r endurance, seemingly, as great as ever. But his little
fortune had suffered irretrievably. His interests had shared the fate
of most other Southern patriots, in the long and cruel struggle through
which the country had gone. His plantation in St. John's, Berkeley, lay
within a mile of one of the ordinary routes of the British army, and
his career was not calculated to move them to forbearance in the case
of one, whose perpetual activity and skill so constantly baffled their
designs. His estate was ravaged, and subjected to constant waste and
depredation. One-half of his negroes were taken away, and the rest only
saved to him by their fidelity. The refuge in swamp and forest was as
natural to the faithful negro, on the approach of the British uniforms,
as to the fugitive patriot. Ten workers returned to him, when he was
prepared to resume his farm, but he was destitute of everything beside.
The implements of culture, plantation utensils, household furniture,
stock, cattle and horses, clothes and provisions for his people, were
all wanting, and all to be purchased, and he penniless. He received no
compensation for his losses, no reward for his sacrifices and services.
The hope of half pay was held out to him by his more sanguine friends,
but this promise was never realized. But, with that cheerful spirit
which hopes all things from time, and a meek compliance with what it
brings, Marion proceeded to work out his deliverance by manly industry,
and a devotion to his interests as true as that which he had yielded to
the interests of his country. He had become fond of rural life, and the
temporary estrangement of war seemed only to increase his desire for
that repose in action, which the agricultural life in the South so
certainly secures. But he was not permitted to retire from public
service. The value of his services was too well known, and there was too
much yet to be done, towards the repose and security of the country, to
suffer them to be dispensed with. He was again returned to the Senate
of the State by the people of St. John's. In this situation, he still
maintained those noble and disinterested characteristics which had made
him equally beloved and venerated. Two anecdotes are preserved of him in
his official character, which deserve mention. Both of these grew out of
the events of the war. The importance of the Confiscation Act, passed at
the session of January, 1782, at Jacksonborough, arose chiefly from the
nece