Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

“ The departure of Alberta this morning, leaving you alone, the only woman in the guerrilla camp, made your immediate marriage a necessity. And so, Elfie, I have married you, even by force; but I trust to win your forgiveness by forbearance. The deed is done, Elfie, that makes you my wife! But now that it is done, you shall be as sacred to me as my sister. And more so! for I will never touch your lips, or even take your hand again, without your leave! That you will forgive me and love me I am sure—sure as that you are woman! We shall march in an hour, and of course you go with us! ”

“ And when I saw his face blanched, and his eyes drawn in, and his lips wrung with the agony he was trying to bear in silence, I—I could—couldn’t be unkind to him!” wept Elfie, burying her face in Erminie’s mantle.
“Nor would I have you be unkind, Elfie, my dear,” said Miss Rosenthal, caressing her. “Be as kind as you please. Do everything for him that Christian love inspires. Only take care that you give him no hold upon your future life.”
“Oh, Erminie! Erminie! I never had much self-control! And since my soul has been so torn between my old love and my hatred of treason, I have less! ”

“ Theirs was a rare love, my Colonel; stronger than life and death!” wept Wing.
“Perhaps the fate that they have just met was, under all the circumstances, the best for them,” said Justin.
“Oh! how much the best! Poor lady!” said Wing, uncovering the face of Alberta and gazing tenderly upon it. “Poor, poor lady! She had but one great dread in all her dreadful life—to be separated from her beloved. She had but one earnest prayer—to be with him always, forever and ever. Her prayer is granted. As she clung to him through all his desperate life, so he would not desert her even in death! ”

“ For heaven’s sake, fly! There is not a moment to be lost! Rosenthal is a few yards behind! Here! I have brought you a fresh horse! Mount and away! Save yourself!”
The Free Sword lifted his despairing eyes to the face of his faithful follower and pointed in silence to the still form in his arms.
“Madam Corsoni fainted! No wonder, poor lady! Well, I will stay and take care of her. It does not matter so much if I am captured; I shall be treated as a prisoner of war. But you, Colonel! oh, you know the doom that awaits you if you are taken! Mount my horse! Fly and save yourself!” ”

“ THE GUERRILLA’S WIFE.
Danger, long travel, want and woe,
Soon change the form that best we know;
For deadly fear can time outgo,
And blanch at once the hair;
Hard time can roughen form and face,
And what can quench the eye’s bright grace,
Nor does old age a wrinkle trace
More deeply than despair.—Scott. Erminie grieved bitterly over the departure of her brother; yet she, no more than Britomarte, would have kept him back even if she could have done so. But she wept and prayed through the whole of the succeeding night. ”

“ But when the two girls alighted and Elfie had a nearer view and saw wounded men piled like slaughtered cattle in those ambulances, and bleeding men carried up the steps of the hospital; and when they entered the building and she found the atmosphere pervaded with the scent of fresh blood, and the staircase slippery with gore, she could restrain herself no longer, but screamed and hid her face against Erminie’s black robe.
“Elfie! Elfie! if you cannot command your feelings, my dear, you must return to the carriage. You can do no good here unless you are calm and strong,” whispered Erminie. ”

“ Elfie! are you quite distracted?” exclaimed Erminie, in distress.
“No, my dear, I am not ‘distracted;’ I am only drafted!” said Elfie.
“Drafted!” exclaimed all, in a breath.
“Yes, drafted, friends and fellow citizens!”
“Elfie, you are crazed,” said Erminie.
“No, not ‘crazed’—conscripted! You always hit upon the right initial, but not on the right word!” replied Elfie.
“You do not mean to say, in sober earnest, that you are drafted, Miss Fielding? Such a thing was never heard of! Women have enlisted, and have served; but always when disguised as men. ”

“ You saw how livid and sunken he looked!”
“Yes, dear, I saw him.”
“Oh, Erminie! you have been tending the sick and wounded in the hospitals for nearly four years, and you have had a great deal of experience. You know almost as much as the head surgeon himself, and a great deal more than these young under graduates, who take off a man’s limb so deftly. And you saw how he looked. Will he live? Will he live?”
“I hope and trust so, my dear,” said Miss Rosenthal gently.
“When people say they hope and trust, they always mean they don’t believe,” cried Elfie, wringing her hands. ”

“ Justin Rosenthal was assuredly a brave man. He had frequently faced death fearlessly even in its most fearful forms. But now, as a conviction of Monck’s real meaning forced itself upon his soul, he shuddered in spite of himself and grew a shade paler.
“Major Monck,” he said, gravely, “you will not dare to carry out your design! You will not dare to commit this cold-blooded murder!”
“I should like to know what it is that I would not dare to do! But this is no cold-blooded murder, Colonel Rosenthal. For reasons that appear good to me I condemn a prisoner to death and order his execution. ”

