The Trials of the Soldier's Wife
Page 15
CHAPTER FIFTEENTH.
ARRIVAL OF HARRY.
The next day Emily prepared herself to welcome the return of herlover, while Dr. Humphries proceeded to the railroad depot to meethim. In the meantime, we will give our readers a brief account ofHarry's escape.
After leaving Chicago, Harry made his way through the country towardsthe Tennessee river. His journey was a dangerous one, for the peopleof Illinois where then highly elated at the successes which hadattended the Yankee arms, and the few sympathisers that the South hadin their midst, were afraid to express their sympathies. He, luckily,however, succeeded in finding out a worthy gentleman, who not onlybefriended him, but furnished the necessary means for his journey, andprocured a passport for him to visit Nashville. Prepared for acontinuation of his travel, Harry, who had been staying at theresidence of his noble hearted host for three days, bade him adieu,and started on his way to Nashville. On arriving at Frankfort,Kentucky, he met with a man he had become acquainted with inMississippi, but who, on account of his strong Union proclivities, wascompelled to leave the South at the commencement of the war. Thiscreature immediately recognized Harry, and knowing that he had alwaysbeen an ardent Secessionist, conjectured that he was either a spy, oran escaped prisoner. Harry was accordingly arrested and carried beforethe military authorities, but his persistent denial of any knowledgeof the man who had caused his arrest, and the passport he had receivedfrom the generous Illinoisan, induced the Yankee officer by whom hewas examined, to release him, and permit his departure for Nashville.
Harry had many hair breadth escapes from detection and capture, butsurmounting all the dangers which beset his path, he succeeded Inreaching the Confederate lines in safety, and immediately started forJackson. But one thing marred the joy he experienced at his daringlywon freedom, and that was his ignorance of Alfred's fate. Had not thelove of freedom been too strong in his breast, he would have returnedand endeavored to find his friend, but the success of his escape, andthe idea that Alfred may have pursued a different road, deterred himfrom so doing. He determined, however, to make enquiry on his returnto Jackson, whether his friend had arrived there, he having promisedHarry to call on Dr. Humphries after they should arrive in theConfederate lines. He was not aware of the wound his friend hadreceived, for though the Chicago papers made a notice of the attemptedescape, and wounding of one of the prisoners, the notice was neverseen by him, as he had no opportunity of getting a newspaper.
On arriving at Jackson, the evening after he had forwarded histelegraphic dispatch, Harry found Dr. Humphries at the depot awaitinghis arrival. After they had exchanged hearty expressions of delight atmeeting each other again, they proceeded to the house where Emma wasanxiously looking out for her lover.
The customary salutations between lovers who have been separated beingover, Harry proceeded to give an account of his escape, which waslistened to with great interest by his hearers.
"By the way," he remarked, as soon as he had concluded, "has a soldiergiving his name as Wentworth, and claiming to be a friend of mine,called here within the last ten days."
"No one has called here of that name," replied Dr. Humphries.
"I am very anxious to receive some intelligence of him," remarkedHarry, "He was the friend I mentioned, having made my escape with."
"He may have taken a different road to the one you pursued," Dr.Humphries observed.
"If I were satisfied in my mind that he did escape safely, my fearswould be allayed," he answered, "but," he continued, "we left thegates of the prison together, and were not four yards apart when thetreachery of the guard was discovered. We both started at a full run,and almost instantaneously the Yankees, who lay in ambush for us,fired, their muskets in the direction we were going. The bulletswhistled harmless by me, and I continued my flight at the top of myspeed, nor did I discover the absence of my friend until some distancefrom the prison, when stopping to take breath, I called him by name,and receiving no answer found out that he was not with me. I am afraidhe might have been shot."
"Did you hear no cry after the Yankees had fired," enquired Dr.Humphries.
"No, and that is the reason I feel anxious to learn his fate. Had heuttered any cry, I should be certain that he was wounded, but thesilence on his part may have been caused from instant death."
"You would have, heard him fall at any rate; had he been struck by theYankee bullets," remarked Dr. Humphries.
"That is very doubtful," he replied. "I was running at such a rapidrate, and the uproar made by the Yankees was sufficient to drown thesound that a fall is likely to create."
