Colonial, Revolutionary,
and Border Romances; Pure Romance; The Drama; Poetry; and Criticism;
besides miscellaneous books and pamphlets.

In the midst of this remarkable literary activity, Mr. Simms still found
time to devote to the affairs of state, being for several years a member
of the South Carolina Legislature. He was also a lecturer, and was
connected editorially with several magazines. Most of his time was spent
at his summer house in Charleston, and at his winter residence,
"Woodlands," on a plantation at Midway, S. C.

The following selection is from "The Life and Times of Francis Marion."
###

Art had done little to increase the comforts or the securities of his
fortress. It was one, complete to his hands, from those of nature--such an
one as must have delighted the generous English outlaw of Sherwood Forest;
insulated by deep ravines and rivers, a dense forest of mighty trees, and
interminable undergrowth. The vine and brier guarded his passes. The
laurel and the shrub, the vine and sweet-scented jessamine roofed his
dwelling, and clambered up between his closed eyelids and the stars.
Obstructions scarcely penetrable by any foe, crowded the pathways to his
tent; and no footstep not practiced in the secret, and to "the manner
born," might pass unchallenged to his midnight rest. The swamp was his
moat; his bulwarks were the deep ravines, which, watched by sleepless
rifles, were quite as impregnable as the castles on the Rhine. Here, in
the possession of his fortress, the partisan slept secure.

His movements were marked by equal promptitude and wariness. He suffered
no risks from a neglect of proper precaution. His habits of circumspection
and resolve ran together in happy unison. His plans, carefully considered
beforehand, were always timed with the happiest reference to the condition
and feelings of his men. To prepare that condition, and to train those
feelings, were the chief employment of his repose. He knew his game, and
how it should be played, before a step was taken or a weapon drawn.

When he himself or any of his parties left the island upon an expedition,
they advanced along no beaten paths. They made them as they went. He had
the Indian faculty in perfection, of gathering his course from the sun,
from the stars, from the bark and the tops of trees, and such other
natural guides as the woodman acquires only through long and watchful
experience.

Many of the trails thus opened by him, upon t