“ So, Elfie dear, let us drop the subject, if you please.”
“But how will the Provost Marshal act upon your information?”
“I do not know. They never tell anything. They hear all that they can, but they tell nothing. It is not their business to do so.”
“Then I don’t see what there was in the interview to distress you so much,” said Elfie, rising and touching the bell.
“Oh, my dear, it is this. Though I have done only my duty—a most painful duty to me—I feel like an informer and a spy. Oh, Elfie, this awful war, that upsets not only all material but all moral life!” wept Erminie. ”

“ We are one; we can never be divided. Nothing—no, nothing shall ever part us! not life, not death, not eternity! In all the gloom and horror of our downward course—and downward it is, Elfie—downward even to the depths of hell!—we have the one, great, deep joy of knowing that we go on together, inseparable forever! Yes, on earth or in hades, inseparable forever! I will never again leave him, or be left by him, for a single day. On the only one occasion when we parted since our marriage, he was captured, tried and condemned to die. ”

“ Of course you will, my dear!—around your neck! Come, come, Elfie! Stop trying to tear my ears out by the roots, for I don’t think you’ll succeed. And do be reasonable! You don’t know what a gay life we are going to lead here in the green wood. Your most romantic dreams will be realized. You’ll think that you have slipped out of the nineteenth century and slid down into the twelfth. You’ll fancy yourself in Epping forest, living with Robin Hood and his merry men—except that we don’t wear Lincoln green, Elfie; but Confederate gray. Come! shall I be your Robin Hood? ”

“ No toils, no perils, no privations shall dismay me, Vittorio! I dread but one evil in this world: separation from you; and that evil you have promised that I shall never suffer. Remember, dearest, remember!”
These were the words addressed to the Free Sword by his devoted wife before she left him, raised the curtain, and entered the hut.
She found Elfie still sobbing. She went and knelt down by the pallet, and gently inquired:
“Why, Elfie—Elfie, dear! what is the matter? Why should you weep? Why should any one weep whose best beloved is not in deadly peril as mine is? Speak to me, Elfie! ”

“ Justin, my beloved! my beloved!” exclaimed Britomarte, whom we shall no longer call by her assumed name of Wing. And she dropped her head upon his bosom and sobbed aloud. He folded his arms around her, and she sobbed until her passion of grief had exhausted itself. Then she raised her head and wiped her eyes.
“I am dying, Britomarte! that is nothing; a soldier’s fate—no more. But stoop, my darling, and put your lips to mine, and give me the kiss—the kiss that my heart has hungered for through all these weary years!” ”

“ Striking through the thicket, he entered an opening in the grove where the clear bright starlight shone down upon a strange picture—a man, and a woman, each bound to a tree, only a few yards from each other.
“Help! Murder! Help!” shrieked the man.
“Don’t come near me, you monster! I have a revolver concealed in my bosom and I will shoot you as soon as I would a mad dog!” screamed the woman.
“Elfie!” exclaimed Justin Rosenthal, in astonishment, advancing towards her.
“Oh, Justin dear! Justin, is it you? Thank Heaven! But I took you for a prowling guerrilla!” ”

“ Oh, Elfie! unless you had lived as I have lived for the last three years, in the midst of ‘war’s alarms,’ you could never realize what a blessed relief there is in the feeling sure that we may sleep in peace for one night!”
“Oh! Alberta, what a life for you—for you, a daughter of the house of Goldsborough—reared in luxury and refinement! How can you bear it? Why do you bear it? Why do you not accept Erminie’s offer, and seek refuge with her?” earnestly inquired Elfie. ”

“ There is not a man in the country who mourns with a deeper sorrow over the fatal madness of the secession than does General Eastworth. And not that the cause is lost! for I feel sure that he would not only have mourned, but despaired, could it have succeeded.”
“Oh, father! father! I never expected to be so happy in this world, or scarcely even in Heaven, as you have made me with this news!” exclaimed Erminie, as a ray of almost divine joy shone through the tears that filled her eyes.
“I rejoice in your happiness, my darling child!” ”

“ Whatever brought Colonel Goldsborough a wounded prisoner to our hospital it was not your prayers! For we know that heaven never hears the prayers for vengeance. But one word, Elfie. If Colonel Goldsborough rises from his bed again, do you mean to ratify with your consent that forced marriage?”
“If he rises! Oh, Erminie! you have looked upon too many wounded men not to know when you see the face of a dying one! Oh, Erminie! you must see that he will never, never rise from that bed!” said Elfie, breaking into fresh sobs. ”

“ Oh, live, Justin! live, that I may undo the work of years, and make you happy if I can!”
“My dearest! if anything could make me live in this world, it would be your love, that makes me so happy. But if I die here, Britomarte, we shall live in another and a better world, where all mists shall be cleared from our vision—where we shall know each other as we are, and love each other eternally,” he said, gently caressing her.
“Oh, try to live!—to live in this world yet a little while, dear Justin. ”

