The Penn's Grove record., 1892-09-16
NUMBER 8.

outraged Southern captiyes, and az
ter them each man felt that he too
had a mother, or sister, or wife, for
whom he must still live and fight on.
january came and with the New
Year a fresh batch Of prisones from
the front. The Colonel's wife soon
Knew them all, and they, at first sui
EN- and discouraged, began once more
10 gather hope from her kind words.
All but one, and that one had no
iced for encouragement. This young
Southern officer, strong 10 the belief
that his cause was right, firm in the
trust that he should live to fight once
more for this cause, and confident In
The love Of the girl who would long
ago have been his wife If the warhad
aot broken out, had never for q mo-
ment let his courage fail. Escape
was the word that was always in his
mind. Escape was what he thought
If, escape was what he dreamed OF,
aud escape was what he finally AZ
tempted.
"But for three long months he was
4 prisoner confined in one Of those
narrow cells, Just there across the
Itch. And there every day the Col.
)nel's wife visited him, and there she
;alked to him of his homo and OF
himself. The man was q noble fell
ow, and when he opened his heart to
The young wife, never for q moment
ireamed of the harm he was doing.
while she poor girl, never having
known happiness, hardly understood
Why she was happy. But finally.
when he told her Of the girl who was
waiting for him at home, she under
stood, and he, to his sorrow, also un-
lerstood. Then he saw Q double
.eason for leaving the place, and she.
too, saw that he could not stay
Du ty to her husband and her country.
love for the man whose very presence
brought her happiness, yet who was
aot for her, above all the knowledge
that. in helping him to escape she
vas sending him to that other one
waiting for him In the Southern home.
all these thoughts filled the mind and
heart and soul Of the Coloneps wife.
And then, n bright April morning,
after a calm. almost sultry night, the
report spread through the garrison
that No. "a, Capt. Low. 4th Carolina
Cavalry, had escaped. No n knew
how it happened; no one could un-
ierstand how No. "a could have cut
AWAY the stone-work of his window
enough to have pushed through.
Above all, no one could believe
that the prisoner had slipped through
the opening. crossed the ditch.
and fed out into the night without
being seen by the sentry, whose beat
was not twenty PAGES from the course
the prisoner must have taken. The
sentry himself was for . time sus-
pected Of negligence, but was soon
cleared of the suspicion BY the evil
ience of the colonel's wife, who had
herself, in taking her usual evening
walk about the ramparts, seen him
at his post. The escape had been
discovered very loon afterwards, so
that here was no reason to believe
the sentry asleep. The man himself,
freed from the charge, did not care
to tell that the colonel's wife not
only saw but spoke to him that night
That moreover, she called him to the
further end Of his beat, and called his
attention to a noise which she
thought she had heard far down the
sea wall. what good would it do
the fellow said to himself, sure, 1t
I'D be loike impaching the lady her
self, which Is foolish indade.'
1.-THE colonel never saw a letter
which a year OF two afterwards came
10 his wife. He was not in the room
to see the tears come slowly to her
eyes as she read the words:
THAT night when l saw your
face in the dusk, looking al me, while
you pointed with your hand In the
other direction, then for the first
time did / realize the risk you ran,
and I felt ashamed to profit by your
danger. You saved my life, and gave
to me tho woman who is now my
wife. From the promise l made to
you she will never know your name,
but she Joins with me in wishing all
happiness to the colonel's wife"
Ny friend ceased, and pointing
across the ditch said, ''That windo"
worn away is where the man escaped;
the sentry box against which sou are
leaning Is where the coloners wife
stood. She had a hard time, poor
Thing, and might have done worse.
but then, after all, a soldiers isn't
the pleasantest life Harvard Advo
cate.