CLOSE QUARTERS.

Patea Mail, 2 October 1880, Page 2 (Supplement)

CLOSE QUARTERS.

‘ You’re hidin’ rebels in the house "Wi’out the leave o’ me.’ —Scottish Ballad.

I am a Georgia gentleman, and served the South during the tout crucial years which one side calls : our late struggle for independence,’ and the other stigmatises as ‘ the rebellion. In a skirmish before Fredericksburg I was taken prisoner, and was sent North with a squad of fellow-misfortunates to Point Lookout. Thence, after a while, a number of us were transferred to Fort Delaware. During the journey, while the train was running at slack speed, about fifteen miles from Baltimore, I managed to jump off it. I took the leap literally in the dark, not knowing where I was going to land, for it was growing dusk, and the day was the 2nd of February. There was snow upon the ground, and I slipped as I struck the track, rolling over and over until I brought up in a snow-drift below a steep embankment, and saw the lights of the receding engine flashing round a curve in the road, iks soon as I could rally my wits, I gathered myself up, and turned my face towards Baltimore. After walking a few miles, I saw the hazy glow that hangs at night over a l.u’"e city. I had never been in Maryland. I had no friends and no acquaintances there. I had no money, and felt faint for want of food ; but I knew that Baltimore was a sort of outwork to the Southern Confederacy, and that I was likely to find aid and sympathy amongst its women, while I knew likewise that 1 had better stem deal of any men I met, as most of those who favoured the Confederate cause had "one already into the Southern army. ° At Point Lookout I had observed several letters directed by some of our prisoners to Miss Fanny Lewis, lb-1 Beade-strect, Baltimore. As I walked on I kept repeating this address over and over. I had no idea who Mass Fanny Lewis was, nor, for that matter, had my friends at Lookout Point, though they were in the habit of addressing her, according to the prison etiquette, as ‘My dear Cousin.’ They only knew she was a charitable lady who sent boxes of good food and cast-ofi clothing to the prisoners, while they in return made rings for her out of their coat buttons, and inlaid them with mother-of-pearl cut from their shirt studs. . •, X entered Bultimove toward the eust, and presuming on the universality of that great law, ‘ westward the course of fashion takes its way,’ I walked on until I found myself, about half-past nine o’clock, in what seemed a fashionable quarter of the city. Presently I reached a church —a Leman Catholic church, I presumed from the cross upon its front —and I observed that several j.idjpK who came out of it had puiyoiouoks with gilt crosses in their hands. I knew well enough that the Lonian Catholic population of Baltimore was Southern to a woman, and almost to a man. I followed these ladies, and contrived to stop them without frightening them. I conclude they felt I was a gentleman by ray address, and wore not influenced by the clothes philosophy. I asked them to tell me the way to Eeade Street. They gave me clear but brief directions. I raised my hat and walked on, striking into shadow whenever I could, and fearing the glance of a policeman. I made my way to Leade Street, and pulled the bell of 181. It was a house standing in a garden a little hack from the street, and an alley ran along one side of the lot. An Irish servant-girl answered niy_ summons. That was a good omen. Irish _ servant girls were all sympathise!s in then way. ‘ Can I see Miss Fanny Lewis for a moment V

‘Ho; Miss Fanny’s sent oil—gone away. The master is come home. Maybe our other Miss Fanny would do for ye.’

‘ Let me see her/ 1 said,

She opened the door ol a sort ol library or side sitting-room, turned up the gas, and left mo there. I looked at my torn clothes, my browned hands, my haggard face, and unshorn beard and harry for there was a large mirror over the fire-place. As I stood waiting, I wondered what impression I should produce on that other Miss Fanny when she came.

