University of Virginia Library

12. CHAPTER XII.
COLONEL CARTER BEFRIENDS THE RAVENELS.

Captain Colburne indulged in a natural expectation
that the kiss which he had laid on Miss Ravenel's hand
would draw him nearer to her and render their relations
more sentimentally sympathetic. He did not base his hopes,
however, on the impression produced by the mere physical
contact of the salute; he had such an exalted opinion
of the young lady's spiritual purity that he never
thought of believing that she could be influenced by any
simply carnal impulses, however innocent; and furthermore
he was himself in a too exalted and seraphic state of
feeling to attach much importance to the mere motion of
the blood and thrillings of the spinal marrow. But he did
think, in an unreasoning, blindly longing way, that the
fact of his having kissed her once was good reason for
hoping that he might some day kiss her again, and be permitted
to love her without exciting her anger, and possibly
even gain the wondrous boon of being loved by her.
Notwithstanding his practical New England education,
and his individual sensitiveness at the idea of doing or so
much as meditating any thing ridiculous, he drifted into
certain reveries of conceivable interviews with the young
lady, wherein she and he gradually and sweetly approxinated
until matrimony seemed to be the only natural conclusion.
But the next time he called at the Ravenel house,
he found Mrs. Larue there, and, what was worse, Colonel

Carter. Lillie remembered the kiss, to be sure, and
blushed at the sight of the giver; but she preserved her
self-possession in all other respects, and was evidently not
a charmed victim. I think I am able to assure the reader
that in her head the osculation had given birth to no reveries.
It is true that for a moment it had startled her
greatly, and seemed to awaken in her some mighty and
mysterious influence. But it is also true that she was half
angry at him for troubling her spiritual nature so potently,
and that on the whole he had not advanced himself
a single step in her affections by his audacity. If any
thing, she treated him with more reserve and kept him at
a greater distance than before.

Mrs. Larue did her best to make up for the indifference
of Lillie, and to reward Colburne, not so much for his
friendly offices of the evening previous, as for his other
and in her eyes much greater merits of being young and
handsome. The best that the widow could offer, however,
was little to the Captain; indeed had she laid her heart,
hand and fortune at his feet he would only have been embarrassed
by the unacceptable benificence; and he was
even somewhat alarmed at the dangerous glitter of her
eyes and freedom of her conversation. It must be understood
here that Madame's devotion to him, fervent as it
seemed, was not whole-hearted. She would have preferred
to harness the Colonel into her triumphal chariot, and had
only given up that idea after a series of ineffectual efforts.
Some men can be driven by a cunning hand through flirtations
which they do not enjoy, just as a spiritless horse
can be held down and touched up, to a creditable trot;
but Carter was not a nag to be managed in this way,
being too experienced and selfish, too willful by nature
and too much accustomed to domineer, to allow himself
to be guided by a jockey whom he did not fancy. Could
she have got at him alone and often enough she might
perhaps have broken him in; for she knew of certain
secret methods of rareyizing gentlemen which hardly ever

fail upon persons of Carter's physical and moral nature;
but thus far she had found neither the time nor the juxtaposition
necessary to a trial of her system. Accordingly
she had been obliged to admit, and make the best of, the
fact that he was resolved to do the most of his talking
with Miss Ravenel. Leave the two alone she could not,
according to New Orleans ideas of propriety, and so was
compelled for a time to play what might be called a footman's
part in conversation, standing behind and listening.
It was a pleasant relief from this experience to take the
ribbons in her own hands and drive the tractable though
reluctant Colburne. While the Colonel and Lillie talked
in the parlor, the Captain and Mrs. Larue held long dialogues
in the balcony. He let her have the major part of
these conversations because she liked it, because he felt
no particular spirit for it, and because as a listener he could
glance oftener at Miss Ravenel. Although a younger
man than Carter and a handsomer one, he never thought
to outshine him, or, in common parlance, to cut him out;
holding him in too high respect as a superior officer, and
looking up to him also with that deference which most
homebred, unvitiated youth accord to mature worldlings.
The innocent country lad bows to the courtly roué because
he perceives his polish and does not suspect his corruption.
Captain Colburne and Miss Ravenel were similarly innocent
and juvenile in their worshipful appreciation of
Colonel Carter. The only difference was that the former,
being a man, made no secret of his admiration, while the
latter, being a marriageable young lady, covered hers under
a mask of playful raillery.

