LI
THE CALLENDER HORSES ENLIST
Mere mind should ever be a most reverent servant to the soul. But infact, and particularly in hours stately with momentous things, what asacrilegious trick it has of nagging its holy mistress with trifletlight as air--small as gnats yet as pertinacious.
To this effect, though written with a daintier pen, were certain linesbut a few hours old, that twenty-fourth of April, in a diary whichthrough many months had received many entries since the one that hasalready told us of its writer paired at Doctor Sevier's dinner-partywith a guest now missing, and of her hearing, in the starlight with thatguest, the newsboys' cry that his and her own city's own Beauregard hadopened fire on Fort Sumter and begun this war--which now behold!
Of this droll impishness of the mind, even in this carriage to-day, withthese animated companions, and in all this tribulation, ruin, andflight, here was a harrying instance: that every minute or two, whateverthe soul's outer preoccupation or inner anguish, there would, would,would return, return and return the doggerel words and swaggering oldtune of that song abhorred by the gruff General, but which had firstawakened the love of so many hundreds of brave men for its brave, gaysinger now counted forever lost:
"Ole mahs' love' wine, ole mis' love' silk--"
Generally she could stop it there, but at times it contrived to stealunobserved through the second line and then no power could keep it frommarching on to the citadel, the end of the refrain. Base, antic awakenerof her heart's dumb cry of infinite loss! For every time the tormentinginanity won its way, that other note, that unvoiced agony, hurled itselfagainst the bars of its throbbing prison.
"Ole mahs' love' wine, ole mis' love'--"
"Oh, Hilary, my Hilary!"
From the Creole Quarter both carriage and wagon turned to the waterfront. Charlie's warning that even more trying scenes would be foundthere was in vain. Anna insisted, the fevered youth's own evident wishwas to see the worst, and Constance and Miranda, dutifully mirthful,reminded him that through Anna they also had now tasted blood. As theequipage came out upon the Levee and paused to choose a way, the sisterssprang up and gazed abroad, sustaining each other by their twined arms.
To right, to left, near and far--only not just here where the Coaststeamboats landed--the panorama was appalling. All day Anna had hungeredfor some incident or spectacle whose majesty or terror would suffice todistract her from her own desolation; but here it was made plain to herthat a distress before which hand and speech are helpless only drivesthe soul in upon its own supreme devotion and woe. One wide look overthose far flat expanses of smoke and flame answered the wonder of manyhours, as to where all the drays and floats of the town had gone andwhat they could be doing. Along the entire sinuous riverside the wholegreat blockaded seaport's choked-in stores of tobacco and cotton,thousands of hogsheads, ten thousands of bales--lest they enrich theenemy--were being hauled to the wharves and landings and were just nowbeginning to receive the torch, the wharves also burning, and boats andships on either side of the river being fired and turned adrift.
Yet all the more because of the scene, a scene that quelled even thehaunting strain of song, that other note, that wail which, the long daythrough, had writhed unreleased in her bosom, rose, silent still, yetonly the stronger and more importunate--
"Oh, Hilary, my soldier, my flag's, my country's defender, come back tome--here!--now!--my yet living hero, my Hilary Kincaid!"
Reluctantly, she let Constance draw her down, and presently, in a voicerich with loyal pride, as the carriage moved on, bade Charlie andMiranda observe that only things made contraband by the RichmondCongress were burning, while all the Coast Landing's wealth of Louisianafoodstuffs, in barrels and hogsheads, bags and tierces, lay unharmed.Yet not long could their course hold that way, and--it was Anna whofirst proposed retreat. The very havoc was fascinating and thecourage of Constance and Miranda, though stripped of its mirth,remained undaunted; but the eye-torture of the cotton smoke was enoughalone to drive them back to the inner streets.