Presently the door opened. A small blonde woman entered. She was about twenty-five, with a very pleasant face. She looked as frightened as I felt myself to be. Closing the door carefully, she came up close to me, without a word. ‘ Who are you 1 ?’ she said, trembling. ‘ Madame,’ I answered, ‘I am Major Dangerficld, of the Confederate service. I know Miss Fanny Lewis to bo a lady very good to our poor fellows at Point Look-out. I know nobody in Baltimore. I come to ask your advice and protection.’ And I told her my story. ‘Oh!’ she cried, ‘I am the wrong lady : you expected to see my sister-in-law. You have run yourself into the greatest danger. My husband, Colonel Lewis, has just rcceivect a stafi appointment here, under the major-general commanding in Baltimore. He does not allow me to have anything to do with treason or disaffection. He is a Federal officer.’ ‘I bog your pardon, madame, I said, taking my hat, ‘ I will go away at once.’ ‘ No, no,’ she cried wildly, running to the window as the bell rang. ‘lts

too late j I hear my husband. That’s him on ho is .shack, with his orderly. He has only been in Baltimore a few hours, and Fanny was sent away South before he came. Go in there—quick ! she added as a man’s footsteps sounded in the hall.

She opened an inner door, and I entered a sort of large closet or storeroom. It had no window, but was lighted by a kind of fancy lattice-work a” the top of the partition that divided it from the sitting-room. Besides the door through which I entered, it had two others, I softly tried .them both, and found them fastened. The place was a sort of ante-room, now used as a store closet. It had shelves in it, and trunks and packing cases, broken articles of furniture, linen laid up in lavender, and ladies’ dresses hung on pegs. It was lighted by a glimmer of gas from the sitting-room. ‘ My darling Fanny !’ said a voice : and I heard kisses—kisses as natural as it the man had been a Southerner, and not a blood-thirsty Yank, whom I was bound to hate, to injure, and despise. ‘Why, what’s the matter, love 1 ?’ I heard him say to her. ‘ Have you had a chill 1 You are trembling all over. You 100k —I don’t know how you look. What is it, my sweet Fan 1 ?’ ‘Nothing. What could it bel’ she answered j but I knew, from the tremble in her voice, that she was unused to deceiving her colonel. I think, too, that ho probably perceived that something lay concealed under her ‘ nothing/ for he did not press her to say more. He sat down, and I think he drew her toward him, ‘ This is comfortable,’ he said. ‘ This is home. This is better than campaigning. I have had a worrying day. Clay pole* (I judged that was his predecessor) ‘ has left everything in disorder in his department, and that business of Fanny’s Ims annoyed me beyond measure. It lays me open to suspicion aad I have had local politicians at me about it all day. How Fanny could have been so indiscreet, so unmindful of what was due to my position. She scorns to have been for ever doing something that hovered, to say the least of it, upon the verge of treason, _ I hope, my Fanny, yon have had nothing to do with her proceedings.’ ‘No, no, indeed!’ cried his wife, vehemently', with an accent of sincerity. ‘ I have always been so very careful, because--’ Here she came to a sudden pause, I suppose the recollection that she had Major Dangerlield of the Confederate service hidden in her store cioset broke unpleasantly upon her. She added, in a lower tone and with a different accent, ‘ I would not compromise yon for the world.’ ‘ I wish Fanny had had the same consideration. General S told me he was very sorry to have to send her through the lines, but that it bad been a!).solntely necessary. A little more and she would have got herself into the Old Capitol Prison. The Union politicians of this place have a keen scent for disaffection. It seems a policeman has been detailed for some time past to watch this house, and they had a string of charges as long a.s my arm against her. Dear ! dear !if women only would stick fast to women’s work, and leave rebellion and politics alone !'

£ I don’t think Fanny meant any harm,’ said the wife, timidly. ‘She used to send things to the prisoners, but then that was allowed. She used to set lots of letters, but I don’t know that O J she did anything worse. ‘ That is, she did not tell you all she did/ said the colonel. ‘ Weil, so far I am obliged to her, for if half I hear is true, she was steeped in petty treason. Most of it was foolish nonsense—no good to the cause she wanted to serve. Her imprudence has made my own position here a very delicate one. I have written to the commanders of all the prisons not to forward any letters that may pass through their hands, and if any do arrive, you had better burn them without reading them, unless you know the handwriting.’ Here came a loud ring at the front door. The colonel and his wife moved instantly apart, and a man came into the room.

