"I do not think so; that is impossible now. I did not believe that war
was possible: now I do not believe it will be over till 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.
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