Urston was announced. He had heard that 
 Minnie defended Morgan’s cause with an assumption of dictation quite novel 
 in one of her temperament, and he felt that there was a woman’s reason at the 
 bottom of this championship. He had once been present when some one hinted 
 that Minnie’s heart had gone after the hero, and her unconscious scorn, a scorn 
 that would not stoop to denial, put him quite at rest on that score. Besides, 
 there was a strong substratum of common sense under the maiden’s childish- 
 ness, and though she had been allured to flirtations by a handsome face, sweet 
 tones, or fascinating manners that promised her present diversion, she was by 
 no means a dreamer to fall in love with a man she had never seen, and talked 
 about Morgan just as she used to do of Wallace of Scotland, who had been the 
 hero of her school days. 
 
 In a fit of idleness the night before, Urston had been reading “Tales 
 of a Grandfather, ” and naturally the stories about Wallace carried his thoughts 
 to Minnie; so the next morning he rode out to Vinelea. 
 
 “Do not you wish Wallace would reappear, and give you a chance for such 
 a flirtation as has never before entered your brain to conceive ? ” 
 
 “ No doubt he would he very terrible and disagreeable anywhere but in a 
 story-book. ” 
 
 “ I always imagine these redoubtable heroes very gentle men.” 
 
 “ So do I,” said Minnie, and a dreamy look passed over her bright face as a soft 
 cloud over the sun to make it more dazzling. Urston unconsciously sighed. 
 
 “ I came out to-day to bring you a new item of defence for Morgan, whom, as 
 I hear, you have set yourself up to defend.” 
 
 “Then you have been talking with some ridiculous person. Morgan needs no 
 defence ; I never thought of making myself absurd by any such Quixotic fancy. 
 I defend Morgan ! I wish he would come and defend me.” 
 
 “ From whom ?” 
 
 “ The invaders.” 
 
 “They would not hurt you. I should think you would make an invaluable 
 shield for Vinelea.” 
 
 “Because of my weakness ? North men do not reason so.” 
 
 “ No ; because of the strength of your charms.” 
 
 Minnie in a passion ! Could it be possible P There was no mistaking the 
 evidence of flashing eyes and curling lips, and her silence told the same tale. Not 
 knowing that she considered herself now as set apart from flattery, and unaware 
 of the profanation it was to one engaged to a Southern officer to insinuate that a 
 Yankee one might admire her, Urston began quoting some of Prentice’s witticisms 
 about handsome United States’ officers, and the Bebel fair. 
 
 “Do you presume to insult me, by insinuating that I could ever look with any 
 feeling but that of indifference upon the men who would with one hand spill the 
 blood of those whose lives I would purchase with my own, and with the other 
 hand — bah ! Not one of them will ever touch mine.” 
 
 “ Suppose Miss Buckner were to hear such a speech ? ’’ 
 
 “ Well?” 
 
 “ Do you forget Captain Wilson ? ” 
 
 “ Oh ! Laura is so different from me ; she is in favour of the rebellion — which 
 she doesn’t allow anybody to call a rebellion — as of an abstract idea. I believe 
 she prides herself upon her superiority, in being able to regard friend and foe 
 with equal justice ; to her everything is in itself right or wrong ; and a great 
 many more such sentiments she expresses, of which I confess I can comprehend 
 neither their spirit nor their logic. But what were you going to say about 
 Wallace that would be a new argument for Morgan and his cavalry ? ” 
 
118 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ When he was accused of being a traitor he replied ‘ I could not be a traitor to 
 Edward, for I was never his subject.’” 
 
 “ Morgan is called a traitor. To whom does he owe allegiance F To Lincoln ? 
 Certainly not ; for in this country the only loyal oath of allegiance is to obey the 
 constitution and the laws. If he breaks those only the judiciary can sentence 
 him.” 
 
 “ Then I suppose he is a traitor to the judicial authorities.” 
 
 “ No, Lincoln and Seward, and Cameron, have set them aside. Is there a man 
 in Fort Lafayette, or in our military prison, that a judge sentenced to confine- 
 ment? A man cannot be a traitor to what are virtually effete traditions.” 
 
 “ Morgan did not take up arms until the constitution had been so pierced by 
 the spears of its proper guardians that it tottered to its fall. No true Kentuckian 
 should be willing to stand by in silence and see it kicked in the dust. Do you 
 know it seems very funny to me that people should say a State has not a right to 
 secede ? 
 
 “ I suppose South Carolina had a right to stay out of the Union had she 
 chosen ? ” 
 
 “Yes, imagine Washington who had just done battling for the right of Self- 
 Government, trying to whip her in. ” 
 
 “If she had a right to stay out, I can’t see why she hasn’t a right to go out.” 
 “I wonder how your future husband would like to hear you enunciate such 
 a doctrine,” said Urston, somewhat amused, for to-day was the first time he 
 had heard Minnie try argument ; enthusiasm had answered her instead. 
 
 “ Oh ! but I should vow to live with my husband till death, and South 
 Carolina never promised that. Besides, how could one State be married to 
 twelve ? ” 
 
 “ Oh ! That is a poser.” 
 
 “If Kentucky is married to any State, it is Tennessee ; there is no deep river 
 between them, and I think any Kentuckian who fights against the South, fights 
 against his own race. ” 
 
 “Are not the Yankees of our race?” 
 
 “No indeed ! no ! ” 
 
 “Ethnology says yes.” 
 
 “Ethnology — fiddlesticks ! All the books on earth can’t convince me that 
 Northerners and Southerners are one people.” 
 
 “Then I won’t try it. Do you remember the anecdote about the second 
 Bruce being recalled from his treachery to his country ? ” 
 
 “I don’t remember any history except what I’ve read in novels; some people 
 don’t approve of novels ; but if they approve of history they ought to, for the 
 sake of hundreds who are in my mental predicament ; it would be just as 
 sensible for these wiseacres to close all institutions for feeble-minded children 
 because they thought regular schooling preferable. I’d rather write one of 
 Scott’s novels than all of Macaulay’s History ; and judging from what I hear, 
 it is hard to say who is the greater romancer. But what anecdote is that 
 about Bruce ? ” * 
 
 “After a battle in which he had assisted the invader, he sat down to dinner 
 with the English lords before he had washed his hands ; one of them whispered, 
 ‘ Look at that Scotsman who is eating his own blood. ’ ” 
 
 “Really,” said Minnie, “these ‘Tales of a Grandfather’ must be un- 
 commonly interesting. I shun history just as I do any paragraph in the paper 
 which is headed, ‘Shocking,’ ‘Terrible,’ or ‘Atrocious.’” 
 
 “ I think one reason you are so free of fear is that you never read anything 
 calculated to excite horror.” 
 
 “When I was a child Auntie took care I should never hear of ogres or ghosts, 
 and now I have no depraved appetite for tales of a similar nature designed for 
 older children.” 
 
 “ Does your last remark refer to histories or newspapers ? ” 
 
 “ To both. What is history but a long account of murders and battles ? ” 
 “If this is your objection to history you will never get through ‘Tales of a 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 119 
 
 Grandfather. ’ Nearly every hero therein is assassinated or killed in battle. 
 There seems to have been a curse on the Stuart line; James V. was the first 
 who died in his bed, and he of a broken heart, a self-immured prisoner in the 
 palace of Falkland. James VI. is the only crowned one of his race who can 
 be called fortunate.’’ 
 
 “I never beat Laura in but one argument ; she was arguing against original 
 sin, human depravity, (not total, for I am not quibbler enough to defend the 
 adjective) ; I asked her what history taught, and so silenced her. She looked 
 sad, and after some time said, ‘ And the most terrible records of the depravity 
 of our race, are the Annals of the French Revolution. God grant that 
 republics do not receive a more fatal blow in our own land. ’ ” 
 
 “ But it is not possible for us to have a monarchy. A kingdom without a 
 long-descended line of nobility is about as respectable an affair as a grand enter- 
 tainment where float is the only thing served.” 
 
 “ I fear your companion is mcil-a-propos ; for I doubt if a monarchy could be 
 kept afloat without nobles to act as buoys.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ And in our country the only title-deeds to nobility are worth, education 
 and money.” 
 
 “ A title wanting the sign manual.” As Urston had nothing but his character 
 to recommend him, he looked pleased, and Minnie considered that she had said 
 very wise things, considering she was talking on a subject to which she had 
 never given ten minutes’ thought. Laura happened to come in at this time, and 
 Minnie informed her she had been taking a history lesson. 
 
 “I hope Mr. Urston has found you a more patient scholar than it was ever my 
 chance to do. Pray let me, too, be a pupil, Mr. Urston.” 
 
 “ I have an item which may interest one who report says is engaged to a 
 lawyer.” Laura’s heart was too cold to flush her cheek, but she asked what 
 would interest her. 
 
 i( If an allusion to Mr. Stark can’t do it I am in despair.” 
 
 “ You are Stark mad, Mr. Urston ! ” said Minnie, bringing up her light 
 artillery to effect a diversion in her friend’s favour. “ What item have you ? ” 
 
 “ I shall give you another lesson for trying to outflank me.” 
 
 “You may find yourself unable to cut off my retreat ; but, like the Yankees, I 
 shall not be discomposed if I have to retire in good order.” 
 
 “ Don’t be alarmed, my cannons are as useless as those that blockaded the 
 Potomac all the winter. Miss Laura, the last time I saw you you were bene- 
 volent enough to rejoice that there was still sufficient love of liberty to bring 
 Secretary Cameron to trial.” 
 
 “ My joy was premature. But could I suppose that the man for whom the 
 guilt was incurred was to be both lawyer and judge ? ” 
 
 “ The very point I wish to illuminate with the light of the fifteenth century. 
 James IY. was obliged to leave the Parliament of Scotland while Patrick 
 Lindsay pleaded for justice. A freeman said, £ We object to his presence to try 
 this cause in which, being a party, he ought not to be a judge.’ The King re- 
 sented this, yet had to retire. But our age is fast, and a President of a so-called 
 Republic pronounces sentence of acquittal on a man accused of a crime committed 
 by his order. Please don’t forget to repeat this, Miss Laura.” 
 
 CHAPTER, VII. 
 
 “ Let us have a little more of Calhoun,” said Laura. 
 
 “ I am your guest.” 
 
 “ And therefore, the spirit of hospitality forbids that I should send you empty 
 away. ” 
 
120 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 44 Even if you make me carry off a chiffonier’s basket. What trash am I to 
 receive now, or he pronounced incapable of intellectual perception ? ” asked Keble, 
 smiling. 
 
 “ Well, you are original ; Calhoun has been often abused, and in almost all 
 kinds of language ; but I doubt if his ideas were ever before called trash. What 
 do you think of the new trash on the road P ” 
 
 44 What do you mean P ” 
 
 “ The newly laid metal which prevents blind and lame from sinking in quag- 
 mires, and even the strongest from being detained in the mud.” 
 
 44 I doubt if Calhoun has made an easy road for any one to travel on.” 
 
 44 Easy ? No, up-hill work is somewhat arduous. But to our text-book. Are 
 not terms usually significant of ideas ? ” 
 
 44 Originally ; but they degenerate often by use.” 
 
 44 Capitally answered. What does Confederate mean ? ” 
 
 “ United in a league.” 
 
 44 And Federal ? ” 
 
 44 Tut ! ” 
 
 44 Say your dictionary lesson ; did not you make me say my Catechism last 
 Sunday ? ” 
 
 44 1 make you ! ’ ’ 
 
 44 Yes, and gave me studying enough for a week. I am now not afraid to 
 define baptismal regeneration and leave SS. Luke and Paul to bear the brunt of 
 the controversy.” 
 
 Again that sweet illumination of the sad face, that, like an aurora in a 
 winter’s night, reminded Laura of the roses of love and June, and made her 
 forget how cold and dreary was the atmosphere she had condemned herself to 
 breathe. Her heart was restive. 
 
 4 4 Be quick, please, and tell me what Federal means.” 
 
 44 One who has laid aside logical niceties for military tactics, one who was 
 taught at College that the defence and not the politics of his country, was to 
 be his life-study, should never have submitted himself to so designing a cate- 
 chist.” 
 
 44 Oh ! I know very well that the only reason I ever get the better of you in 
 these political arguments is because you have never studied them, and I 
 have. ” 
 
 44 A man who does not vote, and who has lived all his manhood on the out- 
 skirts of civilization, is badly prepared for such cross-examinations as you 
 delight in. ” 
 
 44 Ho you remember your reply when I told you I was not ready to argue on 
 religious or ecclesiastical subjects ? — That, if I did not willingly embrace what 
 seemed my first opportunity for a friendly discussion of them, I had less appre- 
 ciation of the value of truth, and less self-respect than you had credited me 
 with. ” 
 
 4 4 1 am convicted. Federal and Confederate mean the same thing ; the 4 con ’ 
 being only an expletive, and hardly that ; so concession and cession both mean 
 the act of yielding ; conjunction and junction are of identical force. There is 
 no doubt but that Confederate means united by a foedera, or league, or treaty ; 
 and, truth to tell, our fathers meant the same by federal. ” 
 
 44 And Washington was a Confederate.” 
 
 44 But not like those who now boast of the title.” 
 
 44 Let us not be too fast. As you said one lesson so well, I’ll try another. 
 Can delegated powers be resumed ? ” 
 
 44 Well— I— I—” 
 
 44 Did you ever hear of a delegate who claimed the right of overthrowing the 
 one to whom he was indebted for his powers ? ” 
 
 44 That word delegate in our Constitution is very unfortunate.” 
 
 * 4 As the word bishop is in ante-mediaeval history,” said Laura, smiling, and 
 using the captain’s weapons against himself ; 44 very unfortunate for those who 
 need a new interpretation. Permit another question : To whom did the States 
 delegate certain powers ? ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 121 
 
 “The Constitution says, to Congress.” 
 
 “ Then Lincoln and his Cabinet are usurpers, having assumed the action of 
 powers which were granted to Congress only ; Lincoln has no more legal claim 
 to the powers of Congress than to the throne of England. ” 
 
 “ You know I never falsify my conscience in defending the unconstitutional 
 acts of the Administration. ” 
 
 “ My respect for you is principally founded on this fact ; you are one of the 
 very few who have capacity to see beyond your interests, I well remember 
 your expression when you spoke of Lincoln, or rather, Cameron and Seward, 
 usurping the judicial power which the Constitution vested in the Supreme 
 Court. ” 
 
 “It would be as justifiable for me to assume the post of judge-advocate of 
 the army.” 
 
 “The Act of Ratification of the Constitution of Virginia, says, 4 We, the 
 delegates of the people of Virginia, . . . declare that the powers granted 
 
 under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States, may 
 be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury. ’ 
 Kentucky at that time was a part of the Old Dominion, and therefore has 
 a constitutional right to secede. It will not do to make the expression 4 people 
 of the United States ’ mean only those who voted for the Constitution, because 
 that would exclude all but eleven States. ” 
 
 “But I do not believe in State Sovereignty.” 
 
 “ Nor in the Constitution ? ” 
 
 “ As devoutly as yourself.” 
 
 “ It did not abrogate the Articles of Confederation any more than the New 
 Testament abrogated the Old. The Articles say, 4 Each State retains its sove- 
 reignty, freedom, and independence.’” 
 
 “Although the New Testament does not abrogate the Old as a whole, it 
 specifically abrogates certain rites commanded in the Old. ” 
 
 “ The very fact that some are specifically set aside is argumentum ad hominum, 
 that those not so specified are to continue, for instance, the three Orders of the 
 Ministry, Confirmation, etc. Does the Constitution deny this provision of the 
 Articles of Confederation ? ” 
 
 “No.” 
 
 “ Then be as honest about this as I was in admitting your argument about 
 the continuity of the Church from the days of Abraham to ours. ” 
 
 “ I wish your memory was not so good. But, although by special pleading 
 you silence me, you have not convinced me. ” 
 
 “ Cannot any power that ratifies and adopts, also reject ? ” 
 
 “Certainly. Now you will say that as the Constitution was ratified and 
 adopted by the several States, and not by individuals, so fourteen populous 
 States have no right to domineer over the fifteen of scanty population. ” 
 
 “ In America, 4 majorities rule,’ ” 
 
 “ I have a contempt for adages. It requires two-thirds of the States to propose 
 alterations of the Constitution, and three-fourths of the States to adopt them. 
 There is no proviso that the one-third and one-fourth of the States thus defeating 
 amendments must have the largest population. So the Constitution recognises 
 States’ Rights.” 
 
 “ 1 never thought of this.” 
 
 44 Nor I until I studied Calhoun. Let me read you one of his matter-of-fact 
 arguments that a man must be a numbskull or dishonest to deny. ” 
 
 44 1 suppose when you have read it you will challenge my opinion? ” 
 
 44 4 The Federal population of the eight smallest States is but 776,969, and 
 yet, small as this is, they can prevent amendments against the united votes of 
 the other twenty-two with a Federal population of 15,410,635, or nearly 
 twenty- one times their number. ’ ” 
 
 44 No man can deny that simple fact unless he is more ignorant than any 
 voter would like to acknowledge himself. ” 
 
 44 Then why cannot the same eight withdraw from the Union ? ” 
 
122 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ It would take more than eight now; there were hut thirty States when 
 Calhoun wrote that. ” 
 
 “True. But will you not admit his proposition that States, and not 
 individuals, are the constituent parts of the Federal Government ? ” 
 
 “I must he elected to Congress and propose a new Constitution; you, rebels, 
 have sifted the old one too thoroughly.” 
 
 “We ought to he called Constitutionalists; hut how strange that the 
 Northerners, claiming a National Government, protesting against the Federal 
 idea, should call themselves Federals. In vice-presidential elections the States, 
 and not individuals, are the ultimate electors. ” 
 
 “ Only when the Electoral College fails to decide between the candidates; 
 then the Senators elect; and Rhode Island has the same vote as New York. 
 In presidential elections the House decides when the College cannot.” 
 
 “But the members then vote by States; the President is not elected 
 nationally. ” 
 
 “ They vote in the same way on questions of impeachment. In fine, the most 
 important questions are not entrusted to the representatives of majorities of 
 individuals of the States, hut to the representatives of States. Do you remember 
 telling me that if there ever was a time when Episcopacy did not exist, it was 
 my province to prove when that time was ? ” 
 
 “ I rested the doctrine of Apostolic Succession on the proposition that there 
 never was a time since Christ when the Church was without bishops ; that all 
 history tacitly argues for this ; that Gibhon, the infidel, and other historians, 
 ancient and modern, who write incidentally of church matters speak of bishops ; 
 and, therefore, I have a logical right to maintain that there have been bishops for 
 eighteen centuries.” 
 
 “ And you said that if I chose to deny the fact it was my duty to prove when 
 the first bishop existed, and when one man in each diocese dared to assume such 
 power over it ; for history, as far as you had read, gave no notice of such usurpa- 
 tions. Do you recede now from this position ? ” 
 
 “ Plow can I, if I claim capacity for ratioscination ? And I remember how 
 triumphantly you asked me when the Papacy began, or whether I admitted that 
 to be eighteen hundred years old ? ” 
 
 “ Pray don’t give all those dates and names again ; I withdraw my argument,” 
 said Laura. 
 
 “ But I do not withdraw mine about the Episcopate ; tell me now when it 
 began,” replied Keble, glad of a change of subject. 
 
 “ Its origin is lost in the mists of antiquity.” 
 
 u Rather remarkable, when we have such minute accounts of the early Christians, 
 and can recall hundreds of their names, and can repeat scores of anecdotes about 
 them.” 
 
 “ Oh, bah ! I don’t care if a Church, or the Church, always did have bishops ; 
 a Church may be just as good without them.” 
 
 “ What a pity you did not live eighteen hundred years ago ; so that Jesus and 
 the Apostles might have profited by your liberal ideas.” 
 
 Laura bit her lip. 
 
 “ Pardon my brusqueness. I protest — ” 
 
 ‘‘ Protest nothing, but go on with your lesson,” said Laura, smiling ; it was 
 strange she should smile at the moment she discovered she had found her master. 
 “ I shall take that blessed smile as an earnest of pardon.” 
 
 “ I smiled because I felt like a child.” 
 
 Keble looked at her scrutinizingly. 
 
 “ My feelings recalled an incident of my childhood.” 
 
 A shade of disappointment passed over her lover’s face ; it would have grown 
 lighter had he known that his manner and her acceptance of his reproach, had 
 recalled to Laura the only time her father had ever slapped her ; it was for 
 being rude and disrespectful ; and from that moment the petted child had re- 
 cognised in her father not only the slave of her caprices, and the ready minister 
 of her pleasure, but a parent whom she was obliged to respect. 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 123 
 
 “Which is the oldest, the Government of the United States or of the sepa- 
 rate States ?” 
 
 “ Of course, the latter. ” 
 
 “ Is the thing made generally superior to its makers ? The Constitution of 
 the United States being created by the States-deputies, it is very proper that 
 deputies of the same should have the power, ( de facto less than that of their pre- 
 decessors,) to alter or multiply that Constitution ; but it is quite shocking to 
 my idea of propriety that the Constitution should be such a monster of ill-bred 
 ingratitude as to allow itself to be used as a tool by those who wish to destroy 
 the very States’ Governments that created it. Occasionally the ferocity so 
 fashionable in Washington is relieved by some Merry-Andrew. One of the 
 best jokes is, that States containing 10,000,000 people shall be reduced to 
 territories. ” 
 
 “ The idea of making territories of any States is too absurdly unconstitu- 
 tional to be popular with any except a class of unscrupulous partisans, or 
 ignorant fanatics. ” 
 
 “Now fashionable parties in the North.” 
 
 “ No logical mind will ever tolerate the idea of destroying State Govern- 
 ments. The Constitution has force in a popular government only because it 
 was framed by the representatives of the people, and how were those repre- 
 sentatives elected but by masses of individuals acting in collective capacities as 
 States ? To destroy State Governments is to pull down the foundation-stones 
 of constitutional liberty.” 
 
 “ I am glad to see a man who wears U.S. buttons, have sufficient idea of 
 what logic means to understand that the term ‘filial obedience’ considered as due 
 from States to the Government, is all fal-fal.” 
 
 “Not exactly ; I regard the United States’ Government as the foster- 
 parent. ” 
 
 “I presume that children who have attained their majority and support 
 themselves should not be forced to put on bibs and sit down at the feet of a 
 foster-father. States which have fought for and established their independence 
 do not need tender nursing.” 
 
 “At any rate Kentucky can’t make this boast.” 
 
 “It was not many years after her adoption that she saved her two sisters, 
 Indiana and Illinois ; the very ingrates who now hold their bayonets above 
 Kentucky’s heart owe their homes, perhaps their existence, to George Rogers 
 Clarke and the heroes of Kashaskia and Vincennes. But I don’t blame a 
 Northman for being for his land. However, we won’t turn aside from the main 
 question. May not a delegated power always be resumed ? ” 
 
 “No, indeed ; the woman at the altar confers on the man a delegated power; 
 but she can never resume it.” 
 
 “Jesus said if — ” Laura coloured and hesitated, remembering the only 
 grounds on which He allowed divorce was not a suitable subject for them to 
 discuss. “When the North proved unfaithful to the Federal Government by 
 annulling the Fugitive Slave Law, the Union was dissolved. Perhaps few 
 suspected it ; but I have an idea that the most clear-headed of all American 
 statesmen perceived it. ” 
 
 “Alas for the day that you became a disciple of Calhoun !” 
 
 “ Would I could claim that honourable title ! Even when I was a Clayite I 
 had the candour to admit that he had a more logical mind than Clay or 
 Webster. In his Discourse on the Constitution he asks a question I would 
 like you to answer. The Government of the United States was formed by the 
 Constitution ; how then can the Government withdraw the Constitution ? ” 
 
 “It cannot rightfully; and I will never uphold an unconstitutional 
 prerogative. But the National Government — ” 
 
 “Excuse my interruption, but I object to the term ‘national’ being applied 
 to the Government at Washington.” 
 
 “You astonish me.” 
 
 “Because you are not familiar with Calhoun. When you wanted me to 
 
124 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 read Kip’s ‘Double Witness of the Church,’ you said that I was afraid to, and 
 that a person who felt his or her faith weak or unsound, always shrank from 
 argument. I will read Kip, if you will read this volume.” 
 
 “Agreed.” 
 
 Keble took a book she lifted from the table. 
 
 “Do you remember it was a mooted question in the Convention, whether the 
 Government should be called Federal, or national, and that the Federalists 
 prevailed ? ” 
 
 “I recall the fact, which I had forgotten ; truly, I feel like a student who 
 has had all his books just where he wanted them for years, but having been 
 imprudent enough to take unto himself a helpmeet, finds all in unwonted 
 disorder, because she is determined to throw open the shutters and dust every 
 thing remorselessly, put up his favourite books, and thrust before his eyes what 
 she thinks he should read. ” 
 
 “ I am not to be bantered out of a purpose,’’ said Laura. 
 
 “ Not by me, assuredly,’’ replied the captain with assumed sedateness. 
 
 “ Can it be said that anything retains its independence of an object it is 
 dependent upon ? ” 
 
 “Ridiculous ! ” 
 
 “ I am glad to hear you apply so flattering an adjective to the doctrine of 
 your party.” 
 
 “ No ! pardon me.” 
 
 “ Is it not said in the Articles, * Each State retains its sovereignty and inde- 
 pendence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not by this Confedera- 
 tion expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled ? ’ How 
 then is Kentucky, which never expressly delegated a promise that she would not 
 secede from the Union, to be held in it ? Did she ever delegate power to inter- 
 fere with slavery in her borders ? — to say what articles should be declared 
 contraband P — to delare what men should not be allowed to leave her limits to 
 fight where they please ? Did she ever delegate the Habeas Corpus Act, or 
 censorship of press, or power to control private correspondence and discourse P 
 Then is not the General Government, which has done all these things, a usurper 
 in Kentucky ? ’ ” 
 
 “But Congress retained the power of making war and controlling its contin- 
 gencies.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ That clause referred to foreign contests or to partial insurrections in a 
 particular State or States ; it never entered the heads of men who had so lately 
 established their independence, to suppose that any of their descendants would 
 try to make fellow citizens relinquish the right of self-government. But 
 Kentucky has committed herself to the doctrine of States’ Rights. The Rev. Dr. 
 Craik made a noble oration before our Legislature on National and State 
 sovereignty, which has been widely circulated as an embodiment of its sentiments ; 
 the clear-headed author showed far-sightedness when he declared that State 
 sovereignty was essential to Constitutional liberty. No sooner was the denial of 
 this put in practice than liberty fell. Would you be willing to marry a woman 
 if she had been reared to hate you, your family and ancestors, your country, 
 your interests, your profession ? ” 
 
 Keble flushed as he replied, “Not unless she has so great a soul as to over- 
 come prejudices ; then I should honour her ten times more.” 
 
 “ But this the Abolitionists will never do.” 
 
 The captain cleared his throat. 
 
 “Yet the Northerners who can rise above such traditional prejudices are valued 
 accordingly.” 
 
 The captain’s face grew brighter. 
 
 “ If a man in business hates his partner, has not the latter sufficient excuse for 
 dissolving partnership?’’ 
 
 “ Certainly.” 
 
 “ Ah ! Do you think so ? I should suppose you would prove your manliness by 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 125 
 
 pointing your pistol to his heart.’’ 
 
 4 4 Miss Buckner!” 
 
 “ I judge merely by your acts. What are you doing now ? ” 
 
 “In theory — for I’ve never yet been in battle, I’m fighting to uphold the 
 Constitution.” 
 
 “ Which you are destroying as fast as possible ; the South has taken it from 
 the faithless guardianship of the North to preserve it.” 
 
 “We promise the South all she asks, if she will submit.” 
 
 “ Do you consider Davis and his cabinet, Lee and his co-patriots, candidates 
 for Lunatic Asylums ? ” 
 
 “ What can you mean ?” 
 
 “ If you were a true Republican, an old-fashioned one — not the modern 
 humbug — it would be answer enough, that the right of these States to govern 
 themselves had been denied. But to reply more in detail ; the way in which 
 the North construes the Constitution nullifies our essential rights, and makes 
 the South her slave ; your lord and master, Lincoln — ” 
 
 “Excuse me.” 
 
 “I can’t, for calling such a petty tyrant master; he requires not only your 
 servile submission to his whims, but slaps the Supreme Court in the face, and 
 tells it to ‘ sit still in the corner and be good till he says it may get up.’ ” 
 
 The officer winced. He knew that Lincoln had said that if he were in 
 Congress he would not respect the Courts on the slavery question ; how then 
 could he answer Laura ? 
 
 “ I think it very generous to allow you to study your arguments, sitting at 
 Calhoun’s feet, while I am on duty nearly all the time, and when I can get off I 
 prefer a little relaxation with you to study. However, I intend to remember 
 your arguments, and when I am stationed where I can’t run in a friend’s house, I 
 shall send you pages of answers.” 
 
 “Very well.” 
 
 “But there was a remark you made this afternoon which seemed to me glaringly 
 false. You said the Constitution made the Union.” 
 
 “In the Act of Ratification it is stated, ‘that the consenting of nine States is 
 sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States ratifying 
 the same. ’ So you see the Constitution existed before the Union. Any State 
 which refused to ratify it excluded itself, and in those days of freemen no man 
 chose to make himself such a laughing-stock as to propose coercion. If I were 
 capable of enjoying revenge I should enjoy myself now ; but such rejoicing is 
 sadder than grief.” 
 
 “What do you refer to?” 
 
 “ Of course, the people of the North will be the slaves of cliques, because if 
 they were not ready for slavery they would not teach coercion ; those who advocate 
 foreign dependence will soon tolerate domestic.” 
 
 “Foreign?” 
 
 “ This is no new idea. Rhode Island (for Yankees have a finger in everything) 
 and North Carolina were considered and called ‘ foreign States ’by the first 
 Union.” 
 
 “It is ridiculous to speak of any of the United States as foreign.” 
 
 “Poor, benighted Calhoun says, ‘nobody can dispute it; the facts are too 
 recent.’ If he had lived till our day he would have learned that when men’s 
 interests cry , ‘ Be blind,’ facts are lighter than whip-syllabub. Has not North 
 Carolina a right to secede ? And did not Washington and his co-statesmen 
 concede she had a right to stay out of the Union?” 
 
 “ History so teaches.” 
 
 “ When did she ever give up that right ? ” 
 
 “ When she was married to the Union.” 
 
 “ One of the States expressly retained a right to secede. If you were a native 
 of it, what side would you feel it your duty to support in the present contest?” 
 
 “ That of my State, or I should move out of it.” 
 
 “ Honourable, at least. But do you suppose any particular favour was granted 
 
126 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 to South. Carolina ? In those days of virtual political equality it never occurred 
 to her sister States to imagine that to one State was granted a right not shared 
 by all. Ah ! an idea just strikes me. When we speak of national improvements, 
 we do not mean of the States distinctively.” 
 
 “ I’ll be generous enough to help you to an idea that has escaped you. 
 Do you remember that before the Revolution the Thirteen were called the 
 United Colonies ? Then there was no national government ; when their de- 
 pendence on England was rejected, they substituted States for Colonies, 
 retaining the designation ‘United.’” 
 
 “ Very good ; a single body can’t be united to itself, so the compact between 
 the States — ” 
 
 “But are you not begging the question by that form of expression ?” 
 
 “ How so ? As Calhoun has noticed, the compact was made between the States ; 
 so, of course, this compact, i.e ., the Constitution, cannot be over them.” 
 
 “ True, for the seventh Article uses the expression ‘ to establish the Constitu- 
 tion between the States.” 
 
 “ What a pity the Constitution is not headed, ‘ We, the people of the States of 
 Maine, New Hampshire,’ etc., because ‘We, the people of the United States,’ 
 seems to exclude the idea of individual States — I say seems, for I cannot believe 
 that one who has carefully and ingenuously studied the history of the Constitu- 
 tion can say it does.” 
 
 “ Yet the expression is a pretty good argument for our party.” 
 
 “ My oracle has given good reason for the omission of the names of the States — 
 that those who drew up the Constitution did not know whether more than nine 
 would ratify it.” 
 
 “ I have no doubt that the old Confederacy was much such an organization as 
 leading members of the Southern coalition now desire ; but they forgot that the 
 old Confederacy had to be abrogated that the Union might be established.” 
 
 “ By no means ; as Calhoun has said, ‘ In their preamble the framers of the 
 Constitution say that their object is to frame a more perfect union, and their ex- 
 pression ‘ our union ’ could refer to none but the old Confederacy ; and they were 
 to make it more perfect. If you say that a thing is to be made more perfect you 
 do not mean that its nature is to be changed, only to be improved.” 
 
 “ Ah, Miss Buckner, talk as you may, you are a political heretic.” 
 
 “ Let Chief Justices Jay and Story prove my orthodoxy. The latter, without 
 dissenting, quotes Jay’s declaration that there were thirteen sovereignties. Who 
 should best understand the ‘ primitive ’ ” (this word pronounced with a peculiar 
 accent thatKeble understood) “ opinion — the men of 1787 or 1861 ? Mr. Madison 
 (whom his biographer calls ‘ the father of the Constitution ’) drew up Virginia’s 
 Act of Concession, and was deputy to the meeting in Annapolis, in 1786, which 
 recommended the Convention with fuller powers which met in Philadelphia in ’87. 
 One of Adams’s biographers names as the first cause of the Revolution ‘ writs of 
 assistance,’ which, he says, were substantially the same as the search warrants 
 which some years after kindled so fierce a flame upon the prosecution of Wilkes 
 in London. The South has the same grievance now ; the North travels like the 
 crab.” 
 
 “ Establish Secession and you will find it practically ignored.” 
 
 “ I hope so. I believe Secession to be a right ; but I think it rarely right to 
 secede.” * 
 
 “ The South will fight ; remember the fillibusters.” 
 
 “ Who forgot to fill Northern pockets. No more Texas or California questions 
 for us.” 
 
 “ The first public appearance of Abolitionism was on the admission of Texas.” 
 “ And the Wilmot Proviso the first entering wedge in the dissolution of the 
 Union ; and that was appended to a resolution granting money to carry on the 
 Mexican war. By-the-bye, I was a child during that war, and was reading about 
 the United States’ claims, when papa asked me what the initials meant, and I 
 said Us. To this day the letters reminded me of a school-girl’s vulgarism, ‘ Who 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 127 
 
 but us ? ’ Think of the United States and it is always the egotistic word. New 
 England is always for herself. She talks loudly now ; hut some of us 
 remember the war of 1812-14. By the way, who ever heard of any 
 Southern States threatening to whip New England back if she dared go 
 out of the Union, as she threatened to do? Were the men of the South 
 better Christians, or ‘ cuter,’ or more nearly perfect gentlemen ? Or was 
 New England of less importance to the cotton States than they are to 
 her ? It is a common taunt that the South seceded for financial reasons ; 
 for the same cause were both the Northern threats of secession. Would 
 Washington have permitted his cabinet to decree that New York must be 
 whipped back into the Union ? He would not have dared, for fear the sarcastic 
 laugh of George III. would have echoed over the seas. Imagine Mr. Madison, 
 with one hand scourging England for impressing Americans, and with the other 
 impressing five States ! You know Governer Randolph was always considered the 
 most eccentric man of his age ; hear one of his eccentric resolutions relative to 
 National and State authority : £ The Federal Executive to call forth the force,’ 
 (already existing) ‘ of the Union against any member of the Union, failing to fulfil 
 his duties under the Articles thereof.’ Mr. Madison and Mr. Hamilton, and 
 their compeers, were ashamed of the resolution ; I believe it was never so much 
 as seconded.” 
 
 “ Ingratitude is loathsome to me, because I consider it anexcresence that comes 
 only from a nature corrupted by pride or selfishness ; the idea of the Southern 
 States revolting againt a Government that had done so much for them is repulsive 
 to me.” 
 
 “ I think at the present day government means the administration ; at least, 
 it seems impossible to get any idea of government except that exercised for party 
 purposes ; and I am not aware that the Administration has done anything more 
 for the South than Samson did for the Philistines, when he set fire to the foxes’ 
 tails, and sent them into the corn-fields of his foes.” 
 
 “ True ; if the people of the South had known the motives of Robinson and the 
 other pilgrims in seeking a place where they could make money more readily than 
 in Holland (where they had religious equality under a Calvinistic Government) 
 and had they known something of the ante- Revolutionary history of New England, 
 I doubt if it would not have been more closely watched.” 
 
 “ It has always been marvellous to me that while every year the Yankees kiss 
 Plymouth Rock as the Irish the Blarney Stone, it seems to have been forgotten 
 that the first colony was at Jamestown,” 
 
 “ I hope hereafter our Mecca will be annually visited, and speeches made, and 
 songs sung to commemorate our ancestry.” 
 
 “ Permit me to suggest a better commemoration. The walls of the first Church 
 built in the United States still stand ; assemble there every 26th of April, and 
 read the Service read by your forefathers, and chant the words they first uttered 
 in the hearing of the Redeemer, that if possible your commemoration may not 
 produce Phariseeism.” 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 “ Do the Ladies of Louisville receive Federal officers ? ” 
 iC Some, 1 think, do,” replied Mrs. Ellmer. 
 
 “ That is scandalous,” responded the interrogator, Mrs. Howe, of Missouri. 
 
 “ At any rate, the cause of a great deal of scandal.” 
 
 Laura felt that the expression of Mrs. Howe would have been hers but a short 
 
128 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 while before, and she had a remar kable characteristic — the justice never to be 
 offended at what really wounded her deeply, if she believed that were she to 
 change places with the speaker she would express like sentiments. So though 
 her face was crimson, and she felt like hiding her guilty blush, she quietly re- 
 marked — 
 
 “ I do not approve of Southern women receiving the visits of their invaders ; 
 it is not becoming to lavish smiles upon the men whose bayonets may be plunged 
 in brothers’, busbands’, or fathers’ hearts. Yet I do receive a Federal officer.” 
 
 “ It isn’t possible ?” 
 
 Laura’s spirit rose, for she felt that Miss Howe, now knowing the fact, was ill- 
 bred to take upon herself the office of censor. 
 
 “ A Southern woman should never forget that she is a lady, and I think 
 neglect of one to whom she is unavoidably under great obligations would be 
 exceedingly un-lady like.” 
 
 That word “ unavoidably ” was said with feeling. The nun who takes the veil 
 to fulfil the vow of another, may feel as did this Kentucky girl. And for what 
 was she to incur suspicion and rudeness ? For a solitude of the heart that no 
 lover’s word could be permitted to soften. A Pariah from suspicion, hers must 
 be the life of a true priestess of Liberty. 
 
 “ There is a great difference between the ladies of St. Louis and those of 
 Louisville ; do you suppose,” asked Mrs. Howe, “ that one of us would walk on 
 the pavement past a Federal uniform ? We take the gutters.” (a) 
 
 “I should never smut my face to insult a Darkee.” 
 
 “ I have often flaunted my dress in Yankees’ faces.” (a) 
 
 “ Mine is intended to cover my ankles.” 
 
 “You have no idea, Miss Laura, of showing your dainty foot to such brutes,” 
 said Mrs. Ellmer. 
 
 “ A lady’s fittest weapon when she wishes to defy or insult, is quiet contempt. ” 
 “ A Kentucky woman would scorn to put herself on a level with Dutch soldiers ; 
 I have never heard of the ladies of Louisville flirting their dresses in a Yankee’s 
 face, or giving him the side-walk ; we shrink from demonstrations on the streets, 
 but we are not the less resolute ; no one knows of the sacrifices our ladies have 
 made to serve the Southern cause. We get no fine dresses ; we give no expensive 
 entertainments ; it is not only our surplus ‘ change ’ that has clothed Southern 
 prisoners, supported the families of men who fight for their Southern brothers, 
 and helped to arm those who have gone.” 
 
 4 4 I was very much surprised to see that South Carolina has ordered that no 
 more troops are to leave her borders.” 
 
 “She is right; self preservation is nature’s first law; but what beautiful 
 consistency she shows in condemning Kentucky ! ” 
 
 “ If your governer would only act as did Price.” 
 
 “ His face indicates beautiful serenity of character and love of peace. But his 
 humiliation was enough to make a guerillo even of a gray -haired man. Woodson 
 and Bass affirm that he had an interview with Lyon to implore terms of peace 
 for his people. He proposed to disband every company, and guarantee the 
 State against the introduction of troops or arms.” 
 
 “ Strange the Government should sugar-coat the pill it gives Kentucky, and pour 
 vitriol upon Missouri ; she was kicked out of the Union. No language outside of 
 hell can describe the acts perpetrated by the Unionists of Missouri. A God of 
 justice will decide the quarrel.” 
 
 “ The devil rules this world. The God of judgment may await the Day of 
 Judgment.” 
 
 “ Which States were the most eager for war P Those safe in distance. Why 
 are they so irritated against the border States ? Because the latter did not think 
 it the object of this political organization to be sacrificed for those to whom they 
 owed nothing. New Orleans railed at Louisville for nearly a year, and then 
 followed her example. And so, for that matter, have done all the cities except 
 Charlestown, Richmond, Mobile, and unfortunate Vicksburg. The Vicksburgers 
 had railed at Kentuckians for taking the oath, and now other Southern cities, to 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 129 
 
 which it has not yet been offered on the point of a bayonet are reviling the 
 glorious men of Vicksburg. In our war with the Indians did South Carolinians 
 and Alabamians throw themselves on the war path ? ” 
 
 Not being able to answer this satisfactorily, Miss Howe said — 
 
 “Letters from England say that the excitement is unparalleled except by 
 that after the fall of Fort Sumter. Secession flags are for sale on the streets. 
 In the Adelphi the stars and bars floated over the ‘Octaroon.’ On newly- 
 painted cabs the banner of Jeff. Davis and the British flag are to be seen.] 
 And yet I hate England ! Why do you look so surprised ? Did you think 
 me too good a Christian to hate ? ” 
 
 “ No ; but too philosophical a woman ; of all passions hate is the most absurd 
 and unreasoning, the least worthy to be classed among the emotions of a 
 superior mind. I should argue the question of England’s position with you, 
 but you have just showed yourself incapable of argument on the subject, and 
 you and I would never condescend to dispute. ” 
 
 “We both love argument too much even if we were not too well bred. But 
 for the amusement of the hour I’ll hold my hate in abeyance, and argue the 
 question with you. I hate England because she helps the North.” 
 
 “ How ?” 
 
 “ By furnishing it with arms and ammunition.” 
 
 “ She is a neutral ; and what she refuses to furnish one party with she cannot 
 send to the other. How would you like it if she had withheld not only muni- 
 tion of war, but clothing, especially shoes and blankets, from the South ?” 
 “Not at all ; and I greatly doubt if we should not have had to give up the 
 struggle, if before we had had armouries and manufactories of our own, we 
 could not have got our supplies from England. The North believes this, and 
 hates her proportionately. But she furnishes the South clandestinely and the 
 North openly.” 
 
 “ That speech is not the result of your thinking. The sole reason of the 
 difference in the way of the two countries receiving their merchandise is that 
 the North blockades the South, and if the English were to publicly an- 
 nounce whenever they despatch a ship to Southern shores it would rarely reach 
 them. ” 
 
 “But why doesn’t England raise the blockade?” 
 
 “That is probably the only question on this subject I’ll find it hard to 
 answer. Perhaps she can’t, or is afraid to try. But is it because we have fought 
 her twice that our people single out England for abuse on this subject, when 
 they might as well protest against the non-action of every European Govern- 
 ment? France has now a larger army than England; England may be afraid of 
 her; but she assuredly is not of England. I see in the Dublin Freeman’s 
 Journal , of November 22nd, that ‘all the uniforms for the Confederate army 
 are now being made in England, a considerable portion in London. ’ ” (a) 
 
 “I’m glad you reminded me of Ireland. Why don’t England prevent the 
 Irish from coming over here to fight ? ” 
 
 “She has done all a free government can do; she has promulgated laws 
 against foreign enlistments, and when any guilty of infringing them could be 
 seized, has arrested them. She can hardly be so autocratic as to prevent her 
 citizens from removing here ; there is only one man who can put a stop to this 
 migration from Ireland and he is the Pope ; he could do it through his priests. ” 
 “But you forget how many English fight for us. Remember who man our 
 glorious privateers. Privateering has inflicted more injury on the North than 
 the Irish yet have oifthe South. Were England and Scotland at war, would 
 we help either? Our memories are conveniently short; we ignore our sym- 
 pathies in the Crimean war ; but Russia does not forget those of the larger part 
 of the Union. I have never greatly desired foreign intervention, because I 
 fear Russia would then aid the North ; despotisms sympathize with each other 
 as do free governments ; witness England and the Confederacy, Russia and the 
 Union. Have you seen this account of Mr. Joseph Parker’s fruitless mission ? 
 
 J 
 
13(1 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 Washington, D. C., Nov. 26. 
 
 Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State, &c., &c. — 
 
 Hon. Sir — In reply to your letter of to-day, permit me to state that the 
 address which I have had the honour of being deputed by the parties signing 
 it to bring to this country, and containing the signatures of some three hundred 
 and fifty thousand of my countrymen — from the peer to the artisan — is not from 
 the government of Great Britain, nor from any political party. It is simply an 
 expression of the earnest desire of the masses of the people of Great Britain 
 to see peace again restored to this continent. 
 
 Waiting your favour, I am, honourable Sir, yours most obediently, 
 
 JOSEPH PARKER. 
 
 And Seward answers, 
 
 Department of State, 
 Washington, Nov. 26. 
 
 To Joseph Parker, Esq., Metropolitan Hotel : — 
 
 Sir — The government of the United States cannot receive the address 
 which was mentioned in your note of this morning. Your request for an 
 interview with the President to present the address is therefore declined. 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 WILLIAM H. SEWARD.” 
 
 “That reminds me of a complaint I saw in one of our Yankee papers about 
 the ‘Houghton Address to the people of the United States.’” 
 
 “ What is that ? ” 
 
 “ Never heard of it before. I suppose something like this of the noble Mr. 
 Parker ; it is sedulously kept from us. I remember Lady Houghton presided 
 at the Kentucky table in the splendid Liverpool Bazaar. Bless her for it !” 
 
 “It was said the Kentucky and Tennessee table was the handsomest; it 
 was the central one. Maryland and Delaware were not represented. ” 
 
 “We are very grateful to the English who help us for sympathy.” 
 
 “ Some help us for money.” 
 
 “Many of them do it fpr a very uncertain sort of money — Confederate bonds 
 on cotton they may never get. Moreover, England has given great sums to 
 the South.” 
 
 “ But she wants to waste its strength.” 
 
 “ Have you one fact for proof of this ? Do not all her papers cry for peace ? 
 Is not she, too, greatly suffering ? Does not the throne shake from the cries of 
 dismissed operatives ?” 
 
 “ She is afraid to risk a war, perhaps for fear that in setting another’s house 
 on fire she might find her own in flames. Besides, we have never done any- 
 thing for her that she should sacrifice blood and treasure for us, any more than 
 we should have done for Poland, Greece, or Italy. It is stated that the builder 
 of the Alabama is a member of the British Parliament. A paper said the other 
 day, ‘ The English nobility and the English Church are in favour of the South. 
 The Tory party would recognize us ; but the middle class (or the Puritan portion 
 of it), is against us — naturally sympathizing with Yankees ; Exeter Hall and 
 Plymouth Church are co-relations.” 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 “ Is it strange I dare not try to win Laura? And yet, I love her so intensely 
 that my self-estimation is increased, I had no idea of my capacity for love. I 
 feel more oneness with Him Whose name is 4 Love ’ since I find in myself capacity 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 131 
 
 to sacrifice all earthly pleasure, lest I should defile my ideal — 'the ideal that God 
 placed within me, the vision that floated through my brain while angels watched 
 above. She cannot be mine on earth ; but she may be there — may be if I can 4 quit 
 myself like a man and be strong,’ to dare her anger and disdain. Oh, how I 
 shrink from the cold, proud look, which can steal over her soft features and freeze 
 the dewy mildness of her eye ! Yet I must bear all this and more. If I saw a 
 seducer at her feet, would I not tear her from him, though I saw the knife which I 
 knew she would plunge into my heart ? And shall I see my Eve — a very child 
 in innocence and grace — lend, unconsciously, body and soul to the service of the 
 subtlest of all seducers, while I, like a selfish coward, say I dare not brave her 
 anger ? To see her once more, then lose her for ever ! Oh, God I if it be possible 
 let this cup pass from me ! ” 
 
 Keble’s head fell on his arms crossed on the window-sill as this last thought 
 shook his manly spirit ; but after a while he murmured in an undertone, as 
 though he saw his Father, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Yet his sad 
 thoughts found a little comfort. “ Why did I say leave forever ? I must leave 
 her for a Lenten season, but on the last Easter morning I shall clasp her to my 
 bosom, and my arms will bear her to an eternal Eden.” 
 
 As Keble lay down that night, his mind reverted to a scene of his early years. 
 A bright bo^ clapped his hands while his mamma made bubbles in the sunshine. 
 The child, charmed with the miniature lainbows within his reach, tried to grasp 
 them. 
 
 “Why do you want to touch them, my son?” asked his father, who watched 
 him. 
 
 “ Because they are so bright. I wish I was a giant, and then when it is done 
 raining I would stretch up and take the rainbow out of the sky and hang it on 
 my shoulders like dear Mr. Campbell puts that long black ribbon round his neck 
 before he comes into Church.” 
 
 “ That is a stole, my boy. But if you could touch the rainbow you would only 
 bring down a shower on your head.” 
 
 “ Oh, papa ! ” 
 
 “ Whatever it is best for you to have, God puts within your reach.” 
 
 The next minute the child was striving to grasp another bubble. This time he 
 succeeded ; but very blank was his countenance when he opened his hand 
 intending to kiss his captive rainbow, and found nothing Mamma laughed at 
 him and made another ; but the boy turned on his heel, crying, “ You are just 
 trying to make an April fool of me.” 
 
 “ Sure enough, it is the first of April.” 
 
 “ Betty fooled me once and now you.” His countenance was too much for his 
 mother’s gravity and she laughed heartily, so that the child’s eyes filled with tears 
 and he sprang to his usual hiding-place, papa’s bosom. He had seen that his 
 father did not laugh ; for, he too had grasped a fancy only to waste his love 
 upon the air. With the philosophy of a child’s instinct, Keble felt that 
 papa and he were fellow-sufferers, and they mutually comforted each other. 
 
 Keble, far removed from his boyhood and his boyhood’s home, recalled all this 
 and thought, “ Happier an old bachelor with an ideal unprofaned, than a husband 
 who seeks sympathy in vain.” Thinking on this wise he slept. 
 
 Earlier than usual he arose the next morning, for a dream troubled him, and 
 although his mind was too well-balanced to let him have faith in dreams, his of 
 the last night had been so vivid, that for a while he could not shake off its 
 influence, any more than he could if a coffin had been borne through a dance he 
 was treading. He dreamed that a gentle woman was twining laurel leaves on a 
 willow twig ; he asked for whom, and Laura’s voice replied, “For a true heart.” 
 He bent his knee and demanded the wreath. But she laughed scornfully and 
 threw it towards the South. “What do you mean?” he angrily asked. Her 
 voice was cold when she replied, “No one who teaches man’s right to self- 
 government, and plunges his bayonet in the hearts of those who presume to 
 practise his doctrine, is a true man.” While she spoke a cloud encompassed her; 
 he could not see her, but he stretched out his hands and cried, “Laura !” He 
 
132 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 felt only the chill mist. He prayed earnestly that he might find and hold her 
 for ever, until calm faith folded itself about his heart, and when he again cried, 
 “ Laura !” she answered from the foot of the hill on which he sat, “ Here I am. 
 Save me!” Bright wings went before him and hovered over a woman’s crouched 
 figure. He tried to grasp her hands. She shrieked, “Do not touch me. There 
 is blood on your hands.” He replied, “T have never killed a man,” and was 
 answered, “In your heart, you have. I did not call you to love me. You are not 
 worthy to fold a Southern heart to yours. I called you to save me. I am lost.” 
 “Let me carry you home.” Home! I do not want to go home. I want to find 
 the truth, and it is not there. ;Oh, teach me how to pray ! ” He did ; and then 
 it seemed that both, exhausted by their emotions, lay down to sleep. He wanted 
 to hold her hand lest she should forsake him while he slept, but she shuddered 
 and cried, “Blood!” After a while he dreamed he awoke, and the sun was 
 shining, and he knew who lay beside him, and sang out, “ Glory be to Thee, Oh 
 God ! ” From the blue sky he was answered, “ It ever shall be.” He knew the 
 voice, and looked up hastily. Laura was riding in a snow-white cloud as in a 
 chariot, and as it passed on she trilled, “ And ever shall be.” His efforts to fly 
 after her awoke him. 
 
 Long and earnestly did Keble entreat for Divine help. Laura’s words, “ Oh, 
 teach me how to pray !” rang a continual echo in his brain ; they almost drowned 
 her shuddering cry of “Blood ! ” As he arose from his devotions the early sun 
 smiled, “ Good morning ” into his chastened heart. Drops of perspiration stood 
 upon his forehead. But Keble’s mind was too much under the control of his will 
 for him to remain thus. His step was firm and light as usual when he went about 
 his day’s work. Some business carried hinrto the Provost-marshal’s Department. 
 A poor woman was there, begging to see her son who was to be sent to Camp 
 Chase. She received a peremptory refusal. She pleaded with many tears — “he 
 was her only child — she had no husband.” The grim condolence was, “ Plenty 
 of widows have been here to ask to see their sons.” ( a ) Keble heard this and there 
 was hot blood in his heart. He crossed the room and said to the pitiable mother, 
 “ Don’t cry, good woman ; tell me your name and I will go to Captain Dillard and 
 ask him to give your love and blessing to your boy, and any message you wish to 
 send and bring you back his messages.” She muttered between her sobs, “Nancy 
 Hark, and God bless him and you, too! I can write to him; but I want to see 
 his blessed face again.” “Go down to the river, and when he gets on the boat 
 you will see him.” The woman sprang up — she had not thought of that. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 February 15. 
 
 Laura was writing in her journal — her only true confidante, for she would 
 not grieve her mother with her sorrows — “ The grass begins to look greener, and 
 the sun, which had been hidden for two days, smiles again on his child. I am glad 
 once more — at least I am resolved to be. Shut up in the house, nothing to 
 gratify my passion for beauty — an ever-essential element of my happiness — what 
 wonder if I long for an ideal P But if Spring will hasten I think I shall be 
 happy with her. Her voice is very melody, it always ennobled, purified, and 
 exalted my being, made frosty by Winter. Keble says the Spring makes him 
 long for heaven ; perhaps, because it is the Lenten season. She will give me 
 flowers as beautiful as his thoughts ; she will sympathize in every mood ! What 
 more could Keble do ?” 
 
 Her sigh answered the question. 
 
 “ I feel as one who awaits the approach of doom,” said Laura to herself, as 
 Captain Wilson’s card was brought in. 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 133 
 
 “ Mamma, for pity’s sake go down and talk to that man, I cannot.” 
 
 “ For a little while ; I shall give you time to get up a smile.” 
 
 “ A smile? And for whom P One of my country’s murderers. But I am a 
 lady, if I have a broken heart.” 
 
 “ What were you thinking of when you smiled 
 
 “ Of how susceptible you are, a human, sensitive plant ; no, there’s an old- 
 fashioned simile I like better — impressible as wax. Not an air can pass over a 
 nature like yours without rendering it harder or softer.” 
 
 “The same breath can do both. But how namby-pamby we are getting to 
 be.” 
 
 “ Indeed, at that moment I was breathing a prayer.” 
 
 Laura’s breath came more quickly. 
 
 Keble observed it, and grew bold. 
 
 f< You know that with my detestation of even innocent underhand acting, I 
 warned you I should make of you a double convert.” 
 
 “ I hope you are gratified at your progress.” 
 
 He did not observe her tone ; he was again under the influence of his dream. 
 
 “ Do not think me base before you hear why I ask if you do not think the life 
 I may have saved — the life you say I saved, owes me something? ” 
 
 She was not afraid of any declaration of love ; his tones were too clear and full. 
 “ Yes ; if what you require cannot injure my country.” 
 
 “ You have an idol ; I want you to consider the claims of One Who has a 
 better right to such intense devotion.” 
 
 “ You are impertinent.” 
 
 “ I am prepared for humiliation ; I have weighed the cost of fdrfeiting your 
 favour — if, indeed, I ever had the least of it. I love you well enough to be willing 
 to lose you for a time —not for ever.” 
 
 Laura trembled, but was resolved not to be subdued. 
 
 “ I have acknowledged your right to ask pay for saving my life ; state the 
 terms.” 
 
 “Do not be sarcastic and cruel. You conquered your detestation of Blue 
 Coats because you felt it would be unbecoming to be disrespectful to one who 
 had done you a favour. A weak woman might not have acted thus ; you are 
 capable not only of acknowledging, but also of feeling an obligation. Do you not 
 also acknowledge the right that He Who not only nerved my arm to stop an 
 infuriated beast, but Who created you, has to your gratitude ? Does your ‘ life 
 show forth your thankfulness ? ’ If the time ever comes, when even your pride 
 has to acknowledge the power of — but I will not use a word which will olfend 
 you — then you will understand and respect my feelings.” 
 
 “ Cannot you condescend to introduce some subject which I can at present 
 appreciate ? ” She lodked around for some prop to help her bolster up her heart. 
 Keble did not raise his eyes, nor seem to hear her ; so she fell into silence. 
 Had he been assured of her eternal blessedness, he could have seen her laid 
 in the grave and shed no tear ; but that grave his spirit never would have left 
 save when it followed her to the source of love and joy. Such men do not die 
 from excess of grief ; there is too much sweet in their cup. The decrepid old 
 man’s grey hair would have lain on the same mound where the throbbing head 
 of the man of middle-age had rested. 
 
 After some minutes, he said in tones that even her proud heart could not resist, 
 “ I cannot tell you because I dare not ; how your mood to-day pains my in- 
 most soul. I stand on the brink of the ocean ; a tempest rushes upon me, and I 
 am soon to face it and conquer, or die ; perchance both. I fear I am sinful, but 
 oh ! I wish it might be both. I see the ocean heaving in anticipation of the 
 coming strife, and on that ocean is a woman, and nothing but a plank between her 
 and Eternity. I would stretch out my arms to save her ; but hers are so proudly 
 folded I dare not. So I can only close my eyes in prayer.” 
 
 He had spoken very hurriedly, and under his breath, as though a mighty 
 passion was in his heart, waiting to spring upon him and master him ; but a 
 
134 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 stronger than he controlled its turbulence. At he ceased he walked to the 
 window. Laura sat motionless as the dead ; she did not feel, it was a dream to 
 her — the one she loved — her own and by a passion so holy that she worshipped 
 not only him but it, was about to leave her for ever. Nevertheless, before he 
 should suspect that she even read him aright, she would trample on her heart 
 until it should become the very stone it seemed. 
 
 After a few minutes he turned to her again — “ I dare not speak to you of love ! 
 for, to me love is a holy spark that should not be laid upon an altar where no 
 sacrifice has ever been offered to the God Who made it. I know you do not love 
 me ; nor do I wish it ; for if you did I could not marry you. To me, marriage is 
 a sacrament, not as the Romanist considers, but as St. Paul meant when he made 
 it the type of Christ’s union with the Church. If you do not recognize your 
 allegiance to God, it would not be long before you would refuse it to me. I, 
 who have sworn to defend the Constitution of my country, should nourish a 
 traitor in my own bosom, and the subtle fire might penetrate my heart ; but 
 more than this, when I lay my life at the feet of a woman it will be because I 
 know she will receive the trust only to cherish all my noble impulses and 
 strengthen them for immortality. The woman who breathes next my heart must 
 breathe the prayers I breathe, and when Sunday dawns she must not turn aside 
 in search of excitement and sneer at me for clinging to the Church of my fathers 
 — the Church of my Redeemer. I know what names you are calling me now, 
 although you do not seem to hear a word I say. Let me soften your judgment, 
 only a little ; that need not hurt your pride. Among my earliest recollections 
 are the wranglings of my parents about the Church ; my father was by nature 
 too much of the aristocrat — I do not use the word in an opprobrious sense— to 
 participate in my mothers’s periodic states of physico-mental excitement in which 
 she held religion chiefly consisted. She could not understand his devotion to the 
 prayers and chants learned from his sainted parents — to have given up which 
 would have seemed to him as beggarly as changing his name. My mother’s 
 accusations of my father’s want of piety soon convinced me that neither had 
 much, and I suppose I should when old enough have become in theory the infidel 
 that even at ten years of age I was in practice. But I had a terrible awakening 
 from this spiritual torpor.” He hesitated for a moment, but seeing that Laura’s 
 bosom heaved, and her lips worked nervously, he hastily continued, “ One 
 morning I awoke to find myself motherless, and my father a dishonoured man. 
 When I asked him where my mother was, he answered sternly, ‘ Far away, and 
 you must never mention her name again except in your prayers, my poor boy.’ 
 Then in a passionate outburst of grief, that even I could see was as the rending 
 of soul and body, he clasped me to his heart, and exclaimed, “ Poor child ! Your 
 good name and happiness is to be the price paid for my idolatry of beauty, and 
 what I called native nobility and loveliness; they will not do, my Keble. You 
 must be a Christian.’ The next Sunday I was sent to Sunday School, to which, as 
 neither parent was willing to have me go to that preferred by the other, I had 
 never been before. The same Sunday I knelt by my father and caught from his 
 tones of anguish the inspiration that kindled in my heart a love for God and 
 His Church which nerves me now — nerves me to say ‘ Good-bye ’ to the woman 
 I love with a love which is only an agony.” 
 
 His voice was choked ; he took her head in both his hands and turned it 
 upwards ; to his touch it was icy cold — he thought his trembling hands had 
 communicated their chilliness to her white cheeks. He gazed earnestly. 
 
 “May I kiss you ? No ! no, I have no right.” 
 
 As his hands let her face fall she seized one and laid her lips upon it. A 
 strong convulsive emotion made him lean against the table near which he stood. 
 A gasp that was a prayer, and he looked up ; she was as pale and indifferent- 
 looking as before. Not a tinge of love upon her face, not a tremor on the lips 
 that had just rendered their first homage. She was looking steadily at him, 
 and her eyelids did not fall when he raised his eyes to hers. 
 
 “It was only pity then?” 
 
 She coldly bowed her head. 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 135 
 
 “ Thank God that it is so! but believe me, Laura, that kiss has made you 
 mine for ever. Do not start. Do not open your lips only to say a proud and 
 bitter word. I know you never can be mine as men speak ; you do not yet 
 imagine what love means. But when another leads you to the altar — but oh 
 darling ! my precious one ! let it be none but a Christian ! — feel that my spirit 
 will be above you; for if, as I believe, our Father justifies such love as mine, 
 He will let me be your guardian spirit. ” 
 
 “Will you die? ” she asked as one who talks in a dream. 
 
 “Only as a Christian warrior should ; when God calls me, and at my post ; 
 but the post of danger must be mine, and those who have wife and child to 
 care for them shall yield to me the precedence when danger calls. I shall 
 accept the promotion I refused yesterday, because I chose to linger here and be 
 near you. I cannot influence you, and so I go. Good-bye. ” 
 
 She laid a quiet hand in his and no pulse told her secret misery. Keble had 
 reached the door, but feeling in his breast pocket for his handkerchief, his hand 
 touched a little book. A sudden thought struck him and he turned and laid 
 his father’s prayer-book in the hand of the woman he loved. Another minute 
 and the door was shut with such vehemence that poor Laura, who could not 
 stand the sudden jar, fell forwards stunned. How long she lay unconscious 
 she never knew ; but voices in the street aroused her, and slowly she gathered 
 up her thoughts. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 February 16th. 
 
 “The cannon over the river ! Do you hear it, Laura?” asked Mrs. Buckner, 
 rushing into her daughter’s room with the air of terror she might have shown 
 had the house been on fire. Of course, Island Number Ten has been taken. ” 
 When her mother entered, Laura was bent almost double, her hands clasped 
 around her knees. As she gave her mother no answer, the latter walked to 
 her and gazed in her face to see what such apathy could mean. She had bit 
 her lip until the blood stood on it. 
 
 £ Trust in God. ” 
 
 “ I have no God. What have I loved but my country ? ” 
 
 “ Hush, daughter ! your words are wild. But I acknowledge now God’s 
 Hand is hidden behind the cloud of our self-conceit. ” 
 
 “ Excuse me, dear mother. But every word pierces my brain like a two- 
 edged sword. Would you like to read Macdonnell’s letter to the ladies ? ” 
 Laura lay down on her bed. Her mother went back into the parlour. It 
 was the custom for some lady to open her house for those who chose to cut out 
 clothes for others to make up for the Southern prisoners. 
 
 “ Laura is too sick to come down, but she has a letter from a prisoner on 
 Johnston’s Island she thought would interest you, ladies.” 
 
 On being asked to read it, she began — 
 
 “ f I was the honoured recipient of your kindly letter. A prisoner in a strange 
 land — for, after being prisoner in the North, we never can call it our country 
 any more, you can little understrnd the delight caused by the sight of my 
 name in a lady’s hand. We are allowed to write but one page a week, and that 
 must be inspected. I have written to my mother this week, but cannot let 
 your letter lie unanswered, so a quarter to a guard will get this mailed. You 
 express a desire to know something of the fall of Fort Donelson, as you can 
 believe nothing you see in your papers. If it will not tire you I shall tell you 
 what I can, and feel only too honoured to be able to do so very small a favour 
 
136 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 for one whose kind heart pitied the prisoner, although she knew of him no 
 more than his name and his misfortune. Not I alone, hut many in these 
 Northern prisons pray heaven to bless the women of Kentucky for precious 
 boxes and more precious letters. The battle of Fort Donelson began on the 
 13th of February. Our commanding general was Pillow. The next day the 
 Yankees stormed our breast- works; but our hearts were behind them, and 
 those we would not willingly yield even to Northern ladies ; so of course, did 
 not to the men. We had 11,000 souls in the Fort ; some say 13,000; I think 
 not so many. Thursday we fought both gunboats and men, and victory was 
 granted us ; but the next day numbers of reinforcements arrived and we, 
 worn out, almost perishing for sleep and of hunger and cold, were little able to 
 resist them. It was not, therefore, strange that our Generals Floyd and 
 Buckner decided 11,000 worn-out men could not fight 60,000 ; and seven gun- 
 boats in full armour attacked men not half clothed even in jeans and carpet. 
 Your Buckner could have saved us (Deo volente). He advised Pillow to take 
 5,500 men and cut his way through to the Cumberland and he would cover the 
 retreat. The Yankees fell back too easily for our good, as it afterwards 
 proved ; for Pillow scorned to run away from men so easily driven. He forgot 
 an avalanche of sand could overwhelm an army. Nor could we drive gunboats 
 and mortar-fleet at the point of the bayonet. Pillow fought more than three 
 hours longer than was the previously arranged plan. He was surrounded by 
 20,000 fresh men and forced to retreat. May I never again know the agony I 
 felt when the order came for us to fall back ! fall back to death or captivity ! 
 Before us was freedom, behind us imprisonment ; for a moment I thought 
 several companies would mutiny ; but we did the soldiers’ first duty — we 
 obeyed. That night Pillow and Floyd left us with 2,500 men; 550 men 
 escaped 4 on their own hook,’ I presume. I think 600 of our wounded were 
 sent to Nashville, and 700 were taken prisoners. We were ordered on an 
 old, rickety, worn-out boat such as this civilized Government keeps for the 
 conveyance of its captives. We were assured the rotten hulk might give way, 
 or its disordered machinery blow us up at any minute ; but God heard the 
 prayers of the Sunday previous, and 4 4 showed forth His pity upon the cap- 
 tives. ” After the fashion of United States’ prisoners, we lost all our clothes 
 and were sadly in need of the several thousand garments sent from Louisville. 
 General Johnston, who was then preparing to evacuate Bowling Green, sent a 
 despatch to Pillow asking him if he needed more troops. If he did, he would 
 send him all he wanted immediately. But Pillow never got the despatch. At 
 the end of the telegraph line nearest to Fort Donelson was an operator who kept 
 the despatch instead of forwarding it to Pillow ; he telegraphed back in Pillow’s 
 name to Johnston, saying that he had no need of reinforcements. On Saturday 
 evening he telegraphed to Johnston in Pillow’s name, stating that he was fighting 
 gloriously, and would be able on the next day to drive off the Union troops. On 
 receiving these despatches, purporting to come from Pillow, General Johnston 
 took no steps to succour the rebels at Fort Donelson, and they were forced Jo 
 surrender. The deception of the operator was discovered, and he was captured 
 just as he was trying to escape to the Union lines. He was hung by sentence of 
 a court martial.’ ” 
 
 AT JOHNSTON’S ISLAND. 
 
 A captive in a dreary Isle, 
 
 No woman’s murmured cheer or smile 
 My haughty manhood to beguile, 
 
 Beside a window white with sleet — 
 
 Where fairy forms each other greet, 
 
 I sit while past and future meet. 
 
 The present is not in my dream, 
 
 For over it there falls a gleam 
 Which hides in light the joys that seem 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 137 
 
 In reason’s cold and silent hours 
 
 Like once-prized, but long- withered flowers. 
 
 Culled in Kentucky’s sunny bowers. 
 
 “ Mother has been sick ever since the fall of the Fort,” said Miss Gray. 
 
 “ Why don’t you say since the exaltation of the Fort Donelson heroes?” asked 
 Mrs. Brown. 
 
 44 She had a lingering hope all Monday that Buckner was not a prisoner. 
 Tuesday, she walked early in the morning down to father’s store to see if he had 
 heard anything more, and when he told her there could no longer be a doubt, she 
 burst into tears in the street ; she had met him at the door.” 
 
 44 How mortified she must have been to have lost her self-control where 
 Yankees could see and exult over her ! ” 
 
 “ Tears shed for such a man are not a thing to be ashamed of.” 
 
 44 It was not ladylike, I know,” said Mrs. Lynn. ; “ but I was out that morning 
 making purchases for a surgeon’s box, and when brass buttons passed by I could 
 not help a little elevation of voice as I bewailed Buckner’s fate. Ellen said she 
 wanted to put on mourning.” 
 
 “Mr. Cunningham was like a half-crazed person.” 
 
 * 4 My husband bears it bravely, yet he is so hopeless and crushed, poor 
 fellow l” (a) 
 
 4 4 What surgeon’s box were you purchasing articles for, if I may ask the 
 question, Mrs. Lynn ?” 
 
 44 One of our best — Dr. Bayess, a good Southerner — had permission from the 
 authorities here to go down to the fort to take care of the wounded. I under- 
 stand from a lady who spent that sad Monday at the doctor’s that she never 
 passed such a day. There were fifty, or maybe, a hundred persons there ; at 
 first some came to beg the doctor to go down and see if their dearest were 
 among the killed or wounded ; then it was bruited abroad that he was going, 
 and people were rushing to send messages and packages. The good doctor 
 couldn’t take half of either, (a) She said she felt that she was breathing a 
 sublime atmosphere ; no time for thought of self. This dreadful contest will 
 do people good by putting self under the heel of patriotism. But the doctor 
 was not allowed to reach the Fort. General Buell gave him a permit ; but the 
 general, in whose district the Fort was, would not allow him to proceed. He 
 might have learned a few truths to oppose to the Yankee accounts.” 
 
 44 Poor Buckner ! How such a spirit as his must have agonized ere it yielded 
 to the foe ! But he had no right to sacrifice lives uselessly. However, at 
 Fort Donelson he gained three battles in four days.” 
 
 4 4 We sent off* a thousand garments the other day, and those boxes were 
 not our first. The day we met at Aunt Ellen’s it rained in torrents, but 
 before 9 a.m. three hundred garments, cut out the previous afternoon, had 
 been distributed to those who came for work. ” ( a ) 
 
 44 In the rain ? ” 
 
 44 Certainly. Hadn’t the poor soldiers stood in the trenches half filled with 
 water four days for us ? All day long work was refused because two rooms 
 full of ladies couldn’t cut out fast enough. ” (a ) 
 
 44 A gentleman has given Buckner’s tailor an order for a suit of clothes for 
 him. But some of the ladies 4 stole a march ’ on him and sent the General a 
 box. I was provoked enough to have had nothing in it. ” 
 
 4 4 Mr. Stringfellow, an Episcopal clergyman in Indiana, told us he saw six 
 prisoners put to bed and fed ; they went to sleep and never woke again ; there 
 was no wound or disease; they died from mere exhaustion.” 
 
 4 4 Mere exhaustion ! you have never felt it if you can couple the words. It 
 is harder to resist than acutest pain. ” ( a ) 
 
 44 Judge, Catron has issued a warrant for General Buckner’s arrest.” 
 
 44 He ought to be made Chief Justice of all the numbskulls of creation. 
 President Davis will know how to avenge a prisoner of war.” 
 
138 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “Did you liear Buckner was to be brought here to be tried for treason by 
 order of Judge Catron?” 
 
 “Don’t be afraid; the Yankees of Louisville would as soon apply torches to 
 their own houses as allow that.” 
 
 “Contrast the fall of Fort Sumter with the fall of Fort Donelson, and say 
 which nation has the best right to the appellation of chivalric. ” 
 
 “There was no exultation over the defeated Yankees. Beauregard dictated 
 no terms of surrender which could wound Anderson’s feelings ; he went out 
 with the honours of war, was permitted to salute his flag and was escorted 
 with all his men to the ship in which he was to embark.” 
 
 “This was chivalrous indeed. The Yankees have never emulated such 
 conduct. ” 
 
 “In Danville a boy of seven has been shot by a United States’ officer for 
 hurrahing for J eff Davis. When the ball was extracted, the little hero was 
 told of it. ‘Then,’ said he, ‘hurrah for Jeff Davis ! ’(a) I could not learn that 
 the brute who shot him had been arrested ; I don’t suppose he will be until 
 death does its office and carries him to judgment. Danville reminds me of 
 Danforth. He is a Yankee colonel. I asked him why he gave up the law for 
 arms. He replied, ‘ there was nothing doing in law and he believed there 
 would be a military despotism ; some were to be rulers and some the ruled, and 
 he chose to be of the ruling party.’ ” (a) 
 
 “Let’s talk about something cheerful in this corner.” 
 
 “Morgan is the only cheerful subject I know of. The madcap and his men 
 monopolize the exploits in Kentucky brigades. The Union soldiers are 
 ridiculing the Kentuckians in their ranks. ” 
 
 “Kentuckians! Schoef commands Dutch and Northerners with a sprinkling 
 of corncrackers to give flavour ; but the brigade has a right to be called 
 Kentuckian, as a few raisins give name to a plum pudding. Prentice says, 
 ‘The greatest scandal of our troops is they can’t catch John Morgan, the very 
 active and mischievous rebel marauder. ’ I would not give General Morgan for 
 any general. Don’t he stir up the Yankees !” 
 
 ‘ ‘ And how he does help himself to whatever information he desires ! ” 
 
 “ The ruffianly soldiers camped near Judge Hunter’s place have nearly ruined 
 it, even destroyed the furniture.” 
 
 “ That is nothing. Some ladies in the neighbourhood have had to lock up 
 their servant- women and themselves from the Dutch boors.” 
 
 “ But only a few families have suffered so near Louisville. I was passing 
 through Butchertown last week and could not get along for a crowd ; a captain, 
 with a bloody head, was supported on his horse by a soldier ; something had 
 offended the captain, and twice he had fired on unarmed men. Then a man hit 
 him on the head with a stone.” (a) 
 
 “ A Unionist told me to-day that sixty colonels, generally Kentuckians, had 
 said they would lay down their arms if the Cameronian policy prevailed.” 
 
 “ They say so now, and many think so ; but when the time comes you will 
 find few will resign. When people begin to descend the hill of honour they 
 seldom have enough resolute courage to try the toils of an upward path. They 
 who have joined the Lincolnite army have lost caste with Southerners and feel that 
 they must keep it with somebody. A young officer said that he felt like a 
 stranger in Louisville since he had a United States’ commission.” (a) 
 
 “ I believe Kentucky officers either feel themselves our masters, or else are 
 conscious that we look down on them ; their social equality is destroyed.” 
 
 “ A Union lady told me that she went out to one of their camps, and a soldier 
 from the North-West expressed his surprise at the way the troops were received 
 here. He added, ‘ only the lower classes and negroes cheer us. But on Broad- 
 way they did wave to us from some big houses. ’ ” 
 
 “ Have you read ‘ The Partisan Leader P ’ ” 
 
 “No. It is by Judge Tucker, I believe.” 
 
 “Yes ; and verily he is a political Daniel. Yan Buren, as drawn by Tucker, 
 not as he was in reality), gives no bad idea of Lincoln. All the time I was read- 
 
LOVE AND WAR . • * 139 
 
 ing of Virginia I was thinking of Kentucky, which occupies the position that 
 Tucker supposed her mother-state to occupy.” 
 
 “ I do not think at the present time we can he accused of being engrossed with 
 the fashions.’’ 
 
 “ No ; we don’t talk about the latest styles, except of the campaigns, nor 
 discuss any public amusements but Yankee races. No one thinks of the newest 
 way of making anything.” 
 
 “ Except a good case out of a desperate cause.” 
 
 “We asked permission to go into hospitals and nurse our own men; this 
 was refused. We begged to be allowed to get a house for a hospital, and bear 
 all the expenses — of course it was to be guarded by the Lincolnites ; this too 
 was denied. But it is a blessing we can send things through the few ladies 
 wdio have real or pseudo relations in the hospitals. Even the Union ladies are 
 so much affected by the superior gentility of our soldiers to their Dutch, that 
 they have paid them too much attention. The Democrat says, [ 4 We will 
 admit the assertion of “ One who knows,” that the lady alluded to is loyal. 
 But if so, she is deficient in sense. If she knows anything at all, she must 
 know that marked attention to wounded rebels while wounded patriots all 
 around her are needing and not receiving proper consideration, must neces- 
 sarily cause the latter to ask whether such conduct is not offering a premium 
 to treason. ’] It is a pity to irritate sick children by exciting their envy and 
 hatred. Weak brains should be watchfully cared for.” 
 
 “The papers said that when Bowling Green was evacuated Morgan’s men 
 seemed the boldest, and after the army had left returned and set fire to the 
 Confederate stores. I saw Mr. Floyd who lives there. He says, the Yankees 
 behaved most outrageously when they took the place, rushing into rooms where 
 ladies were in bed or making their toilettes. One Dutchman jumped in a bed 
 with a Unionist, (his wife hearing him comiug had got under the bed) and 
 exclaimed, ‘Wouldn’t my wife like to know vat a nice feder bed I’ve got!’ 
 The Unionist cried out, ‘Is this the liberty I’ve been waiting for ? ’ ”( ct) 
 
 “The liberty of even the Unionists went with our army. An officer on 
 Buckner’s staff says the people about Bowling Green used to say it was only 
 necessary to say you were a Unionist, to have your claims instantly attended 
 to. A scouting party took possession of two horses belonging to a rampant 
 Unionist, and one had been given to a son in the United States’ army. The 
 man complained to Buckner, who said both horses must be returned.” (a) 
 “Then he was wrong.” 
 