‘ Good-evening, colonel. Good-even-ing, madam. I called to tell yon, colonel, that there’s a dangerous character at large in Baltimore—a rebel agent on secret service—and the provost-marshal has given strict orders to secure him. If they catch him they will hang him—sure. He has been travelling us a spy all through our Northern cities, and is now on his way back to the South with important papers and information. It was thought he might have come here to inquire about Miss Fanny. Has any such person been here, Mrs. Lewis, 1 ?’ ‘ No, sir,’ said the inexperienced equivocator, with a tremble in her tone. ‘ Have you had no stranger here this evening V persisted the visitor. The answer was inaudible.

‘ One word with you aside, colonel,’ he said, as he rose to go, drawing Colonel Lewis outside the parlour door into the passage. ‘I don’t want to be disagreeable to Mrs. Lewis, but (this between ourselves) the policeman on this beat says he saw a man answering the description come in this evening at your front door. I tell you because you would not like a domiciliary visit from the provost-marshal.’ ‘ Thank you, thank you. But I am sure you are mistaken. Mrs. Lewis is a lady of unspotted loyalty. If there

bo anything wrong, it is the servants who arc concerned.’

‘ Colonel Lewis,’ said the visitor, in a stage whisper, ‘ I don’t like to destroy your confidence in Mrs. Lewis, but the gas was lighted in your parlour before the blinds were down, and the policeman saw him with Mrs. Lewis standing on the hearth-rug. I hope you’ll find it all as right as you expect, I’m sure.’

The colonel walked to the front door with his visitor, and came back into the sitting-room, I knew that he was thinking, ‘ There is no way of exit from tiiis room but by the door that I came in by or the closet. She has the man in there.’

‘ These local politicians are both lowbred and impertinent,’ he said, as he came back to her. ‘ There would not be a man with a good coat on his back at large in Baltimore, it all their denunciations were listened to. Fanny, ho thinks ill of you. He thinks you would compromise your husband. Ho says there is a policeman watching our front door.’ ‘Oh, Arthur/ cried poor Fanny, ‘I love you so dearly, indeed I do, and perhaps you will not believe me ! Oh, why did— Did he say they would be sure to hang that man, that spy, if they arrested him V

‘ Yes, and most justly. A spy deserves no mercy.’ ‘ 01) ! but, Arthur, think of Andre.’ ‘ Well, Andre had no right to complain. It was the fate of war. It was the stern duty of Washington.’ ■' Yes, dear, everybody says so; but, Arthur, I have never been able to love Washington since I read that story. And the men who gave him up—all women, always hate them.’ ‘ This is childishness, my dear wife. Would you rather have had West Point taken by the British, Arnold triumphant and rewarded, Washington condemned as the traitor I 1

‘No, no, of course not,’ she sobbed. ‘ Oh, Arthur, when I was a child our cat had lour yellow kittens. They lived under the porch, and were very wild. But one of them trusted me, and used to come out to mo, and I was holding it in my arms one day, when our hired man came to me, all blood}', with his axe in his hand ; my mother had said they must be killed, and he had cut off the heads of the other three kittens, and I gave him mine I let him take it. I wake up even now sometimes at night, and remember how cruel I was to that poor little yellow cat. It seems something like murder.’ • Fanny, this is too foolish,’ said her husband.

‘ I know it, I know it,’ she replied. ‘ But I really believe I should lose my reason if I had to do the same thing over again.’ ‘ Fanny,’ he said, sternly, ‘you forget yourself. I must remember my duty, whatever you do.’

After this there was silence between them. At length the husband said: ‘ I have a long report to write tonight, Fanny, and accounts to cast up. I must sit up very late. Sly poor wile, go to bed.’ ‘ Yes, dear,' she answered, submissively. I heard keys jingling in her key-basket as she moved across the floor.

