THE TRAVELLER AND THE BODENSEE.* [Translated from the German of Schwab.] By Lilly Waters. A HORSEMAN rode through the valley bright, O'er the snow-fields glittering white. The stranger shuddered, chilled with fear; "O'er yonder plain I've ridden here!" With lifted hands, "Great God!" cried she, 66 So hast thou ridden over the See! "The deep abyss, with shining floor, "I must bravely toil through th' snow," said Mad hoofs clanged at the crystal door! he, "To reach, ere night, the Bodensee. "Ere night, my barb, we'll reach the tide, And take the boat to the further side." The way was rugged with brier and stone, Yet on he dashed with his noble roan. Beyond the hills is level land; The path was even, and smooth the way; Towns were vanishing with the day. On th' plain nor hill nor house appear, No tree or rock, afar or near. So flies he on for many a mile, No wanderer on these fields of snow Still on he goes o'er the velvet floor, With listening ear for the water's roar. Now twilight glooms o'er snow-fields bright, And distant far there gleams a light. Afar through trees and mist 'tis seen, The prospect broad that lies between. Once more the ground was rough with stone; He spurs his horse o'er the pathway lone. Soon barked the dogs at his weary steed, Village firesides smiled on his need. He reached the door of the holstery; "Did not under thee waters dash, The thick rind break with awful crash? "And wert thou not harmed by th' hungry brood That swarms the depths of the cold, dark flood?"" They call the village to hear the tale. Boys come, silent, trembling, and pale, And tender mothers, and fathers brave, Murmur, "How blest to escape such grave!"' "Come to our fire, yield to our wish, Break with us bread, eat of our fish." He slid from his horse at the friendly word, Thinking only of the first he heard. His heart-throbs ceased with terror's thrill; The awful peril was with him still. He only sees the ghastly deep; Crackling of ice rings in his ears, And cold sweat starts as fancy hears. Then groaned and sunk by his horse so brave, And found on shore a dry, quiet grave! IN the old French Revolution, they set up the goddess of reason, and voted God out of the universe; but God would not leave humanity, scoffing at him, forgetting him, but stood by his universe, and "To the See, to the See, how far may it be?" manifested himself in the midst of all The maiden stared with wondering eye; "The boat and the See behind thee lie. "If 'twere not ice-covered, I should say You just had come from over that way." * The Bodensee, the Lake of Constance, is very seldom entirely frozen over. The incident which forms the subject is said to have occurred in 1695. Here their malignity; and all the ingenuity of man could not vote him out of it. is a sort of truth that nothing can reverse. There is a God Almighty; and although men may wish there was not a God, and try to get rid of one, here the idea comes welling up in the soul, in the depth of his primal instincts, and men believe in it because they cannot help it. THE SPY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. By Mrs. C. M. Sawyer. CHAPTER III. It was early morning a few days after the events recorded in the last chapter. A white mist was heaving and surging in the first rays of the rising sun, and slowly rolling up and away toward the east, clinging in tattered masses to the outstretched branches of the tall hemlocks and the rocky points on the sides of the beautiful rounded bluffs that formed a noble framework to the rear of Vicksburg. The numerous charming residences and the beautiful trees, standing sometimes singly and sometimes in groups, which crowned those bluffs and lent such a glory to the extreme suburbs of the beleagued city, one after another became visible, as the misty veil melted away. ning to catch a descending stick which a little negro, as noisy as they, had thrown into the air. A slender, high-bred horse, of a beautiful bay color was showing his paces, trotting to and fro in a rich, grassy enclosure, and whinnying as if snuffing the approach of comrades, or asking for his breakfast. In front, the walks were neatly swept, a cat and her kittens lay lovingly nestled in the early sunshine on the piazza, and a neatly-dressed and pleasant-faced mulatto girl stood, with a broom in her hand, leaning over the little wicket-gate, and gazing indolently down the road toward the quarter where the Union camp was known to lie. She seemed careless and happy as the dogs and the cat and kittens, occasionally breaking out into snatches of simple but very sweet melody, the burden of which seemed to be: "Massa