Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/277

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
FORTY YEARS SINCE.
265

ed over him a deluge of waters. But nothing could hush the incessant roar of these engines of death; and I thought that man would continue to pursue his brother with hatred, even to the conflagration of the day of doom. When the influence of an excited imagination had subsided, I found that this splendid and fearful pageant was the burning of the Charon, one of our ships of war, with two smaller vessels at anchor in the river, which had been set on fire by a heated shell from the French battery. Chilled with the damps of evening, I descended, and threw myself upon my sleepless couch. My health had for some time suffered for want of exercise in the open air, from which I was precluded by the impossibility of enjoying the company, and protection of my husband. On the afternoon of the following day, he entered his apartment. It was Sunday, October 14th, for misery stamped the date indelibly on my soul. He told me that he was to remain with me, until evening should call him forth to his watch upon the ramparts. He requested me to read the service for the day from the Prayer-book; for we had endeavoured, as far as possible amid the privations of our existence, to hallow the day of God by private devotion. As I closed the volume, the sun forsook the horizon, leaving a beautifully serene sky. He proposed a walk, to which I gladly assented: and as the means of prolonging it, without attracting particular attention in streets filled with soldiers, desired me to wear a suit of his military apparel. Yielding to his reasoning, I consented thus to array myself; and we strolled