‘ Ho, Fanny,’ said her husband, stopping her ; ‘ I may want something from the cellaret. Leave me your keys.’ ‘You will kill yourself with hard work. Lot ns go, love,” ‘ Ho, no,’ said the colonel. ‘Go yourself; you have a headache,” ‘Ho, Arthur,’ she answered. ‘lf you sit up, I will stay too.” ‘ This is childishness, my dear wife. ‘ It is of no use, Fanny.’ ‘Still, I will stay hero.’ ‘lf I am going to sit up,’ said the colonel, ‘ I want my slippers.’

‘ Let me get them/ she cried, eagerly,

‘ Sit down.’

‘Ho, I’ll get them myself. They are in the closet, I know. Is it locked, Ho, I see that it is not; the key is in the door,’

He laid his hand upon the doorhandle of my place of confinement. For half a moment he hesitated to turn it. I heard Fanny sob. I think she caught him by the arm. ‘ Let me go, Fanny/ he said, impatiently. ‘I must. You had better go away.’ He threw the door wide open. The gaslight streamed in from the sittingroom. She rallied all her strength, and came in after him.

Nothing met their eyes but the dresses, the shelves, the rows of pickles and preserves, the broken furniture, the trunks, the linen in lavender. But standing opposite the door, -with its hinges towards them, they might have seen a largo Saratoga trunk, marked on the side, in big white letters, “ Miss F.vxxv Lewis.” Its lid was not quite closed, the hasp having caught upon the rim. The Colonel drew back. Poor Fanny perhaps fancied I had mysteriously disappeared. They took the slippers from the floor and went into the sitting-room. There I heard her coaxing him to go to bed; but there seemed some hardening of her husband’s heart towards her, which chilled her pretty dersuasions. “ Fanny,” he said at last, “if you insist on sitting up with me, get me some paper and an inkstand from your chamber.”

There was no resisting this request, which he made like a command. She must again have made a movement to

pick up her key basket, and lie must again have checked her, for she exclaimed, “ Oli! I forgot; I beg your pardon,” and left the room. The moment she was gone I heard him rattle the keys. I heard, too, a click, as if he were engaged in cocking his revolver. Then he remarked, aloud; “ The store-room has no window I have him safe. He must stay there until morning. If a brave man, he will keep quiet. Only a coward would take advantage of her.” Ho pulled out his watch. “ Half past twelve,” he said, as Fanny came back again. What agony she may have felt as she left me without protection, and her husband exposed to my attack if I were armed !

‘ Here is paper and ini-:,’ she said, ‘How go to bed, darling.’

‘Ho, love; I will sit up here,’and she took her place upon the sofa. Meantime no words can adequately depict tho discomforts of my situation. I knew perfectly well that tho colonel knew where I was, and that in good time he was going to dispose of mo. I quite agreed with him that gratitude to Mrs. Lewis required mo to keep still. I also knew that whatever plan he might bo laying for my capture was to be done in such a way as to spare his wife as much as possible. I thought that for her sake 1 had better let him work it his own way. I only trusted I should be aide to prove to tho provostmarshal that I was Major Dangerficld, and not the secret agent I was supposed to be. Meanwhile my physical sufferings were almost unbearable. In the empty Saratoga trunk my position was inexpressibly cramped and painful. I was perfectly conscious that the slightest noise I made would bo heard by tljc husband and wife in the sitting room, and I was unwilling to disturb any hope that the latter might entertain that I was gone. My plan was to wait till she was out of tho way, and then place myself at the disposal of her husband. Meantime a solemn silence seemed to settle on the house and all tho neighbourhood. My nerves had become so excited that I could with difficulty keep myself from uttering involuntary cries. Hour after hour I heard tho dorp cathedral boll. Had it not been for the hope I entertained, in common with the colonel, of saving 'Fanny’s feelings from a shock, and her wifehood from suspicion, I should have come forth at once, and have made an end of my misery. Sometimes, as all around me seemed so still, I fancied that tho married pair had quitted the sittingroom, But I felt that if I tried to leave the house, watched as 1 knew it to bo, my capture on her door-step would compromise her loyal ty.

