Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/39

Rh serious occupations being drilling the Militia Battalion of which I was senior major, and writing my History of the Confederate Rebellion of the last century. The general uneasiness which had pervaded society for the past twelvemonth had not failed to make itself felt among us; but the fearful and panic-stricken had long since migrated from the inland towns to the principal seaports, ready on the first alarm to cast themselves on board ship and save their precious skins, without a thought for the welfare of their country, or of the friends and kinsmen left behind. The result of this was that our city, though with diminished numbers, still maintained the semblance of industry activity and commerce.

Gradually, however, the uneasiness of all classes assumed graver proportions. Day by day there dribbled in small parties of country folk, bringing with them disquieting rumours, which if in many cases demonstrably absurd, were sufficiently akin to the acknowledged realities to cause new and widespread alarm. And indeed what rumours, however wild, could be worse than the facts?

Nothing authentic had, however come to our ears,