Linclum's gin us free, He'll come soon and take care we, "Better care than I have taken of you, Folie?" inquired a sweet, pleasant voice from the piazza. The girl turned quickly, and looked in the fair, young face which confronted her, with a somewhat startled, but very loving expression. "Will Massa Linclum,' as you call him, take better care of you, think you, than I?" she repeated. But a dead silence seemed to reign in and around most of the dwellings; for the proprietors had, in obedience to the orders of General Pemberton, the rebel commander, mostly evacuated them for the supposed greater safety to be found within the fortifications. The windows and doors were closed; the few negroes who had been left to guard the deserted premises having either availed themselves of their unwonted liberty to make their escape into the Union lines, or remained only to indulge in the slave's paradise,- idleness, eating, and sleeping, were still buried Lors, no, missis," answered the girl, in profound slumber. The distant boom-with a bright, frank smile; "nobody take ing of cannon, sending their compliments better care o' we san you, missis." into the city from the gunboats on the river, every few minutes reverberated along the bluffs, shaking the windows and doors of the houses; but the sound had become familiar, and the sleepers, if sleepers there were in the beautiful and forsaken houses, slept on. To this rule there was one exception. The windows of one of the noblest and most beautiful of these residences were thrown open, and an air of life pervaded the whole premises. Two large Newfoundland dogs were playing together on the side lawn, sometimes clumsily rolling over one another and growling in goodmatured excitement, and sometimes run 66 "Then why do you sing such songs, Folie? Do you want to go and live with the Northern people?" Oh, lors, no, missis; I doesn't want to leave you; but I does love to sing dat ar song, cos it 'pears kind o' good to sing 'bout bein' free. Somehow, my heart 'pears to sing it too, missis." The young mistress looked keenly in the girl's face, now lighted up with a strange glow that made it, for all its color, beautiful. "What is it, Folie? What do you want?" "FREEDOM, missis!" replied the girl, with deep and passionate emphasis, the lie?" glow on her face intensifying in its bright- to spare. Does that please you, Foness, and her whole lithe figure dilating with the greatness of the thought. "I wants to be FREE!" 66 But am I not kind to you, Folie? Do I not make your life an easy one? Don't I clothe you well, and give you as good food as I eat myself?" Yas, missis, you does. Nobody dare say you don't do duty to me. I not stand it ef dey did. But, missis, I don't kear so much for de good food and de nice clothes. I want to own myself. I want to own de soul dat de Lord guv me!" Something of the same glow which beautified and idealized the face of the slave girl was on that of her young mistress, as she listened to the passionate appeal. "Folie, what would you do, and where would you go, if I were to give you your freedom? Would you go into the camp of the Union soldiers, and perhaps suffer and be lost, without a home, or a woman's care?" "No, missis, nebber, nebber! I stay wid you, missis, all de days o' my life. I work better for you when I own myself dan when you own me." 66 But, Folie, you will by and by be married, and perhaps your husband will want to take you away, and not allow you to live with me. He may go into the Northern army and turn against me." 66 Oh, missis, I nebber will marry anybody who does not promise to stay by you, to fight for you, and to die for you if necessary. He shall swear dat, missis, 'fore I trust him one bit. Oh, missis, git me free, den I show you how big a soul can lib under a cullered skin, -how a free girl's heart can lub!" "Oh, missis! oh, missis! I—I"The girl broke down; she could not speak. She stood, her face all aglow with gratitude and affection, the great tears streaming down her dusky cheeks, and looking up in the face of her mistress as if it had been the face of an angel. "You are glad!" said the lady, a great wave of emotion running through her own breast. "You are glad! I see it!" "GLAD! Oh, good massa God!" she burst out passionately, clasping her hands and rolling up her streaming eyes, "make me lib a hunder years to show my missis how glad I am and how I lub her!" Her gratitude and joy were intense and real. The lady felt and appreciated this. But she saw that such excitement would produce exhaustion and perhaps illness in the poor girl, and she soon wisely interposed a little