 “But ‘e’en his failings lean to virtue’s side !’ Major Cosby wrote to General 
 Hardee asking an order for the restoration of both horses. Hardee said the 
 horse given for the Yankee service need not be returned. Buckner said he was 
 determined no one should be disturbed for opinions, and wrote to General 
 Johnston, who ordered the horse to be restored. ( a) I wonder if that Unionist’s 
 house was one of those broken into by the Yankees.” 
 
 “Buckner was fortunate to have one gentleman among his captors. The 
 captain of the guard said to him and his staff, ‘Gentlemen, I was told to take 
 from you ycur side arms ; but I cannot take them from men who have fought 
 so valiantly. ’” (a) 
 
 “The Journal's abuse of General Buckner shows such intensity of littleness, 
 and such grandiloquence of boasting, that even my contempt can scarcely 
 descend to its level. It would be strange if such writers could comprehend a 
 man honest enough to be fooled by their neutrality. They are too far below 
 him to measure his proportions. Imagine a general who never made a political 
 arrest at the bar of such judges ! Neither is it strange that the Journal has 
 such a spite against General Morgan. Who does its party more harm? My 
 husband has just come from Nashville, where he heard Buell in a speech to his 
 soldiers warn them of the capacity of their foe, saying, though they had had 
 no regular battle, he had lost — I am afraid to say iiow many men, and lie 
 attributed this loss principally to General Morgan. Y ou remember how the 
 
140 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 Journal abused Morgan for burning some bridges ; did you see its last compli- 
 ments to the Yankees for a similar feat ? ” 
 
 “Yes, I have no patience with people who talk as if bridges were of more 
 value than lives, and rail-road stocks than immortal souls.” 
 
 “Very proper estimate in this war of Mammon and Satan.” 
 
 The ladies were joined by Mrs. Clute from Paducah, who was asked for the 
 news and understood what was meant by the term. 
 
 “As the prisoners from Fort Henry passed up the street, they were saluted 
 from the windows by the waving of many handkerchiefs from secession ladies. 
 Paducah is the head-quarters for Union refugees, and Grant has levied on the 
 Secessionists there for their support. ” 
 
 “I believe every Yankee officer thinks he is a law -maker as soon as he passes 
 Mason’s and Dixon’s line.” 
 
 “Yes; and suspends the course of justice accordingly. One of the papers 
 said yesterday of an affair at Mumfordsville, 4 A party of rebels, came to our 
 pickets with a flag of truce. The object of the visit was to request that a 
 person who deserted from their camp, and who was charged with murder, 
 might be returned to their custody for trial and punishment. The request was 
 denied, and we think very justly, for how is it possible that an illegal body of 
 men can legally punish any man, however heinous or ignoble his crime 
 may be.’” 
 
 “ Is the Criminal Court a Yankee body F ” 
 
 44 Practically, or it would soon be dissolved. I think all Yankee assemblies in 
 our State are criminal courts. The Governor says in his message . — 4 In regions 
 over which the contending armies have passed, large amounts of property have 
 been taken or destroyed, the country has been made desolate, and large numbers 
 are suffering for the necessaries of life ; many cannot make a crop this year ; add 
 to this, that many persons have been frightened or dragged from their homes and 
 suffering families. The laws are silent or cannot be executed. Universal gloom 
 and distress pervade these regions. Families are divided and broken up, and 
 each has its wrongs or its woes to relate. Starvation stares many in the face. In 
 other and more highly -favoured districts no property of any description can be 
 sold at one-third of its former value.’ ” 
 
 44 Did you hear that Mr. Johnston’s place has been ruined by the soldiers who 
 have camped on it ? Fences burned, trees trimmed, ground beaten down by the 
 horses so that it is like clay baked in furrows. He was assured he would be paid 
 for damages. He got some loyal men to assess his losses, and presented his ticket 
 to the Yankee authorities, who said he was disloyal and could not be paid. Yet 
 neither he nor his have done anything ; but no questions were ever asked about 
 that.” 
 
 “We need news as much as the occupants of our military prisons need fresh air ; 
 but don’t let it in too suddenly, or in too great quantities, for we are only buried, 
 not dead. As proof of this, in Clarke county alone there were sixty indictments for 
 treason in one month.” 
 
 44 Have you had any news from your brother in Fort Warren ? ” 
 
 “ He is amusing himself by fishing.” 
 
 44 Fishing P ” 
 
 44 He fishes for a bean in his soup. Their coffee is half chicory. He has only 
 one blanket; but what annoys him most, he learns he is not to expect clean sheets 
 for months. They are on allowance of water. Thirty-six prisoners and four 
 cannons share his room. When are these clothes to be sent to the Western prisons?” 
 44 The Rev. Mr. Wells of Calvary Church will take them as soon as they are 
 ready. We are tired of sewing for Dutch and Irish.” 
 
 44 Bless Mr. Wells ! I am sure if my preacher was to do what he does they 
 would put him in prison.” 
 
 “ Mr. Wells just works ahead without stopping to ask what is to be his punish- 
 ment. But he never goes out of his sphere. Nor will he allow the wives and 
 children of Union soldiers to be 4 sent empty away ’ to that bard- to-be-got- at 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 141 
 
 society that professes to take care of them. Our Southern Aid Society does its 
 work better. But remember, this society is a secret one.” 
 
 “ Do you justify Bishop Polk for taking up arms ? ” 
 
 “I do not ; I think God is worse served than even the Confederacy ; there are 
 fewer skilful generals in proportion to the army to command the soldiers of the 
 Cross.” 
 
 “ I don’t think him right,” said Mrs. Newton, lt for I left my own Church be- 
 cause the preacher thought he was ordained to be a politician, and I took refuge 
 in the Episcopal Church. When I go there on Sundays, worn out with the 
 excitement of the week, it is to escape from the outside pressure of trouble, and 
 to quietly gather strength for the future. Therefore I condemn every preacher 
 who forsakes his office for one of secular life.” 
 
 “ Were you at the funeral of Major Cassidy, another victim to disease imbibed 
 at Fort Donelson ? ” 
 
 “ I was sick, I never regretted anything more.” 
 
 il I never saw, and everybody said the same, such a funeral in Louisville. 
 Christ Church, the largest house of worship here but one, was so crowded that 
 ladies stood in the aisles or sat on footstools because the gentlemen were packed 
 in the congregation too densely to get up without too much disturbance. Great 
 numbers went away because they could not enter.” 
 
 “A gentleman told me he was not very late, but he could not get inside of 
 the iron railing. As Mr. Hoyt said, this unusual manifestation of feeling 
 indicated national feeling — it was not private sympathy only. ” 
 
 “No,” said Mrs. Blam. “Do you remember the funeral of the first Federal 
 officer who was buried here afterwards ? What a contrast ! The family con- 
 nection was much larger, and the family quite as popular. The Yankees were 
 so outraged at the contrast they will never let us have another funeral, I 
 wager.” 
 
 “Do you remember the music ? ” 
 
 “I thought my heart would break when it began, Oh, how it sighed and 
 groaned over our first martyr !” 
 
 “Not our first by hundreds.” 
 
 “No; but the first whom Louisville has buried. Mr. Hoyt called him rightly a 
 hero and a martyr. Many of the ladies seemed overpowered. ” 
 
 “Some were wondering when their hearts would be broken by the demon 
 War.” 
 
 “The hearse was a square from the church before we got out — I suppose we 
 were about the middle of the procession, for I, though not particularly near- 
 sighted, could not see either end. Yet the symbolic burial, of ‘ dust to dust ’ 
 was performed in the church, and it was announced that only intimate friends 
 would accompany the remains. ” 
 
 “Nearly all Louisville people were the immediate friends of a Confederate 
 officer. The Provost Marshal sent word to Dr. Craik that only twenty-five 
 carriages could go to the cemetery. A difficulty was feared, and some gentlemen 
 went home for their pistols ; it was reported that the services would be 
 interrupted by the Provost Guard. There is a rumour that the Dutch say when 
 their comrades are buried, it is done quietly, and that the rebels shan’t have 
 any more parades over their officers. Did you hear of the outrage perpetrated 
 in Lexington at the funeral of one of our officers ? ” 
 
 “ No. What was it ? ” 
 
 “The procession was immense, and a regiment rode in between the carriages, 
 cutting nearly all off. The soldiers ran bayonets into vehicles where ladies 
 were. ” ( a ) 
 
 “ A fine bayonet charge ! The only kind that regiment will ever make. I 
 heard that they put up the badge of tyranny over the cemetery gate, and 
 waved another edition of the stripes over the coffin.” (a) 
 
142 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 February 18th. 
 
 “Clara Urston has just been here telling me about her brother’s trouble. 
 She says that the night the news of the Fall of Fort Donelson reached 
 Louisville she never pitied any one so much. You know his father never would 
 give his consent to Frank’s going South, and he has such strict ideas of duty 
 that he never will leave without his consent. Clara says, the night of our 
 heavy sorrow he pleaded like a child with his father to let him go and die with 
 the little band of brave men who were fighting for freedom. He says he has 
 no hope that we can • ever conquer, (4) that if he had known when General 
 Buckner was at Bowling Green that he did not have enough men he should 
 have left without his father’s permission,” said Minnie. “You know that 
 every body then thought that he had more men than he could equip — a fatal 
 mistake for Kentucky, I fear. Ah ! when will the wise men of the world learn 
 that honesty is the best policy ? Said Frank, ‘ I would rather die there than 
 live here. ’ He is of the stuff for a hero — there is no self-seeking in him. He 
 told Clara he knew why his father wanted him to stay — ‘he thinks he may die 
 at any time, as he is in bad health, ’ and then he asked, ‘ What would become of 
 the women ? I don’t care anything for the property ; but — ’ He stopped, and 
 his eyes flashed.” (4) 
 
 “He was thinking of all sorts of possible horrors and helpless women 
 without a protector ! Was Clara willing for him to go ? ” 
 
 “ She says she would gird on his sword if he were only a Christian, and that 
 even as it is, she cannot say anything against his going, because he says he 
 would rather die than bear the taunts of the Abolitionists, and the triumphant 
 faces of the Hutch.” (4) 
 
 “What a bitter cup has Kentucky to drink — an opiate while her sisters 
 take poison ! But Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, and Roanoke are true victories, 
 though actual defeats. The trouble is, our people know none but a realistic 
 scale to measure success by. Those farther South will not despond so soon as 
 we ; we cannot know so much of their resources ; nor can those who are only 
 spectators, understand the spirit of the actors. ” 
 
 “Only spectators ! Oh, Laura ! what are you saying?” 
 
 “I was not thinking of suffering, but of action. I believe we suffer mentally 
 more than the fighting South does physically. ” 
 
 “ Notwithstanding all your bold words you have suffered physically ; your 
 eyes are sunken and you have a crushed look. ” 
 
 “I crushed! I, a Southerner, crushed!” Laura laughed painfully. “It is 
 not that, Minnie ; it is not that. Long years of bloody warfare stretch out 
 before me. It almost maddens me to think of the desolated homes of the 
 fleeing, and of the breaking hearts of those whose dearest have died, sacrifices 
 for their country, or are pining in Northern prisons.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ I think our present trouble may teach us a lesson for future use. It may 
 teach us to pity the conqueror when our hour of victory dawns — if dawn it 
 ever does.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ I never could have condescended to exult over fallen foes ; I never should 
 have stooped to taunt a Yankee acquaintance. But, as you say, I hope our 
 present lesson will enable us to be very patient when the scales turn, no 
 matter how haughty and disagreeable our enemies may be. I have learned 
 from experience that the most unfortunate are the proudest. The contempt of 
 my nature for anything like rejoicing over an enemy’s discomfiture, would keep 
 me from offending as long as I was of the dominant party ; but pride, or, 
 perhaps more truly, sensitiveness, would be apt to make me cold and repulsive 
 if I belonged to the down-trodden. ” 
 
 “ I will not stand an insult offered to the dear cause — ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 143 
 
 “ You, my gentle Minnie ! ” 
 
 “I do not feel gentle now, Laura. When the abominable cannon began their 
 booming of rejoicing I burst into tears. My dinner went untasted that day. It 
 does seem to me fiendish to rejoice in so unmanly a way over despair. I felt 
 superior to them, Laura.” 
 
 “ That night some Yankees in our neighbourhood sent up some fire rockets. I 
 did not look at them. They would have seemed too much like sparks of hell. 
 How Satan must rejoice over such a jubilee ! ” 
 
 “ Bettie McGrumm said that without being bloodthirsty, she hoped every man 
 in the Southern army would find a bloody grave.” (a) 
 
 “ What a pet she would be with Moloch ! ” 
 
 “ Another girl said she would like to take a bath in blood of Secessionists.” (a) 
 “ If there is any truth in the theory of transmigration of souls, Caligula has 
 changed his sex.” 
 
 “ Mrs. Hait said she would like to dip her arms to the elbows in Southern 
 blood.” (a) 
 
 “We ought to send her to Dahomey, where she would be made queen.” 
 
 “ Mrs. Curd said she would like to have a necklace of Secessionists’ eyes.” (a) 
 “ To wear when she weds Beelzebub.’’ 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Heavily, heavily, always more heavily beat the rain. 
 
 “ It will kill me!” exclaimed Laura, crossing her hands tightly over her head, 
 as if she were trying to hold her brain still. 
 
 For three days it had been raining, and she had been growing gloomier every 
 day ; now on the third the rain seemed to pour in fuller torrents on the saturated 
 earth. When she heard that Island Number Ten had been given up she received 
 the news in a cold, dead silence, and if Keble had seen her then he might not have 
 thought his case so utterly hopeless, when he remembered their last interview ; he 
 would have seen that her seeming indifference was sometimes only the impossi- 
 bility of her body partaking of the throes of her spirit. Poor Laura, with two 
 idols, and mocked by both ! One she would not acknowledge as such, but for the 
 sake of the other had hurled it into dust, and, as she hoped, stamped out its life in 
 her passion and anguish. And the other idol she was thinking of when she ex- 
 claimed, “ It will kill me ! ” But she spoke of the rain, and then she thought on — 
 “ How it mocks me, falling so loudly ! I cannot shut it out from my aching ears. 
 Falling so swiftly to raise the rivers, that the horrid gunboats may carry their 
 cruel cargoes. And now Number Ten is gone ; it would not have hurt me so if 
 our poor soldiers had given it up at first ; but to fortify it so strongly and then 
 give it up ! Ah ! it is placing a bombshell in the hands of an enemy ; it will 
 become a weapon of death to those who spent their strength upon it. Oh, God 
 my country ! What will become of my country ?” 
 
 She cast herself upon her knees, her words were only, “ Oh, God, my country!” 
 but were repeated so long and earnestly they reached God’s ear. At last tears 
 came. As the bands of agony about her brain began to slacken ; she arose and paced 
 the floor. “ Ah ! the bloodhounds are after the hunted deer-r-the deer whose only 
 crime is love of freedom. Through the rain I hear the baying of the hounds. 
 How their eyes glare with ferocity as they hurry on in their wild hate ! And 
 now the deer stand at bay. They will fight now. Corinth is to be the Thermo- 
 pylae of Southern freedom ; it is to run red with blood. Ah, if I were a man. 
 What chance has the little band of exhausted braves surrounded by men eager 
 for their blood ? Let them have it ! Pour out your blood, my countrymen ! 
 Ages will arise to call you blessed. Die for freedom, and freedom will spring from 
 
144 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 your ashes. Are we to be ruined ? God only knows ; our foes count six to our 
 one, and we have not equal weapons. Can we he conquered? Certainly not ; 
 ruined we may he ; yet even even over a desolated country it will he sweet to sit 
 half naked in the Winter’s cold and press Liberty to our bosoms, and die of 
 famine or of pestilence. But, oh my country, so fair so beautiful ! can this be 
 your destiny ? Merciful God forbid ! Ah ! it is well to call on a merciful God — 
 a God only just would not hear. We do indeed deserve all ; we have forfeited 
 every claim upon Him by our forgetfulness of Him in our prosperity. I remember 
 how Keble prayed, ‘ Good Lord, deliver us,’ after ‘ In all time of our prosperity.’ 
 I did not notice the rest of the suffrage for there was somethiug in that phrase 
 which surprised me, and roused me from a foolish dream ; but alas ! I went back 
 to it after he had answered. I recall so perfectly his look when one day I said to 
 him, ‘ How many queer prayers you Episcopalians have ! ’ He replied, ‘ Some 
 may appear so to those who have but raised life’s cup to their lips and not yet 
 tasted of its intoxication and its bitterness ; but before they drain it they 
 will find every one is needed, and that all which are needed are there.’ He 
 asked me to what petition I had reference and I told him. He responded, 
 ‘We ask to be delivered from the evils of that condition of life; from 
 the hurtful passions mentioned previously.’ I can see now how a cloud 
 came over his features, and he said, ‘ It seemed to me a day ago that it would 
 be as much as I could bear — more than I could in my own strength — to see a 
 beautiful statue that I keep in a locked up sanctuary smitten by any evils 
 incident to war, and to think that a bloody hand might rest upon it — that a 
 
 rude stroke of violence might hurl my idol — no, I have no idol my beautiful 
 
 and noble statue — from its proud pre-eminence. I did not then think that its 
 beauty might be as sadly marred if it were kept too closely. ’ I laughed, and 
 asked what he was thinking about. He looked sadder, and said as though he 
 addressed a third person, ‘ Heal gently. ’ And now I know what he meant ; I 
 was the statue — and I am one ; for this hot heart of mine would have burned 
 up flesh and blood long ago. Ah, what a noble man ! God, do not let them 
 kill him ! ” And again Laura bent her knee, and she prayed with some tears, 
 though with fewer groans than she had for her country. 
 
 Laura feared her brain would burn up, so she took up the little red prayer- 
 book because it always had a soothing power ; it represented to her such a 
 fearless spirit. She opened to the latter part of the Litany ; the Lord’s 
 Prayer looked familiar, and she knelt to say that ; it would be very sweet to 
 read it from the book from which he had read it. When she came to, ‘ Thy 
 will be done, ’ she stopped. Laura had never told a lie ; she could not pray one. 
 “Ho I want His will done ? Suppose it were His will that my country should 
 be destroyed ? I know it is very wicked to feel as I do ; but I cannot mock 
 God’s all-seeing Eye.” To turn her thoughts from self-reproach she looked 
 again in the book, and with all her heart ejaculated, ‘ ‘ 0 Lord, deal not with 
 us according to our sins, neither reward us according to our iniquities.” 
 Hearing her own tones gave life to her thoughts. Thus were answered Keble’s 
 prayers, and the sorrows of her country did their unsuspected work. “His 
 ideas are wandering in mystic rounds in my stilled heart. He has given me to 
 know that I have a heart because he has stilled it. It is the cessation of the 
 lullaby that wakens the infant. It is his absence that arouses my heart. 
 Pygmalion loved the statue that his hands made ; but I love the ideal that he 
 has carved out of my cold individuality. I will adopt that ideal as though it 
 were myself, and never cease striving until I incase in it the old self that if he 
 could really see he would abhor as I do. His thoughts are the guardians of 
 my awakened life. Beautiful stars, borrowing your brightness from the ‘ Sun 
 of Righteousness ’ shine ever on my restless soul ! I hail ye as messengers 
 from my hitherto unacknowledged king. ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 145 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 “ Oh, mother, I shall die ! Can it be true ? Our brave forces cut to pieces 
 at Shiloh — General Johnston killed, and General Beauregard wounded.” 
 
 “ Be calm, my child,’ ’ said Mrs. Breckenridge, sobbing hysterically. 
 
 “ Oh, this agony, this agony ! Poor wounded braves ! God have mercy on 
 their souls ! I am choking ! ” 
 
 Fanny ran in to say, “ Miss Emily has fainted.” They went to her. She lay 
 on the floor, the evening bulletin in her blue hand. So self-possessed was Miss 
 Johnston that heretofore every one had gone to her for consolation when a great 
 misfortune befell the Southern cause ; but as, when she read the disastrous news 
 from Shiloh there was no one present whose grief made her forget that she 
 suffered as much or more than the one she consoled, she yielded to the blow, (4) and 
 fell a victim of the telegraph’s falsehoods. For though the nation mourned the 
 loss of one of its noblest, when Albert Sidney J ohnston fell, he died not on the 
 field of defeat. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Minnie allowed a hook to drop from her listless hands, and as languidly fell 
 from her lips in an undertone — 
 
 “ It is no use to try; I can’t read. When the chill of death is coming over the 
 numbed limbs, how can the poor victim rise and run ? From the battle-fields of 
 the South comes a cold breeze no walls can keep out. It bears to me his dying 
 groan.” A shudder passed over her, and she compressed her lips and thought on : — 
 “ Not groan — for I have heard our wounded can be distinguished from the enemy 
 by their silence. And so it should be ; if death comes with victory no exultation 
 should mingle with the pure ecstacy of the dying patriot, that he has helped to 
 bring his land one step nearer freedom. But is it not sad that when Liberty and 
 Fame smile on him from the heights he is sinking into the 1 dark valley?’ If he 
 falls in the moment of defeat, his cry of anguish must not rend the hearts of those 
 for whom he dies ; he is glad to have those who have strength to retreat leave him 
 to die alone, if so they may be saved to strike another blow for freedom. Thank 
 God that such a soul as this I love — a soul that lives for others, will die for others, 
 and even in eternity will not exist for self. Down, my weak woman’s heart, 
 quickly down ! Is all the land to mourn and I be left to revel in his love ? Is 
 freedom worth his death ? After what he has said I dare not answer, no. Is the 
 life of a slave worth cherishing ? The lips that lick the hands of a tyrant, 
 whether that tyrant be but one man or a mob, can never profane mine. His 
 beautiful lips were eloquent with cheers for Davis and freedom ere pressed to 
 mine. Oh, if I were a man ! Then I, too, would lay down my life for my 
 country ; but I, a woman, with such a woman’s heart ! ” 
 
 Minnie buried her face, not to weep, but to shudder until sensation sank into 
 the torpor of suffering. Poor little woman, longing to be a man to die for her 
 country ! Has not she offered up as grand a sacrifice ? Happiness is woman’s 
 offering, and it avails with God. 
 
 The servant brought a letter. 
 
 April 8th, 1862. 
 
 “Dear Cousin Minnie, 
 
 Fearing that you may hear I was in the conflict at Shiloh 
 and be uneasy, I hasten to assure you that I am safe. I love to think that your 
 
 K 
 
146 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 prayers were about me like the wings of angels, to shield me from danger. Our 
 victory Sunday was decided. 
 
 Our troops pursued the Federal army to the Tennessee river, where great 
 numbers of them were drowned endeavouring to embark upon their gunboats. 
 Our army slept in the enemy’s tents on Sunday night. 
 
 During the night Buell’s army of 30,000 crossed the river. The battle of 
 Monday is said to have been as desperate and bloody as that of Sunday, but our 
 troops, running out of ammunition, were compelled to fall back upon Corinth, 
 having taken an additional number of prisoners. Several of the flags borne by 
 the prisoners were inscribed 4 To Corinth or hell.’ 
 
 The Kentucky regiment of General Breckenridge was extolled by every one. 
 Its noble commander won for himself a name which can never perish. His command 
 was posted so as to cover the withdrawal of the army. General Beauregard told 
 him it might be necessary to sacrifice himself ; 4 For,’ said he, 4 this retreat xuust 
 not be a rout. You must hold the enemy back if it requires the loss of your last 
 man.’ ‘Your order shall be executed to the letter,’ said the chivalrous Breck- 
 enridge, and gathered his command, fatigued and decimated, and he and they pre- 
 pared to devote themselves, if necessary, for the safety of the army. Weary and 
 hungry, they stood guard. The enemy, sorely chastised, did not come as expected, 
 but Breckenridge and his heroes deserve none the less praise. How my heart 
 glows for Kentucky!” 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 Hardly had Mr. TJrston said 44 Good afternoon,” before he exclaimed — 
 
 44 Now, Miss Laura, you will admit that I am right in upholding neutrality!” 
 
 44 Why must I ? Have you been courting two girls and have both said, yes ?” 
 
 44 I tolerate no neutrality in such a matter ; I much prefer despotism. Here is an 
 extract from one of Davis’s messages : — ‘ Events have demonstrated that the 
 Government had attempted more than it had power successfully to achieve. 
 Hence, in our efforts to protect by our arms the whole Confederate States, we 
 have been so exposed as recently to encounter serious disasters ?’ Are you satisfied 
 that he don’t want to defend Kentucky F ” 
 
 44 I don’t know. Did you see the article in the New YorJc Tribune saying it had 
 discovered a fraud in legislation, that for the advantage of Kentucky her railroads 
 and telegraphs are to be made and repaired out of the public funds, the law of 
 Congress on that subject being repealed almost unanimously by the House?” 
 
 44 I read also Phillips’ speech, in which he says, 4 If we had a man for a presi- 
 dent — an American instead of a Kentuckian, we should have had the satisfaction 
 of attempting to save the Union instead of Kentucky. If we had a president who 
 could see something besides Kentucky, the country would have some reason for 
 hope.” 
 
 44 Of a speedy ruin, Mr. Crisfield has written an account of an interview 
 between Lincoln and the Border States’ Congressmen, in which he records, 4 He 
 said that he invited us to have some conversation in explanation of his message 
 of the 6th ; that he inferred that the import of the message had been misunder- 
 stood. Emancipation was a subject exclusively under the control of the States, 
 nor had this Government any right to coerce them for that purpose ; and such 
 was no part of his purpose in making this proposition. Mr. Menzies inquired if 
 the President thought there was any power except in the States themselves, to 
 carry out his scheme of emancipation. To which he replied, he thought there 
 could not be.’ So you see Lincoln’s Proclamation of the 6th is only bosh to 
 quiet the Abolition curs whose barking has almost crazed him.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 147 
 
 a I should not feel very secure in a boat with a crazed pilot when a tempest is 
 raging. As for Kentucky’s neutrality — ” 
 
 “ Kentucky’s fiddlesticks, which will make Yanks dance to the tune of Sambo. 
 The New York Herald writes from Calloway County, ‘ No young men there, all 
 having joined the Southern army.’ He says, [‘The country through which we 
 have passed, and that in which we now are, is intensely secession. This county 
 has the reputation of being the strongest hold of secessionism in the State of 
 Kentucky. It was largely represented in the bogus Convention that resolved 
 the State out of the Federal Union, and attached it to the Southern Confederacy. 
 There is scarcely a Union man to be found. Deserted houses are common, and 
 have been since we left Graves county, the rebels flying in utter confusion at the 
 first intimation of our approach.’ A writer south of Green River says: — ‘Some 
 of the most beautiful farms and lovely residences, which only a few months ago 
 adorned these fertile valleys, are now the abodes of owls and bats. In order to 
 impede our march, the road had been obstructed for miles with fallen timber. In 
 many places the road had been plowed up. All the ponds, some fifteen in number, 
 on the line of march, were rendered unfit for man or beast, owing to the fact that 
 these desolaters had killed horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, ripped them open, and 
 thrown them into the water. In a few instances drains had been dug and the 
 water let off. I counted, in the distance of eighteen miles, eleven sites, where 
 once stood residences — now nothing left but a few charred timbers.’ ” 
 
 “ If a guardian foresees two wards will quarrel after their majority, is it 
 dishonest for him to secure to the younger and most easily imposed on his share 
 of their common property ? The United States had 541,565 muskets and rifles; 
 General Floyd sent but 60,878 to the Southern States when he was Secretary of 
 War.” 
 
 “Then I think the South and not the North, might complain of him.” 
 
 “ Buchanan says that, ‘ Floyd ordered cannon to be sent to Mississippi and 
 Texas a few days before he went South ; but the order was countermanded by 
 Holt. So the South received only hand-guns.” 
 
 “ General Scott has contented himself with mere affirmations, worth not a whit 
 more than Buchanan’s. Yet even the renegade Virginian says, ‘I know the 
 transaction, though very quietly conducted, was officially recorded.’ ” 
 
 “ Do you remember how Governor Moreliead stirred our enthusiasm by his 
 glowing eulogy on Mrs. Gelston who so nobly ministered to our soldiers in La 
 Fayette Warren?” 
 
 “Of course ; he said that when the navy officer who read the daily prayers for 
 his fellow-prisoners proposed a special prayer for her, it was received with joyous 
 assent, and even the governor got on the rheumatic knees he had thought he 
 could not bend. Some ladies have spoken of sending her a handsome testimonial ; 
 but I told them they could not do a more dangerous thing for her,’’ 
 
 “ I am sorry to hear you say that. Then I suppose I might as well send her 
 an order for her exile as this, if it should be opened in the post-office? ” Laura 
 took up a note she had written — 
 
 “ Honoured and dear Mrs. Gelston, 
 
 The pen of one woman can but feebly express the 
 intense gratitude, admiration, and esteem, that swell the bosoms of every 
 Southern woman when your name is mentioned, with an enthusiasm which to be 
 able to appreciate you must visit Kentucky. Ex- Governor Morehead neglects no 
 opportunity for sounding your praises with a tenderness and respect that insure 
 you a welcome in every Southern heart and home. We do not offer you the 
 freedom of our city — alas! we have not that — but of our homes. If you will not 
 accept this, we make you our captive. Kentucky throws an unyielding claim of 
 love and admiration over the heroine who dares succour the oppressed at the risk 
 of personal liberty.” 
 
 “ I intend to send a present with this.” 
 
 “ It might cause you and her to be fellow-prisoners. Wait until the war is 
 over, and the love of a Southerner will not endanger a Northerner.” 
 
 Mrs. Buckner walked in, and one by her side. 
 
148 
 
 LOVE AND WAD. 
 
 “ After all his denials, Laura, we’ll have to consider Captain Wilson a Yankee ; 
 for he wasn’t coming to see us after a month’s absence, and nobody but a Yankee 
 would think of passing by a house where he has always received so warm a wel- 
 come. Ah, Mr. Urston, good evening ! ” 
 
 Laura was preternaturally pale, and neither spoke nor moved. She could 
 not. 
 
 The door of her dungeon was open ; but he, who should have bidden her 
 come forth, spoke no word. He was looking at her, already repentant of having 
 allowed Mrs. Buckner to bring him home with her. 
 
 “ Captain Wilson, Mr. Urston.” The gentlemen bowed. “ Laura, is it not too 
 dreadful ? The Captain has been thrown; the fall injured afresh the knee our 
 horse kicked.” 
 
 “ I am very sorry,” was spoken to her mother. 
 
 il I had to do rather more than offer him a seat in the carriage.” 
 
 Mrs. Buckner sat down by Mr. Urston, and the two began to talk loud and fast, 
 conscious that something rather awkward was going on. 
 
 “ Captain Wilson — ” said Laura. Their eyes met, and for the first time. 
 
 After looking into her face he sat down on the sofa by her. He glanced at the 
 other couple. Mr. Urston’s head was turned from them, and Mrs. Buckner was 
 looking in her lap. 
 
 She lifted her hand as if it were a great weight, but his burning one awakened 
 the slow pulses in her shivering form. 
 
 “ Not yet have I shed a drop of Southern blood.” 
 
 “ Thank God !” 
 
 “ Ah ! do you care ? ” Then I, too, will thank Him for any suffering which has 
 saved you pain.” 
 
 This Laura chose to take as a challenge to repartee, and like old times the after- 
 noon wore away. 
 
 Mr. Urston had been gone long, and Mrs. Buckner knew where she was not 
 wanted. 
 
 After Keble had left, Laura sat still, too happy to move. 
 
 “ Oh, the sweet words that ring in my ears ! Oh, the bitter tears I shed last 
 night ! I have suffered until every fibre of my being seemed distinct, and each 
 alive with pain. That pain was silly, but I was not always in a mood to consider 
 that. Now I am as foolishly excited with joy. But his hand is not blood-stained 
 yet. Ah, the sweetness of my thoughts ! A little heaven of my own surrounds 
 me.” 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 “ Oh, Minnie ! is it not terrible — this constant struggle between nature and 
 nature?” 
 
 “I don’t quite understand.” 
 
 “ Is it not the nature of a Southern woman to love her country with an intensity 
 which seems to leave far off every other feeling, until — I can’t say it, Minnie.” 
 
 “ Until the other nature of which you speak rises in its right of sovereignty, and 
 claims to be heard ? ” 
 
 ‘‘ Claims to subject you to an enemy of your country.” 
 
 “ I think Natural and State Sovereignty alike essential to our Liberty used to 
 be your motto.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Softly, Minnie ; I am weak to-day ; he was so tender and so sad in his tender- 
 ness last night, I can’t bear rallying to-day.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 149 
 
 “ I was not going to tease because he fascinated — ” 
 
 “ No/’ responded Laura, so abruptly Minnie looked surprised. “ The fact is, I 
 have always had a high disdain for your acknowledging that a man could fasci- 
 nate you ; I always thought of a bird and a snake.” 
 
 “And I daresay were poor enough zoologist to think the bird’s brain even 
 smaller than that of the fascinator’s.” 
 
 “ I don’t think he fascinated me ; he laid siege to the outer fortification of 
 pride and proved the formidable weapons at my service were like the Quaker guns 
 on the Potomac.” 
 
 “ Which served only to amuse the captain, and made him feel as the wonderful 
 ‘little Napoleon’ (0 tempora !) will feel when he finds that Yankees can be out- 
 witted. Captain Wilson proceeded to storm the citadel.” 
 
 “Here were no Quaker guns! Every instinct of my Southern heart fought against 
 the Northern invader.” 
 
 “ Yet he conquered.’’ 
 
 “ And I am ashamed, confounded, Minnie.” 
 
 “Tut ! His victory was dearly enough bought to satisfy his worst enemy; but I 
 did not tell you how to reconcile the two sovereignties.” 
 
 “ It is barbarous to tease any one not in a good humour.” 
 
 “ It was ridiculous to maintain that two governments could each be supreme in 
 a political sense. You remember how you used to defend the two, and maybe 
 would now, if I had patience to argue about nonsense. Imagine your political 
 nature is State Sovereignty ; the spot of your birth determines the question of 
 your allegiance — ” 
 
 “ Oh, but—” ^ 
 
 “No moral disquisitions, if you please. I went to church twice yesterday. 
 Having been born in a Southern State, you owe allegiance to Kentucky ; but 
 there are certain rights you may delegate to a Union ; for instance, you won’t 
 wear red and white if Captain Wilson forbids ; like his august prototype he may 
 assume the right to choose the colours of your dress.” 
 
 “ I would not wear red, white, and blue, to please any one — I would not flaunt 
 a falsehood in the face of the world.” 
 
 “ Well, then, you can fall back on your old neutrality doctrine and wear grey — 
 a mixture of black and white. The National Sovereignty has power to declare 
 peace and war ; so you must neither fight nor quarrel for the South ; but if he 
 goes too far and says you shan’t feel for the South, if he expects you to shift the 
 ties of nativity as fast as politicians their principles, then you will remember 
 what you used to say about States’ Rights, and tell him he has gone too far. You 
 shake your head. It is not surprising, if you don’t understand my annotations 
 on your ponderous argument ; for I never rightly comprehended my text ; but 
 ravel it out, oh logician in love ! Your heart owes a State allegiance to the South, 
 and a National allegiance to the one who presides over its counsels.” 
 
 “ Oh, Minnie, I am so wretched ! ” 
 
 “ He loves you, darling.” 
 
 “But the love of one man is not all a woman needs, I am hated, Minnie.” 
 
 “ Hated ! you hated ! ” 
 
 “ Don’t laugh, sweet ; and yet it soothes me that there are two who think it 
 impossible any could hate me. But it is true ; some of my relations and friends 
 scarcely speak to me ; but I can forgive them — for their hatred of me springs 
 from love of my country.” 
 
 “ Auntie always said that a pure love, whether for an individual or for one’s 
 country, so filled the heart that there was no room for hatred of rivals or enemies. 
 Don’t you remember how she checked my secession violence by saying we war 
 against principles, not persons ?” 
 
 “ Few people can separate the two. Don’t you know that even I never look at 
 any Federal officer, but the one who saved my life ?” 
 
 “ Auntie never could go to the door to see any company passing, because she 
 said those who wore the Federal buttons and had no previous claim of kinship or 
 friendship, could be by her regarded only as the embodiment of an idea — that 
 
150 
 
 LOVE AND WAR 
 
 idea being foreign invasion. She would not make a first-call upon a Yankee 
 officer’s wife; but a friend, sacred by ties of the past, she never allowed any 
 political ideas to alienate her from ; she could not visit her Union friends as 
 frequently as formerly, because the conversation was constrained. What can be 
 more disagreeable than that an intercourse, previously genial and confidential, 
 must be so guarded that no allusion be made to subjects of which each heart is 
 fullest ? ” 
 
 “ So he thought ; he felt nothing would keep us so far apart as avoidance of the 
 exciting questions of the day ; we should feel that a well of ice was between us ; 
 i Better,’ said he, ‘to offend unintentionally — for, there is no danger of our ever 
 being rude — and then beg pardon and soothe. There is no torture to the heart 
 that loves like a feeling of constraint.’” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Did you ever tell him that you thought some people hated you for receiving 
 him ? ” 
 
 “I let him understand it. I did not intend to, but I am glad I did ; when I 
 have been out and met some old acquaintance, whose distant, ‘ Good-morning,’ 
 was meant to wound me, it is very sweet to see his tenderness, when by his 
 peculiar strategy he has found out why I am discomposed ; his manner seems to 
 say, ‘ I have been the unwilling cause of this insult, and my reverence for you is 
 tenfold.’ It is as though he had been playing with a sword, and it had fallen and 
 wounded me; there is such sorrow mingled with his devotion.” 
 
 “ But he cannot pity you enough to go away and relieve you from your 
 embarrassing position.” 
 
 “ He said last night he was a coward; he had never thought the day would 
 come when he should allow himself to be the cause of pain to a woman. And 
 then his voice was very low, and I hardly heard him say, ‘Now, I glory in 
 witnessing the torture ; the way in which it is borne proves I judged rightly 
 when I resolved to suffer torments worse than rack and wheel to a man as proud 
 as I. Nov/, I know the woman for whom I endure is worthy.’ Then I curled my 
 lip, and he left me.” 
 
 “ Oh Laura ! ” 
 
 “ I had to do it while I could, or I should have thrown myself on his bosom 
 and cried like a baby, and I could not do that— I could not do that ! ” 
 
 “ And he suffers to-day ! ” 
 
 “What of it? People who love scorn suffering, as I do,” 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Poor Minnie ! Is it not wonderful how often the heart seems to be breaking, 
 yet does not give way ? 
 
 “Cut to pieces ! cut to pieces ! Oh God ! will those words ever cease to 
 sound in my ears ? I try to remember all 1 have said about the absurdity of 
 believing rumours ; but what agony if there is but a possibility of truth ! 
 Morgan killed and all his men cut to pieces. My beloved ! oh, how I envy the 
 dead ! His splendid form cut to pieces — oh no, God ! It cannot be. Wouldst 
 Thou not haveffaid me first to rest ? Ah ! everywhere it is so dark now. If I 
 thought we were ever to be enslaved by foreign domination, I do not think I 
 could ask God to let my brave warrior for freedom survive his country. Ah ! 
 how could I bear his insupportable gloom ? ” 
 
 Such were poor little Minnie’s agonizing thoughts as she awaited refutation 
 or confirmation of the nevrs of Morgan’s defeat at Lebanon, Tennessee. Every 
 sound tortured her ; maybe some one was coming to tell her that the light of 
 her life had been forever extinguished. She shut herself up in a dark room, 
 as far as possible from sudden sounds. She would lie for hours sobbing like a 
 child ; then she would shriek out, “ Cut to pieces ! cut to pieces ! ” (4) Some- 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 151 
 
 times a convulsion would seize her cold limbs and memory would rest awhile. 
 Laura was unconsciously grateful for this appalling forgetfulness — the sleep of 
 a disordered intellect. After Minnie had had several convulsions, and 
 recovered in a few hours without apparent injury, she felt that nothing could 
 injure brain and health so much as her agony ; only as a duty did she chafe the 
 cold hands and feet, and give a few drops of stimulants now and then when 
 she could force open the clenched teeth, all the time thinking, “ Oh, if I could 
 forget ! This will soon kill her ; but it seems to me that I shall live forever. ” 
 After the dead state passed, Minnie would open her eyes and smile happily 
 in Laura’s, often would draw her friend down and pat and kiss her face as a 
 baby would do, laughing her old ringing music, and chatting cheerfully, saying 
 how happy she was. Once she told her “ a good angel had seen her crying and 
 pitied her, and told her that she should wed the bravest and handsomest of 
 heroes, and that he who never feared man would fear only to wound her 
 gentleness. ” 
 
 One day when exhausted by weeping she lay with her head in Laura’s lap, 
 she looked up with a smile that seemed to deprecate reproof : — 
 
 “ Don’t you believe that when the mind is gone the soul will soon go ? ” 
 
 “ What do you mean, dearest ? ” 
 
 “ You know how often my mind seems to be carried off by my good angel — 
 some one who pities me — and Jesus lets him grant me a respite. I think some 
 of these days my Father will say, ‘You need not take it back again ; she must 
 not suffer any more. ’ ” 
 
 These scenes tortured Laura, but they roused her. She said, 
 
 “ I was dead, dead, dead ! Does God send these terrible shocks to bring me to 
 life?” Another day she said, “I am sometimes frightened at the crust of 
 indifference growing over my heart, but I expect it is best — how else could I 
 live in these accursed times ? ” 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Keble told Laura he had made the acquaintance of Judge Nicholas. She 
 replied, 
 
 “He is so audaciously truthful, I think he will run into the Confederacy ere 
 he is aware. ” 
 
 “I disagree with you. However, he gave me some very strong points 
 against confiscation.” 
 
 “You never approved of robbery, surely F ” 
 
 “You are too fond of strong terms.” 
 
 “Courtiers like honied words ; you are a loyalist.” 
 
 “ I thought I had told you of my repugnance to that title; but I believe 
 Louisville ladies do not consider themselves under obligations to consult the 
 feelings — ” 
 
 “Of those who would enslave us.” 
 
 “ Miss Buckner, the moment this war becomes one of subjugation I go to 
 Fort Warren.” 
 
 “Have you engaged rooms?” asked Laura, laughingto hide from herself the 
 pleasure which thrilled her bosom at his response. “But what did the Judge 
 say ? ” 
 
 “Asa Kentuckian he cannot be expected to approve of confiscation, for he 
 has sworn allegiance to his State, and her Constitution says, ‘ Absolute power 
 over the lives, liberty, and property of persons exists nowhere in a republic — 
 not even in the largest majority.’ He proved that even Congress can’t free 
 slaves of rebels without judicial co-operation. ” 
 
 “ So my State has decided for her children that the moment the Confiscation 
 Bill passes they are no longer citizens of a republic. ” 
 
 “ You are too hasty for — ” 
 
152 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 “Those who are filling their pockets. Kentucky does not stand alone; 
 Judge Story said of hills of attainder. ‘ The injustice of such acts in general 
 constitutes an irresistible argument against the existence of the powers. ’ This 
 argument justifies my position.” 
 
 4 ‘Give Lincoln this much credit ; he had signed the paper for the evacuation 
 of Fort Sumter, as had Seward. Blair’s influence forced them to destroy it.” (a) 
 “I suppose Montgomery Blair was backed by his father, one of the 
 originators of the Abolition party in this country. Blair, it is said, telegraphed 
 to some Abolition Governors of States and other prominent politicians, to come 
 to Washington and teach Lincoln that he was not the ruler, but the tool of his 
 party. Davis sent three commissioners to Lincoln ; they arrived in Washington 
 March 5th, and their formal communication of the 12th was not replied to 
 until April 8th.” 
 
 “Courteous.” 
 
 “They received constant assurances from the Government of the United 
 States of peaceful intentions ; of the determination to evacuate Fort Sumter, 
 and that in the event of any change of intention notice would be given. These 
 gentlemen supposed they were dealing with honourable men, and it was not 
 until April that the military preparations being made in the North attracted 
 their attention, and they demanded an answer ; this was given April 8th ; 
 but was dated March 15th. This paper proves that all the assurances given to 
 the Commissioners were the falsehoods of a cowardly government.” 
 
 “It was intended that the declaration of war should reach Charlestown the 
 same day that the fleet did ; but a storm delayed the latter and gave the 
 Charlestonians time to communicate with the General Government. ” 
 
 “This account reconciles Lincoln’s Inaugural, breathing peace, and his 
 assertion that he would not force ‘obnoxious strangers’ upon the Southern 
 people with his next Message and subsequent conduct. Seward had voted in 
 Congress for peaceable Secession.” 
 
 “So had fourteen other Abolitionists.” 
 
 “Davis was so anxious to avert war that even after the insult offered to him 
 through his Commissioners, and after his discovery of the bad faith of the 
 Lincoln Administration, he sent word to General Anderson that the Southerners 
 would not open fire on the fleet unless first attacked. It was a meet reproof to 
 Lincoln’s dishonesty that the fleet arrived just in time to see the stars and 
 stripes hauled down and the colours of an honest Government run up. ” 
 
 “What right had the South to run up a sectional flag on national property?” 
 “It was built in part with their own money ; and as Mr. Davis adds, ‘Its 
 custody confided with their own consent to an agent who held no power over 
 them other than such as they had themselves delegated for their own benefit.’ 
 The New York World admits that outside of South Carolina not a rebel was 
 enlisted previous to the fall of Fort Sumter. ” 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Keble had just been reading Van Wyck’s Beport on the Corruption and 
 Bribery prevalent in Government Contracts. Still these sentences rang in his 
 brain. “The mania for stealing seems to have run through all the relations of 
 Government, almost from the General to the drummer boy. While it is no 
 justification, the example has been set in the very Departments of Government. 
 Asageneral thing, none but favourites can obtain contracts, which bear enormous 
 profits. They violate the plain provisions of the law requiring bids. The 
 Department, which has allowed conspiracies after the bidding has been closed. 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 153 
 
 to defraud the government of the lowest bid and by allowing the guilty to 
 reap the fruits of their crime, has itself become perticeps criminis .” Keble’s 
 cheek burned with indignation ; he felt that as he upheld the Government its 
 disgrace fell upon him. “Before I investigated this subject I supposed the 
 Government the victim. I cannot maintain this opinion any more, lest God 
 classes me with those who put ‘light for darkness,’ and they are classed with 
 those who put ‘darkness for light.’” 
 
 He drew a long sigh, and with the weakness common to human nature was 
 glad to hear the well-known knock of Lieutenant Metcalfe. There was so 
 evident an oppression on Wilson’s spirit that his friend began to rally him 
 about a certain fair traitress, against whom he felt personal pique as she had 
 refused the captain permission to introduce an officer of the invaders into her 
 house. 
 
 “It is bad enough to be deprived of an honoured woman’s love, and sometimes 
 we may fancy it the greatest of misfortunes,” said Keble ; “but that is only 
 when we do not know what it is to feel a positive curse.” 
 
 “And do you?” 
 
 “Yes. Is it not a curse to be in arms to maintain a Government which one 
 not only despises, but feels to be a disgrace to the nation?” 
 
 “Whew! Stop, my dear fellow, stop! What do you say to the corruption 
 of Buchanan’s Administration?” 
 
 “That it was as dust on the high- way compared with this. Listen to the 
 history of one contract.” 
 
 “Not in that Democratic paper.” 
 
 “The article is written by a Republican who voted for Lincoln, Van Wyck, 
 Congressman from New York. Which is considered the best horse market in 
 the land ? ” 
 
 “Kentucky, I suppose.” 
 
 [“Well, horses which are diseased were sent from Pennsylvania here ; some 
 were so ‘utterly worthless that they were left on the docks. In that single 
 contract over 50,000 dols. were stolen from the nation. Another contract 
 made by Cameron’s express order was for 1000 horses to be delivered at 
 Huntington. Such a horse-market the world never saw. The first inspector- - 
 an honest man — rejected three in five of the first hundred. He was removed. 
 Then all sorts of horses were taken. The honest men of Huntington were up 
 in arms, figuratively speaking ; the inspectors heeded not this clamour ; but 
 ordered the horses to be ridden upon the crowd, to drive it away. ”] 
 
 “ I could not help being amused to see that [rough, pine scantling had been 
 sent from Pittsburg to Fort Leavenworth. ] It would be a pity to cut down the 
 noble, old trees in the West. A Massachusetts member said in Congress, that 
 the [first year of the Republican Administration there is indisputable evidence 
 that somebody has plundered the public treasury, well nigh in that single year 
 as much as the entire current yearly expenses of the Government during the 
 adminstration which the people hurled from power because of its corruption.” 
 “A principal reason given in the Chicago Platform why the Abolitional 
 school should come into power, was to teach the nation Yankee economy. If 
 a lesson is to be set it is well to begin the practice with the heads of the 
 family ; so a brother-in-law of a secretary, in but little more than two months, 
 pocketed in the shape of Government commissions the moderate sum of 
 
 7000.000 dols. As the people of the North are forever prating about the 
 egregiousness of Southern aristocracy, the common people felt it to be their 
 duty to be on equality with their high rulers, so Mr. Morgan and his peers 
 found many aspiring rivals among the commonality. A drover made 
 
 5.800.000 dols.” 
 
 “It was not in the drover’s pocket the money fell; the contract was made 
 with an old stipendiary of Congress.” 
 
 “Was Lincoln’s nickname of ‘ Honest Abe ’ given in derision ? ” 
 
 “Davis says the Confederacy has no floating debt ; but that the expenses of 
 his Government have been 170,000,000 dols. ; liow can the war be carried on at 
 
154 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 this rate while there is no trade for the South ? Grant it true, as he says, that 
 their expenses are less than one-third the sum wasted by the United States — ” 
 “Indeed ! ” 
 
 “ Yes ; you are, like me, surprised ; we men of the army do not keep our 
 political eyes open wide enough. ” 
 
 “We are not politicians, but soldiers.” 
 
 “That speech is unworthy of a man who expects to give an account not only 
 to man, but to God, of the justice of the cause which he kills other men to 
 maintain. I used to hold that opinion ; politics were distasteful to a dilettante 
 in literature and art ; but my eyes are opened.” 
 
 44 By a fair rebel. You have learned your lesson from a woman, I dare say.” 
 “I have, and am neither a booby to be ashamed of it, nor a coward to be 
 afraid to confess it. Thurlow Weed asked a contractor what he could afford 
 to pay. A brother-in-law of Welles increased his fortune a quarter of a 
 million per annum. Van Wyck speaks of the attempt to sacrifice Mr. 
 Aspinnall in Mr. Morgan’s defence. You do not approve of that ? ” 
 
 “The question insults me.” 
 
 “But suppose those who made the attempt were to plead that they did not 
 know whether or not those gentlemen were honest ? ” 
 
 “I should tell them they were fools to have gone so far.” 
 
 4 4 And suppose they were to require us to force them to be sacrificed for 
 Mr. Morgan’s sake?” 
 
 “They couldn’t.” 
 
 “Let us see. We are to sacrifice the men we command to force honest men 
 to submit to a dishonest Government. Do you relish your position ? ” 
 
 “Tut! You are fanciful.” 
 
 “Railroad companies in Pennsylvania lavished thousands for the transpor- 
 tation of a single regiment ; but I am sick of this investigation. My uniform 
 is hateful to me.” 
 
 “ Confound this Secesh hole ! ” 
 
 “ Secesh ! I thought you came here to fight for the Kentuckians ? ” 
 
 “I said so at first; but there are no people in the world I’d rather fight 
 against now. They either make rebels or brutes of the best loyal men. I 
 confess I’m growing savage. Most of the young ladies avoid us as if they 
 thought we were small-pox patients. ” 
 
 “ What a shame that they are so ungrateful for our protection ! Suppose we 
 leave them exposed to the attacks of the rebels P ” 
 
 44 The Secesh fly-up-the-creeks have sent much more to the few prisoners in the 
 hospitals, than the Union fair spend in hospitality to sick and well. But I’ll 
 show up the women of Louisville, hold them up to eternal ridicule and scorn. 
 Shall I read you a letter I’ve written to a Northern paper ? ” Without waiting 
 for a reply, Metcalfe pulled the document from his pocket, and began : — “ The 
 Secesh ladies of this city need a little attention. If you wish exercise for your 
 waspish proclivities, come to Louisville and observe some of their exceedingly 
 pretty faces, as they thrust them up in a scornful shape, and expand the nostrils 
 of those beautiful noses for the gaze of Union soldiers. Then passing, see them 
 so artistically, aristocratically, and scornfully lift the skirts of their dresses and 
 suppress their circumference for fear they will be contaminated by brushing a 
 Federal soldier’s clothes ; passing around a corner see them crossing the muddy 
 street to avoid passing under the Union flag. Passing along Walnut — ” (6) 
 
 44 Metcalfe, how can you write such stuff for a public paper ?” 
 
 44 I won’t read any more to a man who has a rebel sweetheart. But reconsider 
 what you have said. 4 Lincoln is not the Government.’ ” 
 
 44 Well, Seward P No ? Who is ? Congress ? Mr. Saulsbury moved to 
 strike out of the Confiscation Bill a clause which provides that the President 
 may, when he deems it necessary, issue a proclamation that the slaves of such 
 persons as may continue in rebellion thirty days after the proclamation shall be 
 freed. But Mr. Saulsbury could not get this struck from the disgraceful rolls of 
 this wonderful Congress. Congressmen, who have sworn to support the Con- 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 155 
 
 stitution, advise their so-called President to violate it. Am I to fight for such a 
 Congress ?” 
 
 “ Fight for Congress ? ” 
 
 “ You did not deny Congress to be the Government.” 
 
 “ Nor did I say it was. 5 ’ 
 
 “ Of course you didn’t. It is harder to get a loyal man to tell you in what 
 functionary consists the Government of the United States than to get a member 
 of the Church of Eome to declare wherein its infallibility rests. But am I to 
 fight for an abstraction dinned into me, when a schoolboy, if not a loyal man in 
 the land can tell me where that abstraction is ?” 
 
 “ In the Constitution.” 
 
 “ It is then as obsolete as the laws of the Babylonians. Will you let me read 
 you an extract from De Retz ? ‘ It is more ordinary for men to have a specu- 
 
 lative repentance for a fault that has proved unsuccessful than a practical sorrow 
 whereby they might get rid of the impression which the motive that led them to 
 that fault never fails to make. In my opinion a man shows himself greater by 
 being capable of owning a fault than by being incapable of committing it.’ ” 
 
 4 ‘ Would that Davis and Co., and Lincoln and Co. would be rivals in this specu- 
 lative greatness !” 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 May. 
 
 As the morning paper fell from Laura’s hands she crossed them over her 
 breast, and seemed to press her knuckles into her fair throat, while through her 
 set teeth came a strange hiss. 
 
 “ Were she a man she would curse,” thought Keble, who was so frequent a 
 guest that Mrs. Buckner had pushed open the library door for him without an- 
 nouncing him. 
 
 A sudden movement betrayed his presence to the excited woman, and as she 
 glanced at him the deadly pallor gave way before the hot blood that suffused her 
 throat and mounted to her hair. 
 
 When Laura saw him, in sheer embarrassment, it seemed, for her manner had 
 lost its usual ease, she started to meet him holding out her hand, but as it nearly 
 touched his, drew it back with a slight shudder. 
 
 Give it me,” he said, in a tremulous tone, catching her excitement. She let 
 him take it and hold it a minute, then walked to the piano. Without a prelude 
 she began — 
 
 “ Haste from me ! haste ! I dare not let 
 You linger lest I should forget 
 An instant what a brutal foe 
 Comes to the South to work our woe. 
 
 Plaste from me ! haste ! lest I disgrace 
 The noble blood of Southern race, 
 
 By feeling pity for your vow : 
 
 Alas ! me you have martyred now. 
 
 Haste from me ! haste ! I feel the blush, 
 
 Which each true Southern face should flush, 
 
 When dastard panderers to crime 
 Pollute her presence : go ! ” 
 
 “ Oh, God ! ” exclaimed Keble, u this is too bitter ! Tlii3 is more than I can 
 bear ! ” 
 
156 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 Laura arose. He had bowed his head in his hands ; her heart trembled, but she 
 went forward. 
 
 “ It is you who now refuse your hand.” He looked up and saw her hand held 
 out ; she saw tears — tears only.” 
 
 “ What is it, Keble ? ” 
 
 He took her hand. 
 
 “ Good-bye, Captain Wilson. I cannot see you again. Go instantly ; there is 
 no debt between us now. That monster — ” 
 
 She suddenly stopped and the most brilliant crimson mantled her face. 
 
 “ Laura, what under heaven do you mean ? ” 
 
 “ That hereafter no Southern woman owes the preserver of her life any grati- 
 tude if he wears the suit of infamy. Will you go, or shall I leave you ? ” 
 
 He drew her to him and pressed his lips on her forehead, where for a moment 
 they lay cold and motionless. 
 
 She darted from the arm which could scarcely be said to have held her, and 
 left the room. As he passed her chair a lover’s instinct made him pick up the 
 paper which had been the last thing she had held. 
 
 When in his own room and his eyes were dry enough for him to read, he took 
 the paper out of his pocket ; something in it might have excited her. He read 
 Butler’s Order for all his soldiers to insult every woman of New Orleans whose 
 beauty should tempt them to swear she had insulted the United States. He 
 stamped his foot vehemently — a thing he had never before done in the course of 
 his calm life. Then he snatched his hat and started for Buell’s office. Never 
 more would Keble Wilson write after his name the U. S. A. which General 
 Butler had disgraced. His reason had gradually become convinced that this was 
 an unholy war, a contest of rapine and greed, of selfishness and hatred, of jealousy 
 and Abolitionism. But from his youth he had been taught what he owed to the 
 United States Government, so he tried to distinguish between that and the 
 present Administration ; but this would not do now. There was no government 
 in the United States but that of tyranny and hate, and to such he owed nothing. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 May 12th. 
 
 “What suspicious company I find myself in,” said Stark, finding Lawton and 
 Minnie with Laura. 
 
 “So many a fox has thought before.” 
 
 “News for you, Miss Minnie,” replied Stark, holding up a Journal, “I have 
 something that will rouse more than one — this,” pulling out the Louisville Journal . 
 
 “ Bah ! ” 
 
 “ Stuff!” 
 
 “ Serves you right, Stark, for bringing that lying sheet — I beg your pardon, 
 ladies — into a decent house,” said Lawton. 
 
 ‘ ‘ I fancy you would like to have this news in your possession. Miss Minnie, 
 what will you give me for the news ? ” 
 
 “Not much, I fear, but stoical disbelief. I asked Mr. Galt if he was certain 
 young Cook was dead. ‘Well,’ he answered, ‘ I have but one reason for dis- 
 believing it, and that is, the Louisville Journal says so.’ ” (a) 
 
 “We don’t consider ‘ Arabian Nights ’ history, nor the Journal's items news.” 
 
 “ Miss Minnie, I know you will never forgive me for keeping my precious news 
 to myself for such an age. Another Successful Raid of John Morgan. — ‘ Y esterday 
 at about twelve o’clock, when the cars got to Woodland they were stopped 
 by General John Morgan and his men, numbering about two hundred. Major 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 157 
 
 Coffee and an Irishman fired at the rebels, whereupon a considerable number 
 of shots were fired ; the rebels seemed to be aiming principally at the 
 engineer, but nobody was killed or hurt. Morgan took possession of the train ; 
 about forty-five freight cars, three passenger cars, and one locomotive were 
 destroyed. One report says three passenger cars and the express car were per- 
 mitted to return to Louisville. The special object of Morgan was to recapture 
 the one hundred and eighty- three men, including his brother. The rebels 
 didn’t fire till after Major Coffee had fired, and even then, as Morgan stated, 
 without his order. Morgan’s intended raid, we are told, was known at 
 Elizabethtown yesterday morning. A citizen at that place was about starting 
 on the cars for Nashville, but a friend or acquaintance warned him not to go, as, 
 if he did, he would be captured.’ ” 
 
 Mrs. Caruthers was ushered in. 
 
 After the usual salutation, Dr. Lawton said, “ Have you seen the day’s paper, 
 Mrs. Caruthers ? ” 
 
 “ No.” 
 
 “ Then we have some fine news for you.” 
 
 “ Perhaps not,” interposed Minnie ; “we will finish the paper at some other 
 time.” 
 
 “Do not let me interrupt you, I pray.” 
 
 “ Well, Madam, I was just reading of another splendid exploit of General 
 Morgan. He captured cars, and from eight to ten thousand dollars.” 
 
 “ The thief ! ” 
 
 “What an opprobrious term to apply to your own Government ! ” 
 
 “I don’t understand you.” 
 
 “ The Lincolnites capture everything they can lay hands on and say they 
 confiscate it. It has not been a week since it was telegraphed as a very brave 
 deed that a General had destroyed railroad communication.” 
 
 “ That was another thing.” 
 
 “ How so, Madam ? ” 
 
 “ The Government has a right to all the property of the country over which it 
 rules.” 
 
 “ What a diminished heritage ! You are modest in your claims. Most 
 Northerners claim from Maine to Texas as their property.” 
 
 “ By whose deed of gift, God’s or man’s ? Are the records in the Archives at 
 Washington or in the Bible ? Morgan took only the money of the Government 
 in pay for some of that they have stolen from us. Did you ever hear of his 
 touching private property ? One gentleman on the train had some thousands of 
 dollars, but Morgan told him they did not disturb private gentlemen.” 
 
 “ I wish the Yankees could take hints.” 
 
 “They had rather take money,” said young Caruthers, who inherited his 
 mother’s love of a pun, but not her love for her native Yankeedom. 
 
 She grew very red in the face, and Minnie, knowing this was prognostic of a 
 squall, said — 
 
 “ Major Coffee and Major Helveti were captured.” 
 
 “ I’m glad the poor fellows have got some coffee at last ; ” and Mrs. Caruthers 
 laughed, quite in a good humour as she had a chance to pun. 
 
 “ Says a writer in the Journal : — ‘ How much longer are these raids of Morgan 
 to be continued ? Can no way be devised to put an end to them ? Must all 
 communication between Louisville and Nashville be broken up by them ? If this 
 bold partisan leader can come with 200 men from Corinth almost to the bank of 
 Green river, what is to prevent his gathering 2,000 men, cutting the telegraph 
 wires, and making a dash some night into Louisville ? He was anxiously looking 
 for the Nashville train when we left. The number of his men is variously 
 reported at from two hundred to one thousand. We did not see over forty to 
 fifty.” 
 
 “ Hurrah ! they’re bully ! ” elegantly bawled out Master Caruthers. “ Hear 
 that ! fifty men to attack cars, men and all. How many soldiers were there ? 
 Whew ! How did they know there wasn’t a heap ? ” 
 
158 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 44 You are foolish, Bill ; the people in Southern Kentucky tell Morgan every 
 thing.” 
 
 4 4 Bare confidence, Madam, to show to a marauder. Isn’t it funny 
 Kentuckians should like robbers better than the men who drive them off P ” 
 Minnie, afraid ol a skirmish of light artillery, made a diversion by saying — 
 
 44 One soldier was permitted to return by virtue of the pleadings of his wife.” 
 
 44 Oh glorious man ! true son of Kentucky, to give a soldier to the prayer of 
 his wife. Ye Yankees, hear and be ashamed.” 
 
 44 The wives of Confederate captives are not always allowed to see their 
 husbands. They won’t let a wife have even the dead body of her husband ! If 
 a rebel dies in Tennessee, his wife can’t bring his body here for burial. Oh, 
 Morgan, and whoever else is coming, come along quickly ! ” 
 
 CHAPTER, XXIII. 
 
 May. 
 
 44 Why, old fellow, what is the matter ? ” asked Metcalfe, who had knocked several 
 times at the door without receiving an answer and would have gone away, 
 supposing the captain out, had not a low groan, which seemed to come from the 
 depth of an agonised heart, caused him in sudden sympathy to open the door and 
 so unexpectedly confront his friend, who was sitting by a table on which lay a 
 Bible and a copy of the Constitution. Captain Wilson’s hands were clenched ; but 
 the face was so calm that he thought the deep suffering indicated by the groan 
 must have been in his imagination ; but when Keble raised his eyes they showed 
 such a fierce light that he returned to his first opinion and asked, 44 What is the 
 matter ? ” 
 
 44 1 am a disgraced man — that is all,” was the reply in a very ironical tone. 
 
 44 Disgraced! you disgraced ! I’ll swear that’s false.” 
 
 t4 Thanks, my best friend. But your mind is so warped by circumstances that 
 you may not think — as I do — that I have disgraced myself in the eyes of the 
 world, that is of the honourable part of it ; but then you may think I am about 
 to incur the disgrace which you have so nobly denied in the spirit of true friend- 
 ship. I bless you for your hasty sentence, George. It will do me good in my 
 dreary exile.” 
 
 4 4 Exile ! Heavens ! What can you mean ? ” 
 
 44 I spoke figuratively, perhaps ; but not the less shall I need all the comfort 
 I can have.” 
 
 44 1 am greatly relieved, Keble, I feared you were going to resign your 
 commission that you might marry a — ” 
 
 44 George, how dare you?” The captain had sprung to his feet ; scorn curled 
 his lips ; pride flashed in his eye. 
 
 4 4 Pardon me, my friend, I but thought you like the rest of the world, 
 letting your heart take precedence of your reason. ” 
 
 44 Even you, even you George, do not know me. ” Keble’s tones were pain- 
 fully low and showed his heart was crushed. 
 
 44 1 could cut out my tongue that I have moved you so.” 
 
 44 No, no, friend of the past. It is well that I learn at once what the world 
 will say — that is for a little while, until time proves it as much a fool in my 
 case as it generally is.” 
 
 4 4 Then you have resigned your commission ? ” 
 
 44 Yes.” 
 
 44 You may be sent to La Fayette.” 
 
 44 Better a martyr than a perjured man.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 159 
 
 “Perjured ! ” 
 
 “ Yes. Have I not taken an oath to support the Constitution and the laws 
 of the land? Is not the United States’ officer now doing all he can to destroy 
 both ? To you, George, I should like to give all my reasons for my resignation ; 
 if I die in La Fayette will you write them down and send them to Miss 
 Buckner ? ” Metcalfe looked up in some surprise at the calm coldness of tone 
 and expression of face. 
 
 “Better tell her yourself, old fellow.” 
 
 “I shall never see her again.” 
 
 44 You have not quarrelled ? ” 
 
 “Certainly not. But she cares no more for me than she does for any man 
 who can entertain her with a bit of argument. ” 
 
 “Good Heavens ! Keble, is it to such a woman you have given your life ?” 
 “That does not, and cannot belong to any mortal.” 
 
 “I declare I believe you are like Charles I., and would discuss casuistry if 
 you knew your hours were numbered.” 
 
 “Ho you remember when at West Point I vowed to devote my life to the 
 search after truth and beauty ? ” 
 
 “Yes; I dedicated my life to glory.” 
 
 “A sorry glory you are reaping, George, trying to enslave a nation.” 
 
 “Well waive this subject now.” 
 
 “I am surfeited with beauty ; I would not give a fig now for all that God or 
 man has made. ” 
 
 “Ah, Keble,' I understand you. You worshipped the beautiful in its every 
 manifestation ; one day you said to your heart, 4 My search is ended; all that 
 I desired of beauty has concentrated in one form, and is about to melt into my 
 arms ; aye, into my very life. ’ Then you stretched out your arms, and cold as 
 stone was your ideal.” 
 
 44 I never thought I had found an ideal. I do love Laura Buckner as I love 
 my life, aye more, far more. I love her as I love truth and honour ; but I 
 never hoped to win her, George ; I knew from the beginning I could not wed 
 her ; yet I was mad enough to seek her heart. It was wrong ; it was unmanly ; 
 but I thought I could not help it. I dared this because she was so cold ; that 
 woman’s intellect has eaten up her heart.” 
 
 44 You tried to warm a statue with the warmth of your own life, and you 
 failed ; and what was it to her that she had chilled your heart forever ? ” 
 
 44 That she has not done — cannot do. It beats as warmly as ever for you, 
 my friend. ” 
 
 44 Curses on her ! ” 
 
 44 Hush, George, hush! May God bless her as I do ! She is the noblest 
 woman I ever met. I owe to her a mine of joy I never shall exhaust. I shall 
 be very happy soon,” Keble added, with an unconscious sigh of weary misery, 
 as he caught his friend’s eye and saw it full of tears. 
 
 44 Surely, Keble, you are not a sympathizer with treason?” 
 
 44 According to Wade’s definition in Congress — where no men denied it; but 
 there are not many men in that flock of sheep. ” 
 
 44 You had better say flock of geese, through which one can Wade to his 
 heart’s content, splashing up mud on every side,” 
 
 4 4 Ho you mean more than a jest ? ” asked Keble, with a sudden hope for his 
 companion-in-arms. 
 
 44 Nothing else. I like puns better than sighs. What did Wade say to 
 surprise you?” 
 
 4 4 The day has past when anything said or done in Washington can surprise 
 me. He said, 4 1 do not want to hear any more of a man than that he is 
 invoking the forbearance of the Constitution and the great barriers in favour 
 of American liberty, to protect an infernal traitor in his course, to know he is 
 a sympathizer. ’ George, are you ready to fight for a military dictator ? Have 
 you read Lincoln’s Proclamation of the 19th? He claims to have the power to 
 declare the slaves free whenever he thinks proper. And who is he ? An 
 
160 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 illiterate joker, joking while the nation goes to ruin. God have mercy on a 
 land which tolerates and fights for such a ruler ! He reserves to himself the 
 power of dictatorship — which I shan’t fight for.” 
 
 “Be patient. We shall soon have peace.” 
 
 “What hope of it ? It is out of order to propose peace in the House. The 
 Long Parliament, supposed to have been buried with rubbish of the dark ages, 
 has been resurrected. And, pray, why should not the foreigners have dug it 
 up ? ” 
 
 “ Confound them ! They came here to do as they pleased, and they do it.” 
 “I fear for the United States a confirmed military despotism. Well did 
 Mazarin say, ‘ There are no small steps in great affairs. ’ How long might not 
 Home have been a republic had Csesar never crossed a narrow stream ? If I 
 place a drawn sword in the hand of a man and kneel at his feet, I am his slave ; 
 if he takes from me the sword I am his victim. ” 
 
 “Absurd ! Is not every president commander-in-chief of the army?” 
 
 “Aye. But not of the judiciary. Negative praise is often high laudation, 
 and such has Lincoln conferred upon Northern justiciaries ; he knew they 
 would not do his bidding, so he ignored them. In one man are now conjoined 
 the judicial, legislative, and executive functions. ” 
 
 “I wonder if the Executive ever heard of our old play, ‘King and Queen.’ 
 tie had better beware of a sudden and cold descent, for the legislative and 
 judicial bodies must rise some day. ” 
 
 “ And you will help to hold up what should be his winding-sheet.” 
 “Congress was not in session when Lincoln first had to act.” 
 
 4 4 Why then did not he assemble it ? Only a short time had elapsed since its 
 dispersion. ” 
 
 “Washington was in danger.” 
 
 “That cry always reminds me of ‘Poor puss wants a corner.’ He had legal 
 power to call out militia. But the framers of the Constitution could hardly 
 have meant by militia 250,000 men enlisted for three years.” 
 
 “ Tut, man ! Go North for a trip and learn to read the Constitution in the 
 new light of loyalty. ” 
 
 “Interpret it as Kory O’M ore did his dreams, 4 by conthraries, my dear.’ 
 Stiles says the cry of workmen in Vienna was / for a republic with an emperor.’ 
 He considers this a joke ; it is illustrated here.” 
 
 “I am as strong for the Constitution as you are. I uphold it in Kentucky.” 
 “One Article of it is, ‘The United States shall guarantee to every State a 
 republican form of Government. ” 
 
 44 And protect it against invasion.” 
 
 “ On application of the Legislature or executive. Kentucky’s Legislature has 
 voted for Neutrality. Governor Magoffin never asked for troops. What consti- 
 tutional right have we here ? The people have a constitutional right to bear 
 arms ; we are here that they cannot. You are going to camp Dick Robinson. 
 The Constitution says, the places held as public property by the United States 
 must be purchased by the consent of its Legislature ; a tacit avowal of States’ 
 Rights. If a State can accept an offer to purchase, she can refuse it. The blockade 
 is unconstitutional. But a few months before Lincoln inaugurated it the per- 
 mission to do it was refused by the House. Douglas in his speech of March, 
 15th, 1861, said Lincoln dared not obstruct commerce at the mouth of the 
 Mississippi ; that the insinuation he was to do it implied a want of respect for 
 his integrity, or ignorance of the laws, and that such usurpation would justly 
 subject him to impeachment. If Mr. Davis and his Cabinet are traitors to resist 
 the blockade, so was Webster, who said that if Jackson dared to blockade South 
 Carolina he must be resisted ; and Jackson waited for Congress to pass the Force 
 BfiL” 
 
 “ But why subvert your Government by knocking down its Constitution?” 
 “ It is already kicked over. You would not dispute my right to go to England 
 and transfer my allegiance ; nor can you deny that a free-born citizen of the 
 United States has the same right to transfer his allegiance to the Confederacy as 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 161 
 
 an Irishman has to fight for the Union. You may call the Constitution of the 
 South bogus, and Mr. Davis a bogus-president; but I prefer a bogus-president 
 who adheres to a bogus-Constitution to a proper president who subverts a proper 
 Constitution. Here are some of the advantages the Southern Constitution has 
 over the Northern, ‘ The extension of the presidential term ; the ineligibility to 
 a second term ; the removal from office of subordinates only for specified cases — 
 the reference of these to the Senate. This strikes at the foundation. Two 
 hundred years ago Brooke wrote : ‘ The king himself owes allegiance to the 
 
 Constitution,’ and no man said him nay. He gives instances where it is justifi- 
 able to dispute the claim to the throne, as in case of an open avowal of principles 
 incompatible with the Constitution, or in case of over tacts demonstrative of such 
 principles.’ Again the courtier says, ‘ All pardonable offences are distinguished 
 by the title of crimina Icesce majestatis ,’ — sins against the king, 4 all unpardonable 
 offences by the title of crimina Icesce libertatis ,’ — sins against the Constitution. 
 (It is he who translates libertas as Constitution). Among these latter crimes he 
 accounts attempting to raise standing armies without the consent of Parliament. 
 Farther on, he says, ‘ an abdication of the Constitution is an abdication of the 
 throne,’ and well might he say it, living in the days of William and Mary’s accession. 
 Again, an English monarch cannot levy a tax. Le roy le vent is the king’s usual 
 sign of acquiesence to a bill ; but when 1 bills of aid are presented him, he adds, 
 Le roy remercie ses loyals sijits, et ainsi le veut' Brooke remarks on this, ‘ An 
 express acknowledgement, that the right of granting or levying monies for public 
 purposes lies inherently, and, incominunicably in tht people and their repre- 
 sentatives ! ’ It is not strange that England should present a disrespectful attitude 
 to a ruler who disregards the Constitution he has sworn to support.” 
 
 “ But it is not as unconstitutional to raise money by presidential as by kingly 
 authority.” 
 
 “ How now ? Is a president above a king in his capacity for trifling with the 
 law of the land? Section VII. of our Constitution says, ‘All bills for raising 
 revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. Section VIII. declares 
 ‘ The Congress shall have power to collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises to 
 provide for the common defence.’ 
 
 “ You are so fond of the Constitution, why refuse to defend it ? ” 
 
 “ I cannot in this uniform. The commander-in-chief of the forces has planted 
 his foot on it only to bury it in gore. Congress confesses Mr. Lincoln’s acts, 
 proclamations and orders, ‘ to be extraordinary ’ and then declares them valid 
 and legal ! Very good. Mr. Lincoln, shoot Mr. Smith and then say that it was 
 necessary to do that to save the country, and I daresay Congress has sufficient 
 regard for consistency to set aside the eighth commandment and declare 
 assassination legal. The Parliament of Cromwell is no greater scorn to our 
 age than the first Congress of Lincoln’s term will be to the next. It would be 
 quite a joke if this perjured Congress makes new laws to be set aside by the next 
 in virtue of the precedent it has given. Are the people dead? ” 
 
 “ Yes, and ‘ the dead will bury their dead,’ let us be pall-bearers ; if not, we 
 will be traitors.” 
 
 Not to truth. History will not call such as I so. Is it traitorous to oppose the 
 man who has violated the Constitution ? I have sworn allegiance to it, but not 
 to him. What civil or military officer ever swore to obey the president ? Who 
 of them has not sworn to maintain the laws ? ” 
 
 “ Rebellion is a sin.” 
 
 “ Perjury and treachery are greater crimes.” 
 
 “ I cannot believe any crime worse than rebellion, the fruitful parent of all sin.” 
 “ Rebellion is sin against a human institution, perjury is treason against God.” 
 “ You are squeamish.” 
 
 “ George ! can it be possible that a man, noble as you were even in every hidden 
 thought, can have been so blinded by interest and the false glare of circumstance 
 as to call me squeamish for abhorring dishonour and lies ? ” 
 
 “ We never agreed in politics. You forget I am a Republican, an Abolitionist. 
 
 L 
 
162 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 And you also forget, Keble, what used to make me most feel your superiority.’’ 
 
 “ What was that ? I never knew you imagined such superiority.” 
 
 “ The way in which you, firm as a rock — in up-holding whatever you had once 
 decided to he right, yet lived out the motto of your favourite Coleridge.” 
 
 “ That the ‘ only true toleration is to tolerate other people’s intolerances P ’ 
 Therefore, George, I tolerated your Abolition bigotry.” 
 
 “ But you hated slavery.” 
 
 “ And still do in my heart of hearts.” 
 
 “ Yet you refuse to fight against a wrong ? ” 
 
 “ God has never given me a commission to send souls to hell, thereby to put an 
 end to sins of which they may be guilty. I needed not to have come so far South 
 had such been my mission.” 
 
 “ The crimes of the North are no excuse for slavery.” 
 
 “No; but they make me think of a very old-fashioned adage, ‘Take the 
 beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to take the mote 
 out of thy brother’s eye. ’ ” 
 
 “ But the mote is in the eye of the North, and the beam in that of the 
 South. ” 
 
 “Did God tell you so? or, has He given you power to read the heart? Is it 
 worse to hold a slave, or to murder a man ? ” 
 
 “Murder is the greatest of crimes.” 
 
 “ ‘He that hateth his brother is a murderer.’ Judge for yourself, whether 
 love for the negro, or, hatred and envy of the master is the motive-guide in 
 this war. Unless you can show me a commission from the God of the South, to 
 make of an army a host of Thalabas, I must resign. I cannot feel myself justified 
 in shooting down a man in battle or elsewhere, because he won’t send his slaves 
 North to freeze or starve. I do hate slavery ; I do hate Phariseeism. But if I 
 cannot commit murder, neither can I steal. If I hold my bayonet at a man’s 
 throat while you steal his property, am I less guilty than you ? The House is 
 content to steal from those who hereafter shall engage in the rebellion ; the 
 Senate, in its rage to set the fashions, proposes to confiscate the property of all 
 who have been so engaged. ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Confound the Congress ! ” 
 
 “It is high time; for it has confounded all the civilized world.” 
 