Time moved like eternity. At last the morning market waggons began moving, the dawn came peeping into my retreat. There was another -violent pull at the street door bell. I heard the colonel rouse himself to answer it. I heard .Fanny start up to her feet, while a coarse voice called out loudly in the passage. £ What! up by peep of day, colonel V

‘ Yes; I ]i;k.l a report to v.'iite up. Claypolo has left every thing in disorder.’ ‘ I thought I’d let you know, colonel, that that spy we were talking of last night is in the hands of the marshal. I was mistaken about his being seen about this place. The police got on the track of him last evening, and took him at that nest of secession, Mrs. Chaxlcs Garey’s.’ As the street door closed upon this visitor 1 , I heard Fanny give a suppressed sob.

‘ Then he was not—him V said her husband, careless of grammar at that supreme moment of reconciliation. ‘Ho, no,’ she cried. ‘Ho said he was a poor prisoner who had jumped off the train.’

‘ Poor little Fanny ! brave little Fan !’ said her husband, and I guessed, though I could not see, how he was comforting her. ‘ Let this be a lesson to you not to play with treason. Henceforward leave it alone severely. You must be one with mo, dear wife, and such things are not allowable in our position. Now go and call Bridget, and tell her to get breakfast. I must get to the office early. And, Fanny,' he added, ‘tell her to slip down the alloy the first thing, and tell Williams, who owns the dray, that when fie has harnessed up his horse for his day’s work, I wish him to back up to our side door. I am determined to get rid of everything that belongs to my sister Fanny. I’ll send her trunk away. I’ll clear the house of treason and secession. Tell Bridget that 1 say so. It may be a warning to her, love.”

In half an hour Bridget announced the dray.

“ Send in my orderly,,’ said the colonel, “ and see if you can see anything, around the corner, of the policeman. ”

As Bridget was executing tins order, the colonel entered the store-room, and closed the spring-lock of the trunk lid. “Have you the key of Fanny’s trunk, ray love ?” “ I don’t know.”

“ Give it to me,” he said, decidedly,

“ Since your man is not your spy, I share your treason for this once, that henceforth you may always side with me. Ha ! policeman,” he added, as he threw open the outer door of the storeroom, which opened on the alley, “ will you help the drayman and my orderly to get this trunk of my sister’s on the

dray. She has been sent South, as you know, and I decline to keep her things. Yes, I suspect it may weigh over two hundred pounds. It is ‘ powerful heavy’ as you say. But that is the way always with ladies.” By this time it was hoisted on the dray. “How, Williams,” said the colonel to the drayman, “carry this trunk to Mrs Legraiid’s. She is a friend of my sister's, and a very Scccsh lady. She will no doubt know what to do with it. Take the key, and desire her to open it the moment it arrives. She must find the way to send it to Miss Fanny if she thinks it necessary,’

‘All right, sah,’ cried the voice of

the negro drayman. I fainted, I suppose for want of air, and knew no more till I found myself surrounded by Southern ladies in the back parlour of a house well-known for Southern sympathies and hospitality. I told my name and story, only omitting the adventures of the night in Colonel Lewis’ storeroom.

‘But how on earth did you get here in Fanny Lewis’ trunk? The drayman loft the trunk and key, with a message that the trunk was to bo unlocked immediately.’

‘ Ah, ladies,’ I cried, ‘ it is too dangerous a secret. I dare not breathe it into the ear of any one of } r ou.’ ‘ But we know all kinds of dangerous secrets,’ pouted one fair lad}'. ‘I have no doubt you do, and all Dixie knows that you can keep them, but this one you must not ask me.’

•' I declare I believe that Colonel Lewis himself had something to do with it.’

‘ On my honour, ladies, I never saw Colonel Lewis in my life. What does ho look litre, anyhow V

This question was never answered till about six years later, when I Was introduced to Colonel Lewis on Pennsylvania Avenue. He took me to his house! in Georgetown, where I met both the h’annys. It is no disparagement to Mrs. .Lewis, nor is it base ingratitude, to say that I love the Southern Fanny best, for she has been my wife live years, and Colonel Lewis is my brother-in-law.