wholesome diversion. "Folie, look down the road, and see if any Union soldiers are in sight!" The diversion was effective; and while the girl, with all her eyes, watched the spot where the road turned, to be sure and catch the first glimpse of any wayfarers, we will present the lady a little more palpably before our readers. She was very beautiful, with a rare and noble beauty,—a soul shining through her face such as you would look to meet in one capable of such acts as the one just recorded. She was of medium size, with an erect, graceful figure and a proud bearing. Her finely-formed and wellpoised head turned gracefully on a swanlike neck, white as a magnolia flower. Her fair, oval face, from which time had not stolen a single youthful rose, and which was lighted by blue, starry eyes, was framed by a profusion of brown, clustering curls, which caught a tint of gold in the early sunlight. Her eyelids were heavy and black, and her eyebrows, of the same tint, were firm and nearly straight. Tears rushed to the eyes of the young mistress. "It shall be so, Folie! You are free! I give you your liberty from this hour! You can come and go at your will. I will give you papers which will prevent your ever being a slave again, that will prevent your children, if you should have them, ever being slaves. You may leave me if you please, or you may stay with me always; and I will be She sat down and folding her hands in a good mistress to you, and pay you her lap with a great sigh, soon seemed lost wages such as the free Northern girls re-in thought which must have been of a very ceive, — enough to clothe you and some various nature; for as she gazed out before her, her face sometimes seemed full of dauntless, heroic fire, and sometimes of profound, even depressing anxiety, when she would pass her hand before her eyes, as if to shut out something pain fal. "Oh, lors, missis!" suddenly cried Folie from her perch on the wicket-gate; "de soldiers is coming! de soldiers is coming!" What soldiers? and which way are they coming?" inquired the lady, anxiously going to the edge of the piazza for a better outlook. "Oh, de blue-coats, missis, an' dey all on horseback. Dar's more as fifty of 'em. Lors, missis, whar I go now?" "Don't be frightened, Folie!" said the lady, seemingly quite relieved by the girl's statement. "They wont harm you. Go into the house, and I will watch them!" The girl hastily obeyed her mistress, who, herself retreating, sat quietly down by the open window. She soon heard the clatter of advancing cavalry, though apparently only a small body, and in another moment the foremost riders were in sight, and the leader looked up. "Florence!" he exclaimed, reining in his horse by the little wicket-gate, while a bright flush rose to his checks. "Good-morning, Cousin Guy! You ride early!" was her perfectly cool and self-possessed salutation, as if she had seen him every day for months instead of only once in half a year. "I did not know but you had gone to the South Seas, or in search of Sir John Franklin. Will you come in?" "I do not think I cannot leave my men," was his hesitating reply; "and besides, my business is urgent." "But you have not breakfasted, and you cannot do better than to do so here. I shall be very happy to entertain your company, which I see is halted, and does not seem to be very numerous." "Only twenty; but I could not think of intruding so many Northern vandals upon your hospitality," he said, a little bitterly. "Do not speak of it. I shall be but too happy to entertain them." The lady's whole manner had changed, and it was impossible to guess by her tone whether this polite remark was made in irony or in earnest; but however it might have been, Captain Carleton accepted it as if the latter, and his men had soon picketed their horses in a large paddock, with each a measure of oats before them, and were themselves quartered in a large, pleasant room, overlooking the distant intrenchments of Vicksburg; while the domestics, under the busy, bustling direction of Folie were zealously occupied in preparing a hearty and generous repast. Indeed, judging from their smiling excitement and unusual activity, they were well-pleased to have the opportunity to wait on the Northern soldiers. Chickens, eggs, snowy biscuits, huge slices of honeycomb, and a variety of other tempting viands, made their appearance one after another, promising a rare feast to men whose sole diet had long been salt beef, pork, and hard-tack. "Nuffin too good for Massa Linclum's men," was the by-remark, as each new offering made its appearance. Meanwhile, Captain Carleton entered the