Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1905-03-24
CHAPTER XVIII.
SURRENDER.

The fever that followed the serious
wounds received by Maj. Lounsberry
was in itself sufficient to end the earth
fy career of even a stronger man. Two
days after Benton found him that fever
was gone, but SO was the last atom of
his strength Those two days he tossed
in deliriun, watched by one unhappy,
but devoted girl and that faithful old
nanny. and visited at such intervals
as her own failing strength would per-
nit by his heartbroken mother. Word
of his peril reached Charlottesville
soon after the sharp fight at Smokers
Gap. Earlys retreating force had
striven to bring him along, but, be-
tween the torment caused him by the
jolting of the ambulance and the per-
sistent attacks of Union cavalry, they
had had to leave him by the way. Mrs
LOunsberry and the venerable rector
of heir church started within six hours
of the receipt of the news, by which
time all Charlottesville had heard of it,
and almost the first to come to the
stricken mother was the girl her son
had wrOnged. A strange meeting was
that, and stranger still was one but
half an hour later when ROSalie Chill
ton appeared, and two Virginia girls
who had not exchanged a word since
the first days of the war, and neither
Of whom had been a visitor at the
Lounsberrys' for many a moon, buried
tn cir differences with that sorrow
laden mother, and set their own quar-
rel aside that they might be of service
to her and to a soldier of the south
in the hour of such affection. More
over it was Dr.. Chilton's old carriage,
with Dr. Chilton's old horses and driv-
en- by Black Dan, that the journey to
the distant front was made. This
was no time to speak of the cruel
| things said by the Lounsberrys of Dr.
| Chiffon and Rosalie after Benton's es-
cape. The grave had closed over the
proud, impetuous head of that now
| doubly bereaved household. Ill for
tune had followed the fathers death,
and much of his little estate had been
| sold under the hammer. Small COM
! fort had the handsome prodiga1 proved
| himself at that or any other
| time, but much had he promised
as the result of his approaching
| marriage There had been mem
orable interview between the mother
and that wronged and trusting girl
when at last Maud Pelham's forebod-
| ings were realized. There had in fact
| been a violent scene, for Mrs. Louns-
| berry had sought to shield her son at
| Maud's expense. But that, too, was
| all ignored now. The other engage
ment had been broken summarily two
| weeks after Yellow Tavern, for one OF
Wade Hampton's stan, sent home
| wounded, had told at Charleston how
| Floyd Pelham had struck Lounsberry
| and why. There had been weeks in
/ which Maud Pelham would have met
| Lounsberry only with scorn and con-
tempt. but that was before his COM
| rades sent him to Coventry, and never
again after news of his serious wound
Though all Charlottesville knew that
he had been false to her, she went to
| his mother the instant she heard the
tidings. and with her on the anxious
i journey that followed.
They were searching the impoyer-
ished little village under the heights.
| hoping somewhere to find ice to allay
that burning fever, when the sight OF
blue-jacket cavalry sent them back and
Benton followed. They, who over and
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