home, and she may be left alone in the world. Will you
sometimes go to her for my sake, and give her your friendship?"

"I will, Russell, for her sake, as well as for yours. She shall be the only
sister I have ever known."

She drew his hand to her lips, but he caught it away, and pressed a last
kiss upon them.

"Good-bye, my own darling! my life angel!"

She heard his step across the hall; a moment after, the tramp of his horse,
as he galloped down the avenue, and she knew that the one happy hour of her
life had passed--that the rent sepulchre of silence must be re-sealed.

Pressing her hand over her desolate heart, she murmured sadly--

"Thy will, not mine, O Father! Give me strength to do my work; enable me to
be faithful even to the bitter end."

CHAPTER XXIX

A DYING MESSAGE

In July, 1861, when the North, blinded by avarice and hate, rang with the
cry of "On to Richmond," our Confederate Army of the Potomac was divided
between Manassa and Winchester, watching at both points the glittering
coils of the Union boa-constrictor, which writhed in its efforts to crush
the last sanctuary of freedom. The stringency evinced along the Federal
lines prevented the transmission of dispatches by the Secessionists of
Maryland, and for a time Generals Beauregard and Johnston were kept in
ignorance of the movements of the enemy. Patterson hung dark and lowering
around Winchester, threatening daily descent; while the main column of the
grand army under McDowell proceeded from Washington, confident in the
expectation of overwhelming the small army stationed at Manassa. The
friends of liberty who were compelled to remain in the desecrated old
capital appreciated the urgent necessity of acquainting General Beauregard
with the designs of McDowell, and the arch-apostate, Scott; but all
channels of egress seemed sealed; all roads leading across the Potomac were
vigilantly guarded, to keep the great secret safely; and painful
apprehensions were indulged for the fate of the Confederate army. But the
Promethean spark of patriotic devotion burned in the hearts of Secession
women; and, resolved to dare all things in a cause so holy, a young lady of
Washington, strong in heroic faith, offered to encounter any perils, and
pledged her life to give General Beauregard the necessary information.
Carefully concealing a letter in the twist of her luxuriant hair, which
would escape detection even should she be searched, she disguised