The Metropolis | Page 2

his shattered command, and held the line until help
came-and then helped to hold it, all through the afternoon and the
twilight and the night, against charge after charge.--And now to stand
and gaze at this stout and red-nosed little personage, and realize that
these mighty deeds had been his!

Then, even while Montague was returning his hand-clasp and telling
him of his pleasure, the Major's eye caught some one across the room,
and he called eagerly, "Colonel Anderson! Colonel Anderson!"
And this was the heroic Jack Anderson! "Parson" Anderson, the men
had called him, because he always prayed before everything he did.
Prayers at each mess,--a prayer-meeting in the evening,--and then
rumour said the Colonel prayed on while his men slept. With his
battery of artillery trained to perfection under three years of divine
guidance, the gallant Colonel had stood in the line of battle at Cold
Harbour--name of frightful memory!--and when the enemy had
swarmed out of their intrenchments and swept back the whole line just
beyond him, his battery had stood like a cape in a storm-beaten ocean,
attacked on two sides at once; and for the half-hour that elapsed before
infantry support came up, the Colonel had ridden slowly up and down
his line, repeating in calm and godly accents, "Give 'em hell,
boys--give 'em hell!"--The Colonel's hand trembled now as he held it
out, and his voice was shrill and cracked as he told what pleasure it
gave him to meet General Montague's son.
"Why have we never seen you before?" asked Major Thorne. Montague
replied that he had spent all his life in Mississippi--his father having
married a Southern woman after the war. Once every year the General
had come to New York to attend the reunion of the Loyal Legion of the
State; but some one had had to stay at home with his mother, Montague
explained.
There were perhaps a hundred men in the room, and he was passed
about from group to group. Many of them had known his father
intimately. It seemed almost uncanny to him to meet them in the body;
to find them old and feeble, white-haired and wrinkled. As they lived in
the chambers of his memory, they were in their mighty youth-heroes,
transfigured and radiant, not subject to the power of time.
Life on the big plantation had been a lonely one, especially for a
Southern-born man who had fought in the Union army. General
Montague had been a person of quiet tastes, and his greatest pleasure
had been to sit with his two boys on his knees and "fight his battles o'er
again." He had collected all the literature of the corps which he had
commanded--a whole librarry of it, in which Allan had learned to find
his way as soon as he could read. He had literally been brought up on

the war--for hours he would lie buried in some big illustrated history,
until people came and called him away. He studied maps of campaigns
and battle-fields, until they became alive with human passion and
struggle; he knew the Army of the Potomac by brigade and division,
with the names of commanders, and their faces, and their ways-until
they lived and spoke, and the bare roll of their names had power to
thrill him.--And now here were the men themselves, and all these
scenes and memories crowding upon him in tumultuous throngs. No
wonder that he was a little dazed, and could hardly find words to
answer when he was spoken to.
But then came an incident which called him suddenly back to the world
of the present. "There is Judge Ellis," said the General.
Judge Ellis! The fame of his wit and eloquence had reached even far
Mississippi--was there any remotest corner of America where men had
not heard of the silver tongue of Judge Ellis? "Cultivate him!"
Montague's brother Oliver had laughed, when it was mentioned that the
Judge would be present--"Cultivate him--he may be useful."
It was not difficult to cultivate one who was as gracious as Judge Ellis.
He stood in the doorway, a smooth, perfectly groomed gentleman,
conspicuous in the uniformed assembly by his evening dress. The
Judge was stout and jovial, and cultivated Dundreary whiskers and a
beaming smile. "General Montague's son!" he exclaimed, as he pressed
the young man's hands. "Why, why--I'm surprised! Why have we never
seen you before?"
Montague explained that he had only been in New York about six
hours. "Oh, I see," said the Judge. "And shall you remain long?"
"I have come to stay," was the reply.
"Well, well!" said the other, cordially. "Then we may see more of you.
Are you going into business?"
"I am a lawyer," said Montague. "I expect to practise."
The Judge's quick glance had been taking the measure