Page:The woman in battle .djvu/566

506 tically the winding up of the war. I could not bring myself to believe this, for I knew that the Confederacy had other armies in the field who were both able and willing to fight, and who were led by generals as skilful and as indomitable as Lee. My heart burned hot within me to continue the fight, and I resolved to stick by my colors to the last, and to labor with even more than my accustomed zeal for the Confederacy so long as a shadow of hope remained.

When the vessel reached the wharf I went ashore, and proceeded to the Lafarge House, from whence, as soon as I could get some of the sea rust from my person, I called a carriage, and ordered the driver to take me, as fast as he could, to the office of the broker in Wall Street with whom I was in partnership. Wall Street, especially in the vicinity of the Exchange, was fairly packed with a furious, excited mass of human beings, yelling, shouting, cursing, and not a few absolutely weeping. It was a spectacle to be remembered ; nothing that I had ever beheld and I had certainly participated in many exciting scenes at all resembled it. Some of the thousands of faces were surcharged with unspeakable horror; despair, overpowering despair, was written on others ; curses and blasphemies were heard on every side, and it might have been supposed that all the lunatics in the country had been turned loose in this narrow thoroughfare.

Any one familiar with this section of New York, however, could see at a glance that some momentous event had occurred which had seriously affected innumerable important financial operations, and that in a moment great fortunes had been lost and won.

At length we reached the office I was seeking, and my partner came out to meet me, and to assist me to alight from the carriage. His face wore a very sickly smile as he said, "I am glad to see you ; you have made a quick trip."

"Yes," I replied, as we hurried into the back office. "Regent Street has no charms for me in such times as these."

"Well," said he, as he turned the key in the lock of the door, fairly gasping for breath as he asked the question, and pale as a sheet, "have we lost?"