f, for what? that he
may say, finally, if speech be left him, he has fought under the flag,
that at Memphis its buried glory may have resurrection, that at Sumter
it may float again from the battlements, that at Richmond it may be
unfurled above Rebellion's grave,--is it the same thing to have
accomplished this by way of atonement, and in your own body to atone, by
your humiliation, by suspicion endured? She deemed it a small thing that
she was called to suffer,--that, when honor was won, she must bear
disgrace instead. What, indeed, was a year's or a lifetime's
imprisonment, looked on in the light of privation or sacrifice? Yet _so_
to atone, since thus it was written, for the sin of one who was in arms
against the nation's government! Oh, if anywhere, of any loyal citizen,
it might be looked upon, accepted, _as_ atonement!

In one thing she was happy, and of right. Music never failed her. Art
keeps her great rewards for such as serve her for her sacred self.
Therefore let her arise day after day to the same prospect of sky, and
sea, and busy street, and silent, shadowy church-yard. I bless the birds
that built their nests in the elm and willow branches for her sake. The
little creatures flitting here and there, in all their home-ways and
domestic management, were dear as their song to her.

But in this life, though there might be growth, it was the growth that
comes through pain endured with patience, through self-control
maintained in the suspense and the anguish of death.

For what, then, did she long in his behalf whose fate was shrouded in
thick darkness from her? For victory? or for defeat? A prison?
mutilation? disablement? burial on the battle-field? or a disgraceful
safety? Constantly this question urged itself upon her, and the heroic
love, that in its great disclosures could not fail, shrank shuddering
back in silence.

Thanks to God, she need not choose. The Omniscient is alone the
Almighty!

X.

Three months after this order of arrest came another of release,--as
brief and as peremptory.

Deane's patriotism, that really had endangered the church with a mob and
the organ with demolishment, was the cause of the first despatch.
Colonel Von Gelhorn, who had routed General Edgar and driven him and his
forces at the point of the bayonet from an "impregnable position," was
in the secret of the second.

Close following this order of release, so closely that one must believe
he but waited for it before