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"How sweet," thought I, "could my arms be her shelter from the coarse wind! my heart her warmth in the gloomy chill!" I am usually king of my impulse, but there are moments in life fraught with a significance so appealing that we are thrilled, possessed, conquered. The soul neither thinks nor reasons; only lives, defies fate and circumstance, and quenches a lifetime thirst in draughts of a joy that comes perhaps but once this side of the grave. How did it happen? I do not know. I only know that I meant simply to wrap my coat about her; but the coat dropped from my hand, for our eyes met in a kindred glow, and the lips joined in the first sacred wedlock of true mates sanctioned at the Invisible Altar. A superb moment, that grasped in its flight the bliss of angels! The storm, which had been but the passage of wind-burthened clouds, died away as suddenly as it came, and we drifted calmly with the tide towards home. The house is closed now, and through the window I catch only the heaving murmur of the wind and waves. I do not woo sleep. Sleep is a thief, who would rob me of a consciousness which I am loth to part with.

June 7th.-This morning Estelle was occupied, and I wandered off alone into the still woods. To the musical artist all joys, all pangs, all hopes, all longings, form themselves into a harmonic rhythm preciously significant to his own intelligence. So my great happiness became a heavenly melody, to which Nature was the orchestral accompaniment. Why is there a melancholy in all our deepest joys? Is it the cry of the immortal soul from out its finite bondage for the fuller liberty beyond? In the abandon of a sweet madness I threw myself under a tree, plucked the tender leaves, pressed them to my burning lips, and for the first time since my carly boyhood shed a flood of delicious tears. The first tears of the lover! They alone can rival for sweetness and melancholy the first tears of the artist. This afternoon I took the train for the city; and behold me again in my lonely

TOL. II.-11

apartment. I would fain have lingered, but Duty is an inexorable tyrant.

June 12th.-A note from Mr. Irving to-day. He absolutely refuses his consent to my engagement with his niece. I expected nothing else. There are two kinds of separation: that of body and that of soul. The last, nothing on earth can bring about. For the present, I must feed on the fair promise of the future. In that I have faith. In the meantime, till the blessed realization comes, work—work—work.

Here the Journal ends. Herman Ehrthal received, very unexpectedly, June 14th, a letter from Leipsic, offering him the position of Kapel-Meister there. This compliment did not elate him in the least, as he declared that it was due to the influence of a few musical friends abroad, and did not signify any recognition of merit from the Society who presented the offer. He accepted it all the same, however, as he recognized fully the worth of such an opening for work. He sailed June 23d, with the hungry eyes of a lover turned ever towards the retreating shores. He writes that he is working furiously, and that, in spite of various thwarting influences, he is well on the road to success. You might meet him any day hurrying through the crooked streets of the old German city, his cap pulled, as usual, over his brow, his keen eyes gleaming beneath. You would say, as you passed, "That man is bent on an important errand." You would not be mistaken. On this side of the water, you might also meet, any day, in the upper part of this city, a young woman walking towards Central Park with a rapid and elastic tread. She is also bent on an important errand. Her pursuit is health. She has a vivid bloom on her check and a warm light in her eye, though her lover is more than three thousand miles away. But her dearest hope is twin to his; so she loses neither flesh nor temper. It is reported in the circle of admiring men and women, whom this same young woman condescends to smile upon, that she is, both as vocalist

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THE WEDDING AT THE PARKER HOUSE.

For two weeks we had been coasting the Florida shore in the genial springtime. Whether the gentle wind filled the sails, or our little yacht tossed aimlessly up and down on the transparent waters of the Gulf, we were always in sight of the land, sometimes rising into bluffs crowned, as our pilot said, with groves of orange and lemon trees, and again low and covered with pines, but always blue and pleasant. At length we entered the Caloosahatchie river, and began to approach Punta Rasa, our place of destination. Its appearance hardly fulfilled the expectations which we had formed. A point of land running out into the always pleasant and sunny waters of this region, low and almost denuded of its larger vegetation, as its name imports, and its only sign of civilization a huge barrack-like building raised with a kind of comically conceited air upon stilts, and bearing upon its front, in irregular and huge letters of black paint, Parker House, did not seem to promise much either of comfort or romance. And yet, upon a nearer approach, the scene lacked little of interest or variety. Scores of white tents gradually appeared, ranged on each side of the Parker House, which served as headquarters for the commanding officer, while in the early morning-light dark bodies of men could be seen drilling, some in compact order and closed ranks, and others, further in the distance, scattered as skirmishers behind bush, or stump, or tree, a darkly-moving speck, or an occasional reflection of the sun upon a gleaming gun-barrel, alone betraying their existence. Islands, too, opened before us on the broad bosom of the river, and on a sutler's schooner which was anchored just off of the wharf, a huge shark had recently been hooked, which was darting hither and thither in the water, amid a scattering fire of pistol-shots from on board the schooner,

and a crowd of boats with which the water was covered.