 “ Why isn’t a national joke as good as an individual one ? ” asked Metcalfe, 
 in what he intended to be a facetious tone ; he couldn’t give up his one 
 thousand a year. 
 
 “If you -want your question answered, read this.” 
 
 “I am too sleepy,” he said, feeling that though he should not sleep that 
 night he would have something to splurge on during the day ; aye, and a title, 
 a shoulder-strap and bright buttons. Keble read, “‘Let the blackened 
 remains of 300 chimneys, of homes made desolate by Jennison and his 
 Abolition followers, answer. ’ While I wear these buttons I cannot read the 
 next paragraph. Do you remember how you used to curse Claverhouse ? ” 
 
 “ I suppose you think I ought to curse myself now, as I serve the same 
 Government Jennison serves.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Greatly to its satisfaction, as its continuing him and appointing others 
 like him to office proves. I am ashamed to wear the uniform he wears. In 
 two weeks’ time it is said that [Jennison robbed one county in Missouri of 
 more than one and a half millions of property,] and this plunder — in the style 
 of American brigands — was sold ‘at auction on account of the Government.’ 
 Perhaps your pay may come from the proceeds. ” 
 
 “But when you talk about honesty, you forget what the South has stolen. 
 Public property of the United States cannot become the property of any State, 
 or States by honest means. ” 
 
 “No, the South, therefore, has a right to a part of the proceeds of the mints, 
 war-materials, etc. But Davis will dumbfound you ; as late as June 24th, 1861, 
 he wrote, ‘ The Government of the Confederate States is to become accountable 
 
LOVE AND WAR, 
 
 163 
 
 for all such arms and munitions of war as should he transferred. 5 If justice 
 did not require this it was more economical than war. But we are not as just 
 to individuals as the Confederate State Government to ours. Exiled Governor 
 Morehead said, [in a speech in Louisville, that a letter containing 9,000,000 dols. , 
 directed to a gentleman here, was sent to the Dead Letter Office, notwith- 
 standing the stamp was on it and the rightful owner offered to put on as many 
 additional as were required.] It is very becoming in such an Administration 
 to cry out that the South has stolen public property ; it prefers private. The 
 case just given is not a solitary one. The newspapers — ” 
 
 4 4 Tut ! Don’t quot6 newspapers to me.” 
 
 “1 doubt if any men will meet severer reckoning than the editors of widely- 
 circulated papers ; no tract society has such a chance to influence thousands. ” 
 Metcalfe, thinking it useless to argue with one in a high pressure mood of 
 resistance, a silence ensued. As if struck by a new thought, Keble arose and 
 facing Metcalfe, said, 
 
 4 4 In reading of that inspiring scene at Runnymede 600 years ago, probably 
 we have all felt a proud bubbling of the blood to think that we are the children 
 of England. On one hand, military pomp and splendour, a proud king who 
 had trusted to the traditional prestige of royalty, and to the darkness of the 
 Middle Ages, and dared to be a despot. On the other hand, the barons of 
 England — noblemen forever by God’s grand patent of nobility. There did the 
 scions of British freedom wring from the trembling autocrat the Magna Charta 
 of all time — our own immortal inheritance, the richest legacy of ages called 
 the dark. Hume says, 4 No freeman shall be imprisoned, or dispossessed of his 
 free tenement, of liberties, or outlawed, or banished, or anywise hurt or injured 
 except by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. ’ Shall 
 I fight to uphold Lincoln in King John’s stead? I can’t help thinking of what 
 Shakespeare says about the 4 men dressed in a little brief authority and the 
 angels weeping,’ when I have to confess that the chief magistrate of the 
 greatest, and in fact the only true republic (save a few little States, to be 
 measured by Dido’s method) the world has seen, has set aside the great principle 
 of Magna Charta, the cynosure of liberty — the Habeas Corpus Act. ” 
 
 4 4 This Act has before been set aside, and by Washington.” 
 
 4 4 Ah! I knew not of that. But if Mr. Lincoln expects to exercise the 
 licence of Washington, he must show an equal disregard for political truckling. 
 Another time has this Act been set aside and by one who had high precedents, 
 by Charles I ; but even this monarch in 1648 was taught his place; the Petition 
 of Bight, 4 asserted that no freeman should be imprisoned or detained without 
 cause shown to which he may make answer according to law. ” 5 
 44 But Lincoln is too good a man — ” 
 
 4 4 Charles was a good man, and, as I believe, a martyr for the Church; but 
 he was a traitor to the law of the land. The wire-pullers of the ascendant 
 party put him to death because he would not establish their form of Church 
 government ; but the people of England permitted and sanctioned the deed 
 only because he was a traitor to constitutional liberty. He was good as a man 
 (for he ruled according to his light) ; but he was a tyrannical king. Can you 
 perceive a parallel ? ” 
 
 44 Treason!” Another painful silence after which Metcalfe said, 44 Keble, I 
 won’t quarrel with you because you are a monomaniac. ” 
 
 44 It is impossible for me to uphold Mr. Lincoln. I have no more right to say 
 that a sin committed by him is right, than I have to say a murdar committed 
 by a friend is right. Right is right ; wrong is wrong — not to all in these days 
 a self-evident proposition. The person who maintains that any wrong is, or 
 by any manoeuvre can be made right, is a traitor to truth and to God. The 
 man, whose eloquent lips were 4 touched with hallowed fire ’ shouts to me over 
 the abyss of centuries, 4 Woe unto them which justify the wicked for reward.’ 
 Let my property be confiscated ere it can be said by angels, I loved it even 
 for the sake of an earthly angel more than the right.” 
 
 4 4 Forget her; resign and go North.” 
 
164 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ I have no idea of living in a land where every man’s will is law, and the 
 president superior to the people in lawlessness only. Show me one instance of 
 Mr. Davis having violated the Constitution he was sworn to obey.” 
 
 “ He has foresworn his first allegiance.” 
 
 “So did Washington and others whom the world delights to honour. But 
 show me one instance in history where the man who has violated his oath of 
 office has won anything but infamy from right-minded people. What does 
 Lincoln care for public opinion ? His ‘ ipse dixit ’ is enough. Why ! this 
 secular pope has power to absolve his own conscience from an oath of allegiance 
 to obey the Constitution ; he called out an army and a navy, blockaded ports 
 and served up his other fancies for the public repast ad nauseam. When the 
 sovereign people had made him autocrat they had only to step into the shade 
 until he had fulfilled his pleasure ; then he condescended to ask them to send 
 their representatives to Washington to sanctify his illegal acts. There was one 
 man among them who dared to question his power. When Virginia boasts of 
 a Henry, Ohio will cry back, ‘Vallandigham.’ And the United States 
 of a regenerated Union will cry, ‘Hail to the hero of 1862. The one- 
 eyed giant-power of the North has devoured the rights of the South 
 until only one right — that of revolution — remains. The peace proposi- 
 tions offered in good faith, received in bad blood, produced such internal 
 commotions that a lethargy was the result ; and as sad voices mourned, the 
 giant in his sleep muttered, ‘Nobody’s hurt.’ Suddenly his eye — common 
 sense — was thrust out, and a howl of surprise and pain resounded from Maine 
 to Texas. You remember Ulysses and his companions escaped, and that 
 Polyphemus (no longer capable of seeing to the safety of his domain) tumbled 
 an immense portion of his heritage after the man who had dared to defy his 
 power.” 
 
 “But the South is to blame.” 
 
 “ I care not whether personal liberty bills, fishing bounties, navigation laws, 
 or the tariff caused the revolt ; but one thing I do care for and that is to live 
 under a Constitutional Government. The war is a fact ; it is useless to discuss 
 its cause ; the question will not be decided until ‘the day when all hearts will 
 be read.’ Who prizes safety when liberty is in the scale? Southern insecurity 
 of property and life is better than Northern lethargy. Jefferson said — ” 
 
 “Bah — to quote Jefferson to me!” 
 
 “Then I will quote Webster, who said of the fame of Adams and Jefferson, 
 ‘With American liberty it arose and with American liberty only can it perish.’ 
 The fame of one has perished in the North. Are you apt at syllogisms?” 
 
 “We look at the question from different stand-points. Bev. Mr. Arthur 
 speaks of a traveller who in crossing Mont Cenis was delighted with what he 
 supposed to be a glacier, and when he had passed below discovered to be a 
 cloud. Are you apt at syllogisms, personal and national?” 
 
 “If you had to judge of the legality of a decision in Bussia, would not you 
 take a Bussian stand-point? You would not decide by our laws. You would 
 not like to have a suit decided by the laws of Madagascar. ” 
 
 “Of course I recognize the first law of criticism. De Betz said to the 
 French of his day he doubted whether Caligula’s horse being made consul 
 would surprise them as much as they imagined. So Keble, your metamor- 
 phosis ought not — ” 
 
 “ It wouldn’t astound us to see a horse put in office ; we are accustomed to 
 seeing animals of the same genus there ; even the astute Seward has to forsake 
 the upright attitude and bray. De Betz says ‘Weak men never yield at the 
 time they ought to. ’ How Lincoln will wish he had profited by George III. ’s 
 example when he shares his discomfiture ! As you have recalled France’s 
 minister, the antetype of modern Talleyrands and Sewards, I shall give you 
 another specimen of his statecraft : — ‘One is oftener deceived by mistrusting 
 people than by confiding in them. ’ ” 
 
 “ Seward’s antetype ! ” 
 
 “However unrivalled De Betz may be considered as the expositor of 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 165 
 
 diplomacy, he has no charm for me. Rather do I hear a voice from the tomb 
 of the nation’s greatest dead. When the outrages committed by our soldiers 
 first made my blood seethe in just indignation, and I was tempted to swerve 
 from my old walk, I made a mental pilgrimage to Mount Vernon ; one of a 
 voiceless throng, I repaired to the Holy Sepulchre of all the republics of the 
 earth, and prayed that the God adored by Washington might say to the waves, 
 * Be still. ’ But a part of the punishment for our practical atheism is that 
 when * we look for an intercessor there is no man. ’ For the forming a good 
 head of a party it requires greater parts than for the ruler of an empire. ” 
 
 “The war must be prosecuted to show we have a strong government.” 
 “Neither Russia nor the States of the Church ever gave clearer demonstra- 
 tion of the nature of their Government’s strength than has ours.” 
 
 “It is a conclusive proof to England that our Government is stronger than 
 hers. ” 
 
 “As a lunatic is stronger than a man in his senses. Valiant are our soldiers ! 
 Often are ladies’ dresses cut into shreds by manly swords ! Ladies’ china 
 broken into shivers by Sampsonian hands ! Ladies’ flower-beds trodden under 
 foot by heralds of liberty ! Women’s trembling hands point to their breasts 
 pistols, the only conservators of their honour against brave men ! Defenceless 
 women insulted and hectored, scorned and ridiculed by the chivalry of the 
 North ! Is this a part of Scott’s military tactics?” 
 
 “The officers cannot restrain their men.” 
 
 “I shall have more faith in their attempt when^we read of their punishing 
 them. Is this the way to reconstruct the Union? Never. It is the surest 
 way to turn men into demons who will fight with the desperation of tigers. 
 What will this detestable war leave us? Is it to eat out every noble 
 feeling ? Are friends to become enemies because one prefers a strong Govern- 
 ment to an experiment?” 
 
 “ Let me congratulate you on the transfer of your allegiance.” 
 
 “ It is like offering congratulations to a child about to bury a cruel father. My 
 innate sense of justice and love of truth had a hard battle with prejudice and 
 pride of apparent consistency. But how many officers in the old army had to 
 fight the same battle with self ere worthy to oppose the enemy ? I have in my 
 pocket a letter from General Buckner I should like you to hear. It is to Judge 
 Underwood. May I read it to you ? ” 
 
 “ I suppose I’d as well listen to him as to you.” 
 
 “ The first part is but a recapitulation of the J udge’s letter to him. Then 
 Buckner shows himself : — ‘ If your suggestion in reference to your arrest on political 
 grounds referred to any contemplated action of mine, it is not justified by any- 
 thing I have said. I have never yet made a political arrest, nor contemplated 
 making one. I regard the practice of such arrests as exercised by the authorities 
 and by some of the authorized and armed bands of Kentucky, as at war with 
 every principle of justice, of the Constitution and of humanity. It is against the 
 unlawful claim of the right to imprison citizens at will that has been with me a 
 chief cause of resisting the tyranny of the Government. In the proclamation 
 published by me at the time of occupying this place, I assumed the principles 
 which would guide my conduct. I have adhered implicitly to these principles 
 and have endeavoured by my own action to soften as far as possible the 
 asperities of the war. I have extended this so far as even to place spies in our 
 midst upon their parole instead of proceeding against them according to the rules 
 of war. If, however, your suggested question refers to my proposed future action 
 and a just retaliation for the oppressive and unconstitutional acts of the Legis- 
 lature, there is some reason for your inquiry ; on the principle of retaliation I 
 would, before this time, have been justified in adopting the most stringent course 
 in reference to those who at the cost of civil liberty have attempted to make 
 Kentucky the instrument of subjugating her own citizens. But I have considered 
 that the holy cause which in common, I believe, with a large majority of the 
 people of Kentucky I advocate, does not require for its support the destruction 
 of individual liberty ; much less, sir, does it require that a citizen who, like your- 
 
166 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 self, has been a distinguished servant of the public, should be torn from your 
 friends and family and buried in a political dungeon. I do not propose to imitate 
 the impotent cruelties contemplated hy the Legislature in support of their unjust 
 and unconstitutional acts. As for yourself, sir, you are free to enter, or to leave 
 my lines at your pleasure. I have had no purpose of molesting you ; but will 
 cheerfully accord you every protection which I would give to any citizen. The 
 terms on which you can remain I leave entirely to your own sense of honour.’ ” 
 
 “ Positively, Keble, you are in a glow.” 
 
 “I am. Such a spirit as that is worth all the tyrannical proclamations ever 
 invented by Satanic policy. How can we wonder at Miss Buckner and such 
 women bowing to the Confederacy when such men represent it ? Now Buckner is 
 allowed out at 5 a.m. (reveille), to march with his tub, flanked hy two of the 
 guard, across the parade ground, and back to his cell ; three times a day meals 
 are carried to him ; no chair nor table in his room ; he has no view, and only 
 light and air, say 8x4 inches, and about 20 feet square of floor. He is allowed 
 to go out one hour each day.” 
 
 “ Have you seen Hunter’s Proclamation freeing the slaves of three States ? ” 
 
 “ Yes, and Lincoln’s abrogation of it.” 
 
 “ Why does he not put him in La Fayette ? Did you ever hear of any man 
 assuming such dictatorial powers unless he aspired to the seat of a dictator ? 
 Already have we three dictators —Hunter, Fremont, and Butler.” As he pro- 
 nounced the last name the association with it stagnated his blood and he suffered 
 pangs that only the strongest can feel. 
 
 “ Fremont has been removed.” 
 
 “ So terribly punished that the terror caused by his chastisement has encouraged 
 others to excel him. Lincoln reminds me of an old granny who pats a grandson 
 on the head, saying in an encouraging tone, 1 Naughty boy ! ’ and when he cries 
 because his feelings are hurt, gives him a cake.” 
 
 “ You are wrong, Keble. But what’s the use of parrying love-begotton 
 arguments ? Don’t scowl. Come down the Mississippi with me and I promise you 
 a place on Grant’s staff.” 
 
 “ I do not choose to fight side by side with negroes. Had I been reared in the 
 South where children sit on black uncles’ knees and kiss ebony mammies, I might 
 not have such delicate olfactories ; but I was brought up in the North where it is 
 genteel to consider negroes as Pariahs.” 
 
 Good-night, Keble, I hope to find you next time in a more tractable mood.” 
 
 “ Good-bye, George. If I can ever befriend you, remember I am yours.” 
 The door closed on him in his Gethsemane and, “ If it be possible let this cup 
 pass ” quickly was heard by the “ Man of Sorrows.” After kneeling some time 
 Keble arose, opened his note-book and wrote — “ 0 Flag I used to love, would to 
 God a Russian despot’s feet had trampled you in the dust ! Then could I have wound 
 your soiled tatters around my broken heart and laid down in an honourable grave. 
 Happy Bishop Cobb, granted your earnest wish and spared the agony of seeing 
 your flag dishonoured by foes, and the far greater anguish of seeing its upholders 
 bathe it in the blood of your brethren ! On you shall rest the curse of no lost 
 soul. Thank God that His Providence, by what was called two accidents, has 
 kept my hand unstained. To think of having sent a soul to hell ! Our Divine 
 Master said that the ‘ whole world was not worth one human soul.’ Then can 
 the Union be ? Those preachers who have emulated the councils of hell by urging 
 war, should never again use this text, ‘ What shall a man give in exchange for 
 his soul ’ ? They say revenge for a national insult, or the profits of sugar and 
 cotton are worth thousands of souls. Some who call themselves ‘ followers of the 
 Lamb ’ have voted that the maintenance of the Government and the superior 
 wealth of thirty-four to twenty-three States are worth 500,000 lives ; 475,000 
 souls as tribute paid the devil for his meddling with our State affairs ! I feel that 
 there is ‘ wrestling with the powers of darkness in high places.’ I must help the 
 worthy few. The wire-drawers of our political contest are cunning enough to 
 assume the ‘ garb of angels of light;’ lawlessness is dubbed independence ; hatred, 
 self-respect; pride, honour ; ambition, loyalty ; avarice, patriotism. But a 4 kingdom 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 167 
 
 cut out of the mountain without hands ’ will yet be ; and of its happy citizens 
 may I be one ! What bitter words George said ! To accuse me of dishonouring 
 the Flag ! Alas, that my heart still venerates it while I blush to be classed 
 among its defenders ! The iconoclast may weep upon a desecrated altar. How 
 impossible for people of one idea to comprehend how the heart may be rent with 
 anguish while the voice is heavy with rebuke ! Peace ! peace ! Who will give 
 us peace P Who cares for the commands of God ? Who loves the Crucified 
 and regards the golden rule of the Prince of Peace ? Who will ‘ wash his 
 hands pure from his brother’s blood ’ and * follow peace ? ’ Who will turn 
 aside from the congregation of Cain and drown the war-cry of hell, * Am I 
 my brother’s keeper ? ’ in the Christmas Anthem, ‘ Peace on earth, good will 
 towards men.’ Tears have burned my eyes ; but none have fallen ; a strange 
 sensation has wound me up to a calmness that makes me understand how 
 martyrs of liberty have died. I, a child of a republic ! I am under a despot ; 
 coercion is abominable, revolution is better than destruction of liberty ; rebellion 
 even is preferable to a despotism that recognizes no law but its own will. I am a 
 rebel. My head reels and my heart shudders, but the words are said, they cannot 
 be unsaid. How I have loved my country !— my whole country ! 0 God ! it is 
 too hard, too hard ! Forgive me ; who am I to say this of Thy righteous 
 judgments ? The abominable corruptions of the past and the practical idolatry 
 of the present deserve national judgments. But star-spangled banner of my 
 boyhood, the aegis of my early manhood, I mourn for thee ! Oh that I might have 
 been buried in thee ere despotism had planted thee over the grave of constitu- 
 tional liberty ! To be buried in thee once seemed the acme of worldly honour. 
 How I have loved thee, and now, alas ! pity me, 0 my God ! despots have forced 
 it to wave its free-born stars over 30,000 manacles for intended slaves ; have held 
 it proudly aloft over deserted homes, over broken hearts. Old Union, sink into 
 my heart ; fall low, low, low into my heart ; let me bury you there, but 4 let me 
 do it in silence and with prayer.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 J ULY 2ND. 
 
 “And my beloved — oh where is he? Yesterday’s paper gave the names of 
 four of his regiment who fell in one day ; and four may fall another day — even 
 to-day, and he be one of these — oh God ! ” This exclamation that followed 
 Laura’s thought was no profane cry of suffering : it was like the “Oh mother !” 
 which bursts from a child’s heart in its hour of anguish — a shadow of a refuge. 
 So little did the Southerners know of Union officers’ affairs, that she had heard 
 nothing of Keble’s resignation and departure. “Oh the cursed evils of war ! 
 Even from the depths of an agonized desire for help we are such virtual infidels, 
 looking elsewhere than to God. I would cry out to England : Stand off'. Bear 
 anything but loss of liberty before you bring upon yourself war’s malison. 
 Support if need be, a million of paupers ; but do not — ” 
 
 Mrs. Ellmer, dripping with rain, rushed in, not thinking to knock, “Bichmond 
 is safe ! Richmond is safe ! ” 
 
 Laura sprang up and the two friends, locked in each others’ arms, mingled 
 their exclamations of thankfulness and relief, until Laura sank on the floor and 
 burst into tears, 
 
 “Oh, Mrs. Ellmer, we’ve whipped them!” That was her constant exclama- 
 tion. Laura, like a child, sobbed some time, and Mrs. Ellmer grew more 
 composed. “ This is a day to be remembered forever. We have ‘trusted in 
 Thee, 0 God, and were not confounded.’ McClellan’s whole army, the grand 
 
168 LOVE AND WAN 
 
 army, par excellence, routed, according to its own confession. Our spoilers are 
 restrained.” 
 
 “ Can you play the Te Deum ? ” asked Mrs. Ellmer, hesitatingly. She longed 
 for it and hoped Laura might have numbered it among her accomplishments. 
 
 “Oh, I shall love to sing it now.” She had learned it because she always 
 heard Keble’s voice in it. 
 
 For more than a week the daily papers had made Mrs. Ellmer’ s spirit glow 
 with pride as she read of our wonderful campaign in Virginia. Her father, an 
 old companion-in-arms of General Lee, had taught her to regard him as the 
 greatest of our generals, and the main hope of the South. Thereupon Laura 
 and she had many a pleasant tilt of words ; for Laura’s lance was always in 
 rest ready to unhorse any argument that raised anyone above Jefferson Davis — 
 the second father of his country— as she delighted to call him. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 On a fallen beech tree sat Keble Wilson, late of United States’ Army. 
 Drearily he sighed, and yet in his sigh was a dreamy sweetness, as though he 
 remembered the pleasant things that though they could not come again were 
 his forever. But remembrances of love, like dried rose-leaves scattered among 
 last summer’s clothes, though very sweet, could not long beguile him from 
 realizing his present chilling desolation. On the back of a letter he wrote 
 
 “All dark and lonely though my way appears 
 I see a rainbow made of Jesu’s tears. 
 
 He, who could stoop to weep o’er a man’s grave. 
 
 Will lift me up when it is time to save 
 Me from the fearful waves of raging ire : 
 
 “Thus far” He wdll say, and they’ll rise no higher. 
 
 “Thy will, not mine, be done ! ” The cup I dread. 
 
 Though bitter now will be sweet when I’m dead. 
 
 When men can persecute no longer, they 
 May pity and weep o’er unconscious clay.” 
 
 Keble had brought nothing with him that belonged to the United States’ 
 Government. The suit of broadcloth he wore was the one he had purchased to 
 visit Laura in. Several days previous to his leaving Louisville he had bought a 
 brace of pistols. Now he sat on the most unpicturesque part of the Ohio shore 
 near Louisville. On this wise ran his thoughts : — 
 
 “ Cold and muddy seems this stream to me ; the banks are low. I wonder 
 how it obtained the name of * La belle riviere.’ In my boyhood I hastened a 
 fever away by imagining myself on its broad bosom, buffeting with its limpid 
 waves and drinking in at the same instant its subtle beauty and the invigorating 
 breeze from virgin forests on its banks. But I behold it, and its beauty has 
 vanished. So did my boyhood long for the day when I might fight beneath my 
 country’s flag to prove that in all the ages no such hero as young America had 
 gone forth to conquer. Yes, I was to have been the worthy esquire of any knight- 
 errant, valiant enough to plant the stars and stripes over the grave of despotism. 
 Truly, I have just escaped being a modem Sancho Panza, the victim of a 
 fanaticism not half so innocent as was that of the knight of La Mancha. The 
 blatant beast Abolitionism sat so awkwardly astride the democratic Rosinante 
 that I found out it was not born to be its master. The ancient farce of the 
 battle with the windmills has been re-enacted at Washington. Fortunately, l 
 have been kept out of that national Bamumism by my passion for — ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 169 
 
 He could not, even in his thoughts, compare Laura to Dulcinea ; he curled his 
 lips at the idea, but the caustic expression gave way to one of self pity. He 
 wound up with — 
 
 “ What will our men think of me ? Our men ! Will I ever cease to think 
 of myself as a Unionist? I am the child of associations, and my heart springs to 
 one side while conscience points to the other. I dare not defend a lie. Oh God! 
 that I have lived to see the day that I feel myself bound to oppose what I had 
 thought myself born to defend ! How much of life is given only to undo what 
 we have done! Let my future atone for my blind past. Now I know agony ; I 
 have wasted a life. My heart, too loyal still, grieves for the Union. Laura and 
 the Union — both dead to me ! Have I forever cast away my happiness ? I shall 
 find it in heaven, a voice tells me. Ah, but I am so young to look forward to a 
 cheerless life ! Yet I would not ask my high-strung beauty to share the outlaw’s 
 pillow ; the pretty bud would soon wither in an unfurnished home. Were wealth 
 mine I should woo the butterfly, intending for ever to feed her on flowers. I 
 cannot offer her a hard crust and cold water.” 
 
 Heavily he lifted his massive frame and turned towards the dusty road. 
 
 “Good morning, neighbour,” said a friendly voice. Mr. Powell touched his 
 hat. “ I beg pardon, I thought you were Mr. Pendleton, and was going to offer 
 you a lift. Although you ain’t, maybe you’d like to ride a little way; if so, just 
 step in.” 
 
 “ I am obliged,” said the stranger, accepting the proffered seat in the buggy. 
 “Warm weather, sir.” 
 
 “ Very ; is this usual weather for the season ?” 
 
 “We have a right to count on five months of summer, sir. Thank heaven for 
 that ! Deliver me from your cold countries.” 
 
 “ It is very cold here sometimes.” 
 
 “ What if it, is in the middle of winter ? Don’t we all know very cold weather 
 won’t last but a few days ?” 
 
 “ I am from the North, and congratulate myself in summer as you do in winter 
 — that extreme weather will last but for a few days. Do you have sleighs here ?” 
 “ Of course ; we want them several times some winters.” 
 
 “ You ought to take a trip North about Christmas and then you would learn 
 what sleighing is.” 
 
 “I haven’t been North since 1808.” 
 
 “Then you would scarcely recognise New York.” 
 
 “ Hardly, considering I never saw it. I know St. Louis better. I might have 
 been a millionaire, sir, if I hadn’t been just like all young men, full of my own 
 notions. Why, sir, I could have got arpents for a few dollars. My friends out 
 there told me St. Louis would be a big place and advised me to lay out the 
 proceeds of my whiskey and flour in arpents. But I said to ’em, it’s all nonsense 
 talking about a big town here ; that’ll be at the mouth of the Missouri ; you see 
 I didn’t know then that St. Louis was the first high ground for twenty miles up, 
 or I’d have been smarter.” 
 
 Keble, perceiving he had found a loquacious old gentleman, and feeling himself 
 unequal to conversation, thought he would pay for his ride by an apparent 
 interest in the stranger’s history; moreover, so insatiate was his thirst for 
 knowledge that even his most apathetic moods had an instinct for gathering new 
 ideas from every passer-by. So he asked — 
 
 “ Am I impertinent in saying T should like to hear about a voyage taken so 
 many years ago in a new country ? ” 
 
 “Impertinent! bless the man ! Well, sir, I got a keel boat — you know what 
 the keel of a boat is — that was the shape of mine ; I stowed away flour, and whiskey, 
 put in some extra hunting-shirts and a fine suit of clothes ready for the settlements 
 and laid up some provisions, not many, for I trusted to my rifle.” 
 
 Keble gave an involuntary glance of respect at the sharp-shooter, one of a race 
 famous as the Parthian arrow-men of old. 
 
 “ I suppose you are a capital shot. The fame of Kentucky riflemen is know n 
 afar.” 
 
170 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 “ Certainly, and with reason. Maybe you’d like to try a shooting-match, 
 stranger ? ” 
 
 u A mere West Pointer shrinks from such.” 
 
 ** A West Pointer, eh ? My sister sent a son there. I told her she had a sight 
 better have sent him out in the woods with a rifle. Do they teach boys at West 
 Point to stick a knife in a tree and go pretty far off to take aim at it F Do you 
 think when I was under fifty I ever shot a squirrel except in the eye ? Heaven 
 forgive the pitiful cowards who shoot-birds in the nest, or when they are singing 
 love-songs to their sweethearts or lullabies to their babies 1 If you want to shoot, 
 why do it ; but fire away at birds when they’re going from home ; pop at 
 the rascals who are leaving their sweethearts or families. That’s honest enough ; 
 for how are you to know whether they mean to come back ? And you know, sir, the 
 rule of war is — hang deserters.” 
 
 Was it a nervous twitching of the corners of the mouth of his companion that 
 made the rifleman add — 
 
 “ That’s a rule of war ; for my part I think there are exceptions. If ever 
 Yankees have sense enough to desert to the South, we’ll be mighty apt to aim 
 something at their hearts. I shouldn’t wonder if it would be a bullet, too. For I 
 can tell you there are half-a-dozen pretty girls of that name about these parts. But 
 if the Yankee didn’t want that sort of fun, well, sir, we’d aim ever so much 
 kindness at him. But I was telling you of my trip up the river. I was better 
 than three months on the way ; but I went above St. Louis. I had fifteen men 
 aboard to manage ; all could handle a rifle ; though to tell the truth, Bob Cook and 
 Nat Thornton didn’t know much more about it than the Yankees at Manassas — I 
 beg pardon, sir ; howsomever, I believe you Yankees don’t think much of shooting, 
 no how. Pity you forgot this last April.” 
 
 “ I am not a Yankee.” 
 
 “ Law me ! ’Pon my honour, I’m glad. Shake hands.” 
 
 “ Before I accept this proof of friendship I ought to tell you that I am a New 
 Yorker.” 
 
 “ Pity ! you’re tall enough for a Kentuckian. May I ask who you voted for ? ” 
 
 “ Bell and Everett.” 
 
 “ Shake hands, sir ; you’re a sight better than the Southerners who voted for 
 Breckenridge, and worth twenty Kentuckians who voted for Douglas, and worth 
 fifty scoundrels who voted for the 4 Rail -splitter ’ with cap and bells. But here 
 is my home, and you may get a warm supper and comfortable feather bed. I 
 detest Yankee meanness that sleeps on hard beds ; but the fashion is out here ! 
 However, you needn’t be afraid of a hard bed in my house.” 
 
 The kind stranger suspected Keble to be a Confederate in disguise, for the 
 same reason that some romantic women imagine a lover in every man who 
 seems fit for a hero of romance, gave him comfortable lodging for the 
 night, and bade him ‘God speed’ the next day, telling him where he would 
 find shelter for the night, and told him to go ‘a way the Blue Coats knew 
 nothing about.’ Pursuing his lonely walk Keble found himself in a most 
 romantic glen. Large overhanging rocks, moss-covered stones and rippling 
 stream formed a bower fit for love and dreams, and he sat down to bathe his 
 aching head and blistered feet. He had walked only sixteen miles ; but since 
 Laura’s horse had given him the severe blow on the knee his foot had frequently 
 swollen. He felt a sort of perverse pleasure in the very pain he suffered. 
 
 “ What a waking nightmare was yesterday and is to-day ! Even the pangs 
 of disappointed love seem lost in the chaos of my brain ! I, a rebel ! My heart 
 aches for the Union I have so loved. Tush, heart 1 Did not I know that it 
 was earthly and must perish ? But then I did not expect to see it fall. People 
 say it is of no use to argue ; it is of the greatest use to a conscientious person 
 to find out the arguments he cannot answer. My political convictions dawned 
 so gradually I cannot say when it was first day. Day ! Ah, what mockery ! 
 It is night now and only one star shines, and that is the Right. ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 171 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Laura’s Thoughts. 
 
 ‘AVhat a strange web of existence is woven around us! Powerless to 
 escape, too hopeless to act, I can but endure. But such endurance as mine 
 does not please God ; as well might the paralytic be praised for keeping quiet. 
 Oh, surely there is another world ! I know it ! I know it ! For there is little 
 justice in this. Day after day have I sat in the stupid quiet of Kate’s sick- 
 room, often when it was too darkened to read ; night after night have I 
 ministered to her. And what is my reward? The coldness that follows 
 jealousy. She has no conversational talent, or, at least she never entertains 
 me ; but it is because she is selfish, always occupied with a sense of her own 
 importance, and too busy thinking of how other people appreciate her, or too 
 wretched from a real or fancied slight, to entertain her company with the lovely 
 grace that nothing but self-forgetfulness can produce. I thought at one time I 
 should have been glad had Keble given her his heart. I cannot think that 
 now ; but I never used any wile to retain him by my side. Her flattery was 
 fulsome ; he liked my indifference better ; true, she at one time feigned the 
 indifference that I tried to feel ; but that did not attract him, for it revealed 
 her selfishness — being the offspring of wounded vanity. Her Unionism 
 disgusted him, for it was unwomanly ; he as much as told her so one day, and 
 he was right ; revenge makes any woman an unpleasant object to contemplate. 
 I don’t like the state into which I am falling. I am isolating myself too much 
 from human sympathies. True, I live for my country ; for my country I 
 could die ; but I have suffered and seen suffering until the mere apprehension 
 of it makes me curl up all my sensibilities and seem as callous as the strong 
 tribolite. I am benevolent enough ; oh yes ! will give while I have anything for 
 myself ; but ‘ if I give all my goods to feed the poor and have not charity, it 
 profiteth nothing. ’ It seems to me if my heart was under Keble’s influence it 
 would have that charity. Ah ! is it so ? Then I am self-convicted of the 
 spirit of idolatry. What could Keble give me that Christ has not already 
 offered me? Why is it harder to yield to His invisible influence than to 
 Keble’s sweet presence ? And this brings another sad thought ; why are there 
 so many old maids and old bachelors in the world ? so many unappreciated 
 lives P so many unsatisfied longings ? so much love cast off as valuless ? Why 
 is it, poor, aching heart? It is because there is a hereafter ; the stream that is 
 dammed up expands into a lake broad and deep, clear enough to reflect the 
 stars of Heaven. Unappreciated lives ! There may not be so many as we 
 think ; is it nothing that God and His angels look on and love ? And the 
 unsatisfied longings shall all be answered there. Oh ! Why did I love him ? 
 I, the joyous, but sensible girl, who had always scorned beaux and laughed at 
 lovers ! Why did I open my heart at once to take him in? I accepted him as 
 my ideal. It was not strange that I loved him on so short an acquaintance ; 
 he was the man I had loved all my life, but found only last November. 
 Buskin sums up perfection in one word, moderation. Keble is the most 
 perfectly balanced character I ever knew. I saw no excrescences, not even of 
 genius ; therefore, I accepted his love as a symbol of that which reigns in God’s 
 Heaven. Other men had begged my love with timid reserve ; one or two have 
 demanded it as something they could not do without ; Keble bowed his stately 
 head on his hands — as he had to do to look into my eyes — let me gaze into his 
 soul, and I was his, — his although he knew it not — his before I knew it. I did 
 not suspect any cage was hung in the gardens wherein my spirit roved. I was 
 a gay bird, going on my way in blissful unconsciousness of the future ; a window 
 was open — I did not see any lure ; I was not afraid of being caught, and I flew 
 in, and even now nestle in the depths of his heart. Alas ! it has not been long 
 since I forsook freedom ; but already I have beaten myself almost to death 
 against the bars of the cage — since he who closed the door can open it no 
 
172 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 more. ” Laura, who a few months before would have regarded as a foe the 
 man who strove to disturb her peace, interrupt by Love’s never-resting thoughts 
 her quiet daily avocations, make German and Italian stupid, and even history 
 a bore, was now armed against suffering by the very intensity of her love. 
 “It is very late and I know I ought to be in bed ; but I cannot sleep. I feel 
 as I did when I first took my seat in the car on the inclined plane that leads 
 down to the Niagara river; I am deafened by a roar I cannot comprehend. I 
 have no will to stay my speed ; on — on — on — into the river? No ; a Power I 
 have not thought of will hold me back just as I reach the brink. I am a 
 helpless child ; my hand cannot arrest the car of destiny ; but an invisible 
 chain — one end in the hand of my Father — will save me from the seething gulf. 
 I may look at despair, but I shall not be lost. I was always venturesome ; I 
 remember getting out of the car and stepping over some of the loose stones in 
 my longing to get nearer the grand mystery, that was so near, and yet was 
 forever out of my grasp. I could not reach the goal, but I cooled my flushed 
 cheeks in the spray of the Niagara, and laid me down to sleep that night, a 
 wiser and a better child.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXYII. 
 
 Lauba is on a visit to Minnie, her feet on a high stool that she may at the 
 same time read and knit socks for the prisoners. Minnie has the morning 
 paper. “ To be shot for Desertion ! ” 
 
 Laura looks up as she hears the heading of a paragraph. 
 
 “ Why did he desert P Because they would not pay a poor fellow who only en- 
 listed for money ? ” 
 
 u No.” That one word almost chokes Minnie, who raises the paper before her 
 staring eyeballs and white lips, while it shakes so violently I wonder Laura does 
 not notice her agitation. 
 
 “ Did he desert that he might fight for freedom ? ” 
 
 “ Yes,” in the same tone. 
 
 “ God bless him ! Ah, the noble man ! Noble fellow to risk his life, and what 
 his people call honour rather than uphold tyranny. If he is a street cleaner I 
 could hug him,” says Laura, scarce knowing what she says. 
 
 This is too much for Minnie, who bursts into ap uncontrollable fit of weeping. 
 
 Laura springs forward and seizes the paper. She reads — “ Captain Keble 
 Wilson, TJ.S, A., some weeks since tendered his resignation. As he was not per- 
 mitted to resign he declared he would not fight against his convictions, and 
 attempted to join the rebel army. If he is captured he will be shot.” 
 
 It is not until Laura has read the last word that she falls heavily on the 
 floor. 
 
 Minnie kneels beside her and tries to warm her hands which are so rigid she 
 cannot bend them. After a few minutes she says, in a frightened voice of en- 
 treaty — 
 
 “ Speak to me, darling.” 
 
 Laura evidently tries, but cannot. 
 
 Minnie is about to rise when, with a spasmodic motion, the cold fingers close 
 over her hand and she understands that there is life enough in the body; it is 
 only the soul that is suffering. 
 
 After a long silence Laura seems to jerk out the words, “ To be shot! ” 
 
 “He is prepared for death, darling.” 
 
 “ My angel ! ” is said in a tone of such strange, wild ecstacy that Minnie fears 
 her friend is crazy. 
 
 “ Oh, Laura !” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 173 
 
 “ If he only knew that I loved him !” A spasmodic expression passes over 
 Laura’s face ; then she grows rigid again. 
 
 Minnie weeps for some time unheeded ; then Laura’s muscles relax, and releas- 
 ing her friend’s hands, she says — 
 
 44 Give it to me.” 
 
 “ What, darling ? ” 
 
 44 In my pocket,” is the answer. 
 
 Minnie hands her a handkerchief. 
 
 “ No.” 
 
 Then she draws out a small Prayer-Book and seems greatly surprised. Laura 
 kisses it rapturously. 
 
 44 It is his ; his use sanctified it.” 
 
 44 I did not know you had it.” 
 
 44 No. Not while he was my country’s enemy ; but all the world shall now know 
 that I love him. He is mine,” 
 
 She sits up as though the thought strengthens her. “ I will stand by then , and 
 he shall lie where I am to rest.” She shuddered, and would have fallen, but 
 Minnie laid her head on her lap. 
 
 44 He may not be taken, Laura.” 
 
 44 He is too good for this world. Let him go where he belongs — to God and the 
 angels where such as I cannot see him. Minnie, how long do you suppose one can 
 live without any real life ?” 
 
 ‘‘ Auntie — ” 
 
 44 Oh, don’t talk about her ! I could not live that long. I must see him soon.” 
 44 When you are fitted, darling, God will make you one forever.” 
 
 Minnie is frightened at the effect of her words ; cold drops of perspiration stand 
 on Laura’s face and she bites her lips until her friend sees a drop of blood. 44 Oh 
 Laura!” is her childish expression of sympathy and conscious helplessness to 
 comfort in such an hour. 
 
 44 I never shall be good enough to be one with him.” 
 
 44 Oh, yes, love ! For you will be one with the Saviour Himself.” 
 
 “No.” 
 
 “ Yes.” 
 
 “ How P ” 
 
 44 4 Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.’ ” 
 
 44 4 Grant us thy peace,’ ” replied Laura, almost involuntarily responding, as 
 since Keble’s departure she had learned to do, in the Litany. “Minnie, do you 
 remember how he prayed that ? ” 
 
 44 He is your idol.” Laura seemed not to hear, but she is going over every 
 word that Keble had spoken when he had told her that her country was her idol. 
 Would he be any better satisfied himself to be ? 
 
 “ Please leave me, dear. Don’t be alarmed, I can bear more than you think. 
 Pray for me. But go now, dearest.” 
 
 Long and hard is the struggle ; but Keble’s and Miss Emily’s prayers are 
 answered. There are two verses in Keble’s hand on a fly-leaf of the Prayer Book. 
 One is, “ The Lord is my Righteousness,” the other, 44 My grace is sufficient for 
 thee.” Before night falls Laura has made them both her own. The servant who 
 had come to call her to dinner was told she had a headache and wanted nothing 
 but to be left quiet. At tea-time Minnie comes, and Laura says — 
 
 44 I cannot talk to you yet, sweet. Bear with me a little longer.” 
 
 She took the waiter which held her tea and put it on the table. When Minnie 
 comes to bed she is surprised to see Laura lying calm as a child, in a night-dress 
 that does not look purer than she does. 
 
 Minnie bends down and touches the yet cold brow with her trembling lips. 
 Laura meets the anxious look with a smile that pains more than her silence. 
 
 “ Minnie, I have learned to say, 4 Thy will be done ! ’ His God is mine.” 
 
174 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 July 14 
 
 Mrs. Buckner’s parlours and library were filled with ladies who had assembled 
 to cut out clothes for the prisoners. 
 
 Laura and Mrs. Ellmer are conversing. 
 
 “ If a woman is caught in a treasonable act, let her be punished ; but take up 
 one because she despises her country’s invaders, bah ! all of these attacks on 
 women accustomed to the deference of Southern men only make immoveable our 
 contempt. Instinct will become settled feeling if the barbarism of the dark ages 
 is to be revived. I cannot talk of that Butler.” 
 
 “ Ah ! when that monster’s infamous proclamation was read to Beauregard’s 
 Army, as I heard it was, by his order, I can see deathless hate make faces pale. 
 I comprehend the curses of hearts too infuriated to speak. I cannot hear a spoken 
 word ; for, oh ! what father, lover, brother, son can speak when his dearest — his 
 crystalized idea of purity and weakness — is threatened with the revenge of hell ? 
 Were a gentleman to name Butler to me, I should resent it as an insult. I can 
 scarcely call his name before a woman, to one younger than myself I could not,” 
 said Laura. 
 
 “ Mrs. Black, have you been lately to the prisoners graves ? ” 
 
 “ I have not ; I’ve no money for hack-hire. The prisoners need all I can give.” 
 “ I was there yesterday ; all except a few of the newest graves had flowers 
 planted on them, and when we left there was none without. What a Mecca for 
 Louisville’s enslaved Southerners is the Prisoners’ Lot in Cave Hill Cemetery! ” 
 
 “ Mrs. Muloch says that when she was out there were only ten more graves 
 than bouquets, though some were dead, (a) The Federals’ graves are neglected ; 
 very few have flowers planted on or near them ; not one mound is covered 
 with careful hands as all ours are as soon as Nature will permit.” 
 
 “And this after the Journal's exhortations to the Union ladies not to be 
 surpassed by the rebel ones ! ” 
 
 “We were to put up tombstones, but the authorities would permit nothing but 
 a headboard, and ordered the exact length. Easter and Christmas we dress the 
 graves beautifully. Mr. Huffman takes the Rev. Mr. Wells out in the buggy 
 whenever a prisoner is buried, and he reads the service.” 
 
 “ It is strange that the Yankees permit that, when they won’t allow us to 
 furnish hearse or hacks for the funeral of even an acquaintance or relation who 
 dies in their hospitals. Mr. Coons begged earnestly when his cousin died, but they 
 told him he could go only by riding on the seat of the waggon that bore the coffin, 
 which they would not permit to be metallic.” (a) 
 
 “ Did you hear how the citizens of Glasgow behaved last May, when Morgan 
 entered P ” 
 
 u No, but I can imagine.” 
 
 “I doubt it. Mrs. Haddurd was telling me. Everybody rushed into the 
 public square, many ladies without bonnets. Such delighted excitement Glasgow 
 never saw. She said that one of her friends had been told the evening before 
 that her husband was to be arrested and had passed the night watching. She was 
 almost crazed, and when she saw Morgan exclaimed, ‘ Oh Morgan ! I wish you 
 were a king, and I would fall down and worship you.’ Word had been sent to her 
 by one of Glasgow’s worthy keepers that her shift would not save her if she 
 persisted in rebellion , and was told that she should be dragged to prison by the 
 hair of her head. Morgan was so over-powered with fatigue that he begged the 
 tavern-keeper at. (a) Laurenceburg to let him be quiet. But the ladies thought 
 it a matter of such vital importance to see him, that after long urging they 
 persuaded the landlord to let them pass into the room where he slept, safe at home, 
 unguarded by even a lock ; and one after the other gazed at him, and perhaps 
 blessed him silently as they went out.” (a) 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 175 
 
 " Novel homage ! What will the papers say to this. They make such an out- 
 cry about the way the ladies of Kentucky kiss him.’’ 
 
 “ They’ll never publish it ; men’s heads are too apt to follow women’s hearts.” 
 “ Hear the first war-note of our liberty. Bead it again, Minnie.” 
 
 “ PROCLAMATION. 
 
 “ Glasgow, July 10, 1862. 
 
 “ Kentuckians! I am once more among you. Confiding in your patriotism and 
 strong attachment to our Southern cause, I have at the head of my gallant band 
 raised once more our Confederate flag, so long trampled upon by the Northern tyrants, 
 but never yet disgraced. Let every true patriot respond to my appeal. Rise and 
 arm. Fight against the despoiler ! Fight for your families ! your homes ! for 
 those you love best ! for your conscience ! and for the free exercise of your 
 political rights, never again to be placed in jeopardy by the Hessian invader. 
 Let the stirring sense of the late Richmond fight constantly be before you. Our 
 brave army there and everywhere is victorious. McClellan and his foreign hordes 
 are grovelling in the dust. Our independence is an achieved fact. We have 
 bought it with privation and suffering, and sealed the contract with the seal of 
 blood. Be not timorous, but rise, one and all, for the good cause, to clear our 
 dear Kentucky’s soil of its detested invaders. 
 
 Kentuckians! fellow countrymen! you know you can rely upon me. JOHN 
 MORGAN, Acting Brigadier General, C. S. A.” 
 
 “ Oh, how that makes the heart glow ! ” 
 
 “ It made me so happy that I slept like a child.” 
 
 “ Put you to sleep, did it ?” 
 
 “ Kentucky’s false and constrained position had haunted me so for several nights 
 that I had not slept well ; I held it close to my cheek and slept. Morgan had 
 come to free us. I slept calmly. There is quite an excitement in Shelby and 
 Fayette about the Yankees stealing horses ; there is no excuse for them ; they 
 have money and time to buy.” 
 
 “ Besides, what right have Yankees to Kentucky horses ? Morgan’s men are 
 nearly all Kentuckians and many people are glad to have their horses taken ; they 
 dare not give them, or their property would be confiscated. I have known of 
 more than one man who has said to Morgan or some of|his men. ‘ There is such a 
 horse in my stable ; but you know I can’t give it you.’ At Danville Morgan 
 promised to molest none but men in arms, and this is his rule.” 
 
 “I wonder where he is going.” 
 
 “ Nobody knows but himself ; one of his men told me that Beauregard told 
 him to take whom he pleased, go where he pleased, and do what he pleased. ”(a) 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 July 21 
 
 Mr. Buckner seemed to be always absorbed in plans for Kentucky’s redemp- 
 tion ; or else he was so despondent that it tormented Laura to hear him talk. 
 He was a man of the world, clear-sighted as an oracle and far more positive in his 
 expressions ; he would calculate the resources of the two’ armies, and placing the 
 two in the materalistic scales in which he always weighed his worldly schemes, 
 pronounce it an utter impossibility for the over-ridden South to free herself from 
 her oppressors, six times as numerous as her defenders. To him Irving’s ir- 
 
176 
 
 LOVE AND WAR 
 
 reverent, but meaning expression, * the almighty dollar,’ was the beam from 
 which must be weighed every chance of success. The South was comparatively 
 poor ; the North must conquer. Of course, a mind like Laura’s, scorning 
 materialism in life as in philosophy, was made restive by such discourse. To her 
 valour seemed stronger than money, and a just cause better than a multitude of 
 men ; of her country she would not despair ; she could pray and wait, albeit, her 
 midnight groans often passed through the still air to a King who 44 never 
 slumbered.” But for her individual future there was little hope now. Her head 
 was bowed as though she knew the intense expression of pain on her face would 
 grieve the angels, who waited on her footsteps. She scorned the idea of Morgan’s 
 being conquered, except by overwhelming numbers ; but had not those numbers 
 been concentrated near Lexington? The cars went up crowded several times a 
 day ; one day she had counted thirty-three cars full, since which time she had 
 not heart to look at the hundreds of men caged in passenger and hog- cars, to her 
 seeming like so many wild beasts soon to be let out of their cages to pounce upon 
 Kentucky’s handful of liberators. What if they were to conquer Morgan’s Cavalry 
 and give them up to the demons who thirsted for their blood? Ah! none but 
 God can measure the agony of these dreadful days when Kentucky’s enslaved sons 
 and daughters waited, watched and prayed, prated, as many had never prayed 
 before, for their deliverance. Laura walked up and down the room until her 
 thoughts settled on herself — even that was relief, and she sat down to write. 
 44 Love is to me what Niagara was — a mystery ; not in its nature, but in its subtle 
 influence. I cannot approach its grandest manifestation ; for between Infinity 
 and my little life the waves of being heave and agonize ; the slippery stones are 
 like my sin-stained days, threatening to betray me into an abyss no man has 
 fathomed. But a great voice calls me on and an irresistible fascination bids me 
 approach , and as I strive to move near to God, a mystical human love (the spray 
 which rises from the emptying of Omnipotence into man’s narrow life) sprinkles 
 my forehead with its purifying power. It is God, and not man who 4 signs me 
 with the sign of the cross.’ I have been thinking of the winter months that have 
 immortalised themselves. I was like an unconscious child amusing itself with toys 
 while its brother and only playmate dies in the next room. My joy last winter, 
 was it not touching, poor heart ? I am suffering from a cold ; was it sinful that 
 when I thought of consumption I smiled ? But no ; I would not have my life 
 moved into eternity like a house half furnished. I wish to live as long as God 
 has any more delights for me to receive or any more blessings for me to convey to 
 others. Joy is immortal, poor heart ! Wait, wait ! Ah, shall I not be happy 
 when I can see him again ? My darling ! My darling ! My blessed saint ! There 
 will be no war There. One day I said to Miss Emily, 6 Life seems to me a 
 tasteless and insipid drink.’ I did not know Keble then. She answered , 4 Look to 
 my Master, and at His word it may become a glorious draught of soul-inspiring 
 vigour, a drop from a vessel that He hath blessed.’ Keble, my angel, I have tasted 
 it.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 “Oh, this slow torture ! how long can I bear it, Laura?” 
 
 44 4 My Grace is sufficient for thee.’” 
 
 4 4 It was for you, and I thought your example had taught me a lesson of 
 pious self-control I should never forget. ” 
 
 44 Oh, thank God, dearest, that you have hope!” 
 
 44 One minute; and despair the next.” 
 
 4 4 Wherefore despair ? Cheer up, my little one. Don’t you know that the 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 177 
 
 very title 4 Morgan’s band’ has put hundreds to flight? I do not think they 
 are in half the danger common men would be in.” 
 
 “ Oh, yes, yes ! They court it — they run into it ! ” 
 
 4 4 True enough ; but Morgan is as cautious as he’s brave- almost.” 
 
 “The South cannot complain that the Northmen are not brave enemies; 
 there have been too many hotly contested fields, and sometimes they have 
 beaten us. ” 
 
 “With gun-boats ; never on an open plain, if we had half, I believe I’ll say, 
 a third as many men. Morgan’s men are eagles in speed, and lions in a fray. 
 Let’s work them a banner, a winged horse the device. ” 
 
 Minnie picked up her Bible : 4 4 Is not this a description of Morgan and his 
 men ? 4 He rejoiceth in his strength ; he goeth on to meet the armed men, He 
 
 mocketh at fear and is not affrighted, neither turneth his back from the sword. 
 He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha! and he smelleth the battle afar off.’” 
 
 4 4 Don’t, Minnie.” 
 
 44 What?” 
 
 44 It makes me shudder to think of the self-confidence of Morgan and his 
 men — don’t say they 4 mock at fear. ’ ” 
 
 4 4 You know Eustace said to me, 4 God will preserve me for the sake of one 
 who prays to Him. ’ Such a beautiful dream as I had the night before last ; 
 but oh ! the awaking was so terrible. ” Tears filled Minnie’s eyes. 
 
 4 4 Pshaw! Dreams are foolish things.” 
 
 4 4 Not when they make us happy, as mine do. Dreams are sweet realities to 
 me. That night — in my dream — he held me tightly to his heart, and as I felt 
 it beating wildly— -as I have in reality, he said, 4 Mine is the heart that beats 
 for Liberty. ’ Then a whisper kissed my ear — don’t smile ; you know I never 
 was sensible as you — it is true as I said, I felt his breath kissing my ear. ” 
 
 44 And what did the kiss say?” 
 
 4 4 4 And for love.’” 
 
 4 4 The very thing a kiss should say.” 
 
 44 Laura, were you ever kissed?” 
 
 4 4 About five minutes since.” 
 
 4 4 That was a mere smack of the lips. I mean, did you ever feel two glowing 
 lips pressed on yours until you felt that all your breath of life had passed away, 
 and then you seemed to receive the fresh breath of a new life?” 
 
 4 4 No.” 
 
 44 Oh! don’t laugh. That was a holy time. I never felt such an ecstatic 
 thrill of prayer as when those lips were slowly drawn away ; and,” she added 
 in an awed whisper, 44 when I looked at him his gaze was buried in God’s 
 Heaven.” 
 
 4 4 4 Greet one another with a holy kiss,’” unconsciously escaped from Laura. 
 Then she added more gaily, 4 4 Minnie, were I a heathen I should set you up on 
 high and worship you as the earthly embodiment of love. ” 
 
 44 1 never could have tolerated Venus and Cupid ; but if I had lived in the 
 days and country of the Magi and heard their wonderful story, I should have 
 deified the Babe Whose birth-place was noted by a star. There is a very 
 bright star just before my window every night, sometimes a little east, some- 
 times a little west ; but always there ; and one night Eustace pointed to it and 
 said, 4 1 name that star 4 4 Minnie,” and if my nature becomes debased by day-life 
 in camp or field, I’ll look at it and it will guide my thoughts to purity and 
 peace.’ Then he folded his arms around me and murmured, 4 4 4 Blessed are the 
 pure in heart, for they shall see God ; and so shall I, if I can keep close, 
 though it be but in spirit, to the pure. ’ Oh, I shall die, Laura, I shall die ! ” 
 A violent fit of weeping checked all conversation for a time. Then the one 
 who was schooled in grief brought two Prayer-Books, and opening to the Litany 
 knelt down. 
 
 And while they knelt and prayed a bullet passed through Eustace’s hair and 
 singed a lock. The next day that lock was cut, and laid in a little Prayer- 
 Book just over the petition (blistered by a woman’s tear some months before) — 
 
 M 
 
178 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “Christ, have mercy on ns ! ” Ah ! of all things on earth the holiest are love 
 and prayer ; but not rightly can they be separated. What heart ever loved 
 worthily to whom prayer was not the daily nourishment ? There is an ecstacy 
 in love that human nature is too weak to bear ; the infant, tired of joy, must 
 lay its head upon a parent’s breast and sleep. The man who does not pray, 
 does not love worthily. The woman who never prays can never rightly love. 
 Keble had felt this, and so his anxious solicitude that Laura should become a 
 Christian was not altogether celestial in its origin. But man cannot, and I 
 feel sure that the Creator never will, separate the earthly from the heavenly. 
 As Jesus is both God and Man, love is of heaven and earth. Next to being on 
 the knees in Church, is to be by a lover’s side. And just as demons look upon 
 the bended knee and scoff, doth Satan scowl upon a lover’s prayer. 
 
 CHAPTER. XXX. 
 
 “You can’t imagine how delighted I am to see you. I have been perishing 
 inch by inch for some days. ’• 
 
 “ I am glad that I have arrived; you couldn’t afford to lose many inches ; 
 but why were you perishing, Miss Minnie?” 
 
 “For lack of news, Mr. Urston.” 
 
 “I’ll read you some of Morgan’s Report of his last campaign in Kentucky. 
 Here is something about Glasgow. [‘ There were but few troops in the town, 
 who fled at our approach. The commissarjr stores, clothing, etc., together 
 with a large supply of medical stores, found in Glasgow, were burned, and the 
 guns were distributed among my command — about 200 of whom were unarmed 
 when I left Knoxville. My reception in Lexington was very encouraging. The 
 whole population appeared to turn out and vie with each other as to who should 
 show us most attention. I reached Georgetown that evening. Just before 
 entering the town, I was informed that a small force of Home Guards had 
 mustered to oppose us. I sent them word to surrender their arms, and they 
 should not be molested, but they fled. The people of Georgetown also 
 welcomed us with gladness, and provided my troops with everything that they 
 needed.’] He says of the fight at Cynthiana : [‘ A severe engagement took 
 place, which lasted about an hour and a half, before the enemy were driven 
 into the town and compelled to surrender. I took four hundred and twenty 
 prisoners, including about seventy Home Guards. I regret to have to mention 
 the loss of eight of my men in killed and twenty-nine wounded. The enemy’s 
 loss was ninety-four killed and wounded, according to their own account. 
 Their excess in killed and wounded is remarkable, as they fought us from 
 behind stone fences, and fired at us from buildings as we charged through the 
 town. At Winchester I found a number of arms, which were destroyed. I 
 arrived at Richmond at 12 o’clock that night, and remained until the next 
 afternoon, when I proceeded to Crab Orchard. I had determined to make a 
 stand at Richmond and await reinforcements, as the whole people appeared 
 ready to rise and join me, but I received information that large bodies of 
 cavalry under General Clay Smith, and Colonels Wolsford, Metcalfe, Mundy, 
 and Wynkoop, were endeavouring to surround me at this place. At Somerset 
 I found a very large supply of commissary stores, which were destroyed. I 
 also found the arms that had been taken from General Zollicoffer, together with 
 large quantities of shell and ammunition, all of which were destroyed. I also 
 burned at this place, and Crab Orchard, about one hundred and thirty 
 Government wagons. I left Knoxville on the 4th day of this month with 
 about 900 men, and returned to Livingston on the 28th inst. with nearly 1,200, 
 having been absent just twenty-four days, during which time I travelled over a 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 179 
 
 thousand miles, captured seventeen towns, destroyed all the Government 
 supplies and arms in them, dispersed about 1,500 Home Guards, and paroled 
 nearly 1,200 regular troops. I lost, in killed, wounded, and missing, of the 
 number that I carried into Kentucky, about 90.’] I calculated Morgan’s 
 Cavalry’s last galop ! I measured on the maps 240 miles (air-line) in ten days, 
 and I did not measure all the little turn-asides they are reputed to have made. 
 The papers give the names of over twenty towns they have visited since they 
 came in — at the rate of more than two a day. Here are some other scraps 
 pleasant to see, that I cut out for you. [‘When Morgan reached Georgetown, 
 he had a gay time. Being a great lady’s man, he enjoyed himself to his 
 satisfaction. They ran out, and hugged and kissed him by scores. He 
 remained there two days, and his pickets came to within one mile of the city 
 and killed one of our pickets at the toll-gate, within one mile and in sight of 
 our troops, but orders were given by General Ward not to pursue them, for fear 
 of a general engagement. ’] ” 
 
 Minnie curled her lips : — “Fearful of a general engagement! ” 
 
 “At Cynthiana, [‘The Cincinnati steam fire engine horses were run into 
 Mr. Gray’s stable, and several of Mr. Glass’s boys stripped their coats and 
 shirts off upon Morgan’s approach and played hostler — by which sharp trick 
 they deceived the thieves. Morgan ordered them to saddle the horses, and 
 afterwards took possession. He seemed to like them very well, and told Mr. 
 Glass that he wished the fire department of Cincinnati would send him some 
 more. — General G. Clay Smith reached Lexington with Wynkoop’s Pennsylvania 
 Cavalry, and at once assumed command of our forces and commenced vigorous 
 preparations for an expedition for our relief. Having formed a junction with 
 Metcalfe’s, the whole force, numbering about 1,200, under command of General 
 Smith, marched forward to Paris. In the meantime the rebel army had taken 
 possession of the place on the preceding evening, and, having received the 
 congratulations of their sympathizing friends, and dragged down from the 
 Court-house the good old flag, and torn it in shreds and trailed it in the dust 
 with scoffs and imprecations, had rested quietly during the night. Some six or 
 seven of the enemy are reported killed by our gallant boys, but only two bodies 
 have been found, and some twenty were taken prisoners, several wounded, but 
 soon the fleet-footed cavaliers were beyond our reach, and, although General 
 Smith promptly pursued them, we have but little hope that he will be able to 
 overhaul them. ’]” 
 
 “A special correspondent, who is a special fool, writes : — [‘His rangers hang 
 on our advance, annoying our pickets and communicating intelligence of our 
 movements to the enemy. Some days ago he was posted with his troops near 
 Severn. General Mitchell learned his position, and set a trap to catch him. 
 He completely surrounded the rebel chief and took with him in wagons, at 
 night, about 1,200 men to surprise and capture him. The expedition reached 
 a point a few miles from where Morgan was, when they met him with a flag of 
 truce, thus completely outwitting General Mitchell. During their social chat 
 the rebel taunted the General with inactivity, and ignorance of the proper 
 mode of procedure. The General replied that he would soon find him at 
 Murfreesboro, with a force that he could not escape ; Morgan offered to bet 
 100 dols. that he would be there twenty-four hours after his arrival, and, 
 no doubt, he is now in town, though it is entirely surrounded by troops, for he 
 seems to be ubiquitous and changeable as the cameleon. He was only a few 
 hours in advance of us from Camp Jackson, as we learned from the negroes 
 along the route, and, if not yet in town, is in the neighbourhood watching us. ’] 
 Here is what the Journal says of the Yankees at Paris: — [‘Our troops in 
 sufficient numbers came up with the rebels and might have attacked them. 
 Colonel Metcalfe was anxious to attack them, but he was not permitted to do 
 so. At one point in the pursuit, the Federal officer in command went to bed 
 in the morning, giving strict orders that he should on no account be waked till 
 six o’clock in the afternoon, and, although important intelligence arrived in the 
 meantime as to the position and movements of the rebels, and officers and men 
 
180 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 were anxious and impatient to go forward, the quiet snooze of the leader could 
 not he disturbed, and when at length the marauders left Monticello, to pass 
 into Tennessee, our “ avengers, ” that were to have been, were at Stanford, 
 twelve or fourteen hours behind, having there given up the pursuit. After a 
 free and easy trip of ten or twelve days through Kentucky, they have gone off 
 with their spoils to return again no doubt. We dwell with unspeakable pain 
 upon the humiliating fact that for two weeks this devastating raid was endured, 
 through the very heart of our State, in its fairest, wealthiest, most populous, 
 and most loyal sections, with ample means at hand, in men and material, to 
 crush the daring miscreant. There is abundant testimony that Morgan and 
 his band boasted much about the number, activity, and efficiency of their 
 spies in Kentucky, stating, that, through these spies, they could get daily or 
 semi-daily information from all parts of our State. Our conviction is perfect 
 that Morgan’s projected dash upon the railroad train was known in this State 
 very extensively beforehand. On Saturday last, four intelligent Union 
 gentlemen came to us at different hours, all of them with manifest anxiety, 
 and inquired in substance whether we thought it possible that the Secessionists 
 had got any important news not then published. We answered that we did 
 not think it possible, and inquired in turn why they asked the question. They 
 replied, that all the most prominent rebels, met with in public houses and upon 
 the street, were talking busily among themselves, and evidently chuckling and 
 exulting at something which they made no mention of to Union men.’] ” 
 
 “Morgan knows more of what is going on in Louisville than we do. I’ll 
 read you this I cut out of a Journal a day or two since. [‘At Glasgow the 
 band of two hundred or more had their breakfast at a secession house about an 
 hour after their arrival, from which it is clear that all arrangements for feeding 
 them had been previously made. ’] Here is a paper that you pronounced 
 contemptible; I dare say you will think the writer of this article knows 
 something. ” 
 
 “ That my hero has taught them ? ” 
 
 “ Even so. Shall I read it ? [‘ Why don’t they catch Morgan ? He has been 
 
 for days circulating within an area of about seventeen miles of Frankfort as 
 composedly as if he was in Dixie. There are three times his force now in 
 Frankfort, probably four times that in Lexington, to say nothing of isolated 
 regiments that might be brought to bear against him. We content ourselves that in 
 some way not understood by us, or by John Morgan, they will catch John Morgan.’ 
 There was once a Lieutenant Huntington, Miss Minnie, and he told me all 
 the fal-de-ral about the Yanks making dashes on them was news to them ; that 
 [never yet had they even attempted to make one, and that the Morgan prisoners 
 they boast of are stragglers who have permission to visit a friend, or sick man, or 
 those mounted on worn-out horses — whom they take by following the main body 
 at a respectful distance, (a) I told the lieutenant I had heard Miss Breckenridge 
 say that she was never afraid of Morgan’s men being caught ; his face was 
 illuminated, and by its light I discovered a secret.” 
 
 Minnie said hastily, “ The reason I laugh when I hear of the Yanks pursuing 
 Morgan, is that I know they fear him too much to voluntarily attack him unless 
 they are in very close quarters.” 
 
 “ I asked the lieutenant why he and most of the men seemed in uncommon 
 spirits. ‘We’re going home,’ he replied. A man wrote from Versailles, [‘We were 
 entirely defenceless, not even so much as a pop-gun ; three of our most influential 
 citizens set out to meet him on the way, and to make terms for our protection, to 
 sue for mercy and for quarter.]’ ” 
 
 “ Wonderful people ! Not even a pop-gun ! They must have sent their fowling 
 pieces South. Woodford is a noble county. Last winter numbers of gentlemen 
 there agreed to keep but two suits of clothes, and send all the rest to the prisoners. 
 How such men must enjoy suing for quarter from their sons and brothers ! ” 
 
 “ Probably feel as a man does who sues for a wife. I was in Versailles, 
 smoking a cigar, on the 15th of July, and fell into a dose. I had been 
 thinking of Kentucky’s slavery, and suddenly, a host of angels seemed 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 181 
 
 to cry with one accord, ‘ Morgan ! Morgan ! Morgan ! ’ Thank God my State is 
 free ! I exclaimed, and sprang to my feet, rubbed my eyes, and tried to determine 
 whether I was still asleep. For when I looted out of the window eight or nine 
 hundred men in piebald uniform, mounted on fine horses, were quietly looking 
 round as they rested their steeds and sang, 4 Cheer, boys, cheer.’ Their entrance 
 was so quiet that it had not roused me, though the nearest horseman was not a 
 square off.” ( a) 
 
 44 They knew they were among friends — they announced their presence not by 
 clang of arms, but by our Kentucky song.” 
 
 44 You said you had never heard it without tears ; I am glad you were not in 
 Georgetown. I never heard such fine singing. Is it not significant that the 
 bravest set of men west of Stuart’s Cavalry, and east of Forrest’s, are renowned 
 for their devotion to the gentlest of the fine arts P When they finished their 
 song they gracefully executed a few manoeuvres as if to prove to us the race of 
 Centaurs was not extinct. They had two cannons with them, which in time of 
 emergency I should suppose might be carried on as many horses’ backs.” 
 
 “ Did Morgan get many recruits ? ” 
 
 44 He might recruit faster ; but none except the boldest and those willing to 
 undergo the greatest hardships will join him. I heard a good anecdote told of 
 one of his captains. A young man had, with great personal risk, made his way 
 through Lincoln’s soldiers to reach Morgan ; but when he saw the life they led 
 his heart sank ; one of his companions urged him to join, a captain turned and 
 fixing his eye on him said, 4 Y oung man, unless you can give a circular saw two 
 minutes the start of you and then beat it ; unless you can ride two days without 
 sleeping and three without eating, we don’t want you.’ (a) Morgan’s men consider 
 that a favour is confered upon every man who is judged worthy to join them. 
 Another reason why he does not have as many thousands as hundreds, is because 
 of his men being in the regular Confederate Service for three years. This is one 
 of the numerous anecdotes they tell of Morgan’s coolness. Having on a uniform, 
 he went up to a Yankee guard and demanded his gun, as the man was lying 
 down. He asked where were the others of the picket ; nine were carousing in a 
 house near by. He ordered them to march before him, and they did — into his 
 lines.’ (a) I don’t suppose they cared much. More than one Yank has said he 
 would rather be Morgan’s prisoner than in the U. S. service. I never heard of but one 
 of his prisoners who abused him, and that low-bred wretch called him a gentlemanly 
 blackguard. A letter says — [‘ Our parole soldiers all speak well of the conduct of 
 Morgan. He demeaned himself in a very gentlemanly manner towards our men. 
 Morgan’s men did all in their power to induce the Union soldiers to enlist under 
 their banner, and succeeded, we are reliably informed, in enlisting fifty of Metcalfe’s 
 Cavalry, and about sixty citizens of the town and surrounding country.’] The 
 London Times says — [‘In 44 Stonewall” Jackson however, they seem to have pro- 
 duced a real General of daring enterprize, and now a certain General Morgan is 
 rising into fame as one of those who cannot only use armies, but who can create 
 them. These are the men for such a war as this, and a people that can produce 
 such Generals at need may well look forward to ultimate victory.’] Have you 
 read the day’s Journal ? ” 
 
 “ You might as well ask me if I clean chimneys.” 
 
 “ It says there was a rumour that Morgan had been caught, and that the news 
 may prove true, but experience has convinced us that those who hope to hold 
 this active partisan in an infamous cause will find that they 4 have an eel by the 
 tail.’ ” 
 
 “ Isn’t it strange that Prentice writes so much more about Morgan than anyone 
 else ? ” 
 
 “ Hot at all ; we are apt to abuse the most those we are most afraid of.” 
 
 “ The Journal says of Gallatin — [ 4 While Morgan was there they flocked in from 
 the country in all directious congratulating him, the men bringing supplies and the 
 women bouquets. The latter flocked around him, fairly impeding his progress 
 through the streets.’] A correspondent writes, 4 We are building stockades — ’ ” 
 
 (i Which will prove stocks for fools’ feet. One of Morgan’s best services is 
 
182 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 destroying indictments for treason. He made way with one hundred in the little 
 town of Glasgow', given to secure the loyalty of doubtful men.” 
 
 “ Did you know another preacher had joined him ? ’’ 
 
 “ Another ? ” 
 
 “ He had before three candidates for the ministry. One of them just before 
 leaving home said, ‘ Mother, it is the dearest wish of my heart to preach the 
 Gospel, and if God spares my life, I will ; hut I must fight for freedom first.” (a) 
 “ Here is the official report of Ellesworth, Morgan’s telegraph-operator. He 
 has a pocket instrument he attaches to the wires and intercepts and sends 
 despatches at pleasure. From July, 11-22, Morgan kept up communication with 
 the men in service of the United States without its being suspected. Once 
 Ellesworth wished to know what station Z. was ; to ascertain without creating 
 suspicion he telegraphed to Z. ‘ A gentleman here bets me cigars you cannot 
 spell the name of your station correctly.’ The reply was, ‘ L-e-b-a-n-o-n-j-u-n-c-t-i-o-n. 
 Is this not right ? How did you think I would spell it ? ’ The answer was, ‘ He 
 gives it up ; he thought you would put two b’s in Lebanon ! ’ ‘ Ha ! ha ! ha ! ’ 
 
 w 7 as sent back on the wire ; 4 He is a green one.’ ” 
 
 The best practical joke since the ‘Wooden Horse,’ ” said Laura ; “particularly 
 to General Boyle, whose plans for moving on Morgan were all found out, while 
 the troops supposed to be in pursuit rested a while longer. General Morgan sent 
 a despatch to Prentice, ‘ Good-morning, George, I am quietly watching the 
 complete destruction of all Uncle Sam’s property in this little burg. I regret 
 exceedingly that this is the last that comes under my supervision on this route. 
 I expect in a short time to pay you a visit, and wish to know if you will be at 
 home. All well in Dixie.’ ‘ July 22, ’62.’ He sent one to Boyle, ‘ Good-morning, 
 Jerry. This telegraph is a great institution. You should destroy it, as it keeps 
 you too well posted. My friend Ellesworth has all of your despatches since July 
 10th, on file. Do you wish copies F ’ To Honourable G. W. Dunlop, 
 Washington, he sent, ‘Just completed my tour through Kentucky; captured 
 seventeen cities, destroyed millions’ worth of property. Passed through your 
 country, but regret not seeing you. We paroled 1,500 rebel prisoners.’ ’’ 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXI. 
 
 August 20th. 
 
 As Mr. Buckner had thought probable, Myers caused his arrest ; and now in 
 the dog-days we shall take a glance at him in his prison on the corner of Green 
 and Fifth. Drearily passed the hours, as though grief meant that they should 
 never end. In a room, 40 by 47 feet, were confined 160 men. Little bunks were 
 on the floor. To put 160 to bed in such small space was impossible; and Mr. 
 Buckner expected to pass the night on the bare boards of the dirty floor ; but the 
 generous Southerners who had the honour to be the first imprisoned for love of 
 liberty, shared their beds with new-comers, and he was invited to partake of one 
 by its occupant who weighed 200 pounds ; only politeness forbade his laughing 
 at Mr. Parks’ apparent joke. He said he intended to pass the night in a chair. 
 
 “ In a chair ! my dear sir, you are dreaming of luxuries.” Mr. Buckner, 
 seated on a window-sill, had been too much absorbed in anxiety for the wife, from 
 whom he had been wrenched while she was unconscious of his kiss, to take much 
 notice of his surroundings. He now looked about. A sky-light admitted enough 
 heat to roast a pig or stearti it in the reeking atmosphere. Mr. Parks allowed 
 him to take his reckoning and then repeated his offer, saying — 
 
 “We’ll have to sleep feet to head ; but I promise not to kick your brains out.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 183 
 
 il A promise quite unnecessary ; they will soon be baked. But I cannot express 
 my sense of your — ” 
 
 “ Never mind, sir. Southerners are all brothers, and indeed a more agreeable 
 set of refined, educated, and even pious men you have seldom met ; we have 
 splendid conversations.” 
 
 “ With this stench in your nostrils ? ” 
 
 “ To appreciate the present purity of atmosphere, you should have come before 
 the vaults were emptied, when gentlemen found the use of brooms necessary to 
 prevent inundations rising too high. What is the news in the outside world ? ” 
 “The following General Order is to be enforced; even our bought up men 
 can’t be trusted. ‘No person hostile in opinion to the Government will be 
 allowed to stand for office in Kentucky. The attempt will be regarded as 
 sufficient evidence of treasonable intent to warrant his arrest ... in seeking 
 office he becomes an active traitor if he has never become one otherwise. By 
 order of General Boyle, July 21, 1862.’ Now, who are of this class? The 
 Order says, a certain sort of man who has never been a traitor otherwise is 
 made one by the Act. Treason may be mere pantomime — to think ! Who can 
 know what a man thinks who has not shown treason by word or deed? ” 
 
 “But Prentice has found two can play at the game. He says : [‘The Order, 
 we believe, was strictly observed in most of the counties, even those where 
 the rebels claimed to have a majority, but it was set at defiance in Morgan. 
 In that county, on the day of election, about a hundred guerillas made their 
 appearance, and took everything into their own hands. The consequence was, 
 that, although there was a full Union ticket, it was beaten throughout, two or 
 three to one, strong rebels or quasi rebels being elected to all the offices.]” 
 “Besides 28,000 of our voters are in the C.S.A. This was officially stated; 
 and of course, they would not make the case out worse than it is. ” 
 
 “A Yankee colonel told me that the books show there have been but 
 12,000 Kentuckians mustered in the United States’ Army.” (a) 
 
 “In Louisville but one company has been mustered in this summer, though 
 the State was permitted to raise nine-months’ men to prevent a draft. ” 
 “General Lovell has betrayed New Orleans.” 
 
 “I must give that shameful and unjust charge flat denial. I am glad to 
 defend him.” 
 
 “At the expense of the Mayor and City Council. You must feel as if you 
 were about to defend Louisville. ” 
 
 “There is this to be learned from the unfortunate condition of both cities — 
 the men in office have the people at their mercy. Failure to carry out two 
 orders and two unfortunate accidents enabled the Yankee boats to pass the 
 forts. General Lovell narrowly escaped capture. Pollard says, ‘Evidence 
 showed that the evacuation was made at the earnest instance of the civil 
 authorities ... in order to save the city from the risk of bombardment. 
 General Lovell expressed a willingness to remain with all the troops. But it 
 was the expression of public opinion that the army had better retire. ’ ” 
 
 “ It was right to save the city from destruction.” 
 
 “ Then it was right for our civil authorities to desire the Secessionists to 
 keep still and save Louisville from a surer destruction. You sneer at our 
 being quiet, and Pollard taunts New Orleans that she has no Jackson of 
 Alexandria. Charleston and Vicksburg are the only cities that can ‘ cast a 
 stone’ at Louisville.” 
 
 “They are not the only ones that do.” 
 
 “No ; because people generally know as little of the history of the present 
 as of the past. Bemember another thing ; when a Georgian enlists he fights 
 for his family and property; when a Kentuckian joins the C. S.A., he gives up 
 his home and property. After the war he may regain his land, but it will be 
 of little value with his house burned and all his moveable property confiscated. 
 How often is there a contest between two brethren who may go and fight for 
 freedom, while the other remains to fulfil duties more sacred than those to his 
 country ? To find a man who thinks for himself is rare indeed. Some ill- 
 
184 
 
 LOVE AND WAR 
 
 natured and hasty persons raised a cry against Kentucky ; then blood-hounds 
 rushed after her pell mell. None thought of asking 4 How would my State 
 have acted if in her position ? Did my State expect to be ruined when she 
 seceded?’ Moreover Kentucky cannot be justly compared to her sisters until 
 the Conscription Law they needed can be applied to her. There are not many 
 more Stay-at-Homes here than Conscripts at the South. ” 
 
 44 Mr. Grant, I wish to congratulate you on your political sagacity.” 
 
 44 I cry your mercy. Did not Crittenden say he would take nothing less than 
 his compromise measures ? If he has since tried to make Kentucky do just what 
 she said she would not do am I to blame ? Bitterly do I remember our conver- 
 sation of last August.” 
 