“Are you not ashamed,” she said, “to let me catch you
tyrannizing over my native city?”

“Don't mention it. Havn't the heart to go on much
longer. I'll resign the mayoralty to-day if you will accept
it.”

“Offer it to my father, and see if I don't accept for him.”

This was a more audacious thrust than the young lady

was aware of. The idea of a civilian mayor was one that
High Authority considered feasible, provided a citizen
could be found who was loyal enough to deserve the post,
and influential enough to pay for it by building up that
so much-desired Union party.

“A good suggestion,” said the Colonel. “I shall respectfully
refer it to the distinguished consideration of the
commanding general.”

He entertained no such intention, the extras of his
mayoralty being exceedingly important to him in view of
the extent and costly nature of his present domestic establishment.

“Oh, don't!” answered Miss Ravenel.

“Why not? if you please.”

“Because that would be bribing me to turn Yankee outright.”

This brief passage in a long conversation suggested to
Carter that it might be well for himself to procure some
position or profitable employment for the out-of-work Doctor.
If a man seems likely to appropriate your peaches,
one of the best things that you can do is to offer him somebody
else's apples. Moreover he actually felt a sincere
and even strong interest in the worldly welfare of the
Ravenels. By a little dexterous questioning he found
that, not only was the Doctor's college bare of students,
but that his railroad stock paid nothing, and that, in short,
he had lost all his property except his house and some
small bank deposits. Ravenel smilingly admitted that he
had been justly punished for investing in any thing which
bore even a geographical relation to the crime of slavery.
He received with bewildered though courteously calm astonishment
a proposition that he should try his hand at a
sugar speculation.

“I beg pardon. I really don't understand,” said he.
“I am so unaccustomed to business transactions.”

“Why, you buy the sugar for six cents a pound and
sell it for twenty.”

“Bless me, what a profit! Why don't business men
take advantage of the opportunity?”

“Because they havn't the opportunity. Because it requires
a permit from the powers that be to get the sugar.”

“Oh! confiscated sugar. I comprehend. But I supposed
that the Government—”

“You don't comprehend at all, my dear Doctor. Not
confiscated sugar, but sugar that we can't confiscate—
sugar beyond our reach—beyond the lines. You must
understand that the rebels want quinine, salt, shoes, gold
and lots of things. We want sugar and cotton. A barter
is effected, and each party is benefited. I should call
it a stupid arrangement and contrary to the laws of war,
only that it is permitted by—by very high authority. At
all events, it is very profitable and perfectly safe.”

“You really astonish me,” confessed the Doctor, whose
looks expressed even more amazement than his language.
“I should have considered such a trade nothing less than
treasonable.”

“I don't mean to say that it isn't. But I am willing to
make allowances for the parties who engage in it, considering
whose auspices they act under. As I was saying,
the trade is contrary to the articles of war. It is giving
aid and comfort to the enemy. But the powers that be,
for unknown reasons which I am of course bound to respect,
grant permits to certain persons to bring about
these exchanges. I don't doubt that such a permit could
be obtained for you. Will you accept it?”

“Would you accept it for yourself?” asked the Doctor.

“I am a United States officer,” replied the Colonel,
squaring his shoulders. “And a born Virginian gentleman,”
he was about to add, but checked himself.

By the way, it is remarkable how rarely this man spoke
of his native State. It is likely enough that he had some
remorse of conscience, or rather some qualms of sentiment,
as to the choice which he had made in fighting against,
instead of for, the Old Dominion. If he ever mentioned

her name, it was simply to express his pleasure that he
was not warring within her borders. In other respects it
would have been difficult to infer from his conversation
that he was a southerner, or that he was conscious of being
any thing but a graduate of West Point and an officer
of the United States army. But it was only in political
matters that he was false to his birth-place. In his strong
passions, his capacity for domestic sympathies, his strange
conscience (as sensitive on some points as callous on
others), his spendthrift habits, his inclination to swearing
and drinking, his mixture in short of gentility and barbarism,
he was a true child of his class and State. He
was a Virginian in his vacillation previous to a decision,
and in the vigor which he could exhibit after having once
decided. A Virginian gentleman is popularly supposed
to be a combination of laziness and dignity. But this is
an error; the type would be considered a marvel of energy
in some countries; and, as we have seen in this war, it is
capable of amazing activity, audacity and perseverance.
Of all the States which have fought against the Union
Virginia has displayed the most formidable military qualities.

