our officers are usurpers placed there by the subversion of law."
"Won't you give this all up for my sake?" she pleaded. "Believe me, you are in great danger."
"Not so great as is the danger of my sister and mother and my sweetheart—it is a man's place to face danger," he gravely answered.
"This violence can only lead to your ruin and shame"
"I am fighting the battle of a race on whose fate hangs the future of the South and the Nation. My ruin and shame will be of small account if they are saved," was the even answer.
"Come, my dear," she pleaded, tenderly, "you know that I have weighed the treasures of music and art and given them all for one clasp of your hand, one throb of your heart against mine. I should call you cruel did I not know you are infinitely tender. This is the only thing I have ever asked you to do for me"
"Desert my people! You must not ask of me this infamy, if you love me," he cried.
"But, listen; this is wrong—this wild vengeance is a crime you are doing, however great the provocation. We cannot continue to love one another if you do this. Listen: I love you better than father, mother, life or career—all my dreams I've lost in you. I've lived through eternity to-day with my father"
"You know me guiltless of the vulgar threat against him"
"Yes, and yet you are the leader of desperate men who might have done it. As I fought this battle to-day, I've
