CHAPTER LVI.
FIRE AND SWORD.
The year the war began dates also, for New Orleans, the advent of two better things: street-cars and the fire-alarm telegraph. The frantic incoherence of the old alarum gave way to the few solemn, numbered strokes that called to duty in the face of hot danger, like the electric voice of a calm commander. The same new system also silenced, once for all, the old nine-o"clock gun. For there were not only taps to signify each new fire-district,--one for the first, two for the second, three, four, five, six seven, eight, and nine,--but there was also one lone toll at mid-day for the hungry mechanic, and nine at the evening hour when the tired workman called his children in from the street and turned to his couch, and the slave must show cause in a master"s handwriting why he or she was not under that master"s roof.
And then there was one signal more. Fire is a dreadful thing, and all the alarm signals were for fire except this one. Yet the profoundest wish of every good man and tender women in New Orleans, when this pleasing novelty of electro-magnetic warnings was first published for the common edification, was that mid-day or midnight, midsummer or midwinter, let come what might of danger or loss or distress, that one particular signal might not sound. Twelve taps. Anything but that.
Dr. Sevier and Richling had that wish together. They had many wishes that were greatly at variance the one"s from the other"s. The Doctor had struggled for the Union until the very smoke of war began to rise into the sky; but then he "went with the South." He was the only one in New Orleans who knew--whatever some others may have suspected--that Richling"s heart was on the other side. Had Richling"s bodily strength remained, so that he could have been a possible factor, however small, in the strife, it is hard to say whether they could have been together day by day and night by night, as they came to be when the Doctor took the failing man into his own home, and have lived in amity, as they did.
But there is this to be counted; they were both, though from different directions, for peace, and their gentle forbearance toward each other taught them a moderation of sentiment concerning the whole great issue.
And, as I say, they both together held the one longing hope that, whatever war should bring of final gladness or lamentation, the steeples of New Orleans might never toll--twelve.
But one bright Thursday April morning, as Richling was sitting, half dressed, by an open window of his room in Dr. Sevier"s house, leaning on the arm of his soft chair and looking out at the pa.s.sers on the street, among whom he had begun to notice some singular evidences of excitement, there came from a slender Gothic church-spire that was highest of all in the city, just beyond a few roofs in front of him, the clear, sudden, brazen peal of its one great bell.
"Fire," thought Richling; and yet, he knew not why, wondered where Dr.
Sevier might be. He had not seen him that morning. A high official had sent for him at sunrise and he had not returned.
"Clang," went the bell again, and the softer ding--dang--dong of others, struck at the same instant, came floating in from various distances.
And then it clanged again--and again--and again--the loud one near, the soft ones, one by one, after it--six, seven, eight, nine--ah!
stop there! stop there! But still the alarm pealed on; ten--alas!
alas!--eleven--oh, oh, the women and children!--twelve! And then the fainter, final a.s.severations of the more distant bells--twelve! twelve!
twelve!--and a hundred and seventy thousand souls knew by that sign that the foe had pa.s.sed the forts. New Orleans had fallen.
Richling dressed himself hurriedly and went out. Everywhere drums were beating to arms. Couriers and aides-de-camp were galloping here and there. Men in uniform were hurrying on foot to this and that rendezvous.
Crowds of the idle and poor were streaming out toward the levee.
Carriages and cabs rattled frantically from place to place; men ran out-of-doors and leaped into them and leaped out of them and sprang up stair-ways; hundreds of all manner of vehicles, fit and unfit to carry pa.s.sengers and goods, crowded toward the railroad depots and steam-boat landings; women ran into the streets wringing their hands and holding their brows; and children stood in the door-ways and gate-ways and trembled and called and cried.
Richling took the new Dauphine street-car. Far down in the Third district, where there was a silence like that of a village lane, he approached a little cottage painted with Venetian red, setting in its garden of oranges, pomegranates, and bananas, and marigolds, and c.o.xcombs behind its white paling fence and green gate.
The gate was open. In it stood a tall, strong woman, good-looking, rosy, and neatly dressed. That she was tall you could prove by the gate, and that she was strong, by the graceful muscularity with which she held two infants,--pretty, swarthy little fellows, with joyous black eyes, and evidently of one age and parentage,--each in the hollow of a fine, round arm. There was just a hint of emotional disorder in her shining hair and a trace of tears about her eyes. As the visitor drew near, a fresh show of distressed exaltation was visible in the slight play of her form.
"Ah! Mr. Richlin"," she cried, the moment he came within hearing, ""the dispot"s heels is on our sh.o.r.es!"" Tears filled her eyes again. Mike, the bruiser, in his sixth year, who had been leaning backward against her knees and covering his legs with her skirts, ran forward and clasped the visitor"s lower limbs with the nerve and intention of a wrestler.