“And I am a United States citizen,” said the Doctor,
as firmly as the Colonel, though without squaring his
shoulders or making any other physical assertion of lofty
character.

“Very well.—You mean it, I suppose.—Of course you
do.—You are quite right. It isn't the correct thing, this
trade, as a matter of course. Still, knowing that it was
allowed, and not knowing how you might feel about it, I
thought I would offer you the chance. It pays like piracy.
I have known a single smuggle to net forty thousand
dollars, after paying hush money and every thing.”

“Shocking!” said the Doctor. “But you mustn't
think that I am not obliged to you. I really am grateful
for your interest in my well-being. Only I can't accept.
Some men have virtue strong enough to survive such

things; but I fear that my character is of too low and feeble
a standard.”

“You are not offended, I hope,” observed the Colonel
after a thoughtful pause, during which he debated
whether he should offer the Doctor the mayoralty, and decided
in the negative.

“Not at all. I beg you to believe, not at all. But
how is it possible that such transactions are not checked!”
he exclaimed, recurring to his amazement. “The government
ought to be informed of them.”

“Who is to inform? Not the barterers nor their abettors,
I suppose. You don't expect that of these business
fellows. You think perhaps that I ought to expose the
thing. But in the army we obey orders without criticising
our superiors publicly. Suppose I should inform, and find
myself unable to prove any thing, and be dismissed the
service.”

The Doctor hung his head in virtuous discouragement,
admitting to himself that this world is indeed an unsatisfactory
planet.

“You may rely upon my secrecy concerning all this,
Colonel,” he said.

“I do so; at least so far as regards your authority. As
for the trade itself, I don't care how soon it is blown
upon.”

If the Colonel had been a quoter of poetry, which he
was not, he would probably have repeated as he walked
homeward “An honest man's the noblest work of God.”
What he did say to himself was, “By Jove! I must get
the Doctor a good thing of some sort.”

Ten days later he called at the house with a second
proposition which astonished Ravenel almost as much as
the first.

“Miss Ravenel,” he said, “you are a very influential
person. Every body who knows you admits it. Mr. Colburne
admits it. I admit it.”

Lillie blushed with unusual heartiness and tried in vain

to think of some saucy answer. The Colonel's quizzical
smile, his free and easy compliments and confident address,
sometimes touched the pride of the young lady, and
made her desire to rebel against him.

“I want you,” he continued, “to persuade Doctor Ravenel
to be a colonel.”

“A colonel!” exclaimed father and daughter.

“Yes, and a better colonel than half those in the service.”

“On which side, Colonel Carter?” asked Miss Ravenel,
who saw a small chance for vengeance.

“Good heavens! Do you suppose I am recruiting for
rebel regiments?”

“I didn't know but Mrs. Larue might have brought you
over.”

The Colonel laughed obstreperously at the insinuation,
not in the least dashed by its pertness.

“No, it's a loyal regiment; black in the face with loyalty.
General Butler has decided on organizing a force
out of the free colored population of the city.”

“It isn't possible. Oh, what a shame!” exclaimed
Lillie.

The Doctor said nothing, but leaned forward with
marked interest.

“There is no secret about it,” continued Carter. “The
thing is decided on, and will be made public immediately.
But it is a disagreeable affair to handle. It will make an
awful outcry, here and every where. It wouldn't be wise
to identify the Government too closely with it until it is
sure to be a success. Consequently the darkies will be enrolled
as militia—State troops, you see—just as your rebel
friend Lovell, Miss Ravenel, enrolled them. Moreover, to
give the arrangement a further local character it is thought
best to have at least one of the regiments commanded by
some well known citizen of New Orleans. I proposed
this idea to the General, and he doesn't think badly of it.
Now who will sacrifice himself for his country? Who

will make the niggers in uniform respectable? Doctor,
will you do it?”

“Papa, you shall do no such thing,” cried Lillie, thoroughly
provoked. Then, reproachfully, “Oh, Colonel Carter!”
The Colonel laughed with immovable good humor,
and surveyed her pretty wrath with calm admiration.