"I really trust your friend is safe," said Dr. Humphries. "Perhaps,after all, he did not make any attempt to escape, but surrenderedhimself to the Yankees."
"There is not the slightest chance of his having done such a thing,"Harry answered. "He was determined to escape, and had told me that hewould rather be shot than be re-captured, after once leaving theprison. I shall never cease to regret the misfortune should he havefallen in our attempt to escape. His kindness to me at Fort Donelsonhad caused a warm friendship to spring up between us. Besides which,he has a wife and two small children in New Orleans, who were the solecause of his attempting to escape. He informed me that they were notin very good circumstances, and should Alfred Wentworth have beenkilled at Camp Douglas, God help his poor widow and orphans!"
"Did you say his name was Alfred Wentworth," inquired Emma, for thefirst time joining in the conversation.
"Yes, and do you know anything about him?" he asked.
"No," she replied, "I know nothing of the gentleman, but father boughta slave on yesterday, who stated that she has belonged to a gentlemanof New Orleans, of the name you mentioned just now."
"By what means did you purchase her?" asked Harry addressing himselfto Dr. Humphries.
The Doctor related to him the circumstances which occasioned thepurchase, as well as the statement of Elsy. Harry listenedattentively, for the friendship he felt for his friend naturally madehim interested in all that concerned Alfred, or his family.
"Is there no way by which I can discover where Mrs. Wentworth isresiding at present?" he enquired, after a moment of thought.
"None that I could devise," answered Dr. Humphries. "I know nothing ofthe family personally, nor would I have known anything of theirexistence, had not chance carried me to the auction sale, at which Ipurchased Elsy."
"Call the girl here for me," Harry said: "I must learn something moreof the departure of Mrs. Wentworth and her children from New Orleans,and endeavor to obtain a clue to her whereabouts. It is a duty I oweto the man who saved my life, that everything I can do for his familyshall be performed."
Emma left the room as he was speaking, and shortly after returned,followed by Elsy.
"Here is the girl," she said, as she entered.
"So you belonged to Mr. Wentworth of New Orleans, did you?" Harrycommenced.
"I used to belong to him," replied Elsy.
"What made Mrs. Wentworth leave New Orleans?" he asked, continuing hisquestions.
Elsy gave a long account of the villainy of Awtry, in the usual styleadopted by negroes, but sufficiently intelligible for Harry tounderstand the cause of Mrs. Wentworth being compelled to abandon herhome, and take refuge in the Confederate lines.
"Did not your mistress state where she was going," he asked.
"No, sah," replied Elsy. "My mistis jest told me good bye when sheleft wid de children. I promised her I would get away from de Yankees,but she forgot to tell me whar she was gwine to lib."
"Did she bring out plenty of money with her?" he enquired.
"Yes, sah," Elsy answered. She had seen the sum of money possessed byMrs. Wentworth, on her departure from New Orleans, and it being a muchlarger amount than she had ever beheld before, made the faithful girlbelieve that her mistress had left with quite a fortune.
"Very well, you can go now," remarked Harry. "It is a satisfaction,"he continued as Elsy left the room, "to know that Wentworth's wife is
well provided with money, although it does appear strange that sheshould have a plenty of funds, when her husband informed me, while inprison, that the money he left her with could not maintain his wifeand children for any great length of time."
"She may have been furnished with money by some friend, who intendingto remain in the city, had no use for Confederate Treasury notes," Dr.Humphries remarked.
"That is very likely, and I trust it is so," observed Harry,"However," he continued, "I shall take steps on Monday next, to findout where Mrs. Wentworth is now residing."
On Monday the following advertisement appeared in the evening papers:
INFORMATION WANTED.
Any one knowing where Mrs. Eva Wentworth and her two children reside, will be liberally rewarded, by addressing the undersigned at this place. Mrs. Wentworth is a refugee from New Orleans, and the wife of a gallant soldier, now a prisoner of war.
Jackson,----1862. H. SHACKLEFORD.
It was too late. Extensively published as it was, Mrs. Wentworth neversaw it. Her hardships and trials had increased ten-fold; she was fastdrifting before the storm, with breakers before, threatening to wreckand sink into the grave the wife and children of Alfred Wentworth.