Frank\'s Campaign, or, Farm and Camp
CHAPTER I. THE WAR MEETING The Town Hall in Rossville stands on a moderate elevation overlooking the principal street. It is generally open only when a meeting has been called by the Selectmen to transact town business, or occasionally in the evening when a lecture on temperance or a political address is to be delivered. Rossville is not large enough to sustain a course of lyceum lectures, and the townspeople are obliged to depend for intellectual nutriment upon such chance occasions as these. The majority of the inhabitants being engaged in agricultural pursuits, the population is somewhat scattered, and the houses, with the exception of a few grouped around the stores, stand at respectable distances, each encamped on a farm of its own. One Wednesday afternoon, toward the close of September, 1862, a group of men and boys might have been seen standing on the steps and in the entry of the Town House. Why they had met will best appear from a large placard, which had been posted up on barns and fences and inside the village store and postoffice.
We have both prayed, kneeling before the same altar--and with what
earnestness, God knows!--for your happiness. My dear brother, it
cannot be that these prayers will remain unanswered. Heaven will send
you the love which you seek, to be the consolation of your exile.
Marie read your letter with tears, and is full of admiration for you.
As for me, I consent, not for my own sake, but for that of the family.
The King justified your expectations. Oh! that I might avenge you by
letting him see himself, dwarfed before the scorn with which you flung
him his toy, as you might toss a tiger its food.
The only thing I have taken for myself, dear brother, is my happiness.
I have taken Marie. For this I shall always be beholden to you, as the
creature to the Creator. There will be in my life and in Marie's one
day not less glorious than our wedding day--it will be the day when we
hear that your heart has found its mate, that a woman loves you as you
ought to be, and would be, loved. Do not forget that if you live for
us, we also live for you.
You can write to us with perfect confidence under cover to the Nuncio,
sending your letters _via_ Rome. The French ambassador at Rome will,
no doubt, undertake to forward them to Monsignore Bemboni, at the
State Secretary's office, whom our legate will have advised. No other
way would be safe. Farewell, dear exile, dear despoiled one. Be proud
at least of the happiness which you have brought to us, if you cannot
be happy in it. God will doubtless hear our prayers, which are full of
CHAPTER I. THE WAR MEETING The Town Hall in Rossville stands on a moderate elevation overlooking the principal street. It is generally open only when a meeting has been called by the Selectmen to transact town business, or occasionally in the evening when a lecture on temperance or a political address is to be delivered. Rossville is not large enough to sustain a course of lyceum lectures, and the townspeople are obliged to depend for intellectual nutriment upon such chance occasions as these. The majority of the inhabitants being engaged in agricultural pursuits, the population is somewhat scattered, and the houses, with the exception of a few grouped around the stores, stand at respectable distances, each encamped on a farm of its own. One Wednesday afternoon, toward the close of September, 1862, a group of men and boys might have been seen standing on the steps and in the entry of the Town House. Why they had met will best appear from a large placard, which had been posted up on barns and fences and inside the village store and postoffice.