 44 Indeed, you could not have been expected to foresee such marvellously 
 sudden changes of conscience as to what a pledge means.” 
 
 44 General James Jackson is the most perfect example of politicians. Kentucky 
 sent him to Congress because on January 8th, at the Union State Convention, he 
 said, ‘ We will take our rights at the point of the bayonet. When the Govern- 
 ment is broken up my sympathies are with the South. Let us require half the 
 army, half the navy, half of the territories and the capital ; we’ll take no less.’ 
 Was it strange Kentucky trusted a man who claimed more than President Davis? 
 But he died a general in the Yankee army. When some thirty or forty of our 
 secesh citizens were arrested and taken to the prison in your city, the Union 
 men of Owen followed them, and used every exertion to have them released, 
 some staying a week or two in Louisville from their business, and going security 
 to the amount of thousands and tens of thousands for them until they effected 
 the release of almost every one, thus showing their sympathy for them and their 
 families.” 
 
 44 1 was in Hebron Church when the minister prayed for Lincoln and I coughed 
 when I was not thought to have a cold,” said Mr. Knowles. 
 
 44 Suppose we tell the causes of our arrest,” said Mr. Boss. This was agreed 
 to, and Boss was called on to relate the circumstances of his. 
 
 44 My wife tied a piece of red flannel on the tail of a white chicken.” (a) 
 
 There was a general laugh, rather forced from some. 
 
 Mr. Boss continued, 44 Y r ou needn’t laugh. I am a moderate Unionist, but my 
 wbfe is like tinder when a Yankee touches Kentuckians, and it was said I was as 
 bad, only I wouldn’t speak out. I really know of no other offence of which I 
 have been guilty than that of not strangling my wife.” 
 
 44 1 suppose, Mr. Preacher, you have been preaching political sermons?” said 
 one, addressing a gentleman in long coat and high black vest. 
 
 44 Never. I once had a congregation in New England. My auditors required 
 of me at least one political sermon a month. I refused, believing my mission 
 was to preach the gospel. I took refuge in the only religious body in which 
 men are not expected to preach politics ; even Yankee fanaticism quails before 
 her Christ-like calm.” 
 
 44 The Catholic,” said an Irishman. 
 
 44 1 should have excepted the Bornan Catholic.” 
 
 44 1 don’t know ; the United States’ flag was raised over the cathedral in Cin- 
 cinnati by order of ecclesiastical authority. Archbishop Purcell is rank ; also 
 Archbishop Hughes, whom the Government sent on a political mission to 
 Europe.’’ 
 
 <4 One of the Guards gave me this paper, knowing I was a Catholic,” said Mr. 
 Bryant. 44 1 read more than a column of the Archbishop’s sermon, to which title 
 it has as much right as has one of 'lheodore Parker’s Sunday bouts. A large 
 proportion of the United States’ army is Catholic and the Pope might influence 
 it.” 
 
 44 1 am a Calvinist, but I respect the High Church people for their consistency 
 in keeping religion and what they call the Church above politics. The wdfe of 
 one high in authority in your Church, Thompson, told a friend that at a Loyal 
 Ladies’ Meeting she attended, one of them said to her, 4 Why, w T hat are you 
 doing here ? None of your people are here P ’ ” (a) 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 185 
 
 ** That is not so,” replied Thompson ; “ but it is nearer fact than one would 
 think, because here a large proportion of the educated and wealthy attend the 
 Church and are Southerners.” 
 
 “ Is that so ? ” asked one from Tennessee. 
 
 “ Yes ; I saw too Union ladies in a passion over a letter wherein the Yankee 
 stated that the first classes were generally for the South. I have seen the same 
 idea in other letters written to Northern papers. A lady who calculates even 
 sentiments of the heart by arithmetic, told me that on her visiting-list were 109 
 Southern families and 22 Unionists, she did not count divided families, or 
 the disproportion would have been greater, for in that case a Northern man has 
 generally married a Kentuckian whose children are nearly sure to be Southern. 
 
 The remark about the Archbishops was still rankling in Mr. Brady’s heart and 
 he took the first interval of silence to say, “ Bishop Mcllvaine is as bad as Arch- 
 bishop Hughes.” 
 
 “ Perhaps he is. But the Church governs herself and all her clergy, and her 
 laity can speak by deputies in General Convention ; so of course we may expect a 
 little passage of arms between different political parties. You, Mr. Brady, are 
 governed by a Pope, or his vicars and have no chance for self-government, con- 
 sequently none for self-expression. Even if politics should show its head in the 
 Church they will be put down ; and she will deserve as much more credit if she 
 represses fanaticism than will your autocracy for not showing it, as an orator 
 would deserve more praise for self-command than would a dumb man.” 
 
 “ There are two things I like about the Episcopal Church; it has always 
 discouraged fanaticism of any kind” — 
 
 “It is two old to be carried away with enthusiasm.” 
 
 “ And the tenor of its teaching is, every body mind his own business and 
 don’t dictate the amusements and politics of others. The reason the Episcopal 
 Church has not spread more rapidly is that the North has always been the 
 eager recipient of all sorts of ’isms, beginning with selfism, and ending with 
 atheism ; it will be well if she be delivered from them at the sacrifice of 
 worldly prosperity. Now, men will learn that quaint as they may think 
 Apostolic religion, it is better than any new fangled compound of sensualism, 
 poetry, and pseudo-philanthropy.” 
 
 “But there are Abolitionists in your Church : Tyng — ” 
 
 “May be as bad as Beecher; but the difference is, the Church controls 
 Mr. Tyng so far as his priestly acts are concerned, and Mr. Beecher controls 
 his congregation. The Church that keeps out novelties can ward off 
 Abolitionism without offending the warmest Abolitionist, provided he be High 
 Church enough to respect old rules.” 
 
 “But the Episcopal Church has never had a law to keep out politics.” 
 
 “She has very few laws of any kind. It is her boast that children well- 
 instructed in a few fundamentals, need not be kept in leading-strings after they 
 are men. Neither is it requisite to pass a law that a mother shall not instigate 
 one half of her children to murder the other half. The Church has grown 
 from the seed God planted ; it was not born in Geneva or Home, in Lambeth 
 or Constantinople. I beg pardon for talking so much.” 
 
 “Granted. Let anybody talk who can make us forget home for a minute. 
 Perhaps, Mr. Preacher, you will tell us why you were arrested, if your people 
 are tired of self-praise.” 
 
 “I cannot tell,” answered Mr. Wells. 
 
 “ I know,” said Mr. Stokes, “you were too kind to the prisoners.” 
 “Yesterday a United States officer came up to Mr. Wells; I was standing 
 by. He said, ‘ I have never before had the pleasure of addressing you ; but I 
 happened to be in General Boyle’s office when the order for your arrest was 
 given. I inquired the cause, and was told none was specified ; that you had 
 General Buell’s permission for all you had done ; but you were a man of too 
 much influence to be allowed to go at large in such times. ’ After a few words 
 of sympathy this noble officer in bidding him good-bye attempted to leave 
 some money in Mr. Wells’ hands.” 
 
186 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 44 How can you Episcopalians pray for Lincoln ? ” 
 
 “Because St. Paul told us to, and I don’t think Lincoln worse than Hero. 
 However, most Southerners have written ‘ Confederate ’ over 4 United ’ in the 
 Prayer for the President.” 
 
 44 The curfew-law is again in vogue. Everybody in Lexington — I suppose in 
 
 some other towns also — is obliged to be home and have all lights extinguished by 
 eight o’clock. In Newport the Provost Marshal arrested all sympathizers to-day. 
 This is persecution for mere opinions’ sake. Why were you arrested F ” 
 
 Because Dutch hirelings had power to enter my house at midnight and I asked 
 for their writ of authority.” 
 
 44 You were rather green. You ought to have let them search.” 
 
 44 That was six months’ since, before I learned that law is a respectable institu- 
 tion for peaceful days, but too much of an old fogy for days of confusion.” 
 
 In the latter part of August the prisoners were moved from the dirtiest of 
 holes in Green Street to a tenement built for them on Broadway, whose only 
 recommendation was freshness. Before the high fence was put up Mrs. Buckner 
 and Laura passed a square below, and Laura asked — 44 What building can that be ?” 
 
 Her mother looked towards the new edifice, and seeing some mills near, 
 replied — 
 
 44 1 suppose it is a machine shop.” 
 
 It never occurred to either it was intended as a habitation for human beings ; 
 its height is only eight feet from the ground, flooring and ceiling included ; there 
 is a tin roof and a sky-light so that not a single ray of a Kentucky sun can be lost. 
 In the shadow of the wall, hoping that he may not be too well baked, Mr. Buckner 
 sits with a few comrades. The plank fence is too high to permit the prisoners 
 the alleviation they had in the other prison of looking at sympathetic faces. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 “My heart bleeds for Kentucky, a Sampson bound by the Dalilah of Mammon ! 
 But, beware, oh, politicians ! The giant will awake and will bring down the 
 temple of the Union, the prison-house of freedom ; the theatre of Democratic 
 farces on the heads of those who trifled with his honour,” said Laura. 
 
 44 ’Tis well you are not a man,’’ replied Mr.'Meredith. 
 
 44 If I were I might become chicken-hearted, and follow the fashion set by the 
 Unionists of the Border-States, more afraid of a prison than of falsehood.” 
 
 44 Besides, being a woman you have a right to be fickle.” 
 
 44 Wherein have I exercised this right ? ’’ 
 
 44 In the Neutrality question.” 
 
 44 Is it fickle to acknowledge deception and eschew it as a viper ? But lam 
 not fickle ; it is you who have changed ; I have not altered my opinions. I 
 prefer peace to war ; you professed to do the same, but when your vote had to be 
 taken you voted for war ; I merely say what I told you some time since, that if 
 Kentucky was forced to choose sides she would go with the South. True, I did 
 not then want her to choose sides. If any other State but South Carolina had 
 headed this Revolution, I might have sooner been a convert to Secession; I 
 remembered the old war between Clay and Calhoun ; I was an adherent of the 
 former, therefore suspicious of the teachings of the latter.” 
 
 4 4 Here at least you are fickle.” 
 
 44 Not exactly ; I love Clay as much as ever ; I believe were he living he would 
 be for the South ; he was no admirer of despotism ; he believed in the right of a 
 people to choose their own form of Government and the men to administer it. 
 He was always opposed to the Abolitionists ; he foretold that what has come to 
 pass would be if they were not checked. But Clay was not as far-sighted as 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 187 
 
 Calhoun ; had he been they might not have differed so radically. Clay was like 
 Kentucky, too noble to be suspicious. But you accused me of fickleness in religion. 
 What if I often went with you to the Unitarian Churchy did I ever avow myself 
 one of you P You know I was one of those happy children ” (with a strongly 
 sarcastic tone), “ brought up to believe themselves out of the Kingdom of God, who 
 are to choose when of age what religion they will embrace, or, as is more generally 
 the case, none at all. Your preacher was personally a favourite with me ; he preached 
 beautiful sermons ; I didn’t believe in the Trinity, nor, in fact, in anything except 
 my right to believe of God whatever suited my fancy to presume He ought to be. 
 Did anything seem dark to my very brilliant intellect ? I was quite at liberty to 
 class it with mythological fancies. I said I had no creed, but as everybody except 
 an idiot must have one, mine was, I believe, in myself.” 
 
 “ You are facetious.” 
 
 “No, only sorrowful.’’ 
 
 “ Your conversion was brought about by a handsome officer.” 
 
 “ Your words are in one sense true. I had begun my attendance on the Epis- 
 copal Church before I had seen Captain Wilson— for, I scorn to assume to be ignorant 
 of whom you spoke — I went there because on Sunday I needed rest ; I didn’t care 
 anything about devotion, but I felt the need of mental rest. All the week I 
 talked, I read, I thought, I dreamed nothing but politics. I did not choose on 
 Sunday to listen to Union or Secession inuendoes, quite as odious and more pro- 
 voking than an outspoken political opinion. Therefore, I went to the Episcopal 
 Church — not to worship, for that I never thought of. I love fine music, so when 
 those grand chants began, I shut my eyes and enjoyed. I like the eloquence of 
 simplicity and earnestness, so when the simplest prayers I had ever heard were 
 prayed, I shut my eyes and enjoyed. I was no * miserable offender,’ not I, indeed; 
 but when I looked at Judge Good’s white head, and Mr. Griffin’s manly form 
 bowed to confess themselves sinners, I thought of men who had used this same 
 service, Bacon, Locke, Wordsworth, Newton, Coleridge, Shakespeare, Wellington, 
 Clay, Calhoun, Washington, Marshall, Jay, Hamilton, Cooper, Irving, and a host 
 of others. And I wondered how many of them now sing the Trisagion around 
 the Great White Throne.” 
 
 “ You are eloquent.” 
 
 “ Excuse me ; I forgot I was speaking to one who could not understand me ; 
 hut really, one might write a book i Keveries in a Church,’ as pleasant as the 
 ‘ Keveries of a Bachelor. ’ ” 
 
 “ So it was your imagination that made an Episcopalian of you ?” 
 
 “ By no means ; that had almost made me a Unitarian, with self-conceit for 
 handmaiden ; I was only pleased to find that the poetry I imagined monopolized 
 by Unitarianism was the atmosphere of Episcopalianism. So to enjoy poetry — I 
 use the word in its most significant sense — and to avoid barrel-speeches, I left the 
 churches where I used to go. Moreover, when a preacher leaves his pulpit to 
 descend into the political arena, I feel towards him as I would have done had I 
 gone into Sir Isaac Newton’s observatory, and beheld him turn impatiently from 
 a contemplation of the universe to play in the ashes, scattering them not only 
 over himself, but over me.” 
 
 “You think it is bad enough to have ‘ dust thrown in your eyes ’ all the week. 
 But you have not told me what made you an Episcopalian,” 
 
 “Argument.” 
 
 “ The captain’s ?” 
 
 “ Partly his and partly that which has been accumulating for 1800 years.” 
 
 “ You wouldn’t read Unitarian arguments to please me ?” 
 
 “ Why should I have done so ? If Unitarianism is true, people needn’t believe 
 anything. If there is no hell, we must go to Heaven. If my heart is pure and 
 my mind untainted by depravity, I don’t see anything better I can do than to 
 follow my inclinations.” 
 
 “ Those are not our doctrines.” 
 
 “Not theoretically; the case is something like Berkeley’s philosophy ; but 
 virtually they are.” 
 
188 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ Something of my belief you still retain.” 
 
 “What?” 
 
 “ That imagination and argument make us Christians.” 
 
 “Neither Christianized me. Shame for my ingratitude to my Great Bene- 
 factor first aroused me. A conviction of His holiness made me feel my sinfulness, 
 and I will tell you the truth, the certainty that the noblest, truest man I had 
 ever seen would not, if he could have done it, have made me his wife because he 
 felt that it was wrong for a Christian to become ‘ one ’ with a defiant sinner, made 
 me realize that a criminal bold in guilt or recklessness would not be a fit com- 
 panion for God and the holy angels.” 
 
 “ Captain Wilson dared not have insinuated such a thing.” 
 
 “Insinuate it? No ; he said it.” 
 
 “ What ! ” and Meredith’s eyes flashed fire. “The impudent rascal?” 
 “Impudent! of all men I have ever known he is the most respectful to 
 every woman. ” 
 
 “I must have misunderstood your former assertion.” 
 
 “Let us drop this subject.” 
 
 “ Yes ; you toy with subjects of conversation as you do with my feelings ; 
 pick them up and examine them for amusement, and the moment I open my 
 lips, let them drop. What have I been for months but your plaything? My 
 heart is your football.” 
 
 “And I, poor child ! had no idea that I had ever touched such a novel toy.” 
 “Miss Buckner, it is not possible that you feign unconsciousness of my love 
 for you ? ” 
 
 “ I do not feign it.” 
 
 “Is it necessary, then, for me to declare it in word?” 
 
 “By no means. I wanted to read you something from Theodore Parker.” 
 Laura would have made a good general at surprises ; she was so fond of side- 
 movements. To hear him talk of love, talk to her in whose heart ever echoed 
 the spiritualizing love of Keble Wilson ! No, no ! anything but that ! As 
 well let] politics echo through a church, as sentimentalities in her cloistered 
 heart. 
 
 “ Do you remember you once told me that Parker was your apostle ? ” 
 
 “ Yes.” 
 
 “And your boast that you honoured your apostle more than I did mine?” 
 
 “ St. Paul, the Apostle of obedience ? You said you had never seen a man 
 who deserved the title 4 perfect gentleman, ’ and when I inquired what your 
 standard was, I found it to be a whole that you had compounded out of 
 St. Paul’s exhortations. Have you ever yet seen a per — ” 
 
 “ Parker says, ” hastily began Laura, with a betraying blush of confusion, 
 “that if war be right, Christianity is wrong.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ I deprecate war as I deprecate sin ; but till the Second Advent both will 
 exist. My party was exploded ; so I had to join one of the two existent ones, 
 the one that fights to punish other people’s sins and encourages its own, or the 
 party that defends the birthright given by God — the right of self-government. 
 I could take but one side ; even in childhood when reading Scott’s novels my 
 sympathies were always with the Cavaliers. ” 
 
 “Because they were the champions of freedom ? ” 
 
 “No; but because I felt what Buskin has put in words — ‘The main element 
 which makes Scott like Cavaliers better than Puritans is, that he thinks the 
 former free and masterful, as well as loyal; the latter formal and slavish.’ ” 
 
 A laugh was the only response ; a man seldom recognizes his own picture 
 the first time he sees it. A babe in self-knowledge, he is unconscious that the 
 image he is crowing over, or cooing to, is his own. 
 
 “Hear more from Parker, ‘The very fact of an aggressive war shows that 
 the men who cause it must be either fools or traitors. I think lightly of what 
 is called treason against government.’” 
 
 “ He means a revolt against tyranny.” 
 
 “Such tyranny as makes it treason for one to take a sick brother into his 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 189 
 
 house and tend him, because after his name is written C. S. A ; that seems 
 determined to expunge the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew from the lives 
 and consciences of men. Is it tyranny to wish success to father and brother, 
 who having had to flee, or rot in prison, choose the first, and now return to 
 reclaim their soil from the hired invader ? ” 
 
 “ Hired, indeed ! The South insults the North by this charge ; she should 
 know her better.” 
 
 “As well as Parker did ; he says, ‘ If the president gets his 50,000 volunteers, a 
 thing likely to happen, for your free American of Boston will enlist for 27 cents 
 a day, only having his livery, his feathers and his glory thrown in.” This he 
 said of the Mexican war ; then the glory was to make pecuniary vassals of an 
 inferior race ; how to make dependent colonists of free-born Americans. The 
 question with me is not whether I shall hold slaves ; but whether I shall be a 
 slave. Yankee patriotism lies in Yankee pockets.” 
 
 “ Tut ! Look at the expenditure.” 
 
 “ Of money they expect the South to pay. But it is only ignorance of what has 
 been the customary military expenditure that is the cause of the surprise expressed 
 now by such unexpected lavishness. From 1791-1832 more than eight ninths of 
 the revenue of the nation was spent for purposes of war. From 1812-1815 we 
 paid in this way 9,235,051,937 dols. From 1835-1840 we paid £127.973,418 dols. 
 In the Mexican war a special grant for the army above was 178,000,000 dols. 
 We pay annually 20,00,000, dols.to support the arsenal at Springfield.” 
 
 “ But the people did not do this.” 
 
 “ No, the fact is, the American people do little of anything ; demagogues and 
 office-holders are the busy men ; it is a cause of gratulation that the Southern 
 Confederacy will at the close of the war find herself too poor to make it worth 
 while for rogues to seek office. The ship ‘Ohio’ costs annually 200,000 dols. more 
 than Harvard University.” 
 
 “ I am glad you admire Parker so much.” 
 
 “ Heaven forbid ! Half of our present sin and trouble is the result of the fanati- 
 cism of such as he. ,, 
 
 “ What is all this tirade of Parker’s about ? ” 
 
 “ Principally about the Mexican War, and in his condemnation of that I agree 
 most heartily. I was very young at the time of that war ; but my first political 
 opinion was . a prophecy of my last, an indignant shame for men who called them- 
 selves free, and tried to force their freedom upon a reluctant people ; I do not 
 remember ever having had a childish feeling of exaltation over our disgraceful 
 victories in Mexico ; I never thought it was anything great for a man to whip a 
 boy. My father was opposed to that war, and I think from him I may have 
 imbibed an aversion that suited my instincts like hand and glove.” 
 
 Meredith hoping to produce a diversion said, 
 
 “ It is my chief proverb that few proverbs are true. ‘ They suit like hand and 
 glove,’ an adage says of two friends. That may be truer than the speaker thinks ; 
 one is cold and selfish and uses the other to produce warmth as long as it can ; 
 then casts it aside.” 
 
 “ Your version would apply to many friendships ; for instance the old one 
 between the two sections of the United States; the South — I am content to take 
 the North as authority — was the true cause of this war ; she forgot her chivalry 
 to invade another nation, and now she is punished. God has sent the South a 
 foreign foe to punish her as she punished Mexico. Years ago Parker said, ‘ It is 
 related that forty-eight men were hanged at once for desertion, put to death with 
 painful procrastinations ; it is related that these men were doomed to be thus 
 murdered on the day when the battle of Chernbusco took place. These men 
 awaiting their death were told they should not suffer till the American flag 
 would wave its stripes over the hostile walls. You know the name of the officer 
 on whom this barbarity rests ; it was Colonel Harney. Six men were made to dig 
 the grave for their companions and were then flogged with two hundred lashes 
 each. God has punished the South ; Harney, Butler, Phelps, Banks, Mitchell, 
 Turehin and such are her scourges. Harney has done the very thing in Missouri 
 
190 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 that was done in Mexico. The government was as much to blame for these 
 cruelties as if it had decreed them ; for a superior not to condemn and punish is 
 to assume the responsibility of an act. Every Southern senator and representa- 
 tive who forebore to demand Harney’s expulsion from an army that he had 
 disgraced, is guilty of that act, and let them and their children suffer God’s 
 visitation the more patiently that they have drawn it upon the South. Every 
 newspaper editor, every man, woman and child who knew of this barbarity and 
 held his peace became an accomplice.” 
 
 Meredith’s conscience evidently applied this outburst of indignation to things 
 “ nearer home,” than Mexico. 
 
 “Why are you so restive under deserved punishment?” 
 
 “ Our prayer is, ‘ Deal not with us according to our iniquities.’ Nor do we 
 acknowledge that they who have sinned as we, have any right to appoint 
 themselves our scourges. God may use the North as a father would use a rod; 
 then the rod may be cast upon the earth while He embraces His repentant 
 child.” 
 
 “I fear,” said Meredith, with his usual sneer of a laugh, “that I shall have 
 to find another apostle ; Parker thought the Twelve were antiquated ; but that 
 he would never wear out. He has hardly mouldered away ; yet his disciples 
 must find a new master.” 
 
 “They have him ready-made.” 
 
 “Who?” 
 
 “ Mob-law. Put away the Bible ; first follows the moral, then the civil law. 
 Next Mob-law stalks impertinently over dead order and living men. You are 
 training hundreds of thousands to steal and murder, insult women, and 
 maltreat children ; when they return home to practise their lessons you may 
 want another master. Another may await you and gag-law may share the 
 horrors with mob-law. The Government steals money from its grown-up 
 children, who, tired of supporting her, have gone off to work for themselves ; 
 when she opens her private coffers she may find the children she left at home 
 have played the same game with her. That Hike begets like,’ is God’s surest 
 law of retribution. It is not every man that can ‘ divide a hair ’twixt south 
 and south-west side,’ and what wonder if those who are taught to ravage the 
 South, try their hand in the North ? ” 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 “ See here,” cried Minnie, holding out a sheet of brown paper, not three 
 quarters of a yard long, as if she were exhibiting the rarest of trophies. 
 
 “ What is it ?” asked Laura. 
 
 “ ‘The Vidette, a paper printed and published semi-occasionally by Morgan’s 
 brigade.’ And just think how late this is — August 19th. Morgan carries a 
 printing press. ” 
 
 “And I was told a corps of engineers and railway-men, to assist in 
 destroying rather than in building these facilities for our invaders. ” 
 
 “Here is a Proclamation : — ‘ Having noticed in the Cincinnati Gazette of the 
 15th, an article, dated Paris, Kentucky, 14th of August, 1862, whereby it 
 appears that the agents of the Federal Government are — to use their own 
 words — “forcing Morgan’s friends to pay for the acts of their favourite 
 chieftain,” and thus violating all laws hitherto respected and acknowledged by 
 civilized nations, forgetting, and wilfully closing their eyes to the fact that I 
 in my justifiable attacks on Federal troops and Federal property, have always 
 respected the private property and persons of Union men, I do hereby declare 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 191 
 
 that to protect Southern citizens I will henceforth put the law of retaliation 
 into full force and act upon it with vigour. For every dollar exacted from my 
 fellow citizens, I will have two from men of known Union sentiments, and will 
 make their persons and property responsible for this payment. God knows it 
 was my earnest wish to have conducted this war according to the dictates of 
 my heart, and consonant to those feelings which actuate every honourable 
 mind ; but forced by the vindictive and iniquitous proceedings of our foes to 
 follow their example, in order to induce them to return to more humane 
 conduct, I will for the future imitate them in their exactions, retaliate upon 
 them and others the cruelties and oppression with which my friends are visited, 
 and continue this course until our enemies consent to make war according to 
 the law of nations. 
 
 Signed by me, this 18th day of August, a.d., 1862. 
 
 John H. Morgan, 
 
 Colonel commanding Brigade. ’ 
 
 Is not that grand ? ” 
 
 “But very sad.” 
 
 “ Morgan calls 4 God to witness it was his utmost wish to have conducted this 
 war according to the dictates of his heart,’ and we all know what sort of a heart 
 his is — that of a child. When Mr, Grey, who knew him well, heard that he had 
 taken up arms, he rather hooted at the idea, scarcely believing it could be so ; 
 for, he said, he never knew a man who could so badly endure the sight of 
 suffering.” (a) 
 
 “He was in the Mexican war.” 
 
 u To-day’s Journal says ‘ Union men threaten that for every man killed by 
 Morgan, five secessionists shall be hung, and that all property destroyed or stolen 
 shall be recompensed fivefold. . . At all proper points in Kentucky, the mili- 
 
 tary officers are levying contributions upon the resident rebels to remunerate the 
 Union men robbed by the guerillas. James O’Hara was arrested in Covington on 
 Tuesday, and sent to Newport barracks. All his private papers were taken. It 
 is supposed that O’Hara is one of the two thousand spoken of by Morgan at 
 Versailles, as having sent letters asking him to invade Kentucky, promising a 
 general uprising of the people.’ A Captain Bethel sends word to his friends that 
 his men are determined to keep at work until there is not a guerilla left in 
 Daviess, Union, Henderson, or Webster counties. But Gen. Adam Johnson will 
 look after him.’ ” 
 
 “ Oh! I was so angry at a statement about Gen. Johnson I saw made by half- 
 a-dozen gentlemen of Henderson.” 
 
 “ So was Johnson, and published a card, saying, ‘ I repeatedly said to Union 
 men who are now living in Henderson, that I did not intend to molest any 
 citizen on account of politics.’ ‘ Boyle has written that the paroles given by 
 Johnson and other guerillas are not to be regarded and are of no effect.’ ” 
 
 “ He will make Secessionism boil over and scald his friends. A gentleman 
 from Versailles says— ‘ The only private property Morgan ever took without 
 compensation, is horses, which cavalry seems to feel itself entitled to. But the 
 officers, at least, usually offer compensation for them.” 
 
 “ Did not Eustace say his captain declared he had never touched five cents’ 
 worth of private property ?” (a) 
 
 “ The idea of his condescending to make such an assertion! Poor men ! with 
 the sensitiveness of gentlemen, how they must shrink from the attacks of that 
 lowest of libellers, the Louisville Journal .” m 
 
 et Not at all. I am told they treat the Journal with infinite contempt ; as my 
 informer said, 4 They know Prentice.’ ” 
 
 “ And are perfectly aware that were they to get old files of his paper they 
 would see things just as infamous, and just as true, said of all his old political 
 opponents.” 
 
 “ Prentice forgets his own noble son, a colonel under Morgan.” 
 
 “ Colonel Metcalfe has a large sum on deposit in the bank at Paris, which he 
 
192 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 has drawn from sympathizers. He quietly selects his men, makes an assessment, 
 and gives the Secessionists the choice of paying it, or making a visit to Camp 
 Chase.” 
 
 “ It is known that two men who were killed were shot after they had 
 surrendered, their assassins exclaiming, * No quarter to Morgan’s men.’ This 
 and similar atrocities have become of such common occurrence that it has neces- 
 sitated a retaliatory proclamation. Four hundred and sixty Federal prisoners 
 were paroled by Colonel Morgan at Cynthiana ; each one was sworn not only 
 not to serve against the Confederate cause, but became responsible that he would 
 protect the wounded that were obliged to be left behind to the utmost of his 
 power and return them safe on recovery within the Confederate lines. How has 
 this promise been kept ? By sending all the sick and wounded to Camp Chase, 
 tjms returning for clemency insult. The Vidette says : — The erroneous idea 
 having spread itself amongst the men of this Brigade, that officers and privates 
 have a right to trade or sell the horses they ride, the General in command wishes 
 to explain the same to his troops. No officer or private can sell or exchange his 
 horses’.” 
 
 “ How reconcile that with the stories we hear of the men’s swapping horses. 
 But it seems to me this order is too strict ; suppose a man don’t like his horse P ” 
 
 “ But it is not his horse ; on entering the service should a soldier furnish his 
 own horse, it is with the condition that he receives 40 cents per diem for so doing. 
 The horse is therefore virtually hired of him by the Government and cannot be 
 sold or exchanged except by an express order from the Quartermaster, signed by 
 the Colonel commanding.” 
 
 “ The Colonel allows no camp followers, and the sale of liquor is forbidden.” 
 
 “ Did you hear about Mr. James Smith and the carriage ? He was wounded 
 at Cynthiana. Morgan told some men they must get a carriage for him. He 
 was told the houses near could not furnish one. Just then he saw a buggy 
 approaching. To the great relief of our polite cousin John, it was announced 
 that no lady was in it, only one man, that is, a being supposed to be a man who 
 would willingly sell his vehicle to save a life. Morgan offered him 200dols. for 
 it —all the U.S. money he had. The wretch began cursing, and swore he should 
 not have his buggy. Morgan tried to pacify him, said it would be returned, but 
 that now he was compelled to seize it, not being desirous of being accounted 
 the murderer of one whose life had been devoted to freedom. Moreover, the 
 wounded follower’s relations would never have forgiven him if he had worn 
 white kids when boxing gloves were needed. All the time of the altercation 
 Morgan was chafing with brandy the wrists of the apparently dying man, and 
 his tones were very gentle. He directed the men to take the stranger’s horse 
 out and put one of their own in the traces. The fellow cursed so terribly 
 that Morgan said, ‘You have cursed yourself out of the $200.’ He cursed 
 more and was informed he had cursed himself out of his horse. Determined 
 to put an end to his profanity, our gallant chieftain informed him that if 
 he was not quiet he would curse himself into Dixie. Some fellows — who 
 ought to be appointed annotators to ‘ Gulliver’s Travels ’ — started the absurd 
 story that the blood where Mr. Smith lay was that of the Yankee churl, and 
 that Morgan had beaten him. ” 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIY. 
 
 “Oh, Miss Minnie, I come up here to stay with you. I’se, feard of the 
 soldiers,” said a little six-year-old darkie. Her mother was in the kitchen and 
 her father near at hand, but with the instinct natural to her race, she rushed 
 to her young mistress for protection. 
 
 “ Where are the soldiers ? ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 193 
 
 “Right down there by the kitchen,” replied Dilsie, taking a seat and 
 seeming very much at home in the room where she had many times fled or been 
 carried to escape a too severe castigation from her mother ; for it is no 
 uncommon thing for masters to forbid blacks whipping their children ; nor 
 for the young people of the family to rescue a poor victim from barbaric 
 treatment. Yet these are the wretches (when their ungovernable passions are 
 aroused, real furies, ) whom a civilized North would arm to war against their 
 masters ! 
 
 In a few minutes Dilsie’s mother came in, 
 
 “ Miss Minnie, them soldiers is knocking down all the apples and pears ; Dick 
 says you’d better send and get some before they’s all gone. I’d have every one 
 knocked off Miss Minnie, before those rascals gits ’em.” 
 
 “ They don’t hurt nobody, ” interposed Minnie’s maid, who was sitting by, 
 sewing, and doubtless anticipating speedy emancipation, and probably a nice 
 slip of the master’s farm, which the soldiers often promised. 
 
 “ I was up at meetin’ Sunday, and Mr. Thayer’s Betty went to the spring, 
 and I seed a soldier kiss her and throw her down. ” 
 
 “ What ! Not before all the people ? ” 
 
 “Yes, ma’am; and the Captain had to come up and order the soldiers 
 away. ” 
 
 “Now, Liza, you see how much they respect you: do you suppose they 
 would have dared do that before white people ? ” 
 
 “The poor white trash!” ejaculated the cook, a sure sign her wrath was 
 culminating fast. 
 
 “ But, I can assure you I’d protect one of my servants as soon as I would 
 my sister ; let me know if any of the abominable fellows ever — ” 
 
 Minnie caught Laura’s eye brimful of merriment, remembered her diminutive 
 figure and old timidity, and stopped before the sentence was completed ; a 
 chance for the maid to put in a word for her champions. 
 
 “Miss Minnie, the most of the soldiers as I see behaves like gentlemen, 
 and at meeting they sits down by us. ” 
 
 “Humph ! ” interrupted Liza, “ladies about the place often comes in their 
 carriages and looks on and don’t give no disturbance to nobody.” 
 
 “And the soldiers gives very lib’rally, Miss Minnie.” 
 
 “Miss Minnie,” continued the cook, who never lost an opportunity for 
 giving advice, “ I wouldn’t let these here girls go out on the roads while the 
 soldiers is about. ” 
 
 “ Liza, go down now and send Jim after the pears, or the soldiers will have 
 them all. ” 
 
 “And I’ll tell him you say to get the apples and tomatoes and cucumbers — 
 and I’ll see what else. ” (4) 
 
 The young housekeeper was so accustomed to this mode of advice that she 
 made no reply. There was one thing she was careful to do, and that was to 
 keep Liza in a good humour ; she hadn’t any objections to the soldiers having 
 some fruit, but it was very important that Liza’s equilibrium should not be 
 disturbed when company was expected to tea, and her mother away. As 
 talking before servants is very imprudent, Minnie sent her maid into the 
 kitchen to sew, and dismissed Dilsie to her doll by giving her a new ribbon ; 
 for Minnie, like most kind-hearted gentlewomen, avoided wounding the 
 feelings of her servants as carefully as of her friends. 
 
 “ Bravo, little woman !” said Laura, “I imagine you, broomstick in hand, 
 starting down to defend your servants from these ruffians, and at the first 
 glance of a formidable countenance, rushing upstairs and locking yourself in.” 
 “ No, Laura, I would not run from them ; they would not dare to insult me.” 
 “ Do you forget Clara’s letters from Virginia and the stories about Missouri 
 Mrs. Latrobe told us ? ” 
 
 “ It is strange, Laura ; but I do not feel afraid. The day before you came I 
 was the only person in the house for hours. I feel as though it would be dis- 
 graceful to Eustace for me to fear those who flee so fast from him and his com- 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 panions. I have never been timid since the day I told him to go, and we knelt 
 side by side. I feel his arm around me now — God will protect me for his sake.” 
 
 “ And for your own — are you not His child P ” 
 
 “Yes ; and I feel around me ‘ the everlasting arms ’ as well as Eustace’s 
 clasp.” 
 
 The door opened, and hurriedly began Liza, “ Miss Minnie, them rascals is done 
 shot Dan’s white chicken.” 
 
 “ Isn’t it too bad ? ” 
 
 “ Dan says he’s a Seccessionest now ; they told him these here soldiers were 
 coming to protect us, and they ain’t been doing nothing but stealing and ’stroying 
 all the time ; he says just what I say, we got ’long heap better without ’em. Jim 
 asked one of ’em what they did with them ’ere pistols and they said, 4 We shoots 
 chickens and pigs.’ 
 
 The close report of a pistol was heard, and the last shot rattled in a tree close 
 by the window. 
 
 Laura looked out, “ They’ve killed a peafowl.” 
 
 “ Oh my beauty ! Is it Juno ? ” 
 
 “ No, it is Vanity, I believe.” 
 
 “ Come away from that window, Miss Laura ; a man that shoots a peafowl 
 wouldn’t need much to make him shoot a lady, and you looks mighty scornful 
 just now.” 
 
 “ Liza, someone is calling you.” 
 
 “ There ain’t no white folks downstairs ; let the coloured people hollow till 
 they’s hoarse.” 
 
 Kitty, the washerwoman, walked in. 
 
 “ Liza, those men say come down there.” 
 
 “ How they knowed I was up stairs ? ” 
 
 “ They told me to cook ’em a fine meal, and I told ’em I wasn’t nobody’s cook, 
 for cooking in summer didn’t agree with me ; (4) so they told me to go to work 
 and help the cook.” 
 
 “ Now Miss Minnie, you ain’t going to give me anything to cook.” 
 
 “ The wretches don’t get anything except bread and meat and slops called 
 coffee; I never refused anybody something to eat.” 
 
 “ I kin tell you, Liza,” interposed Kitty, “you always was stinger. I’m too 
 ’feared of those men ; I’ll give ’em anything they ask for.” 
 
 “ Liza, you’d better go down and cook them some bread ; call me if they are 
 impudent to you.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 The long, long, dreary summer is drawing to an end, but for Laura’s heart it has 
 borne few flowers and fewer fruits. Now and then she has heard the songs of 
 birds ; but they were as music very far away. It was a great comfort that her 
 mother’s time was occupied by company, her favourite sister having been obliged 
 to flee with her little family from Missouri. What had become of Keble ? Was 
 she like a child who plays around the dead body of her sister, waiting for her to 
 wake ? Had Hope — for a short while the impersonation of her inner life — grown 
 cold never again to be revived ? And this while she knew it not, and tried to 
 amuse herself with whatever chanced to present itself ? 
 
 Was Keble living or dead ? If dead why had not her spirit faded into another 
 life ? if alive, why had she never heard from him ? It would be better to have him 
 her own in another world than to know he belonged to any other heart in this. 
 No one noticed much change in her when in company ; the one unfailing theme 
 of the war always kept her interested and excitable ; but the guardian angels 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 195 
 
 must have felt inclined to hold the trembling hands that so often turned the 
 heated pillow in the dreary watches of the night ; anxiety for her lover and 
 sorrow for her stricken land made her often sleepless, and many a night passed 
 without giving more than two or three hours of sleep. And when she slept it 
 was only to dream. It does not do much good to turn away the eyes from the 
 portrait on the wall if they gaze upon it pictured in the mirror. 
 
 Sometimes Laura smiled and asked herself if it wert true that the summer 
 months were almost past ; they had been slow enough to make one think them a 
 twelvemonth, but she had had no summer ; the young men whose afternoon and 
 evening visits had been a part of its programme, were in the South ; perhaps 
 some four or five were Northern officers. And their mothers and sisters and 
 sweethearts were sorry companions, and, like Laura, did not feel that it was 
 summer — only knew that they were left alone, and now her father was arrested 
 and thrown in a loathsome prison — how loathsome, fortunately the citizens of 
 Louisville could not know, only their Yankee masters, who had seated themselves 
 in the offices of mayor and provost-marshal, of aldermen and councillors, and 
 being content with the emoluments, had quietly turned the key on Southern 
 men and put it in their pockets, where it jingled pleasantly enough with the 
 chimes made by selling passes and permits. 
 
 For her father, as for herself, Laura could only wait in faith and pray, her 
 chief prayer being to hear of the advance of Buckner and Morgan. What if 
 Keble should be with Buckner ? This fancy was without foundation ; but it 
 pleased her, and, poor thing ! when she had so little to comfort her, why should 
 she examine too closely into the wherefore of her only hope ? He knew that 
 next to Gen. Lee, Buckner was the man she honoured most ; Buckner was the 
 man whose praises she had sung until the sweetness of her enthusiasm had 
 captured his enemy and paroled him as his defender. 
 
 Buckner was free, was coming into Eastern Kentucky; of course, he could not 
 wait long before he hastened to Louisville to comfort the hearts that had suffered 
 for him as they never had before for any man — Kentucky hearts, whose flickering 
 hopes seemed for one moment to die out when the wail of anguish, “ Fort Donel- 
 son has fallen, and Buckner is a prisoner !” passed over the land, but rose into an 
 undying flame of love and resolve when they heard of his solitary confinement in 
 Fort Warren. 
 
 Were our enemies surprised that we raised no louder cry of joy when told, 
 “ Buckner is free ? ” Thereare moments when joy seems so trivial a thing that the 
 human heart scorns it, and thinks that prayer alone is worthy of its throbbings. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 “ Dear Cousin Minnie, 
 
 “ It has been so long since I sent you any account of our ex- 
 cursions that I think I must give you a description of what I consider one of the 
 most surprising. We left Knoxville on July 4 for Kentucky. 
 
 “We were in the saddle generally all day, and frequently at night. One night 
 so exhausted were we that in every company men were assigned to the novel 
 soldierly exercise of keeping their companions awake ; military rule had to do 
 what human nature could not. (a) It would make you laugh (or cry) to see scores of 
 men fast asleep, riding along in as varied positions and contortions as anyone can 
 fancy. Some think a horse a fine bed and stretch themselves, using their insepa- 
 rable companions’ heads for pillows ; some sit upright and snore, perfectly as- 
 sured that they can’t fall — the idea of a centaur being separated from his horse ! 
 But the majority of the victims of Somnus look like the votaries of Bacchus. 
 
196 
 
 LOVE AND WAB. 
 
 Sometimes we go to sleep in one company and wake up in another. There is no 
 jest in in all this ; but I have never yet heard of one of Morgan’s Cavalry falling 
 from his horse in sleep. Some poor fellows, even when within the enemy’s lines, 
 think they cannot endure any more, and get down into a fence corner ; but before 
 long the rear-guard comes, and up they jump, finding man’s powers of endurance 
 have never yet been fully tested. Maybe they will be before the war is done, as 
 sometimes we plan a summer excursion to Indiana and Ohio. Yet often in the 
 enemy’s lines we sleep fearlessly all night ; for we are not accustomed to being 
 attacked. (a) If the North was as willing to let the South alone as its soldiers are 
 to let Morgan’s Cavalry alone, we should soon have peace. Our available force in 
 the field never exceeded 800 men ; at Cynthiana we took more prisoners than we 
 had men. I was one of thirty men whom General Morgan ordered to take a 
 bridge on the edge of the town. Captain Bowles at our head, we rode in a terrible 
 gallop, relying on the terror of our fame ; however, our fame had this time cheated 
 us out of an engagement — the enemy had already fled. We charged through the 
 town ; the foe poured loads of grapes — sweet to us, ‘sour’ to them — into 
 our ranks at a distance of only 75 yards. Some poor horses suffered ; but 
 mirabile dictu ! not a man was hit. Have not you heard of men’s riding so fast 
 that the rain couldn’t catch them ? Ah ! I see cousin Minnie look reprovingly now, 
 and well she may, but she must not think me ungrateful. God only can estimate 
 my thankfulness for His wonderful care of us. The enemy fled and left the 
 cannon, which we had the honour of taking. General Morgan complimented our 
 captain. I believe I may as well tell you how we took the famous twelve pounder 
 which Cincinnati presented to the Confederacy, (a) We charged with rifles on a 
 regiment and cut it in half. Notwithstanding the paucity of our numbers the 
 cowardly rascals rushed into a R.R. depot and buildings on each side of the street 
 and poured bullets on us from windows and doors. Within a few feet I after- 
 wards counted 17 bullet holes in a plank fence. By the side of our captain rode 
 a gallant English colonel who always seeks the thickest of the miUe just for fun. 
 He had four holes in his coat, one in his saddle and one in his neck ; his horse was 
 killed. At Lebanon a company of Yankees, concealed in the fields, annoyed us, 
 and General Morgan told Captain B. to take some of his men and some of another 
 company and hunt them out. The spectators said they were reminded of a rabbit- 
 hunt, and laughed a good deal afterwards at our captain’s commanding them to 
 come out, or be killed, (a) 
 
 “ So far I wrote at Sparta, the latter part of July ; but have no opportunity of 
 sending a letter ; so now I’ll finish it, as I have a chance to get it through the lines. 
 Have you heard of the defeat of Johnson’s Brigade of 24 companies, selected for 
 the express purpose of capturing us? With about 800 men we scattered them 
 in a few hours. At Gallatin I had the best of the fun in the beginning to be 
 ‘ sold ’ at the end ; but I don’t care, as I was in the best company. General 
 Morgan told our captain that there were 200 Yanks lying along the turnpike 
 behind the fences, and that he committed to him the charge. Two regiments 
 of brave Texans were to follow us. Said the General to Captain B. ‘ Make such 
 a charge as you did at Cynthiana, and the day is ours.’ But the scamps had 
 scampered ; wasn’t it too bad for them to cheat us so after we had just received 
 such a compliment ? 
 
 “ At Gallatin we lost but nine whom I have heard of ; though we took a 
 general and staff and 200 men and pursued the Yanks ten miles in a gallop. 
 Colonel Basil Duke captured Johnson after ten minutes’ fight. Captain B. com- 
 manded the central divison, and Morgan started with him, but out-ran us in the 
 heat of pursuit, and we saw him no more until the next day. The Captain ex- 
 claimed, 4 He is the most adventurous man in the world — left us to chase a few 
 flying Yanks. ’ 
 
 il Oh ! my dear Cousin Minnie, I am almost afraid to tell you what we firmly 
 believe, that in a few weeks Tennessee and Kentucky will be ours. General Bragg 
 is going to give General Buell a few lessons in generalling and out-generalling. 
 I only wish that it was some rascal instead of Buell who is to be sent to Libby 
 prison. I would not write this did I not know that even if the letter is captured 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 197 
 
 Buell can’t beat Bragg to the Ohio. To the Ohio ! Oh rapturous words, whose 
 music fires us more than the Marseillaise the French ! I fear we’ll find a good 
 many Kentuckians afraid to avow themselves our friends ! but we’ll hold the State 
 long enough to give them confidence that we can do what they regard as an 
 impossibility — keep the Yanks over the river. 
 
 “ Waft us good wishes. 
 
 “ Your Eustace Huntington.” 
 
 Of course the “ sweet letter,” as Minnie called the one which was entrusted to 
 the private mail-carrier, with injunctions to swallow it before she let it fall 
 into any one’s hands but Minnie’s, was read and re-read many times, before a 
 glance was* given to this one. In the envelope was this scrap : 
 
 [‘ The Atlanta Confederacy gives the following version of the Gallatin raid 
 of the famous “John Morgan.” 
 
 ‘ The newspaper fraternity owe a heavy debt of gratitude to that gallant 
 partisan leader, Captain J ohn H. Morgan, of Kentucky, for furnishing them, 
 during the past few months, such abundant material for the most spicy 
 paragraphs and interesting articles, by his many dashing exploits against the 
 Yankees. He is incessantly on the move, appearing suddenly and unexpectedly 
 at one point, and within the next twenty-four hours quite as suddenly and 
 unexpectedly at some other place, more than a hundred miles distant. He is a 
 perfect terror to the Yankees, and has inspired them with greater fear than all 
 the army of General Johnston besides. 
 
 ‘ Morgan, with forty of his men, suddenly appeared at Gallatin. After 
 catching all the Union men in the place, and confining them in a guard-house, 
 Morgan, dressed in a Federal uniform, proceeded to the telegraph office at the 
 railroad d^pot, a short distance from the town. Entering the office the 
 following conversation took place between Morgan and the telegraphic operator, 
 a blustering fellow : 
 
 Captain Morgan — “Good day, sir. What news have you?” 
 
 Operator — “Nothing, sir, except it is reported that that d — d rebel, Captain 
 J ohn Morgan, is this side of the Cumberland with some of his cavalry. I wish 
 I could get sight of the d — d rascal, I’d make a hole through him larger than 
 he would find pleasant. ” 
 
 ‘ While thus speaking the operator drew a revolver and flourished it as if to 
 satisfy his visitor how desperately he would use the instrument in case he 
 should meet that famous rebel captain. 
 
 “Do you know who I am?” quietly remarked Captain Morgan, continuing 
 the conversation. 
 
 “I have not that pleasure,” remarked the operator. 
 
 “Well, I am Captain Morgan,” responded that gentleman. 
 
 ‘ At these words the operator’s cheeks blanched, his knees shook, the revolver 
 dropped from his hands and he sunk to the floor. He literally “wilted.” 
 
 ‘ After the frightened individual had recovered himself sufficiently, Captain 
 Morgan required him to telegraph some messages to Louisville ; among others 
 one to Prentice, of the Journal, politely offering to act as his escort on his 
 proposed visit to Nashville. Then taking the operator with him as a prisoner, 
 Captain Morgan with his men awaited the arrival of the train from Bowling 
 Green for Nashville. 
 
 ‘In due time the train came thundering in. Captain Morgan at once 
 seized it. ’] 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 September 2nd. 
 
 “ Oh Laura, Laura ! open the door.” There was a quick succession of joyous 
 little knocks. 
 
198 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 In a moment, laughing and screaming as if she were wild, Minnie leaped in, 
 pirouetting like a French dancer. Twining her arms around Laura the excit- 
 able little creature pulled her dignified friend round and round. 
 
 “ What is the matter, Minnie ? Are you crazy ?” 
 
 “ With joy, oh yes ! ” Quite exhausted the young thing buried her face on 
 Laura’s shoulder and burst into tears, “Oh Laura, I shall die.” 
 
 Her friend let the tears come, for she knew they would be very few. 
 Minnie soon held up a piece of white paper crumpled and worn ; it was a 
 Proclamation of Morgan’s. 
 
 “He is not going away again.” 
 
 “Who? Morgan or Eustace? On July 10th when I first heard Morgan had 
 come back, I felt that Kentucky was to begin her struggle for freedom. Then 
 did I look beyond the heights of despotism, and my spirit revelled in the gray 
 dawn of freedom.” 
 
 “Gray?” 
 
 “Yes, the colour of mourning; for many I love must fall ere the sun will 
 rise and the day become cloudless. ” 
 
 “ To me the dawn is rosy and I see nothing but joy.” 
 
 “Let me read the Proclamation. 
 
 [‘TO THE INHABITANTS OF KENTUCKY! 
 Fellow Countrymen, 
 
 1 have kept my promise. At the head of my old companions 
 in arms, I am once more amongst you, with God’s blessing no more to leave 
 you.’ 
 
 “ With God’s blessing no more to leave you,’’ repeated Laura, and her eyes 
 closed while her lips still moved. 
 
 “ With God’s blessing,” murmured Minnie. “ Don’t you see, Laura, why I ought 
 to feel confident ? No power on earth can make us slaves ; Bragg is in Tennessee, 
 steadily advancing with an overwhelming force on Buell, who is retreating, whilst 
 New Orleans is on the eve of being torn from the clutches of Butler the infamous, 
 and restored to its legitimate government. Kirby Smith, at the head of a 
 powerful army, already is in your State, whilst Forrest, Woodward and 
 myself have already proven to the Yankees our existence by taking Murfrees- 
 boro, Gallatin and Clarksville, burning the railroad bridges and damaging 
 seriously the enemy. Arouse Kentuckians ! Shake off that listless feeling 
 which was engendered by the presence of a powerful, relentless enemy. He 
 is no longer to be feared ! We have drawn his eye teeth! There will soon be 
 nothing left of him but his roar.’ ” 
 
 “ I imagine,” interrupted Minnie, “ that I can hear the Northern bear growling 
 in his pain and shame whilst he retreats into the pine forests of Maine. 
 But to continue: — ‘ Let the old men of Kentucky, and our noble hearted 
 women’ (“that is a great deal better than calling us fair” (a) ‘arm their sons and their 
 lovers for the fight ! Better death in our sacred cause, than a life of slavery ! 
 Young men of Kentucky, flock to my standard ; it will always wave in the path 
 of honour, and history will relate how you responded to my appeal, and how by 
 so doing you saved your country ! 
 
 Morgan’s Press Print.” 
 
 JOHN H. MORGAN, 
 
 Colonel Commanding Brigade, C. S. A. 
 
 The door opened and Mrs, Ellmer was ushered in ; Minnie held up her trophy. 
 “Have you seen this ? ” 
 
 “ But have you heard the Legislature has skedaddled, passed through Frankfort 
 in fear and trepidation, would not allow the engineer to ring the bell.” 
 
 “ For fear the population it had betrayed would stone it.” 
 
 “ Pity it had not gone on to Yankeeland, where it might breathe a congenial 
 atmosphere.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 199 
 
 “ Urged on by a Bell, the pack of hounds, headed by a Wolfe, with veritable 
 Yankee Speed, proved that it was ’Prenticed to crime by the ease with which it 
 betrayed its State and then rushed forward in the path of blood, dooming men to 
 death and imprisonment and their property to confiscation. Did you hear of the 
 great meeting at the Court House yesterday P ” 
 
 “ No, but I suppose, as the papers to-day don’t compliment them, that they 
 were not much.” 
 
 “ I was in a house opposite the Court House ; the crowd did not extend half 
 way across the street ; old residents said they have never seen such a small 
 assembly at any call meeting.” 
 
 “ Was it generally known ? ” 
 
 “ Yes, indeed, the papers published stirring appeals ; also there appeared General 
 Robinson’s Proclamation. At night there were not one hundred men at their 
 second meeting.” 
 
 “ There must be more than that number of New Englanders on Main Street.” 
 “ Yet it was announced that all who did not volunteer for home defence would 
 be considered traitors. Ah, it would do you good to see how meek our late lions 
 have become, and Greneral Wright sat in a room guarded by soldiers while they 
 held their consultations.” 
 
 But General Wright is very gentlemanly.” 
 
 “ Yes, and has not made himself obnoxious to Kentucky ; yet he represents 
 the idea of tyranny. But he promised Nelson should not be left here, for which 
 the ladies were grateful.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 September 3rd. 
 
 Mrs. Breckenridge and Minnie were on the road to town, enveloped in a cloud 
 of dust so thick they could not see thirty yards a-head. It was late in the even- 
 ing of September 3rd ; all day the Shelbyville pike was a moving panorama of 
 Government waggons, squads of cavalry-men, groups of infantry, and, like motes 
 in the dusty sunbeams, less sociable soldiers on horseback or on foot. Some 
 were without shoes and very many without coats ; their blank faces and weary 
 pace showed that they had made a long, warm, unpleasant journey. Nor were the 
 countenances of the poor creatures bright as would be those of Southern soldiers 
 were they so near a city as proverbial for hospitality as is Louisville. 
 
 Riding alongside of a squad of Cavalry was a gay party of ladies, whose ex- 
 pressions reminded Minnie of the audience she had seen in the theatre when 
 Falstaff’s Ragged March was demanding its attention; ladies they evidently were, 
 yet their spirits were so high they could not resist such a splendid opportunity of 
 putting questions. One cried out, “ Where is Morgan ? ” another — “ Is Morgan 
 coming ? ” 
 
 “ Yes,” was the answer. 
 
 “ Where is Kirby Smith ? ” 
 
 “Up yonder.” 
 
 “You whipped at Richmond, didn’t you ? ” 
 
 “ No, we were badly beat.” 
 
 “ What is the matter with your hand ? ” One of the ladies grew symathetic at 
 the idea of getting news. “ Does it hurt you much ? ” 
 
 “ Good deal ; I was wounded at nine, and my hand wasn’t looked at until 
 nicrht” 
 
 “ And you were beat ? ” 
 
 “ Our regiment from Ohio went in 1,104 strong, and came out 104. My uncle 
 and two cousins and a brother were killed.” 
 
200 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 The man looked very stoical, or, maybe, he was in too much bodily pain and 
 discomfort to take cognizance of merely mental troubles. 
 
 “ So you had a hard fight ? ” 
 
 “ Yes, we had a hard fight — fought nine hours.” 
 
 “ Kirby Smith is a fine gentleman ? ” 
 
 “ Yes.” 
 
 “ Who commanded you ? ” 
 
 il Generals Manson and Crufts; but we had a panic before we got through.” 
 
 “ Where is Manson? ” 
 
 ‘ 4 Nobody knows unless the rebels do.” 
 
 “ Have you been in any other fight ?” 
 
 “ Yes,” said a man who had come up ; “ I was. We had a fight at Big Hill 
 on August 29th ; then we had a skirmish nearer Richmond. ” 
 
 “ Who beat ? ” 
 
 “ The papers say we did. But the papers told one truth about our next 
 fight at Rogerville.” 
 
 “ What was that ?” 
 
 ‘ 4 That most of the men in the left wing — I was in the right, you know — 
 being wholly undrilled were unable to execute manoeuvres which were ordered.” 
 “ You don’t tell the best part, Bill,” said a comrade. 
 
 “Let me finish, will you P I never give peaches without cream ! ” 
 
 “ What else did the papers say ?” 
 
 “ Ha ! ha ! ha ! ‘ That some of the officers were as green as the men and 
 
 unable to give intelligent commands. ’ ” 
 
 “Who whipped, then?” 
 
 “I guess we did : but we fell back in good order about three miles.” 
 
 “ When the rebels do that you say they skedaddle. Did you see the account 
 
 in the Cincinnati Commercial ?” 
 
 “That was where I saw the good joke ; a tavern girl read it to us while we 
 were at breakfast.” 
 
 “ That writer said Colonel Warner’s men were panic-stricken.” 
 
 “ Well, I guess you’d have been too, young lady, if you could have seen the 
 way those rebels fight. But our hope came back when we got near Richmond 
 and met Nelson with reinforcements.” 
 
 “ How did he escape ?” 
 
 “ In the confusion — ahem ! Some man got him through the rebel lines. One 
 of our men said he saw him sixteen miles from the fighting grounds in a fence 
 corner in a corn field. ” (a) 
 
 “ What was your loss ?” 
 
 “ The papers told the truth when they said, ‘ Nobody seemed to know any- 
 thing about it ;’ but we all acknowledge one half are missing. ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ How many men did Kirby Smith have ? ” 
 
 “About ten or twelve thousand, I guess ; but rebels always look like more 
 than we do. ” 
 
 “ Why don’t you go to Lexington to defend it ? There are no Kentuckians 
 there to do it. We look to Ohio and Indiana for all our defenders.” 
 
 “Yesterday I saw a man who had come from Lexington. He says he never 
 saw such traitors as the people there ; he never heard of such rejoicing as 
 when the rebels came in. ” 
 
 “ I thought that was one of our strongest Union towns.” 
 
 “ Well, I shouldn’t wonder if it is. But the people rang the bells, and they 
 say there was a flag from almost every house.” 
 
 “I thought the Legislature fined everybody from fifty to one hundred 
 dollars that showed a rebel flag. ” 
 
 “I dare say the Legislature is all right enough; but the Kentuckians are 
 confounded people. ” 
 
 “Where have you been, sir ? ” asked one of the ladies of another soldier who 
 rode up as if to have a chat. 
 
 “To Richmond.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 201 
 
 44 What did you go there for ? ” 
 
 4 4 To keep the people straight. ” 
 
 44 Did they need that ? I thought they were loyal.” 
 
 44 When Gen. Nelson got in he warn’t any too soon, for Richmond was just 
 ready for a surprise and capitulation, (a) But we cleared the streets pretty 
 quick*” 
 
 44 Cleared them of whom ? Your friends ? ” 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 September 3rd. 
 
 44 Dear Laura, — This has been a glorious day. I have been revelling in 
 dust; you never saw people enjoy anything more than we have this Yankee 
 rout. Some friends happened to be spending the day with me. Mr. Howe 
 could not be induced to sit in the house, saying, 4 it was the first rout he had 
 ever seen, ’ in a tone which meant it won’t be the last, and this would be uttered 
 with a most refreshing chuckle. 
 
 44 Can’t you come out to-morrow to enjoy the dust? I suppose most of the 
 cavalry have passed ; but a Unionist from Frankfort says 1280 waggons are yet 
 to come. I want somebody to expend my spirits on. Don’t think it inhuman 
 in me to rejoice ; these runaways are not suffering ; no, not even in mind. 
 Those who have stopped for water do not seem to be in the least mortified. I 
 suppose they are used to running away. Ellen Huston is in trouble ; she 
 wants to be married and won’t be by a man who has taken the oath of 
 allegiance to a Government she despises, and nobody else is allowed to perform 
 the marriage rite in this free Commonwealth. Mamma won’t send Rosa to any 
 teacher who has taken the oath, and as no one else is allowed to teach, I fancy 
 I shall have to instruct her. My method will be the Socratian and my first 
 text — 4 The consent of the governed indispensable to a free government.’ My 
 second will be, 4 Don’t fall in love with a soldier, unless you can get another 
 Eustace, or a General Lee ; no other individuals being worth the suffering that 
 anxiety entails upon those who love. ’ I should like to hear you on the last 
 order of Boyle’s — no more arrests to be published ! Come out and hold forth 
 to your Minnie. ” 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 September 5th. 
 
 Minnie had given her mamma her good-morning kiss, when the latter asked, 
 44 Were you alarmed by the noise on the pike about three or four o’clock ? ” 
 
 44 Oh no ! only pleased to think how frightened the Yankees must be if they 
 travel so fast all night. I counted over seventy waggons yesterday that I 
 passed as I came home ! I pitied the poor mules.” 
 
 4 4 Andrew,” began the waiter, 4 4 went down to the gate to see what was the 
 fuss, and the men told him they had been whipped at Shelby ville yesterday. ” 
 44 God be thanked ! ” 
 
 44 And that they were retreatin’, and the regiment that was a little piece up 
 the road got so frightened that they went into Louisville.” 
 
 44 Let us make haste to finish breakfast so as we can make lint and 
 bandages. ” 
 
 4 4 How many pairs of socks have you ready ? ” 
 
202 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “Only two; but Laura has more. Poor Laura! She don’t like to waste 
 time dreaming like I do. Who knows how soon our deliverer may be here?” 
 
 “ There were a good many arrests made yesterday. I know about a dozen of 
 the persons. ” 
 
 “ On what ground ? ” 
 
 “Disloyalty; that accommodating cloak that fits big and little, male and 
 female, rich and poor alike. The Unionists have such expansive minds that 
 they disdain particulars, and would think their dignity grossely insulted if 
 called upon to specify charges.” 
 
 “A great many houses have been searched; poor Mrs. Cavendish was 
 frightened almost to death by their rude insults ; they told her if they found 
 an ounce of powder they would blow her house up ; they took up the floors, 
 searching for concealed weapons. ” (a). 
 
 “ That was not surprising ; they have found weapons under the floors in other 
 houses in Louisville, (a) Oh ! why don’t our protectors come? ” 
 
 “ My principal idea when I think of them is to feed them. I have put up 
 four barrels of peaches and two of tomatoes. But that won’t be anything. I 
 expect to feast Eustace’s company ; they have had to do without meals long 
 enough. ” 
 
 As soon as the breakfast was over and Minnie had finished her half hour’s 
 devotional reading, which Aunt Emily had made her promise to observe always 
 when practicable, as the secret way to keep the mind steady in grace, she sat 
 down to make bandages. Mrs. Breckenridge said, 
 
 “Nearly all the families in the neighbourhood have been obliged to move in 
 town for protection. Are you not afraid to stay here ? ” 
 
 “No, mamma. Last night I lay awake a long time and thought about 
 Eustace, and how desolate we Southern women were, until it seemed my heart 
 would break ; so as I hadn’t Auntie to go to, I thought about her and I 
 remembered a Psalm she had made me learn, repeating a verse to her every 
 night, as you know she always liked to have me do. ” 
 
 Mrs. Breckenridge bit her lips ; she had felt hurt at her daughter’s careless 
 reminder that Auntie and not mamma, had been the one to whom Minnie had 
 always gone in trouble ; but as the last sentence forced her to acknowledge 
 why the godmother had taken the place of the parent, she bitterly thought, 
 “I ignored her soul ; it was enough for my pride that she was beautiful and 
 well-bred. ” 
 
 Minnie did not notice Mrs. Breckenridge’s countenance and continued, 
 
 “ It was the ninety-first; and I said it last night to the holy angels around 
 me.” 
 
 “My child !” 
 
 “What, mamma !” asked the innocent girl. 
 
 “ Pray to the angels !” 
 
 “Mamma, I am no idolater, I only talked to them — in my heart, I mean — 
 just as when a child I used to talk to my dolls. Don’t laugh, please, Auntie 
 thinks the angels are about us all the time. And Laura thinks so too, and you 
 know she has to prove everything — isn’t she strange ? and so she said she had 
 found forty-two texts in the Bible that represent angels as being with men.” 
 
 “ If the fancy pleases you, I suppose it can’t do you any harm. You are 
 well grounded in the simple truths of religion, thanks to one who did a 
 sponsor’s duty.” 
 
 “ Oh ! Don’t you believe in angels ?” 
 
 “I believe that there are angels.” 
 
 An officer was announced. It was General Terrell, who as politely as pos- 
 sible, informed Mrs. Breckenridge that he had received an order that she and 
 her family must leave without delay. He was very sorry, etc. 
 
 In a little while the ladies, accompanied by several servants, started to walk 
 into Louisville under a sun hot enough for August. 
 
 Unfortunately the carriage had been sent away for repairs and they had not 
 time to send for a hack. As, in obedience to the orders of their protectors, 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 203 
 
 they passed through the avenue, it was full of armed men, drawn up in line, 
 perhaps ready for drill. Some of the wretches laughed and joked about the 
 forced march of the Secesh ladies who had sent them to the kitchen to eat. 
 
 Hard to bear was this insolence ; but it saved the poor fugitives from a 
 greater sorrow, the realization that they were leaving a luxurious home to be- 
 come homeless wanderers it might be. Indignation forbade softer emotions. 
 As they passed the vineyard the fences were down and cattle grazing on the 
 green leaves. Some soldiers were cutting down trees and others levelling a 
 fine corn crop. 
 
 Henry asked Mrs. Breckenridge the cause of all this and she mechanically 
 replied — 
 
 “ Military necessity ! ” 
 
 “ Military bosh 1 ” said the negro, unconscious he was forestalling the opinion 
 of wiser heads. 
 
 “At any rate, General Terrell was polite,” said the kindly-disposed lady, 
 always ready to find good everywhere. “ He expressed his great regret that 
 it was necessary to clear a certain part of my place in anticipation of an 
 attack. ” 
 
 “ Oh ! I wish I was as smart as Laura and I’d make a speech as soon as we 
 got in town,” exclaimed Minnie. 
 
 “ When you get there you’ll be tired enough to rest. ” 
 
 “ I am too angry to feel fatigue,” she replied, tossing back her little head, 
 thinking of Eustace and her father. “ Do you think Southerners would hide 
 behind houses and turn women and children and poor people out in the cold ? ” 
 she asked, wiping perspiration from her flushed face. “ If the Yankees want 
 to fight, why don’t they let the women alone and go after men ? Oh, see, there 
 comes Laura’s carriage ! ” 
 
 In another minute the driver had stopped. 
 
 Laura mechanically held forth the passport certifying she had taken the oath, 
 though she had not been asked to. 
 
 “What can this mean?” she exclaimed, as instead of the expected picket 
 she saw her friends. 
 
 “ That our defenders are exercising their usual graciousness.” 
 
 “ Please get in, Mrs. Breckenridge.” 
 
 “ Where will you take us ? ” 
 
 “ Wherever you wish. You are not walking for exercise at this hour, I 
 presume ? ” 
 
 “Exhibiting our charms for the benefit of our gallant protectors,” said 
 Minnie. 
 
 “We were ordered to leave home in two hours and Henry was not per- 
 mitted to go for the carriage. ” fa. ) 
 
 “And where are you going, Mrs. Breckenridge ?” 
 
 “ To a hotel in Louisville. The order said we must go to Indiana.” fa. ) 
 
 “A delightful haven for Southern women. Many of our defenders are 
 Hoosiers, and it is natural to seek the guardianship of the brothers of such 
 chivalrous men.” 
 
 u Where were you going, Laura ? ” 
 
 “To your house. The women and children are ordered to leave town. 
 Nelson says he will shell it when he leaves.” 
 
 “ The brute ! Why don’t he go out to meet Bragg ?” 
 
 “He knows he would meet more than his match.” 
 
 “We had better go to Mr. Garland’s, Laura. He invited us there if we got 
 frightened, or had to leave. ” 
 
204 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 CHAPTEB. XLI. 
 
 Sept. 25. 
 
 An excited party had assembled on the gallery at Mr. Garland’s to hear the 
 news from Louisville ; Mr. Stark had just come from the city. 
 
 “It’s well, Miss Laura, that you left when you did as you could not get out of 
 town now.” 
 
 “ Had it not been for my promise to ma to leave Louisville if there was, during 
 her absence, any danger of a battle, I assure you I should not have incurred the 
 odium of running from friends.” 
 
 “ In truth I heard of only two Southern families who had left ; but the Yankees 
 are skedaddling to their congenial clime over the river to the tune of ‘ Bull Run 
 Races.’ It’s fun to see them in the pickle we’ve been in so long. It’s worth several 
 months of slavery to enjoy the terror of our masters. Steam-boats are at the 
 wharf to carry off the Yankee women and children and the worse-frightened 
 men. The mayor issued a proclamation : — [‘ All citizens are directed to close their 
 places of business within the city.’ The rigid execution of General Nelson’s order 
 relating to persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-live who had failed to 
 enroll themselves for military duty was the sensation for the time yesterday, as, 
 by the provisions of the order, all such persons as were liable to perform military 
 duty who had failed so enroll were after arrest, detailed for service upon the works 
 of defence in front of the city.”] 
 
 (i Our valiant defenders made good their means of retreat by building pontoon 
 bridges over the Ohio before they had any time to attend to the fortifications.” 
 il Did you bring out the day’s papers ? ” 
 
 “ Else I should not have dared to have shown myself.” 
 
 “ Do give them to us.” 
 
 “ Ah,” said Mrs. Garland, “ hear what the Cincinnati Gazette says — 1 It is 
 generally believed that Bragg will attack Louisville, and that Buell cannot over- 
 take him in the rear for five or six days.’ ” 
 u Hurrah ! We’re free ! ” shouted Minnie. 
 
 “ Suppose Bragg doesn’t come ? ” 
 
 4 Oh, don’t begin to croak ! ” 
 
 “I’m afraid he is too slow.” 
 
 “ So am I,” said Mr. Stark ; ‘for the Journal says, ‘ We breathe freer under the 
 belief that the enemy have lost their opportunity in delay.’ But don’t look so 
 serious, Miss Minnie ; our sweethearts will all be here in due time.” 
 
 “ Is yours an Amazon ? ’ ’ 
 
 “ If you call Liberty so. Some men who were to join the Confederates are 
 waiting here because their friends in the army so advise ; of course travelling 
 through the country is dangerous. Miss Minnie, I heard that as soon as you 
 found that Bragg was coming, you went in town to buy a flag.” 
 
 “ Yes, and to look at happy faces. I went first to Mr. Gregg’s, where many 
 people had happened to assemble ; as it was a central location we congregated 
 there to say to each other. ‘ Our time has come.’ I got home in a great glee ; 
 mamma’s joy was tempered with awe.” 
 
 “ It was an awful hour ; while on the street I did not dare even to pray, for 
 fear I should burst into tears,” said Laura. A child with a full heart, determined 
 not to give way, avoids its mother’s bosom. 
 
 “ Ah! what a life we lead,” said Mr. Stark; il hourly dreading and yet hoping 
 far the great battle. I never before understood what a battle meant.” 
 
 “ It is impossible for us to comprehend before we feel.” 
 
 “ So there was great excitement in Louisville, Miss Minnie ? ” 
 
 “ Yes, indeed ; mamma couldn’t get me out of town soon ! I had such a time 
 trying to find the right shade of red for a flag ; I met others looking for the 
 same.” 
 
 “ Why ! I thought you, young imprudent girls had your flags all the time.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 205 
 
 “ Of course we have little silk ones hidden in every conceivable place ; haven’t 
 we Mrs. Garland P ” Mrs. Garland blushed, as hers was sealed up in her pad. 
 
 “ But then we wanted material to make large ones to hang over our houses.” 
 
 “ Did you get it ? ” 
 
 “Yes, and I made mine in my high fever that very day.” 
 
 ‘ * Bosh, child ! ” 
 
 tl And wore it up here. Oh ! hut wasn’t it fun to see the Yankees running 
 over the river P ” 
 
 “ No ; hut it was very ridiculous ; what did they suppose our Southern chivalry 
 would do to harm non-combatants ? ” asked Mrs. Breckenridge. 
 
 “ They feared us whom they had outraged. 
 
 “They were afraid of Nelson burning the town.” 
 
 “When we got home,” continued Minnie, “we found some neighbours who 
 had come to rejoice with us, and we sang ‘Dixie.’ ” 
 
 “I’ll have you put in a strait jacket.” 
 
 “You’d better have General Bragg put in one ; why don’t he come now when 
 he can march in almost without resistance? The first time I ever addressed a 
 Yankee soldier was that day and he told me he didn’t expect they’d be here 
 very long. ” (a.) 
 
 “The first time, Miss Minnie? Why, you forget that chivalrous officer who 
 thought the city would be blown up' because he saw a fortune-teller at your 
 house. ” 
 
 “He never came but once; he had been very attentive to me a year before 
 at Cape May, and took it for granted that I’d like to see him. I met him the 
 Sunday previous at church ; he wore a citizen’s coat. I spoke cordially to him, 
 but I assure you I’ve never seen him since the night he had an old woman 
 hunted. ” 
 
 “By-the-bye, I heard that the old witch was spirited away.” 
 
 “Not by ardent spirits, I hope,” replied Mrs. Breckenridge, and there the 
 matter dropped, as veiled subjects were delicately handled by the faithful in 
 those trying times. 
 
 “ Bragg would get more recruits in an hour in Louisville than he’d get in 
 adjoining counties in a month ; and he’d get plenty of provisions.” 
 
 “ I don’t believe he’ll attack the city, because he knows three-fourths of the 
 property-holders are Southerners, and we are expected to pay a large share of 
 the Confederate debt. ” 
 
 “Of course we will,” replied Mr. Garland; “I consider that providence 
 assigns to Kentucky the care of the Southern prisoners ; already have we 
 expended many thousands on them and saved hundreds of lives. Kentucky 
 will save more lives in the Northern prisons than any one State will furnish 
 volunteers.” 
 
 “Oh,” exclaimed Minnie, clapping her hands; she had had time to think 
 while others talking kept her quiet, “ just think how near we are to Dixie ! ” 
 Mrs. Garland looked at her wistfully, — 
 
 “Who can measure the intensity of the bitter disappointment of Louisville 
 if Bragg does not attack it ? ” 
 
 “ I do not believe we would feel more the destruction of the city.” 
 
 “ Do you feel so, Miss Laura ? ” 
 
 “Yes ; and I know now what it is to be a homeless wanderer. I am willing 
 to admit that Kentucky’s first mission is to the prisoners ; but I believe her 
 last is to the houseless and ruined of more Southern States. I know many of 
 us look forward to sharing our wardrobes with the victims of the contest we 
 did all we could to avert, believing that war would be ruin.” 
 
 [“We learn from the Cincinnati Commercial that an order was issued by 
 Colonel J. V. Guthrie, on Monday, directing the arrest of the she rebels in 
 Covington and vicinity, who have let no opportunity pass recently to insult 
 Federal soldiers going onto their premises for the purpose of procuring water. 
 Men, who may offend in like manner, will also be arrested and confined in the 
 
206 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 county jail. A building has been selected in which the women will be placed 
 for safe keeping. ”] 
 
 “Oh, I wish I were a man !” 
 
 “What for, Mrs. Garland?” 
 
 “ To fight instead of staying at home to be imprisoned; but if they come 
 after me I’ll resist them. Husband, you promised to get me a pistol.” 
 
 “He’ll have to go to Boyle for a permit and take someone with him to 
 certify to his loyalty ; the dealers are terrorized into being very strict. 
 Boyle ordered all gunsmiths to bring certificates of loyalty signed by three or 
 more persons of well-known loyalty that they might be permitted to sell arms 
 and ammunition to Federal officers only.” 
 
 “ Contrast Boyle and Kirby Smith.” 
 
 “Oh ! if you want to make the Unionists ‘hopping’ say something about 
 Smith. He is so noble they have no patience even to hear his name.” 
 
 “Are any outrages now perpetrated by the soldiers in Louisville ? I thought 
 they were scared into good behaviour.” 
 
 “ As well try to scare a crow into a Parian figure. [A number of armed 
 soldiers without authority from their officers, were parading the streets last 
 night under pretence of enforcing military orders. They halted citizens in the 
 streets, and in some instances overhauled females, questioning them rudely, 
 examining packages which they carried, and in some cases treating them to 
 gross insult. ”] 
 
 “But the officers will be starved out if they don’t keep better order. 
 Market people are afraid to go to town even when they have permits. The 
 guards search every waggon and help themselves ad libitum. As I was coming 
 out a number of waggons were congregated that had been stopped by the 
 pickets. The owners had passes but the pickets said they were ordered to let 
 no vehicle pass. I went into another road where the picket, a Dutch boor, 
 who couldn’t speak English if he could read it, looked at my pass and 
 said, ‘Gut,’ and waved his hand most majestically for me to pass on. 
 [From the Blind Asylum to the Fair Grounds the trees were felled to fall 
 across the road, presenting a very formidable abatis, while signal stations were 
 erected to direct the fire of batteries which commanded the advance for 
 several miles and rendered an approach extremely hazardous. The Federal 
 patrols now extend about six miles out of the city, and beyond them for ten or 
 twelve miles not a human being was seen going out.”] 
 
 “ I am afraid to tell you about Cave Hill.” 
 
 “ Why ? ” asked all, one with a tremor in her voice. 
 
 “ It is ruined ; [beautiful trees cut down, our magnificent evergreens levelled 
 to the earth ; ditches made through graves ; coffins thrown up on the sward in 
 heaps.” ( a ) 
 
 Several sighed ; Mr. Garland muttered what seemed very like a curse. 
 
 “ The rascals notwithstanding their fright have time and nerve to persecute 
 grave-diggers. ” 
 
 [“In the City Council there was presented a resolution directing the Trustees 
 of Cave Hill Cemetery to discharge Mr. Ross (an Englishman) and all their 
 other employes who have claimed foreign protection, which was referred to a 
 special committee.”] 
 
 “Bah!” 
 
 “ I forgot to tell you that Lincoln has proclaimed the slaves free in all re- 
 bellious States.” 
 
 “ Good ! Now Kentucky will rise.” 
 
 “ Just the contrary ; her slaves are not to be interfered with ; so, if we 
 want to secure ours, all we have to do is to stay in statu quo . ” 
 
 “Is Lincoln blind ? ” 
 
 “To our interests only. We ought to revolt en masse ; how can we, when we 
 are kept weighed to the earth with obligations to Lincoln’s astute Cabinet ?” 
 
