July 3, 1863. Nunc dimittis. Te Deum laudamus.
Thus in one battle fell the three strong hostages which an old man hadgiven to fortune.
XXXV
Three o'clock the Union batteries were ordered to be silent, for it waswell known to those in command that presently there would be a powerfulattack by infantry, for which the cannonade was supposed to have pavedthe way with death and disorder, and it was necessary that the piecesshould be kept cool in order to be in efficient condition to grapplewith and suppress this attack. Sometimes a regiment, stung to a frenzyof courage by bullets and the death of comrades, will rise from itstrench without the volition of its officers, and go frantically forwardagainst overwhelming odds. A different effect of an almost identicalpsychological process is patience. Men will sometimes lie as quietlyunder a rain of bullets, in order to get in one effective shot at anenemy, as cattle in the hot months will lie under a rain of water to getcool. It was so now. The whole Union army was seized by a kind of bloodydeliberation and lay like statues of men, while, for quarter of an hourmore, the Confederates continued to thunder from their guns. Now andagain a man felt lovingly the long black tube of a cannon to see if itstemperature was falling. Others came hurrying from the rear with relaysof powder, shot, shell, and canister.
It seemed now to the Confederate leaders that the Union batteries hadbeen silenced, and that the time had come for Pickett, the Ney of theSouth, to go forward with all his forces. Only Longstreet demurred andprotested against the charge. When Pickett asked him for the order toadvance he turned away his head sorrowfully and would not speak. ThenPickett, that great leader of men, who was one half daring and one halfmagnetism and all hero, said proudly: "I shall go forward, sir." Andturned to his lovers.
Silence and smoke hung over Gettysburg.
Presently out of the smoke on the Confederate side came three lines ofgray a mile long. Battle-flags nodded at intervals, and swords blazed inthe sun.
Very deliberately and with pains about aiming, the Union batteries beganto hurl solid shot against the gray advance. Soon holes were bitten hereand there, and occasionally a flag went down, to be instantly snatchedup and waved defiantly. When Pickett, Pettigrew, and the splendidbrigade of Cadmus Wilcox had reached the bottom of the valley, theirorganization was as unbroken as a parade. But there shell, instead ofround shot, met them, and men tasted death by fives and tens. But thelines, drawing together, closed the spaces left by mortality, and theflags began to approach each other. Then the gray men began to comeup the slope, and there were thousands of them. But shell yielded tocanister, and the muskets of the infantry sent out death in leadenshowers, so that the great charge began to melt like wax over heat, andthe flags hung close together like a trophy of battle in a chapel. Butstill the gray men came. And now, in a storm of flame and smoke, theyreached the foremost cannons of the Union line, and planted their flags.So much were they permitted for the glory of a lost cause. For a little,men killed one another with the butts of guns, with bayonets, and withstones, and then, as the overdrip of a wave broken upon an iron coasttrickles back through the stones of the beach to the ocean, so allthat was left of Pickett's great charge trickled back down the slope,driblets of gray, running blood. For a little while longer the firingcontinued. Battle-flags were gathered, and thrown together in sheaves.There was a little broken cheering, and to all intents and purposes thegreat war was at an end.
Aladdin, broken with grief and fatigue, went picking his way among thedead and wounded. He had lost Peter and Hannibal in that battle, andHamilton and John were dead; he alone remained, and it was not just. Hefelt that the Great Reaper had spared the weed among the flowers, andhe was bitter against the Great Reaper. But there was one more sorrowreserved for Aladdin, and he was to blaspheme against the God that madehim.
There was still desultory firing from both armies. As when, on theFourth of July, you set off a whole bunch of firecrackers, there isat first a crackling roar, and afterward a little explosion here and alittle explosion there, so Gettysburg must have sounded to the gods inOlympus. Thunder-clouds begotten of the intense heat rolled acrossthe heavens from east to west, accentuating the streaming glory ofthe setting sun, and now distant thunder rumbled, with a sound as ofartillery crossing a bridge. Drops of rain fell here and there.
Aladdin heard himself called by name, "'Laddin, 'Laddin."
As quickly as the brain is advertised of an insect's sting, so quicklydid Aladdin recognize the voice and know that his brother. Jack wascalling to him. He turned, and saw a little freckled boy, in a uniformmuch too big for him, trailing a large musket.
"Jack!" he cried, and rushed toward him with outstretched arms. "Youlittle beggar, what are you doin' here?"
Jack grinned like one confessing to a successful theft of applesbelonging to a cross farmer. And then God saw fit to take away his life.He dropped suddenly, and there came a rapid pool of blood where his facehad been. With his arms wrapped about the little figure that a momentbefore had been so warlike and gay, Aladdin turned toward the heavens aface of white flint.
"I believe in one God, Maker of hell!" he cried.
Thunder rumbled and rolled slowly across the battle-field from east, towest.
"I believe in one God, Maker of hell!" cried Aladdin, "Father ofinjustice and doer of hellish deeds! I believe in two damnations, thedamnation of the living and the damnation of the dead."
