Chapter XVII

When Richard Wain found that the deed was lost, Which he had won at play with Dalton Earl, Chagrin and rage were ready at a beck, Like waters in a dam, to pass the race, And turn the voluble mill-wheel of his tongue. He half suspected Dalton Earl the thief, Yet knew, if this were true, the threat he made To gain Ruth from him, would have been in vain. And so, because he feared to lose his power, He kept his secret that the deed was lost.

PART SECOND.

Now through the mighty pulses of the land Throbbed the dark blood of war; and Sumter's guns Were the first heart-beats of a better day. The avenging angel, with a scourging sword Of fire and death, with triumph on his face, Swept o'er the nation with the cry of War! Ten thousand boroughs, dreaming peace, awake. War in the South, with the South! War! War! The shame we nourished stings us to the death.

O, fair, false wife, South! lo, thy lord, the North, Loveth thee still, though thou hast gone astray. In truth's great court, vain has thy trial been, For no divorce could there be granted thee. The child you bore was bitter curse and shame, And not the child of thy husband, the North. It has led thee to miry paths, and raised The gall of despair to thy famished lips; It were better that such a child should die.