 “ Stuff ! ” 
 
 “ Yes ; but the stuff that neutrality is made of.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 207 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 u Laura, is it not too hard to be driven away from our homes ?” 
 
 “ Too hard ? Oh, no. If we can purchase freedom by the sacrifice of home 
 we shall be content.” 
 
 “ Yes, if those we love cannot come to us without entailing upon us the loss of 
 our homes — God's will be done ! ” 
 
 “ Amen !” said Laura, solemnly, but even as she uttered it, a look of intense 
 pain passed over her features. 
 
 “ What is it, Laura?” 
 
 “ What is God’s will concerning us ? None but He can estimate our sinfulness, 
 so none but He can mete out our punishment. We have been proud and un- 
 grateful, we shall have to learn humility and dependence on a Power far higher 
 than our own. You will have to share in the punishment of national sins, but I 
 shall have to bear not only that, but a burden of my own that no man can lift.” 
 
 “ What fancy is this, — that you are to suffer more than I ?” 
 
 “ You brought it to my mind. Oh, Minnie, I am never so selfish as when with 
 you !” 
 
 “ Then you ought to stay with me more ; it was only yesterday we were dis- 
 cussing what Mrs. Menon calls your culpable indifference to dress and appear- 
 ance.” 
 
 “ Am I not neat?” 
 
 “ Fastidiously so, judging from your old maidish abhorrence of dust and dirt.” 
 Laura laughed. 
 
 “ I confess one of my first ideas of Heaven is a place where there will be no 
 dust ; I do not care so much for mud ; when one puts her foot, or draggles her 
 skirts in the mud, she is aware of it and can get rid of it ; but dust penetrates 
 clothing, and it seems to me one can never get clear of it. It is so like the little 
 sins of our poor human nature.” 
 
 “ Auntie would never let me call any sin little. Nothing is little that offends 
 God.” 
 
 “ There isn’t much danger of my stepping into mud, or of my associating with 
 people who are coarse and malicious ; but how can I guard myself from the 
 petty ?” 
 
 “ Oh, pray don’t begin asking abstract questions of me ! I never answered one 
 that I hadn’t learned the answer to out of a book or from Auntie.” 
 
 “ Yes, you have though, my cheery sunbeam, and many more than you think.” 
 “ One for instance.” 
 
 “ You have heard me often speak of Palmer’s 4 Faith.’ ” 
 
 “And seen you fold your hands in the same way, and look at her until I fancied 
 a resemblance between vour face and hers.” 
 
 44 I thought you never observed anything you didn’t speak of at the time. I’ll 
 be more wary of my countenance hereafter.” 
 
 “ No you won’t. But what has this to do with my answering abstract 
 questions ? ” 
 
 4 ‘ I would rather talk to Lord Bacon’s ghost than to you ; you will never be 
 satisfied with any less argument than 2 from 4 leaves 2 because 2 added to 2 
 makes 4.” 
 
 44 Absurd. I never have a reason for anything I do ; but I have a right to 
 expect you to give one for everything you do. But,” shaking her pretty head, 
 she added, with a very serious air, “ I can’t say I’d like to be under the dominion 
 of reason as you are. You said to yourself, ‘I won’t have that man because he 
 differs from me in politics ; ’ and there was the end of it.” 
 
 “ If it only had been ! ” 
 
 With a pang of conscience Minnie took up the lost thread. 
 
 44 What abstract lessons have I given you ? ” 
 
 “ As I looked at my beautiful picture of Faith until I too could gaze at the 
 Cross and feel, God’s will be done, so I have watched you at times until I became 
 
208 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 gay. Ah, my sunbeam, you cannot think how often I have thanked God for 
 your joyfulness ! What would I have been without you, my pet ? ” 
 
 Minnie laid her heart close to her friend’s as though she would be very 
 willing to part with half of its joy if she could but give it to her. 
 
 Sunbeams, and birds and creatures like Minnie are God’s best gifts to our 
 sad and weary world. 
 
 After a little while Minnie murmured, 
 
 “It is so sweet to help you bear your burden.” 
 
 Laura’s first thought was, “You do not. Can flowers and birds lift a weight 
 from the spirit?” Her second was spoken, “The captive in a darkened 
 dungeon may keep his heart warm by every day pressing his lips to the one 
 sunbeam that comes from a hole in his prison wall. ” 
 
 While the girls were thus, heart pressed to heart, Minnie in her common 
 seat, Laura’s lap, the door opened, and Mrs. Breckenridge exclaimed, — 
 
 “Oh, girls, cam you believe it? Cheatham and Claiborne have left Shelby- 
 ville, and Kirby Smith Frankfort. Bragg is retreating. ” 
 
 “Oh, mamma ! Please stop ! I don’t believe a word of it.” 
 
 “I wish that I didn’t.” 
 
 “It maybe so, and yet no cause for alarm,” said Laura, whose voice was 
 firm ; but her heart was stunned as when she felt she had turned her back on 
 Keble for the last time. 
 
 “ Cause for alarm ! Certainly not. Those Yanks whip us ! ” 
 
 “Nevertheless, my daughter, they have done it more than once.” 
 
 “Yes,” said Laura, “and one thing that makes me tremble is my conscious- 
 ness that Minnie’s feeling is so common in the Confederacy. Until this 
 moment I never knew how much I loved the South. I would far rather have 
 my home destroyed than have the Southerners turn back and leave us to our 
 tyrants. (4) The very idea of returning to a home over which Boyle and his 
 satellites rule with absolute power is dreadful. Although I believed all that 
 I had would be blown up at Bragg’s approach, I was happy as long as I thought 
 aid was at hand. ” 
 
 Minnie took Laura’s sad face in her hands. 
 
 “ Oh faithless child ! Where is our Father that you think we shall be left 
 to the cruelties of the enemy?” 
 
 ‘ ‘ In Heaven. When we are with the martyrs, we, too, will be safe. But I 
 can’t forget history. Why should not we suffer as other nations have? What 
 are we that God should exempt us?” 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 “ Oh, Mr. Stark ! What about Bragg now?” 
 
 “ I did not want to tell you the rumour about his movements, as I knew you 
 would tease me for a wherefore which I cannot give ; all I know is, that the 
 Cincinnati Commercial congratulates itself that the [ ‘latest news from Kentucky 
 gives the very gratifying intelligence that Bragg and his army of 60,000 men 
 have left Bardstown. ’]” 
 
 “ Only a hoax.” 
 
 “A trick of Bragg’s.” 
 
 “I hope so,” answered Mr. Stark. “We can’t know anything certainly.” 
 
 In a few minutes Mr. Garland walked in, accompanied by a stranger. When 
 the usual commonplaces were over, Mr. Garland said, — 
 
 “ Our new friend has just come from beyond the lines.” 
 
 “Oh,” said Minnie, springing to her feet. An unconscious smile played 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 209 
 
 about Mr. Burnett’s lips and Minnie re-seated herself. “ I beg pardon ; I am 
 very foolish, I should not need to tell you this, Mr. Burnett, were you not a 
 stranger ; but the idea just struck me, suppose you were a spy ? ” 
 
 “ And if I were ? ” he asked, with utter nonchalance. 
 
 “We’d tell you everything in the world we know. Wouldn’t we, Laura?” 
 
 “I presume Generals Bragg, Buckner, and Smith are quite as well posted as 
 Buell and Nelson.” 
 
 “You look tired, Mr. Burnett ; would not you like to take a nap ?” asked 
 Mr. Garland, observing that the new-comer had closed his eyes and seemed to 
 be swallowing a yawn. Minnie had perceived the weary look, and thought to 
 herself he would like to sigh. The unconscious object of observation replied, 
 “Thank you; I could not sleep; but if I had known I was to be ushered 
 into the presence of ladies, I should have asked for water and a clothes-brush. ” 
 
 44 Come with me, sir.” 
 
 As soon as they left, Laura started in an opposite direction. 
 
 “ Where are you going, Laura ? ” 
 
 <4 Down to the river, if Mr. Stark will excuse me.” 
 
 “ Let us go, too, Mr. Stark.” 
 
 44 I feel too tired with my long drive, Miss Minnie, and I don’t intend to stay 
 here by myself. ” 
 
 Laura smiled ; but inwardly blessed his regard for her feelings. She knew 
 how he loved her, and was a little annoyed that he should have divined with the 
 quick intuition of a lover why she desired to walk — it was to be alone. This was 
 an intimation Mr. Stark could not disregard, whether his delicacy sprang from 
 respect for her or a consciousness that his best policy was never to be intrusive. 
 
 It was but a little while before Mr. Burnett returned, and Minnie observed he 
 looked around the room twice. 
 
 Mr. Garland also missed someone. 
 
 “ Where is Laura ? ” 
 
 “ Gone to the river.” 
 
 “And Mr. Stark here?” Stark blushed. “What does this mean? No 
 quarrel, I hope ; and yet lovers’ quarrels are very delicious things — eh, Stark ?” 
 
 44 Laura often walks to the river by herself,” said Minnie, coming to the rescue. 
 “ When her lover isn’t here there’s nothing wonderful in that. I told her 
 yesterday that the reason she took so many solitary strolls was because she was in 
 love ; and notwithstanding the usual clearness of her remarks, I could not exactly 
 understand what she meant by not being able to comprehend how a Southern 
 woman could countenance a man by giving him her hand when his own was 
 behind his back, or in his pocket, instead of handling a rifle.” 
 
 “ Quite a plain speech, I think, Mr. Garland,” said Mr. Burnett, giving a 
 scrutinizing glance at Mr. Stark, whose confusion was sufficiently apparent. Mr. 
 Garland invited Mr. Burnett to take a walk, and as they went informed his guest 
 that he supposed him to be a spy of the Confederates. 
 
 4 ‘ Not a spy, sir,” was the reply, delivered with the slightest tinge of hauteur, 
 44 but a recruiting officer, pro tem , though I started to Louisville on private 
 business. ” 
 
 44 If I can help any Confederate, I am ready.” 
 
 44 Thanks , but my business is personal. Did you hear that our General Smith 
 sent for the Mayor of Frankfort, and told him he had heard he was a good man 
 and therefore he reinstated him, Unionist though he was ?” 
 
 44 There is a 4 set off’ for that. Two sisters were riding when they were ac- 
 costed by some Union soldiers who asked them where their father was. The 
 rascals had been searching for him. The girls would not tell, so the scoundrels 
 cut off their hair. This story came to me very straight, though by the grape-vine 
 telegraph.” ( a ) 
 
 44 1 can believe it, because in one of the lower counties when the Yankees were 
 impressing horses they ordered some young ladies who were riding to dismount. 
 When they found they would not, they cut the saddle-girths and left the young 
 ladies sitting on the ground.” (a) 
 
 O 
 
210 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ ‘ A young lady, as Morgan’s cavalry was passing, exclaimed, 1 There is my 
 horse ! ’ The remark being reported to Morgan, the horse was returned. She, 
 much mortified, sent him back ; but Morgan compelled her to receive him. I know 
 of two instances where his men left fine animals when told they belonged to 
 ladies ; in one case taking so worthless a horse that by night he returned, having 
 been let loose.” (a) 
 
 After tea, when Mr. Garland’s family and guests were seated on the lawn, 
 enjoying the cool breeze and calm moonlight, both so unlike their heated hearts 
 perturbed alternately by hope and fear,* Laura turned to Mr. Burnett and asked 
 him to give them a description of the entrance of the army into Kentucky. 
 At the first word she uttered he turned towards her, and so sad was the 
 expression of his eye, and so slow was he to begin the required description 
 that she hastily added, 
 
 “ If there is any painful circumstance attending it we will discuss some- 
 thing else. ” 
 
 “ Painful circumstance ! To what do you allude ? ” he asked, at a loss to 
 comprehend her remark, as he was, of course, unconscious of any betrayal of 
 feeling. 
 
 “ Oh ! to nothing especial ; only I thought when many skirmishes and battles 
 are fought there might be losses painful to recall.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Certainly. But what have men to do with feelings so tender that they 
 dare not let memory face any past hour of their existence ? ” He asked this 
 question of himself rather than of her it seemed ; for, turning towards Mrs. 
 Garland, he said, “I believe General Beauregard is an especial hero of your’s?” 
 “ Indeed he is.” 
 
 “ Before his ill-health made his removal a matter of necessity he had planned 
 to take Louisville and Cincinnati.” 
 
 ‘‘ I fear the ill-health of that famous general is to prove to Kentucky a 
 deadly misfortune. ” 
 
 “What can you mean ? ” 
 
 “I know,” said Mrs. Breckenridge, “ Bragg and Buell have measured skill 
 and prowess, and our general is vanquished. ” 
 
 “Why, mamma! they have never fought each other.” 
 
 “Yes,” said Mr. Garland; “and a hard battle it was — not with guns, but 
 with brains.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ The success of our campaign here depended on who could outstrip the 
 other in the race to Louisville ; Bragg was first to enter ; the Confederates were 
 flushed with hope, and the Yankees chilled by retreating and feeling themselves 
 pursued. Breckenridge ought to have the command ; he has enough daring to 
 risk possible defeat rather than miss a quick stroke ! When the Confederacy 
 sends him here the Yankees won’t have time to fortify after he crosses the 
 Cumberland. To take Louisville, dash is more needed than skill. ” 
 
 “I have never heard of any military man who doubted when Bragg let 
 Buell pass within a few miles of him unimpeded, he threw away the prospect 
 of an initiative victory, which would have placed all the State in his power.” 
 
 ‘ 4 1 know of but one blot in President Davis’s character, and that is his 
 partiality for Bragg. I hope Tennessee may not be sacrificed to his prudence, 
 as Kentucky was. When the news passed over the State that Bragg let Buell 
 conquer him without a blow, a pall of depression fell over our hearts, which, I 
 fear, may prove fatal to our energy for a time. Kentucky is remanded to the 
 Yankees by General Bragg.” 
 
 A long silence followed these words, for the reports from the city received 
 during tea-time had confirmed Mr. Garland’s remarks. 
 
 Giving a wistful look at Laura, Mr. Burnett smiled resolutely, and said, — 
 “Oh, Miss Buckner, if you could but have been in Lexington when General 
 Kirby Smith entered.” 
 
 “I never hear his name without a thrill which I believe God interprets as a 
 prayer for a blessing on that noble man. (4) Why do you look surprised ? Can 
 I ever forget who first planted the flag of freedom on our State House?” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 211 
 
 “ Indeed, I do not believe you will ever forget the name of anyone who 
 confers a favour on your State.” 
 
 44 It seems to me,” said Mr. Garland, <£ that another great mistake of Bragg’s 
 was allowing Yankee Morgan to escape.” 
 
 “ Why ! our Morgan was sent after him.” 
 
 44 But Mr. Pollard told me that this intrepid officer with 750 men arrested the 
 course of the Yankee army for five days, and could have captured them, had re- 
 inforcements been sent to him. (8) But, after all the worse truths that can be 
 said of our country have been summed up, how we still tower above the United 
 States ! ” 
 
 44 I see but little hope for her political future. I do not know how anyone 
 familiar with history can have. Remember Athens.” 
 
 44 In one line Coleridge has foretold the downfall of a people he thought not of,” 
 said Laura. 
 
 41 And that line ?” said Mr. Burnett, suddenly turning upon Laura, a strange 
 gleam in his eyes, like a child waking up and finding a favourite toy at his 
 side. 
 
 4 4 He says the destruction of the Athenian Constitution was owing to the as- 
 cendency of the democratic element ; and he speaks of that passion for military 
 glory and political preponderance which may well be called the bastard and the 
 parricide of liberty.” 
 
 44 But, Mi3s Laura, as you quote that so approvingly, why are you doing all you 
 can to send your lover in search of military glory ? ” 
 
 Laura curled her lip at Mr. Garland’s question ; but blushed at Mr. Burnett’s 
 impertinent stare. 
 
 CHAPTER- XLIY. 
 
 The morning after Mr. Burnett’s arrival not a cloud was to be seen in the sky 
 and yet there seemed to be in it a thought of rain. Laura was nervous and rest- 
 less ; shrinking from the very idea of conversation, she chided herself that when 
 there was a Confederate in the house from whom she might hear so much about 
 her beloved South, her feelings should be of herself, but the mental scolding did 
 no good. If she could have summoned before her mind in one fell company all 
 her past sorrows, present fears, and dread for the future, that had crushed all 
 joyousness from life, she might have wept and then grown calm. But she could 
 no more do this than the parched grass about her feet could command the moist- 
 ness of the atmosphere to collect in clouds and fall in rain. We have not much 
 more control over our feelings than we have over the clouds ; but we can gene- 
 rally prevent ourselves or others from being damaged by them. It is very easy 
 to raise an umbrella, and it is just as easy for such disciplined minds as Laura’s 
 to shelter themselves from even an offer of sympathy. The poor woman, whose 
 heart was closed to sympathy from those around, was perishing for but a 
 whispered word from one whose mere presence shut out pain. What was there 
 in the thick voice of the stranger which recalled the tones of the longed for ? 
 Laura had passed an almost sleepless night. She would have been vexed if any- 
 one had said that the red-haired soldier with his green goggles reminded her 
 of the elegant Federal officer whom she had scorned, and she confessed to herself 
 that no one but a love-sick girl, pining for a memento, could have found one in the 
 new-comer. But Laura was a love-sick girl, proud woman though she seemed, 
 and whenever she had remembered Burnett’s sad smile and 44 Good-night,” she 
 groaned aloud while the slow hours of the night mocked her weakness, instead 
 of soothing her to sleep. At breakfast she had talked herself into her usual 
 
212 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 animation, for, of course, the Confederacy was the only topic ; but afterwards she 
 made her way to the river. 
 
 Soon Mr. Burnett remarked that he believed he had been told that Miss Buckner 
 was a refugee ! 
 
 44 You had better not let her hear you call her so,” was Mr. Garland’s reply. 
 
 “ She was forced from home by a promise made to her mother, and her cheek 
 flushes whenever we taunt her with running from the Confederates.” 
 
 4 4 Where is her mother V* 
 
 44 She returned to Missouri with a refugee sister.” 
 
 Laura was seated on a huge, fallen cotton-wood, which lay prostrate over the 
 crumbling bank ; at her feet were cows feeding on the little green left by the 
 summer drought. She was reclining on her left arm, while her right hand was 
 pressed to her throat as though she fain would force back some choking 
 thought ; but her face was quiet and Burnett stood a few minutes to drink from 
 her eyes the calmness she seemed to take from the clear blue river. The 
 morning was so still that the water painted on its bosom each leaf of the trees 
 on the shore of the opposite island, with as much care as Frankenstein would. 
 A little boat was gliding across and the music of the oars filled the silence. 
 For some time Laura did not appear to hear even this sound ; but as it neared 
 the shore she looked up and evidently recognized Stark. 
 
 44 Not yet,” she murmured, and getting up from her exposed position moved 
 behind the tree and sat down without looking in the direction where Burnett 
 stood. He was watching her jealously. He bit his lips and took off his 
 goggles while he hastily brushed his hand across his eyes ; then replaced them. 
 
 4 4 Not yet,” he repeated to his stilled heart, 4 4 not yet strong enough to bid 
 him good-bye and betray no pain. I know her well; not even to her accepted 
 lover will this strange woman show a moment’s weakness.” 
 
 A slight sigh escaped him. Laura looked around. 
 
 4 4 Ah, Mr. Burnett ! Have you also a fondness for river scenery?” 
 
 4 4 Yes,” he replied, with a vacant stare at the Ohio and then turned to her. 
 An amused look came over Laura’s face ; she scorned an affectation even for 
 her weak points. 
 
 44 What amused you?” he asked, as though he had the privilege of long 
 acquaintanceship. 
 
 4 4 This is scarcely a time to be diverted from sad thoughts. It is indeed 
 bitter that the cowardly foe will not come out and meet the Southerners, 
 instead of entrenching themselves behind houses from which they have driven 
 women and children. Have you seen the fortifications of Louisville ? ” 
 
 44 1 have not.” 
 
 4 4 They are really worth a visit.” 
 
 4 4 Indeed ! ” 
 
 44 You might then enlighten General Smith, who, I fear, has not advanced 
 beyond Vauban. The fortifications are within the town, and made where the 
 Lincolnites think the Southerners will be obliging enough to attack. ” 
 
 4 4 They boast of their chivalry; but I doubt if they will carry it that far.” 
 
 44 Won’t they? What a pity ! However, I don’t think the labour will be 
 lost ; you may be aware that sometimes a Yankee general’s hardest task is to 
 make his men fight ; so the rear-forces in the rifle-pits can shoot at them and 
 frighten them on. ” 
 
 “Miss Buckner, allow me to prepare you for Bragg’s final retreat.” 
 
 4 4 Retreat ! No ! no ! At least, he will wait until he gets recruits.” 
 
 44 He is disappointed at not having already received more.” 
 
 4 4 1 heard he expected many en route. He has taken the worst possible 
 course for that. If Bragg wanted recruits he ought to have come to Louisville, 
 instead of pretending to be asleep while Buell passed him, that he might 
 afterwards be laughed at when he cried, 4 Boo ! ’ Mr. Fink, the Chief Engineer, 
 told a friend that the country through which the armies passed is 4 as desolate 
 as though it had never been inhabited, and that it is almost impossible to 
 procure board for the hands even after the men are obtained. He says, 4 The 
 road to Louisville lay at the mercy of the invading army. ’ ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 213 
 
 The little skiff touched the bank and Stark sprang up it, gathering as he 
 leaped, a delicate vine of pink flowers. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Burnett !” was said in no complaisant tone. "Miss Laura, won’t 
 you come and take a row with me ? ” 
 
 "Thank you, no; my head aches.” 
 
 Burnett turned towards the river ; his eyes were fast closed — as were his 
 lips. 
 
 " Will you walk to the house with us, Mr. Burnett ? ” asked Laura, hoping 
 he would, while she tore up the flowers Stark had just given. 
 
 " No, I thank you. I enjoy the river. I shall be up directly.” 
 
 When they had turned their backs, Burnett gazed at them for a moment 
 and some tears fell. " I have none but God.” On his return to the house, to 
 his unspeakable anguish he heard Laura had left. "God has spared me a trial 
 I could not have foregone.” 
 
 CHAPTER XLY. 
 
 For a few minutes the girls sat very still ; Laura because she was overwhelmed 
 with the last news and Minnie because she was trying to take it all in. 
 
 " On the retreat ! on the retreat ! Bragg almost out of Kentucky,” exclaimed 
 Minnie, and burst into a fit of uncontrollable weeping. Laura’s face was very 
 pale ; her lips compressed tightly enough to give pain, but she heeded it not. 
 Ah, in this fearful mental struggle, what a releif would any positive physical 
 suffering have been. She walked up and down, her eyes almost closed, endeavour- 
 ing in vain to feel that Kentucky was not yet abandoned to her tyrants (4). 
 
 " Bragg’s heart must relent when he stands on the last mountain-peak of this 
 afflicted State and looks over a land chained down by despotism and crimsoned 
 with the blood of her slain. Surely then he will return, return to set her free ! 
 Aye, let his drums beat ever so loudly, the wailing of forsaken women will pierce 
 his ear. Let the bugles sound ever so shrilly, the despairing words of disappointed 
 men will sound still longer in his heart:” 
 
 " Why did they come at all ? It would have been better had the Southern 
 army never entered Kentucky.” 
 
 “ Better for us, yes, but not for it. How often have we forlorn and neglected 
 longed for an opportunity to suffer for the cause of freedom ? ” 
 
 " I would suffer anything if we could but b^ free. God knows I would be 
 willing to give up my home to the torch of the Vandals, could I but shout for 
 Davis and for liberty ( 4)'.” 
 
 "Enthusiast ! How little you know what you say ! ” 
 
 “ Did not you say that you felt a pang of disappointment when you fouud that 
 you could return to Louisville, (4) which was safe only because these whom we 
 had hoped would be its liberators had turned their backs upon our misery P ” 
 
 But they did wisely ; that feeling was an impulse, my reason says that Bragg 
 did right then, and so I try to feel he is doing now.” 
 
 " It is easy for you to say this. But with the army went Eustace. Oh, Laura, 
 I shall never see him again ! ” 
 
 " You must not be so despondent,” said Laura, kissing her ; she knew not how to 
 comfort her. “ He would not like to see you thus.” 
 
 " If he could, would you control this mood ? ” 
 
 "But he can’t know it now.” 
 
 "Yes.” 
 
 " Do you love him better than Jesus ? or do you think the Great One does not 
 care if you are distrustful of His love ? ” 
 
 " It was you, Laura, who doubted that and talked about His justice.” 
 
 "That is for me, His love is for you.” 
 
214 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 Minnie looked at the white, stern face and took Laura’s cold hand. 
 
 “ I am always so selfish, your grief is greater than mine. I do believe that you 
 feel more for Kentucky than I do for Eustace.” 
 
 Minnie was probably right. Agamemnon loved Greece better after Iphigenia was 
 taken. We love the altar more than the thing sacrificed. God pity the man or 
 woman whose whole soul is given up to his or her country ! As long as a nation 
 is but a mass of depraved beings the patriot’s life can be but a touching history of 
 disappointed hopes and agonizing misgivings. 
 
 “Will you hear a letter from Camp Chase ? 
 
 4 The Buckeye Olmutz, 
 
 December 8, ’62. 
 
 ‘ Miss Laura, 
 
 You see I have not forgotten the promise made in jest that if I ever 
 found myself in a Kepublican Bastille, I would write you a description of my 
 abode. Don’t you like the name I have given to our Araby ? — A Buckeye com- 
 pared Camp Chase to Olmutz. I thought we could not have a better name, 
 though some might think 4 Black Hole ’ even more appropriate. But I object 
 to giving that name to any place but Massachusetts ; surely not many there except 
 the Hon. Mr. Winthrop, (who deserves a better birthplace) and a few of his school, 
 can ever object to having their State named after anything coloured. At the 
 risk of shocking you, I am going to give you a true picture of Olmutz the 
 Second, premising that I speak of the department reserved for prisoners of State. 
 Of this class there are nearly 700, a disproportionate proportion of whom are 
 from Kentucky and West Virginia. It costs more to be a rebel in that State and 
 that sham State than elsewhere, seeing a man has all of the curses of the North 
 and none of the blessings of the South. My right-hand neighbour was taken 
 out of his bed at midnight eight months since ; my vis-a-vis was ploughing in the 
 field when Lincoln’s minions appeared, and was not allowed to cross the field to 
 bid his wife good-bye, or to get a change of clothing. ( a ) My left-hand neighbour 
 deserves to be here, as he was gulled by Bragg and displayed his sympathies too 
 soon. He is not allowed to correspond with his family, and being minus a purse, 
 they may never learn where he is unless you volunteer to convey the information: 
 his name is Girard Edwards ; he lives in the village where it was my happiness 
 and my misery first to meet you. There is an old gentleman here whose 
 daughters sent a waggon-load of provisions to the men they supposed had come 
 to rescue them from their thraldom ; but lo ! their protectors had fled and their 
 Yankee persecutors got possession of the waggon and sent the father (over seventy) 
 to Olmutz. (a) None of us are given more than one blanket — the people in these 
 parts profess to believe in Jesus. Our bed is a plank four feet long ; those whose 
 souls are microscopic ought not to be blamed for thinking other people pigmies. 
 Spurge, who sleeps when he can, is black and blue from lying on a bare board. 
 His clothes, I am informed, are 4 summer wear.’ They look like black shreds. 
 The first night I arrived, being stiff with cold, I walked out in the air to rouse the 
 circulation of my blood, which was clogged with impure atoms floating in the 
 atmosphere. A guard threatened to shoot me according to orders, and I went 
 back, uncertain whether I should die of cold, itching, starvation, or poison — 
 poison ? Yes, and of the most repulsive sort. Think of drinking a decoction one 
 part tubercular matter from diseased lungs, two parts molecules of decayed teeth ; 
 three parts motes from the mucous membrane of 4 running noses ’ ; four parts 
 putrescent matter from gangrenous sores ; five parts particles evolved from skins 
 that have not been washed for, decency forbids me to say how long ; six parts 
 dust ; seven parts smoke ; eight parts curses. I fancy I see you faint, as I have 
 heard you say that if in a crowded, close church, or concert-room, you for a 
 moment allowed yourself to think of what sort of atmosphere you were breathing 
 it made you sick. I commended the refined delicacy of the lungs that preferred 
 to let their owner faint rather than receive such an odoriferous compound. The 
 second day money procured me almost all I really needed for bed-covering. We 
 are wood choppers and most of us cooks. You have heard of migrating rats who 
 wouldn’t condescend to go around a house ; their American cousins will soon be 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 215 
 
 as agile ; already they disdain to walk around our feet. Ah ! do you doubt we 
 are in a Christian land ? Incredulous being ! so strictly is the sixth command- 
 ment kept that we are warned that death is the penalty for killing a rat. The 
 third plague of Egypt will henceforth be known as the first of Camp Chase. There 
 was a young man taken from family and friends, brought here without charge 
 against him, at least there is none recorded opposite his name ; but if I mistake 
 not the nature of God, that blank is filled up thus : ‘ Murdered for having a human 
 heart which sympathized with the oppressed.’ His body lay all night in the dead 
 yard, and the next morning his hair was stiff with lice and nits. Lice were 
 crawling into and out of his mouth, (a) I do not think I shall ever again use any 
 filthy or profane words without thinking of this. Some time since two men in 
 sport began to wrestle ; probably they became angry and dealt hard blows; 
 some prisoners standing by rushed in to part them. The guards from the lookout 
 fired on the group, killed one man, and wounded another, (a) Think of such 
 cowardice. God forgive me that I ever for one moment upheld this infernal 
 despotism ! But the tears of a lifetime cannot wash out the blood stain on my 
 soul. I wonder if you know the cause of my arrest. I heard of Senator Douglas 
 who had been advocating ‘ whipping the South,’ etc., having a plantation and 150 
 negroes, and that the Confederate Government had refused to confiscate it, and 
 was drawing a contrast between the two Governments. A bystander reported 
 me to the Provost Marshal, and here I am. I saw in a paper (we are not allowed 
 to buy such as the Cincinnati Inquirer jthat some guillotines had arrived in New 
 York. This may have been a mere sensational paragraph; but if it is true it 
 cannot surprise anyone unless he has been asleep, or has lived on the Louisville 
 papers for more than a year. One need not go out of Ohio to see an increase of 
 Butternuts. The time has come when every Northern man mnst array himself 
 in mourning, in 4 cap and bells ’ or in butternuts. Oh, if I had donned the last 
 when first you urged it ! 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. Gorin.” 
 
 “ Poor fellow ! but Laura, you reproved me for calling the Yankees savages. 
 Now I’ll try your game and prove what I said. On learning of the at- 
 tempted capture by Faulkner’s Cavalry of the steamer Eugene the military 
 authorities sent the Forty-Sixth Ohio to destroy Randolph. The inhabitants 
 seemed to have been impressed with the conviction that the town would be 
 destroyed. There were only a few men and some women and children left.” (a) 
 
 “ Oh ! then I am prepared to hear of some greac deed of Yankee valour. ” 
 
 “ You will not be disappointed. Every house in the town was burned to the 
 ground except the Methodist Church, which was left standing for the accommoda- 
 tion of the persons turned out of doors by the fire.” 
 
 “ Oh, rare instance of Yankee charity ! one building, minus cooking apparatus 
 or beds, was preserved for widows and orphans and old men to shelter themselves 
 in from the pitiless elements.” 
 
 “ I hope you do not blame the poor Yankees for this attack on gray-heads, 
 children and houses. Now, I am not so unreasonable as to expect the enemy to 
 venture off t^ie gun-boats and meet the guerillas hand to hand. Randolph was 
 destroyed because some high-spirited young men thought that a boat which 
 carried provisions, and probably arms to the men who were shooting down their 
 fathers and brothers, was a lawful object of warfare.” 
 
 “ How absurd they were ! What right would the Pennsylvanians^ during 
 Stuart’s late raid to Chambersburg have had to have fired upon a waggon, not 
 marked C. S. A., which was carrying aid or comfort to the invaders ? ” 
 
 “ But, lady mine, sarcasm aside, how can you expect armed men to act like 
 civilized beings if the men who bear the title reverend — as smarter and better 
 * fools ’ of the olden time wore jingling bells to attract attention — talk as if they 
 had received their commission from Abaddon the Destroyer?” 
 
 “ Oh that St. George would put his foot on this demon ! ” 
 il Jefferson Davis will be our St. George, by the grace of God.” 
 
216 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 “ Already he has his foot on the neck of this dragon ; hut the tail still lives. 
 Listen at one of its rattles — Parson Brownlow.” 
 
 “ I never read or listen to his blasphemous ravings. I would as soon sit at the 
 feet of Eugene Sue.” 
 
 “ Nevertheless, you must hear a few clauses. I know 1 never could make you 
 listen to all the speech. He says, ‘ I hold that everything that a rebel has, a 
 rebel South, or a rebel North, ought to be confiscated, and then his infernal 
 neck ought to be confiscated. ’ ” 
 
 “I think the parson is kinder to his enemies than to his friends; he is 
 doing all he can to confiscate to eternal justice the souls of the latter.” 
 
 “ You are too quick.” 
 
 “ He says, ‘ I deny that a rebel has any but two rights, the one is the right 
 to be hanged, and the other to be damned !’ ” 
 
 “ No more of him, Minnie. Head me Eustace’s last letter.” 
 
 “Near Morgantown, October 20th. 
 
 Dear Cousin Minnie, 
 
 As my other letter has doubtless been perused, 
 I will begin at once with the daily outward life of the one you honour by 
 calling your hero. We have been living for a week or two on parched corn and 
 fat meat ; but no grumbler disgraces General Morgan’s men. As nearly all 
 the men in our company are of the first circles, we don’t think it necessary to 
 make a fuss about what we have to show that we had better at home. I 
 suppose you have heard that near Bardstown we captured 125 Government 
 waggons, and 200 cavalry men. Last night I slept on fodder ; my saddle-bags 
 pillowed (pillored) me. I had undressed by putting my socks in my boots and 
 my feet were wrapped in my saddle-blanket ; over me was drawn an oil-cloth 
 which a certain young lady had sent to Glasgow to await me. When we get 
 into the little Kentucky towns the citizens offer us beds ‘ as if,’ says our 
 captain, “they didn’t know we’d roll out.” Their beds we decline, but never 
 excuse ourselves from a meal when our officers don’t. 
 
 Yours, as ever, 
 
 E. H.” 
 
 CHAPTER XLYI. 
 
 “ As I came from Frankfort I counted 23 deserted houses on the road, and 
 was told the men had joined the C.S.A., and the families gone South for 
 safety. A gentleman who lives on the Shelby pike had no clothes left him by 
 the Yanks but the suit he had on. One of his neighbours had had all her 
 china and glass wantonly broken. I brought a paper with me to read you 
 some extracts,” said Mr. Urston, unfolding a newspaper. ‘[Recently published 
 documents have shown that Bragg’s and Kirby Smith’s invasion was really 
 intended to be something more than the grand foraging expedition many had 
 supposed it. As a movement against Louisville and Cincinnati (and that now 
 appears to have been the original rebel intention,) of course it was a failure. 
 But in the secondary purpose of securing stores to winter their army, the 
 practical results they gained were well worth the whole invasion. Over the 
 whole region through which we passed — up, in fact, to within less than twenty 
 miles of Louisville — the rebels had kept every mill running night and day, had 
 seized all the wheat they could find and had ground it, had driven or slaughtered 
 and packed all the hogs and beeves they could collect, and had well nigh 
 cleared the entire country of horses. Some portion of the stores they had thus 
 collected was lost on the retreat, but by far the greater part was carried off. 
 
LOVE AND WAN 
 
 217 
 
 They came into the State in rags ; they went out with all the linsey and jeans 
 that the stores of Central and Southern Kentucky contained. A single 
 merchant in Lexington had to sell them (that was the polite name, at least, for 
 the transaction) a hundred and seven thousand dollars’ worth of jeans. One 
 remarkable feature of our trip was that we met no young men. The roads 
 were everywhere filled with travellers — the Kentuckians were always a 
 travelling people — but you rarely met a man under forty-five. The young men 
 were all gone to the wars.]’ ” 
 
 “Oh,” said Minnie, “I can’t yet bear to think of that retreat. But I’ll read 
 you what a friend wrote about their retreat. Ah ! it was really heart-rending 
 to leave Lexington. 4 The terror and dismay of the inhabitants were extreme. 
 The women ran through the streets crying and wringing their hands, while 
 families gathered their clothing and obtained waggons to depart, the greatest 
 distress prevailing. The retreat commenced on Sunday night the 12th of 
 October. Before the army came private trains of refugee families in every 
 conceivable vehicle. Intermixed with the cavalry and infantry were thousands 
 of cattle, horses, and mules. The effect of our retreat everywhere along the 
 road was sickening and depressing in the extreme. No miniature banners 
 waved, no white kerchiefs greeted our troops with approving smiles, and no 
 wild cheer was heard responsive to the greetings which had attended the march 
 into Kentucky. Trembling women stole to the doors to look upon the strange 
 scene before them, and as the truth gradually forced itself upon them, their 
 eyes filled with tears and they shrank back, fearing even to make the slightest 
 demonstration of friendliness — all was sullen and downcast. ’ ” 
 
 44 Miss Minnie, I’ve only made you bluer than before. But I cannot leave 
 you until I win you to smiles. Does that smile mean I am to go ? I have in 
 the Commercial an article which will interest you. It is called 4 A Few Days 
 in the Interior of Kentucky, ’ written to show the state of things after Bragg’s 
 retreat.” 
 
 4 4 Don’t read me any Yankee exultation over our misery.” 
 
 44 1 will only read portions. The writer shows that Bragg, and not Kentucky, 
 is most to blame.” 
 
 44 1 don’t need ten days’ travel to find that out.” 
 
 4 4 You are too hard on Bragg.” 
 
 44 Am I,” asked Minnie, with unfeigned surprise that she should be called 
 hard on anybody, particularly on a Southerner. 
 
 44 You don’t make due allowance for the defeat at Corinth, which may have 
 rendered imperatively necessary the evacuation of Kentucky.” 
 
 44 Oh, if Bragg had only published one more proclamation and told us that ! 
 If he had only made one effort to soothe the hearts he was breaking ! Instead 
 of this he and his staff poured vitriol into our wounds ; scoffed when they 
 should have pitied. ” 
 
 Mr. Urston did not like to hear Bragg abused, and didn’t know how to 
 defend him, for he could not help feeling it a reproach that Bragg had tried to 
 shift the blame from himself upon manacled Kentucky, who had done her best 
 for him and his. 
 
 44 I’d rather you would talk. I don’t want to call up any reminiscences of 
 the last few painful weeks. ” 
 
 “But there is a good deal here about Morgan.” 
 
 “Oh! if you are determined to read it, pray do so at once,” said Minnie, 
 brightening. 
 
 44 Beginning and ending with Morgan ?” 
 
 4 4 By no means. If there is any comfort let me have it; I sorely need it.” 
 
 44 4 If the battle near Perryville had been a more decided Union success, if 
 Bragg had been pushed a little more rapidly out of the State, and if, instead 
 of leaving John Morgan, with over half the cavalry of the invading army still 
 roaming through the State at pleasure, the expulsion had been complete, there 
 is no doubt that the hopes of the rebels would have been cruelly crushed. 
 After all Bragg hadn’t retreated, except when he pleased, and as he pleased. 
 
218 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 When* Buell was pursuing, he got severely punished for his temerity at Perry- 
 ville. With all the Union force, they couldn’t keep John Morgan from going 
 wherever he pleased. Why then shouldn’t Morgan stay and Bragg come back ? 
 And so they reasoned themselves into the belief that after all the rebels might 
 still have about as strong a hold as the Government on Kentucky. The zealous 
 masses point to Morgan and ask if that doesn’t look as if Southerners could go 
 wherever they pleased. Every one had some question to ask about him, or 
 some fear to express. Few had much hope of our cavalry’s overtaking him. 
 If they could only keep close enough behind to give him no time for pillaging 
 or destroying, they would do well. But after all, Morgan was the greatest 
 military genius the war had developed. As we got beyond the region of his 
 latest exploits, the fame of his performances, we found, had still outrun him. 
 The stages stopped running for fear of Morgan. Farmers riding along the 
 turnpike anxiously inquired which way Morgan had gone, and whether there 
 was much danger of his coming down there that night. The rebels we saw 
 were jubilant, and hardly concealed their amusement and delight at the 
 consternation Morgan was creating. At Rough-and-Beady, and Salvisa — little 
 post villages on the road to Harrodsburg — they were all expecting Morgan 
 “ between then and to-morrow morning.” Everywhere Morgan, Morgan, 
 Morgan, was the constant theme of conversation. “Can’t they catch that 
 devil, Morgan?” exclaimed an honest Unionist, who stopped us on the road to 
 have a chat about Morgan’s doings. “I guess Morgan’s showing them a few 
 more of his tricks,” chuckled an ill-concealed Secessionist. 
 
 “ ‘ As the days passed by the excitement died away, but still Morgan’s name 
 was in every one’s mouth. His reckless (or apparently reckless) exploits, 
 seemed to have a great fascination for the susceptible Kentucky mind. We 
 have a largely increased number of shuffling middle-men, who “take no part in 
 this unhappy contest, ” and who are waiting to see which side is successful, 
 before they decide whether they believe in loyalty or treason. All this may 
 not be very flattering to the people themselves ; but where, in the history of 
 all civil wars, has the border country been found otherwise ? ’ ] ” 
 
 “ What Southern State in Kentucky’s geographical condition would have 
 acted otherwise than as she has done? And I remember in one of Scott’s 
 novels — my usual resort for historical references — he says the same of border 
 lands. ” 
 
 “Yes; where in the South has an army been planted that the people have 
 not succumbed?” 
 
 “Is that all the letter? I like it. Whenever a Yankee twits me with 
 ‘Bragg,’ I shall say, ‘Morgan.’” 
 
 ‘ ‘ I saw an extract from the Chattanuga Rebel which says : ‘ [Forrest and 
 Morgan operate around Nashville. They make Lavergne a place of rendezvous, 
 whence they sally forth, like Marion’s men of old, at the peep of day, dealing 
 death and destruction to the outposts, foraging parties and subsistence trains 
 of the enemy. These excursions are generally attended by artillery, of both 
 which the brigades of Morgan and Forrest have abundance. Composed of 
 dashing veterans, and led by chieftains who have never been surpassed for skill 
 and daring, the cavalry branch of the Army of the West may challenge 
 comparison with any army of the service.]’ ” 
 
 “What has become of our paroled prisoner?” 
 
 “Ah, Miss Minnie, can’t you let one poor fellow pass without taking him 
 captive ? ” 
 
 “ But where is Colonel Welles F ” 
 
 “In Camp Dent, the new military prison. He encouraged the hearts of the 
 despairing by letting them look at a live rebel. ” 
 
 “Most of the people here — Hutch and Yankees excepted — do that every 
 morning while making their toilettes. But what has the colonel done ? ” 
 
 “Nothing.” 
 
 “ Then why this violation of the cartel ? ” 
 
 “ Don’t you know all the paroled prisoners are treated exactly as if they 
 were not paroled ? ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR , . 
 
 219 
 
 44 And in the South ? ” 
 
 44 Are allowed to act out the meaning of parole ; Southerners are expected 
 to keep their word. I saw a Union lady to-day who has been South to take 
 her son some money that she concealed in her clothes ; but she says, 4 that 
 was not at all necessary. ’ ” (a) 
 
 44 And here the Yankees won’t let a mother give her imprisoned son more 
 than a dollar at a time. ” 
 
 44 But Southerners are not Yankees.” 
 
 44 1 hope 4 evil communications’ won’t 4 corrupt good manners.’” 
 
 44 Those who have been inoculated are not apt to have the small-pox.” 
 
 44 Mrs. Ingersoll, a Unionist, says, that all the time she was in the 
 Southern lines she was treated with the most kindly attention, and had the 
 most gentlemanly sympathies from all parties with whom she came in contact, 
 with one exception, and he was a Northerner by birth.” {a) 
 
 44 Mrs. Laurance went to the prison hospital yesterday to see her husband, 
 and w$s answered very gruffly she could not. Only for certain days can she 
 get a permit. ( a ) Imagine Southerners sending ladies to a stranger to get 
 permission to see a sick husband ! She had to talk before Lincolnites. Mrs. 
 Cabell went to the prison to enjoy the immense privilege of talking to her 
 husband through a window ; she presumed on the wifely privilege of whispering, 
 and a Yankee said, 4 Speak loud, madam.’ ” (a) 
 
 44 Oh this petty tyranny ! ” 
 
 44 Petty to listeners ; but not to those who suffer. Prentice says, 4 A large 
 Secession rag was torn down from the house of a Secessionist. The gallant 
 soldiers, after taking it down, put a better one, the Star-spangled Banner, in 
 its place.’” 
 
 44 1 declare no man should put a Yankee flag over my house.” 
 
 44 Take care ! you’ll be tried for treason.” 
 
 44 Tried ! How witty you are ! Ho you call that a jury where all the jurors 
 have sworn what they will do ? ” 
 
 44 No one ever heard of such a case.” 
 
 4 4 Have you never seen the enactment of our humbug Legislature — that all 
 jurymen shall swear they 4 have not, directly nor indirectly counselled, or 
 abetted any rebellion or insurrection whatever !’ ” 
 
 44 A petty tyranny is exercised in the North. Next to money, the true 
 Yankee loves news. Secretary Stanton has ordered home all the correspondents 
 connected with the army, under penalty of arrest. ” 
 
 CHAPTEE XLVII. 
 
 December 20th. 
 
 Minnie and Mrs. Breckenridge were in Bowling Green, whither they had 
 gone to visit Mrs. Burton, sister and aunt. Minnie’s cousin Aglae had just 
 finished the song of the Kentucky Guard, and in tears the child of beauty and 
 of joy laid her hand on the door-knob, intending to escape to her room and 
 have a good cry, a luxury for which Minnie was always grateful after it was 
 over, for it generally ended with a thanksgiving. As the knob could not be 
 turned she lifted her hand, and ere it fell it was thrown — neither ever knew 
 how — around the bowed neck of a tall soldier in grey. Not a word was spoken 
 and Miss Aglae went from the song into 44 Jeff Havis’s Polka.” A few minutes 
 as balmy and holy as the shadows of angels’-wings, filled two hearts with 
 unspoken love and a rapture that was half prayer, half thanksgiving. When 
 
220 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 the pretty polka was ended, Minnie, to whom consciousness of being adored 
 had taught womanly dignity, quietly said, — 
 
 “My cousin, Miss Burton, let me introduce Captain Huntington. ” Aglae’s 
 eyes opened in amaze. 
 
 “ How loudly I must have played! I didn’t hear you speak to anyone, 
 Minnie. ” 
 
 “Did you not?” 
 
 " Captain Huntington, I can scarcely repress my pleasure at seeing you. Is 
 your company near ? ” 
 
 “ In the outskirts of the town.” 
 
 “Oh, joy! Then I must go get something for the blessed soldiers to eat. 
 Famine in the South, feast in Kentucky ! Please excuse me, captain.” 
 
 “With — ” he didn’t finish the sentence. “The ladies of Bowling Green 
 have so petted us that when we come here we feel much like spoiled children 
 returning home after a season of school discipline. ” He bowed Miss Burton 
 out. “My darling,” Eustace again clasped the little form to his strong, manly 
 heart. “ Tell me good morning, sweet, ” he asked roguishly, his lips close to 
 hers, waiting. 
 
 “I have,” she replied, turning away her pretty head, but blushing no more 
 than if her mother had asked to be kissed. Hadn’t Eustace an equal right to 
 an embrace ? 
 
 “Indeed, those are your first words. Tell me good-morning. Quick! 
 Before somebody comes. ” She kissed him, perhaps because his beseeching eyes 
 were too near to be thwarted. “ Isn’t this meeting the strangest thing ? ” 
 “No, Eustace, I never wanted to see you as much as I did yesterday and 
 last night. I cried for you and God saw me, and I begged Him so hard to let 
 you come to me. ” 
 
 “My beautiful angel ! ” 
 
 “ And you are mine, Eustace. Don’t smile. Are not angels the ‘ messengers of 
 God,’ and I am sure God sent you so me a year ago and now again.” 
 
 For a week Duke’s Regulars held Glasgow and the inhabitants vastly enjoyed 
 their breathing time ; though like hunted animals, they knew that every time 
 they raised their heads above the overwhelming tide of Yankee oppression they 
 became targets for new cruelties. 
 
 Minnie and Eustace were seldom apart ; he was too manly to be ashamed of the 
 crown of his life and she seemed to think it as natural that she should love 
 Eustace as flowers and birds. Their long walks were not often disturbed by the 
 presence of a third person, and in the house the bow-window was given up to 
 them in obedience to the old prescriptive right of lovers. The handsomest, most 
 gallant and most polished men of Kentucky, who were of the Regulars, could not 
 tempt Minnie to even a thought of flirtation. The days when she had permitted 
 the attentions of flirts humiliated her in remembrance. 
 
 “ But,” she added to her thought, “Eustace has raised me above myself. I am 
 on his level now ; he never stooped to make love an amusement.” 
 
 CHAPTER XLYIII. 
 
 In the little church, in Bowling Green, Eustace and Minnie were made one 
 “according to God’s holy ordinance.” Eustace felt that he was on “holy 
 ground : ” to him the gates of Eden were re-opened and he felt that God came 
 down to talk with Minnie and with him. This impression was probably deepened 
 by the following verses that morning presented by a friend. 
 
 * ‘ A woman yields to thee, 
 
 Prepare her throne ! 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 221 
 
 Whom thou hast vanquished now must he 
 ‘ Bone of thy bone.’ 
 
 The mystery of Paradise 
 Doth overwhelm. 
 
 Reason and phantasy. 
 
 Make thy heart realm, 
 
 Of love and faith and joy ; 
 
 Wash thy hands lest they stain 
 With sin’s alloy, 
 
 One who for thee may bear much pain ; 
 
 Pray Christ to cleanse the heart 
 Where He will place thy bride, 
 
 To dwell until ye part — 
 
 Death-bed beside.” 
 
 It was decided by Mrs. Breckenridge that it was necessary for Minnie to 
 return to Louisville for a week, and Eustace yielded, knowing it was almost 
 impossible to buy clothes in the South. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 As beautiful as the morning and as silently, did pretty little Minnie run up 
 the stairs and tap at the door of Laura’s room. 
 
 “Come in,” was said in a voice that fell on Minnie’s gladness like a shadow, 
 for she was about to dance into her friend’s arms. Suddenly she stopped and 
 trembled. Again, she looked at Laura and put her hand to her head as though 
 she had received a violent blow. 
 
 Laura arose and took her in her arms. 
 
 “Who, darling?” was all Minnie could gasp. How should such a child 
 know how to grapple with the shadow of death ? Laura was dressed in deepest 
 mourning. 
 
 “ My mother. ” 
 
 Minnie’s sobs became violent. 
 
 “ I loved her so.” 
 
 “I know it.” 
 
 “ What did she die of ?” 
 
 “ Despotism.” 
 
 So hollow were Laura’s metallic tones that Minnie could not repress a 
 shudder. 
 
 “Don’t shudder, child ; it cannot touch her now.” 
 
 “But you, Laura — What will you do ?” 
 
 “ Suffer !” 
 
 “ Oh, Laura, if you love me, cry !” 
 
 Her eyes were sunken and dry ; even her skin had a parched look. 
 
 “ Why should I ? When I did I could not save her.” 
 
 “ Oh, it’s too horrible ! How could you give her up ?” 
 
 “ As I could give you up — you, my all now.” Laura’s convulsive clasp hurt 
 Minnie. “ They had taken her husband from her.” 
 
 “ What ! what do you mean ?” Minnie knew she did not refer to his long 
 imprisonment for she had left Mrs. Buckner well. 
 
 “ That my father has been sent to Vicksburg. Don’t sob so, child ; you’ll 
 kill me. They would not even let her go with him. What do they care that 
 God hath said, ‘ Whom He hath joined let not man put asunder ?’ She would 
 not let the Yankees know how she suffered ; but before we reached home she 
 had fainted.” 
 
222 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 Laura began walking rapidly up and down the floor. “ She had had nervous 
 rheumatism before you went away. After you had gone she had spasms and 
 in one she found eternal rest. Ah, Minnie ! can you think what it will be to 
 be where despots have no power ? I can’t. When I try my brain reels. I am 
 not yet strong enough to bear the freedom of Heaven. That would crush me 
 as the despotism of earth killed — ” 
 
 She stopped her rapid walk. Minnie did not see that she trembled so she 
 caught hold of the bedpost. 
 
 “ I think I can sleep now one that loves me is near,” she said, as still holding 
 the post, she placed herself on the bed. Minnie arose and took her head in her lap . 
 More than an hour elapsed when Minnie bent over her friend, whose face was 
 turned from her. She saw and shrieked ; Laura’s eyes were wide open and seemed 
 set. 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 Minnie wrote a letter to her husband and gave it to an exchanged officer ; some 
 busy-body informed the General in command in Louisville that he had a suit 
 of Confederate uniform for General Morgan, whereupon he was arrested and 
 searched ; on his person was found Minnie’s letter to Eustace. Some expressions 
 in it about himself displeased him, and he ordered her South. She pleaded hard 
 to wait until Laura died, for the doctors had no hopes of her recovery ; but he 
 would not give her one day of grace. (4.) Immediately she wrote to Miss John- 
 ston to come to Laura. For a week the latter lay at the point of death with 
 typhoid fever. Miss Johnston reached her when she was convalescent, and most 
 tenderly watched over her. She had told her that she should establish a sister- 
 hood in Louisville as soon as she recovered. Laura sat listlessly knitting ; it was 
 evident she was not conscious that she was engaged in a manual occupation. 
 
 " What is before me ? ” thought she ; “ An interminable desert ; there may be an 
 oasis here, there may be an oasis there, but the desert will not end till I come to 
 the ocean of eternity ; so my reason teaches me. Would it could drill my heart 
 into this conviction ! Poor heart ! the stately castle with its interminable 
 labyrinths of pleasure is only a mirage. It is not real, and can never be the 
 pleasant picture that I see — a woman’s weary head pillowed on a strong breast, 
 while a disin gaged hand plays with the letters C. S. A. on dress buttons which 
 once that woman said she scorned. The Fata Morgana — nothing more, heart ! 
 Now lie down and be still. What work is there for you to do F I must, in very 
 pity find some employ for you. A ‘ little while,’ it will be but a ‘little while,’ 
 and all these dreary hours will be over. But I have got to live through them, and 
 how shall I pass them ? That is the question now. A literary life I should like 
 best ; but though I love to write I would not choose a literary life. Now I can no 
 more refrain from writing than from sleeping ; exhausted nature seeks repose; 
 the aching heart must dream ere it can be refreshed ; nothing but happiness 
 refreshes me, and I am happiest when I write. But I cannot sell my happiness ; 
 I cannot make my living by my pen ; our house is to be taken for a hospital — 
 that’s nothing, at least, the Southerners think that Kentuckians deserve only to be 
 depreciated for enduring confiscation and poverty. My father is in Dixie ; well, 
 he’s happy. Happy ! Happy ! Undoubtedly, when he thinks of the wife who 
 was sacrificed to the South, and the daughter left virtually an orphan and penniless 
 for the same. Is the exile received with open arms as a Kentuckian ? If not, he 
 will scorn sympathy and respect given to him at the expense of his State. He has 
 but done what ninety-nine out of every hundred of his State fellows would do 
 were not little mouths waiting to be filled with bread. The man whose destiny 
 has killed a wife will never blame another for not being as bold as himself. The 
 father, who leaves a daughter at the mercy of brute invaders, will never blame 
 another that he loved his child’s honour as much as his own freedom.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 223 
 
 A long burst of weeping eased Laura’s aching heart, and after she had knelt a 
 while she grew calm. Then for nearly an hour she sat motionless, a hand on 
 each eye. 
 
 44 O Father ! Can I do it ? Am I worthy to live for Thee ? But all my life I 
 have been used to luxury ; how can I endure poverty ? It would be very hard to 
 bear it for myself ; it may be easier to bear it for others. Besides, were I a sister 
 I should have blessedness incomprehensible ! And I can forget the wounds in 
 my own heart while I pour oil into those of other grieving spirits. What is the 
 use of the mental inquisition I have undergone if it has not strengthened the new . 
 life with the 4 baptism of fire ’ ? 4 In quietness and in confidence shall be my strength.’ 
 I will quietly wait for love and happiness, and while I wait I will maintain un- 
 questioning confidence in the love of the Father who stooped to undertake my 
 reformation. Many influences, chiefly Keble’s master-hand, had hewn me into a 
 woman, but the Divine Majesty of Heaven deigned to give with His own hand 
 the finishing strokes as He had at my birth given to Heaven, Earth, and Hell 
 the cast of the woman I was to be. 4 Shall the thing formed ’ refuse to serve her 
 Maker ? God, I am Thine. Do with me as Thou wilt ! ’ ’ 
 
 Perhaps it was more Keble’s words and life while with her than grief at his loss 
 that her heavenly guardian chose as the means of schooling her noble spirit for 
 the companionship of the blessed. Here are two extracts from her journal : — 
 
 “Dec. 22. Twelve months ago what a child was I ! I looked to the future as 
 unalloyed pleasure as far as it could be separated from my country’s struggle. A 
 teacher came to me ; had I known him as an angel, would the doors of my heart 
 have opened more readily for him ? I teased and taunted him ; I sported with 
 him ; I enjoyed intellectual jousts with him; I knew him as a mere man ; now as 
 he fades from me in the distance his hidden wings loom upon my sight, I bow 
 my head and heart to him, I feel the place that he trod is 4 holy ground.’ ” 
 
 “Dec. 31. I have to-day been acting as Keble would like, visiting the poor. 
 Until now I never wished to live to be very old. But how much misery one can 
 relieve in a long life ! I begin to feel happy. I have a work to do. I cannot 
 free my country, but I can devote my life to her ; I can comfort her. I am 
 rejoiced to hear we are to have a Sisterhood in Louisville. (9.) To nurse the 
 sick, teach girls, reclaim the erring. What a Christlike mission ! Be happy, my 
 Minnie ; I will try to have but little time to think about myself. I have longed 
 so earnestly to serve my country — how could I do it better than by caring for 
 and helping to cure her sick and wounded captive soldiers, and in tending the 
 widows and orphans of those who have given their lives for freedom P But it 
 will be so hard to give up all my beautiful surroundings ; yet that must be done. 
 Already has the order gone forth to rob me of my home. My pictures ! Memory 
 will turn the key of a picture-gallery whenever I have leisure to enjoy it. My 
 beautiful mementoes of the absent or the dead can go with me — all that the 
 Yankee Government don’t steal. They’ll help to beautify a home for one who has 
 no other. Yes ; I must be a sister. How many women will be 4 ruined’ by this 
 war ? Oh ! my heart beats fearfully even to think of them. Cannot I do some- 
 thing to save them P I will, I will, by God’s help. A little wooden cross over 
 our house will be to all these weak and erring ones a promise that its inmates will 
 say what their Master said, ‘ Neither do we condemn ye come to us and be 
 happy ; come to Jesus, and 4 sin no more.’ Some depvared hearts will scorn a 
 Saviour, but few, I think, will scorn a happy home. So may we win souls for the 
 Lord. Oh, is it possible that I could do this thing ? 4 He that turns many to 
 
 righteousness shall shine like the stars for ever and ever,’ ” 
 
VOLUME III. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Virginia Davis is an orphan and more than an orphan, for who her parents 
 are, or were, nobody knows. The asylum in which she is has not made the praise- 
 worthy discovery that when Christ said, “ Of such is the kingdom of Heaven,” 
 He excluded foundlings and that, therefore, the Church does well to follow in her 
 Master’s footsteps, and hand such little innocents over to the trinity of foundlings, 
 “ the world, the fiesh, and the Devil.” 
 
 Mr. Maturin had lost his wife soon after his only daughter had reached her 
 fifth year, and he pitied the solitude of a child who had no playmate of her own 
 age. Mrs. Blanton, Jennie’s nurse, and since Mrs. Maturin’s death, the house- 
 keeper, was hut a poor companion for a child as frolicsome as Jennie. It is as 
 wrong needlessly to cheat a child of happiness, as a man of money, thought Mr. 
 Maturin, and to remedy this grievous evil he took Jennie to an orphan asylum 
 and having obtained consent of the managers led her into the play-room, and 
 told her to choose a little girl to go home with her. Mr. Maturin had scarcely 
 finished his sentence when a child threw down a book and ran to Jennie, catching 
 her in her arms, and exclaiming in accents of wild delight — 
 
 “ This is my little girl because she is so pretty.” 
 
 Although the children were nearly the sam^ age the orphan was stouter, not 
 having been reared on pickles and coffee, candies and hot bread, and so she lifted 
 the slight Jennie in her arms. 
 
 “ Mayn’t I take care of her ? she is so pretty ! Please say yes, and I’ll be so 
 good,” said the little suppliant, putting down Jennie and grasping the matron’s 
 dress. Jennie cried ; the orphan ran back to her. 
 
 “ There, I frightened you little girl, didn’t I ? I’m so sorry ; don’t cry.” 
 
 Jennie who had only whimpered before, now cried aloud ; the little enthusiast 
 shrank back, tears in her eyes. Mr. Maturin was surprised ; but the matron ex- 
 plained that the previous day a lady had brought a beautiful little boy to the 
 asylum, and that to reward one of the elder girls, who was remarkably good, she 
 had told her she might consider the boy as her peculiar charge. 
 
 “ And so,” said Mr. Maturin, “ this little beauty thought I was going to leave 
 my child and she wanted to adopt her — a strange piece of luck ! I must adopt 
 that child. What’s her name P ” 
 
 “ Virginia Jefferson Davis, a director called her so from admiration of the State 
 of that name, and for a man who, she said, she knew would distinguish himself — 
 a gentleman born in Christian County where she came from.” 
 
 “ But the father’s name ? ” 
 
 “ Don’t know, sir.” 
 
 “Ah ! Then I’ll make another selection.” Jennie was again called upon to 
 make a choice, but clung to her papa and begged to be taken home. 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 225 
 
 “ I’ll come alone to-morrow,” said Mr. Maturin, turning to leave. Virginia 
 began to cry piteously a's she saw the pretty plaything she coveted carried off. 
 “ Oh, she is so bootiful ! Let me have her. I won’t scare her any more. Indeed, 
 I won’t.’ * 
 
 “ How strange,” said Mr. Maturin. 
 
 “ It seems almost like Providence, sir.” 
 
 “ Providence, eh ? Well, I don’t know about that ; but come here Virginia/ 
 ‘‘No, I can’t, because the pretty girl don’t want me.” 
 
 “See Jennie, you have hurt her feelings ; she is crying. Go, kiss her, and toll 
 her you’re sorry.” 
 
 The daughter did as she was bidden. Virginia forgave her and then said — 
 
 “ Will you cry if I kiss you again P You mustn’tmind ; I always kiss the pretty 
 pictures and slap the ugly ones ; but I never saw a real picture that could cry 
 before,’’ said she, twisting Jennie’s brown curls over her little red fingers. “Please 
 let me kiss you.” 
 
 “ Yes.” 
 
 “ The kiss was given. “ Won’t you kiss me now ? ” 
 
 “ Papa will ; he teases me so by kissing me that I don’t like to kiss anybody.” 
 
 “ Oh, I should love to kiss him, he is pretty, like you.” 
 
 “ Papa,” said Jennie, leading Virginia to him, “take this little girl home, and 
 kiss her so as I can talk and play without being bothered.” 
 
 Mr. Maturin was amused. “ Will you come with me, Virginia, and live in a 
 pretty house and have dolls ? ” 
 
 “I don’t like ’em.” 
 
 “ And candy — ” 
 
 “ It made my teeth ache when Sam gave me some.” 
 
 “ And picture books.” 
 
 “ Oh, I like them ! ” 
 
 “Well, then, come with me, and I’ll give you as many as you want.” 
 
 “I’m going to stay here with this pretty girl. I won’t kiss her any more if 
 she’ll stay with me ?” 
 
 “ But I am going to take my child away. There now, don’t cry ! but get your 
 bonnet and come with us.” 
 
 Without one word the unpetted orphan walked to the peg where her bonnet 
 hung, and took it down. 
 
 “ She does not seem to mind leaving you,” said Mr. Maturin. 
 
 “ No, sir, she don’t seem to care much for anyone. She has been sick lately, 
 and would lie all day looking at pictures with which the managers kept her 
 supplied. She never complained, not even when suffering ; never said that 
 quinine was bad, but always buried her head under the bed-clothes as soon as 
 she had taken it, and kept the jelly to eat when, as she said, the quinine couldn’t 
 spoil it. She is never naughty and yet I don’t love her as I do some bad children, 
 I never saw her show any feeling before to-day ; she is the most peculiar child 
 here.” 
 
 “ I prefer a different playmate for my daughter. Jennie, I can’t take Virginia ; 
 you must choose another little friend.” 
 
 “ No, I won’t! ” 
 
 “You mustn’t say won’t to big people. That’s naughty,” said Virginia. 
 
 “ But papa don’t want me to take you home with me.” 
 
 “ Then I won’t go.” Virginia ran to a corner and sat down to cry. 
 
 Spoiled Jennie was determined she should go ; but in vain she coaxed the 
 poor orphan, who answered only once, and then said between two deep sobs, 
 “I never go where people don’t want me.” 
 
 It took Mr. Mr. Maturin some time to persuade her to accompany him ; of 
 course he would not let her be forced. Perhaps he would not have succeeded 
 had not Jennie kissed her half-a-dozen times and promised to do the same 
 every day. Poor little motherless, sisterless one, to whom a kiss was the rarest 
 bliss of life. 
 
 P 
 
226 
 
 LOVE AND 
 
 WAD. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1858. 
 
 It is not my purpose to describe how the ingenious Mr. Maturin found 
 means to spoil Virginia as completely as he had Jennie, and to pet her the more 
 when he found she was by no means the gay little romp he had desired for his 
 fragile daughter. But ere eighteen months had been passed in her new home 
 Virginia stood by the side of the coffin of the child whom parental indulgence 
 had thrust into an early grave. Thenceforward Virginia was child and pet so 
 completely that it was not very long before Jennie was mourned by her father 
 more as an heiress than as a daughter. Virginia’s precocious development 
 made her the intellectual equal of a man whose only superiority consisted in the 
 art of amassing a fortune, and whose only reading was of ledgers and news- 
 papers. Virginia was educated by teachers who called for six hours during 
 five days of the week, and watched over by Mr. Maturin’s housekeeper, who 
 was too anxious to retain her place ever to cross her charge. 
 
 Virginia, shrinking from the companionship of girls because thrice those 
 envious of her lavish style of dress had called her bastard, had no confidants 
 but Mr. Maturin and her journal. 
 
 On January 3, 1858 she wrote : “To me only the future is all desolate. 
 There is no one to love me ; why need I smile ? There is no one to care for 
 me ; why should I sigh ? Why not be like the lonely mountain-peak which if 
 it be above the warmth of the earth is also above its clouds ? When it wants 
 sympathy it receives only admiration. Were 1 to ask for love what surprise 
 would I excite ! I am lonely, lonely, lonely ! Ah ! what would I be without 
 my rooms and the articles of beauty and variety which they contain ? I shudder 
 to think. A happy mother with a large family of loving children would not 
 be more appalled, though of course, she would be inexpressibly more grieved, 
 to realize what she would be were she childless. What could I do, if, when I 
 wearied of my books and fancies I had nothing curious or beautiful to turn to ? 
 Other girls have confidants ; I cannot talk to anybody but myself. Some 
 blesssed women can write novels and so enrich other lives with the waste of 
 their happiness. Nearly every woman has husband or sweetheart ; but Heaven 
 preserve me from the man who can conquer me ! No willing victim will he 
 find. Bah ! What is the meaning of such a namby-pamby page ? I have 
 dedicated my life to books ; but X want some variety. I have devoted myself 
 too exclusively to literature. This reminds me of what one of my favourites 
 says. Tf literature could not make Irving happy, whom could it ?’ Yet in his 
 diary of the last day of 1825, he says, * A very, very little of which I would 
 live over again, though some parts have been tolerably pleasant. ’ Tut ! I can 
 say more that than without being literary. In fact, this second volume of Irving’s 
 Biography discourages me from trying to find life-long happiness in literature 
 only. I first called women who can write blessed, but Irving did not think 
 this of men. He says, ‘ I have long since discovered it ’ (writing) *' is vanity and 
 vexation of spirit, ’ and he advises a nephew to take * a wiser and surer course. ’ 
 Well, I will turn to science. I have always had a desire to know the mysteries 
 of nature — especially in geology. ” 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1861. 
 
 “ I wonder if I am only a foolish child who knows nothing of life but its 
 dreaminess. Is there no such thing as pure, unadulterated happiness? 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 227 
 
 If there is, where am I to find it ? I once thought it was to be 
 found in Science. Was not I happy, almost without alloy, the years I devoted 
 myself to geology and astronomy, diversifying my favourite studies, in winter 
 with conchology, in summer with botany ? Yes ; I was happy enough then ; I 
 should want nothing better now; but I cannot live over that time again. Of course 
 a long life would not enable me to read all the books written on these subjects, 
 but I have read all I can get hold of, and I find no more wonders. 
 I mean nothing that seems wonderful to me ; for now nothing but 
 indications of stupidity in the mind of the Architect of the Universe could sur- 
 prise me into real wonder. There is no new law for me to find out ; and new 
 manifestations of old laws cannot absorb my attention in these days of outward 
 distraction. Last week I chanced on Humboldt’s Letters — by-the-bye, an 
 unjustly- abused book, and took it up, for the name of Humboldt is as good as 
 a magic-lantern to my fancy. If I ever have a room for a scientific cabinet 
 only, I shall put Newton’s bust or statue at the entrance, and Hnmboldt’s at 
 the exit. To me these two men seem the Alpha and Omega of Science. 
 Their whole lives were devoted to her ; neither asked other wife or 
 mistress ; both found their happiness in her to whom they were wedded 
 for time and for eternity. Found their happiness, I said. Is this true ? I thought 
 so before I read these Letters of Humboldt’s ; but his nearest friend says of him 
 in 1341, when he stood on the pinnacle of his glorious life, ‘Indeed he ha3but 
 little pleasure, and his satirical humour alone can make life here at all supportable 
 to him.’ Was Humboldt a disappointed statesman P Ah ! if science could have 
 sufficed to make him happy, why was a court the scene of his last days ? The 
 Universe should have been his only court, and the Creator of it his only king ; but 
 I forgot — Humboldt, like me, knew nothing of, and cared but little for that king. 
 But my other embodiment of science, Sir Isaac, was happy. I believe so, but so 
 I thought of Humboldt even after I had read his Life. Newton was of a different 
 temperament. Ah ! I should like to paint a picture and call it Science. I should 
 depict in gorgeous hues a table-land of South America ; magnificence should be 
 revealed in every tree and poetry in every flower, and Humboldt should be 
 reclining on it at his ease ; he was at home with nature. In the back-ground I 
 should have the snow illuminated Andes, and on the highest peak I should paint 
 a statue of Newton as though he were chiselled out of a glacier. I should like to 
 get hold of a true Life of Sir Isaac, but as only Samuel Johnson and a very few other 
 favoured ones, have had their lives written, I never expect to find one of my 
 peerless votary of science. Was he happy ? Ah ! I long to have that question 
 answered.... Having written this much, I threw down my pen to find out from my 
 library what more I could about Sir Isaac. If he was happy science did not 
 suffice him. As Humboldt turned to statesmanship, so Newton to the study of the 
 Bible. It is strange that he who had studied the Universe should have given his 
 maturest years to the study of one little part of one little book. Ah ! Newton, 
 you have cruelly disappointed me. If neither Humboldt nor you could find 
 science sufficient for you, how can I ? I thought I needed something else to 
 arouse me only because I had no access to new works, or to new specimens. I 
 could not be hired to read over an old book in these long dreary days. My 
 cabinet still pleases; it is strange that one does not tire of God’s works as one does 
 of man’s, but since all my specimens ar6 classified, they can no more keep off a fit of 
 the blues than a rattle can make a woman stop crying to see where the noise 
 comes from. Still, I never weary of beauty. Good ! I’ll study art, and collect 
 prints. I cannot be so presumputous as to expect satisfaction where Newton and 
 Humboldt could not find it ; but they did not devote themselves to art.” 
 
 “ March 10. The noblest part of any human being is cold and dead in me. I 
 am ashamed to have the angels know that I have lived and never loved. God 
 can understand it, but can they ? What must they think of me, a woman that 
 loves no one, no, not even them ? Them ! God and the angels ! I thought I was 
 to believe nothing I could not understand. Of the nature of God and the angels 
 I comprehend nothing. My sentiment is the offspring of the poetry I have been 
 reading. Truly the poets of this age give owe of their beauties to Christianity 
 
228 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 than those of old to mythology. Will another aeon come when God and the 
 angels will he classed with Jove and his suite P What strange voice within me 
 answers, yes, and it will be the epoch of the devil and his demons? I wish I could 
 believe like a Christian, or else love like a girl, then either heart or mind could be 
 satisfied. I have no desire ungratified except the want of desire. Everything 
 palls me. I am sick of life’s sweets. Upon my word, I am going to fall in love. 
 I don’t expect to do anything except satisfy myself whether there is such a feel- 
 ing, and if so, what is it ? Mr. Graham will do for the experiment. Fortunate 
 that I am to go to the party with him to-night. He is handsome enough with his 
 laughing brown eyes, ever seeking mine ; his lips always ready to curl or to smile . 
 Yes ; he is perfect, physically, I mean. He is intelligent, even brilliant ; and as 
 for his common sense, I expect if any eye but mine were to see this it might 
 decide him sensible enough for me. Then he is rich and I can go to Europe, and 
 so my only impossible-seeming dream may be realised. Very well, Mr. Graham, 
 let us love.” 
 
 After the Party . 
 
 “ I do love Mr. Graham. I never heard so soft a voice as his when he 
 whispered, ‘ Love is life and life is love.’ The music was enchantment and I gave 
 myself up to its power, and let Mr. Graham lead me through dance after dance 
 as thought often carries me through dream after dream. His sister told me years 
 ago, that his whole nature was love, and that he would make a lover-husband. 
 How pleasant that will be ! Life’s poem begins.’’ 
 
 A Month Later . 
 
 “ Old people are right to call young ones ‘ fools.* Positively I do not find 
 love as amusing as literature. I like the bouquets Mr. Graham sends me ; but my 
 own flowers are as sweet. I suppose that the heroines I read about who keep dried 
 flowers have not greenhouses as I have. Mr. Graham’s serenades are delightful, but 
 the music not one iota sweeter than those given by Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Kobinson. 
 One discovery I have made and that is, that of all the poets Byron has written the 
 most disgustingly. — Bah ! what charm is there in a kiss ? I don’t know whether 
 I ever shall marry Mr. Graham, but if I do I suppose I shall be expected to let 
 him kiss me when he likes — well, there’ll be no help for that ; but if I had as 
 much strength as he there would be. He dared to press my hand the other night ; 
 but he won’t again. Bah ! the fool sickens me. Why can’t he whisper poetry 
 and look at the stars instead of at me ? I am getting tired of this love-making. 
 Mr. Ford dared to call me a flirt. If I were a man and senseless as most men I 
 would challenge him. He has insulted me. I, a flirt ? Oh desolate ! desolate ! 
 most desolate am I ! What does the present give me ? only, so far as I alone am 
 concerned, enjoyment. And it seems to me that now aesthetic and intellectual 
 pleasure is a crime. Kentucky, my mother, guarded as in a dungeon by man’s 
 power and subtlety, I can do nothing for her ; I cannot even sew for the prisoners . 
 I have made clothes enough for Dutch Guards and Yankee officers. Bah ! my 
 hand loathes the needle, and I am done with it. Perhaps it is well for me ; sewing 
 gives me too much time to think. It is pleasant enough to dream when gazing at 
 a fair picture or landscape, or when listening to music ; for, then objects of 
 admiration order the course of my thoughts ; but when I sew I think of my 
 country — terror, and almost despair ! and of my individual fortune ! Of the first 
 I have resolved to think no more. I am too young to go mad. And what is my 
 future ? A repetition of the present, faultlessly calm, but too monotonous to 
 entice imagination; and so my fancy plays sad tricks with my reason. Ah ! it is 
 sad to have no future, and I have none on earth or beyond. My existence is 
 asleep. It would be pleasant to feel the painful pricklings of awakened feeling — 
 Patriotism and I not long since had a terrible struggle ; both could not survive ; 
 vitativeness knew this, and for awhile it has crushed into stillness the bane of my 
 life. What has a woman, weak, and in every respect as inefficient as I, to do with 
 patriotism ? I am hors de combat , and yet fall under every blow the foe inflicts; 
 and when he is vanquished I dare not exult save under my breath, for, do not I 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 229 
 
 live in the vestibule of a prison ? One word too loud and the door will close 
 on me and then I shall be forgotten. There is no law in the land that I should 
 be remembered. So that loud word I will not speak. Let me have pure air, 
 and the greatest of blessings — solitude, though liberty cannot be mine. My 
 State lost her freedom by feeling deeply for those who scorn her ; I will avoid 
 her doom. For those who loved me I could die ; but I scarcely think scorn 
 will buy my self-immolation. Oh, words my inmost heart knows half false ! 
 Beautiful South, would I were but a man to bleed and die for you! Down, 
 heart, down ! The South will sacrifice nothing for you or your State. Then 
 why must I give up my freedom for her ? I will forget there are such words 
 as country and patriotism; I will live for myself. Away, patriotism ! you have 
 taken the joy from my lonely life ; will you take all its peace ? Oh, Liberty, 
 most oruel of all blessings ! why will you taunt me with midnight visions of 
 your beautiful form, when you know day will find me in the embrace of 
 tyranny ? Off, Liberty! I’m too proud to go mad. Love is not happiness ; for 
 to love is to be restless out of sight and sound of the cherished one, and surely 
 restlessness is not happiness. Ah, if I loved nobly, grandly, completely, I 
 should have an invsible, immoveable centre on which to poise my being. But 
 not so do I love — not well enough to rise above myself. I desire to be amused 
 and entertained, to be appreciated, to be the object of devotion. I believe 
 never until this hour was I fully conscious of even the cause of my late rest- 
 lessness. But if I loved perfectly neither time nor distance could disturb the 
 equilibrium of my heart. Presence could scarcely intensify my conception of 
 the adored. The adored ? Oh ! but I do not adore anyone. Can I ever 
 adore him ? I wish I could ; I don’t like to do anything by halves. Besides, 
 I am too generous not to wish to give what I receive. Imperfect love leads one 
 to think meanly of one’s self ; perfect love carries the soul out of itself, so that it 
 scarcely takes cognizance of its own perceptions. Music does not listen to 
 itself. The deep, calm, clear river reflects not itself, but the heavens that 
 overhang it. ” 
 
 Two Months Later . — September , 1861. 
 
 u I love a hero ! I do not think I did love before last night. But when Robert — 
 Ah that is the first time I have called him so — told me that he, as one of the State 
 Guard, was going South to fight for freedom, and begged me not to forget him 
 while he was gone, I felt my heart rise into existence — I never felt it before. 
 Tears filled my eyes, he saw how I was touched ; unchecked he pressed my hand, 
 and more than once, to his lips. I am gloriously happy, the beloved of a hero ! I 
 am going to make a flag for his company. When I used to read of the knights 
 and their lady-loves, and sigh to think I lived in such hum-drum times, I had no 
 idea that I should ever be a heroine to a hero.” 
 
 u October 1. Robert has been captured with seven others on his way out ; 
 privation of freedom will be hard, I suppose ; but not harder to him than to me 
 when I had to keep my own room three months after having the scarlet fever. 
 Besides, I hope he will soon be exchanged ; General Buckner has promised to 
 attend to his case at once.” 
 
