CHAPTER XIX.
Therese Caseneuve, Philip Rondelet, and the faithful Hero were made welcome at Thebes. The greeting that awaited them was a solemn one. People looked them in the face searchingly; and reading there the look that they sought, took them by the hand and bade them welcome to the city of death. The band of workers, the doctors, the nurses, and the men of God already come together from all parts of the Union,—North, South, East, and West,—recognized in the new-comers three strong helpers fit to undertake the labor of which only the noblest men and women are capable. The outgoing trains, that stopped a mile from the city, daily bore away people fleeing from the pestilence, deserting friend and loved one in a mad panic of fear which overcame every better feeling; but the incoming trains brought men and women, even youths and girls, who came to labor amidst strangers,—a labor whose only earthly reward might be death in its most terrible form, a hasty and unsanctified burial, and