Kate followed with the cherubs. They were Raphael"s.
"Yes, it"s terrible," said Richling.
"Ah! no, Mr. Richlin"," replied Kate, lifting her head proudly as she returned with him toward the gate, "it"s outrageouz; but it"s not terrible. At least it"s not for me, Mr. Richlin". I"m only Mrs. Captain Ristofalah; and whin I see the collonels" and gin"r"ls" ladies a-prancin" around in their carridges I feel my _humility_; but it"s my djuty to be _brave_, sur! An" I"ll help to _fight_ thim, sur, if the min can"t do ud. Mr. Richlin", my husband is the intimit frind of Gin"r"l Garrybaldy, sur! I"ll help to burrin the cittee, sur!--rather nor give ud up to thim vandjals! Come in, Mr. Richlin"; come in." She led the way up the narrow sh.e.l.l-walk. "Come "n, sur, it may be the last time ye" do ud before the flames is leppin" from the roof! Ah! I knowed ye"d come. I was a-lookin" for ye. I knowed _ye"d_ prove yerself that frind in need that he"s the frind indeed! Take a seat an" sit down." She faced about on the vine-covered porch, and dropped into a rocking-chair, her eyes still at the point of overflow. "But ah! Mr. Richlin", where"s all thim flatterers that fawned around uz in the days of tytled prosperity?"
Richling said nothing; he had not seen any throngs of that sort.
"Gone, sur! and it"s a relief; it"s a relief, Mr. Richlin"!" She marshalled the twins on her lap, Carlo commanding the right, Francisco the left.
"You mustn"t expect too much of them," said Richling, drawing Mike between his knees, "in such a time of alarm and confusion as this." And Kate responded generously:--
"Well, I suppose you"re right, sur."
"I"ve come down," resumed the visitor, letting Mike count off "Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief," on the b.u.t.tons of his coat, "to give you any help I can in getting ready to leave town. For you mustn"t think of staying. It isn"t possible to be anything short of dreadful to stay in a city occupied by hostile troops. It"s almost certain the Confederates will try to hold the city, and there may be a bombardment. The city may be taken and retaken half-a-dozen times before the war is over."
"Mr. Richlin"," said Kate, with a majestic lifting of the hand, "I"ll nivver rin away from the Yanks."
"No, but you must _go_ away from them. You mustn"t put yourself in such a position that you can"t go to your husband if he needs you, Mrs.
Ristofalo; don"t get separated from him."
"Ah! Mr. Richlin", it"s you as has the right to say so; and I"ll do as you say. Mr. Richlin", my husband"--her voice trembled--"may be wounded this hour. I"ll go, sur, indeed I will; but, sur, if Captain Raphael Ristofalah wor _here_, sur, he"d be ad the _front_, sur, and Kate Ristofalah would be at his galliant side!"
"Well, then, I"m glad he"s not here," rejoined Richling, "for I"d have to take care of the children."
"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Kate. "No, sur! I"d take the lion"s whelps with me, sur! Why, that little Mike theyre can han"le the dthrum-sticks to beat the felley in the big hat!" And she laughed again.
They made arrangements for her and the three children to go "out into the confederacy" within two or three days at furthest; as soon as she and her feeble helper could hurry a few matters of business to completion at and about the Picayune Tier. Richling did not get back to the Doctor"s house until night had fallen and the sky was set aglare by seven miles" length of tortuous harbor front covered with millions"
worth of burning merchandise. The city was being evacuated.
Dr. Sevier and he had but few words. Richling was dejected from weariness, and his friend weary with dejections.
"Where have you been all day?" asked the Doctor, with a touch of irritation.
"Getting Kate Ristofalo ready to leave the city."
"You shouldn"t have left the house; but it"s no use to tell you anything. Has she gone?"
"No."
"Well, in the name of common-sense, then, when is she going?"
"In two or three days," replied Richling, almost in retort.
The Doctor laughed with impatience.
"If you feel responsible for her going get her off by to-morrow afternoon at the furthest." He dropped his tired head against the back of his chair.
"Why," said Richling, "I don"t suppose the fleet can fight its way through all opposition and get here short of a week."
The Doctor laid his long fingers upon his brow and rolled his head from side to side. Then, slowly raising it:--
"Well, Richling!" he said, "there must have been some mistake made when you was put upon the earth."
Richling"s thin cheek flushed. The Doctor"s face confessed the bitterest resentment.
"Why, the fleet is only eighteen miles from here now." He ceased, and then added, with sudden kindness of tone, "I want you to do something for me, will you?"
"Yes."
"Well, then, go to bed; I"m going. You"ll need every grain of strength you"ve got for to-morrow. I"m afraid then it will not be enough. This is an awful business, Richling."
They went upstairs together. As they were parting at its top Richling said:--