Page:A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury.pdf/225

 Rh at a good school as soon as he should reach the peaceful shores of Old England. He proceeded to Charleston, S.C., where they were detained a week or more awaiting a favourable opportunity to leave the country on a "blockade runner." While in Charleston, he wrote the following letters to his wife:—

Your short note of the 4th has just come to hand. We devoured it. "Brave" is at Ids lessons. He has an engagement with Mr. Godon for a buggy ride this evening, if we do not sail, of which there seems no prospect at present, for the sky is cloudless. "Brave" read me, from the "Calendar" this morning, that the moon rises Saturday night by eight. We shall certainly get off that night if not before. The 'Hero' will sail soon after, and letters sent here to go by her, care of F. T. & Co., Liverpool, may get there as soon as I do. After her, the 'Kate' will go; so tell all hands to write and keep writing, and to send their letters here to F. & Co. This house is all the time running the blockade. Their vessels generally go by Nassau, and, although by short route, are often a long time in reaching England, Still it is one of the channels of reaching me, and it should not be overlooked. I shall be most anxious to hear about the fighting at Corinth, and to learn how fared my "Davy Jones" and Dabney. I am expecting a telegram from you about them, for Dabney has always been considerate in sending early tidings. I refrain from telegraphing him, because, in the first place, I do not know where he is exactly, and in the next, if either my "Davy Jones" or he have been hit, the telegraphic account would perhaps have things worse than they really are, and so I should sail and be miserable for a month or more in the absence of later information. Wherefore, I have concluded that it is more philosophical to sail thinking "all's well," and wait for letters to dispel the delusion, if delusion this be. Tot's letter, which was mailed