Taken by the Enemy | Page 6

one side or the other
shall be exhausted," replied Captain Passford, wiping from his brow the
perspiration which the intensity of his emotion produced. "A civil war
is the most bitter and terrible of all wars."
"I cannot understand it," added the lady.
"Is it really war, sir?" asked Christy, who had been an interested
listener to all that had been said.
"It is really war, my son," replied the father earnestly. "It will be a war
which cannot be carried to a conclusion by hirelings; but father, son,
and brother must take part in it, against father, son, and brother."
"It is terrible to think of," added Mrs. Passford with something like a
shudder, though she was a strong-minded woman in the highest sense
of the words.
Captain Passford then proceeded to inform his wife and son in regard to
all the events which had transpired since he had received his latest
papers at Bermuda. They listened with the most intense interest, and
the trio were as solemn as though they had met to consider the
dangerous illness of the absent member of the family.

The owner did not look upon the impending war as a sort of frolic, as
did many of the people at the North and the South, and he could not
regard it as a trivial conflict which would be ended in a few weeks or a
few months. To him it was the most terrible reality which his
imagination could picture; and more clearly than many eminent
statesmen, he foresaw that it would be a long and fierce encounter.
"From what you say, Horatio, I judge that the South is already arming
for the conflict," said Mrs. Passford, after she had heard her husband's
account of what had occurred on shore.
"The South has been preparing for war for months, and the North began
to make serious preparation for coming events as soon as Fort Sumter
fell. Doubtless the South is better prepared for the event to-day than the
North, though the greater population and vast resources of the latter
will soon make up for lost time," replied the captain.
"And Florry is right in the midst of the gathering armies of the South,"
added the fond mother, wiping a tear from her eyes.
"She is; and, unless something is done at once to restore her to her
home, she may have to remain in the enemy's country for months, if not
for years," answered the father, with a slight trembling of the lips.
"But what can be done?" asked the mother anxiously.
"The answer to that question has agitated me more than any thing else
which has come to my mind for years, for I cannot endure the thought
of leaving her even a single month at any point which is as likely as
any other to become a battle-field in a few days or a few weeks,"
continued Captain Passford, with some return of the agitation which
had before shaken him so terribly.
"Of course your brother Homer will take care of her," said the terrified
mother, as she gazed earnestly into the expressive face of the
stout-hearted man before her.
"Certainly he will do all for Florry that he would do for his own

children, but he may not long be able to save his own family from the
horrors of war."
"Do you think she will be in any actual danger, Horatio?"
"I have no doubt she will be as safe at Glenfield, if the conflict were
raging there, as she would be at Bonnydale under the same
circumstances. From the nature of the case, the burden of the fighting,
the havoc and desolation, will be within the Southern States, and few, if
any, of the battle-fields will be on Northern soil, or at least as far north
as our home."
"From what I have seen of the people near the residence of your brother,
they are neither brutes nor savages," added the lady.
"No more than the people of the North; but war rouses the brute nature
of most men, and there will be brutes and savages on both sides, from
the very nature of the case."
"In his recent letters, I mean those that came before we sailed from
home, Homer did not seem to take part with either side in the political
conflict; and in those which came to us at the Azores and Bermuda, he
did not say a single word to indicate whether he is a secessionist, or in
favor of the Union. Do you know how he stands, Horatio?"
"My means of knowing are the same as yours, and I can be no wiser
than you are on this point, though I have my opinion," replied Captain
Passford.
"What is your opinion?"
"That he is as