He turned to the little boy in his arms, and terrible sobs shook hisbody, so that it appeared as if he was vomiting. After a while he turnedhis convulsed face again to the sky.
"Come down," he cried, "come down, you--"
Far down the hill there was a puff of white smoke, and a mercifulbullet, glancing from a rock, struck Aladdin on the head with sufficientforce to stretch him senseless upon the ground.
When the news of Gettysburg reached the Northern cities, lights wereplaced in every window, and horns were blown as at the coming of a newyear. Senator Hannibal St. John had lost his three boys and the hopes ofhis old age in that terrible fight, but he caused his Washington houseto be illuminated from basement to garret.
And then he walked out in the streets alone, and the tears ran down hisold cheeks.
XXXVI
There had been a wedding in the hospital tent. Margaret bent over Peterand kissed him goodby. She was in deep black, and by her side loomed agreat, dark figure, whose eyes were like caverns in the depths of whichburned coals. The great, dark man leaned heavily upon a stick, and didnot seem conscious of what was going on. The minister who had performedthe ceremony stood with averted face. Every now and then he moistenedhis lips with the tip of his tongue. The wounded in neighboring cotsturned pitiful eyes upon the girl in black, for she was most lovely--andvery sad. Occasionally a throat was cleared.
"When you come, darling," said the dying man, "there will be an end ofsorrow."
"There will be an end of sorrow," echoed the girl. She bent closer tohim, and kissed him again.
"It is very wonderful to have been loved," said Peter. Then his facebecame still and very beautiful. A smile, innocent like that of a littlechild, lingered upon his lips, and his blind eyes closed.
St. John laid his hand upon Margaret's shoulder.
A man, very tall and lean and homely, entered the tent. He was clad inan exceedingly long and ill-fitting frock-coat. Upon his head was a highblack hat, somewhat the worse for wear. He turned a pair of very gentleand pitying eyes slowly over those in the tent.
Aladdin, his head almost concealed by bandages, sat suddenly uprightin a neighboring cot. A wild, unreasoning light was in his eyes, andmarking time with his hand, he burst suddenly into the "Battle Hymn ofthe Republic"
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.
He sang on, and the wounded joined him with we
ak voices:
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.
The tall man who had entered, to whom every death was nearer than hisown, and to whom the suffering of others was as a crucifixion, removedthe silk hat from his head, and wiped his forehead with a coloredhandkerchief.
Margaret knelt by Aladdin and held his unconscious form in her arms.
Outside, the earth was bathing in exquisite sunshine.
XXXVII
It was not long before Aladdin got back the strength of his body, butthe gray bullet which had come in answer to his cry against God, evenas the lightning came to Amyas Leigh, in that romance to which it is sogood to bow, had injured the delicate mechanism of his brain, so thatit seemed as if he would go down to the grave without memory of thingspast, or power upon the hour. Indeed, the war ended before the surgeonsspoke of an operation which might restore his mind. He went under theknife a little child, his head full of pictures, playthings, and fear ofthe alphabet; he came forth made over, and turned clear, wondering eyesto the girl at his side. And he held her hand while she bridged over theyears for him in her sweet voice.
He learned that she had married Peter, making his death peaceful, and heGod-blessed her for so doing, while the tears ran down his cheeks.
But much of Aladdin that had slept so long was to wake no more. For itwas spring when he woke, and waking, he fell in love with all livingthings.
One day he sat with Margaret on the porch of a familiar house, andlooked upon a familiar river that flowed silverly beyond the dark trees.
Senator St. John, very old and very moving, came heavily out of thehouse, and laid his hands upon the shoulders of Margaret and Aladdin. Itwas like a benediction.
"I have been thinking," said the senator, very slowly, and in the voiceof an old man, "that God has left some flowers in my garden."
"Roses?" said Aladdin, and he looked at Margaret.
"Roses perhaps," said the senator, "and withal some bittersweet, but,better than these, and more, he has left me heart's-ease. This littleflower," continued the senator, "is sown in times of great doubt andsorrow and trouble, and it will grow only for a good gardener, one whohas learned to bow patiently in all things to God's will, and to set hisfeet valiantly against the stony way which God appoints. I call Margaret'Heart's-ease,' and I call you, too, 'Heart's-ease,' Aladdin, for youare becoming like a son to me in my declining years. Consider theriver, how it flows," said the old man, "smoothly to the sea, asking noquestions, and making no lamentations against the length of its days,and receiving cheerfully into the steadfast current of its going alikethe bitter waters and the sweet."
We have forgotten Aladdin's songs and the tunes which he made, for thepeople's ear is not tuned to them any more. But that is a little thing.It is pleasant to think of that night when, the knocking of his heartagainst his ribs louder than the knocking of his hand upon her door, hecarried to Margaret's side the wonderful lamp which, years before, hadbeen lighted within him, and which, burning always, now high, now low,like the rising and falling tides in the river, had at length consumedwhatever in his nature was little or base, until there was nothingleft save those precious qualities, love and charity, which fire cannotcalcine nor cold freeze. Also it is pleasant to think that littlechildren came of their love and sang about their everlasting fire.
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