Shreveport daily news., 1861-06-19
Selected EzprssiyJ for tie Daily Ne,es.
The Death Of Alice Bland.
"A PATHETIC TALE.

Austin, 4 am domiciled once more
under your roef-I have my appoin-
ted chair at your hospitabie board
and / walk at eventide in the shade
(of the ancestral trees that endowed
|your mansion. Your Laura, matron-
ised in her beauty, halls me every
morning with her benignant smiles /:
and your two fair children daily dis
|port in innocent gaiety around nv
knees. You ask me what has become
Of that sister OF whom / used to speak
so often, when we were sojourners in
the American wilderness-her whom
l was wont to regard as the only
star that beckoned me back to my
native country. The subject is sad
one; butto you, faithfullest of friends,
| can refuse nothing. Pardon me,
if you find my pen dwell too long on
a few simple incidents. Some allow
ance may surely be made for the
prolixity Of chastened grief.
Alice was my only sister-the
sole survivor of all my kindred; and
1t was therefore no marvel that 1 felt
deeply distressed when Intelligence
of her illness reached me in a dis
tant land. Nearly ten years had
elapsed since our separation. She
was then fair-haired, bright-eyed
child, in her seventh year-I, heed
less, and perhaps somewhat head
strong youth, fifteen years her
senior-and feverishly eager to ex-
change my quiet home for the tented
field. | soon forgot, amid the tur-
moil OF war, the solemn farewell of.
our widowed mother: but / never
lost remembrance of the fearful ewes
and last gentle embrace of the dar-
ling Of oar household hearth.
Five Years afterwards nay brother
followed me to the army. You NAV
relneHber, Austin, that it was soon
after we had driven the French be-
yond the Ebro, that he joined our
banner-as brave and generous-hear-
ted a youth as Britain ever sent
forth to fight her battles. Before
the expiration of a month, you saw
him stricken down ifeless at nv
side. Green, forever green be the
Navarrese valley in which his bones
moulder! \ brothers hand wiped
the last drops Of agony from. his
blood-dewed brow-a brothers glance
alone could now discover his stone
less grave.
The Spanish war terminated tri-
unphantty for our country. Thin
as reeds, and dusky as Moors, from
tive years exposure to a. burning sun
too, with some memorials
to our services !; we looked for
ward, Austin, with pride and JOY to
the day that should restore us to our
In the very midst of these
anticipations-at the very moment
when we heard the shouts of thou
sands of our home-returning soldiers,
sweeping over the blue-waved Garon-
ne, the vision of peace departed
Our regiment was ordered to Ameri-
ca; and at such a jncture we, could
not with honour forsake its standard.
We saw blood she'd in the vest
rs the shores Of the Potomac and
Mississippi testified and there we
buried many of the bravest of our
band-men who had survived no less
than five victorious campaigns against
the chivalry of Fra,fce, and who de-
served prouder fate, than to be
struck down in the wilderness by
Yankee bullets. Dreams of. home
again took possession cf US when
that war ended; but for me they |
were as short lived as before. While |
their corps sailed homewards, the
vessel in which mine had embarked,
out to which you, Austin, Fortunate
y no longer belonged, stood away
.Or the waters of ST. Lawrence and |