 It giving this extract from Virginia’s diary, it is not necessary to say that she 
 knew about as little of war and imprisonment as she did of love. 
 
 “ October 10. Robert has been paroled. What kindness to him when his seven 
 comrades are still in confinement ! But his father’s Unionism accounts for this.” 
 
 “ October 11. Robert has been here. He wanted to take me in his arms, but I 
 would not let him kiss me even if he is a hero. However, we parted in anger, for 
 he abused Kentucky, my only mother. Kentucky, the only thing I cling to, is 
 now oftenest the cause of my sorrow. People, who would not taunt me personally, 
 do it unmercifully by sneering at my country. Ah, what woe for me that I am 
 a States’ Rights woman ! Sad for me the hour when my head acknowledged my 
 State my country ; for my heart follows my head as a slave her master, some- 
 times grumbling, sometimes laughing, but always on his track. I have always 
 loved Kentucky. My instincts taught me to do that. I am a patriot ; can I help 
 
230 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 loving my country ? And if the place where I was born and still live is not my 
 country, I know not what the word means. Ah-bah ! What is the use of all these 
 self-harrowing thoughts ? I will go to my pictures and satisfy my eye if I can’t 
 my head and heart.” 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 November 12th. 
 
 “Ah, my crushed heart, lie down ! Be still. Who but myself would dare 
 to tell me that I have a heart ? I, the cold, the inaccessible, the lone one of 
 my name, not even knowing whether by right that name be mine. They tell 
 me that Robert has taken the oath. How thankful am I that no mortal knew 
 that I loved him ! Bah, bah ! I do not love him ; I never did. At any rate 
 I never have since he said he hated Kentucky. What ! wed the man who 
 avowed himself the enemy of my country ! Better to die by my own hand if 
 there be no hereafter — and I doubt — why should I not doubt ? If there be a 
 God, why is there no vengeance ? I can believe in a devil ; I can feel him in 
 my own heart. Yes, I feel his presence now ; for I hate Robert with a strong 
 and bitter detestation. As he despised my mother — the only one I ever knew 
 — do I despise him. He says he took the oath of the U. S. because Kentucky 
 is not worth his allegiance ; so he is not worth mine. ” 
 
 Virginia went to her escritoire and took out a picture a foot long, framed in 
 ivory with outer and inner rims of ebony. It was divided into two compart- 
 ments. In one, by the pictured seaside, knelt a man, his back to the beholder ; 
 beside and behind him heaps of shells of the pearl-mussel, some empty, and 
 some with blackened remains of their former inmates. The face was slightly 
 turned, so that a mingled look of disgust and disappointment was perceptible. 
 The sky was blue ; rosy pillows on thrones of golden clouds were fit resting 
 places for the angels. The young man saw neither them nor their exquisite 
 reflections in the calm green sea. (1) Under this bright toned picture was 
 marked “Notone,” and the date, “1860.” In the other compartment dark, 
 grand masses of clouds were piled in the sky, which was of a peculiar shade of 
 green sometimes seen during a thunder-storm. The bold hand of the artist 
 had dared to attempt to paint the lightning, which seemed not to come from 
 any particular cloud, but to be in the atmosphere. The air which surrounded 
 the same man, who in vain had sought for pearls in the first picture, was of a 
 rich, golden purple with a slight dash of carmine, the most exquisite atmos- 
 phere possible. The same man knelt by the same seaside, but no longer wore 
 a sad expression of disgust and inquietude ; on the contrary, his countenance 
 was intense in its visible contentment. He had found what he sought. A 
 shell was open in his hand, and on its bosom a pearl of the largest size, on 
 which delicate golden lines were perceptible. Suspended to the frame by a 
 slight golden chain was what might have served Titania for an opera-glass. 
 
 Virginia lifted it to her eye, and gazed on a beautiful photograph of herself. 
 Robert had painted a small miniature of her and had it photographed on the 
 smallest possible piece of paper which he had, with delicate finger, placed on 
 the painted pearl. (1) 
 
 “ Beautiful ! ” exclaimed Virginia, “ and I am beautiful, and he loved me only 
 for my beauty, bah ! — Would to Heaven I had none and then I might be prized 
 for myself. I can’t see the difference between being wedded for beauty or for 
 wealth, except that the husband may have more power to squander the one than 
 to destroy the other ! yet I don’t know whether that is true. Tut ! I scorn 
 matrimony. How many people do I know happily married ? It is pleasant to 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 231 
 
 some people to be in the fashion even when garrotes and strait- jackets are ‘the 
 rage,’ hut I believe the pleasure of being like other people scarcely recompenses 
 either sex for what it suffers. Certainly it would not me. ” She took a sheet of 
 Bristol-board, broke the point of her pencils several times in trying to sharpen 
 them, because she was not thinking of what she was doing, and began to draw. 
 She sketched rapidly till Mr. Maturin entered. 
 
 “ What are you doing ? Why ! I didn’t know you could draw.’’ 
 
 “ Neither did I.” 
 
 “But this is very good.” 
 
 “ Is it ? ” 
 
 “ Very.” 
 
 “ Then perhaps you can tell me what I mean? ” 
 
 “ There’s a woman lying on a couch, soldiers all around her ; one has a bayonet 
 at her heart and another a gag over her mouth. You mean to represent Kentucky ; 
 I but quote the vfords you often use.” 
 
 “ Well, what else do you see ? ” 
 
 “ Heads of children, some crying, some pouting, some making mouths. I should 
 say you had designed that head for Graham, were not the expression so hateful.” 
 
 “ That man is intended to represent those who hate my mother.” Virginia drew 
 a long breath, put a few touches to her crude, but graphic sketch, and fastened it 
 over the mantel-piece. There must have been throbbing misery in her soul when 
 she could give such tragic gloom to the face of an ill-drawn woman ; there must 
 have been disdain and grief in her mind when she sketched the children’s heads, 
 and there must have been a strong memory in her heart when she drew so 
 correctly the features of Captain Graham ; but the expression of hate was an 
 idealization of her own. Did she intend to draw her hatred of him and his of 
 her State with the same strokes ? She had not drawn any since her school days, 
 when she had become disgusted with her teacher, who looked at her more than at 
 her drawing. She had not tried since, because to her trying was not pleasant. 
 She would cultivate nothing but enjoyment. But on the morning of her first 
 trial she was impelled by the desire to give her heart an illustrated command 
 to be kept ever before her ; she was charmed to find something could for a short 
 while divert her mind from her country and her renegade lover. Her pictures 
 were small, else, as she said, she should not get them off her hands before the ex- 
 citement of their creation was stale, (h) 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 It was six weeks after her sickness ere Laura was able to go out with Miss 
 Johnston to see some of the clergy about the projected Sisterhood. (9) Laura was 
 happy, smiles of an approaching joy beamed like sun-rays over her chastened beauty. 
 She felt Keble’s presence as she never had since he had left her ; she saw him 
 smile, and she thanked God for the additional happiness she felt this step would 
 one day give to him to whom she had been the cause of so much pain. Miss 
 Johnston was the first to speak, as if to encourage herself. 
 
 “To follow in His footsteps we must ‘take up our cross daily.’ This is the 
 weightiest cross I have ever lifted.” 
 
 “ The strong He’ll strongly try !” replied Laura. 
 
 Miss Emily did not speak, but almost prayed that the first sisters might be 
 weak, that so God, Who “never permits any to be tried above their strength,” 
 would spare them great trials. She felt this was wrong and lifted deprecating 
 eyes ; for, to her, Jesus was always above — in Heaven — and yet very near to 
 her. 
 
 Laura’s thought was, “ God bless the old maids who ought to be known as 
 
232 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 His perpetual handmaidens ! Other women turn aside to husband and children ; 
 they take not their eyes from the goal — Christ on His throne !” She said, 
 
 “ How much Mr. More cheered me by his hearty co-operation in what he called 
 our Episcopal Union — ” 
 
 “Yes ; a union of sisters, children not only of the same Father, but of the 
 same mother, will tend to soften the bitterness that High Churchmen can’t 
 always keep down even by earnest prayer, when they see their own brethren 
 rushing from home, leaving aching hearts and outstretched hands to plead in 
 vain, while they go to profess Christianity and fraternal love in the house of a 
 neighbour. If they do the one, let them not disregard the other ; then the 
 division of Christ’s Body will be intellectual only. Mr. More has always been 
 regarded as one ready for union with anybody not of his family. He wouldn’t 
 give to any Church society, so he greatly surprised me yesterday.” 
 
 They stopped at Mr. Jones’s. He disapproved of anything like nuns. So 
 did the visitors ; they ‘ ‘ were going into the world, being tired of shutting 
 themselves out of it,” said Miss Johnston. 
 
 “ Miss Johnston spoke for me,” said Laura. “ I have been shut up within 
 myself ; she has always lived for others. ” 
 
 Mr. Jones objected that “ people would say a sisterhood was Romish.” 
 
 * 4 Not if tkey will come to our daily prayer ; they will hear no prayers save 
 to God ; no intercession asked except that of His Son ; one thing Romish they 
 will be expected to do, and that is to say the prayer J esus taught us. ” 
 
 Mr. Jones fell below zero in Laura’s mind when he gave his reason for 
 refusing to co-operate in a work of God’s “ little ones.” 
 
 Miss Johnston assured him that the first sisters were Protestants, and that 
 it was lucky for the Romanists that they had not feared to borrow the idea. 
 When they were again in the carriage Laura could not help saying that she had 
 neither faith in nor respect for a man who allowed the fear of what anybody 
 might say to keep him from doing anything. ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Time-serving politicians, girls crazy for admiration and numb-skulls of all 
 sorts square their conduct by others’ notions ; but a well-balanced, Christian 
 mind asks but two questions regarding its decisions — What does God think of 
 it? How will it affect His Church ? ” 
 
 “ I fear Mr. Jay will cool you down soon enough.” 
 
 “Not a bit of it. It’s true I don’t like his type of churchmanship — he don’t 
 read enough church history to sympathize with me, but he reads his Bible 
 enough to know that Jesus does not approve of shepherds teaching the sheep 
 to avoid each other for fear of provoking opposition from ‘the roaring lion’ or 
 any of his attendant jackals.” 
 
 “ Laura, Laura ! speak evil of no man ! ” 
 
 “ Indeed, I did not mean this for Mr. Jones. I pity his natural timidity; I 
 ought to know how to sympathize with it.” 
 
 “But your big bump of conscientiousness saves you from the quagmire into 
 which he falls — ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Don’t praise me, or I shall feel mean. What right have I to let my 
 contempt so master my charity? and I out on a charitable crusade — oh, 
 shame ! ” 
 
 The visit to Mr. Jay was unsatisfactory ; “ more societies of various kinds 
 in his Church than his people could attend to.” 
 
 Laura’s impetuosity couldn’t help inquiring if the American Tract Society 
 was more in need of charity than the blaspheming children and vicious 
 populace of our streets ? He was too good a man to get angry at a question 
 that was rude, if he felt it was dictated by Christian zeal, and he replied, — 
 
 “I think I am right to pledge my congregation for so much per annum to 
 Union Societies, and even if you think me wrong, had you not better be 
 careful ‘lest haply you be found to fight against God’? — I mean, an institution 
 He approves of. ” 
 
 “If we had no Tract Society and no S. S. Union, I should contribute to 
 those that you support — but, if I were to do so now, I should feel that I was 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 233 
 
 very like the sister who left her brother to die while she went to nurse her 
 cousin. Pardon me if I am rude ! I only wished to exonerate the churchmen 
 of my views, as you have sought to do those of your opinion. Will you pardon 
 me farther if I beg that you will not oppose our Society ‘lest haply you, too, 
 be found to fight against ’ something that God wishes to prosper ? I have 
 never uttered one word against the Union societies ; I only plead for our 
 own. ” 
 
 “ I will follow your example — and if any of my congregation ask my advice 
 about joining you, I will say, ‘Do as you please.”’ 
 
 “Laura has always said that though she didn’t like your church views, you 
 were the best man in town, and I am so delighted that your present forbearance 
 and kindness must confirm her in her opinion,” exclaimed Miss Johnston. 
 
 “ I am humbled by her praise ; I know how little I deserve it. I have no 
 trust in these associations ; but I do say, God bless your fervent hearts ! ” 
 
 Mr. North, a High-Church clergyman, bade them “God speed” and 
 promised to advise his people to help them heartily ; he told them to remember 
 that on the old maids they must depend for their greatest help, and Miss 
 Johnston’s eyes filled with tears as her pastor laid his hand on her head and 
 said, “See what an old Maid can do ! ” Rev. Dr. Knox, Low Church, was even 
 more enthusiastic in his approval than Mr. North had been, and suggested that 
 a notice had better be sent to all the Episcopal churches calling the unmarried 
 females to assemble in the S. S. Room of his church. Rev. Mr. Smith said, 
 “ That it was of no use to oppose women ; they would let their own plans die 
 out if opposition didn’t fan up the latent heat, and he thought the best way to 
 ruin any project of theirs was to help it on too fast.” He promised to read the 
 notice, and if he could restrain his satire, say nothing against the Sisterhood ; 
 he assured them that his advice to any parishioner who wished to join the 
 Sisterhood would be, “By all means.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ A bad beginning ; only two of the clergy approve of our plan. ” 
 
 “ How many did you expect would ?” asked Laura, somewhat quickly, 
 because determined not to let it be seen how sick at heart she was. “When 
 of Christ’s twelve chosen friends one betrayed Him, one denied Him, and all 
 forsook Him save the one who ‘ followed afar off, ’ did you expect the Church 
 was to be better served than her Master was ? ” 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 April 6 , 1863. 
 
 Virginia sat on a pile of crimson cushions in the centre of a room, on three 
 sides of which were low book-cases crowned with busts, statuettes, and vases ; 
 other ornaments lined the upper part of tne walls. A harp and an easel seemed 
 to have both been lately used, for a piece of music, with “Love Not” inscribed 
 on it, lay beside the harp ; and the fair artist still held in her hand a brush, 
 while she looked at a small painting on the easel. It was a little girl asleep in 
 a desert ; a tear was on one cheek and her lips were slightly parted as if about 
 to utter a cry of distress. A well-read spectator would see that the peculiar 
 appearance in the back-ground indicated the approach of the simoon. Virginia 
 sat, looking at it with a provoked air ; at last she exclaimed — 
 
 “For the life of me I can’t make that child look happy : I wonder if it is 
 because I don’t know how to paint black hair and eyes. ” 
 
 Mr. Maturin came in while she was trying to enliven the girl she wished to 
 make emblematic of Happiness. He expressed himself with emphasis of 
 delight. 
 
234 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “But, pretty one, why did you paint that little sleeping cherub like 
 yourself ? ” 
 
 “Is it?” 
 
 “ Strikingly. I think so. I have watched you sleeping.” 
 
 “When?” 
 
 “ Before you had this boudoir. It was the necessity of cheering you that 
 made me think of it.” 
 
 Virginia kissed his hand. 
 
 “You would spoil all the world were it in your power.” 
 
 “Then I am very unlike you, because you are afraid of spoiling even me.” 
 
 “ Shall I read the morning’s paper to you, papa?” asked Virginia. 
 
 His eye brightened. 
 
 “More fun ? ” 
 
 “This is the Louisville Journal — a most sage and sedate publication. You 
 know how much sympathy I have wasted on the poor Yankees dying, like 
 hogs do, in and near the rebellious Queen of obstinacy, and now I could cry to 
 think all my former tears were wasted. Don’t laugh when I am talking about 
 weeping. But I am relieved to-day. The Journal assures me that a certain 
 captain, well-known, (I suppose to his company) has just come from Vicksburg 
 and says, ‘ The army is fat. ’ Think of that ! A fat army ! I supposed I had 
 heard of all sorts of armies, but I had not. It must be distressingly lazy.” 
 
 “ As I was passing an auction to-day a fellow cried out, * How much for a cheer?’ 
 pointing to a second-hand chair. He was answered, ‘200,000 dollars.’ The men 
 looked around for a drunken man. 
 
 “ What did the answer mean ?” 
 
 “ They made a poor fellow give bond for that sum and take the oath after having 
 had a taste of prison life for cheering for Davis.” 
 
 “ Served him right. He knew that his lungs belonged to Master Abe, and 
 should be ventilated only in his service. Were you at the concert when that 
 young girl came out to sing, ‘ Hail Columbia!’ or some such trash, and the audience 
 would not tolerate such, even from a girl, and hissed her ?” 
 
 “ What would Southerners have said if a Yankee audience had hissed a girl !” 
 
 “ They did’nt hiss her, but her song, and she offered the first insult. I tell 
 you we thought then we couldn’t stand it, and I dont believe we could in 
 the days before patent Unionism was invented. However, the pretty damsel 
 having ‘ retired in good order,’ came back and sang * Dixie,’ and they paid her then 
 for their patriotic rudeness. I am tired of the paper ; take it.” 
 
 “ I don’t believe a word of it,” said Mr. Maturin, laying down the Louisville 
 Journal , after he had read a few minutes. 
 
 “ A word of what ?” asked Virginia. 
 
 “ This article about Morgan’s outrages in his last expedition. What are you 
 laughing at ?” queried he somewhat sharply. 
 
 “ Cannot you guess, Bishop of Ferns !” 
 
 “ What do you mean ? Who was the Bishop of Ferns ?” 
 
 “ A sagacious prototype of Union men, who on laying down ‘ Gulliver’s Travels ’ 
 exclaimed, * I don’t believe a word of it.’ ” 
 
 “ I deserve your impertinence, but I’ll be revenged by showing you are stupid 
 at guessing conumdrums. Which is the most costly city in the South ?” 
 
 “ .Richmond.” 
 
 “ You needn’t sneer, for you haven’t guessed right. It is Charleston, because it 
 has cost the Government 150,000,000, dols.” 
 
 “ Who says so ? ” 
 
 “ Statistics. Here is a letter written by Mr. Forsyth in answer to one of your 
 Governor Hawes,” said the gentleman, as he left the room. 
 
 Mr. Maturin was out some time. When he returned Virginia was walking up 
 and down the room, tears in her eyes ; as he looked in her face she bit her lip to 
 keep from crying. 
 
 “ I’m sorry I gave you the spiteful article ; but a group of Union gentlemen 
 enjoyed it so I thought it might amuse you.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 235 
 
 “ Amuse me,” she exclaimed, her eyes flashing, “ to be vilified ! ” 
 ct Who dared say a word about you ? I thought — ” 
 
 u Am not I a Kentuckian ? and it is not possible for me to escape the odium Mr. 
 Forsyth seeks to lay upon my state. His is a noble office.” 
 
 “ He expresses sympathy for those who have taken up arms for the South.” 
 
 “ And shows it by traducing their parents and relations. ’ * 
 
 “ Only the men.” 
 
 “ Not so ; women have more to do with Kentucky’s position than the men have 
 What husband has held back when his wife bade him go ? what son has refused 
 to’ leave his home when his mother bade him ? If people stopped to think of 
 what they say they’d stop their nonsense about Kentucky women being superior 
 in patriotism to their sons, husbands and lovers. I wish I could see the man who 
 would rather think for himself than repeat what he hears. ” 
 
 “ What ! don’t I ? ” 
 
 “No, sir, excuse me. You would he a Southerner if it wasn’t for your ever- 
 lasting sing-song about the glorious old flag.” 
 
 Mr. Maturin always looked pleased when Virginia was a little impertinent. 
 
 “ I wonder at — ” 
 
 “ Oh ! I wonder at myself, sir. Why don’t you make me remember I am your 
 child and not your equal ? ” He frowned. “ Don’t be angry, papa.” She went up 
 to him and kissed him. He was, conciliated and drew her to his knee. In so 
 doing the newspaper fell ; as she received it from his hand she sneered and said, 
 “ Mr. Forsyth ‘ seeks to vindicate the truth of history.’ History has been written 
 by vindicators of his stamp, and the consequence is mere volumes of smoke, 
 which the historiographer blows from his friends into the faces of his foes, be- 
 griming them with soot of his creating. I can scarcely utter the word without 
 contempt. Would anyone vindicate the truth of history he must study it — 
 where ouly it can be learned — on the battle-fields, on the streets, by the fire-sides 
 and in the councils of the people of whom he treats. If he would write of 
 Kentucky during this war he must not take his notes in Washington or Richmond; 
 but in our midst. Let him endure what we do and then he may criticize us. 
 What would he write by the light of the family hearth, by mourning garbs, 
 empty chairs, breaking hearts, premature gray hairs and numerous groves? 
 He would say a clique governs Kentucky ; it beguiled her into neutrality 
 by the sweetest of all sorceries — Davis wishes it ! it will be best for the 
 interests of freedom. Did Mr. Forsyth ever awake from a delusive dream to 
 find his arms pinioned, his friends weaponless and gagged, and those he most 
 relied on far away, while a prison-door stood open for him F and did his wife’s 
 agonies, and the idea of his children being left to public charity move him then ? 
 If so, let him write our history. Did he ever see a man on a stormy night, 
 selected for its darkness, kiss sleeping babe, and tear himself from the arms of 
 fainting wife ? and as hope faded did he see other husbands and fathers crush 
 down rebellious thoughts and stay at home when they had seen this sight ? ” 
 
 “ Has Mr. Forsyth seen the pride and life of the house steal off in disguise to 
 the C. S. A ? ” 
 
 “ Aye, and has he stood by mother or sister when it was told her her dearest was 
 a prisoner of State ; not of war, oh no ! that would be too great a favour for one 
 who endeavoured to escape from his tyrants, that he might come back to fight 
 them. Has he seen women faint, and strong men shed tears, when informed that 
 defeat has visited the Southern army ? Has he felt the quivering of anguished 
 hearts, not knowing whether their beloved are among wounded or slain ? Has he 
 seen the old man grow young, and the oppressed man resume his vigor, woman’s 
 eye grow luminous with joy and even children’s glee become ungovernable — • 
 because victory is ours ? ” 
 
 “ Ours !” 
 
 “Yes, ours. Let Mr. Forsyth and his like sneer as they may — the heart 
 knows its own home. As for General Bragg I never heard a word against him 
 personally by those whose confidence in him had exposed them to imprison- 
 ment and loss of property (and to all but old bachelors and old maids those 
 
236 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 words express volumes) until it was understood that he tried to throw the 
 failure of his campaign on Kentucky. Then we had a right to he indignant. 
 Did he expect to raise an army in a State (which had given nearly 40,000 
 men) in a few weeks ? Men would have flocked to him had they believed that 
 their families would be defended from Dutch insults, Irish drunkenness, 
 Yankee insolence, and Negro insurrections. Bragg gave no assurance of hold- 
 ing the State. I was within a few miles of Dixie while he was here, and I 
 never heard of his intending to do so. I saw some who had talked with three 
 of his generals and they gave no assurance of it.” (a) 
 
 “But what makes the Southerners most angry is that some who joined them 
 left them.” 
 
 “ Were left by them, you should say.” 
 
 “ Nonsense.” 
 
 “Well, I admit your version and I say it was very wrong. But if Mr. 
 Forsyth could know the reward such have earned for themselves he would 
 pity them, as I do. Ah ! it is hard to have the finger of scorn pointed at one ; 
 and the bitterest people in the world are the disappointed Kentuckians. I 
 don’t blame the poor fellows you call deserters. It is hard to fancy one hears 
 a wife’s unavailing shriek for deliverance from a blue-coated ruffian. It is 
 hard to lie down by a camp-fire and dream of seeing a burly negro dash your 
 infant’s curly head against a tree.” 
 
 “ But Mr. Forsyth will say as I do ; that these men before they joined 
 Bragg ought to have known whether or not he would stay. ” 
 
 “ Then you frame an excuse for thousands here yet. Besides, it is forgotten 
 that the Confederates came through the counties that had given the most men 
 to them already. Our beloved Governor Hawes says what has been said a 
 thousand times, that the Southerners of Kentucky are, and always have been, 
 willing to put the question of Secession to the people. ” 
 
 “I have heard you abuse universal suffrage as an invention of the printer’s 
 devil, and say nine times out of ten majorities are in the wrong. It just occurs 
 to me to tell you that I have several times been warned not to let you talk so 
 much or I would have to pay the penalty. ” 
 
 “ If I don’t vent my indignation I shall die.” 
 
 “ Say what you please, child. Remember Mr. Forsyth seems to think Ken- 
 tucky has only her women to be proud of. He had better think of their fingers 
 and the prisoners. ” 
 
 “And of the men out of whose never-shut pockets come the large sums of 
 money we use, Mr. Forsyth ! Why did you start me again ?” 
 
 “ I wasn’t aware you had stopped.” 
 
 “Is it customary for women to openly advocate the cause their husbands 
 condemn? If the husbands were cowards the wives would not hang out 
 Southern flags ? It wouldn’t surprise me if nurses were arrested for tying 
 babies’ white dresses with red ribbons.” 
 
 “ There are in every State men whose first occupation is to make money and 
 their second to keep it. Such Southerners are in our midst. ” 
 
 “ Yes ; but it is not estates, rather women and children that have placed 
 Kentucky chivalry in its present false light. I suppose the same is true of 
 other States, or they would not be liable to conscription. ” 
 
 “ And what other State gave over 30,000 men without being under enrol- 
 ment ?’ 
 
 “The Journal says — ” 
 
 “ Don’t quote that inconsistent paper to me. It may be said of Prentice, as 
 it was of a Prussian Minister of State, if he could only cut himself in two he 
 certainly would put one-half in prison. ” 
 
 “ Whew !” 
 
 “ The people can be educated only by papers and stump orators, and the 
 Confederacy never had many of the last or any of the first in this poor town.” 
 “You forget your beloved Courier , which I never dared to come home with- 
 out. When the war began we had sixty-two papers. And do you know that 
 in your dear Kentucky there are 67, OCX) unable to read ? ” 
 
LOVE AND WAN 
 
 237 
 
 “ Who will be taught to uphold Lincoln. Heaven save me from ever again 
 living under a Government where universal suffrage is tolerated ! No wonder 
 we have universal misrule. ” 
 
 You want to see the property -test introduced here.” 
 
 “ Why should people who never found out the value of a penny vote to tax 
 your property ? I would have two tests ; a small income or a daily trade or 
 profession, and also a reading and writing test.” 
 
 “ And drive out the foreigners by disfranchisement.” 
 
 “ Not a bit of it. But I’d have them speak the language they are expected to 
 vote in. For instance, a German here voted for Mr. Bruce, our present noble 
 Confederate senator, thinking he was voting for a Mr. Preuss, a German 
 apothecary, (a) Let foreigners wait twenty-one years for naturalisation. ” 
 
 “ There were in 1850, 169,660 citizens not born here.” 
 
 “ But most of those are in our Kentucky Yankee regiments. Think of it ! 
 More than one out of every six persons in this State was born elsewhere ; and 
 remember a larger proportion of the 170,000 are adults and males than of the 
 
 430,000 natives. Moreover, even in 1850 more than one-third of her children 
 were in other States. Kentucky’s spirit is not dead yet ; it has shrivelled up 
 beneath the blasting influence of gunpowder, but it is strong enough to ruin her. 
 Let it be understood that if Kentucky is to be received into the Confederacy as 
 though an unmerited favour were being bestowed upon her, she will cover her 
 head with the mantle of departed greatness, and at the feet of the tyrant she will 
 fold her cold hands over her heart, pierced by weapons of her children and 
 brothers, and writhe in her torture until the time of the end. She did not 
 desire war.” 
 
 “ Did the South desire it ? If they had foreseen what disunion was to cost they 
 would not have inaugurated it. Kentucky was brave enough to stand alone, she 
 would not add a link to the chain that Puritanic intolerance was forging for the 
 South. Oh! sometimes I think over our desperate condition until — ” 
 
 “ You will have a fever before this thing is over.” 
 
 “ No ; but my brain is weakened by the grief of my heart, and my thoughts 
 wander ever to the same theme like those of an old man. Well, pride and sorrow 
 have made me old before my time.” 
 
 “ Kentucky’s brain was divided ; one-half was for neutrality ; not that she 
 sympathises with the North, but that she was an old member of the Union, and 
 regarded the South as needlessly rash ; the other half was for taking up arms 
 with the South. The Louisville Journal threw in the mask that tilted the beam.” 
 
 “ The side that was for neutrality was paralysed by an unexpected blow from 
 the hand of her own creatures ; when the blow was given, and bound and bleed- 
 ing she was thrown at the feet of her enemy, one eye ceased to perceive and one 
 hand fell powerless.” 
 
 “ It was fortunate that her brain was so divided, for while one-half was 
 paralysed and the members governed by it submitted in dumb despair, the other 
 half was alive to plot for the interests of the South ; had the whole been active 
 for it she would now be a howling wilderness, a burden on the charity of the 
 Confederacy. Whereas, now one hand is ever busy to send money and provisions 
 and secret information to the South, one foot is still swift to guide to the land of 
 freedom her sons who seek it only in disguise and by stealth. But let the South 
 remember one thing ; one-half of her brain is paralysed, but the whole heart is 
 alive to be tortured every hour.” 
 
 “ The South is only angry with us and unreasonable, as all people are apt to 
 be in extremity of suffering, because we are not willing to sacrifice ourselves 
 for her.” 
 
 “ You must not say that. I cannot bear a word against the South. She is 
 angry because we have not sent her men enough.” 
 
 “ There are fifteen Southern States. There are I presume from accounts, about 
 
 500.000 men in the Confederate army ; if Kentucky were to furnish one-fifteenth 
 her quota would be 33,000. The Legislature here admitted that there were over 
 
 33.000 Kentuckians south. If I have given too low an estimate of what should 
 
238 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 be her quota or of 'the soldiers in the South, it is balanced by the fact that 
 no conscript has been taken from her.” 
 
 “ But you know there are many here who wish for a Conscript Law, so as to 
 give disobedient sons a chance to go ; so as to give husbands and others who 
 maintain relations no chance to dally with their conscience ; and many have felt 
 themselves compelled to take oaths of allegiance from which they say such a law 
 will release them. Besides, other States ought to remember how many of the 
 braves to whom they owe their glory are Kentuckians. I surmise Kentucky 
 has suffered more from emigration than any other Southern State except 
 Virginia.” 
 
 “And almost as much from immigration. But do you know how many 
 Confederate Generals were born in Kentucky ? Gustavus Smith, A. S. Johnston. 
 Adam Johnson, Bedford, Buckner, Breckenridge, Crittenden, Grayson, Duke, 
 Hood, Hanson, Lyon, Morgan, Taylor, Williams, Anderson, Marshall, Preston, 
 Cosby, Schoeff, Rains, Jones, and above all, Jefferson Davis was.” 
 
 “ Kentucky Union Regiments ! Your standard comparison for humbugs.” 
 
 “ Yes ; and add to that your patent Unionism, and few women have two such 
 good stand-by’s for companions.” 
 
 The writer has left Mr. Maturin’s political principles unannounced that the 
 reader might see how difficult it is to “ place ” a representative Union man in 
 Kentucky. 
 
 “ A letter from Lebanon. Here is more about Morgan : — [‘ So far, since the 
 entry of Morgan into Kentucky, he has captured and paroled not less than 1,800 
 soldiers. How long shall Morgan do as he pleases in Kentucky ? Whatever is 
 done to drive him out must be done by our soldiers on foot, and it is easy to 
 judge what sort of a time they will have in catching him anywhere except where 
 he chooses to be caught, and where they will catch not him, but it. Let our men 
 bestir themselves and not be all shrinking under cover like so many hens and 
 chickens when the shadow of the hawk is moving over the ground. A deserter 
 from Morgan, now here, a very sensible young fellow, says that Morgan’s pickets 
 were piloted about and warned of danger by rebel citizens, and that said citizens 
 came to Morgan’s camp and reported Colonel Hoskin’s strength. Away with such 
 men. John Morgan has been an efficient Southern Superintendent of the Louis- 
 ville and Nashville Railroad. If his whole forces were captured, it would not 
 compensate for the loss our army might sustain by the damage done the road at 
 this crisis, to say nothing of other losses. John did this, and John did that ; and 
 John himself only knows what he did do.’] ” 
 
 “ Do you know how many battles and skirmishes were fought in Kentucky in 
 1861—2 ?” 
 
 “ I have written down the names of all mentioned in the Louisville papers, and 
 there are seventy-five. I dare say there have been more.” 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 In the daintiest of tiny nooks sat Virginia. A stereoscope rested on her in 
 such a way that every gentle respiration was communicated to the instrument, 
 and the spray of Niagara seemed to rise and fall almost as it had done in the 
 most enraptured moment of her life, when she had conceived herself a spirit 
 of the Fall, as in a frail skiff she gave herself to Niagara to be the sport of its 
 waves. Virginia sat motionless, her brow leaning on the stereoscope, and ever 
 and anon overpowered by the remembrance of her communion with the Fall ; 
 or else, to make it more surely her own, she would sit for some minutes with 
 closed eyes. At last she drew a long breath and said piteously, 
 
 “To think that I can never see you any more ! Oh, God ! why might not I 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 239 
 
 have lived and died before this accursed war? Well! well; They cannot 
 snatch from me the past. ” 
 
 This last thought soothed her and she slid another stereograph into the 
 instrument. She had taken it up without noticing what it was, and her lips 
 curled as she put another slide in over the picture of a veiled bride. “ Why 
 should only the bride wear a veil ? Why not the groom as well ? ” she asked, 
 mentally. The next slide was a veiled vestal. “ My antetype ; if ever I 
 forget my resolution, I, too, will be buried alive. ” After a while a tear flowed 
 down Virginia’s cheek, and when it fell upon her hand she started. tl Were it 
 ladylike I would curse him ; but, perhaps it would be better to curse the 
 weakness which has so suddenly dared to show itself.” 
 
 She put down the stereoscope as if reluctant, but conscious of the necessity 
 of changing her mood, and took up a large book which had just served her as 
 footstool. It was somewhat ludicrous to see the dainty hand — which looked 
 as if it had been given to caress statuettes, raise Dana’s Unabridged 
 Mineralogy. “ Surely mineralogy is somewhat like love, a hard study and 
 scarcely worth the time one spends on it, unless it can lead to mines of wealth ; 
 however, both furnish rare specimens of beauty and quaint compounds. ” So 
 saying, she drew her little chair closer to a cabinet and picked up an exquisite 
 piece of carbonate of copper. “ Robert liked moss better than these delicate 
 shreds of brilliant green. To be sure moss is softer to the touch ; can be gotten 
 without much trouble, and, above all, will die very easily. Very proper for 
 him to like moss better than a stone. He did not like things as hard, and cold, 
 and inodorous as minerals ; and I ? — I like beauty that does not generate 
 nuisances, and brilliancy that cannot fade — not things as easily crushed as 
 moss and his love — bah ! It is hard not to curse him. I would not 
 if he were not a Kentuckian ; but as I am one too, how can I help it ? He a 
 Kentuckian, and in Ohio, chasing down our noble patriots ! Poor hunted deer ! 
 They cannot escape; I know they cannot! Yankee papers say 100,000 men 
 have been on the track of Morgan’s men since they crossed the Ohio at 
 Brandenburg. Twenty-seven hundred men pursued by thousands, hunted by 
 the blood-hounds at a respectful distance. Ah ! there comes papa. ” 
 
 Virginia, forgetting that her hair was down and that she wore a neglige, 
 sprang into the hall. Mr. Maturin had promised to come at noon with the 
 second edition of the Journal , so she eagerly unfastened the door. A gentle- 
 man standing before it, started, as well he might, at the apparition of golden 
 hair and white neglige. In a second Virginia had gone, and Bob had twice 
 asked, “ Will you come in, sir?” before the stranger heard him. Being asked 
 the third time in a louder tone, he said, 
 
 “Does Mr. Maturin live here?” 
 
 “Yes sir ; but he is not in. You’ll find him in his office.” 
 
 “Just like me !” exclaimed Virginia, and threw herself on a couch as coolly 
 as if nothing had happened. She put her hand under the crimson satin 
 cushion covered with Swiss muslin, on which her beautiful head was pillowed, 
 and drew out a volume of her favourite poet. “ Anything for distraction ! ” If 
 she had not been so innately refined, she would have kept herself under the 
 influence of wine until the fate of Morgan and his men in Ohio was decided. 
 She listlessly turned the leaves. “ ‘A Pretty Woman ’ — I won’t read about 
 her ! I pity pretty women. I wish I were plain. Then I should not have to 
 be so sarcastic and unamiable to keep bores away. Bah ! what is the use of 
 being amiable? And if I had not been pleasant to look at, Robert never 
 would have tried to drain the sweet from out my life. I let him do it — more 
 fool I ! I closed my petals over him and he stung me with his treason, and so 
 I let him go. Bah ! I wish I had never taken him in. The wretch ! Chasing 
 down his noble fellow-citizens in the land of the enemy ! A hawk, hooded 
 with selfishness, and supplied by Yankee cunning with jingling bells, did well 
 to fly after his still free mates. Ha, hawk ! bring down the quarry ! But 
 there is one dove whose heart you will never eat out. To think his sullied lips 
 have pressed my hand ! But never my lips. No, thank the spirit of love ! 
 
240 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 never my lips. Never my lips! No man but father ever touched them.” The 
 book fell from her hands and she burst into a violent fit of weeping, exclaiming, 
 “ Hunting Morgan’s men!” She did not hear Mr. Maturin, who knocked 
 once, twice ; no answer. He then entered. 
 
 “ Virginia, my darling ! ” 
 
 “ What are the noon dispatches ?” 
 
 “U— m!” 
 
 “ Oh, quick ! Tell me quickly.” 
 
 He did not speak ; she thrust her hand into his pocket and pulled out the 
 paper ; but he held it to prevent her opening it. 
 
 “Virginia — I — your, I — ” 
 
 “ The last of them, Morgan and all his men !” shrieked the poor woman, and 
 fell senseless. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 May 2nd. 
 
 Harvey Barton's Beverie in a Railway Car. 
 
 “ And for the first time I have touched her hand. She offered it to me. My 
 fingers scarcely folded over it ; her touch made my heart cold. If a statue I 
 had chiselled and loved with mad infatuation should stretch forth its hands to 
 me my blood would curdle in my veins. When I sat by her side and listened 
 to Miss Davis playing the beautiful variations of the Lor-ley, I felt the legend 
 was not fable, but allegory. I am warned; I know her to be heartless. Bah ! 
 what am I writing ? Surely, I cannot tell myself ; only one thing I know of 
 the strange moment when she laid her hand in mine ; as soon as the door was 
 closed I pressed to my lips the tips of the timid fingers that dared not — ha ! 
 ha ! ha ! What is man’s boasted independence ? A trifle at the disposal of a 
 woman! Yet it is not love for her I feel ; I can swear that it is not. I could 
 kiss her, as one day when the servant ushered me in without announcing me, I 
 caught her kissing a beautiful statuette. She did not wish the marble brow to 
 thrill ; nor if I kissed her would I desire warm pressure in return. I am satis- 
 fied with seeing, and ask not to possess. It would frighten me were I to sus- 
 pect that she had any warmer feeling for me than appreciative sympathy. 
 She has no legal name ; I am of anti-revolutionary blood. Luxurious, indolent, 
 petted is she ; without a competency for her support am I. To me life must be 
 toil ; to her it is a dream. I will never be the one to awake her. Let me 
 watch her slumbers and breathe the sweet breath of her fresh soul. I am 
 content. My existence is but the refraction and reflection of hers as 
 colour is but the product of light. Deprived of light the brightest sky would 
 be black ; my life ere I knew her was colourless and vague ; now it is refulgent, 
 grand in the reflection of her stainless purity and noble truthfulness. What is 
 life’s greatest happiness ? To love. Heaven forbid that I should ever answer 
 ‘ To be loved, ’ for in that hour would the penance of my life begin. Only the 
 grave could give me rest. Rest ? It is because Miss Davis gives me rest that I 
 seek her society. I lay my spirit, not my mind or heart, at her feet, and let her 
 sway it as she wills. And the best thought of all is, she cannot be contaminated 
 by me or any other man. Were she a young and untried girl I should feel myself 
 exceedingly rash to trust so implicitly to her purity of spirit ; then my im- 
 pulse might convince my judgment of the necessity of giving the orphan the 
 protection of a husband.” 
 
 His meditations were interrupted by Mr. Worsley who took the seat beside 
 him. 
 
 “ Frightful slaughter on the Chickamanga. I see that our gallant General 
 Helm’s brigade went in to the fight 1,763 strong, and came out weaker by 
 1,331 J” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . . 
 
 241 
 
 “Kentucky has thirteen hundred and thirty-one more ties to fame ! I see 
 General Buckner greatly distinguished himself. ” 
 
 “The history of the Tennessee campaign in September shows him to be as 
 great a general as his previous course proved him to be a great man.” 
 
 “Are you acquainted with Mr. Isaiah Smith, of Bourbon ?” 
 
 “Very well, sir.” 
 
 “ He has been arrested and banished.” 
 
 “Not possible. He was afraid of his shadow. Even his own wife scarcely 
 called him a Secessionist. How could he have committed an indiscretion ? He 
 was not bold enough for anything better. ” 
 
 “An outrageous Yankee who lived four miles from Mr. Smith’s was shot ; 
 the cry was raised that it was by guerillas ; most people think the murder was 
 by his own negroes. But in accordance with Burbridge’s order of July 16, 
 Mr. Smith, who did not know the murdered man, is to be punished. ” 
 
 “ Infamous ! Burbridge gave that order in obedience to Sherman, who 
 wrote to him to treat all partisans of the Confederates in Kentucky as wild 
 beasts. ” 
 
 Soon Mr. Worsley began to tease him about the heiress, the beautiful un- 
 known. 
 
 “ Whom do you mean ? ” asked Barton, and was told no one knew Miss Davis’s 
 real name. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 June 10th. 
 
 Always accustomed to depend on himself, Harvey felt in an anomalous position 
 when conscious that his true life (to such a man life does not mean so many years) 
 depended on another. Not that he was ‘ a puling school-boy ’ to neglect his 
 vocation in life if disappointed in winning for the crown of his manhood the love 
 of a true woman. We may not call perfect that which may be improved ; and 
 Harvey, knowing what existence would be if suffered and enjoyed with Virginia, 
 could not feel that it would be perfect without her ; complete to the eyes of partial 
 friends it might seem ; but he would know better. 
 
 When a youth he had resolved to learn book-keeping, notwithstanding he never 
 intended to practise it. It mattered not that his father had no more sense than 
 to sneer at his plebeian son ; nor did it even ruffle his temper to hear his com- 
 panions pronounce him “ a fool for his pains.” His mother in obedience to the 
 request of her husband, though she thought everything her son resolved on the 
 wisest plan conceivable, remonstrated ; but he kissed away her set speech, and 
 thought no more of it. What difference was it to him that his best friend pooh- 
 poohed ? No more than it affected him that the girl, who called him sweetheart 
 because he was too much of a gentleman to let so plain a young lady be neglected, 
 went into raptures over his remarkable character. Yet this man, so sturdy 
 heretofore, now trembled, not in the presence of his beloved, but in the secret 
 confessional of his own heart. Persons of little minds start to walk over the 
 depths of married life with no more hesitancy than Blondin over the Niagara and, 
 like him, often meet a deserved fate ; but men of Harvey’s mould are not mounte- 
 banks for blockheads to wonder at ; they do not act to be seen ; but are observed 
 because they are worthy of notice. 
 
 Virginia had felt this, and bowed to him who bowed to her, each so occupied 
 with his or her consciousness of self-prostration that neither as yet perceived that 
 of the other. Neither before had felt the need of help ; now both did ; but 
 
 Q 
 
242 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 neither knew how to ask for it. Ah ! why at such times will not an angel come 
 and lift the veil ? 
 
 Earth was not made to be Heaven. 
 
 But why should a heavenly messenger interfere on behalf of those who never 
 seek counsel or sympathy from God ? 
 
 Harvey Barton sat near Virginia Davis. There had been a long pause in their 
 conversation ; and, strange though it may seem, neither shrank from the ex- 
 pressive silence that speaks a sweeter and more familiar communion than many 
 ardent words. He glanced at the open piano. 
 
 “ Pray play for me.” 
 
 “ I can’t.” 
 
 “ You can’t play ? ” 
 
 “ Not for you, too little for anyone but myself, and it is only when in peculiar 
 moods that I can tolerate my own music.” 
 
 “ That’s strange ; I imagined you musical.” 
 i ‘ I am in the same sense that you are artistic.” 
 
 “ But why do you not play ? I want a reason, please.” 
 
 “ Because I love music too much. How can I, who thirst for Beethoven’s, 
 Handel’s and Mendelssohn’s divine poetry, be crucified on exercises and scales, on 
 waltzes and polkas ? I love all art too well to be an artist. Except a few im- 
 promptus under the stress of great excitement, I never painted because my eye 
 could not tolerate daubs. I am too fervent an idolater to make my own idols.” 
 
 1 ‘Except in poetry.” 
 
 “ How in it ? ” A slight colour suffused her face. 
 
 “ I would rather read one of your poems than hear Thalberg.” 
 
 “ How do you know I write ? ” 
 
 “ Because you admitted it.” 
 
 “ Never. Scarcely even to my journal.” 
 
 “ It is not necessary to read the diary of a woman so true and ingenuous as 
 yourself to find out your secrets.” It would have been requisite for any other 
 man, and the very fact that Virginia had allowed him to read her was a proof of 
 the unsuspected mastery he had acquired. He asked, ‘‘Do you really love 
 Bethoven’s pieces so much ? ” 
 
 “ Better than any music-creation except Mendelssohn’s.” 
 
 “ And I except none but Handel’s and Mozart’s.” 
 
 Of whom I know little.” 
 
 “Would you like very much to hear a sonata of Beethoven’s ? ” 
 
 “ Would I ? ” 
 
 Her eyes gleamed. “ You look as if you already heard it.” 
 u I do in my soul. But why tantalize me with such a mirage of sound ? ” 
 Harvey smiled and walked to the piano ; nor did he stop until he had inter- 
 preted several of Beethoven’s most glorious dreams and added “ Cujus Animam.” 
 Then he turned to Virginia. She was weeping ; his heart leaped up. “ Don’t 
 stop, or you will kill me,” exclaimed Virginia, not conscious of the force of her 
 words. It was the first time she had ever wept for vague desire and unutterable 
 longing. It was to have this longing relieved that she begged him to continue. He 
 looked at her intently for several seconds, then returned to the piano. Softly as 
 though he were hushing an infant, he played “ Robert, toi que j’aime ” with varia- 
 tions called forth by the first tears he had ever caused a woman to shed. He 
 heard her sigh, and glided into a fugue, a strange, sweet, wild, unfathomable 
 melody ; at first a lullaby, then notes whose music seemed like lovers’ kisses, not 
 audible save to two hearts ; gradually it grew louder and richer until its weird 
 happiness intoxicated Virginia, and she almost shrieked — “Don’t! ” 
 
 He arose and stood before her. 
 
 “It was cruel to play for me unless you will always.” 
 
 He looked down into her face, and like a true man saw she knew not the 
 import of her words. He was too delicate to answer as most men would have 
 done, “ I will for ever. ” He said gently, as if he did not wish to break the 
 spell — 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 243 
 
 “ I will whenever you ask me.” 
 
 “ But I shall never ask you. I wish I had never heard you.” 
 
 Again he understood when a coarse nature would have shown exultation. 
 “Next time I shall play marches and waltzes.” 
 
 “Bah !” 
 
 “ Are you sick ? ” he questioned, laughing in spite of himself at the instan- 
 taneous change in voice, air, and countenance. She was like one suddenly 
 awakened, and pressing one hand to her head, rose and walked from her com- 
 panion. 
 
 “ I will never forgive you.” 
 
 “ For what ?” he asked, in a quiet tone. 
 
 “ For making me make a fool of myself,” she answered petulantly. 
 
 He was amused. 
 
 “ Then revenge yourself. ” 
 
 “Pshaw !” 
 
 “ Is the offender too insignificant to be punished ?” 
 
 “ I do hate amiable men !” 
 
 “ Why ?” he asked, keeping up his tone of badinage, as a child plays when it 
 is happy. 
 
 “ Because they leave me nothing to do but to get angry with myself.” 
 
 “If you are provoked because you have shown yourself a true woman — and 
 that phrase means whom the angels love and have fellowship with -then am I 
 not angry, but inexpressibly sad !” 
 
 She looked up in surprise, and her eyes asked, “ Why ?” 
 
 “Because your anger proves that you feel me unworthy ; you are never 
 ashamed for the angels to see you in tears, or know that you are a woman and 
 can feel. It is true, Miss Davis, that I am not worthy of your confidence ; but 
 do not annihilate the bliss of my sweetest hour by making me curse the time 
 that I first felt your power.” 
 
 She coloured, but not more than he. A minute there was awkward silence — 
 the first they had ever felt to be so, and she said, “ Oh, if I could only play off 
 my feelings I’d be happy.” 
 
 “I remember to have before heard you say that you could be perfectly 
 satisfied with your lot if you could only give expression to all your joys and griefs 
 in music.” 
 
 “ Then they would neither cramp nor rend asunder my spiritual being.” 
 
 “ Would Liszt’s capacity for self-relief by musical expression suffice for you P” 
 “Assuredly.” 
 
 “ Then hear his experience. The Church Journal , after having complimented 
 Liszt, speaks thus : 4 The expression with which he looked up as his ear caught 
 the familiar sound of compliment we shall not easily forget. 4 4 All vanity ! all 
 vanity ! composed of dead men’s bones, out of which the living extract food for 
 vain glory on the one hand, and frivolous delight on the other.” He sighed and 
 withdrew.’ What do you think of his applying 4 frivolous ’ to delight such as 
 you experience in music, or i vain-glory’ to his own success ? ” 
 
 “ Perhaps his glory is vain to him because the Arch-Duchess, whom report 
 says once smiled on him, has left him to despair.” 
 
 “ Grant it. But does it not prove that the highest musical genius is an im- 
 perfeot safeguard for happiness — a faint consoler in times of depression ? "That 
 was the last time he played in public before he turned monk.” 
 
 44 Fool, you mean.” 
 
 “ Perhaps so ; but God grant that when you prove all to be vanity, you may 
 have surer refuge from yourself than a convent can yield.” 
 
 “ And where will that be ?” 
 
 “ Under the shadow ol God’s wings. The last time Liszt appeared it was in 
 the Barberini Palace. He began by the .most tremendous sounds of joy and 
 triumph. Suddenly a crash was heard and the master began in low wailing notes 
 expressive of sorrow and disappointment ; something of complaining and im- 
 patience, too. Gradually the whole seemed to pass into nothingness, and then 
 
244 
 
 LOVE AND WAE. 
 
 nothing more than a spasmodic sob as of some strong soul in agony ; and finally, 
 the loud sardonic laugh of some invisible Mephistopheles making sport of all this 
 emotion, so admirably expressed that none could help shuddering as the unearthly 
 sound broke from the keys, as though it had in reality been uttered by some human 
 being in a frenzy of madness. 4 Did you not feel it to be the illustration of yonder 
 chef d’ceuvre T asked Liszt, pointing to the ceiling on which he had been gazing 
 all the time he was playing. 4 The Triumph of Glory,’ added he in an undertone, 
 raising his eyes to that wondrous work by Pietro Cartone, 4 does not Glory’s 
 Triumph end in woe and disappointment, in misery and disgust ?’ As he said the 
 words he turned around with a bitter laugh that echoed through the silence of. 
 that awe-struck crowd, so exactly like that which had just echoed from the piano, 
 that again did the same shudder run through every over wrought nerve of the 
 assembly.” 
 
 When Harvey had left Virginia, she thought. — 44 This second love has 
 eclipsed, walled up the first. Darkness is swallowed up in light. The world is 
 beauty, and life is music. Is this eager putting away of my first fancy disgraceful 
 to me as indication that I am light of purpose ? I cannot feel it so. My God ! 
 why didst thou endow me with such a quick appreciation of sympathy, love, with 
 for all highly noble and beautiful thoughts ? Why was not I made to enjoy the 
 fooleries many women prize ? Why cannot I marry one of the men around me, 
 and settle down ? More than one has asked me ; why not put myself beyond the 
 reach of Harvey’s influence F He makes me suffer, and suffering I do not like. I 
 will not tolerate it. I will banish him, and then it will be over. If I were only 
 sure of what I have just written. Is there not true love in my heart ? Why is 
 it that no hour can pass without thoughts of him ? But if he makes me wretched 
 I am happier than I was a few months ago when my fancy for Mr. Graham was 
 child’s ‘ make believe.’ Let any possible amount of misery be condensed into the 
 next two months, I feel I would give a measureless amount of happiness could I but 
 feel it all to-night. Anything but this intolerable longing, this insatiable thirst for 
 sympathy! I ean bear suffering more heroically than the dread of it.” Virginia 
 laughed bitterly. As was her custom after such dreamings, she took refuge in 
 self-derision. — 4 4 Ah ! bah ! I don’t wonder now, though I laughed when I read it, 
 that Darwin classes reverie with sleep, vertigo, and drunkenness. Enough of 
 this !” 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 July. 
 
 4 4 So it is true that a man can live to be thirty without falling in love, and 
 then yield without a struggle, or, even the desire to struggle. Like the man 
 who draws the cork from a bottle of chloroform, knowing that when once 
 under its influence he can have no power of will, not even to save his life, and 
 yet for the exquisite sensation, half physical, half spiritual, will risk death, 
 do I seek the society of the woman whose presence is chloroform, whose voice 
 is rest; but whose love would be — what? It might be madness, I don’t know 
 why ; but to me Miss Davis seems apart from other women. She has not the 
 innocence of a child ; she has probed the nature of more than one man ; she 
 has walked, and rode, and danced, and chatted, and laughed, through 
 fashionable life, and yet is no more tainted by her experience, rather, by her 
 observation — than are the wings of the angels who pass through a sooty 
 atmosphere. I have seen a few women as intelligent and intellectual ; I have 
 seen young girls as pure, but never before one both so learned and pure. The 
 innocent simplicity of a young girl is fascinating ; so is the whiteness of a 
 wax camellia, but a man sighs to think one may be soiled as readily as the other. 
 Yet this woman — this love of mine — cannot be sullied. She may know as much 
 as I ; she has read too much to be innocent of knowledge of evil, but none the 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 245 
 
 less is she pure as the angels who know more. I know she has been courted by- 
 flirts and rakes, and have not I heard two of the most hardened say they never 
 dared to kiss her hand — that the majesty of her innocence forbade ? Virginia is a 
 woman, and has passed unscathed through scenes where men too often lose their 
 purity. It was strange that Mr. Maturin allowed that rake Dow to visit Miss Ball 
 at such untimely hours while she stayed in his house. There are brave men in 
 the field now ; but I doubt if one has more courage than that pure woman who 
 went into a miserable hovel to nurse her former playmate and friend, when father 
 and mother had driven her forth an outcast. I shuddered when I heard of this, 
 and it was several weeks before I could visit Virginia again ; but one night I 
 dreamed that I saw Miss Ball on a pallet and an angel held her hand, and at the 
 fire sat a woman with a new-born babe in her arms The.form was familiar, but 
 beautiful golden hair hid her face from me. I held my breath even in my sleep, 
 for fear that my idol was holding a child of sin and disgrace. Then the angel 
 went to the woman and said, ‘ I love you.’ 
 
 ‘ What ?’ exclaimed Virginia, who supposed she was addressing a woman, ‘ I 
 thought that no friendly hand would clasp mine after it had caressed this inno- 
 cent.’ 
 
 ‘But you hate the crime of the mother.’ 
 
 ‘ And infinitely more that of the father ; but I believe that there is a God, and 
 that He made this helpless one, and although I don’t believe in a particular Provi- 
 dence, which Pharisaical Christians are so fond of prating about, I think that 
 if He bestow a thought on the child He has given He will not be angry if I 
 do the same.’ 
 
 ‘ Nor will He ; I am the guardian-angel of this babe, and where I am there you 
 may be.’ 
 
 ‘ But my dearest friend scorns me’ — (I knew in my dream that Virginia meant 
 me.) 
 
 ‘ That is because he is carnal-minded. Does he scorn the author of this 
 mother’s sins ?’ 
 
 ‘ Yes,’ she replied, and even in sleep my joy was excessive that her pure 
 instinct read me aright. 
 
 ‘ And so do I,’ she added ; ‘ were I to meet him I would spit in his face.’ 
 
 ‘ Oh !’ said the angel in such a shocked tone, that I awoke with immoderate 
 laughter, and that day I went to see the woman too pure to fear the touch of 
 wronged love and pitiable weakness, and far too pure to permit known rakes 
 to cross her threshold. Some did it, I knew it ; but she did not. My angel fair 
 of purity celestial, that cannot be tainted ! Her spirit is like ashbestos ; the passion 
 of her lovers have no power to singe her heart — only to purify it by exalting her. 
 It is well to make a woman feel the unapprocahable majesty of womanhood, 
 pure, true, and strong.” 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 “ What have you been reading ?” asked Mr. Barton ; for as he entered, Miss 
 Davis laid down a book. 
 i( ‘ Counterparts.’ ” 
 
 ‘‘ Then that accounts for your distracted air. I am Yankee enough to guess 
 your thoughts. You are trying to discover who is your counterpart. ” 
 
 “ Quite as successful as Kentuckians generally are when they try to ape the 
 Yankee. I have no counterpart, so 1 waste no time trying to find him.” 
 
 “ Why don’t you say you will never be wedded to any but inanimate objects ? ” 
 “Inanimate !” said Virginia, with an incipient sneer. 
 
246 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “Perhaps not to your poetical mind ; but, at least, of the neuter-gender.” 
 
 “ Have you ever sought for your counterpart, Mr. Barton P” 
 
 “And found it.” There was no change in the countenance of either. Do 
 the moon and stars change when winds blow about the clouds beneath them ? 
 
 “ I should like to see your counterpart.” 
 
 “ You are so critical you would not allow I had found her. But I might have 
 known you were not trying to find the counterpart of your being ; you are too 
 self-sustained.” 
 
 “ I never intend to go out of myself for anything I can find or bring within 
 myself.” 
 
 “ It is so strange that you should be selfish ; such a temperament as your’s 
 should be lavish.” 
 
 “ Should it ? Suppose you change it.” A sneer. 
 
 “Then I should have to turn homoeopathist. But as my first guess was wrong 
 I’ll hazard another. You were thinking which of the characters in counterparts 
 you were like ? For, of something connected with yourself you were dreaming if 
 I understand your expression.” 
 
 “Yes.”. 
 
 “ In which character do you find most resemblance to yourself ? ” 
 
 “ I should be like Rose, if I had her grace and joy and innocence ” — she stopped, 
 for she was about to add beauty, but that she knew she had, and she would not 
 falsify one of her thoughts. 
 
 “ And diffidence,” said Harvey, finishing her sentence. 
 
 This displeased her, being a very diffident woman, she was always afraid some 
 one would find it out. 
 
 “ Am I impertinent ?” asked he, observing her countenance. 
 
 “ No,” she answered in a most indifferent tone. 
 
 “ But, you like Rose ! You are more like anybody else and everybody else in 
 the book.” 
 
 “ Even Miss Sarona ?” 
 
 “ Yes.” 
 
 “ It is true I am like what Hertz says she was before the day that the cloud from 
 the bridal-altar enveloped her life.” 
 
 “ And if ever your heart is hallowed by love, human or divine, you may 
 attain to her spiritual stature.” 
 
 “ Oh! don’t. To me Miss* Sarona is holy and not to be jested about. She is 
 the most beautiful of all the characters. You say I have no reverence. Perhaps 
 I have not — why do you smile ?” 
 
 “ At your 4 perhaps.’ Go on, please.” 
 
 * * If I have no reverence, I cannot tolerate a profane word concerning person 
 or thing I love. I would give ten years of my life to know Miss Sarona for 
 ten days. Are you satisfied there is one in the world of books, at least, whom I 
 do revere ?” 
 
 “ If not real, the world of books is as true as, perhaps truer— than that of our 
 short-sighted, every-day perception. Ah, I know one woman whom I would 
 give anything on earth to have you know. You would love her, and woman’s 
 love she would accept.” 
 
 “ Then I don’t want to know her. I don’t want to love anybody. But to 
 whom do you refer ?” 
 
 “ To Sister — ” 
 
 “ I was not aware you had a sister.” 
 
 “ Only in Heaven. I will tell you about her some time.” 
 
 “ Tell me now,” asked Virginia, almost pleadingly. 
 
 A strange light fell over his face and his eyes closed as though he saw an angelic 
 vision. She thought, “ I would die if he would look so at the mention of my 
 name.” 
 
 “You could not understand Evie now.” 
 
 He did not observe the motion of her lips, his eyes still closed. It was the 
 first time since her childish passion for Jennie had grown cold that she had 
 
LOVE AND WAR 
 
 247 
 
 wanted to kiss any one. She would have liked to have pressed her curved lips on 
 his purple-veined eyelids ; their snow warmed her as the fire of his glance had 
 never done. He looked so like an unstained youth ; she would never fear him 
 again since she had seen him in communion with the spirit-world, a land to her 
 as vague as that of fancy, and as inviting. 
 
 “ Pardon my silence. But how can you, poor girl, who never had a sister — ” 
 “Nor wanted one. But who is the lady to whom you give a name so sacred 
 to you ?” 
 
 “ She is the sister of her Master.” 
 
 “Oh!” was said in a tone that spoke of unconscious relief. “ Then she is a 
 Sister of Charity; hut if not a nun her vows are not for life. If she is so lovely 
 beyond compare, why do not you try to win her ?” 
 
 “ I would as soon try to give life to a statue.” 
 
 “ Do you like cold women ?” 
 
 “ She is not cold ; but braver than I is the man who would presume to appro- 
 priate a heart like hers.” Harvey little suspected how he was freezing up the 
 mood which had so pleased him. 
 
 “ But may I not know the name of the woman who can frighten you from 
 her P” 
 
 The idea of any one fearing Sister Laura ! The woman I fear — ” added Harvey, 
 with a peculiar intonation that misinterpreted his heart. 
 
 “ I ask pardon for supposing you could fear any woman,” said Virginia, quickly 
 interrupting him. 
 
 He laughed. “You need not, for I do.” 
 
 “ Some horrid old maid, I suppose.” 
 
 " I can’t let you abuse old maids, for Sister Laura is, or, soon will be 
 one.” 
 
 “ I imagined,” replied Virginia, unconsciously soothed, “to fascinate you she 
 must be young.” 
 
 “Permit me, Miss Davis, to say that you too readily take my susceptibility for 
 granted.” 
 
 “ I never suspected you of any. What a pity Sister Laura is too old for you ! 
 I didn’t at first believe what you said about being afraid to love her.” 
 
 “Nobody — not even a dog is afraid to love her.” 
 
 “ I don’t believe that twaddle about men being afraid to try to win what they 
 want.” 
 
 “ A sure proof that Miss Davis knows nothing of love,” answered her companion, 
 looking at his fingers’ ends as though he were congratulating himself on their re- 
 fined look. He stole a glance up, “ You would not be ?” 
 
 “ Assuredly not. I, afraid ?” She did not say she would not be too proud. 
 
 “ I wish you could know this Sister ; she might comprehend you and interpret 
 you.” 
 
 “ Then she shall never know me.” 
 
 “ She used to be as proud as you.” 
 
 “ May I ask how long you have known her ?” 
 
 “ It seems to me for ever. These years are so long, and we have both grown 
 old so fast..” 
 
 “ Then she may not be too old for you.” 
 
 “ Too old for me ! She has the youngest spirit I ever knew. She never can 
 grow old. When her beloved meets her in Heaven he will not perceive that years 
 have passed since they parted.” 
 
 “ Oh,” Virginia whispered. She thought she had discovered why he had no 
 hope. 
 
 He did not observe her low interjection. “ Yet she must be over thirty.” 
 
 “ Then her age suits yours. I have a holy horror of more than a few years’ 
 difference in a married couple. Heaven preserve me from being ‘ an old man’s 
 darling.’ ” 
 
 “ Would you like to be a young one’s ?’ ” asked Harvey, in a tone of badinage. 
 
248 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ Indeed, no. But I should rather be tied to a man a year younger than I than 
 to one ten years older.” 
 
 Mr. Barton looked annoyed. He thought she had seen several years less than 
 she had. 
 
 “ May I ask why ?” 
 
 “ Because sympathy is the only true marriage-bond.” 
 
 “ The chief ; but years do not make age. Do not you suppose I could 
 sympathise with a girl ten years my junior?” 
 
 “ I believe a good many fathers sympathise with their children.” 
 
 He bit his lip. 
 
 “ I believe that difference in years has as much to do with the commonality of 
 unhappy marriages as has incompatibility of temper. When children are invited 
 to grown-up people’s parties I’ll accept your theory.” 
 
 “ I have but one at present, and that is, that it is useless to want what I can 
 never get.” 
 
 “ Remember Sarona.” 
 
 “Bah !” 
 
 “ You are fastidious if Bose would not suit you,” 
 
 “No ; she would not. "We agree in one thing, Miss Davis. Sympathy is 
 necessary to marriage. I have no more desire to marry a baby, however transcen- 
 dent, than have you to marry a grandfather.” 
 
 “ There would be one advantage in a man of your patience wedding a child ; you 
 could mould her to suit your taste.” 
 
 “ I prefer God and education should do that. They have ; and I have found 
 such an one.” 
 
 “ Ah ! I forgot.” 
 
 “ I don’t think you ever knew it.” 
 
 “ Perhaps not.” Virginia felt that something was awry, and thought probably 
 she had insulted his judgment which might have desired a woman not his junior ; 
 so she said, “ More than one great man has married a woman older than himself : 
 Washington, whose judgment let who presume to doubt ; Robert Browning, whose 
 taste let who has the audacity, dispute ; Napoleon, whose love for Josephine was 
 one of his redeeming traits ; Tasso, when twenty-one, fell in love with an old 
 maid of thirty, and although she died in her forty-fourth year his love grew 
 not cold.” 
 
 “ Cannot you understand why ? He loved herself, her spirit, and that did not 
 grow old or insipid.” 
 
 “ That was scarcely the reason that the French Diana was loved by father, son, 
 and grandson. Aspasia and Cleopatra were over thirty when they became heroines 
 of the world’s romances. May I ask a question ?” 
 
 “ I am sorry you should think it requisite to ask leave to say anything you 
 please to me. Pray, be frank.” 
 
 “ Does Sister Laura’s temperament suit yours ?” 
 
 “ Positively I never thought of comparing or contrasting with myself a woman 
 so far above me in everything but height.” 
 
 “ Do you really believe woman the equal of man ?” 
 
 “Agassiz, than whose name there is none higher in science, has maintained her 
 superiority in a Latin dissertation.” 
 
 “In Latin, I presume, to keep the knowledge from the majority of the 
 sex.” 
 
 i ‘ Perhaps from those whose minds are not sufficiently disciplined to receive 
 it. Her superiority. — ” 
 
 “ Her superiority, fudge ! ” 
 
 Virginia need not have said “ fudge ” with such an air, for Barton was the first 
 man she had met whom she had felt her superior. She did not doubt but that 
 some men knew more of law, or medicine, house building, or selling tape ; but 
 mere knowledge cannot constitute personal superiority. A physician does not 
 think himself inferior to a lawyer because he has never studied Blackstone or 
 Story. 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 249 
 
 “ God’s dictates may better please you. He calls woman man’s helpmate. I 
 heard that you had had a discussion with Mr. Hare about the equality of the 
 man and the woman.” 
 
 “ Not I. I had no desire to teach him the history of his race or of literature, 
 and he has but very superficial knowledge of either.” 
 
 “ But why did not you enlighten him by giving him the names of some of the 
 female professors of law and medicine in the ages such old fogies as he are so fond 
 of extolling in opposition to the nineteenth century ?” 
 
 “ Imagine me speaking of Olympia Morata, Novella d’ Andrea, Laura Bassi, 
 Madonna Manzolini, Matilda Tambroni, Tullia d’Aragona, Cortisana Romana, 
 Yittoria Colonna, to Mr. Hare ! But he has doubtless heard of Mrs. Somerville, 
 Caroline Herschel, and Miss Mitchell, and they have not raised his opinion of 
 women.” 
 
 “ A man’s opinions seldom rise higher than his own level ; but of all ridiculous 
 argumentation that of the equality of the sexes tires me soonest. A man and 
 woman disputing on the subject are much like a German and an Englishman 
 discussing the superiority of fatherland.” 
 
 “ What do you think of Rosa Bonheur ?” 
 
 “ Highly of her talent, somewhat contemptuously of her costume and slaughter- 
 yard habits. Imagine me slaughtering an ox and you eating it! No. While 
 men are willing to do everything for the ladies I’ll do nothing for myself. ” 
 
 Mr. Barton laughed, a thing he seldom did when in conversation with Virginia, 
 whose very badinage was quiet. 
 
 “ Elizabeth Kaufmann is more to my taste than the Rose of Happiness,” added 
 Virginia. “Do you believe any woman who lives for art happier than was Sappho, 
 even if we have to give up the fable of her suicide ?” 
 
 “ No ; neither do I believe any woman happy who lives only for love as did poor 
 Sappho. It seems to me Mrs. Browning is the most blest woman of our age ; 
 perhaps in poetry she ranks next to Shakespeare. I am sure her Eve is finer 
 than Milton’s whining femininity, and who is happier than the wife of a poet 
 who is her equal ?” 
 
 “ But these poet-spouses bring me back to our first subject, men marrying 
 women older than themselves,” said Virginia, determined to sound Harvey as 
 regarded Laura, of whom she was unconsciously jealous. 
 
 Mr. Barton looked six years younger than he was, and naturally Virginia 
 thought a “ Sister ” must be rather old. 
 
 “ So you can understand loving an old maid ?” 
 
 “ Of course, I can. My sisters say the reason I don’t marry is because I am in 
 love with Sister Emily.” 
 
 Virginia smiled happily, and said, “ I am not joking.” 
 
 “ Do you think I am ? I began a poem to her but I can’t finish it. I am not 
 the first poet who has been spoiled by turning from an imagination to a reality.” 
 “ Miss Johnston an imagination !’ 
 
 “At least, to rightly comprehend her is one of its highest acts. Woman’s 
 lot ! Is it not a strange one ? I have thought the griffin was man’s fittest 
 emblem ; his nobler half would rise did not the strength of his bestial nature 
 pin him to the earth. Thank God, women don’t have to be politicians. ” 
 
 “Can you forget Elizabeth of England, Catherine II. of Russia, Maria 
 Theresa, Isabella, Semiramis, Christina, Olympia, Madame Roland, Thermatis,. 
 Cleopatra, Deborah, Zenobia ? ” 
 
 “ I scarcely call the last stateswomen,” he replied. 
 
 “I glory in the heroines of war, and in my excited moments count them on 
 my fingers and ask when will the Confederacy add to the list which comprises 
 Constantia de Cezli, (Brevet-Governor of Leucate,) Jeanne de Montfort, Jane of 
 Belleville, (the naval heroine,) Joan d’Arc, the daughter of the Prefect Gregory, 
 the Countesses of St. Belmont and Derby, the women of Suli, the Amazons 
 of Siam, Kalad’s Arabian Phalanx. ’ ’ 
 
 “ I did not know there were so many renowned in war, though I had not 
 
250 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 forgotten the names of the more courageous Charlotte Corday, Jael, and 
 Judith.” 
 
 “But I like women better as philosophers, and Hypatia, Aspasia, the mother 
 of the Gracchi, Portia, wife of Brutus, are more to my taste.” 
 
 “Of learned women the number is large ; Madame Dacier, Elizabeth Carter, 
 H. L. Canaro, LL.D., Jane of Arragon, Ann Clifford, Sophronisba of Carthage, 
 De Genlis, L. Barri, P. D. Montague.” 
 
 “There is one desire almost universal among women I do not participate in.” 
 “The desire to be loved ? I believe your mind would be jealous if your 
 heart loved a bird. ” 
 
 “ Certainly you can talk more nonsense than any sensible man I ever saw. 
 I referred to womens’ wishing to be understood. ” 
 
 “But why do you object to being understood ? ” 
 
 “Because the man, woman, or child who understood me could rule me.” 
 
 “I wish I had uttered my thought before, I am afraid to now.” 
 
 “An insinuation is worse than any charge. Say on.” 
 
 “I think of all adults I ever saw you are the easiest to be understood. 
 There ! I knew I should offend you. ” 
 
 “You have not.” 
 
 “Scorn was in your eye, though as you were on your guard your lip did not 
 curl. ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ So you flatter yourself that you read me ? Tut ! I have shown you only 
 the company-side of my character. ” 
 
 “The moon shows us only her worldly side; but if the man who is on her 
 will come down to decide the bet, I’ll wager anything you please that the side 
 she fancies none but him knows, corresponds to an iota with the side the whole 
 world sees.” 
 
 “Illustration isn’t logic. How did you find me out — if you have — Sir 
 Mystifier?” 
 
 “I forgot all I had learned about other grown people and conned over the 
 lessons learned from children.” 
 
 “That would be flattery were it not sarcasm.” 
 
 “ Strike the balance between the two. ” 
 
 “Verbiage.” 
 
 “Not a bit of it.” 
 
 “All of it; were it not I’d detest you, forthwith.” 
 
 “I am as right in my affirmation as you are wrong in the conclusion you 
 draw. I can no more influence you because I comprehend you, than I can 
 draw down the moon to my humble love because I have found out her secret. ” 
 Both blushed ; so neither knew the other did. The woman first recovered 
 her self-possession, as she always does, because she most fears to have her 
 confusion discovered. Harvey did not relish the bantering mood Virginia now 
 thought proper to assume, and soon left her, feeling more than ever baffled, and 
 yet more enticed to read the sweet mystery upon which his long callous heart 
 had so suddenly fallen. As he walked down Broadway he thought of her 
 captivating frankness ; enrapturing it was when it let him see he interested 
 her, and how provoking when it showed as plainly he could not influence her 
 a whit. He went to his room and wrote : — 
 
 “What cares she for my bliss or pain? 
 
 But she would like my heart to gain 
 That she may lay it at her feet 
 Among a thousand hearts as sweet. ” 
 
 As soon as he had written this, he exclaimed, 
 
 “That is false ; my angry mood has run away with my judgment. Would 
 to Heaven she would like to win my heart ! ‘ Who plays to win may lose !’ 
 
 They say unreturned or unappreciated love is worse to a woman than to a man. 
 It is false, I assert my equality with a woman ; she is no more God-like than I ; 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 251 
 
 therefore no more capable of intense love. When a man has nothing to eat, does he 
 hunger less than a woman ? When he is lost in a desert, does he suffer less from 
 thirst ? The notion that a woman may trifle with a man is cruelly false. Man’s 
 nature is no more brutal, nor his pangs less painful than hers. Self-command is 
 not self-negation. Neither is it true that women are the only necessarily passive 
 sufferers from love disdained. Can I by physical force compel a woman’s love ? 
 A man’s strength will no more enable him to fly on the ocean than will a woman’s. 
 4 The heart of her husband might safely trust in her.’ Husband ! I must be far 
 away before Virginia so calls any man. An old maid let her be and I could bear it, 
 but the wife of another — I cannot see that. If I were not about to desert my 
 heritage to fight for freedom I might try to win her for my life-angel; but the 
 Legislature has already passed the decree which condemns me to poverty. So 
 be it. Poor I may be ; free I must be. Oh politicians ! who brought on this 
 bloody war, do you feel that hopeless love is the only recompense many of us will 
 have for the parental homes we have sacrificed, and fortunes we have thrown 
 away, and to our ene mies P And for what ? To rivet chains on free-born men ; 
 for I have no hope that the Confederacy will ever be able to redeem Kentucky ; 
 I am not of the sanguine ; I fear brute force, used as brutes are wont to use it, 
 in destroying will overwhelm us. But I will not think of this. There is one 
 gleam of happiness. Gleam, did I say ? I am over-flowed with the ecstacy of 
 loving as this day is with balmy sunshine ; the sun must set and the twilight 
 pass wearily into night. Have I any more hope of winning for my heart lasting 
 sunshine ? I may have ; but I try to be sensible and think not. I am thankful 
 for the present bliss. I understand now why God called Himself “ Love,” 
 because it is the highest, holiest, and best of all things animate or inanimate to 
 which He has given existence. I must not be too precipitate and frighten from her 
 perch of unconscious fascination the bird of my Paradise, the bird that my very 
 soul longs to cage, before my heart has clasped it firmly. Oh, this sweet delirium ! 
 This delicious madness ! Do I not know that to indulge this mood is madness ? 
 It is well my cigar is finished. I have been a fool and happy long enough. 
 Let me get at my dispatches from Richmond and admit common sense to the 
 brain from which it was expelled while the cigar lasted.” 
 
 Meanwhile Virginia was scourging her heart ; she, too, was writing rhymes 
 — lovers’ most available consolation, and hers were 
 
 A 4 ‘LORD OF CREATION.” 
 
 44 Dear sir, are you a grand 4 lord of creation ?’ 
 
 Oh, fal-lal ! But what a glorious nation. 
 
 When each supercilious lord of creation, 
 
 Takes a woman’s heart for his daily ration. 
 
 That you are a smart man let none dare deny, 
 
 You can dance and flirt, you can flatter and sigh, 
 
 All these are parts of your fine education, 
 
 Surely you ought to be 4 lord of creation !’ 
 
 That you are quite handsome you very well know. 
 
 Where would your glass be did it not tell you so ? 
 
