LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 82, 4 September 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

WEDDED IN DEATH. A TALE OF TUB LATE AMERICAN WAR. ["From Belffravia,"] (Continued) He intimated indeed that he had not been urged by poverty, or a desire to better his condition, and, as he was candid and truth fid, I believed him. But this was all he would confess relative to the matter ; indeed he avoided the subject as much as possible. I had my own opinion, however, that he had quarrelled with his friends and family, and I had suspected that this quarrel had arisen out of line affaire de cceur, and that he, with all his aristocratical notions, had wished to wed a young woman who, in the estimation of his friends, was his inferior in social position, I was confirmed in this suspicion from my knowledge that, with all the native gallantry peculiar to his countrymen, he appeared to be indifferent to the charms of the young ladies whom he met in society. He was agreeable and polite in his companionship with them, and that was all. His affections I believed to be preengaged ; for in one instance, at least, I was well aware that if he had thought proper to make the slightest advances, he might have taken a bride from one of the most estimable and respectable families in New York. More than this, he constantly carried a locket about his person, suspended by a ribbon from his neck ; and on one occasion—but on occasion only—when his tongue was loosened by the effects of wine, he was so much more than usuaHy communicative about home affairs that he showed me that this locket contained a miniature portrait, upon ivory, of one of the sweetest faces I had ever seen. Ou that occasion, too, he admitted that, though it was incumbent upon families to maintain their social position, and wrong in females to marry beneath them in rank, he did not consider that a man disgraced himself by marrying a woman who was his inferior in social position, provided her beauty and her moral and intellectual qualities were such as not to disgrace those among whom she would be admitted as an equal. I believe that he regretted afterwards that he had shown me this portrait, for he changed the conversation when I referred- to it; but the peculiar beauty of the gill's face made so strong an impression upon me that I believed I should recognise the original of the portrait wheresoever I might meet her. Some time before the commencement of the war I left New York for the Southern States, and though I corresponded for a time with my friend, the untoward state of affairs soon rendered correspondence impossible, and I again lost sight of jhim until I saw him in the hospital the day after I received his brief letter.

With the chivalrous notions that I knew him to entertain, however, and with my knowledge of his partiality to military pomp and show, and his fondness for display, I was not surprised to find that he had sought for and obtained a commission in|the Federal army ; though I was sorry to hear of his misfortunes, and sincerely hopeful that he was not so severely wounded as, somehow or other, I feared that I should find to be the case.

This, however, I could not know until the morrow, and I slept but little that night, and was restless and anxious until the hour drew near when I could obtain admission into'the hospital. The next morning I was in the ante-room of the St Charles Hospital some ten minutes earlier than the time appointed for opening the wards for the admission of visitors. The medical attendants were leaving the sickwards, after having made their forenoon inspection ; and occasionally one of the hired or the volunteer nurses would follow one or other of these gentlemen into the corridors, or the ante-room, to receive instructions, or to make some inquiry into the condition of a patient in whose welfare they were especially interested.

' What a very interesting looking girl I' observed a Confederate major, with whom I was acquainted, and who was sitting on the form by my side, waiting to see an invalid brother officer ; for the limited hospital accommodation did not permit of the use of separate hospitals for sick or wounded Confederates and Federals.