As we neared the wharf, and before we made fast to it, a confused mass of human beings of all ages and colors crowded to the shore,-white soldiers, long, cadaverous, and slim, with straight hair and an unmistakable Southern air about them, but all clothed in the familiar uniform of the United States; other soldiers of ebony black or chocolate color, stout, full-chested, and strong, weighing more than their white comrades, and capable of far more labor at throwing up intrenchments or any kind of fatigue duty; officers in full or undress uniform; pale, sickly women, wives, mothers, and friends of the firstmentioned soldiers, with troops of towheaded children; while raised upon the steps of the Parker House, too dignified to be interested, and having no friends on board, but unable wholly to escape the contagious influence of those about them, sat a party of Indians in paint and gew-gaws, proud representatives of a proud race, the only quiet and unmoved spectators of the scene. Vociferous greetings from friends on shore to those on board, and as vociferous returns; eager inquiries for the mail, now many weeks over-due, in more languages than one, and the loud orders of the skipper, half-drowned by the prevailing noises, made a "very proper confusion."

I seated myself on the rail. We had a little dog on board of a wonderful fashion, short-legged, and with a long body and most preposterous length of tail, with curl enough in it for two dogs, and as little like a poet's ideal as dog-meat could be. Notwithstanding his ridiculous appearance, which was a standing joke, he had quite won my respect during the voyage by his dignified and quiet bearing. He was not illnatured, nor apparently insensible to friendship; but a respectful wag of the

tail was all the return he condescended to make after the most cordial advances. Once or twice, wishing to know if his dignified reserve could not be overcome by unusual demonstrations of regard, he walked quietly away, as if he appreciated at their proper value the hypocritical blandishments I used. To-day he seemed like another dog; the body was still there, but a diverse spirit occupied it. Always something of a Pythagorean, I comprehended his case at once. We had had but half a dog with us on the voyage; his spirit had been at Punta Rasa with his master, whom he soon recognized in one of the officers on shore. Now he jumped and capered, barked vociferously, wagged not merely the superfluous length of his tail, but uncoiled it in a wonderful manner, so that it stood straight out from his body; threw himself in every one's way, and conducted generally in a manner so regardless of his reputation, that I hardly knew him. Jeff, our cook, was in perplexed and ludicrous amazement. He had placed a pan of hot soup on some barrels near the galley in a place of apparent safety, and the dog, heretofore far the more dignified of the two, plunged insanely into it, scattering the contents into the faces of several of us, and then jumped overboard-not a minute too soon for his personal safety-swimming ashore and rubbing his greasy coat affectionately upon half a dozen new uniforms worn by his acquaintances. Jeff, whom I always thought entertained a kind of superstitious respect for the dog, never got over it. "De debbil's in dat ar fice," he would say a dozen times a-day, and shake his gray head doubtfully.

ties of the position. It had been originally erected as a commissary storehouse by General Harney during the Indian wars, and since the rebellion broke out some luckless wight stationed thereabout, munching his pork and hard-tack, had named it the Parker House, in memory of better days.