"Ole mahs' love' wine, ole--"]
Here the direction of their caravan, away from all avenues of escape,no less than their fair faces, drew the notice of every one, while tothe four themselves every busy vehicle--where none was idle,--everysound remote or near, every dog in search of his master, and everyman--how few the men had become!--every man, woman or child, alone orcompanioned, overladen or empty-handed, hurrying out of gates or intodoors, standing to stare or pressing intently or distractedly on,calling, jesting, scolding or weeping--and how many wept!--bore a new,strange interest of fellowship. So Callender House came again to view,oh, how freshly, dearly, appealingly beautiful! As the Callender traindrew into its gate and grove, the carriage was surrounded, before itcould reach the veranda steps, by a full dozen of household slaves, maleand female, grown, half-grown, clad and half-clad, some grinning, sometittering, all overjoyed, yet some in tears. There had been no suchgathering at the departure. To spare the feelings of the mistresses thedominating "mammy" of the kitchen had forbidden it. But now that theywere back, Glory! Hallelujah!
"And had it really," the three home-returning fair ones asked, "seemedso desolate and deadly perilous just for want of them? What!--had seemedso even to stalwart Tom?--and Scipio?--and Habakkuk? And were Hettie andDilsie actually so in terror of the Yankees?"
"Oh, if we'd known that we'd never have started!" exclaimed Constance,with tears, which she stoutly quenched, while from all around came sighsand moans of love and gratitude.
And were the three verily back to stay?
Ah! that was the question. While Charlie, well attended, went on up andin they paused on the wide stair and in mingled distress and drolleryasked each other, "_Are_ we back to stay, or not?"
A new stir among the domestics turned their eyes down into the garden.Beyond the lingering vehicles a lieutenant from Camp Callender rode upthe drive. Two or three private soldiers hung back at the gate.
"It's horses and mules again, Nan," gravely remarked Constance, and thethree, facing toward him, with Miranda foremost, held soft debate.Whether the decision they reached was to submit or resist, the wide earsof the servants could not be sure, but by the time the soldier wasdismounting the ladies had summoned the nerve to jest.
"Be a man, Miranda!" murmured Constance.
"But not the kind I was!" prompted Anna.
"No," said her sister, "for this one coming is already scared to death."
"So's Miranda," breathed Anna as he came up the steps uncovering andplainly uncomfortable. A pang lanced through her as she caught herselfsenselessly recalling the flag presentation. And then--
Music]
"--oh! _oh!_"
"Mrs. Callender?" asked the stranger.
"Yes, sir," said that lady.
"My business"--he glanced back in nervous protest as the driversbeneath gathered their reins--"will you kindly detain--?"
"If you wish, sir," she replied, visibly trembling. "Isaac--"
From the rear of the group came the voice of Anna: "Miranda, dear, Iwouldn't stop them." The men regathered the lines. She moved half a stepdown and stayed herself on her sister's shoulder. Miranda wrinkled backat her in an ecstasy of relief:
"Oh, Anna, do speak for all of us!"
The teams started away. A distress came into the soldier's face, butAnna met it with a sober smile: "Don't be troubled, sir, you shall havethem. Drive round into the basement, Ben, and unload." The drivers went."You shall have them, sir, on your simple word of honor as--"
"Of course you will be reimbursed. I pledge--"
"No, sir," tearfully put in Constance, "we've given our men, we can'tsell our beasts."
"They are not ours to sell," said Anna.
"Why, Nan!"
"They belong to Kincaid's Battery," said Anna, and Constance, Miranda,and the servants smiled a proud approval. Even the officer flushed witha fine ardor:
"You have with you a member of that command?"
"We
have."
"Then, on my honor as a Southern soldier, if he will stay by them and usas far as Camp Moore, to Kincaid's Battery they shall go. But, ladies--"
"Yes," knowingly spoke Miranda. "Hettie, Scipio, Dilsie, you-all can go'long back to your work now." She wrinkled confidentially to theofficer.
"Yes," he replied, "we shall certainly engage the enemy's shipsto-morrow, and you ladies must--"
"Must not desert our home, sir," said Anna.
"Nor our faithful servants," added the other two.
"Ah, ladies, but if we should have to make this house a field hospital,with all the dreadful--"
"Oh, that settles it," cried the three, "we stay!"
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