Then I pondered within myself--"If her hate
be heavy to bear, what--what--would her love be?" The unutterable horror
of the idea gave me courage that I might otherwise have lacked, to
confess my intentions of absconding. But I avow that the liberality of
the parting largesse is to be attributed to the meanest motives--of
personal fear.
On the railway platform, shaking the mud of Washington from my drenched
boots, I purposed never to return thither. But I reckoned without my
future hosts, MM. Seward and Stanton, who, though I have trespassed on
their hospitality, now for some weeks, seem still loth to let me go.
CHAPTER III.
CAPUA.
The southward approach to Baltimore is very well managed. The railroad
makes an abrupt curve, as it sweeps round the marshy woodlands through
which the Patapsco opens into the bay; so that you have a fair view of
the entire city, swelling always upwards from the water's edge, on a
cluster of low, irregular hills, to the summit of Mount Vernon. From
that highest point soars skyward a white, glistening pillar crowned by
Washington's statue. I have seldom seen a monument better placed, and it
is worthy of its advantages. The figure retains much of the strength and
grace for which in life it was renowned, and, if ever features were
created, worthy of the deftest sculptor and the purest marble, such,
surely, was the birthright of that noble, serene face.
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