Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-03-13
HOW HE WON HIS WIFE.

Henry Estes won Ms nanusn0 oAo0 eyeo
wife
Among the recruits who were sent forward
to be mustered into New England cavalry
regiment attached to the Army OF the Poto-
mac, in the spring Of 1854, was young man
Of fine appearance and excellent education,
who from the first showed signs Of having at
some time been under military drill No re-
cruit ever fell into his place with less trouble,
or 50 rapidly adjusted himself to the rough
ness and hardships Of camp life Every
inch soldier" was Maj Estes comment the
first time that his glance rested on Private
Herbert Jauvrin, and neither in camp nor in
battle had he ever any reason to modify his
verdict.
The rank and file with whom Jauvrin asso-
ciated could never quite make him out They
recognized instinctively that he belonged to
q higher social order than their own; they
found out that be had Travelled in many
lands, they said among themselves that he
was a foreigner and yet were puzzled TO
know just where to place a man who spoke
half a dozen languages, and yet they were
never jealous or in-natured towards him
He performed his duties with uDfailing con-
scientiousness; was in his place in every en-
gagement; proved himself hero in tho
y
long and dangerous raid to Trevyllisn sta
ton, and endeared himself to every man in
his company by some little act of kindness or
CHEEKY word of comradeship.
That there was a mystery about him was
evident. Not that he ever attempted to ere
ate such an impression-far from it. But
officers and men knew that there must have
been some strong cause that had moved q
,.,f h 80
cavalry,,regiment in which he had not single
acquaintance. There were hints enough given
him to break through his reserve and talk
about himself, but he always brushed them
aside with laugh and the oft quoted byword
of the camps, who wouldn't be a soldierm
by Jove!n said the colonel one day, as
Private Jauvrin retired from his presence
with a courtly salute, that fellow has
broken more than one heart, and in our set,
too, major, or I'm Block Island Goldfish
Put him in a swallnwtail and he would be the
most distinguished looking man in the regi-
ment, and would Sumter through the Ian
GERS like a lord Iwish l could do something
for him, but he doesn't ask for promotion
and doesn't seem to want it, and l don't
know who his friends are SO as to push him
Id bet a whale to mackerel that there's
woman in the case, and a mighty pretty one,
too"
1t was in an insignificant little skirmish on
the edge Of Chapin's Farms that Private
Jauvrin received desperate wound which
caused him to be sent to the Cavalry Corps
hospital on the Appomattox. At first he
babe fair to recover, and the whole regiment
prepared to welcome him back, and the
colonel had made interest at Washington to
procure his promotion to second lieutenant
But one day messenger came from tho
Corps hospital with the news that Jauvrin
was worse, and with an earnest request that
Maj. Estes would ride over to see him.
The ma jor had always manifested sincere
liking for the soldier and had tried more than
once to win his confidence, with sincere de-
sire to befriend him. He had not been sue
cessful, yet there had always been that sort
of friendship between officer and man that
had led Maj. Estes to sit down and talk with
him Of other times and other scenes 1t was q
shock to him to hear bad tidings of the soldier
whom in his own mind he had associated with
a story of romance and whom he honored Is
an example of duty.
1t was on chilly autumn afternoon that
the major lifted the flap of the wall tent in
which Jauvrin lay on a rough cot set on the
bare ground. He was shocked at the change
in the wounded mans appearance. The stall
wart frame had become reduced to skin and
bone, and only the eyes had retained the old
fire Of life He fairly started when the ghost
of the well remembered and once ringing
voice welcomed him and tears started to his
eyes as he grasped tho thin and wasted hand
and said: Poor fellow, why did you not send
for me beforer
The major stayed at the hospital that night
and, little by little, as the strength of the
speaker permitted, he learned the story Of
Private Jauvrin.
Born to an old and honorabl, name, and the
prospective inheritor of wea th, Herbert
Jauvrin, after a wild and Maynard boyhood,
had been commissioned lieutenant in the
British army before he had reached his ma
jority and had fought calamity before Sc
bastopol Among his papers would be found,
he said, his commission and his Crimean
medal On his return to England he had
gone the way Of all young men in his position
and had exhausted his income and the round
of London PLEASURES. At last his father and
his family l"1 cast him off and he had wax
ened from his dreams to find himself deprived
of all resources until he succeeded to the en-
tailed estates of his family.
There was one pure spot, he said, in the
darkness of his life He had loved and his
love had been returned. II did not know
there was such loneliness on earth, " said the
dying soldier, until l met Helen Conyng-
ham. have her picture here and you shall,
judge of her yourself" Here, with painful
effort, he drew out portfolio from under
his pillow and gave it to the major. Her
letters are here, too--do what you will with
the picture and the letters, and only write to
her and tell her that l gave her my last
thoughts and all my love"
At intervals he filled in the rest of the story.
The girl whom he loved had forgiven him
again and again for his wanderings and had
tried to help him build up his shattered life
At last she had applied the heroic remedy and
sent him letter to say that she would not
consent to see him again until he could come
to her clothed and in his right mindn
She was right, major. and say now and
! will say with my last breath, God bless her
for her sweet faithfulness to duty
In desperate mood Herbert Jauvrin had
sold his commission, taken steamer for Amer
lea and for while had passed a life Of gay
dissipation in New York and other American
cities. At last the inevitable crisis cana
His money had gone and so were the friends
u
had been spent he enlisted in regiment then
at the front In the hope that a friendly bull
let would soon end his troubles The bullet
had come all too soon, and had found him
realizing in his life as a private soldier what
Helen Conynsham had tried to impress upon
him about faithfulness to duty. 1t was hard
for him, he said, but no doubt it was better
for her. Only she would be glad to hear that
he had died a soldiers death
The major tried to speak encouraging
words when he babe the soldier good night,
but even then he feared that they might
never meet again in life Indeed, when he
went to the hospital tent next morning the
death dew was on Private Jauvrin's forehead
and he could only speak in the faintest whis-
per and with catches Of the breath as he
asked him to pray for him. Maj Estes
knelt beside the dying man and in low tones
uttered the Lords Prayer, holding tho clam
my hands clasped in his own.
Thank you-am l dying nowr' were the
nsxt words. The major could not speak. He
only looked sadly into the eyes of the private
soldier 10 In brief minute was to know
the secret Of the eternities.
They buried Herbert Jauvrin in the littls
of the cavalry corps on the banks
Of the Appomattox But his ashes do not
repose there. They rest under costly mon
ument In the parish church Of bis fathers IN
and under his name is the legend,
Dead on the field Of honor
When Maj. Estes, after his return to camp,
opened in the secrecy Of his tent the little
portfolio which Herbert Jauvrin had be-
lueathed to him, he had no premonision that
literally he held his fate in his own hands.
There was lockes of Etruscan gold in oneof