The young woman, towards whom he di rected my attention, was standing in the corridor near the open door of the anteroom, conversing with one of the surgeons. She had moved slightly, and when I looked up I could only see the back of a tall, slender, and, as far as I could judge, gracefully formed young lady. The next moment she moved away, and the surgeon passed through the room in which we were seated. ' One of the nurses, I suppose,' I replied to the major's observation. ' One of the volunteer nurses, I guess,' he retorted. ' That young lady's no regular nurse, depend on't ; and she don't look like a Southern lass, neither, with her fair complexion and hair, and blue eyes.' ' Some of the Southern ladies are very fair in complexion,' I responded. 1 Yes.' he continued, 'but fair hair and blue eyes aren't common with our girls, and p'r'aps that's why Hike to see them. I'm an old man, aud have got two lasses of my own down in Georgia, you know, as old as that young lady, so there's no harm in my fatherly admiration.' As the moment drew near when the doors of the sick wards would be thrown open, fair faces, both elderly and youthful were seen peering anxiously, yet timidly, into the anteroom, and scrutinising the occupants. These I suspected to be volunteer nurses, who had been dispatched by anxious invalids, with whom they were acquainted, to report whether the visitors they were expecting had arrived. • There—there's that young lady again, that I spoke of,' whispered the major. I looked towards the door, and saw a young, fair, blue-eyed girl looking tiirudlj from one to another of the visitors. Presently her eye caught mine, and for a moment she gazed earnestly at me, and then hurried away. ' Do you know the young lady / asked the major. T . ' No,' I replied,' and yet I faucy Ive seen her face before somewhere. Perhaps I've met her in the streets, or maybe I saw her when I was in the Church street Hospital myself.' , ~, ' Because I thought it seemed like as though she knew you,' answered the old major, with a sly look; but,' he added, ' she's a real pretty girl, now, ain't she V I answered in the affirmative to the latter question ; but just at this moment a voice i cried—

' Doors open to visitors !' And there was a sudden and general move* ment from the ante-room. It now struck me for the first time that my poor friend had omitted to mention in his letter the number of his ward, and I had foolishly neglected to ask the number of the soldier who had acted as his messenger. I stopped short in the corridor, and looked around me for one of the hospital sergeants from whom I might obtain the requisite information ; but the passage was thronged with visitors, and no sergeant was to be seen. I felt a gentle touch on my arm, and, looking round, saw the young lady, whose beauty had attracted my friend the major's admiration, standing by my side. ' I beg your pardon, sir, she said nervously and timidly. ' I am one of the voluntary nurses ; and I thought, perhaps, you might have come to see Lieutenant Burke of the Federal army ?' ' You thought aright, madam,' I replied, ' Lieutenant Burke sent me a letter last night ; and I have called according to his request, and my own desire, to see him. He omitted to mention the number of his wardin his letter.' ' We—he, I mean, recollected that after the messenger had departed,' replied the young lady. ' That is why I come to seek for you. And—Oh, he will be so glad to see you !' Then a deep blush suffusing her previously pale anxious face, she went on, as if in apology for her eagerness. ' That is, I mean, he was so anxious and so fearful, poor fellow, that you would not be able to find him, that I could not do less than offer to seek you out. I thought you were the gentleman he was expecting when t saw you seated in the anteroom. Her voice was low, sweet, and gentle, and as I looked down into her pale face, suffused, as she spoke in trembling accents, with quickly-passing blushes, I thought I had never seen a more beautiful nor a more expressive countenance ; and still, though I could not conceive where it had been, I thought I had, somewhere or other, seen that fair face before. Ward No 7, where my poor friend was located, was at the extreme end of the corridor, ahd when we had reached the door, my fair conductor said—- ' You will find Lieutenant Burke, in the furthermost cot, on the left-hand side. He will be glad to see you. But I will leave you now, and return to the volunteer nurses' room.' With a slight and graceful bow she turned away and retraced her steps, and I entered the long dreary hospital ward, with its row of narrow cots on either side, each occupied by a sick or wounded soldier, most of whose pallid bronze faces were now lit up with a passing gleam of pleasure as they received and returned the greetings of the friends who had come to visit them. Still there were many poor fellows—some Confederate soldiers, whose friends were far distant, or who had no friends to care for them, and some sick or wounded Federal prisoners—who lay quietly and passively or stirring restlessly in their cots, with no one to sympathise with them in their sorrows and sufferings, and no one to cheer them with kind words and bid them hope for better times, who, poor fellows, appeared almost as if they were outcasts whom none cared for nor pitied, amid the sympathising voices that were speaking around them. To be continued.