 But looks you think 4 killing ’ can never harm me ; 
 
 I cannot be conquered by what I can see.” 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 44 Oh, if I could only make the four walls of this room gradually enlarge and 
 enclose new beauties ! It seems to me every article in it has been conned until 
 
251 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 it can afford me no new ideas. Is there not such a place as Heaven — a space 
 where beauty is inexhaustible ? Sometimes I feel as though it were impossible 
 that I, this wonderful, thinking, suffering, active I, can ever cease to be. My 
 body can be resolved into dust, but my body is not this I. What has it to do 
 with my exquisite dreams ? When I can neither hear nor see what is without, 
 whence emanate the lovely visions I so highly prize ? Oh, if eternity were but 
 a succession of dreams ! But this would not suit people who are victims of the 
 nightmare. What am I ? I am a being who lives in the beautiful. How 
 came I on this strange earth? Was it a good God who placed me here ? Then 
 why did He not give me a mother ? But that gift would not per-se be any 
 token of kindness ; I am sure I should rather have no parent than such a dis- 
 agreeable one as Emma’s. And I believe I think it better never to have had 
 such an one as Alice had, if she had to be taken from me and my heart, like 
 Alice’s, were only an urn for her memory. If Mr. Maturin had left Jennie 
 fatherless, her life would be but a sarcophagus to represent the days of child- 
 hood. Heigh-ho ! I can’t settle this question — ‘ Why do I not know a 
 mother ? ’ as a proof final of a superior Being’s ill-will towards me, so let me 
 go back to my first question — What am I ? I believe I have no better answer 
 than I have given — one who lives in the beautiful. Maybe, my parents were 
 so poor they could not have given me beautiful objects, and so God gave me to 
 one who could. True, poverty could not have deprived me of the skies by day 
 and night ; but they alone would not suffice. It requires great variety to 
 satisfy me. Satisfy ? Satisfy? — bah ! If I could only travel all over the 
 world there might be some chance of satisfying for a while my hungry brain ; 
 but were I to live several centuries the whole world would become as 'familiar 
 to me as this room. Truly, nothing but Omnipotence can satisfy me if I have 
 to live an eternity. And if I have to live for ever, where am I to live ? I am 
 not a baby to believe that Providence is only Kriss Kringle who fills stockings 
 with presents bought nowhere. As surely as a parent fills his child’s stockings, 
 a God supplies the world with beauty. But where is He ? Preachers say 
 everywhere ; if that be so, why don’t things go on better ? If He knows I am 
 in the world, why don’t He make me love Him ? Why don’t He care for me ? 
 I am not fool enough to think that I sprang from a cabbage. If I have, or had 
 parents why didn’t they care for my babyhood ? I might as well deny I ever 
 had parents because I never saw nor heard of them as to doubt God’s existence 
 because I cannot see nor hear Him. Women and men love their children ; do 
 my parents never yearn for me ? They may be dead. I hope they are. May 
 not my ignorance of them be a proof of God’s pity for me ? It won’t do to 
 say that there is no such thing as a particular Providence, because the world is 
 ‘ out of joint ’ any more than to say I have no parents because their neglect 
 contradicts an almost universal law of nature. Oh, if there was but one 
 capable of teaching me the truth ! There must be a God. If not, why don’t 
 flowers grow out of shells ? Why don’t some men have feet on their backs and 
 noses where are toes, and eyes where are fingers ? What should I think of the 
 sense of a man who came in here and finding all my shells in one cabinet and 
 my corals in another, said they only chanced to be so P Am not I almost as 
 great a fool ? What would I think of the man who lived with me and watched 
 my daily life and said I did not love beautiful things ? The man who knew 
 what Mr. Maturin has done for me and could say he does not care to please 
 me, would be nearly as big a blockhead as he who can see all that God made 
 for me, and say He does not care for me. If He does not, why has He placed 
 me here? Why not in Africa? How many orphans in our asylum has He 
 cared for as He has for me ? They would not enjoy what I do, perhaps. Some 
 of them would rather wash than work out problems in geometry. They want 
 plenty to eat and more than enough of finery. Let them be cooks and dress- 
 makers. They love babies ; let them be nurses. Oh, my brain aches with all 
 these thoughts, and my soul is thirsty for the truth.” A servant entered. 
 
 “Mr. Barton’s card, Miss Virginia.” 
 
 “ Say I’ll be down in a minute.” She added to herself, “ Am I to doubt his 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 253 
 
 love because for years he gave no evidence of his existence ? Ah, if God could 
 come to me and talk to me, and love me as this man does. Poor child ! I cannot 
 but pity such a childish woman as I am, and does not God P 55 
 
 li Won’t you play for me this evening ?” asked Virginia of Mr. Barton, because 
 her whole soul was steeped in a rose-tinted, misty atmosphere not very conducive to 
 conversation. Harvey was glad of the invitation, because she asked this favour 
 but seldom, notwithstanding her peculiar enjoyment of such music as he played. 
 He knew why when she was under its influence she was for the nonce almost as 
 much in his power as if he had magnetised her. This evening he particularly 
 desired to assert his supremacy over her sensitive temperament, in poetic revenge 
 for the way she governed all his reveries. He sat down to the piano and played 
 wild and joyous music, often improvising. Virginia became restive ; he perceived 
 this and grew rapturously excited ; he had his revenge. Did she feel something 
 of what was passing in his mind ? Perhaps so, for when he got up she stopped 
 her walk up and down the floor, and picking up a volume of Goethe, the first book 
 her hand happened to fall on, said in an indifferent tone, “ Let any one but com- 
 bine art and science and literature as Goethe did more illustriously than any other 
 man, and he must be happy.” 
 
 Harvey smiled at the transparency of her ruse , and said, “ Yet I have read his 
 own confession that during his whole life he never spent four happy days ; and I 
 think him too superior to Byron to wish to rival him and Bousseau in their absurd 
 desire of appearing more wretched than they were.” 
 
 “ Rousseau, bah ! He disgusted me so, I could not read him. I can’t read either 
 his works or Byron’s — with few exceptions — without feeling as if I had been 
 tossed upon the sea.” 
 
 “Tome the unhappiness that is most touching is that which seeks to hide 
 itself.” 
 
 “ I never thought much about it. I am as happy as a child.” 
 
 “ One thing let me beg of you ; if the sparkling bubbles of youth dissolve 
 while you play with them, at least, never part with its dreams. Keep your heart 
 young.” 
 
 “I think my love for the beautiful will do that. Biography is my favourite 
 department of literature, and I have been on the search for the secret of happiness 
 for eight years, and have come to the conclusion that there never was a truly 
 happy person.” 
 
 “ History shows us one — Wilberforce. Only last night my mother quoted this 
 extract from his diary : — i I find the sense of God’s presence produces a calm, 
 humble, confiding dependence, making me walk softly.” 
 
 “ Walk softly ! How poetical,” said Virginia, trying to drown the remembrance 
 of the number of times that she wished she had a friend whose presence could 
 have just this effect upon her. How sweet it would be for her to know the joy 
 of dependence on one whom she trusted ! She knew she could not find happiness, 
 and as for peace, the very word seemed like the echo of a half-forgotten dream. 
 For a minute Harvey did not interrupt her thoughts ; then he spoke, pitying both 
 himself and her. 
 
 “ Bowdler’s picture of the great Wilberforce singing like a blackbird where- 
 ever he went, has touched me strangely.” 
 
 “ History has shown him to me as a philosopher, orator, philanthropist, states- 
 man ; 1 would as soon think of a doll in a kaleidoscope having a distinct existence 
 as of Wilberforce being a mere individual with the joy of a bird.” 
 
 “ Bowdler says he always had the spirit of a boy. Yet he had many enemies, 
 and was often opposed with vehemence and ridicule, as he still is ; for all very 
 strong and decided characters, whether in public or private life, must have 
 enemies.” 
 
 “ Truly it is strange for such intense Southerners as we to be lauding him.” 
 
 “ I was speaking only of his happiness.” 
 
 “ I was defending him in a party of Secessionists the other day. I hate the 
 slave-trade and so did they. None of us loved slavery except from opposition to 
 
254 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 the abominable Yankees ; yet they all vilified him, because he did what 
 he thought his duty. I defended him, because I always take the part of the 
 weakest.” 
 
 “Do you, Miss Davis ? I had expected more justice from you.” 
 
 Virginia’s uplifted eyes asked a question. 
 
 “ I always side with what I believe the right.” 
 
 “ Oh, of course, and so do I. How you make me retract all my pithy sayings 
 that no one else questions.” 
 
 Harvey shook his head dubiously. 
 
 “ You know you do,” she exclaimed, smiling, “ for I always avow it when I 
 am vanquished, being ashamed to be ashamed of being conquered, however 
 mortified I really feel to find myself in the wrong.” 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 “Why should I alone, of all earth’s women, be deprived of life’s best gift — 
 noble love P Mr. Herz’s music excites me sadly to-day. There is only one thing 
 I can do when I hear music, and that is, write ; it annoys me to hear talking, or 
 even to walk, or croquet ; only writing seems to harmonize with music ; it is as 
 if Mr. Herz played and I sang. Sometimes music so surcharges my brain with 
 ethereal flame that if I did not give a few faint sparks to rhyme it would burn it 
 up. Were I a Christian I should always worship by music. I can understand 
 what prayer and adoration mean when music excites me beyond all bounds, and 
 my spirit soars aloft and folds her wearied pinions at the Throne of Deity — not 
 that I know what that is any more than does a king’s carrier-dove know him to 
 whom she bears a message. Had my spirit no pre-existence in the realm where 
 sweet accords were born, and where they ever live to sometimes send faint 
 echoes to our earth ? If not, why does it so often waft me to what seems an old 
 loved shrine ? Oh, God, if in Thine august dwelling, Thou dost ever deign to 
 listen to spoiled children of the earth, look down in love and pity on me now ! Is 
 all music a delusion and Heaven a cheat ; or, am I unworthy of both that I 
 doubt either ? If one is real, then must the other be. If there is no Heaven, 
 whence came music ? Never issued it from clods of earth. Is the infidel or the 
 musician the victim of his brain ? Ah ! I am in a tangled wild. Steep rocks my 
 intellect can never scale shut me from men and Deity. I could doubt as perfectly 
 as Berkeley, though to a different end, did not sweet echoes resound from these 
 inaccessible barriers. Echoes ! They are but echoes ; where dwells the voice ? 
 Sometimes I turn steadfastly in one direction, sure it is there ; but soon an echo 
 otherwhere mocks ; and where I myself am, I hardly know. Oh, God, I am lost ! 
 Is there no one to guide me out of this labyrinth ? Pshaw ! does God Himself 
 hear me P Oh, God ! is there a Heaven ? I have answered, ‘ No,’ when in hot 
 discussion ; but I dare not whisper to myself a lie while I listen to the tones that 
 angels seem to send o’er the wires that bind my life to immortality. Angels ! 
 what are they to me ? What the nymphs were to the Greeks— too beautiful to he 
 given up to reason’s scorn. Angels ! angels ! angels ! Are ye, too, lost in 
 fathomless void P I reach out my hands in the stillness of the night ; but I can 
 feel ye never. I cry aloud in my desolation to know if you are near ; but ye 
 answer not ; all in vain do I hush the beating of my impatient heart to list the 
 waving of your wings. Spiritualism mocked me but for a day. One ill spelt and 
 ungrammatical communication was enough for me ; even when but fifteen I 
 dismissed a lover because he knew Moore’s poems better than Butler’s grammar ; 
 and Dr. Walton, who talked so beautifully, never wrote me but one letter, because 
 it was ill- spelt. And was I to patronize in an angel what I would not tolerate in 
 
LOVE AND WAR , 
 
 255 
 
 a man? I should rather turn Romanist and pay hyperdulia to the Virgin, who can’t 
 talk ungrammatically. But, ah ! Has Mr. Herz gone ? I suppose the music 
 ceased when I began to sneer. Oh, God, if Thou canst hear me, comfort me ! 
 I am wretched, wretched !” 
 
 With this, Virginia threw down the pencil she had been scribbling with, laid 
 her head on the arm of the sofa and wept. Mr. Herz was engaged to come and 
 play for her twice a week, and as he often left her in an abstracted mood which 
 he understood too well to disturb, he did not notice that his “ good-morning ” 
 elicited no response. Virginia wept unrestrainedly as a babe weeps, not knowing 
 that it wails for want of tender care. What were the splendour and beauty of her 
 home to the lonely woman ? Wrap a babe in velvet and lay it in a golden cradle, 
 put a statue as exquisite as Miss Lander’s Evangeline to sleep beside it, and leave 
 it alone. Then can you understand Virginia wailing for what she, alas ! knew 
 not. The servant opened the door quietly — for so everything was done in Mr. 
 Maturin’s house — and admitted Mr. Barton, 
 
 “In tears, my beautiful!” An exclamation that neither his nor her excitement 
 allowed them to analyze. 
 
 “ Your beautiful, am I ? ” she exclaimed, too accustomed to flattery to resent a 
 compliment, or notice it as most women would. “ Then you can tell me what I 
 want.” 
 
 “Love.” 
 
 “I do not ; I hate it. It troubles me!” 
 
 Harvey moved his lips nervously ; he had long felt what she needed to round 
 her character into symmetry. 
 
 “Tell me what I want. If you can’t, no one can.” 
 
 “There is nothing earth can give that you have not except what now you 
 scorn.” 
 
 “I don’t care where it comes from. If you know what I want, tell me,” 
 she said with the petulancy that at another time would have amused him. 
 “Why did you sigh?” 
 
 “Because I cannot tell you where or how to get what I know you need; the 
 only — ” 
 
 “Oh, tell me what it is ! I’ll get it for myself.” 
 
 “A hope of immortality.” 
 
 “Do I?” 
 
 “Yes.” 
 
 “Would I be happy if I had that ? ” 
 
 “I believe so. I should be. Without it, I am not.” 
 
 “But is there any immortality to hope for ? ” 
 
 “If you loved you would not ask that question.” 
 
 “Do you believe in what you prescribe for me ? ” 
 
 4 * I do, ” he answered, as his colour rose ; for, he knew enough of her straight- 
 forward common sense to expect her to sneer at him for not seeking what he 
 believed would make him happy. 
 
 But even in her excitement she saw his confusiou, and her heart trembled in 
 self-pity. With a woman’s natural instinct to yield obedience to spiritual 
 superiority, in which trait she is nearest allied to the angels, she had, like a 
 lost child, been about to commit herself to his guidance in a path she had 
 never trodden, but with which she hoped to find him familiar. She felt when 
 she perceived the confusion with which he gave his last answer that he was 
 almost as ignorant as herself : but she made another effort to make him declare 
 himself competent to guide her where she longed for the moment to be — 
 though she knew not how to go — where peace was to be found. 
 
 “You mean I ought to be a Christian.” 
 
 His pleased look answered her. 
 
 “If I ought to be, so ought you. Are you?” 
 
 Barton had ridiculed the idea of any hell, material or immaterial, but now he 
 felt that the lost soul of the woman he loved might curse him through 
 eternity. Virginia rose, and crossing the room as though nothing unusual had 
 
256 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 disturbed her serenity, took up a purse she was crocheting. A pang smote him 
 as a demon whispered, “I’ll settle with you for the gift of this soul.” 
 
 For a few moments neither spoke ; but when Virginia had ravelled out a row 
 of wrong stitches, she asked, 
 
 “Were you at the theatre last night?” 
 
 Without heeding her question he expressed his thought. 
 
 “If you could only know Sister Laura ! You could no more resist her than 
 you could be harsh to an angel. And even your severe sense of consistency 
 could find nothing to sneer at in her. Ah ! she could make you happy.” 
 “Doubtless; and not me only.” 
 
 “ISTo; also any who would yield themselves to her influence; it is never 
 seemingly aggressive; only when with her, you know that you breathe a 
 different atmosphere than that to which you are used. ” 
 
 “And scorn all lower regions of existence as does the dweller on a mountain 
 height those who eat and sleep in the valley. ” 
 
 Barton brightened. 
 
 “ May I bring her to see you ? 99 
 
 “Excuse me ; I should not like to ask her to descend to my level, as it 
 seems she does to yours. ” 
 
 “Indeed, she descends to no one; she draws all to her elevation — how, 
 nobody knows. ” 
 
 “I have one favour to request of you.” 
 
 ‘ ‘Would that it were a hundred ! ” 
 
 “By what rule of mathematics could that be wrought? But this one is 
 better than any other hundred. Forget the weakness I have shown to-day. ” 
 “Not even in Heaven can I.” 
 
 Virginia curled her lip ; she was provoked, but answered — 
 
 “ It seems to me that you speak very boldly of going to a place which, 
 granting it exists out of the realm of fable, you surely have no passport to. ” 
 
 " This is the second time you have surprised me with a doubt of a Heaven ?” 
 “Your surprise cannot equal mine to find that you believe in it, and yet 
 care not for it. I am more philosophical. If I believed in the elixir of life I 
 should seek it. If there is a Heaven for consistent people, there must be a 
 hell for inconsistent ones, and truly I don’t care to be there, seeing how much 
 trouble they have occasioned me here. ” 
 
 “ You take retribution for granted.” 
 
 “ God is just. He will annihilate all or judge all. Universalism is unphilo- 
 sophical ; retribution is logical. The God Who made me must have been a 
 logician. I find logic as necessary as bread for every-day life. You know, 
 too, I pride myself on my taste.” 
 
 “ And well you may,” replied Harvey, glancing at her elegant dark tissue 
 dress and delicately-plaided scarf wound around her breast as gracefully as 
 Guido painted turban on the Cenci, while a silver net held her golden hair. 
 Then Harvey glanced around the exquisitely-arranged boudoir, his conscience 
 glad to be diverted awhile. ‘ e If you have not taste, Burke and Allison wrote 
 in vain. ” 
 
 “ If I have, one of them did. But if I went to Heaven — you know one may 
 suppose anything — do you think I should like to stand beside a satyr ?” 
 
 “ Mythology and Scripture,” replied Barton, smiling. 
 
 “A satyr only symbolizes an animalized man. No! No! Demons and 
 angels can never consort. Venus and Vulcan. Bah ! I’d rather have no Venus 
 in my Olympus than one who could like Vulcan.” 
 
 “Perhaps he was the best of the two.” 
 
 “ Then expel both. But be assured a God of such taste as the Maker of 
 this world and the starry heavens will never place saint and sinner side by 
 side, any more than I would wear yellow and red together. ” 
 
 Harvey could not resist another smile. 
 
 “What strange fancies you have !” 
 
 “ Oh ! That reminds me to ask you about what I was thinking of yesterday. 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 257 
 
 Did you ever find in your everyday or literary world analogies of the cha- 
 racters of mythology ?” 
 
 “You are Psyche before Cupid kissed her.” 
 
 “If I am Psyche, who symbolises Sister Laura ?” 
 
 “No character of mythology ; but the angel who said to sorrowing women, 
 
 ‘ Come and see the place where your Lord lay.’ ” 
 
 Virginia’s bright beauty was now like a flower steeped in mist ; but she 
 answered gaily, 
 
 “ You did not guess rightly about me ; I am a Naiad.” 
 
 “ A musical one — music, not water, being your element.” 
 
 “And is not water music made visible ? In the morning, what is the ocean 
 but an oratorio of creation ? at night, what but the grandest of nocturnes ? 
 What is Niagara but the wedded spirits of all operas and Te Deums ? What 
 are cataracts but fugues for eye and ear ? What are rivers, when played on by 
 the wind but Nature’s Misereres ? Are not brooks love-ditties ? showers, c songs 
 without words ?’ What is a thunderstorm but an orchestra in full blast ? ” 
 
 As she spoke her eyes closed, and as she named it she seemed to hear each 
 musical voice of water. It was not strange that Harvey put his hands over his 
 face for fear he should kiss her eyelids. There are some women whom certain 
 men feel that they must pet and shield. They do not so much desire their 
 love as the privilege of protecting them. As Harvey would have wrapped in 
 his cloak and warmed with the warmth of his bosom a foundling exposed to a 
 storm, he desired to fold Virginia to his breast and hold her there forevor — not 
 that he might enjoy her beauty and intellect, but to lessen her chances of 
 suffering. There is no selfishness in love like his. 
 
 Day after day Harvey talked with Virginia and never told his secret, or, if 
 he did, it was in a dreamy, poetical way, which her delicacy refused to accept 
 as more than tribute to her sex and beauty. Her beauty? Yes ; “there was 
 the rub.” She was convinced that Sister Laura’s intellect, loveliness and 
 spirituality, held in bonds stronger than death or pride his heart, while her 
 beauty had won the suffrage only of his fancy. Therefore, did she for the 
 moment loathe her charms which she felt had betrayod her into his hands : 
 she sought not to disguise from herself that she loved him. Lonely orphan, 
 she had no desire to be unconscious of her greatest happiness. His unguarded 
 expressions of love and reverence for Sister Laura had produced the impression 
 that he sought in her beauty only to forget a stronger spell. She was not 
 jealous of the Sister. To a nature like hers jealousy is as impossible as would 
 be an Ethiop’s features to one of her temperament. Shyness and pride 
 prevented her giving her consent to calling on Sister Laura. She was as much 
 afraid of meeting her as she would have been of conversing with Harvey’s 
 guardian-angel. Her pride shrank from knowing her, lest for the sake of a 
 lover she should become copyist of what had so charmed him, not because she 
 naturally assimilated with all good and beautiful influences, but to secure her 
 empire over him ; she had never tried to attract him or to retain him ; she 
 would not stoop to either now. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 il What has the future to offer me ? Quiet and pleasure dull as a summer noon- 
 tide, even to satiety. Bah ! I am sick of both. And yet I don’t know ; comfort 
 is more to me than love. How could I, who cannot sit in a straight-backed chair 
 ten minutes without weariness, make my own living ? Nor have I forgotten 
 how uncomfortable I was at Mr. Scott’s, because I had to lay my cheek on a 
 cotton pillow-case. And did not one mosquito keep me awake all that night ? 
 
 R 
 
258 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 What a horrible bore it would be to me to have to put away my own clothes when 
 I come from a walk or drive ! Yet I think I could make my own living. I might 
 spin novels out of my own life ; but where find readers for my cobweb books P 
 Would not those women, whose literature is comprised in Bible and cookery-book, 
 pronounce me most pedantic ? How critics, who judge obfemale capacity by that 
 of their mothers to quiet babies, and that of their sisters to entertain one-idead 
 clerks, or that of their wives, whom they married for beauty or money, would 
 denounce my heroines as unnatural ! It is easy enough to write, but to be read is 
 the difficulty. And when one writes for a living the latter point is as important 
 as the first. I could only write from my own experience, or, rather my conscious- 
 ness of capacity for experience. I have never sufficientiy appreciated human 
 nature to make it my study. My contempt for it forbade me to desire more 
 knowledge of it. If I could find it only consistent ! I like Milton’s Lucifer 
 better than his Adam.” 
 
 Having written this, Virginia threw down her pen in disgust, took up a book, 
 read two pages and found as she turned the page she did not know what book she 
 had picked up ; so she discarded it and went back to her desk and read over what 
 she had last written ; then resumed her pen.” 
 
 “ Why am I writing thus ? Because my adopted father has become so cold to 
 me. It is months since he has fondled me. Ah, how kind and tender he used 
 to be ! It is not only because I fear going into the world that I cannot leave 
 him ; if I forsake him whom will he love and pet ? And what will my human 
 heart have to cling to ? And is it not better to cherish a stone than nothing ? 
 Can I have offended him ? If I — ” 
 
 A sigh behind her answered Virginia’s sob. 
 
 “ What’s the matter, my darling ?” 
 
 “ Nothing.” 
 
 “ And is it nothing that you have been writing ? As I passed the door I heard 
 a sob. I opened it gently. Pardon me that I did not knock. I thought I might 
 find a photograph or letter in your hand, and so discover why you have lost your 
 old sweet cheerfulness. When I saw you writing I intended to let you put your 
 secret on paper that I might see it. What made you turn around so soon ? 
 I should be sorry not to find the ball when I have probed the wound. Pardon 
 me — ” 
 
 “ That you shall not do,” cried Virginia, as Mr. Maturin took up the journal. 
 “ Forgive me, Virginia, I must know what troubles you. The next month 
 must not be like the past. Whom you love you shall marry.” 
 
 ‘‘Indeed — ” 
 
 “ I want no protestations. I say you shall be happy, though the enviable dog 
 break the heart of another woman and you mine.” 
 
 In one of his he held both of her hands and heeded neither struggles, entreaties, 
 nor anger. An intense light came into his eyes. He dropped the book and caught 
 her to his bosom. 
 
 She said, “You are not angry with me ? You had not ceased to love me ?” 
 
 “ Ceased to love you !” He laughed strangely. “ I love you as you do not know,” 
 he muttered, with ill-repressed eagerness. 
 
 She looked up brightly, 
 
 “ What ! Hot after all the proofs I have around me ! God’s love I often doubt, 
 yours, never. Oh, my father — ” 
 
 “ Hush! ” he exclaimed, in fierce pain. “Virginia, answer me one question. 
 Do you wish to marry no one else and leave me ? ” 
 
 “ I would rather die than love any one better than you, and desert you for him,” 
 she answered, supposing he had treated her so coldly lately because he had thought 
 she wanted to leave him. 
 
 He strained her so impetuously to his heart, and burned such a long kiss into 
 her brow that she trembled, she knew not why. 
 
 “ Let me go.” 
 
 “ Never, my darling! Never, my bride that’s soon to be ! ” After this he met 
 with no resistance as he tightened his arms around her passive form. “ Speak one 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 259 
 
 word, myTprecious ! Say, 1 George. 5 55 He asked this with the instinct of an old 
 man, fearful of receiving reverence instead of love. “ E iss me, sweet, as — 55 He 
 checked himself. He did not wish her to embrace him as she had before, with the 
 unconscious love of a child. He lifted her face to read confession there ; but her 
 eyes were closed and her lips rigid. 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 Harvey sits smoking, and these are the thoughts which rise with the smoke : — 
 “ She is on a mountain peak, my beautiful, but ever-separated one ! Mist 
 surrounds her and shuts her out from the world, but not from me ; for I, too, am 
 on a mountain-peak. I also am in a cloud, and, therefore, I see her. She is near 
 to me — so near my voice could touch her ear with thrilling words ; but between 
 us there is a valley I dare not descend into, and I can never reach her. I know 
 this at last. It was long before I would be convinced, that what seemed a part of 
 me was far away from me. The stranger on the Hartz mountains may not 
 recognize at once that the spectre of the Brocken is his shadow, and may have 
 many vain outstretchings and grievous falls ere convinced he cannot grasp it. 
 Angry, dark clouds are surging in the chasm between us, and it knows no light 
 save when the lurid lightning shows forth in triumph its gloom. I should not 
 be afraid to descend into that region of clouds had not Fate said I should not ; 
 therefore I dare not. How sad she seems to be ! I wish it was not so ; I never 
 heard her laugh ; I never thought of this until yesterday — her eyes smile so 
 rapturously. Rapture ! Poets had written of it, and what they wrote I had read, 
 and would have attempted to explain to a foreigner — would have, I say; for now 
 I know it is one of the half-dozen words that mortal tongue may utter, but not 
 explain. Since I have looked into her eyes and their light has fallen into the 
 depths of my soul my spirit knows what rapture means.” 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 September 20th. 
 
 It was a damp day that had neither cold nor heat to flush a maiden’s cheek 
 when Sister Laura entered the reception-room of the Church Home for Unmarried 
 Women, and saw before her a fair creature whose golden hair shaded a brow of as 
 deep vermilion as her cheeks and even throat ; there was in her air such painful 
 embarrassment and consciousness of something which humiliates that the Sister 
 advanced rather more quickly than her wont, and taking a hand not offered, said 
 in her low, sweet tone of feeling. 
 
 “ I am glad to see you ; pray be seated.” 
 
 As she said this she looked down, her artistic eye expectant of two soft blue 
 eyes swimming in tears, but the visitor allowed herself to be seated without glanc- 
 ing up or speaking. Sister Laura felt a strange thrill in her heart. Had she 
 lost a bud and found a full blown flower ? Where her old pet Minnie was she 
 knew not ; but the woman at her side, evidently not such a child, strangely 
 
260 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 suggested her, perhaps by making her feel that- a helpless one called on her for 
 strength. There was more intelligence expressed in the full forehead and 
 intellectually shaped head which her small white crape hat could not hide, and 
 there was more character in the pale curved lips ; Sister Laura felt a desire to lay 
 the flushed face on her calm bosom and colour her sombre dress with a wreath 
 of golden hair. Perhaps there was more than a minute’s silence before the Sister 
 said, 
 
 “ I hope I can do something for you.” 
 
 “ You can save me ! ” was the wild cry that startled the woman beside her, who 
 took her trembling hand and said — 
 
 “ I am sure you are as pure as I.” 
 
 The hand was indignantly withdrawn, and rising haughtily the girl raised 
 large dark eyes full of fire to shoot a scornful glance at her astonished companion. 
 But the scorn only pleased the Sister, who in no wise abashed, rose also and 
 taking both hands of the wild girl, seated her beside her as she would have done 
 an angry child. Still holding her gently, but firmly, she said in her most 
 soothing tone, ‘‘Tell me, my poor trembler, what I can save you from.” 
 
 The tones of Sister Laura generally commanded, not demanded, answers, and 
 she shuddered as the stranger replied. 
 
 “ From suicide from myself ; ” then she burst into tears. Sister Laura untied 
 her hat and laid her burning head on her shoulder ; then passed her soft hands 
 soothingly over the hair whose beauty she saw even then. Unresistingly lay the 
 worn out woman, and allowed herself to be caressed by one whom she believed 
 had closed for ever to love the heart to which she clung none the less that she 
 despised herself therefor. 
 
 A bell rang. 
 
 “ That is the bell for morning prayer ; will you come with me into the chapel, 
 or lie here until I return ? ” 
 
 “ Don’t leave me; if you do you will never see me again. A good angel, if 
 there is such, brought me here against my will ; if you leave me, an evil one, 
 whom I know so well, will hurry me away.” 
 
 “ It is not easy for one I take an interest in to escape me.” 
 
 ‘* As they passed into the hall Virginia murmured to herself — 
 
 “ It is strange that to the woman to whom I owe much grief I should so 
 willingly yield myself.” 
 
 This convinced Sister Laura that her beautiful guest was not sane ; probably 
 she had escaped from an asylum ; but she said in her gentlest voice. 
 
 “It is not strange. I am glad you cling to me, and no one, if law can prevent 
 it, shall take you from me before you are willing to go. You shall sleep in my 
 room and be with me always. Will you, poor darling ? ” 
 
 “ It is not strange that you have bound him with such iron cords.” 
 
 By this time they opened the door of the chapel and both were silent, Sister 
 Laura in prayer for the beautiful shattered life God had sent to her to comfort, 
 and, if possible, build up anew. As she rose to read the psalter she heard 
 a noise behind her and saw Virginia had fainted. She motioned to a poor man 
 who had stopped for the morning service as he went to his work. He took 
 Virginia out, following the Sister who was no stranger in the room of his bed- 
 ridden wife. 
 
 “ I think you had better bring her up-stairs, if you please, Mr. Weston ; I fear 
 she is going to have a spell of illnes.” He bore her up-stairs and laid her on Sister 
 Laura’s bed. “ Thank you, how is Mrs. Weston P ” 
 
 “ Better since she has stopped fussing, and that blessing her children, servants, 
 and I owe to your visits. God bless you ! Good day.” 
 
 As he went downstairs he thought, “ What a blessed institution old maids are ! 
 Pity Mrs. Weston hadn’t thought so.” Laura’s physical strength was not sufficient 
 for her to undress Virginia until some of the Sisters could assist her. She mur- 
 mured, “ Oh, God, let me help Thee to fit her for death and life with the angels, 
 and then let her die. I can’t pray for her to live. I have suffered too much.” It 
 was not long ere the hushed heart began to beat, but consciousness did not return. 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 261 
 
 When the doctor came he said the stranger had the appearance of a typhoid 
 patient, and must be at once removed to the apartment for the sick. 
 
 (i No,” replied Sister Laura, “from what the lady said in our only interview 
 I suspect her to be insane ; therefore, it would not be right to put her among 
 the sick ; but she must stay with me. ” 
 
 “ Are not you afraid ? ” 
 
 “ Of that beautiful being ! ” 
 
 Dr. Blair smiled. 
 
 “ It is of no use to argue, as I see your mind is made up. What is her 
 name ? ” 
 
 “I don’t know, and none of her clothing is marked except in the corner of 
 her handkerchief is an anchor. It is possible she may be named Hope and this 
 be one of her pretty conceits ; at any rate we’ll call her Hope until we can learn 
 her name. ” 
 
 “ I should call her Aurea. ” 
 
 “ How much more appropriate ! Aurea she shall be for a while. Did you 
 ever see such golden hair on a woman ?” 
 
 “ But once or twice, perhaps ; but I like yours much better for a woman ; 
 hers is a rich frame for a pretty picture. But will you not advertise V* 
 
 “ I am afraid I must. Certainly I will.” 
 
 “ Afraid ? ” 
 
 “Yes, of losing her.” 
 
 “ I supposed you had your hands too full weeks ago.” 
 
 “But not my heart — this poor creature touches that.” 
 
 “ How do you know she is fit to be an inmate here ? ” 
 
 “ Is that a question, good doctor, for a follower of the Great Physician ?” 
 
 “I will put an advertisement in the dailies.” 
 
 “ Promise me you will not allow her to be moved until she is quite well.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Are those her clothes ?” 
 
 “ Yes ; I forgot to put them up, so absorbed was I in her.” 
 
 “ She is of wealthy family, judging from them — black satin slippers, silk 
 stockings, and lace mantle.” 
 
 “ I had not thought of them. She can hardly be from an insane asylum.” 
 “Most likely her aberrations were the symptoms of her disease.” 
 
 “Good doctor, you always suppose good things.” 
 
 “Yes, she is rich,” said the doctor, blushing at the compliment, because of 
 her who paid it ; but to whom he would no sooner dare to speak of love than 
 would the Romanist to the Virgin. 
 
 “ That organdie did not cost less than two dollars a yard, and the lace on it 
 was more ; besides gold bands, exquisitely wrought, held the sleeves at the 
 wrist ; and see this beautiful cameo set in pearls, and the dainty jewel- 
 flowers on the watch. I had not noticed her clothing before. She is so beau- 
 tiful, I have been in a dream ever since I saw her. ” 
 
 “You look a year younger than you did yesterday.” 
 
 “I feel like a girl who has been shut up all day alone, and in the evening is 
 given a new doll.” 
 
 “ I’m afraid the Sisterhood will suffer.” 
 
 “I’ll nurse her only when the rules of the Institution allow me to be in my 
 room, or exercising ; at other times the regular nurses will attend her. But 
 the night is my own.” 
 
 “ Good-bye. Don’t make yourself sick.” 
 
 “No danger,” she replied, looking like the Laura of old times, who petted 
 and frolicked with Minnie. She was right to be incredulous, as after all she 
 had suffered she was as strong as she had been ere she had learned what life 
 means. Sister Laura pressed her lips on the weary lids that curtained the 
 beautiful eyes, and sighed. She knew that the fair being whose beauty and 
 misfortunes had opened her heart to a love that was not only charitable but 
 womanish, was in a very critical state. The Sister counted more than thirty 
 years, and the foot of the Reaper had often ground into dust the flowers that 
 
262 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 her eager hands would fain have pillowed on her breast. The end of her medi- 
 tation was to wish most heartily for the return of Sister Emily, who had gone 
 South to nurse in the hospitals, and Laura was the head of the Sisterhood. 
 
 CHAPTER XYII. 
 
 When Harvey went the day that Virginia had left her home to see her, he 
 met the old housekeeper at the door. She almost sprang upon him, crying out, 
 “Oh, bring her back to us! Mr. Maturin will forgive — how strange you 
 look! Merciful Heaven ! What is the matter ?” 
 
 “What do you mean?” asked Harvey, between his set teeth and white lips. 
 
 “ What do 1 mean? Oh yes ! It’s all mighty fine to make-believe — ” 
 
 “She has not left ! ” 
 
 “Now, you needn’t put on any airs with me. I had got to her boudoir door 
 when I heard her say to you, ‘You had not ceased to love me?’ Yes, tremble, 
 wretch that you are, to beguile her into a runaway match. ” 
 
 “Woman, do not dare to tell me that she has run away !” panted Harvey, 
 sinking into a chair, because he felt that the ground was slipping from under his 
 feet. 
 
 “Mr. Barton, whether it was honourable or not, I stopped at the door. I 
 heard you say in a tone like a man ’most mad, ‘Ceased to love you ! * And I 
 heard you laugh at the idea.” 
 
 A flash of intense relief, an ecstacy of joy passed over Harvey ; he sprang to 
 his feet and rang the front-door bell. 
 
 “I believe the man is crazy,” muttered Mrs. Blanton. 
 
 He smiled. Her exclamation convinced him that his sudden idea was true ; 
 the housekeeper had lost her wits ; it was not uncommon for crazy people to 
 consider others insane. He did not wait for the servant to reach him before he 
 exclaimed, 
 
 “Is Miss Davis in ? ” 
 
 “ La ! ain’t Mrs. Blanton told you? ” 
 
 Harvey grew rigid. 
 
 “What,” he said, in such a tone as might issue from a closed vault. 
 
 “When the breakfast-bell rang this morning Miss Virginia didn’t come 
 down. Betty went to see what was the matter. She went into the dressing- 
 room where she had made ready for Miss Virginia an hour before ; nobody 
 there. She went into the bedroom ; nobody there. She went all over the 
 house and garden and then come and told master. I tell you, I’ve heard of 
 women’s having the hysterics ; but if master didn’t have them, I don’t know 
 what they are. And we’re all in the greatest trouble, sir. She was a blessing 
 to every coloured lady and gentleman on the place. Always wrote letters to 
 my sweetheart. ” 
 
 Mechanically Harvey rose and walked home. His door closed on him ; and 
 the angels who witnessed his anguish never say that men cannot suffer as 
 acutely as women when they have lived as pure lives. 
 
 The day was passed alone in his room. In the evening he went again to 
 Mr. Maturin’s and asked for him. The interview was productive of bitterness 
 to both. Mr. Maturin hated the man whom he now knew loved his adopted 
 orphan, and would not have seen him had he not had a faint hope that he 
 could guess where she had gone. In angry jealousy he would have sought him 
 in the morning had not he been in the parlour and heard the conversation 
 between him, and the housekeeper and Bob. Harvey had but one 
 satisfaction. Mr. Maturin swore that no one but himself had been with 
 Virginia during the evening ; he accounted for the words repeated by Mrs. 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 263 
 
 ■Blanton, by saying that he had spoken harshly to Virginia about a little 
 outburst of temper, and that she had cried and accused him of ceasing to love 
 her and he had assured her of the contrary. Of the course of her flight he 
 professed utter ignorance, but was sure she had not run away with any 
 youngster. Mr. Maturin did not say that after she had recovered from her 
 fainting-spell and started to flee from him, he had carried her as he would have 
 done a refractory child and laid her on her bed ; nor did he say how she 
 writhed under his good-night kiss ; nor how he had supposed her fainting 
 consequent only upon her surprise. Neither did he tell that she had left him 
 a note thanking him for all he had done for her, and saying that now she 
 would support herself. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 October 20th. 
 
 “Do I love him, except as I love the ocean? It is pleasant to think of 
 something grand, and hear in one’s heart of hearts an undertone as sweet as it 
 is sad, as precious as it is monotonous. I do not think often of the sea, nor of 
 him ; yet somehow in all these dreary days of listlessness I am ever with him 
 on the seaside. In my dreams leaning on him, I wander for hours. Weak as 
 I am, upheld by his strong arm, I could walk long and far on the beach, and 
 let his voice mingle with that of the ocean as it does with that of my life. 
 Oh, that the three were one ! My present hours are only dried seaweeds that 
 his presence flung at my feet. My present joys are only the empty shells 
 whose life departed when he left them stranded on the reefs of pride. ” 
 
 So thinking, the desolate woman slept, and in her sleep she turned fretfully, 
 as though something hurt her, and moaned as a babe might who dreams that 
 its mother has gone. But though so lonely, she was not alone. Over her 
 floated angels as birds above a lake ; nor did they pass without leaving some 
 reflection of their presence ; and among them, full of justice, but ready to pity, 
 sat the Omnipresent Father. Did He, Who “numbers the hairs of our heads” 
 send one of the angels, thinking of his happiness and that of the woman at the 
 same time, with a thought to Sister Laura, who entered while the restless 
 sleeper still fretted ? The low, dry sobs distressed the Sister, who longed to 
 soothe Virginia ; so she lay down beside her and took her in her arms. 
 
 “ It is you ? I dreamed that God told an angel He pitied me, and the angel 
 answered, ‘ Let me comfort her ! ’ Will you be my angel ? I am more desolate 
 than Hagar ; for she had what I’ll never have — a child.” 
 
 “ Miss Davis — ” 
 
 “ Oh, call me Virginia ! Won’t anybody love me ? ” 
 
 I do, dear. May I be Sister Laura to you? ” 
 
 “ Oh, yes, Sister Laura ! sister ! How sweet that sounds ! I never had a 
 sister.” For some time they lay silent, the one comforting the other and being 
 consoled by the voiceless sympathy of a caressing hand. 
 
 “ Sister, how long before I shall die ? ’’ 
 
 “ Many years, I hope.” 
 
 “ You are cruel. If you knew what it is to suffer you would not say that. I 
 wonder I should have expected sympathy from one whose face and manner say, 
 I am above the ills of mortality. Oh ! I thought I had found a sister, and you 
 cannot even understand how I suffer, and that I must die.” 
 
 “ Hush, dear.” 
 
 “ I tell you I must die. I will die, if I have to take laudanum.” 
 
264 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 Her tone was wilder than her words. Laura clasped her firmly as would a, 
 mother the child she had determined to conquer, at the same time that she fixed 
 her calm, holy eyes on Virginia, and willed her to be quiet, Ere long the sufferer 
 ceased to tremble, and closed her eyes like an exhausted child ; but in the last 
 glance she gave her, Laura read the agony of disappointment, and knew it meant 
 that she thought her pitiless. 
 
 4 ‘ Listen to me, dear friend. I know every turn of the dire anguish through 
 which you are passing.” 
 
 Virginia curled her lip in disdain at the idea of so composed a woman ever 
 having felt such throes as hers. 
 
 “I was once as proud and unyielding as — ” 
 
 “I know all about what you were when you were young. He told me ; and 
 that was the reason I thought you might feel for one more sorely tried.” 
 
 Laura, supposing her still a little wild, did not feel surprise in hearing her 
 assert such knowledge of her. She felt there was but one way to convince 
 her that she could feel for her, and that was by showing she had suffered as 
 much. 
 
 “ God sent to me a true and noble man ; my pride repulsed him as Lucifer’s 
 might an angel of light. I could forgive myself if I had repulsed him only 
 because an enemy to my country — ” 
 
 “ What do you mean ?” asked Virginia, half-rising. 
 
 “ He was a United States’ officer.” 
 
 Her hearer lay down and seemed conscious of a momentary relief, which 
 Laura noticed no more than she had the tone of her question. 
 
 “ You never saw a man like him, pure as the angels, for his own sins were so 
 immediately ‘ washed out in the Blood of the Lamb, ’ that they left no stain ; 
 he could not take to his bosom a woman who was not fitted to be his com- 
 panion in the court of his King. He would have made me all he wanted me 
 to be, and both my heart and head knew he was right ; but I was cold and 
 proud ; though true enough woman to worship my superior. ” 
 
 “ I am so glad to hear you say this.” 
 
 “ X do not worship him now ; I adore One Who has made me worthy of 
 Keble’s love. You have heard the legend of St. Christopher ; he would serve 
 none but the strongest ; I will worship none but the Best. Hid you ever think 
 of what it will be to lay your hand in an angel’s and say, ‘ Thine forever ?’ 
 Hid you ever realize what it would be to know that even Heath can no more 
 touch the one you love ? That no Hevil can ever tear you from his arms ?” 
 
 “ I don’t believe in any Hevil.” 
 
 A tremor passed over Laura, but she felt this was no time for argument. 
 She knew that every day the doctor expected to find Virginia’s brain in a state 
 of congestion ; but as little did the victim know of the physical evil which lay 
 like an incubus ujjon her, as of the moral evil that was doing a more deadly 
 work. 
 
 Breathing a prayer for guidance in a case v/here any excitement might bring 
 on a fatal termination, Laura continued her own story : — 
 
 “ Keble thought that I parted from him in angry disdain ; for agony such 
 as was mine when he left me is often as cold as contempt and prouder than 
 hatred. Oh, what a parting to be the last !” 
 
 “ Hid you never see him again before he died ?” 
 
 “X do not certainly know now that he is dead.” 
 
 “Mr. Barton told me that he was dead.” 
 
 Laura coutracted her brows. 
 
 “ What has he to do with our sacred love ? X thought that my pride had at 
 least saved me and him from being talked about. Ah ! has it not even that 
 solace left ?” 
 
 “ I never heard him mention the name of Keble. Perhaps he only thought 
 that a woman who could not love him must needs love none lower than an 
 angel. ” 
 
 The Sister always forgot herself when a sudden interest for another was 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 265 
 
 awakened, and she gave a quick glance at the flushed woman beside her. But 
 the same delicacy that made her wish her love concealed from prying eyes and 
 busy tongues forbade her to show her suspicion. 
 
 “You said you do not know that he is dead. That is very strange.” 
 
 “Not when you consider how difficult it is to have any secret communi- 
 cation with the South. ” 
 
 “ With the South ?” 
 
 “ If Keble be in Heaven he was shot for a deserter, because he would not 
 desert his conscience. He was brave enough to defy an opprobrious name, but 
 not mean enough to fear death. Have not I reason to be proud ?” asked 
 Laura, in a tone which sounded like that of her girlhood. 
 
 CHAPTEH XIX. 
 
 “What makes you look so sad, Miss Davis?” asked Sister Ellen. 
 
 “ I am pitying the world because it is so wretched.” 
 
 “ Are you ?” 
 
 “Yes ; who is not ?” 
 
 “ I am not.” 
 
 “That is because you are a child.” 
 
 “No ; it is because I love so many people ; try my recipe for happiness.” 
 
 “ I can’t. I have no power to love people generally.” 
 
 “ Sister Laura — ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ I know she does it in a Christian way ; that is, she prays for, and tries to 
 do good to every one who comes near her, and so gets up an interest in anybody ; 
 she and you may call that love ; but I don’t. ” 
 
 “ Then love one man with all your heart.” 
 
 “ And so ensure my own wretchedness. In my large circle of acquaintances 
 I doubt if there are a dozen happy marriages. ” 
 
 “ Nonsense.” 
 
 “ You call it so, because you never look beyond the surface. But if I were 
 wife to any one of some twenty husbands I could name I should rather be shut up 
 in a menagerie than be left alone with him, subjected to all his caprices and 
 uncertain of his love and respect, or wofully certain of his indifference or disdain. 
 I tell you I am afraid to marry.” 
 
 “ You afraid ! I thought you never feared anything.” 
 
 “ Only two things, hell and its representative on earth, an unworthy marriage. 
 I sometimes feel that I should as soon enter a pest-house as the state of 
 matrimony.” 
 
 “Whew ! a home might be a pest-house to you ; you are not fond of children. 
 But talking of unhappy people, have you observed how gloomy Jane Harper is ? 
 She has not a happy home. Her parents have only a polite company-love for 
 each other ; thus their tempers are embittered ; their children, born in a loveless 
 atmosphere, have grown up without any especial love for their parents or each 
 other. Jane’s heart is naturally warm, but her home has chilled it. Poor thing ! 
 I pity her. 1 wish she’d get married.” 
 
 “ I never dare advise anyone to set out to look for husband or wife ; better be 
 the child than the wife of a loveless home.’ 5 
 
266 
 
 LOVE AND 
 
 WAR 
 
 CHAPTER XX, 
 
 On one of her days of convalescence Virginia seemed to droop so listlessly that 
 the doctor said to Sister Laura, who followed him out of the room, “ I can’t do 
 anything more for her unless you can nurse her mind as effectually as you have 
 her body.” 
 
 “ I will try,” was the answer which meant, “ I’ll ask God to teach me how.” 
 When she returned from the day’s duties, she stooped over her and whispered, 
 
 “ Can I do anything for you, pet P ” 
 
 “ Act as you talk,” was the reply, partly peevish and partly shy, while a faint 
 blush stole over her face. 
 
 “ What do you mean, dear ? ” 
 
 " You called me 1 pet.’ ” 
 
 Sister Laura seated herself gently on the bed and raised the wasted invalid’s 
 head on her bosom, caressed her, and whispered broken words as mothers do to 
 babies. 
 
 After a while Virginia lifted her hand slowly to Laura’s face and turned it so 
 that she could see it. 
 
 “ Sister Kate was right.” 
 
 “ About what ? ” 
 
 “ She said I ought not to let you stay with me when you should be walking, 
 and I said, if you waited for me to ask you to leave me you’d wait a longtime. 
 And then she said, i I can’t see how you can be so selfish, miss ; what good will it 
 do for all the rest of us to take care of her, and try to make her strong so as she 
 can live as long as we do when you spoil it all ? ’ ” 
 
 Laura’s heart beat with the highest selfish joy she had ever known ; but she 
 said, i( Sister Kate is so unselfish, she is too exacting of other people. It does me 
 as much good to pet you as to walk.” 
 
 “ No ; it doesn’t. She says all the Sisters are talking about my selfishness; 
 you are good like they say God is ; why are not you strong like Him ? ” 
 
 “Hush! hush!” 
 
 “Was that very wicked that you looked so shocked ? ” 
 
 “ Very, dear, you did not think who God is.” 
 
 “ No ! for I don’t know.” 
 
 “ Oh, my wounded bird, fold your broken wings on His bosom and roam no 
 more! Do not be afraid, poor trembler. He was a human being as you are. 
 ‘ He has carried your sorrows.’ ” 
 
 “ How ? ” 
 
 “ By suffering for three-and-thirty years the ills of mortality, and now He 
 sympathises in all your trials.” 
 
 “ Did God suffer ? ” 
 
 u Yes, in His manisfestation as Man. ‘ He went not up to joy, but first He 
 suffered pain.’ Is not that thought a balm for every wound that cauterizes 
 your soul ? Will you let me read a little to you, darling ? ” 
 
 “ What ? ” asked Virginia, in a non-compliant tone. 
 
 “ The Exhortation in the Visitation of the Sick. I know of no other words 
 that can eomfort so well. Most of it is God’s own language, and the rest His 
 ideas.” 
 
 “ I’d rather have yours ; I know you.” 
 
 “ Forgive her, Father,” prayed Sister Laura, “ and teach her to know Thee.” 
 
 “ Do you know Him ? ” 
 
 “ Yes, as my Father.” 
 
 “ Have you a Father ? ” 
 
 “ Two, and both in Heaven.” 
 
 “ What ? ” 
 
 u My father according to the flesh, and the Father of my spirit.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 267 
 
 “ And now you have no home ? ” 
 
 “ A very sweet one here.” 
 
 “ I have none.” 
 
 “ You may have one with us.” 
 
 4 ‘Bah ! I want a beautiful house ; I am not used to plain things. Oh, forgive 
 me 1 How rude I am ! I think my head has followed my heart to confession. ” 
 “There is nothing to forgive. I feel the plainness of this home as much as 
 you ; only I don’t mind it. I have another one to which I shall go, and that 
 surpasses anything you ever dreamed of. ” 
 
 “ Oh, don’t go there while I am homeless ! ” 
 
 “You need not be always ; a home more glorious far than even you can desire 
 awaits you. Angels’ songs, ten thousand times sweeter than the birds’ songs 
 you love so well, will there make everlasting but never-wearying, because 
 never monotonous, music. ” 
 
 “I shouldn’t like to hear any music always.” 
 
 “You need -not; you’ll have a universe to wander in; but if Mozart, 
 and Beethoven, Handel, Mendelssohn, Thalberg, Bull, Lind and Hays, 
 Donizetti, Wollenhaupt, were all in one house, do you think your mind would 
 weary of the variety of harmonies you would have? And there earthly 
 weariness of sense cannot trouble. Why did you jump so nervously ? ” 
 
 “From impatience to see the home of your fable. Tell me more.” 
 
 Laura looked into her bright eyes and hesitated ; but her heart was full of 
 the joys of Heaven that evening; for the day had given her much trouble with 
 two refractory Sisters, and so she continued, 
 
 “Flowers, compared to which the blossoms of earth are faded, scentless 
 things, will bloom forever, and every day — I have to use an earthly word, not 
 knowing how angels divide time — you can gather a new one. ” 
 
 “Oh, charming! I have botanized for years. I wish you were God to 
 create what you imagine. Oh, Sister ! don’t look so pained. I’m a heathen ; 
 there’s the end of it ; but talk on. I feel better than I do when I take wine. ” 
 “Do you love painting?” 
 
 “More than anything, except the sea, and the sky, and birds.” 
 
 “ In the home of which I speak you may see landscapes more softly beautiful 
 than Claude Lorraine ever painted ; Turner never pictured scene so grand as 
 will break on your ever-astonished eyes as you wander through God’s Universe. 
 Eternity will be hung with pictures, before the very thought of which Michael 
 Angelo’s, Baphael’s, Vinci’s, Guido’s, Gainsborough’s, will be forgotten. Murillo 
 never thought of cherubs such as you may caress ; Reynolds never painted 
 infants as lovely as you may pet. Raphael never drew such angels as will call 
 you friend ; nor Angelico such forms and faces as your eye will ever fall upon. ” 
 “I wish I was there,” wearily sighed Virginia, attempting in vain to turn 
 herself. Laura turned her, and continued, 
 
 “ I need not ask if you love eloquence.” 
 
 “I worship genius everywhere.” 
 
 “Except in its unembodied state.” 
 
 “You mean God. I might worship Him if I could see Him.” 
 
 “Yesterday you told me I had not been away from you though you had not 
 seen me for six hours. I asked what you meant ; you said, I had left such a 
 pretty basket of fruit for you to eat, and such sweet cordial for you to drink, 
 and such sweet flowers for you to smell, and pretty pictures for you to look at, 
 that I kept myself before you all day. But you are not the first person I’ve 
 met who was more grateful for a basket of fruit than for an orchard, more 
 thankful for a pleasant draught than for springs of cool water, who felt more 
 indebted for the present of a fine picture than for all nature.” 
 
 “ Please tell me more about that beautiful Home. I love fairy stories.” 
 
 “ Try to imagine what a lifetime would be if you could go to every land and 
 hear its most talented orators, preachers, and poets; then imagine yourself 
 where Demosthenes, Moses, Isaiah, Homer, Shakespeare, JDante, David, 
 Milton, Jeremy Taylor, Cicero, and many such are.” 
 
268 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 Worn out with long nursing in hours for exercise, Laura was overpowered by 
 the picture she had drawn, and resting her brow against the head-board of the 
 bed, tears began to trickle down her cheeks. Whether Virginia was conscious 
 of this, or whether Laura’s words had made her meditate, a long silence 
 ensued. 
 
 “ Sister Laura, are you weeping ? I feel your heaving. ” 
 
 “ I ought not to be. Cannot we rejoice to give up our beautiful earthly 
 homes and all expectation of any to take their place for a very little while, if 
 such an one as I have pictured will be ours forever ? And if our hearts cling 
 too much to these earthly ones, would it be fatherly kindness to let us lose 
 forever the only one which war or time cannot destroy ? ” 
 
 “ That home is not mine, for, God is not my Father.” 
 
 “ Why not ? Do not you wish to be His child ? ” 
 
 “No.” 
 
 “ That is the only possible argument you can maintain ; for eternal truth 
 says, 4 He that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.’ ” * 
 
 “If He were my Father He would be kinder to me. Why did He take 
 away the only treasure I had ? ” 
 
 “Last month a poor neighbour came to request me to stay with her little 
 boy while his foot was amputated. I went ; the mother begged as pitifully as 
 the child that the surgeon would not take it off. At last, out of patience, he 
 said, 4 1 will not ; let the diseased foot stay, and bury it with him before 
 Christmas.’ But the boy’s father said, ‘Come back and cut it off.’ Our 
 heavenly Father lopped off our dearest pleasures to keep our lives from 
 putrifying in His sight, and that soul and body might not have to be buried 
 together. Ah, Virginia ! He longs for you. Even when you were most 
 forgetful of, and rebellious towards Him He pitied you. ” 
 
 “Yes; He let me come to you. He made you wretched first, I suppose, 
 that you might become a Sister and care for me. ” 
 
 “ It may be partly so ; but the first cause of my suffering is in my own 
 heart. Sin and suffering are converse terms. I deserved all I have suffered.” 
 “Poor comfort.” 
 
 “But this is not. I am better for it.” This was not a boast, but a hint. 
 “We have talked enough to-day ; I’ll bathe your forehead until you go to 
 sleep. ” 
 
 “I’d rather you’d pass the tips of your magnetic fingers over my eyes. 
 Kiss me, to show you have forgiven me for thinking you had never suffered. 
 I should rather have the man I love false or cold than to think him hung as a 
 deserter. ” 
 
 “ And I can bear death better than estrangement. I should have died had 
 Keble been unworthy. ” 
 
 “ And I should hate God if He had taken my lover from me. I should rather 
 have him unworthy ; scorn is easier fco bear than grief for the dead.” 
 
 Laura shook her head. 
 
 “ I know,” Virginia answered to the silent denial. 
 
 “ It is well we are not like Addison’s Unfortunates, who thought every- 
 body’s lot easier than their own. I feel I could have borne no other cross than 
 that appointed me, and you none other than yours.” 
 
 “ I have borne two ; both laid on me by love.” 
 
 CHAPTEH XXI. 
 
 Xov. 1. 
 
 “What ! still dreaming, Virginia?” 
 
 “And why should I not, Sister mine, when I have no other happiness ?” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 269 
 
 u Though you persist in finding pleasure in nothing, you cannot deny that 
 you have duties, my sad friend. 5 ’ 
 
 “I acknowledge no duties incumbent on me save to you, and you require 
 nothing of me. When I asked you for my portion of work in this busy hive, 
 did not you tell me it was only to learn to be happy ?” 
 
 “ As my wayward child will not even try to understand her allotted duty, I 
 must give her another task. I am responsible for her happiness ; I must in 
 some way secure it,” said Sister Laura, drawing the bowed head close to her 
 heart. 
 
 “ Secure it ? That you cannot do ; you cannot control my weary discontent ; 
 but you can give me some sort of happiness as long as you are with me — no 
 longer. It makes no'difference whether you soothe or chide me, little mother ; 
 as long as your low tones are in my brain the echoes of the past cease. Never 
 send me away from you because I do not conform to the rules of the establish- 
 ment by performing daily duties. You will never turn away that spiteful dog 
 whose sore back you healed ; yet what good does he do you ?” 
 
 “ Loves me,” said the Sister, smiling. 
 
 “ Oh ! I pay for board and lodging ten hundred times better than he does, 
 and so I know I’ll stay here for life. ” 
 
 “ But — ” 
 
 “I’ll listen to no but. It would kill me if you were to drive me from you ; 
 or, if sorrow could not do that I should take chloroform and wake no more. ” 
 
 So saying, Virginia passed her arm around her friend’s waist, while her head 
 still lay where it could feel the beating of her heart. 
 
 “I can’t stand that, little mother,” she exclaimed, starting up as tears fell 
 on her forehead. “ Do I give you trouble? If you care so much for me that I 
 grieve you, I will go ; I must go. And yet — how can anyone who loves you 
 go from you ? No ; not even your grief shall drive me off. Did you ever suc- 
 ceed in making anyone desert you ?” 
 
 Such a pang passed over Laura’s face that the woman, learned in love, ex- 
 claimed — 
 
 “ Sister, you have been cruel. You are not a woman, whom if a man could 
 love — all could not — not being capable of entering into the inner sanctuary of 
 your being — he would willingly desert. Oh, don’t look so cold. Say you are 
 not angry at my impertinence. ” 
 
 “ Angry !” 
 
 The tone was so hollow that Virginia shuddered, feeling here was sorrow 
 deeper than hers ; for, was it not successfully concealed under a calm manner ? 
 If a convulsion of nature opens a chasm, it takes another throe to cover it up. 
 
 While Virginia thought something of the kind, a calm, as though an angel 
 had thrown a vail over an unburied agony, came over Laura’s still pale face, 
 and in her natural tones she said — 
 
 “ Virginia, I came here to ask you to take a pupil in painting. I saw yes- 
 terday quite a remarkable picture painted by a child who had never taken a 
 lesson. ” 
 
 “ I cannot teach. I hate children because they ask so many questions. And 
 as for painting, I abhor it ; would as soon open the door of a vault in Cave Hill 
 as my portfolio of sketches. ” 
 
 It contained some mementoes of her life, and she had brought it under her 
 arm when she came to the Sisterhood. 
 
 “ I thought you might be williug to teach this girl because she is an orphan. 
 It was at the Asylum I saw the little painting that surprised me — a dead baby 
 in its coffin and in its hand blue violets. The coffin was chrome yellow, and 
 the baby might have been a mulatto, but anything more touching than the 
 little wasted arm and living violets I never saw. ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Am I to go to the Asylum to teach her ?” 
 
 Sister Laura pressed her lips on Virginia’s brow, and said, “ She will come to 
 you at ten to-morrow.” 
 
 At ten o’clock the next morning, little Evie came to the Home for the Home. 
 
270 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 less, and was told by the porteress to wait in the reception room. Seeing no one, 
 she took out her pencil and a little blank-book given her by the director, who had, 
 by a Providential “ chance ” presented her with a box of paints for a Christmas 
 gift. The little girl sketched a long time, unthought of by Miss Davis, who lost 
 in a reverie over Coleridge’s beautiful definition of love as given in ‘ The Friend,’ 
 quite forgot her appointment. So after Evie had drawn the cupola and gilt cross 
 over the chapel of the Home, which she had noticed when gazing up at the blue 
 sky as she tripped along the street, tired and warm from her eagerness to reach 
 the blessed spot where she was to be taught to draw all manner of beautiful 
 things like she read of in the Bible and saw in her dreams, her head fell on her 
 arm, and she slept. When the recess-bell sounded at eleven, Miss Davis woke 
 from her dreaming, and hastened to the reception-room. Walking noiselessly up 
 to the little sleeper, she laid her hand on her head. Evie opened her eyes which 
 lightened instantly, and she began to draw with the pencil which she had retained 
 in her hand. But the child’s expression and act were so singular that Virginia 
 thought she was something of a somnambulist, and said — 
 
 “ Wake up, little one.” 
 
 “ Hush ! Don’t wake me,” whispered Evie. u Let me dream till I draw this 
 angel.” 
 
 Interested for the first time in many days, Miss Davis stood motionless, watch- 
 ing, as she supposed, the sleep-drawer. The child was not pretty, but Virginia 
 had seen that her eyes were something wonderful ; not for colour, shape, or size, 
 but for a dreaming mistness which seemed hung over them to keep mere mortals 
 like herself from prying into secrets that angels had whispered. She wished her 
 new pupil would look up again without being spoken to, for she was seized with a 
 sudden desire to paint those eyes, and supposed the peculiarity of expression 
 would pass were she thoroughly awake. And while she stood still waiting on the 
 caprice of an orphan, partly because she, too, was one, she closed her eyes, and 
 imagined herself painting the Past as a sad, grey haired woman, but with this 
 child’s expression. 
 
 “ Open your eyes, angel,” said Evie ; and as Virginia did so she saw that the 
 child was sketching her face. She laughed — this was her first laugh for weeks. 
 
 “ Why ! why ! you queer child, what are you doing ? ” 
 
 The little orphan started, blushed, then began to cry. 
 
 “Don’t cry, child. You have not done anything wrong, and if you like, you 
 may sketch me all day. Don’t be frightened.” 
 
 “ I’m not frightened ; I’m so sorry you can talk loud.” 
 
 “ Sorry I can talk loud ? ” 
 
 “ Yes ; I see angels in my dreams, and sometimes they whisper to me ; but they 
 never talk loud. I thought I was dreaming and painting an angel in my dream ; 
 and you’re only a woman.” 
 
 Virginia smiled at the unconscious scorn of the last phrase, but raised the child’s 
 lips to hers. 
 
 “ I am not only a woman ; I am an orphan, dear.” 
 
 The child did not seem to feel any sympathy. 
 
 “ Won’t you like me better for being an orphan ? ” 
 
 “ No, ma’am. Why should I? ” 
 
 “ Because unhappy people ought to pity and like each other, and orphans are the 
 most wretched of all people.” 
 
 “ Not our orphans. Ain’t you happy here? Ain’t this Sister Laura’s Home ? ” 
 “ Yes ; it is her home and mine too.” 
 
 “ Then what makes you unhappy ? Are you very naughty ? ” 
 
 An angry blush suffused the woman’s cheek, but a glance at the child showed 
 she meant no rudeness. 
 
 “ What is your name ? ” 
 
 “Evie.” 
 
 “ Well, Evie, hand me your pencil and sketch-book.” 
 
 “ I haven’t got that sort of book.” 
 
 “ What is the name of the one you have F ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 271 
 
 “ This is named my 1 Happy Book V’ 
 
 “ Why do you call it that ? ” 
 
 “ Because it makes me happy; I’ve got a cry-book.” 
 te And what is that, little phenomenon ? 
 
 “ No, it ain’t little ; its big, with Nelly in her coffin.” 
 
 “ How old are you ?” 
 
 “ Ten.” 
 
 The first drawing lesson was given, and when Laura returned that evening she 
 saw or fancied, that Virginia was more awake than she usually seemed. 
 
 “ I hope you liked your new scholar ?” 
 
 “ Perhaps I did.” 
 
 “Will you try again ?” 
 
 “ Certainly. I intend to teach her both drawing and painting ; I did not need 
 that kiss to pay me, your look did that ; it was the first indicative of approbation.” 
 
 “ Oh, no.” 
 
 “Truly, I wish I could do something to repay you for your unwearied watching, 
 night after night. I didn’t deserve all this kindness. Why did you show it ?” 
 
 “ To please myself and to please God.” 
 
 “ Did you never weary in the long watches after the day’s duty was over ?” 
 
 “ I could always rest myself.” 
 
 “How?” 
 
 “ You can’t understand ; but if you’ll try to, I’ll tell you.” 
 
 “ Indeed I will.” 
 
 “ A promise is a solemn thing. When I wearied I thought, ‘ Jesus sees me 
 and loves me,’ and I rested on His smile.” 
 
 “ How can I redeem my promise ?” 
 
 “ By trying to love Him.” 
 
 “ To please you ?” 
 
 “ If you have no worthier motive. I did not restore you. To God are your 
 thanks due.” 
 
 “ A minute ago it was Jesus I was to love ; now it is God.” 
 
 “ They are One.” 
 
 “ What ridiculous contradiction to say that three persons are one person, and 
 one person three persons.” 
 
 “ Excessively so. Who says it ?” 
 
 “ All Trinitarians.” 
 
 “ People who speak without thinking may. But I presume the absurdity is 
 Unitarian in its origin.” 
 
 “ What then do you say ?” 
 
 “ That three Persons are one God ; the word persona means masks, or outward 
 appearance. One nature has three manifestations.” 
 
 “And you laugh at Transubstantiation, and yet believe in the Trinity, which 
 is equally contradictory.” 
 
 “ Not to my mind. My consciousness and daily experience teach me that three 
 may be one. You are not a Materialist ?” 
 
 “ Don’t think quite so meanly of my common sense.” 
 
 “ Are not your soul, mind, and body entirely distinct, and may they not exist 
 independent of each other ?” 
 
 “Surely. The body exists before the soul, and the soul will be after the 
 dissolution of the body. An idiot has body and soul ; but no mind.” 
 
 “ Then your body, soul, and mind are three in one, or, you are three women.” 
 “ What a simple argument. Where did yon see it ?” 
 
 “ Nowhere. I thought of it years ago, and have ever since been expecting to 
 hear of it, but have not. A month since I read in the unanswerable Leslie, what 
 bore some resemblance to it, that ‘understanding, memory and will are one 
 soul.’ ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Leslie lived before Coleridge, or he would not have written that ; the under- 
 standing is distinct from the soul.” 
 
272 
 
 LOVE AND WAR 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Two months had elapsed since Virginia’s disappearance, yet Harvey could find 
 out nothing concerning her. Fain would he have exchanged his miserable days, 
 cooped up generally in Louisville for the battlefield, but his talents were of a 
 peculiar order, and it was thought best that he should remain in Kentucky and 
 organise the crude elements of the “ Sons of Freedom.” Now every discordant 
 element in the new party seemed to be mingled in the one desire to overthrow a 
 tyrant, and Barton felt that his work in Kentucky was about accomplished. He 
 had, therefore, the more time for his sad heart to devour his spirit while he 
 awaited the permission he had earnestly entreated — to take the field. He had 
 been to the Post Office for the twentieth time, expecting the much -desired letter, 
 and was again disappointed ; so he walked through street after street, hoping soon 
 to find himself in the country, and thinking, “ Fool that I am ! Fool that I was ! 
 Was not my father’s blighted life enough warning ? Am I to inherit his curse ? 
 In my youth I was shy of beauty and avoided maidenly fascination. For what ? 
 That when I am thirty I can make the more perfect fool of myself. Beauty 
 could not bewitch such a Ulysess as I became in my boyish days by the light of 
 my father’s wasted affection. But it is not Virginia’s beauty and grace that have 
 destroyed my peace. I scorned to surrender myself to a doll or a puppet ; but 
 why should I have feared to yield respect to intellect, or to pay my devoirs to 
 purity and true nobility ? I said to myself the few times I thought of her as my 
 possible wife, ‘ Virginia, at least, will never confess to her bosom-friend that if she 
 had been sixteen years older her husband would be the last man she would have 
 married.’ My poor father ! I took warning there. I loved no butterfly-girl ; I 
 waited until a woman had matured sufficiently to know her own mind and was 
 not so inexperienced that it would be as natural for her to change her love as her 
 fashions. For years I waited, but I did not feel that I was waiting, I was so 
 accustomed to solitude and to being immersed in my books that I felt no feverish 
 thirst for love. It was not the golden hair, the wonderful eyes, that won me. 
 It was the fascination of enthusiam that drew me to her side ; but it is the intellect 
 and purity of the woman that have undone me. I did not throw my life into the 
 lap of a girl to be her plaything. I sat down by the woman, and knew that she 
 was strengthened by my presence as I by hers. Ah, Virginia ! did you never 
 know what you are to me ? If you had surmised it, could you so cruelly have 
 left me ? Could you know what it is to be forlorn, and yet leave me wholly 
 desolate ? I was so when I first saw the sunbeaming’* face that at once governed 
 my heart as the moon does the tides ; but that desolation of spirit was for my 
 country ; I was hopeless of her success then. Virginia, do you know what it 
 was to give life to a broken spirit. Love of freedom and right had wrecked me 
 on a desert of lonely pride. T who had passed my first youth without ever 
 seriously desiring any woman to be my wife, yielded to you my peace of mind. 
 Yielded ! I hardly know whether that is the word. I was in a slough of 
 despondency ; I chanced to raise my eyes, and above the grey mist of my colourless 
 life was a soft blue vapour, and in it, unobservant of me as is the magnet of the 
 needle, was a woman to whom my spirit rose ; she asked no one’s love ; I gave her 
 mine that others in vain had asked for ; she cared for no man’s praise, and I 
 worshipped. She tormented me, and I could not hate her, for I felt that the 
 torture of her sarcasm was the scourge my despondency needed, and the tormentor 
 was always gentle, and never said to me what she would not have said to herself, 
 and said to me only because she wished to see me nobler.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 273 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 From Sister Laura’s Journal. 
 
 u How sick at heart I am ! Human nature nauseates me. I wish so many 
 people would not make me their confidante. How will it ever be possible for me 
 to cure myself of contempt when every month a new confidence adds fresh fuel to 
 the flame that I sometimes fear will consume all the charity in my heart ? Poor 
 Lina has just been with me, telling me how her artful step-mother has insinuated 
 herself into her father’s trustful nature, and rooted out the first wife’s children 
 that she may reap the wealthier harvest for her own. Never before was the wary 
 man of business duped ; but a woman finds out his weak point, and he becomes 
 her victim. He says he abhors flattery and laughs openly at the woman who 
 artlessly or artfully confesses she likes it, while she ‘ laughs in her sleeve,’ at 
 him, and flatters him who has no idea she is ascribing to him more than she feels is 
 his due. Poor Lina, cursed with the power of reading human nature, knows that 
 Mrs. Howe is a ‘ snake in the grass,’ but is too noble to tell her father and 
 breed confusion. This woman has neither beauty nor intellect, but her manners — 
 after all, by far the greatest seduction to men — are charming, and her finesse 
 surprising. Lina wants a home with us, but I can’t consent to her becoming a 
 sister ; she is too young and must wait, and while she waits I shall pray God to 
 send her a husband to love her tenderly and with a proud heart. Ah ! here 
 is one I know would suit her well — but no ! I would not dare to let him take 
 that simple-hearted child ; as Keble thought none but Christians are worthy to 
 marry, I dare not call an irreligious man to take in his arms a pet of mine. Even 
 if she escaped contamination, she could not escape suffering with dread of his 
 future ; and children, too, often are regardless of a Christian mother, and follow 
 the father to hell. Poor Lina must love worthily, or she had better lie down in 
 her coffin on her bridal night. Ah, Keble ! I am sorry I have thought of you. I 
 have no time for you now ; I must go to the school in an hour. What matter ? 
 I can suffer ; for within me love springs up an inexhaustible fountain, and from 
 that I drink and am content. It is best.” 
 
 A sigh at the window caused Sister Laura to lay down her pen and go to the 
 sad woman who stood by it. 
 
 “ Why do you waste your time in dwelling so much on what a home with him 
 would be ? ” 
 
 “ How did you know I was thinking of that ? ” 
 
 “ You were reading when Sister Alice began to sing * Sweet Home ; ’ besides, 
 darling, I have dreamed as you do. Be wiser.” 
 
 “ Ah ! you don’t know how perfect he would make any spot.” 
 
 “ Your reveries may have no more solid footing than the men who trod on the 
 Sertonian bog.” 
 
 “ I have faith in him.” 
 
 “ It was only last night you said you had no faith — ” 
 
 “ In God as a Father ; for I have never seen Him.” 
 
 “ Neither have you seen your lover as a husband ; you have more data from 
 the past of your life as connected with God’s fatherly goodness to speculate on a 
 heavenly life, than you have from what you know of Mr. Barton to build up 
 snow-palaces in which you melt your existence away as they dissolve under the 
 warm pressure of daily life. Oh, my dear one, in the dark of my poor human 
 sympathy I can ask only one blessing for you that I am sure will not prove a 
 curse ; it is that God’s Holy Spirit may bring you into the ark where I ride above 
 the region of clouds, and where all griefs are consecrated on the altar of divine 
 love.” 
 
 “ Suppose he dies before I see him ? ” said Virginia, evidently continuing her 
 thoughts, and not heeding Sister Laura’s. i( Sister Fannie has been telling me 
 about the sudden death of her lover.” 
 
 S 
 
274 
 
 LOVE AND WAD. 
 
 “ If you had but her simple confidence.’ * 
 
 “ Where she loves I should despise ; where she honours I should criticize 
 She is a Southerner, and yet loves him who died fighting against the land of his 
 birth. But would to God I had her faith ! Sheds far happier with a dead traitor 
 for a lover, than I with a living, honourable man to adore me.” 
 
 44 Are you sincere now ? Would you exchange your clear-sightedness and 
 knowledge of history for her childish mind ? ” 
 
 44 No ; I would not. If there he a hell I would rather descend to it from the 
 sublime height of a comprehension which sees and scorns all, than to he carried 
 blindfolded to Heaven — if there be a Heaven.’ ’ 
 
 Laura’s eyes were full of tears, and she murmured — 
 
 44 You too, Virginia ! Ah ! I never loved any one who found not some way to 
 torture me ! ” 
 
 Virginia knelt down by her friend, and buried her face on her knees and said, 
 44 Sister, do not love me. Let me perish. I am not fit to stay in this house 
 dedicated to a God in Whom I have no faith. I am a disgrace to your Sisterhood. 
 What would the world say if they knew this holy retreat was open to an infidel ?” 
 44 Jesus is the Father Confessor of this Sisterhood, and when I carried your 
 case to Him, He said, 4 1 went to earth to seek and save the lost. If you are to do 
 My work you cannot repulse the lost who has sought you.’ ” 
 
 44 But are you not afraid of my influence ? ” 
 
 44 You have promised me that not an inmate of this house but myself shall know 
 of your infidelity.” 
 
 44 My word is sacred, and never forgotten. But is not my daily life that of a 
 hypocrite P What right have I to a seat in your chapel P ” 
 
 44 The same right the thief on the cross has to a seat in Heaven. ” 
 
 44 But I do not repent. Every chapter of history I read confirms my in- 
 fidelity. If there were such a God as you believe in, in mercy for the rest of 
 the race He would destroy one half of it.” 
 
 44 And you among the doomed half ?” 
 
 4 4 Undoubtedly. I would acknowledge His justice then. ” 
 
 44 But my God is no hot-headed man. Were He all justice He would be im- 
 perfect ; for, where would be the love and tenderness inseparable from a per- 
 fect character? But be appeased. Your sense of justice will be satisfied. 
 The day draws near when the good and the evil will be separated for ever. ” 
 
 44 But why does He delay so long ?” 
 
 44 So long? Why the world has not been created six thousand years, and a 
 million of years must seem a very small term of ages to One Who is 4 from 
 everlasting to everlasting. ’ Besides, I should suppose that the very genius of 
 destruction would be satisfied with the food he has been gorged with for five 
 thousand years. The Americas, Africa, and Australia turned into wildernesses ; 
 Asia, a land of the curse ; Europe, the stage on which nation after nation has 
 triumphed, sinned and been destroyed, often leaving no memorial ; the Jews 
 preserved that the light of history may hold them up as warnings for the Ages. 
 Surely, history might satisfy even an Aristides’ love of justice. ” 
 
 The astonished woman raised her eyes to Sister Laura’s glowing countenance 
 and answered — 
 
 4 4 Oh, how pitiful is the human mind ! Why has no one in books or conver- 
 sation given me this hint of justice ?” 
 
 44 1 am very glad, dear, to have given you one good idea before I leave you. 
 Next Monday Sisters Annie and Julia go with me to nurse in the hospitals at 
 Nashville.” 
 
 44 Let me go. Oh ! I can’t stay here without you.” 
 
 44 We shall have to swear that we are Sisters. If you could only believe in 
 God you would not be so very lonely when left with your Father. ” 
 
 44 1 know that you pity me. But I am glad I did not believe in your doc- 
 trine of the future life when I canonized in my envious, yearning heart Charlotte 
 Corday and Madame Boland. I cannot think of them as in a Christian Heaven, 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 275 
 
 and yet where they are is glorious enough for me. Oh, tell me, Sister, tell me, 
 where do you think they are ? ” 
 
 4 4 When I have asked God I shall.” 
 
 “ What ?” 
 
 “ When I am with Him I shall beg Him to let me go to them, aye, even if it 
 be where angels of peace never fold their soft wings. Where will they be ? 
 We cannot tell ; but where shall we be ? ” 
 
 Not wishing to wound by an impious reply, Virginia evaded the question. 
 
 4 ‘ Where will the saints of my infidel calendar be ? Why, with Plato, 
 Aristides, Cato, Socrates, Brutus.” 
 
 “ Plato and Socrates seem to me to await us in Heaven. They acted up to 
 the best light given them. So I should fain hope did your French saints, and 
 if so they may be throned where cant, hypocrisy, hate, fanaticism and tyranny 
 cannot enter.” 
 