I amused myself during the morning in wandering about among the tents, and observing the peculiarities and habits of the men. Parts of three regiments were stationed here. The 2d and 99th United States Colored Infantry, and the 2d Florida Cavalry (loyal). The first-named regiment was raised at Washington, D. C., and officered with care. During the months the regiment was encamped at Arlington Heights, it was visited by scores of officials and distinguished persons from our Own and foreign countries, and had every advantage of drill and criticism. Then and subsequently it attained such proficiency and exactness, that perhaps not a regiment in the service, regular or volunteer, surpassed it. With shining muskets, and white gloves, and glittering brasses, and a light, springy step which constant drill had made to supersede the heavy plantation gait, they looked the very beau ideal of black soldiery, and were, of course, properly puffed up with their own conceit. The 99th, on the contrary, had been raised in Louisiana as part of the corps d'afrique. They were fine men physically, and had seen much rough work, but did not pretend to compete with the 2d in drill. They were fresh from the Red River dam, which they had powerfully contributed to raise. Being mostly from the Creole parishes, they of course talked a patois very astonishing to their brethren from Virginia and Maryland. I shall not soon forget the amazement and disgust with which the men of the 2d, being informed at Key West of the arrival of another colored regiment upon the island, attempted, without success, to hold communication with them. Surprise, mortification, and an

On landing we were hospitably received at the Parker House-a huge, comfortless affair of one immense room, the several corners of which were occupied respectively by the post commissary, quartermaster, surgeon, and adjutant, while a space had been hastily boarded up for the commanding officer and one or two other officials, to whom the preservation of dignity was no ger were plainly to be seen among small affair; in fact, one of the necessi- a party which I heard discussing

"Dese

cre

the arrival of the new-comers. fellows aren't smart, dey can't talk plain," was the common conclusion. Finally, an officer suggested they were Creoles. "Cre-owls!" said a smart sergeant, the oracle of the group; owls! ah, I see," tapping his forehead significantly, and looking for confirmation to the officer, who mischievously nodded assent. "Dese niggers is stupid, I see." That one mysterious word was enough. No further explanations were wanted; a kind of contemptuous pity took the place of any other feeling; and not even the attractions of the very superior drum-corps which the new-comers brought with them, and to which the negro is very sensitive, nor more or less intercourse for months, entirely removed the feeling, until after the battle of the Natural Bridge, where the "cre-owls" were so stupid as not even to know enough to run, when a more cordial feeling was established.

The 2d Florida Cavalry differed hardly more in color than in character from the others. Cavalry they were called, and as cavalry they were paid, but they never were mounted, much to their disgust. This was a regiment not to be lumped. Each man had a history of his own, sometimes more startling than fiction. In some the burning cottage, the destruction of home and household goods, the exposure of wife and children to cold, penury, and starvation, if not a worse fate, filled the background of a picture not colored by imagination. Nearly all had been hunted, many by dogs. It's not a pleasant thing for a man to be hunted as though human life was of no more value than that of a fox or a wolf, and it leaves bitter thoughts behind. Finally, through many perils, after lying for weeks in swamps and woods, they had straggled one by one into the Union lines. Happy were they who carried no corroding recollections of sudden death to friends, nor of fearful and bloody work to avenge them. Tall, thin, and loose-jointed were these men, incapable of rigid discipline, and of all ages; but the best shots, guides, and

scouts in the army. ersed at night the

They freely travenemy's country;

were gone weeks, and safely returned with their families. Bitter experience had made them familiar with every outlying track and swamp; had taught them their friends and their foes, and established in the country a sort of masonic brotherhood in danger. Some, it is true, attached to neither side, and alternately deserting from each, intent only on plunder and villany, were among the rarest scoundrels and cutthroats which unsettled and perilous times produce; but the greater number were stanch and true.

After dinner and a comfortable siesta, we rode over the surrounding country, but not far, for the enemy were supposed to be in the immediate vicinity; returning in time for the dress-parade. The splendid drill of the 2d attracted admiration, of course. The 99th also did well, but the glory of the occasion was their drum-corps. Where they picked it up I never knew, nor the uniform in which it was dressed; but from the bright-red mandils to the shining buckles of their shoes, all was perfection in dress, in step, and in execution. As one man they emerged on the right of the line, marched slowly down, and as slowly retraced their steps. Never were drums so sonorous, and yet not a drummer's elbow moved; the drumsticks seemed to grow from the palms of their hands, and vibrated obedient to some unknown power, but with marvellous precision and abandon. Every head was erect and every eye fixed, and as they marched they were enveloped in a whirlwind of sound. Evidently, in their estimation, the feature of the occasion was the drum-corps, and the troops had been paraded as an accessory but for their benefit, and as an escort. And so indeed it seemed to me; and as such I remember it, and shall always remember it. Among many that I have seen, there lingers in my mind the recollection of but one drum-corps, and that was at Punta Rasa.

In the evening I strolled into the tent

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