elegant little parlor where Florence was accustomed to sit, and which he remembered from many a visit there before. It was a cheery, charming room, filled with a thousand tasteful evidences of its owner's cultivation and skill. The superb piano, and its music-rack piled with music, the elegant bookcase with its rare contents, the books and magazines on the little tables, the charming vases, filled with choice and fragrant flowers, the statuettes in bronze and parian, of many a graceful design, and the tiny work-basket on the little table in the favorite baywindow, all indicated education, refinement, and elegance of taste. A few minutes' conversation on ordinary topics, such as usually arises the first moments between friends who have not met for a considerable time, and who are not altogether certain of the ground they stand on, ensued. It soon flagged, and Carleton arose, and taking a seat nearer to the lady, remarked with an almost reproachful tone, "And you are still here, Florence, not withstanding the threatening proximity of have no further occasion for anxiety. We our army y?" "Yes, Guy." "But why remain? As you were not willing to go among my friends at the North, even within the intrenchments would be better than here, unprotected as you are. I cannot be always near you." "I do not wish that you should," replied the lady, coloring; "I am safe." "The old story!" impetuously interrupted the young officer. "Isn't it true? Who will molest me? Not the Confederates, surely; and will your boasted defenders of freedom and the oppressed interfere with a widowed mother and her little ones, I ask?" Carleton bit his lip. "Not those who are worthy of fighting for such a cause, Florence; but no one can answer for what the hangers-on of the army may do, should your immediate neighborhood be occupied by our troops, as it soon will be. But even if I were able to protect you from them, as I should hope to be, you are never safe from the murderous guerrillas, who are even now prowling in all directions like wolves around a last-week's battle-field. Who could save you and your little ones from them?" Florence grew very pale, and did not answer for a minute, when she said, "I will acknowledge that you have some reason for your fears in that direction." "Why, then, do you not avoid the dangers you acknowledge to be real, by leaving this house to the care of your domestics, or closing it altogether?" "Oh, as to leaving it in charge of my domestics," she answered, smilingly, "you know very well they would one-half be within your lines in a week. But that I care little about, and I will confess that I had already determined on immediate arrangements to go into the city. In fact, General Pemberton is even more anxious than you are, and has already given me notice that a cave has been prepared for me, and that I shall not be allowed to remain here more than a day or two longer. So you see, Guy," she added. with a sad kind of smile. " von shall soon be safe under ground.” Carleton sprung to his feet and rapidly paced the room. Then suddenly stopping in front of her, Is it necessary, then, for me to marry a Northern vandal to be safe in a free country, in my own home?" interrupted she, with a sudden passion in her look and voice. I don't think so, whatever you may do; and so welcome the caves of Vicksburg!" 66 "Florence!" exclaimed Carleton, with concentrated love and anger in his voice and eye, "you do not mean what you say! You! you! a Northern girl, the daughter of sires who fought for the government you are willing to see destroyed, who were proud to be New Englanders, is it you whom I hear stigmatizing those who are in arms for the perpetuation of that same government as Northern vandals? O Florence, after all these years, after all that has been between us, is it come to this?" Florence glared her starry eyes upon the young man like some long-hunted deer at last held at bay. How dare you accuse me so? What right have you to say that I am disloyal to my fathers and all that they battled to sustain? Do you wish to drive me to some desperate act?" "No, Florence; you know that I would do anything to save you from all harm. Oh, if you had only had confidence in me!" "I have confidence in you, Guy!" she passionately answered. "All my confidence is in you. But you don't know what you are doing. You thwart me. You try to abridge my liberty when I most need it." "Florence, if I seem to thwart you, it is because, being a man, I know far bet ter than you what is needful for your safety in these dark and stormy times. What need have you for extraordinary liberty iust now?" |