Chapter I: Preface

Some persons, taking up this work with expectations more or less elevated, may possibly lay it down with disappointment after perusal, because it does not discuss with sharp personalities, as the title may have led them to suppose, the conduct of some of those well-known men connected with the Union Army, who have disgracefully faltered on the field. But the truth is that the Union Army has mustered very few cowards--so few, that a distinguished artist, not long ago called on to draw an ideal head of one of that class, said: "Really it is so long since I have seen a coward, that I scarcely know how to go about it!" The aim of the writer, eschewing all such tempting personalities, and quite as carefully avoiding all dry didactic discussion of the theme of courage and its opposite,--has principally been to illustrate the tendency of many men to misunderstand their own characters in certain particulars, and the inevitable consequence of their being misunderstood by the world, in one direction or the other. No apology is felt to be necessary for the length at which the scenery of the White Mountains, their actualities of interest and possibilities of danger, have been introduced into the narration; nor is it believed that the chain of connection with the great contest will be found the weaker because the glimpses given of it are somewhat more brief than in preceding publications of the same series. In those portions the writer has again occasion to acknowledge the assistance of the same capable hand which supplied much of the war data for both of his previous volumes.

NEW YORK CITY, _July 1st, 1864._

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

A June Morning of Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-three--Glimpses
of West Philadelphia--The Days before Gettysburgh--The Two on
the Piazza--Margaret Hayley and Elsie Brand--An Embrace and a
Difference--Foreshadowings of Carlton Brand, Brother and
Lover 29

CHAPTER II.

The Coming of Carlton Brand--Almost a Paladin of
Balaclava--Brother and Sister--A Spasm of Shame--The
Confession--The Coward--How Margaret Hayley heard Many Words
not intended for her--The Rupture and the Separation 45

CHAPTER III.

Kitty Hood and her School-house--Dick Compton going
Soldiering--A Lover's Quarrel, a bit of Jealousy, and a
Threat--How Dick Compton met his supposed Rival--An
Encounter, Sudden Death, and Kitty Hood's terrible Discovery 61

CHAPTER IV.

The Residence of the Brands--Robert Brand and Dr.
Pomeroy--Radical and Copperhead--A passage-at-arms that ended
in a Quarrel--Elspeth Graeme the Housekeeper--The Shadow of
Shame--Father and Daughter--The falling of a parent's Curse 81

CHAPTER V.

The Birth and Blood of the Brands--Pride that came down from
the Crusades--Robert Brand as Soldier and Pension-Agent--How
Elsie raved, and how the Father's Curse seemed to be
answered--Dr. James Holton, and the loss of a Corpus Delicti 99

CHAPTER VI.

The Residence of Dr. Pomeroy--Nathan Bladesden and Eleanor
Hill--A kneeling Woman and a rigid Quaker--The ruin that a
Letter had wrought--A Parting that seemed eternal--Carlton
Brand alive once more, and a Glance at the fatal Letter 120

CHAPTER VII.

A return to 1856--Nicholas Hill, Iron-merchant--His Death,
his Daughter, and his Friend--How Dr. Pomeroy became a
Guardian and how he Discharged that duty--A ruin and an
awakening--The market value of Dunderhaven Stock in 1858 137

CHAPTER VIII.

What followed the revelation of Betrayal--A gleam of Hope for
Eleanor Hill--A relative from California, a projected Voyage,
and a Disappointment--One more Letter--The broken thread
resumed--Carlton Brand's farewell, and an Elopement 164

CHAPTER IX.

Dr. Pomeroy's purposed Pursuit--A plain Quaker who used very
plain Language--Almost a Fight--How Mrs. Burton Hayley
consoled her Daughter, and how Margaret revealed the Past--A
Compact--Dr. Pomeroy's Canine Adventure--Old Elspeth once
more--A Search that found Nothing. 174

CHAPTER X.

Before and after Gettysburgh--The Apathy and Despair which
preceded, and the Jubilation which followed--What Kitty Hood
said after the Battle, and what Robert Brand--Brother and
Sister--A guest at the Fifth Avenue Hotel--A fire-room Visit,
an Interview, and a Departure for Europe 200

CHAPTER XI.