“Be quiet, my child,” pronounced the Doctor with an
unusual tone of authority. “Colonel, I am interested,
exceedingly interested in what you tell me. The idea is
admirable. It will be a lasting honor to the man who conceived
it.”

“Oh, papa!” protested Lillie. She was slightly unionized,
but not in the least abolitionized.

“I am delighted that General Butler has resolved to
take the responsibility of it,” continued the Doctor. “Our
free negroes are really a respectable class. Many of them
are wealthy and well educated. In the whole south General
Butler could not have found another so favorable a
place to try this experiment as New Orleans.”

“I am glad you think so,” answered the Colonel; but
he said it with an air of no great enthusiasm. In fact how
could an old army officer, a West Point military Brahmin
and a Virginian gentleman look with favor at first sight
on the plan of raising nigger regiments?

“But as for the colonelcy,” continued the Doctor.
“Are you positively serious in making me that proposition?”

“Positively.”

“Why, I am no more fit to be a Colonel than I am to
be a professor of Sanscrit and Chinese literature.”

“That need'nt stand in the way at all. That is of no
consequence.”

Ravenel laughed outright, and waited for an explanation.

“Your Lieutenant-Colonel and Major will be experienced
officers—that is, for volunteers,” said Carter. “They will
know the drill, at any rate. Your part will be simply to

give the thing a local coloring, as if the New Orleans
people had got it up among themselves.”

Here he burst into a horse-laugh at the idea of saddling
Louisianians with the imputation of desiring and raising
nigger soldiers for putting down the rebellion and slavery.

“You will have nothing to do with the regiment,” he
went on. As soon as it is organized, or under way, you
will be detached. You will be superintendent of negro education,
or superintendent of negro labor, or something of
that sort. You will have the rank and pay of Colonel,
you see; but your work will be civil instead of military;
it will be for the benefit of the niggers.”

“Oh, indeed!” answered the Doctor, his face for the
first time showing that the proposition had for him a pole
of attraction. “So officers can be detached for such purposes?
It is perfectly honorable, is it?”

“Quite so. Army custom. About the same thing as
making an officer a provost-marshal, or military governor,
or mayor.”

“Really, I am vastly tempted. I am vastly flattered
and very grateful. I must think of it. I will consider it
seriously.”

In his philanthropic excitement he rose and walked the
room for some minutes. The windows were open and admitted
what little noise of population there was in the
street, so that Miss Ravenel and the Colonel, sitting near
each other, could exchange a few words without being
overheard by the abstracted Doctor. I suspect that the
young lady was more angry at this moment than on any
previous occasion recorded in the present history. Colburne
would have quailed before her evident excitement,
but Colonel Carter, the widower, faced her with a smile of
good-natured amusement. Seeing that there was no prospect
of striking a panic into the foe, she made a flanking
movement instead of a direct attack.

“What do you suppose the old army will think of the
negro regiment plan?”

“Vin ordinaire, I suppose.”

“Then how can you advise my father to go into a thing
which you call vin ordinaire?” she demanded, her lips
trembling with an agitation which was partly anger, and
partly alarm at her own audacity.

As this was a question which Carter could not answer
satisfactorily without telling her that he knew how poor
her father was, and also knew what a bad thing poverty
was, he made no reply, but rose and sauntered about the
room with his thumbs in his vest pockets. And Lillie
was so curiously in awe of this mature man, who said
what he pleased and was silent when he pleased, that she
made no further assault on him.

“I must confess,” said the Doctor, resuming his seat,
“that this is a most attractive and flattering proposition.
I am vain enough to believe that I could be of use to
this poor, ignorant, brutish, down-trodden, insulted, plundered
race of pariahs and helots. If I could organize negro
labor in Louisiana on a basis just and profitable to all
parties, I should consider myself more honored than by
being made President of the United States in ordinary
times. If I could be the means of educating their darkened
minds and consciences to a decent degree of Christian
intelligence and virtue, I would not exchange my good
name for that of a Paul or an Apollos. My only objection
to this present plan is the colonelcy. I should be in a
false position. I should feel myself to be ridiculous. Not
that it is ridiculous to be a colonel,” he explained, smiling,
“but to wear the uniform and receive the pay of a colonel
without being one—there is the satire. Now could not
that point be evaded? Could I not be made superintendent
of negro labor without being burdened with the military
dignity? I really feel some conscientious scruples on
the matter, quite aside from my desire not to appear absurd.
I should be willing to do the work for less pay,
provided I could escape the livery. I am sorry to give
you any trouble when I am already under such obligations.