“ Goldsborough, if you would like some of these sandwiches, and will promise not to scalp me, I will free your hands long enough for you to satisfy your hunger,” said Elfie’s lover.
“You poltroon! I would see you eaten up by snakes sooner than I would touch a morsel of food from your thievish and blood-stained hands! If I cannot free myself in any other way, I can by starving myself to death!” exclaimed Elfie.
“Two words to that, Mrs. Albert Goldsborough! You may think you have a right to destroy yourself. ”

“ He is used to having bayonets stuck into him!” mocked the colonel.
“Albert Goldsborough! you basest of all base miscreants! where are you daring to take me?” demanded Elfie, beginning to shake with her increasing sense of shame and rage and terror.
“To the green wood, you fairest of all beauties! To the green wood, though it would not be so very green at this season of the year if it were not for the pines and cedars! To the green wood, to be married to Robin Hood, by his chaplain Friar Tuck, and to be Robin’s Maid Marion, and live among his merry men forever!” ”

“ If I die, I will leave you the wealthiest widow in Virginia. For, Elfie, listen, my dear—whichever party conquers, you will be all right. If the Confederacy triumphs, as the widow of a Confederate officer, you will succeed to the half of my estate. If the Union triumphs, as the daughter of a Union officer, and as an unquestionably loyal woman, you will still be allowed your widow’s rights to the one-half of my estates, although the other half may be confiscated by the conquerors. ”

“ We will stop it soon,” she replied, in a low and soothing tone, repressing all exhibition of the despair that was nearly breaking her heart.
“I—I am dying, Elfie! Pray—pray—for me, darling,” he gasped.
Elfie sank on her knees, and spreading her arms over him, prayed fervently:
“Oh, Heavenly Father, forgive him, forgive, and receive him and bless him, for our Savior’s sake,” she cried over and over again, in the earnestness of her supplication.
“Amen, Amen,” he breathed, at every interval of her prayer.
“Oh, my love, my love! Christ will atone to God for all your sins. ”

“ When Elfie came to speak of her forced marriage she wept with anger and mortification; but Erminie assured her, as Justin had done before, that the marriage was null and void in law.
“Marriage is mutual consent, Elfie, and there was no mutual consent there,” she urged.
“You may be right, or you may be wrong, Erminie. I shall take counsel of both clergymen and lawyers before I venture to decide a question in which my honor is concerned. I would rather be a wretched wife than an erring woman anytime. But let me go on with my story. Ah, Heaven! the worst is behind! ”

“ Oh, if you had only been tru—true to your country!” she wept.
“I was true to my country, Elfie. I am true to my country. I shall always be true to my country. Old Virginia is my country, and I am true as truth to her. I go with her where she goes—to destruction, if she should be cursed with failure, to dominion, if she should be crowned with success,” replied the guerrilla leader, as he turned, lifted the curtain, and left the hut. ”

“ Heaven! ‘Sorrow’s crown of sorrow is the memory of happier days,’” said the guerrilla’s wife, mournfully.
“Be comforted. You are young yet, and the happy days may return again,” said Erminie, kindly.
“My father’s home is desolate; his household goods broken and scattered. Federals and Confederates have occupied his house and ravaged his land in turn. The forests have been levelled, the crops swept away, the cattle driven off, and fences and buildings destroyed! Desolate! desolate! all is desolate there!” said Alberta, in a sepulchral tone. ”

“ But she knew it would never do to make a scene in the ward of a hospital.
“The noble soldiers! they cherish no feelings of bitter malignity against our brave foes. It is only we, miserable, mean, little non-combatants, who never risked our lives in the cause, who are as venemous as reptiles! I will follow the example of our dear Union boy there,” thought Elfie, as she hurried to the side of the young soldier of whom she had spoken, and said, with emotion:
“You are better than I am! You are a brave, good, generous fellow, and I hope I shall know more of you.” ”

“ The young soldier smiled and said, a little obscurely:
“You see, Miss, we must save the Union at any cost; but we don’t all hate each other for all that.”
“No,” replied Elfie, humbly. And she passed on to Goldsborough’s bed and said:
“Albert, I didn’t mean it—indeed I didn’t! Take the orange again, dear—do! It isn’t you that I am angry with. It is treason. And my feelings are so contradictory—pull so violently opposite ways—that I feel as if my very soul was being drawn asunder by wild horses! Oh, if you had been true to your country! ”

“ If Miss Rosenthal had heard that her friend had been under fire in forty separate fights in this time, it would not have shocked her so much.
“It is a fact, Erminie. And I tell you the deprivation has cured me of one folly,” said Elfie, nodding her head.
“What is that?”
“The desire to serve as a soldier in the ranks. There is too much grime mixed up with the glory. I shouldn’t so much mind the sabre strokes, nor the shot and shell, nor even the commissary coffee, salt pork and hard tack. ”