The Earth Trembled

The Earth Trembled

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Title: The Earth Trembled
Author: E.P. Roe
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6719] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 19, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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[Illustration: "Well Chile, Wot You Wants Ter Say?"]
The Works of E. P. Roe
VOLUME FIFTEEN
THE EARTH TREMBLED
ILLUSTRATED

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
MARY WALLINGFORD
CHAPTER II
LOVE'S AGONY
CHAPTER III
UNCLE SHEBA'S EXPERIENCE
CHAPTER IV
MARA
CHAPTER V
PAST AND FUTURE
CHAPTER VI
"PAHNASHIP"
CHAPTER VII
MARA'S PURPOSE
CHAPTER VIII
NEVER FORGET; NEVER FORGIVE
CHAPTER IX
A NEW SOLACE
CHAPTER X
MISS AINSLEY
CHAPTER XI
TWO QUESTIONS
CHAPTER XII
A "FABULATION"
CHAPTER XIII
CAPTAIN BODINE
CHAPTER XIV
"ALL GIRLS TOGETHER"
CHAPTER XV
TWO LITTLE BAKERS
CHAPTER XVI
HONEST FOES
CHAPTER XVII
FIRESIDE DRAMAS
CHAPTER XVIII
A FAIR DUELLIST
CHAPTER XIX
A CHIVALROUS SURPRISE
CHAPTER XX
THE STRANGER EXPLAINS
CHAPTER XXI
UNCLE SHEBA SAT UPON
CHAPTER XXII
YOUNG HOUGHTON IS DISCUSSED
CHAPTER XXIII
THE WARNING
CHAPTER XXIV
"THE IDEA!"
CHAPTER XXV
FEMININE FRIENDS
CHAPTER XXVI
ELLA'S CRUMB OF COMFORT
CHAPTER XXVII
RECOGNIZED AS LOVER
CHAPTER XXVIII
"HEAVEN SPEED YOU THEN"
CHAPTER XXIX
CONSTERNATION
CHAPTER XXX
TEMPESTS
CHAPTER XXXI
"I ABSOLVE YOU"
CHAPTER XXXII
FALSE SELF-SACRIFICE
CHAPTER XXXIII
A SURE TEST
CHAPTER XXXIV
"BITTERNESS MUST BE CHERISHED"
CHAPTER XXXV
NOBLE REVENGE
CHAPTER XXXVI
A FATHER'S FRENZY
CHAPTER XXXVII
CLOUDS LIFTING
CHAPTER XXXVIII
"YES, VILET"
CHAPTER XXXIX
THE EARTHQUAKE
CHAPTER XL
"GOD"
CHAPTER XLI
SCENES NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN
CHAPTER XLII
A HOMELESS CITY
CHAPTER XLIII
"THE TERROR BY NIGHT"
CHAPTER XLIV
HOPE TURNED INTO DREAD
CHAPTER XLV
A CITY ENCAMPING
CHAPTER XLVI
"ON JORDAN'S BANKS WE STAN'"
CHAPTER XLVII
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF A NIGHT
CHAPTER XLVIII
GOOD BROUGHT OUT OF EVIL

THE EARTH TREMBLED

THE EARTH TREMBLED
CHAPTER I
MARY WALLINGFORD
At the beginning of the Civil War there was a fine old residence on Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina, inhabited by a family almost as old as the State. Its inheritor and owner, Orville Burgoyne, was a widower. He had been much saddened in temperament since the death of the wife, and had withdrawn as far as possible from public affairs. His library and the past had secured a stronger hold upon his interest and his thoughts than anything in the present, with one exception, his idolized and only child, Mary, named for her deceased mother. Any book would be laid aside when she entered; all gloom banished from his eyes when she coaxed and caressed him.
She was in truth one to be loved because so capable of love herself. She conquered and ruled every one not through wilfulness or imperiousness, but by a gentle charm, all her own, which disarmed opposition.
At first Mr. Burgoyne had paid little heed to the mutterings which preceded the Civil War, believing them to be but Chinese thunder, produced by ambitious politicians, North and South. He was preoccupied by the study of an old system of philosophy which he fancied possessed more truth than many a more plausible and modern one. Mary, with some fancy work in her hands, often watched his deep abstraction in wondering awe, and occasionally questioned him in regard to his thoughts and studies; but as his explanations were almost unintelligible, she settled down to the complacent belief that her father was one of the most learned men in the world.
At last swiftly culminating events aroused Mr. Burgoyne from his abstraction and drove him from his retirement. He accepted what he believed to be duty in profound sorrow and regret. His own early associations and those of his ancestors had been with the old flag and its fortunes; his relations to the political leaders of the South were too slight to produce any share in the alienation and misunderstandings which had been growing between the two great sections of his country, and he certainly had not the slightest sympathy with those who had fomented the ill-will for personal ends. Finally, however, he had found himself face to face with the momentous certainty of a separation of his State from the Union. For a time he was bewildered and disturbed beyond measure; for he was not a prompt man of affairs, living keenly in the present, but one who had been suddenly and rudely summoned from the academic groves of the old philosophers to meet the burning imperative questions of the day--questions put with the passionate