Border and Bastille

d myself by a vow-not lightly to be broken-that I would not see Baltimore again, of free will or free agency, till I had heard the tuck of Southern drums. The most remarkable p

mpensate for the sluggishness of pace and frequency of delays. The track winds on always through the same monotony of forest and hill, plunging into the gorges and climbing the shoulders of bluffs, with the audacity of gradient and contempt of curve that marks the h

len current, and at each fresh point it met you undiminished in volume, unabated in turbulency. Long before this I had begun to look at the river in the light of a personal enemy. I think that Xerxes, in the matter of the Hellespont, did wisely a

re is a remarkable scarcity of anything like fine-grown, timber; the underwood is luxuriant enough, especially where the mountain laurel abounds; but in ten thousand acres of stunte

ident on the line, the unlucky horse had been shut up for forty-six hours in his box, with provender just enough for one day. He had been well tended, however,

was stationed in Cumberland on some sort of recruiting service, and from dawn to midnight never ceased to oil his already lissom tongue with "caulkers" of every imaginable liquor. I was told that at no hour of the twenty-four had any man seen him thoroughly drunk or decently sober. When we first met, his cups had brought him nearly to the end of the belligerent or irascible stage; he was then inveighing

d counthree-the counthree that resaved mee with opin arrum

Truly, if the rest of the brigade resembled the specimen before me, only the mighty Celt, whom Thackeray had ma

spectral-looking white house; remarking with no pleasant surprise, that not a vestige of smoke rose from its gaunt chimneys. At the gate there stood a cart laden with some sort of household goods. Near this, a man, who lounged up, seeing me draw rein, to ask my business. It appeared that a "flitting" had taken place that very day, and that he-the good man-was then betaking himself, with the residue of the chattels, to their new home, about five miles back on the Frostburgh road,

ot admired "The Rhyme of the Duchess May," this page, at least, has not been written in vain. My saddle-bags held no volume other than a note-book, but that ballad in manuscript was ne

he flight, on his re

his arm, still, as th

ut into t

d at last. "Nay," she

e could find; only l

st as fear

amped his bit cheerily, as he mended his pace without warning of spur. As for myself-the pure, earnest Saxon diction proved a more efficient "comforter" than "the many-colored s

s of Grantsville, up to the porch of its single hostelry, where, after some parley, I foun

raw your breath hard, and then settle down into a dull, uneasy stupor, conscious of nothing except a weight tightening around your temples like a band of molten iron. That is the only guest-chamber, save a parlor in the rear, the ordinary withdrawing-room and nursery of the family, where you take your meals in an atmosphere impregnated with babies and their concomitants. The fare is not so bad, after all, and monotony does not prevent chicken and ham fixin

where the lane turned off from the highway, to obtain further instructions. These were duly given me by the farmer, an elderly man, with a wild, gray beard, vague, red eyes, and a stumbling incoherence of speech. He repeatedly professed himself "pure and clear as the dew of Heaven." These ch

ce out of sight, that I was not at all surprised at hearing he had gone on, the night before, to a farm-house-more safe and secluded, certainly-about sixteen miles off. My informant

actly opposite to my rocking-chair, fixing themselves, and me, into a deliberate stare. Every now and then the spokes-boy of the party-he was the oldest, evidently, but his face was smaller and whiter, and his eyes were more like little black beads than those of either of his brethren-would fire off a point-blank pistol-shot of a questio

farm, far in the bosom of the hills, where I found Shipley, buried in a deep sleep. The sole intelligence I heard that night related to the roan: the enfeebled constitution of that unlucky

to sleep," applies, of course, to

abound in those hills, though the latter are not so plentiful as they were a score of years back, when B-- and his father slew thirty-

to find a remount for my guide. The roan's malady had not been exaggerated; he was indeed in a miserable plight, suffering, I thought, from acute internal inflammation. After dinner we had s

ecessia, my interest in the purchase would cease. The roan was, of course, left behind, to be killed or cured. His chances of life seemed then so faint (though the hill-farmers are no mean farriers) that I thought he was fairly valued in the deal

kets was threaded; nor did he leave us till we had reached a point whence a straight track-well known to Shipley-would bring us down on the north branch of the Potomac. Thenceforward, my guide and I rode on alone: the moon shone out, broad and bright, in a cloudless sky, as we climbed the wooded spurs that lie as outworks before the main range of the Alleghanies; the silvery transparent shimmer of the frost-work on the feathery f

graze

e brood B

with most satisfaction, was the accursed river circumvented at last. The solitary green things I could find actually on th

to forward them. My correspondence being cleared off, and Falcon thoroughly groomed, I fell back upon the resources of the little town for amusement, and lighted on one scrap of light literature, the fragment of a nameless magazin