Anomalies of the War for the Union--The Watering-place rush
of 1863--A White Mountain party disembarking at
Littleton--Who filled the Concord coach--The
Vanderlyns--Shoddy on its travels--Mr. Brooks Cunninghame and
his Family--"H. T." and an Excitement 219

CHAPTER XII.

Landing at the Profile House--Halstead Rowan and
Gymnastics--How that person saw Clara Vanderlyn and became a
Rival of "H. T."--The Full Moon in the Notch--Trodden Toes, a
Name, a Voice, and a Rencontre--Margaret Hayley and Capt.
Hector Coles--The Old Man of the Mountain by Moonlight, and a
Mystery 237

CHAPTER XIII.

Miss Clara Vanderlyn and her Pet Bears--A misadventure and a
Friendly Hand in time--The question of Courage--Halstead
Rowan and Mrs. Brooks Cunninghame on Geography--The Dead
Washington, the Flume and the Pool--With the personal
relations weaving at that juncture. 255

CHAPTER XIV.

A disaster to Master Brooks Brooks Cunninghame--Exit into the
bottom of the Pool--Nobody that could swim, and Margaret
Hayley in Excitement--"H. T." in his element, in two
senses--Another Introduction and a new Hero--Scenes in the
Profile parlor--Rowan and Clara Vanderlyn--The Insult 279

CHAPTER XV.

How Halstead Rowan arranged that expected Duel--Ten-pins
versus bloodshed--Some anxiety about identity--The "H. T."
initials, again--A farewell to the Brooks Cunninghames--An
hour on Echo Lake, with a Rhapsody and a strangely-interested
Listener 298

CHAPTER XVI.

Cloud and Storm at the Profile--Sights and Sensations of a
rainy-day ride to the Crawford--Horace Townsend and Halstead
Rowan once more together--Unexpected Arrivals--A cavalcade of
Miserables--An ascent of Mount Washington, with Equestrianism
and War-whoops extraordinary 323

CHAPTER XVII.

Horace Townsend with a Lady in charge--An adventure over the
"Gulf of Mexico"--Clara Vanderlyn in deadly peril--A moment
of horror--Halstead Rowan and a display of the Comanche
riding--Townsend's eclipse--The return to the
Crawford--Margaret Hayley again, and a Conversation overheard 348

CHAPTER XVIII.

Horace Townsend and Margaret Hayley--A strange Rencontre in
the Parlor--Another Rencontre, equally strange but less
pleasant--How Clara Vanderlyn faded away from the
Mountains--And how the Comanche Rider "played baby" and
disappeared 370

CHAPTER XIX.

A strange Character at breakfast--"The Rambler," and his
Antecedents--What Horace Townsend heard about Fate--Going up
to Pic-nic on Mount Willard--The Plateau, the Rope and the
Swing--Spreading the Banquet--The dinner-call and a cry which
answered it--A fearful situation. 392

CHAPTER XX.

Suspense in danger, in two Senses--Horace Townsend with a
Swing-rope--An invitation to Captain Hector Coles--A fearful
piece of Amateur Gymnastics--Going down into the
Schute--Success or Failure?--The event, and Margaret Hayley's
madness--Two unfortunate Declarations 410

CHAPTER XXI.

The bearer of a Disgraced Name in England--A strange Quest
and a strange Unrest--Hurrying over to Ireland--Too late for
the Packet--The little Despatch-steamer--Henry Fitzmaurice,
the journalist--The peril of the Emerald, and the end of all
Quests save one 432

CHAPTER XXII.

Pleasanton's advance on Culpeper--Crossing the
Rappahannock--The fight and the calamity of Rawson's
Cross-Roads--Taking of Culpeper--Pleasanton's Volunteer
Aide--Townsend versus Coles--The meeting of Two who loved
each other--And the Little Ride they took together 452

CHAPTER XXIII.

Once more at West Philadelphia--September and Change--Last
glimpses of Kitty Hood and Dick Compton--Robert Brand and his
invited Guest--The news of Death--Old Elspeth Graeme as a
Seeress--The dispatch from Alexandria--The Quest of Brand and
Margaret Hayley 478

CHAPTER XXIV.

In the Hospital at Alexandria--The wounded Man and his
Nurse--Who was Horace Townsend?--A Mystery explained--How
Eleanor Hill went back to Dr. Pomeroy's--One word more of the
Comanche Rider--Conclusion 490

THE COWARD.