fort had roused itself and joined in the affray. Its shot began to fall around me. I retreated within the battery, and then, sick and heartheavy, I determined to make my way back to the city. My heart was with the seventy men battling for the flag against five thousand !

"The Confederate flag and the palmetto were flying together over the forts. My soul spurned them! I felt that I was among enemies. The roar went on. As I drew near the city, I began to hear the church bells ringing wild with joy! Crowds everywhere lined the wharves, filled the streets, covered the roofs of the hitherward houses. The people had been out all night! Many, discouraged at the delay, had begun returning to their homes. But the first sound of a gun brought them back with alacrity. One would think that the humbling of the national flag was the most joyous occasion in the world! Worn out with excitement and want of sleep, disgusted and indignant, I spurned all company, and would hide myself from the sight of the people and the sounds of the heavy guns, which in succession, or in salvos, filled the air with their dull, distant thunder. I sought my room, and toward noon fell into a feverish sleep. The noise of the artillery still sounded in my dreams, and, mixed in the phantasms of sleep, helped to

disorder my imagination. I dreamed that I was at Norwood, and conversing with Miss Rose, when Dr. Wentworth entered, and his voice broke like a sound of thunder upon me, and the dream, changing, led me now with Cathcart, and now with Wentworth, among sand-batteries and forts. These dissolving views changed, and it was Miss Rose, or Alice that was in distressthe house seemed crumbling and falling part by part with terrible crash, and I-utterly unable to stir! I started up from such disturbed visions. All the afternoon the same continuous firing filled every part of the city with its sound. Volumes of black smoke rolled up from the fort. It was on fire! Its guns fired but infrequently. Every time the smoke rolled away I looked anxiously through the glass to see if the flag still waved. The sun went down upon it! All night, but at intervals of fifteen minutes, the bombardment went on. People who had expected to reduce the fort in a few hours seemed discouraged at this protracted defence.

"The morning came, and with its first full light the forts that lay in a circle round the fort, opened in order, Johnson on the south, Cummings' Point on the east, Moultrie on the north, and the floating battery on the west, together with the smaller intermediate batteries. As far as I

I.

such a fire

Again the

could discern, the walls of Sumter had suffered little. No breach appeared. The barbette guns were knocked away. But though they were the heaviest, they had never been used. The besiegers aimed to sweep them with that the men could not work them. smoke rolled up from the fort, and flames could now be seen. Moultrie poured a continuous stream of red-hot shot upon the devoted fort. At last came noon. The firing ceased. Boats were putting off to the fort. By one o'clock it was noised abroad that the garrison had surrendered. It was true! On Sunday noon, they were to salute the flag and evacuate the fort.

"If the week days were jubilant, how shall I describe the Sabbath! The churches were thronged with excited citizens. In many of these all restraint was thrown off, and the thanksgiving and rejoicing for the victory swept everything like summer winds. I went to my own church, the Episcopal. The decorum of the service, which is a bulwark against irreverent excitements, served, on this occasion, a good purpose. Yet, strange as it may seem, in the lessons for the day occurred a passage that sounded in my ears like a prophecy, and full of warning and doom. It was this: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men; let them come up.

Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.'

"As I came from church, a south wind blew, and I heard the sound of cannon. I walked rapidly to the point, and only in time to see through my glass, the flag descending from

over Sumter! The drama is ended!-or rather opened! Who can tell what shall be the end of this? It may be that all the roar and battle of the two days past is as nothing to that which at some future day shall precede the raising again of this flag over this fallen fortress. The future is in the hand of God!

"To-morrow I shall bid farewell to these unhappy scenes. I go to Richmond, and thence home. Shall I ever see Norwood again? I know not why my spirits sink so low. I am full of forebodings. Probably weakness and fatigue are reasons enough. But over the future hangs a dark cloud which I would that I might pierce and know what it hides! Should I never see old friends again, I would not willingly be forgotten of them-for I can never forget. And so, Farewell.

"TOM HEYWOOD."

CHAPTER VI.

THE AROUSING.

THE March winds had blown themselves out. Rainy April had set in. Over all New England, the signs of the new season were thickening. Maple-sap was flowing freely, and the woods and maple orchards were filled with sounds of industry.

The dull gray of the uppermost twigs in chestnut woods was turning to a ruddy brown. The peach-blossom buds were swelling fast. The willows already shook their tassels in the wind. The air, the earth, the round heaven and every creature beneath it seemed to rejoice in the breaking of winter. Cattle rubbed themselves against fences to free the old coat and give place to the new. The herds owned the fervid impulses of love. The dairy woman cries, “See how yellow the butter is to-day!” "Yes," says

the herdsman, "the cows have been down in the moist pasture, and found early grass."