 “Oh, if I could go to such a world as that, I, too, would be a Christian ! 
 Prove to me that there is such a place. ” 
 
 A moment’s silence, for a throb of her heart that angels called a prayer, and 
 Laura replied — 
 
 “ Suppose the eyeless fish of the Mammoth Cave endued with reason, and 
 holding a council to decide on the veracity of a travelled fish who has declared 
 that he has been to a land where all is light, and fishes can see as well as feel 
 each other. A finny jury pronounce him a liar. He begs for a suspension of 
 the sentence, and hastens back to the outer world, and returns, bringing a fish 
 with eyes. The seeing fish’s language is incomprehensible to the blind ; but 
 they feel the organs said to be for the reception of light. Now these fish, 
 being much wiser than men, and knowing that every organ with which God 
 has gifted them has a use, conclude at once that eyes would never have been 
 given without an object ; yet they cannot give a decision. After a while the 
 captive fish learns to make himself intelligible ; he complains much of the 
 darkness, and longs for light. Then the jury, you remember I told you they were 
 more sensible than men — give the verdict that there must be such a world of 
 light as the traveller describes, or their captive would not long for it. My 
 little captive, come with me to the antechamber of truth and see the light. ” 
 “The ante-chamber of truth is my heart.” 
 
 “Ah? Then you can settle many questions. What is the nature of comets? 
 Are the worlds nearest us inhabited ? 
 
 “Tut! I spoke of intellectual truth.” 
 
 “And are the mysteries of mind so much more easily solved than those of 
 matter ? If so, where does the soul reside ? How does the brain move the 
 finger ? ” 
 
 i( You know it was not of such matters I spoke.” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Is truth one and always the same ? ” 
 
 ‘ * Assuredly. ” 
 
 “Have you any mental faculty denied me ? ” 
 
 “ What do you mean by so ironical a question ? ” 
 
 “ If truth is always the same, and the antechamber of truth is my mind as 
 well as yours, how is it that we pass into different presence-chambers, and bow 
 before different sovereigns ? ” 
 
 4 ‘ Our minds have been differently trained. ” 
 
 “Yes; but if truth be not Janus-faced, what difference does that make? 
 There are dwellers in this house variously gifted and educated ; yet we agree 
 as to what is truth, except yourself. ” 
 
 “But, except yourself, none have read and studied as I.” 
 
 “Bacon, Shakespeare, Taylor, Newton, Wellington, Washington, Paley, 
 Temple, Bull, Calhoun, Clay, were as well educated as you, and they believed 
 and were true churchmen. But were you ever convinced by arguing? ” 
 
 “ Certainly; yet I am wary about owning sudden convictions. Hike to test 
 a newly discovered truth before I announce it. ” 
 
 “While argumentation is going on our verdict should be held in abeyance ; 
 
276 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 when the subject is of vital import we should make up our minds only when 
 we are alone with God.” 
 
 “Or with an angel like you, little mother. No; I am not one of the 
 unreflecting class of people who say argument never convinces anybody. If 
 there is any such thing as changing opinions it is the result of argument with 
 ourselves or with others ; otherwise the change is irrational and ridiculous. I 
 confess when one thinks that the fishes and crabs of the Mammoth Cave have 
 neither eyes nor light, and that all fishes which have eyes have light, it does 
 seem too nonsensical to say it only happens that those in the Cave are without 
 eyes ; and is it not equally absurd to say that I, with my wonderful capacities 
 for seeing and hearing, appreciating and enjoying, only happen to find myself 
 in a world where I am called upon to exercise these capabilities ? ” 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Living in Louisville and by the rules of the Sisterhood going twice a day to 
 chapel, Virginia’s refuge was soon discovered after she was well enough to 
 leave her room. But she did not care for that. In her blind agony that the 
 adopted father whom she had reverenced without questioning his claims upon 
 her deep love and gratitude should suddenly have abased himself in her eyes, 
 took away the sting from the consciousness that she would be talked about. 
 Moreover, the solitary life into which no confidante before she knew Laura 
 had ever penetrated, which she had chosen and persisted in rendered her less 
 sensitive to gossip ; perhaps, it is truer to say that her morbid aversion to 
 scandal or anything approaching it prevented her knowing much of its nature. 
 That Mr. Maturin’s avowal of a different love from that she had supposed him 
 to cherish for her, should have degraded him in her opinion may seem strange. 
 But I doubt if that man or woman ever lived who did not worship somebody ; 
 if not the true God, or a false one, a fallen mortal. Of “Our Father,” 
 Virginia knew about as much as she did of Jupiter. Mythology and the Bible 
 were pleasant studies for literature, and art owed many debts to both ; but she 
 had never prayed after she had lost the habit of repeating the Lord’s Prayer as 
 she had been taught to do in the Asylum. Jesus was a beautiful character ; 
 she thought Him worthier of reverence than Socrates and Plato combined ; 
 but worship Him ! No ! there was but one she had worshipped ; he had made 
 her life a poem ; had showered on her beautiful gifts ; he had provided guides 
 for her through philosophy and literature ; he was her god. I know not how 
 to describe the sudden revulsion of her mind when she saw he wished her to 
 be his wife, better than by saying — with all due reverence — it was as if God 
 the Son had asked the woman who was left alone with Him to be His wife. 
 And she fled from him ; she, reared in luxury, could face poverty, but she 
 could not witness what she considered the self-degradation of the one she 
 worshipped. 
 
 She was accosted one morning in chapel by an old acquaintance. 
 “Why, Virge! you here ! you thinking of turning Sister ! Who would have 
 thought it ? At any rate I’ve won a bet from Mr. Barton. Don’t open your 
 big eyes so furiously because I bet about you. He said he had no faith in any 
 woman ; he had never seen one whom some man could not make a fool of. ” 
 Virginia’s nails hurt her palms ; but Miss Scott could not know that, or she 
 might have added that she had suddenly been ushered into Mrs. Alcott’s 
 parlour where stood Harvey in a passion, because his only confidential friend 
 had just said, “ You’ll marry Virginia if she isn’t already married ; one good 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 277 
 
 look into her clear eyes, and all your faith in her will return.” It was just then 
 that the servant opened the door ; but Harvey was too excited to notice that, 
 and while Miss Scott crossed the room towards Mrs. Alcott, whose back was 
 towards her, he made the speech which turned into scorn Virginia’s love for her 
 idol — her representative god she had not been afraid to be brought into close con- 
 tact with. When Miss Scott had made her last remark, Sister Laura spoke to 
 her, and Virginia stood motionless, like one who has received a death-blow and 
 would be glad of another stroke to render dying easier. As the Sister 
 passed out into the street she said to Miss Scott, 
 
 44 May I inquire what your bet is ? ” 
 
 44 Certainly. I meant to tell Virginia. When Mr. Barton made his ungallant 
 speech I knew he was thinking of her and I exclaimed, 4 I’ll wager you a dozen 
 pairs of white kids, no man has made a fool of Miss Davis. I have faith in her, if 
 you haven’t.’ The idea of her running off with a romantic adventurer was 
 ridiculous. Oh ! but won’t I exult over him ! This is the first bet I ever won 
 from him, though he always pays them ; I wish I had met Virge last week. He’s 
 gone away, but I suppose he’ll soon be back.’’ 
 
 Virginia sat for hours in one attitude, head bowed in dejection, her lips white 
 and her hands purple from mutual pressure. Had Miss Scott known this she 
 would have run back to her and told her that Barton, instead of taking her bet 
 laughingly as gentlemen are used to do when ladies ask them for a dozen pairs of 
 gloves, had flushed to his hair, haughtily said, “ good morning,” and left the room 
 without a bow. Virginia’s eyes closed against the hateful sunshine which seemed 
 to read a secret no one else guessed, and to mock her for it ; so she sat until 
 Sister Laura came home ; the latter perceived that she was suffering, although 
 she, as if unconscious of it, began to talk cheerfully. 
 
 44 I found Clara very ill, too weak for conversation, but she held in her hand 
 a very pretty box. It was hardly as long as your hand ; the top, of mosaic set in 
 jet, represented the woman taken in the act of sinning and brought to Jesus. 
 They were alone. He stood with outstretched hands to receive her, but she had 
 fallen at His feet ; her long hair fell over her shoulders, but did not hide the 
 beautiful, upturned face in its new ecstacy of joy and worship. I admired the 
 box exceedingly, and Clara said she was crazy to have it copied but knew of no 
 one who could do it. I thought of you, and said, 4 Perhaps I can find one to 
 undertake it ; she may not succeed, but in that case I am sure you will not have to 
 pay her.’ I should have brought the box for you to see, but I feared some 
 accident might happen to it, and said, 4 it was possible you would go to see 
 her.’ ” 
 
 44 Surely, you do not think I can copy it ?” 
 
 44 1 do ; at any rate, you must go and see it. I shall sit up with Clara to- 
 night, and as it is a long, lonely walk, I shall beg you and Sister Alice to go 
 with me.” 
 
 44 1 don’t think I can walk so far,” replied Virginia, listlessly. 
 
 44 Then you can turn back when you please ; but will start to please me,” 
 said Sister Laura, pressing her lips on Virginia’s brow, and feeling a desire to 
 soothe the anguish she read in her face. 
 
 44 What book have you there ?” 
 
 44 The 4 British Poets.’ Oh, how the deep chords of the past vibrate in 
 tremulous music when I think of the last time I read them. Like a dying bird, 
 my heart sings a plaintive song to my dismal spirit.” 
 
 44 And mine beats high and quick, scarcely with patience brooking the tedious 
 present, that now stretches its shadowing wings over my heart. The days are 
 gone when sportive Moore could move me to tears or to smiles ; Byron sickens me, 
 and for straight -laced Pope I never cared,” said the Sister, as she picked up the 
 book, and saw the names of those three poets over some of the pages ; 44 1 have 
 found earth but dross, and its poets but gold-covered mortals ; the badge of my 
 rest is the cross of the Crucified. I don’t care for love-poetry now.” 
 
 44 You are a bigot,” said Virginia, laughingly, taking her hand, half envying her 
 
278 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 her resignation, and half-pitying her for having given up the glories of literature 
 for incessant demands of sick and poor.” 
 
 “ An Atheist said of Voltaire, ‘ He is a bigot, a Deist.’ ” 
 
 li Don’t begin an argument. I was only jesting. And as it is the first jest I have 
 uttered since you knew me, pardon it. But, Sister, you are a marvel to me. What 
 a strange thing the human heart is ! ” 
 
 “ I find mine stranger than any other ; perhaps, because I know it best.” 
 
 “ But if I die, sweet Sister, you won’t put me away from your daily life as you 
 have your lover ?” 
 
 11 Not if I think of you as an angel ; you can understand why his memory is too 
 painful to be an ever-welcome guest. But, dear, do not talk of dying. I think 
 God will spare me that.” 
 
 Sister Laura had been disciplined until her nature was calm and receptive, 
 while Virginia’s was overflowing and full of unrest ; she partly filled the vacuum 
 in Laura’s life, and Virginia enjoyed the very vacuum because she could breathe 
 freely in it. She looked intently at the Sister who, forgetting her presence, was 
 introspecting her heart. 
 
 “Ah, my best friend, your heart is not mine, nor is it yours ; it bears Keble 
 Wilson’s name and will wear it till death.” 
 
 “ What passion is so unreasonable as Love ? ” 
 
 “ Hate is more. I have known persons whose pet prejudice might be called a 
 passion.” There was an undeveloped meaning in Virginia’s tone. 
 
 “ What can one of your age, until now a shaded flower, know of so hateful a 
 passion as hate ? ” inquired the Sister, feeling very much older than her charge ; 
 yet she knew of no hate but political — if it would ever have been correct to call 
 her Southern enthusiasm by so severe a name. 
 
 “ I feel it,” answered Virginia. “ Two years ago I had a fancy ; it might have 
 grown into love but for one thing ; he hated his State, my State.” 
 
 Laura raised to her lips the frail hand which nestled in hers. Virginia was no 
 longer a child, but a patriot, and in a new sense a sister devoted to the same 
 mother, Kentucky. 
 
 “ I am so glad you think for yourself and don’t allow people’s talk to prejudice 
 you against Kentucky. ” 
 
 “ I am a very unprejudiced person. You look as if you did not believe me.” 
 
 “ I never saw any one who had no prejudices.” 
 
 “ Have you ? ” 
 
 “ Of course. I am not aware of any on subjects of note, or I would combat 
 them ; but I am afraid to say I have none, lest nly words should seem as ridiculous 
 to others as like observations are to me when uttered by some of my acquaint- 
 ances.” 
 
 “ I hate prejudice. If you find I have any, tell me of it.” 
 
 “ Thank you for the permission, and I beg you to return the favour. Although 
 I doubt if either will ever consent to call a cherished opinion by so ugly a name.” 
 “ I learned how blind, and little, and ignoble a thing prejudice was when I 
 heard Kentucky defamed by those who called themselves patriots, and to prove 
 their claim to the title denounced, not reproved, the land of their birth. The true 
 patriot never clings so closely to his country as when she is in perilous straits. If 
 she has wronged herself he will do what he can to right her.” 
 
 “ And although he will never whitewash the acts which offend his conscience, 
 he will blame in sorrow, and not with evident delight that he has something else 
 to abuse her for. I am so sick of mankind, human nature disgusts me so, that 
 even patriotism appears a more refined selfishness. It seems to me that everybody 
 is crying out, ‘ For me ! for me ! for me ! ’ ” 
 u Davis, the pure and untainted — ” 
 
 ‘ “ Is living for history — ” 
 
 “ Oh ! ” 
 
 “ And no finer character will she show.” 
 
 “ But Lee ? ” 
 
 i My hero must be the ‘ exception to prove my rule ! ’ ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 279 
 
 “ And his State ? Where does history show a sublimer picture than that she 
 will paint of this Curtins of the Nations, springing into the gulf of ruin to save her 
 sisters and herself from monthly John Brown raids.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 January 18th, 1864. 
 
 Sister Laura’s Keveries in the Hospital at Nashville. 
 
 1 ‘I dare to love No. 9, because I am sure that he will never presume to speak of love to 
 me, a Sister of Charity. It pleases me to see that I am like a dream to him ; I think 
 he must be a poet. Strange, that my heart, stunned by groans and sighs, should thrill 
 at this idea when I knew before that he was a patriot. Is the thought that now 
 comes to me treacherous ? I do not believe that ; it will be very long before the 
 second Advent ; then there may be no Southern Confederacy, perhaps, but there 
 will always be love, and to me the definition of poet is love ; yes, lover of beauty, of 
 truth, of intellect, of man and woman-kind, of God. I cheated myself out of the 
 crowning joy of this dispensation — accepted and acknowledged love ; and I do not 
 like to go among the angels uncrowned. Ah ! ah ! what am I writing ? I have 
 been crowned. I love Keble, aye, as dearly as ever. Only everything whirls 
 round so rapidly, that I feel as if he was removed far from me. Since I have 
 lived an active life and had no time for dreaming it seems as if he had forgotten 
 me. I no longer feel his presence. I am not false to him. It is as though 
 having been enamoured of music I should have vowed to devote all my life to 
 its reception, and to ponder over it ; but duty called me to another life, and in 
 this new existence, I wandering alone through disease and sorrow, and anguish 
 and death, came suddenly upon a noble piece of statuary, calm and at rest ; and 
 I, worn out ere my mission is finished and longing for the old music to strengthen 
 me, and finding it not, sit down to rest by the statue. And unsuspecting of 
 glamour, I sleep and dream of it. Yes, but I hear the old music now ; it mingles 
 with the vision and envelopes the statue. I dream on ; the aroma of romance 
 is everywhere in nature and in art ; how can I shut it from my life F Ah ! this 
 soft and beautiful moonlight, whose misty splendour envelopes me with witchery 
 of by-gone dreams ! Cannot the heart ever be made to grow old, and give up its 
 buried treasures ? When I think I am safe in old maidenly reserve a subtle 
 charm of sky, or flower, or music throws me back into my girlish days, and I thrill 
 with the momentary ecstacy of new life and — pay for it. There is no old age 
 for the heart. It can’t keep pace in decay with its decorous body. My young 
 heart in my old body is like my little pet’s face shaded by grandmother’s calash, 
 I cannot cheat it into the belief that it is old and ought to be done with childish 
 things. It only throbs the wilder and says, love is for God and for angels as 
 well as for the young ; and I may be as near to the one as I am far removed from 
 the other. And so I must suffer for my heart’s waywardness. My brain will 
 have to ache again, my hands will have again to tremble and grow cold, because 
 my heart cannot resist the witchery of No. 9’s low pleading tones. It says it is 
 only harkening to music like that Keble made for it, and so it will not heed the 
 councils of common sense. Common sense had its way when Keble was so 
 cruelly mocked. Ah, bah, brain ! Of what worth is all your hoarded lore if 
 you cannot silence one sweet memory ? Nay ; you will even assist her to robe 
 herself in hope’s fairest disguise and call herself true love. Ah, poor brain ! poor 
 brain ! can you never conquer this heart of mine which Keble called invincible ? ” 
 Another time the night-watcher’s thoughts were on this wise. 
 
280 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 “ Do not I know that it is ridiculous to love him ? Absurd enough it is, and 
 yet I am not ashamed of it, not before myself and the angels and God. I could 
 not bear to have man know it. But to the angels, who breathe no atmosphere but 
 love, it can never be ridiculous, never absurd, though sorrowful enough it may 
 oftentimes be. And why should I love No. 9. ? what is there about him to draw 
 my heart from its miserly-kept past ? I, whose life was consecrated to God 
 solely, save that a blessed memory shared it with Him, as a church called St. 
 John’s is yet altogether God’s, I to give up my life to a new love ! Well, why 
 not ? would not an angel do the same ? I know God sees nothing wrong in this. 
 The patient sufferer who never sleeps without murmuring in pain, though in his 
 waking hours he will not complain, is a Christian. Then why should God object 
 to mv loving him ? My heart is wise, wiser than my desperate grief. Wild, 
 wile' t lat I am ! Why should I think that he who shares with his Maker my mid- 
 night thoughts will ever seek, or wish to draw me from my lonely bondage to the 
 poor and wretched ? The other night suddenly awaking with the first smile I 
 ever saw on his lips, he eagerly grasped my hand and began to draw me to him. 
 I knew he had mistaken the Sister for an old love ; but my heart ceased beat- 
 ing, for, quick as lightning’s flash was the conviction that if he should kiss me 
 I must nurse him no more. But before with the strength of delirium he could 
 draw me close enough he opened his eyes full on me, and exclaimed in bitter 
 disappointment, 4 Too old.’ Then he released me. Yes, I am too old for him ; 
 he does not look to be thirty, and I am over that. Yet he is older than I — I 
 do not mean in years — I know he is. I have found out that in his most elo- 
 quent ravings. The body is nothing to me ; his mind is older than mine ; 
 and his heart, too, for now mine is quite young and his old — old still, for the 
 frost of disappointment yet covers his life. Who could have treated such a 
 man so cruelly ? Who could have been the frozen flower that he says his mad 
 love could not warm to life ? I could hate that woman for her insensibility. 
 Strange that he could love one who was not appreciative ; for his whole being 
 cries aloud for sympathy. What could form a more fascinating contrast than 
 his childlike spirit and vigorous mind ? Whenever I take him a delicacy which 
 he enjoys he makes me eat every alternate spoonful. It is no use for me to 
 refuse ; he only looks more earnest and says, * Poor child ! You need it more 
 than I,’ and he refuses to take his spoonful till I have mine. One day he 
 murmured, 4 If you really were the one I eternally seek I would make you eat 
 it all ; but I must eat some so as to gain strength to fight again for liberty to seek 
 her once more. ’ ” 
 
 Sister Laura stopped dreaming and bathed his face. When she had cooled it 
 enough, he began to murmur — 
 
 44 1 don’t like eyes deep set in blue bands, and with dingy red curtains over 
 them.” No. 9 turned his gaze from Sister Laura’s eyes : as though comparing 
 them with another’s, he added, 4 4 Her eyes were, oh, so bright ! so bright when 
 I would excite her or anything pleased her unexpectedly ; but generally they 
 were pensive : and I have seen them as sad as yours,” he added, turning again 
 towards his nurse. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Nov. 8th. 
 
 4 4 Not her! not her !” muttered the feverish invalid. There was nobody 
 near the cot of No. 9 but one attentive watcher, although this night was to 
 decide whether he must die, or might live ; but he was only one in a hospital. 
 
 Sister Laura rose quickly from the seat beside him, and leaned over his 
 pillow ; he might murmur a last message to one who was waiting for him to 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 281 
 
 come and slip a bridal ring on a hand that merrily threw off dance after dance. 
 But the sick man was leaving no message — only talking to himself as men often 
 do in the dotage of a sick room — 
 
 “She is not intellectual enough.” 
 
 A pleased smile on the face of Sister Laura spoke to the eyes of angels what 
 her thoughts did to their spiritual ears — 
 
 “ Thank God, that nearly all my life I have been a student.” 
 
 There was no vanity in this ; Laura had charmed too many men of intellect 
 to keep their seat by her side hour after hour, not to feel that she could interest 
 another one. If a man loves music chiefly, is a girl who has practised three 
 hours a day for years and taken many prizes, to be called vain because she 
 thinks she can please him F 
 
 Only once before had Laura felt so self-satisfied ; and she, whose life had 
 known so little selfishness for two years, was not by the angels grudged either 
 short-lived feeling of content. 
 
 The other time was when on bending over No 9. a white rose from her bosom 
 had fallen on his bed. He took it up, not observing whence it came and asked — 
 
 “ Why is this like my love ? ” 
 
 “ Because it is sweet,’ ’ was her answer. 
 
 “ Pshaw ! She is not sweet. It is because it is pure. What do I want with a 
 sweet woman ? Bah ! you give me sweet things enough. I wish you’d give me 
 lemonade instead of that syrup. I want a pure woman ! a pure woman ! a pure 
 woman ! ” 
 
 Then Sister Laura smiled, and an angel said, ‘ She has a right to ; for she is 
 pure.’ The earth seemed desolate and dead, the air was dreary and chilling, 
 damply chilly like that of a vault in a cemetery. Sister Laura’s lips were slightly 
 parted, and her breath came thicker and faster than its won’t. It was night. She 
 being the best nurse in the hospital, though the one with the least physical power, 
 always had the watch which lasted from midnight till six. The Sisters in the 
 men’s hospital always nursed inc ouples ; now Sister Julia sat by ; but the j^ounger 
 always made her comfortable in the only easy chair in Ward No. 3., tucked a 
 blanket about her, and then in her low-backed, long-legged, wooden chair ever 
 and anon felt very comfortable as she glanced at one who could rest. Sister 
 J ulia was of a temperament that nothing ever troubled at bed-time, or meal-time, 
 or chapel-time ; she was as content as a bird, for she could always enjoy eating 
 and sleeping ; but she had this advantage over it, she could pray. “ Sleep on, 
 Sister Julia, where ‘ little is given little is required,’ thou art more likely than I 
 to hear God’s ‘ well done.’ Happy child,” thought Sister Laura, gazing at the 
 woman three years her senior with a half envious, half self-congratulatory feeling. 
 Sister Julia’s life and her own contrasted themselves in memory’s swiftly moving 
 panorama. 
 
 “ Is it a happiness only to vegetate, even though a vegetable life fills one’s 
 mission and nourishes others ? This Julia, what does she enjoy ? Eating, sleep- 
 ing, walking. I told her a nurse required more than others change of air and 
 vigorous exercise to enable the system to repel noxious influences, and so she 
 walks vigorously ; not as I do, with sore feet and weary limbs, my spirit on the 
 alert to seize some hoped-for unknown beauty, ‘dragging my subject-body after it. 
 And in our daily life how differently we work! She can hold a limb while it is 
 being amputated ; I, too, have done this, but she did not have a nervous chill 
 after she went to bed. She always does her duty, for she always does what I tell 
 her and in the way I advise. Do I follow God thus ? Then, who is best in His 
 sight ? I often want my own way when God wants another ; she is wise enough 
 to know I have more judgment than she, and always submits. Ah ! Sister Julia, 
 I know whom angels think the best. She is as tender, as gentle, and as watchful, 
 except when I hid her sleep, as I am, and no patient prefers my sympathy to her 
 apathy except No. 9. He, all the nurses say, evidently misses me when I 
 am absent, though I think he seldom knows when I am present. But God’s ways 
 are more ‘ equal ’ than we see. If Sister Julia can sleep soundly while these men 
 groan and tumble about her, I can look into the night and see Dantesque visions ; 
 
282 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 I can gaze into the fire and dream like Ike Marvel. I can watch the suffering 
 patriots, and carry their destinies into God’s grand future until I shiver at the 
 Patmos seer’s delineations of the regions where are ‘ dogs and sorcerers, and what- 
 soever loveth and maketh a lie,’ or, glow with rapt beatitude, listening to the glorias 
 of those who have ‘ come out of great tribulation, and washed their robes white 
 in the blood of the Lamb,’ Who lets me follow them to the ‘ fountain of 
 living waters where I am refreshed as is a feverish man who drinks in his 
 dream.” 
 
 The Sister’s reverie was interrupted by a cough from one of the farther cots, 
 and she took a cup from the trivet and gave some warm “ stew ” to No. 2. Then 
 she walked the length of the room, as she did several times an hour, sometimes 
 turning a hot little pillow, sometimes removing a blanket, and tucking the 
 covering more closely around some rough soldier, whether friend or foe she seldom 
 knew, and never willingly ; God drew the line, the nurse did not wish to see it. 
 Soul No. 1, might blacken a foe, and soul No. 2, might glorify a hero, but she 
 tried to see neither, for the Gospel and medicine and nutriment were given for 
 both by their Creator. The outer man was sometimes gentlemanly, oftener coarse 
 and repulsive to a lover of the beautiful such as the fastidious Laura Buckner had 
 been ; but Sister Laura was a child of Christ, and liked to walk in His footsteps ; 
 she was a lover of the Immortal and so could endure what the dainty young lady 
 could not have tolerated. Laura told Sister Julia to go to sleep again and she 
 would call her if she needed her, and added she was sorry if replenishing the fire 
 had awakened her, and received for answer, “ Nobody ever hears you do anything. 
 My neck was twisted.” 
 
 Sister Julia went to sleep, but her friend sat down wearily in her high-backed 
 chair, and rested her feet on a turned-down tub, her elbows on her knees, and her 
 head in her hands, and could not help wishing for the luxurious chairs in her old 
 home, that once she did not know were luxuries. But soon she resumed the old 
 reverie. “ Yes, God’s ways are ‘ more equal ’ than we think. When Sister Julia 
 looked at No. 9, she did not see Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘ Last Supper,’ and feel that 
 the wounded man was St. James. When she hears him rave she never thinks of 
 Hamlet, nor even wonders whose falsity has embittered a spirit so noble. But 
 I wonder much, and I think it was a woman, soulless must she be to be false to 
 him.” She fell into a reverie in which she held a dialogue to decide on which 
 side No. 9 had fought. Notwithstanding his Northern accent she decided that 
 Southern he must be. This decision was that of her wide-awake hours, though 
 he spoke oftener of Northern scenes, particularly of boating and fishing on Lake 
 George, and so graphically would he speak of the blessed quiet of Sabbath Bay 
 Point, and the bold declivity of Roger’s Slide and of other spots of interest she had 
 before the war enjoyed, that she sailed with him and enjoyed it as truly as when 
 she had been there. From her doze she was aroused by No. 9, petulantly exclaim- 
 ing some incoherence, and as she reached him she heard “ Melia,” in a tone of 
 reproach. So at last he had spoken one name of the beloved, which heretofore his 
 delirium had so closely guarded. She had not heard the “A,” but was confident 
 the name was Amelia ; it must be that, or Emilia. 
 
 ‘ 4 Can I do anything for you F ” 
 
 “ You can go away, if you please ; you have deceived me, and I don’t like those 
 who do that.” 
 
 Unconsciously a look of distress was revealed to the sick man’s gaze. 
 
 “ I beg your pardon,” he said, in the quiet, gentlemanly way, that even in 
 delirium he had not forgotten until now. “ I am very rude. It is not your fault 
 if your head is like hers ; but I might have seen how little hair you had, and she 
 had enough to half cover her figure. How entrancing she was the night she wore 
 it down in a tableau. Why don’t you let yours fall lower to cover your long 
 neck ? Your eyes are monotonous. I like eyes which dance, and burn, and suffer, 
 and rejoice while I am speaking but one sentence — hers did sometimes.” 
 
 What was her name?’ asked Sister Laura, from no feeling of vulgar curiosity, 
 but fearing he would die and she not know to whom to write. 
 
 u I don’t talk about her to any but the angels, and if you were an angel you 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 283 
 
 would have thrown away that black cross long ago,” he said, looking at the large 
 cross such as the Sisters fastened their collars with. “ I often wonder if you 
 could ever have stayed with her ; your manners are so much the same, even to 
 the peculiar grace of moving your hands; but yours do not seem so soft and 
 white, and I think they are a little larger, but that may be because you don’t 
 wear pretty laces.” As he said this he took her hand carefully. Then he let it 
 fall and passed his own musingly across his brow. “ It is so strange.” 
 
 “ What ? — My likeness to some one you know F ” 
 
 i( Your nose and mouth are so like hers ; but her face was oval, and yours — oh, 
 it is so long ! Her cheeks were like a frosted peach, and yours are like marble. 
 Now go away, please. Excuse me ; but you have tried me so much — so much ! ” 
 
 The pale Sister was tired, too ; but she did not think of that. She sat down 
 again on her uncomfortable seat, turned her face from him, and tried to find out 
 a way to discover his secret woe, to trace the dear one who had deceived him, and 
 see if yet she could not be restored to him. Her brain grew lighter as the slow 
 night passed on, and she put her hands around it, for, it seemed to expand 
 indefinitely. 
 
 In a few minutes she fell sidewise, but not to the floor, for her feet were on her 
 dress which she had tucked about them to keep them warm, because it was not 
 well for Nos. 8 and 9 to have a big fire kept up near them. 
 
 During her unselfish dreamings, No. 9 had not slept, but had had his eyes 
 fastened on her as if she could help him to find the lost thread of his past that he 
 might unite it to his present. He knew he was ill and that the Sister of Charity 
 was his nurse. He felt that he had been wounded ; but how or when he could 
 not yet recall. 
 
 When he saw her fall with great effort he arose and kneeling by her, rested 
 her head on his breast, not able to raise her, and not thinking to call any one 
 while he held her face close to his and tried to read the mystery. He felt 
 she was no stranger ; every feature seemed to have been long ago burned in his 
 brain. He kissed her cold lips, feeling it was his right. He raised an eyelid, but 
 the eye was too soulless to tell him what he tried to learn. Who was she ? 
 Where was he ? Was this delirium ? “ Oh ! tell me about it,” he exclaimed 
 
 aloud. 
 
 Sister Julia sprang up, as did a convalescent close by. Unresistingly, No. 9 let 
 Sister Julia and No. 6 lay his mysterious burden on the floor and put him in bed. 
 
 As soon as help could be obtained, Sister Laura was carried to her apartment, 
 and restoratives applied — 
 
 “ Let me go to him, he needs me,” were her first words. 
 
 “ Just hear her, doctor ! ” said Sister Annie. “ We might have known her first 
 thought would not have been for herself.” 
 
 “ One of the patients likes her nursing best ? No great wonder.” 
 
 “ Doctor, tell her she can’t get up.” 
 
 She did not seem to note the remarks of either, and swallowed, as if un- 
 consciously, a draught he gave her. 
 
 “ That will make her sleep for hours. Let me know when she wakes.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 The sun was setting when Sister Laura, her eyes still closed, heard some one 
 say, “I wonder how No. 9 ever got out of his bed and held her head. Poor 
 fellow ! It was enough to kill him.” 
 
284 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 “ Yes ; but when the doctor gave him some medicine he went off just like an 
 in — ” 
 
 “.Hush ! I thought she stirred.” 
 
 Sister Kate went to the bedside, looked a minute, and then came back — 
 
 “ I don’t like the way she looks. I suppose the doctor knows what he is about ; 
 if I had not known he had been giving her something I’d say she had fainted.” 
 
 ‘ 4 Poor Sister 1 I hope this attack won’t kill her. I am an old nurse ; but I 
 never saw anybody before who had so little strength with so much will.” 
 
 “ So much heart, you mean. Poor thing ! She ought to have a husband to 
 take care of her instead of her having to nurse all these big men.” 
 
 Sister Frances went out, and Sister Annie took up her Prayer-Book and learned 
 the Collect for Ascension Day. She repeated it aloud, and her voice probably 
 aroused Laura from a syncope. She gave a long sigh, and the nurse turned to 
 hymn 176, and learned that inaudibly lest her voice might awake her idol from 
 even the deep slumber she thought she was enjoying. 
 
 “ So he is dead. The last one who needed me is dead,” thought Sister Laura, and 
 tears she had no power to shed tingled in forehead and nostrils. She would have 
 asked questions, but her lips were too parched and tightly closed. “ Poor fellow! 
 But why should I say, * poor fellow ?’ Ah, rather let it be ‘ happy spirit.’ Let 
 him pity me if he remembers me. His ravings were sometimes beautiful enough 
 for songs or hymns, if they could have been set to music. But the poor girl who 
 betrayed him — I might have found her out, and I know that no one who has ever 
 truly loved him can forget him. As well might I try to forget Keble. Once or twice 
 I dared to believe that No. 9 could arouse in me the romance of my nature that 
 Keble had glorified. Foolish idea ! I know now how utterly absurd ; for No. 9 
 is dead and I am only glad — glad that he is at rest. ” 
 
 After this sort was Sister Laura’s reverie when the doctor entered and asked 
 the attendant, “ Has not she awakened yet ?” 
 
 “ No, sir.” 
 
 “ A glass of fresh water for her, Sister Annie.” 
 
 “ Oh, please, let her sleep.” 
 
 “ She has slept long enough. 
 
 “But don’t waken her. Oh, doctor ! do you know what a blessing sleep is P” 
 Strong was the pity for the unknown grief of Sister Annie’s life, as he sooth- 
 ingly replied, “ It is a type of the rest reserved for those who have sorrow and 
 labour to leave behind.” 
 
 He moistened Laura’s lips, and when he had given her a spoonful of wine she 
 opened her eyes. 
 
 “ I am quite well now, thank you.” 
 
 “ Your sleep has done you good. I’ve a notion to give kind Sister Annie a like 
 draught. If I had given it to you yesterday you would not have fainted last 
 night.” 
 
 “ Fainted ! Did I ? I never fainted in my life.” 
 
 “ Until last night ; but perhaps you only wanted to see how much strength 
 your spoiled patient could muster in an emergency.” Dr. Laurence fastened his 
 eyes on her, but she showed no suspicion of his scrutiny. 
 
 “ What do you mean, doctor ?” 
 
 “ That No. 9 managed to get out of his cot and hold your head. How he did it 
 nobody knows, but I suppose he could not have sat up a minute. When Sister 
 Julia awoke he was talking to you.” 
 
 “ What did he say ? Did she tell you ?” In her desire to know the end of 
 what had excited her so much she forgot the strangeness of No. 9 leaving his 
 cot. 
 
 ** He was begging you to explain a mystery.” 
 
 “ Poor fellow ! He has imagined in me a resemblance to one he loves.” 
 
 “ Is that all ?” asked the good doctor, in a disappointed tone. He would have 
 considered himself worthy of canonisation if for every Sister he could have found 
 a husband in a maimed patriot. He thought all ought to seek happiness where 
 he had found it, in the blessedness of happy wedded life. 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 285 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Nov. 12 th. 
 
 Extract from Sister Laura’s Diary. 
 
 Hospital No. 4. 
 
 “ I utterly despise and contemn myself. What can it mean that I enjoy dream- 
 ing of this man who never shall know me but as a hospital nurse ? Ah, Keble ! 
 how disagreeably my face burns whenever I think of that noble spirit shrined in 
 my past ! If in your high home you can condescend to be amused — for angels 
 cannot feel scorn — how must you be diverted by the queer way in which love 
 revenges itself ! I, who was wooed by, and yet deaf to you, the noblest of earth’s 
 favoured ones, now engrossed by one who will regard me only as an old maid and 
 nurse ! Ah, perhaps this is the secret of my present fancy, that I know I may 
 love in safety. I never wanted to love, never was willing to own such weakness ; 
 always fought against it, never desiring to become housekeeper, seamstress, 
 mistress, or mother. I had to long hide from myself my admiration for Keble ; 
 but this wounded one I may love for ever and he will not suspect me. Yes ; here 
 is the secret ; I dare to love No. 9, because neither he nor any one will ever know 
 it, and I shall not be persecuted by his addresses. My ideal is to me as a statue, 
 were he to become as a man to me it would terrify me, and then, I think, I 
 should love him no more.” 
 
 Nov. 14th. 
 
 fi There is one thing very strange about my new mood, a circumstance which 
 makes it seem to me that I, and not my patient am in a feverish dream. I cannot 
 pray concerning my new love, I cannot ask God to bless it, for I do not want it 
 blessed. I do not desire that anything should come from it. I, who am in the 
 habit of mentioning to God everything which pains or pleases me sufficiently to 
 excite any emotion, I love, and cannot pray about it. Ought not this to 
 convince me that I am only in fancy bound ? It would be in my present state of 
 feeling as much a mockery for me to ask God’s favour on it as if in a theatre I 
 were to fall on my knees and pray that Romeo might wed J uliet. I do not love 
 No. 9 because I desire to win him, but because it is beautiful to love, and him I 
 can love.” 
 
 As usual, Laura’s soliloquy was interrupted by a restless patient. In vain she 
 tried the usual ways of restoring him to quiet. No. 13 evidently could not rest. 
 “ May I read a little to you to divert your mind from what it is dwelling on, or 
 write a letter to some absent friend ?” 
 
 ‘ ‘Ah! I am thinking almost always of my beautiful child. I shall never see 
 her again. My beautiful flower an icicle !” 
 
 “ The same Father who gave her the loveliness which blessed your life will 
 preserve it for you to bless you again when your touch cannot soil her loveliness.” 
 
 “She used to sleep in my arms. Her mother spoiled her at first ; but poor 
 Hattie had consumption, and the doctors said it injured the child to breathe 
 her mother’s breath, so I took her always in my arms and she seemed more ex- 
 clusively my own. When every one in sleep had forgotten her I lay awake to 
 watch the rosy sea-shell murmuring in its soft slumber. My beautiful, 
 fragile shell, the only treasure life’s rough waves ever threw to me ! My lost 
 baby ! ” 
 
 “ She is as much yours now as she was when she slept in your arms, for, to 
 children death is only a sleep from which they will not wake to scream in 
 pain. ” 
 
 “Well, there is one comfort ; she can never be defiled by sin ; she will never 
 marry a loving fool to turn his life to bitterness. ” 
 
286 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 A dark frown crossed the sick man’s face, and the Sister understood why the 
 husband had spoken of his little daughter being the only blessing life had thrown 
 to him. 
 
 “ Would not you have done anything to have ensured the happiness of her 
 future ?” 
 
 “ If you had ever loved a child you would not ask the question.” 
 
 “ And yet I doubt your willingness ; you have only to give her willingly to 
 God to feel consolation in the assurance that she cannot suffer nor sin. I know 
 you were a father who delighted to be surprising your pet with new pleasures ; 
 if she had lived, the day might have come when no pleasure offered by you 
 could have charmed her sorrow-benumbed soul. Now she will enjoy with ever- 
 increasing zest all that can befall her. ” 
 
 “Go on,” said the brave soldier, w'hose arm had been amputated without his 
 giving a groan, but whose eyes were now filled with tears. 
 
 “I daresay you intended to give her a fine education ; but the routine of 
 school duties might have proved irksome, or even altogether hateful to her ; or 
 her health might have been sacrificed in eagerness for knowledge. Now she is 
 learning hourly, and yet never has a headache caused by study ; she is at a 
 boarding-school that would be home to her were her parents with her ; and 
 when the time comes for you to rest, she will be able to teach you more than 
 you could ever have taught her. She will mount from circle to circle, progress- 
 ing in knowledge and appreciative power.” 
 
 “ Good-night,” said the soldier, whose tears — the first he had shed since his 
 daughter’s death — were flowing fast, but as he turned his back to hide them 
 Sister Laura saw that the expression of his face was resignation, and almost a 
 tranquil joy. 
 
 The next morning he thanked her for putting him to sleep the night before, 
 and said he would be much obliged to her for the little Prayer-Book he had 
 declined a week previous. She gave him one, and passed on, her sad heart not 
 too numb to thrill with pleasure. 
 
 The next night she sat thinking how desolate she was, and wondering why 
 God had seemed so cruel and inflexible about Keble, when No. 13 called “ Sister 
 Laura ” under his breath, as if desirous not to rouse another. 
 
 When she reached his bedside he put his hand in hers and said — 
 
 “ God was right to take her. I’ve been reading about the Baptism of In- 
 fants ; she never would have had any safeguard like godfather or godmother. 
 Was it because I didn’t have the cross signed on her brow that God did it, and 
 made her suffer so dreadfully before He took her ? They wrote to me I ought 
 to be reconciled to her loss because she endured such tortures. But I wasn’t. 
 Now God knows I thank Him for taking her away from such people as her 
 mother and I. We fit to train a child for eternity ! She takes laudanum all 
 the time to dull her suffering, and, strange as it may seem to you, I never 
 realized that my child had a soul until last night. Of course, I knew it ; but I 
 never thought of it. Why should I when for years I have not thought of my 
 own — ” 
 
 “ How merciful God has been to save you until — ” 
 
 “Until I knew you. I heard you say you were an old maid ; you told me to 
 be thankful that God had taken from me the delight of my eyes ! I think, 
 may-be, He has crossed your life. You wipe away tears sometimes when you 
 think we are all asleep. Do you thank God that He made you an old maid ? ” 
 Not exactly understanding the expression of the Sister’s face, he abruptly 
 changed the subject — 
 
 “Where did you come from ?” 
 
 “ Louisville,” 
 
 “ A Kentuckian ! Then all you do is in vain ; the South will never thank you 
 for it. If I had been a conscript I should have been appreciated ; but as I am a 
 Kentuckian who volunteered to fight for liberty and the South, as I left my baby 
 to die, for I can’t help thinking if I had been there to watch over her she would 
 be alive yet, as I lost an arm when I might have kept it, I’ll get no credit for 
 my sacrifice. I scorn such ingratitude.” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 287 
 
 Sister Laura opened his Prayer Book to the second Exhortation in the Ante- 
 Communion Service and walked hack to her seat to pray for an immortal soul 
 and reconcile her heart to its desolate loneliness. 
 
 What power was it that kept Sister Laura up, enfeebled as she was by her 
 short attack of illness, which, indeed, was only the legitimate consequence of 
 exhausted energies ? The doctor had warned several Sisters that their head was 
 to be no more allowed to send the strong hands to rest, and her night-work was 
 principally confined to No 9, unless some worn-out nurse unconsciously fell 
 asleep, and then Laura moved about like a mouse, delighted to let her sleep un- 
 disturbed. No. 9 was conscious, but he had ceased to talk unless asked a direct 
 question, and more than once his patient nurse, opening her eyes, obedient to the 
 magnetism of his gaze, saw tears in his. The excitement of delirium had yielde d 
 to the calm of despair ; his watcher felt it was despair. He showed no interest 
 in anything except in her presence. He never asked for her now ; but when she 
 left him he seldom moved his eyes from the door unless he slept, and generally 
 at her return his face for a moment lighted up with what seemed consciousness 
 of life ; but the gleam went out so soon Sister Laura wished sometimes that it 
 would never come ; yet if it did not, she felt disappointed. She knew now that 
 she did not love him, and would have made, if necessary, an affidavit on that 
 point to any who mistook her sympathy for love. But the subtlest of spells that 
 lonely hearts can know — the consciousness of being longed for as if an essential 
 part of another’s being, enabled her to bear what many of the patients insisted 
 was beyond her strength. 
 
 The doctor fancied himself wise and said mysteriously, 
 
 “ Let her do as she likes. No, 9 takes little note of anyone but her ; to he 
 satisfied by her presence is an important part of his convalescence. The poor* 
 fellow when she is away sleeps only by snatches and when awake shows more 
 interest in the door than at any other time he does in anything. I believe the 
 rascal enjoys the pain of having his arm dressed because she helps me.” 
 
 “Yes,” said Sister Julia, to whom the doctor addressed the previous words. 
 “ The morning when you uncovered the wound and found that the bone needed 
 resetting. Instead of looking distressed, he said with a bright look and in eager 
 tones, ‘ Oh doctor ! was it true ?*” 
 
 “ I remember. What of that ? ” asked the wily man, knowing very well, but 
 pleased to see Sister J ulia’s curiosity was on the same scent as his. 
 
 “ Then No. 9 said, ‘ I thought I dreamed of springing from the bed to catch an 
 old friend whom I saw faint, and that in so doing I dislocated the joint of my 
 arm. Is it true, doctor ? Did I do it ? * Then you said, ‘ You did. Positively, 
 man, I believe you are crazy. You are more glad to find your arm broken than 
 any man I ever attended to have a broken limb cured.’ ” 
 
 “ No. 9’s face became instantly calm and impenetrable when you said, ‘ So you 
 knew the good Sister Laura before ? ’ He exclaimed, 1 Sister ! Oh, my God ! found 
 only to be lost ! ’ And do you remember when she came back ? Did you look 
 at him then ? ” 
 
 “ Yes ; and do you remember how like a well proud man he turned to us and 
 said, ‘ Pray do not speak of my mistake. I am a stranger to Sister Laura ; I like her 
 nursing so much better than anyone else’s, and if she knew I had mistaken her 
 for an old friend she might pay me less attention.’ ” 
 
 Just the contrary,’ was my reply to him.” 
 
 “ And I never will forget how he said, ‘ Be kind enough to grant the first 
 favour I ever asked of an enemy.” 
 
 “Yes, yes! ’’said Doctor Laurence, laughing uneasily at the remembrance 
 that his patient in some unaccountable way seemed suddenly to rise above 
 him. “And while Sister Laura stopped to speak a kind word to the eight 
 patients who were nearest the door, I began to work with his arm. 1“ know I 
 hurt him. I have made stronger men cry out for as little ; but he didn’t seem 
 to notice it. ” 
 
 “ He turned ashy white once with pain.” 
 
 “With pain! If you had gone through my bitter experience, Sister Annie, 
 
288 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 you would not have said, ‘ with pain. ’ It was when she stopped by his cot and 
 laid her hand on his hand that he turned pale. But you Sisters don’t under- 
 stand that sort of thing ; Sister Laura was like you ; she thought she hurt him, 
 and snatched back her hand, saying, ‘ Oh, forgive me ! I have hurt you ! ” 
 ‘‘Then he smiled.” 
 
 “I’d rather he had cried. I felt cross because I knew something was 
 wrong, and I couldn’t tell what. I’m not used to being baffled, and I hold that 
 a good physician studies temperaments and emotions as much as bodily ailments ; 
 that is, when he is more anxious for a speedy cure than a big bill, so I said 
 right out, ‘ The bone will have to be broken and reset. ’ Then Sister Laura 
 turned pale as he was, and he — ■” 
 
 “ Yes, and he thought she would fall, for he raised himself and put out the 
 other hand and caught hold of her. ” 
 
 “ Just like a lover that. ” 
 
 “ Oh ! Do you think he loves her ? So I think.” 
 
 “ It’s like a lover, I say, to think that if fifty men were by no one but himself 
 could hold up a certain woman.” 
 
 “ But, doctor, do you think she cares for him ? How could she have seemed 
 so willing to hold his hand while you broke and reset the bone if she does ? ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ Do you think my wife would let any other woman hold my hand F ” 
 
 “ Perhaps not ; but this is another case.” 
 
 “ Yes ; I couldn’t put so much gall in my tones as he did when he said, ‘ Sister 
 Laura, judging from what I know of you — see of you — you would not mind 
 holding my hand while the doctor snaps and patches my bone ! ’ ” 
 
 “But didn’t she look like an angel that a naughty boy had been throwing 
 useless stones at, when she replied, ‘ Hot if you wish it.’ And then she smiled — 
 how could she ? — reassuringly, and almost whispered, ‘ I will hold this poor 
 hand firm ; Sister Annie, will you hold the other ? ’ ” 
 
 “ And you didn’t seem to mind it a bit when he said courteously, ‘ Thank 
 you, Sister Annie, there is no need to be troubled about the left hand.’” 
 
 “Mind it ! Certainly not. Hot even when, as you broke the bone, he threw 
 out his left hand and caught one of hers in it, and fixed his eyes on hers.” 
 
 “Ha ! He must have thrown his hand very gently. He did not shake his 
 right arm. That fellow is a hero and a fool ; I believe he would let me break 
 the left arm if Sister Laura would hold one of his hands and let him hold one 
 of hers. When I had finished the job I had a chance to look at his face, and 
 he was gazing into the Sister’s grand eyes as if into Heaven, and as I said, 
 ‘ There ! It is done ! ’ and she laid the hand down on the bed, his face clouded 
 up and he sighed — when it was over. ” 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 No. 9 declared that he must walk into the yard and sit on a bench in the sun. 
 The day after his arm was reset he was assisted to rise and dress, and this was the 
 third day that he had sat up. Sister Laura was by him and it was to her he 
 made the remark. She handed him a cane and said, 
 
 “Would you scorn to let me hold your left elbow ? I might help you a little.” 
 “Pray do.” A thrill passed through his frame. 
 
 “I hurt you,” she said, hastily drawing back her hand. 
 
 “You are mistaken, Miss Lau — Try again.” 
 
 “You scorn to forget Sisters are not to be called Miss ! ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 :89 
 
 “ I dislike the word Sister. Mayn’t I call you Miss Laura ? ” 
 
 “ No.” 
 
 He seated her. She smiled, 
 
 “ The gentleman forgets he is an invalid.” 
 
 “ A worthless one ; but I do not so much mind the loss of the use of my right 
 arm now.” He emphasized the last word. 
 
 “ Why not as much now as ever? ” 
 
 “I have been a dreamer — ” 
 
 “ You talked in your delirium, and of one you loved.” 
 
 “Ah! What did I say P Did you find no clue to the past?” There was a 
 strange irony in his tone. Sister Laura looked inquisitively into his eyes. 
 
 “ I haven’t much curiosity.” 
 
 “You used to profess belief in magnetism of — ” 
 
 “ What ! Then we have met years ago. I have often thought we must have, so 
 familiar did you seem ; but I concluded you must be a near relative of a New 
 York friend.” 
 
 “We have met before. It humiliates me that you need to be assured of it.” 
 His tone was very hard. 
 
 “ You forget I am a Sister.” 
 
 “May God pity you ! You were so ignorant of the truth of — ” 
 
 “ You are very strange. I am going to read some letters I received from 
 Louisville this morning. You ought not to talk so much. Perhaps the sun is 
 too hot.” 
 
 “ I am cold,” he said, with an unconscious shiver ; he knew she suspected his 
 brain was again feverish. 
 
 “ Had not you better go in ? ” she asked. 
 
 “Not yet.” 
 
 She walked into the hospital and brought a blanket and put it around him. 
 “Sit down,” he said in a low tone of command. She obeyed him. 
 
 “ There are tears in your eyes. Is it because your love is false or cold that — ” 
 “That I would like to die ? Yes.” 
 
 “ God—” 
 
 “ Thank you for that one word. Do not add to it. God ! I am reconciled to 
 life, though you are forever dead to me.” 
 
 She gave one joyful look into his eyes and said, “Keble!” Then her head 
 fell forward on his bosom; she had fainted. In an ecstacy of love and despair he 
 gazed at her and kissed her, and murmured now tenderest words and now a 
 reproach. But when some minutes had passed and she did not revive, he 
 became alarmed and feebly called to one who was coming towards him. The 
 U. S. officer looked amazed — 
 
 The prisoner said, “Sister Laura has fainted.” 
 
 “No bad news, I hope,” replied the Yankee, picking up the opened letter 
 Sister Laura had begun to read when Keble bade her sit down. 
 
 “You had better call the doctor. I think this is his hour in the hospital. Be 
 quick.” The Yankee was about to reply angrily, but said, “ Here is an order 
 for your exchange, an especial case owing to Major Metcalf’s intercession. I 
 don’t know why you should be an exception, Major Wilson.” 
 
 “Will not you call a doctor ?” said Keble, who did not have the strength to 
 call out. The Yankee walked off. 
 
 “My lost darling! my angel! oh, God, how she, too, has suffered!” He 
 looked at her thin face and sunken eyes — “If I could only think it was for me ! ” 
 He kissed her. “ For the last time, Sister Laura.” He heard voices, the doctor 
 and the officer carried her from him, but not until he had asked and been re- 
 fused permission to delay his exchange for a few days until he was stronger. 
 
 The next morning the doctor reported Sister Laura as insensible still. He 
 regretted Major Wilson’s having to leave so soon. He took charge of a sealed 
 note for the Sister. 
 
 She had a low nervous fever, and her recovery was not accelerated by hearing 
 that Keble had been ordered off for exchange before he was able to walk steadily 
 
 T 
 
290 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 alone. But she rejoiced that he had been released ere his incognito had been 
 discovered. Better never see him than that should be. When Sister Laura first 
 entered the hospital No. 9’s beard and hair had been closely shorn, but as cold 
 compresses were always kept on his head the want of hair was not repulsive. 
 When she changed the cloth she was too anxious to do it quickly to have her 
 poetic fancies startled by the appearance of a bald head. It was not at all 
 strange that No. 9 did not recall the U.S. Captain Wilson. The 
 sunken, dry eyes, unnaturally bright with fever had nothing to remind 
 her of the full, liquid, pensive eyes of her old lover. The once full, but rather 
 pale lips were shrunken, parched, and glowing. The nose was sharper ; the 
 cheeks were hollow, and the forehead, which had seemed very broad, but 
 not high, now looked high, and by contrast rather narrow. The clear and 
 colourless complexion of the past was now bronzed by exposure and florid with 
 disease. So Laura’s bodily senses knew not their master’s bodily presence ; 
 but her spiritual nature unconsciously surrendered to its old keeper. 
 
 As soon as she recovered sufficiently to bear the trip to Louisville, the good 
 doctor put her on the cars and sent her back. Great was the rejoicing in the 
 Sisterhood, and none could have guessed that the one so anxious to learn all 
 that had interested them in her absence had passed through such a bitter, joy- 
 ful experience. It was joy to know her lover still lived ; it was bitterness to 
 know he suffered and must for a long time, as the doctor said, even if the 
 premature removal did not kill him. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 April 10 , 1865 . 
 
 Sister Laura and Virginia sat together in despair; at last the younger said, 
 “How General Lee has fallen.” 
 
 “ For a man to submit his soul to evil and Satan is cowardly, base, and con- 
 temptible ; but for a man to submit gracefully and nobly to physical force when 
 it is overwhelming is no derogation from his manhood. When Generals Lee and 
 Johnston consider our cause hopeless we may resume allegiance to the Govern- 
 ment that has conquered. Let us still our bleeding hearts and hear Jesus 
 whisper, 4 What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. ’ 
 We are ennobled by all the sacrifices we have made ; do not let us impair our 
 nobility of purpose by pouting like fretful children. I have always considered 
 that it required a more magnanimous nature for the conquered to put his soul 
 in harmony with the inevitable than for the vanquisher to show no petty 
 exultation. Do not misunderstand me. I have wept, fasted, and prayed for 
 the cause.” 
 
 “ And worked for it, and many times hazarded imprisonment. ” 
 
 ‘ ‘ But I have also learned to say, God’s will be done. Last winter one of my 
 prison-correspondents wrote to me of the soldiers in his ward dividing them- 
 selves into two parties and selecting their officers ; one side held a snow-fort 
 that the other was to attack. I suppose the conquered party was somewhat 
 chagrined at its defeat, but I am sure it does not consider itself disgraced ; 
 neither does it now lament the physical superiority of its antagonist. In the 
 beautiful sunshine of spring the snow-fort, its capture or defence, seems childish 
 amusement ; so when the storms of life are over, and Heaven’s sunshine vivifies 
 the souls now dejected by defeat, the great war will seem but as a childish 
 thing. ” 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 291 
 
 “I do not think so ; principles can never be called childish. ” 
 
 “You are right. But when that glorious Light which emanates from God 
 illumines our sublime immortality we shall regard the cause for whose sake we 
 would now willingly die, as a lesser thing than the spirit in which we received 
 God’s most painful chastisement. To lose my lover was terrible ; but to lose 
 my country is more bitter. Yet I must say, God’s will be done.” 
 
 “ I never could have believed that our cause could perish ; that it was 
 possible to exterminate us, I conceived ; but that the very cause could perish — 
 oh, no ! that I could not have believed. I can’t bear it.” 
 
 “I can,” answered Sister Laura, in a tone that one says, “ Bury my dead 
 out of my sight. ” 
 
 “How? But I know — it is because you feel around you ‘the everlasting 
 arms. ’ ” 
 
 “ If I have lost a country, I still have a Church. If Liberty is dead, Religion 
 lives.” 
 
 “But I cannot feel resignation ; submission I understand. You are resigned, 
 
 I submit. ” 
 
 Even in her deep dejection Sister Laura felt her heart bound with hope; she 
 knew that submission was the first step to child -like faith. 
 
 “ Can I tell you what I was thinking of when you came in ?” 
 
 “ Why not ? ” 
 
 “You shall answer your own question. I was just considering the utter 
 insignificance of political (mind, I do not say moral) liberty,” 
 
 “ Sister ! Has Lee’s surrender crazed you ? ” 
 
 “ Ought I to have told you ? ” 
 
 “ Yes, if you will explain yourself.” 
 
 “ Did you ever think of the meaning — if they have a meaning to compre- 
 hension like man’s — of such words as infinite, eternal, heavenly ? If you can 
 form even a faint idea of what these words signify, all things finite, perishable, 
 and earthly must appear insignificant. How dares a man question God’s 
 justice ? Does not he know that this world is probably a warning to other 
 worlds, and it is but one of millions, very likely. ” 
 
 “Millions !” 
 
 “Aye. The Herschells discovered about 3000 nebulae. How many solar 
 systems are in each, who will dare to estimate ? ” 
 
 “ But they may not all be intended for inhabitants.” 
 
 “ Show me what thing on earth God has made in vain, and I shall entertain 
 your supposition.” 
 
 “ Why, plenty of things. ” 
 
 “ Name one.” 
 
 “ Well, that saucer of vinegar.” Virginia answered this because she hap- 
 pened to glance at the saucer from which Sister Laura was pouring vinegar to 
 bind on her aching head to soothe the intense agony that had struck her like a 
 blow when she heard of Lee’s surrender, and had not left her day nor night for 
 a week. (4) 
 
 Sister Laura was shocked at the lightness of her friend’s tone ; she did 
 not know that Satan was making his last desperate defence of her infidel 
 principles. 
 
 She left the room, but as soon as the door was closed fell on her knees and 
 cried from the depths of her heart, “My God, give me her soul to repay me 
 for all I have suffered. ” And as she passed downstairs to the duty of the hour 
 she added, “Yes, one soul given me will far, far outweigh my loss of parents, 
 home, lover, and liberty.” 
 
 As soon as the door closed Virginia sprang to her feet. 
 
 “ I will not believe, for I am not ready for sacrifice.” She walked hastily 
 to the window. Her heart was beating violently. None knew as she did, 
 what Sister Laura had suffered for Love, what she had sacrificed for the South. 
 Rich, for its sake she had become poor, nor had murmured at her losses. Once 
 petted child, now an orphan ; nor at this did she rebel. The idol of her idol, 
 
292 
 
 LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 she had scorned him for the sake of liberty, and even this she had not regretted. 
 Yet now when God had permitted the cause of freedom to be overthrown she 
 bowed her head and said, “The Lord reigneth ; let Him do what seemeth 
 Him good. ” 
 
 In an hour Sister Laura returned with a microscope. 
 
 “ Oh, ’’said Virginia, “there is no getting a-head of you. However, God 
 can hardly be said to have made vinegar. ” 
 
 Without a word, with quiet dignity, Sister Laura put the microscope to the 
 eye of the would-be frivolous woman. 
 
 “ Tut ! Don’t you suppose I ever saw vinegar through a microscope before ?” 
 “ What if I had told a little child of the world in this saucer ? ” 
 
 “ She would not have believed it.” 
 
 “ Would that have altered the fact of its existence? What do you know of 
 nebulae more than a child of infusoriae ? If a microscope is so powerful, what 
 may be some telescope yet to be invented ? How did the animalculae get into 
 the vinegar ?” 
 
 “Generated themselves.” replied Virginia, very demurely. 
 
 “ Greater then than men, who can generate only their like ? But perhaps, 
 you will tell me what you mean by self-generation. At present it conveys no 
 idea but one so ludicrous that if I were to tell you you would think I was 
 ridiculing your common sense. ” 
 
 “How do mites get into cheese?” asked Virginia, triumphing. 
 
 “ Flies lay eggs in it. Virginia, are you honest ? ” 
 
 “ I hope so.” 
 
 44 Don’t be offended. Not many are, as you will find if you argue much.” 
 
 <4 I am honest,” said Virginia, stiffly as if she had been seized by an invisible 
 power and would soon be made to cry out “ I believe in God the Father.” She 
 glanced at the Sister, whose eyes were closed. She could read the meaning of that. 
 But she had no superior power to invoke to her aid. “ The devil ? Bah ! ” 
 
 44 Yesterday you unmercifully ridiculed Sister Amy for believing that a horse- 
 hair could turn into a snake.” 
 
 “ Yes ; who would have thought that any woman in this land and age had so 
 little sense ? ” 
 
 44 As to think hairs developed themselves into snakes ? ” 
 
 44 Bah ! I am no atomist.” 
 
 44 Darling, bear with me. Be honest. Do you believe that your father and 
 mother made you ? ” There were tears in Laura’s eyes and voice. 
 
 Virginia shook her head. “They did not care enough about my existence.” 
 She turned away her blanched face. Laura felt pity for her, but knew that 
 pity was better unexpressed. 
 
 “ You do not think you could have made yourself ?” 
 
 44 Do you think I am a fool ? ” 
 
 44 I don’t know, my most precious. 4 The fool hath said in his heart, there is 
 no God.” 
 
 44 I believe there is a God.’” 
 
 44 Who exists for what ? To be alone and to do nothing. That is your ideal 
 of Deity. How far below the standard you set for yourself Oh child', child, be 
 honest ! Virginia, who made you ? ” 
 
 “ God,” she whispered overcome by the agony of the Sister’s tone, and her 
 echoing heart. 
 
 44 Who has developed your infancy into womanhood ? ” 
 
 44 God the Father, my Father, and He gave me to you.” 
 
 Sister Laura fell on her knees, and the angels and she rejoiced. Oh, 44 1 believe 
 in the communion of saints.” Not only in that little room was there joy. 
 
 When Sister Laura arose she saw Virginia kneeling convulsed with emotion 
 though no sound escaped her. Silently the blessed woman went from the room ; 
 some of the unseen ones went with her. 
 
LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 203 
 
 CHAPTEE XXX. 
 
 Several days after this conversation Virginia went up to Sister Laura and 
 unclasped the cross, such as was worn hy all the Sisters, in remembrance of their 
 vow to serve the One who loved them and the wicked world enough to die on 
 the cross for them and it ; she put the pin in her plain linen collar and fastened 
 a larger and more beautiful one in Sister Laura’s. 
 
 The day that Virginia put the price of her pin in her box, Sister Emily 
 returned from the Southern hospital. Very glad was Laura to give all business 
 into her hands and to settle herself down as head of the school only. Sister 
 Emily was greatly troubled to see how the time that they had been separated had 
 changed Laura. 
 
 “ Poor dear ! cheerful as yon seem, I know you suffer still,” she said, fondly 
 caressing her,” and you will soon be too happy.” 
 
 Laura turned pale and staggered to a chair. Miss Johnston’s tone told too 
 much. She tried to gasp a question. 
 
 “ What have I done ? I was not to tell you, but I can’t stand it any longer — 
 Keble Wilson, the No. 9 of the hospital, will be here soon.” 
 
 “ Where is he ? ” 
 
 “ He was detained when I left Richmond, waiting for his parole. That’s right, 
 cry. You have let tears burn your brain too long, and you haven’t any more need 
 for them.” 
 
 “ He may not seek me.” 
 
 Laura smiled rapturously in a response to Sister Emily’s gay laugh. 
 
 ‘ f He was a crazy boy when he met me and found that you were not a Roman 
 Catholic and were bound by no vow ; but had to obey me, your superior, who 
 would command you to marry him the day after he reached Louisville. He 
 required a great many assurances of your devotion to him, so disconsolate was he 
 because you h ad not recognised him in the hospital. 
 
 “ He did not know me at once.” 
 
 “ He says he has no remembrance of having seen you before he was delirious — 
 he remembered your being about him then as we recall the confused images of a 
 dream. But he knew you the night you fainted and he caught you : he says he 
 thinks his fright at seeing you fall first restored him to perfect consciousness. He 
 won’t admit that if he had been perfectly himself you could have been by and he 
 doubtful of your identity. He was very often tortured that you had never 
 answered the note he wrote you the day he was exchanged ; but I was eloquent 
 of what you had suffered, and so he forgave what I could not explain.” 
 
 (i The doctor told me he had left a note for me ; but that a Yankee official had 
 seen it given to him ; said none could pass without examination, read it, grew 
 very red in the face and threw it in the fire. I never knew where Keble had 
 gone.” 
 
 “ I wonder you don’t faint. Why don’t you ? ” Sister Emily laughed gaily. 
 
 “ Unconsciousness would not come when I was wretched ; when I was with 
 him it came to rob me of a minute’s ecstacy ; it shan’t serve me so again ! ” 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXI. 
 
 “Virginia,” said Laura, taking her hand tenderly, “Sister Emily has the 
 photograph in which you and I are taken together. A New York Sister in the 
 Richmond Hospital saw it, recognized your strong likeness to a lady who had 
 lately died in St. Luke’s, and sent you this letter.” 
 
294 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 With a painful, nervous gasp, Virginia seized the letter and read : 
 i( Hold up your head, my daughter ; for, you are not a child of sin ; though I 
 fear my folly and weakness have made your life that of a child of shame. Oh, if 
 I could hut clasp you to my almost lifeless heart! I am too weak to write this ; 
 what I have to say must be said quickly. The good Sister (if you ever get this 
 letter you will know who she is and who closed your wretched mother’s eyes, for, 
 she has promised not to leave me again) reminds me that I must not cry now, 
 but at once tell you the chief facts. She would write for me ; but I think this 
 may touch your heart into forgiveness sooner if it is in my own hand. I possessed 
 in youth a woman’s greatest curse, exquisite physical beauty joined to a childish 
 mind ; but I had a heart, my baby. Ah, you cannot be a baby now ! and I was 
 too easily won by a man of strong will and great talents. He doated on beauty ; 
 he worshipped me for mine — as wicked men worship, to gratify selfish passions, 
 and then crowned my life with all that he could add to it. — My daughter, under 
 the penalty of a mother’s curse — oh, I am mad! My precious, ever-longed for 
 daughter ! Marry none but a Christian. Never trust your honour and happiness 
 to the man who is too ignoble to acknowledge God’s claims on his love and 
 serviee, lest he forget those of a wife. The good Sister says I am writing too 
 long; but this is my only letter to my child. Your father, Albert Goodwin, was, 
 ere he saw me, betrothed to a young heiress of no beauty. He was too idle to 
 make a living, and had been spoiled by the extravagant luxury of his home. 
 His father had been the instigator of his engagement with Miss Hart, and when 
 he found that Albert wanted to marry me, who had no heritage but beauty and 
 love, he swore that if he did he would never give him another cent, and that if he 
 heard anything more of me he would turn him out on the world. I have had to 
 rest, and my strength is almost gone. Would I had written earlier the excuse of 
 a woman, whose curse was a boarding-school education — not in books, but in 
 frivolity. Oh, my child ! how often do I pray that not beauty, but principle and 
 intellect may be your portion. In an evil hour I was clandestinely married. 
 When God made me feel His vengeance for the deception towards our parents and 
 for my giving myself to a man who scorned Him, He sent me a child. The 
 dread of bringing into the harsh world a being who would be regarded as 
 disgraced — for, we had no witnesses to our marriage (I have told you I was a 
 young fool) so excited my brain that typhoid fever began about the time of your 
 birth. For a week after I was unconscious, and when I awoke to a knowledge of 
 my sin and your shame, your father consoled me by assuring me that you had 
 lived but half an hour ; and his desire for concealment explains why the midwife 
 took you away. Strange that you did not die ; but perhaps God let you live to 
 punish me daily. I have told you how silly I was, and after your father’s death 
 I might have listened to the disgraceful addresses of one who had once been an 
 honourable suitor ; for, when a woman loses her position in society, its devils 
 seek to drag her down to hell, however innocent she may be. But on your 
 father’s death-bed he told me he had sent you to the Orphan Asylum. As soon 
 as I had closed his eyes, even while men were laying him out — I hastened to the 
 Asylum for you. Alas ! God’s vengeance is terrible. My search has lasted for 
 years. They told me at the Asylum where your father had sent you that 
 foundlings were not taken in there. Oh, God’s bitter curse on it ! my innocent 
 cast out as unworthy to lie among those picked up from the gutters ! I went to 
 the Alms House; you had not been sent there. But I can’t write now without 
 the greatest agony. My daughter, if you live, and God should answer my dying 
 prayer by letting you read this, forgive your mother. Oh, do not curse her 
 because she was reared like a doll ! Only sorrow has taught me that I have an 
 immortal soul. Give me pity, not honour, my child, even as you, however white 
 your womanhood, must one day beg it of God. This life has passed sentence of 
 condemnation on me; but the next may revoke it. God is more merciful than 
 man; for He knows all. Try — oh, let me ask you to meet your mother at last. 
 I have sought for you in vain for twenty -four years, but in searching for you I 
 
LOVE AND WAR. 
 
 295 
 
 found my Saviour. Try, my unseen darling — oh, hear me ! I am dying — this is 
 my last sentence — try to love your mother and to come to her in Heaven. 
 
 Eleanor Goodwin.” 
 
 St. Luke’s Hospital, October 10, 1865. 
 
 While Virginia read the letter Laura watched her anxiously. Sister Emily 
 had intended to prepare her for its contents, but Laura wished to give her the 
 letter without teazing her painfully by making her conjecture a hundred evils. 
 When Virginia had finished reading she said, “God, I thank thee.” Sister 
 Laura looked surprised, but thanked her Father for the discipline He had 
 ordered to bring her to Himself. 
 
 “Can you bear the reading of another letter, Sis — , oh ! I forgot you are not 
 a Sister,” said Sister Emily, 
 
 “lam. When I put on this cross,” said Virginia, touching the one she 
 wore, “ I intended to become a Sister immediately after the next Confirmation.” 
 
 “ I am glad you have not announced your intention ; if two Sisters were 
 to leave the House at the same time people might say it was a nursery for love. 
 Why do you stare so, Laura ? Are you the only Sister who is to marry ?” 
 
 “ I am not the other,” said Virginia, feeling wounded. 
 
 Sister Emily handed her Harvey Barton’s card. “ He gave me this to give to 
 you. The day the troops left Richmond, he inquired after Laura, whose friend 
 he had long been. I showed him the photograph in which you and she are 
 taken together. His surprise and subsequent questionings I shall let him tell 
 you of. He comes to woo ? will he win ?” 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 “ Will he win ? Yes ; he will win if he woos. How noble he is to wish it, for 
 he believes me a bastard ! Sorrow for my poor mother has crushed down much 
 of the joy I should otherwise feel at learning I am not. Yet the only advice 
 she ever gave me I shall — I must reject. Oh, mother, if you know it, forgive 
 me ! I love a man who does not serve Christ. He is not brave enough to be 
 called a Nazarene. And God, I beseech Thee, not to be angry with me because 
 I cannot ‘wed in the Lord.’ Ah ! my blessed Man-God, ‘by the mystery of Thy 
 holy Incarnation’ Thou canst feel for a loving woman who knows she sacrifices 
 herself to save the soul she loves. And Thou, too, dost love him, oh, so much 
 more than I ! Together we will go to him, and if he admits me first, he and I 
 will together welcome Thee afterwards. I know what I shall have to suffer. I 
 shall almost perish for want of sympathy in my new religious life ; but then I 
 shall cling only closer to Thee. The highest wish I have ever conceived has 
 been a picture in my mind for the last week — kneeling by Harvey’s side in 
 church and together being blessed with ‘ the peace which passeth all under- 
 standing.’ I feel that the time will come when we shall be ‘one’ spiritually 
 as well as physically. Indeed, I could not endure the fearfulness of the last, 
 were it not for the belief that we shall realise the first. I know that my 
 married life will be often bitter. His idiosyncracies I am sure will often make 
 me wretched. Yeti should be far more wretched in the undisturbed life of an 
 old maid, for I love him, and for the sake of this love I will bear the trials that 
 marriage must bring. Besides, oh, heart ! you rejoice, believing that his rich, 
 emotional, demonstrative nature will amply reward you for all. He is too 
 
296 
 
 LOVE AND WAR . 
 
 noble not to richly repay you for any pang he may impulsively inflict, and he 
 is incapable of giving deliberate pain to one who will be dependent upon him 
 for all the joy of her life. And the bridal-gift that I shall ask of him wall be 
 permission to beg my adopted father to make our home his. I shall tell Harvey 
 of his wild addresses, but he will trust me. No man would dare to doubt me. 
 And I owe my father all I am. But how long I may be lonely in my devotions, 
 lonely in my church-going. I shall spend sleepless nights in anxious prayer ; 
 but love and God will in the end triumph over infidelity and the devil. I have 
 heard him speak scornfully of the possibility of the Incarnation ; to him Jesus 
 is only a good man. He is sentimentally a Christian ; as heathen poets adored 
 Apollo and the Muses, he likes God and the angels ; but he is Chris tless. ” 
 Such were Virginia’s meditations for some hours the night after Sister Emily 
 told her of Mr. Barton’s intended courtship. At last, to quiet herself, perhaps, 
 she took up a pencil and wrote : — 
 
 “My God, I cast myself at foot of cross ! 
 
 Helpless in woman’s weakness, low I lie ; 
 
 O’erladen with remembered sins, I dare 
 
 Not now to pray for him lest Thou shoulds’t scorn 
 
 Prayer of the Christian infidel. He is 
 
 A Deist, Lord, because his thoughts confused 
 
 By logic, science, rhetoric, and pride 
 
 Do not acknowledge Thee ; but I profess 
 
 To love Thee, Lord ; I call Thee mine, and say 
 
 That I am Thine, and yet my spirits low 
 
 In gloomy depths have floated round, in vain 
 
 Asking for sympathy from any one 
 
 But Thee. If I were married should I like 
 
 Husband to treat me thus ? — to wrong me as 
 
 I wrong Thee, Christ?” 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIY. 
 
 Great God, I, who have borne most 
 Pangs that shiver mortal hearts, 
 
 Mourned to think mine could not burst. 
 
 But was strengthened by pain’s darts — 
 
 I at last have found despair. 
 
 God ! 0 God ! Where art Thou ? Where ? 
 
 Dost Thou only seem to sleep 
 While we bear our slavery ? 
 
 Carest not although men weep 
 In despair of being free ? 
 
 Sleepest Thou, 0 God ! Dost sleep 
 While hate’s serpents o’er us creep ? 
 
 I’ve no country, North or South ; 
 
 Shackled e’en in thought am I. 
 
 Great despair hath shut my mouth — 
 
 Scarcely now to Thee I cry. 
 
 I’m not countryman to slaves ; 
 
 My confreres are in their graves. 
 
LOVE AX D WAR. 
 
 My country is beneath the sod ; 
 
 Broken-hearted I still live. 
 
 Lost are some friends, some with God ; 
 
 Yet I’ve still a life to give ! 
 
 But I wear a clanking chain 
 On my heart and on my brain. 
 
 Oh ! I gave my dearest one; 
 
 Better far if I had died ! 
 
 Sinful heart, God’s will was done ; 
 
 Think what death hath spared his pride. 
 Could he have borne what I bear ? 
 
 Could he, like me, life-chains wear ? 
 
 Cause he loved deserters banned ; 
 
 Treachery its heart ate out ; 
 
 Ship of State with heroes manned 
 Is wrecked now, without a doubt, 
 
 That few to the end were true. 
 
 Pity, God those noble Few ! 
 
 May they have more strength than I ! 
 
 May they learn to live like men ! 
 
 As for me, henceforth I’ll try 
 But to dream: no war again 
 Shall awake hope to be free ; 
 
 Men are made for slavery. 
 
 Hundred years cannot produce 
 Armies like those we have lost ; 
 
 For what good ? That foul abuse, 
 
 Of unworthy men is tossed 
 As bonfires by conquered slaves, 
 
 Drinking, dancing o’er their graves. 
 
 Noblest one in dungeon lies, 
 
 But his ransomed soul is free ; 
 
 Davis as a man defies 
 Lincoln to equality ; 
 
 History them both will draw, 
 
 While men read in silent awe 
 
 Of God’s ways that seem so strange ; 
 
 Tut ! I am ashamed to blame 
 God because men’s spirits change ; 
 
 Better praise Him for the fame, 
 
 Of each who died to be free 
 God, I pray Thee, pity me ! 
 
 FINIS. 
 
NOTE S. 
 
 [It was the intention of the author to make Virginia’s and Harvey Barton’s 
 story a history of 1863-4; but before the plan could be carried out our cause 
 began to sink, and with it the writer’s heart ; so their story was appended to the 
 first two volumes, as necessary to finish the history of its characters.] 
 
 The author put whatever she believed to be true in square brackets and what 
 she had only heard and knew not whether it was correct she put in round- 
 brackets. The type-setters found it difficult to observe these, and received per- 
 mission to use the letter (a) instead. Unfortunately they have occasionally over- 
 looked them, and so the historical interest of the novel is a little impaired. 
 
 The brackets used show that the inclosed was taken from a newspaper. 
 
 (6) I saw this idea about Babylon in a sermon of the Bishop of Kentucky ; but 
 it was mine before. 
 
 (c) p. 53. The Congressional Globe reported the proceedings and debates of 
 Congress. 
 
 (d) The authority for this conversation about Judge Nicholas is his Paper on 
 Confiscation, December 26, 1861. 
 
 (e) It may be necessary to say that the Metcalfe of the novel is entirely im- 
 aginary and has nothing in common with the real U. S. officer mentioned here. 
 
 ( h ) This last is one of the examples of my careless cutting away of MSS. and 
 joining together ; it belongs to a chapter thrown away. 
 
 (1) . Imaginary picture — as are all described in the book. 
 
 (2) . Anecdote. 
 
 (3) . Extracts in this letter from Northern papers. 
 
 (4) . What is said of this fictitious person was true of a real one. 
 
 (5) . This Colonel Metcalfe has nothing to do with Keble’s friend. 
 
 (6) . This was in a newspaper ; I have no idea who wrote it. 
 
 (7) . p. 106. I wrote this criticism while reading Sumner’s Resolutions and 
 before I had seen a newspaper stricture ; so I retain it as original ; and have 
 done likewise in similar cases. 
 
 (8.) Pollard, the historian, wrote this. 
 
 (9) . There was no Sisterhood in Louisville when this novel was written. 
 
 (10) . Excitement made the writer accept this word “ few ” as rhyming with 
 “ true ; ” for it is not just. 
 

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