62
TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
Lon"' with what fnnds her journey might seem to require, and placed in l;er hands a letter of credit to draw on his house, in the· event of unforesee~ contingencies. Conduct like this, is too noble and exalted to require any eulogy; it goes into the honest heart without the aid of language, and needs no eloquence to make it attractive and lovely. For more than four weeks, l\Irs Long remained at her sisters, dan• gerously ill. The physicians believing that mental anxiety, if not the cause of her declining health, was, at least, a serious barrier t6 her recovery, advised her to prosecute her journey without delay, which she could do, they said, with benefit to herself by making short stages, and avoiding exposure. She accordingly sat out in a close carriage, leaving her infant to the care of Mrs Calva,rt, and made for Natchitoches, accompanied by a Mr Randal Jones and others, who were on their march to her husband's standard. Tarry- ing a few days at Natchitoches, she proceeded to the Sabine, where she expected to be met by her husband. He had been there the day previous according to appointment; but could not wait her arrival, in consequence of intelligence received from Nacogdoches. At the Sabine, she also remained a couple of days to resusitate her strength, and then resumed her journey, still accompanied by her volunteer friends and several new recruits who had joined them on the way. The first day's travel from the Sabine, was to Mr Earley's, a distance only of seven miles, where she camped for the night. By daylight the next morning, she was again moving on the road, and that night reached the Attoyac between nine and ten o'clock, almost drowned in rain. ·T'he daughter of Mr. Alexander was kind in her attentions; and assisted in drying her clothes by the fire. In the morning the river ·was swimming; but all hands crossed it without accident; and though it was so late in the day as 10 o'clock, the persevering heroine reached Nacogdochc before the setting of the sun, and experienced in the warm welcome of her husband, an ample compensation for all her toils and sufferings past. She was now at the end of her protracted journey, blessed in the affections of a hero that she idolized-whose happiness was her study---'\vh-0se glory was her delight-and whose misfortunes she was willing to share when she could not avert.- But the Rain-bow is not always the signal of serener hours.-Though it often span the retiring clouds, it sometimes sits upon the brow of a gathering storm. .And snch proved the light that illumined the countename of our happy heroine on meeting with the, idol of her heart. It was a rainbow joy upon a cloud of sorrow. She arrived upon the very eve of calamity. A brief period-a few weeks only- of perpetual excitement and alarm was spent with her husband when imperious cii-cumstances---which we have already explained-de- manded his immediate departure for to Galveston.- The importance of establishing amicable relations with the hero of the Gulf, was greatly enhanced by the course which the Govern- ment of the United States was pursuing towards G,eneral Long. He c?mplains that the officers at Fort Jesup, had intercepted his RUpplrns; ancl had proceeded to the extremity of detaining his lady's trunk. This necessarily increased his dependence upon Galveston.
Powered by FlippingBook