A

lways love

f uttered

mur of its m

er-ceas

l, that wh

Maud a g

pulses of

e crags of

red leaf f

set autu

ip with f

ping off

she came

ngs of mu

their lengt

nursling

nts thronge

ears and cla

ailor, he

' the churc

" the heads

, was't a

e then bo

te, mine own

lled her co

et winter

ble hearts

to blo

ts judged ca

ll their ta

in a gen

e and life

which it was absolutely necessary we should pass; but with a thoroughly good local guide, we might fairly count on the same luck which had brought us safe round Oakland. Night had fallen long before we came down on the South River, a mere mountain torrent, at ordinary seasons; but now, flowing along with the broad dignity of a swift, smooth river. My g

room to stand firm, much less to turn safely; before I had time to think what was to be done, there was a backward slide, and a flounder; in two seconds more, I had drawn myself with some difficulty from under my horse, who lay still on his side, too wise, at first, to struggle unavailingly. If long hunting experience makes a man personally rather indifferent about accidents, it also teaches him when there is danger to the animal he rides; looking at Falcon's utter helplessness and the constrained twist of his hind legs, which I tried in vain to straighten, I began to have uncomfortable visions of ricked backs and strained sinews: I was on the wrong side of the river, too, for help; though even the rope of a Dublin Garrison "wrecker" would have helped but little then. Thrice the good hors

to the 'improvements'-and the house was close by." Such were the directions of the good-na

ining, and Falcon picked his way daintily through the timber, hopping lightly, now and then, over a trunk bigger than the rest, but never losing the faint track: we got over the high bars, too, safely, hitting them hard. The wood-path led ou

kable, that I venture to break the rule of anonyms. Mortimer Nevil-who would have dreamt of lighting on, pe

; I rode for it, and soon found that the hovel I had passed thrice was the desired homestead; truly, it

estern Virginians that had recently marched into Greenland, was said to be unusually vigilant; only the week before, a professional blockade-runner had been captured, who had made his way backwards and forw

imbed Nevil and myself should be packed into the narrow non-nuptial couch; the only practicable arrangement involved my sharing its pillow with the two infants or with the ancient dame; and at the bare thought of either alternative, I shivered from head to heel. At last, with infinite difficulty, I obtained permission to sleep on my horse-rug spread on the floor, with my saddle for a bolster; when this point was once settled, I spent the evening very contentedly, basking

m to the ford, so that he could not go astray, but his filly hardly struggled through the deep, strong

nor did I wonder at this when I heard that, besides their present troubles and hardships, they had lost four children in one week of the past winter from diphtheria; it was sad to see how painfully the mother clung to the two that death had left her; she could not bear them out of her sight for an instant. A very weird-looking cummer

. The bitter snow-laden blast, even where thick cover broke its vicious sweep, was enough to make the blood stand still in the veins of the veriest Viking. After riding about ten miles, we left the rough paths we had hitherto pursued, and struck, across country. For two hours or more we forced our way slowl

ading from Greenland to Petersburg; the former place was then nearly three miles behind us, and our guide felt certain that we had passed the outermost pickets. It was very important that we should get house

e you? Stop o

rtain at once that even, a Federal picket would have employ

said, "they're

ave sought for him in vain; at the first sound of voices he had plunged into the dark woods above us, where a footman, knowing the co

the next day, it was scarcely perceptible, and bled altogether internally. One of those belts of woodland crossed our track about two hundred yards ahead; we crashed into this over a gap in the snake-fence; but the barrier on the further side

nd where you are go

out aloud. (I saw at once the utter impossibility of escape, even if we could

here, I'll tell

sailants: I have good reason to remember them, for they were the last I ever uttered on American ground as a free agent. They had hardly passed my lips, when a rifle cracked; I felt a dull numbing blow inside my lef