But would you have the kindness to inquire
whether this superintendency could not be established
without attaching to it the military position?”

“Certainly. But I foresee a difficulty. Will the General
dare to found such an office, and set aside public
money for its salary? I suppose he has no legal right to
do it. Detach an officer for the purpose—that is all very
simple and allowable; it's army fashion. But when it
comes to founding new civil offices, you trench upon
State or Federal authority. Besides, this superintendency
of negro labor is going to be a heavy thing, and the General
may want to keep it directly under his own thumb, as
he can do if the superintendent is an army officer. However,
I will ask your question. And, if the civil office
can be founded, you will accept it; is it not so?”

“I do accept. Most gratefully, most proudly.”

“But how if the superintendency can't be had without
the colonelcy?”

“Why, then I—I fear I shall be forced to decline. I
really don't feel that I can place myself in a false position.
Only don't suppose that I am unconscious of my profound
obligations to you.”

“What an old trump of a Don Quixote!” mused the
Colonel as he lit his segar in the street for the walk homeward.
“It's devilish handsome conduct in him; but, by
Jove! I don't believe the old fellow can afford it. I'm
afraid it will be up-hill work for him to get a decent living
in this wicked world, however he may succeed in the
next.”

A few minutes later a cold chill of worldly wisdom
struck through his enthusiasm.

“He hasn't starved long enough to bring him to his
milk,” he thought. “When he gets down to his last dollar,
and a thousand or two below it, he won't be so particular
as to how he lines his pockets.”

The Colonel almost felt that a civilian had no right to
such a delicate and costly sense of honor. He would have

been rather glad to have the Doctor enter into some of
these schemes for getting money, inasmuch as this same
filthy lucre was all that Miss Ravenel needed to make her
a very attractive partie. The next day he repaired at the
earliest office hours to head-quarters, and plead earnestly
to have the proposed superintendency founded on the basis
of a civil office, the salary to be furnished by the State,
or by the city, or by a per-centage levied on the wages of
the negroes. But the Proconsul did not like to assume
such a responsibility, and moreover would not sympathise
with the Doctor's fastidiousness on the subject of the uniform.
The Colonel hurried back to Ravenel and urged
him to accept the military appointment. He repeated to
him, “Remember, this is a matter of twenty-six hundred a
year,” with a pertinacity which was the same as to say,
“You know that you cannot afford to refuse such a salary.”
The Doctor did not dispute the correctness of the
insinuation, but persisted with smiling obstinacy in declining
the eagles. I am inclined to think that he was
somewhat unreasonable on the subject, and that the Colonel
was not far from right in being secretly a little angry
with him. The latter did not care a straw for the niggers,
but he desired very earnestly to put the Ravenels on the
road to fortune, and he foresaw that a superintendent of
colored labor would infallibly be tempted by very considerable
side earnings and perquisites. Even Miss Lillie
was rather disappointed at the failure of the project. To
arm negroes, to command a colored regiment, was abolitionistic
and abominable; but to set the same negroes to
work on a hundred plantations, would be playing the
southerner, the planter, the sugar aristocrat, on a magnificent
scale; and she thought also that in this business her
father might do ever so much good, and make for himself
a noble name in Louisiana, by restoring thousands of runaway
field-hands to their lawful owners. Let us not be
too severe upon the barbarian beliefs of this civilized young
lady. She had not the same geographical reasons for loving
human liberty in the abstract that we have who were
nurtured in the truly free and democratic North. Moreover,
for some reason which I shall not trouble myself to
discover, all women love aristocracies.

The Ravenel funds were getting low, and the Doctor,
despairing of finding profitable occupation in depopulated
New Orleans, was thinking seriously of returning to New
Boston, when High Authority sent him an appointment as
superintendent of a city hospital, with a salary of fifteen
hundred dollars.

“I can do that,” he said jubilantly as he showed the appointment
to Carter, unaware that the latter had been the
means of obtaining it. “My medical education will come
in play there, and I shall feel that I am acting in my own
character. It will not be so grand a field of usefulness as
that which you so kindly offered me, but it will perhaps
approximate more nearly to my abilities.”

“It is a captain's pay instead of a colonel's,” laughed
Carter. “I don't know any body who would make such
a choice except you and young Colburne, who supposes
that he isn't fit to be a field officer. Some day head-quarters
will perhaps be able to do better by you. When the
Western Railroad is recovered—the railroad in which you
hold property—there will be the superintendency of that,
probably a matter of some three or four thousand dollars
a year.”

“But I couldn't do it,” objected the Doctor, thereby
drawing another laugh from his interlocutor.

He was perfectly satisfied with his fifteen hundred,
although it was so miserably inferior to the annual six
thousand which he used to draw from his scientific labors
in and out of the defunct college. As long as he could
live and retain his self-respect, he was not much disposed
to grumble at Providence. Things in general were going
well; the rebellion would be put down; slavery would
perish in the struggle; truth and justice would prevail.
The certainty of these results formed in his estimation a

part of his personal estate—a wealth which was invisible,
it is true, but none the less real, inexhaustible and consolatory—a
wealth which was sufficient to enrich and ennoble
every true-hearted American citizen.

When it was known throughout the city that he had
accepted a position from the Federal authorities, the name
of Ravenel became entirely hateful to those who only a
few years before accorded it their friendship and respect.
The hostile gulf between Lillie and her old friends yawned
into such a vast abyss, that few words were ever exchanged
across it; and even those that did occasionally
reach her anxious ears had a tone of anger which excited,
sometimes her grief, and sometimes her resentment. The
young lady's character was such that the resentment
steadily gained on the grief, and she became from day to
day less of a Secessionist and more of a Unionist. Her
father laughed in his good-natured way to see how spited
she was by this social ostracism.

“You should never quarrel with a pig because he is a
pig,” said he. “The only wise way is not to suppose that
you can make a lap-dog of him, and not to invite him into
your parlor. These poor people have been brought up to
hate and maltreat every body who does not agree with
their opinions. If the Apostle Paul should come here,
they would knock him on the head for making a brother
of Onesimus.”

“But I can't bear to be treated so,” answered the vexed
young lady. “I don't want to be knocked on the head,
nor to have you knocked on the head. I don't even want
them to think what they do about me. I wish I had the
supreme power for a day or two.”

“What progress!” observed the Doctor. “She wants
to be General Butler.”

“No I don't,” snapped Lillie, whose nerves were indeed
much worried by her internal struggles and outward
trials. “But I would like to be emperor. I would actually

enjoy forcing some of these horrid people to change
their style of talking.”

“I don't think you would enjoy it, my dear. I did once
entertain the design of making myself autocrat, and deciding
what should be believed by my fellow citizens, and
bringing to deserved punishment such as differed from
me. It would be such a fine thing, I thought, to manage
in my own way, and manage right, all the religion, politics,
business, education, and conscience of the country.
But I dropped the plan, after mature consideration, because
I foresaw that it would give me more to do than I
could attend to.”

Lillie, working at her embroidery, made no reply, not
apparently appreciating her father's wit. Presently she
gave token that the current of her thoughts had changed,
by breaking out with her usual routine of questions.
“Who did you see in the streets? Didn't you see any
body? Didn't you hear any thing?” etc. etc.

By what has been related in this chapter it will be perceived
that Colonel Carter has established a claim to be
received with at least courtesy in the house of the Ravenels.
The Doctor could not decently turn a cold shoulder
to a man who had been so zealous a friend, although he
still admired him very little, and never willingly permitted
him a moment's unwatched intercourse with Lillie. He
occasionally thought with disgust of Van Zandt's leering
insinuations concerning the little French boudoir; but he
charitably concluded that he ought not to attach much
importance to the prattle of a man so clearly under the
influence of liquor as was that person at Colburne's quarters;
and finally he reflected with a sigh that the boudoir
business was awfully common in the world as then constituted,
and that men who were engaged in it could not
well be ostracised from society. So outwardly he was
civil to the Colonel, and inwardly sought to control his
almost instinctive repugnance. As for Lillie, she positively
liked the widower, and thought him the finest gentleman

of the very few who now called on her. Captain Colburne
was very pleasant, lively and good; but—and here
she ceased to reason—she felt that he was not magnetic.