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a good place for getting the torpedo—
where it would do the most execution —
but he trusted to his wits when he should
exam ne the premises. He reached the
place before midnight without accident.
The old house was in a sequestered spot
—in the midst of a thick wood. Leaving
his mare at a short distance from the
spot, he stealthily approached the house,
and found the door fastened by a bar on
the outside. No horses were there, and
all was silent as the grave. Removing
the bar he entered, closing the door, and
lighted the lantern. Many proofs were
hanging against the walls and lying
upon the floor, that the old tenemant had
been occupied by soldiers. The valiant
blue coats supposed no one would dare
to invade the premises and disturb their
chattels. In a desk he found a sheet of
paper on which names, well known to
him, were carelessly written. They
were men who were at the sacking of
his father’s house. In this desk were
also several cans of fine powder. Search
ing further he found a gallon jug half
filled with whiskey—the article so much
used by the grand army of the North to
stimulate their courage.
“Now I have them,” he thought.
It required but little work to change
his torpedo so as to explode when the
stopper was drawn. In readjusting it
he added all the Yankee powder; the
idea pleasiDg him that he would blow
them up by the very agent they intend
ed to use against his friends and coun
trymen—that he would “hoist them to
their own petard’’—an achievement so
often performed by the Confederate sol
diers. He exchanged jugs, placing his
in the exact spot where the other had
stood.
“Now, scoundrels, I invite you to drink
when you return,” said he too himself.
“You can drink out of my jug and I will
drink out of yours.”
He anticipated that their first step on
reaching their rendezvous would be to
gather around for a hearty gulf of the
liquid.
The Yankee beverage was a timely
acquisition, Henry needing some stimu
lant to compensate for his loss of sleep.
He took a drink and, leaving everything
apparently as he found it, started back,
feeling certain of a triumph. Just be
fore dawn he rode up to the back fence of
his friend. He went to old George’s
quarters; gave him the jag and contents,
and told him to feed Betty.
Prudence dictated that Henry should
keep aloof from his friends; at least that
he should use all precaution in his visits.
His stay was short; but he communi
cated to Sallie what lie had done. In
structing George how to find him, he
was soon again in his dark retreat in
the wilderness of cane. He did not ex
pect his plot would be completely suc
cessful, and thought that the knowledge
of it would increase the excitement.
At sunset on Friday the twelve heroes
rode up to the school house, never sus
pecting that a strange foot had entered
those precincts in their absence.
“Tie your horses, boys,” said the
leader. “The first thing is a drink. I
am devilish dry.”
Opening the door, ho entered and
brought forth the jug, placing it upon
the lloor to await the assembling of his
follows. They were in the habit of
drinking in turn from the jug. All be
ing present, they formed a close ring
around what they believed to be the good
old Bourbon, indulging in many jests.
1 ae leader lifted the vessel and drew the
cork, but no lip was gratified by a taste
of the homely nectar. The effect of the
explosion was terrible. Limbs and flesh
were Rightfully mangled and burned,
and blood streamed upon the floor.
Twelve more victims were added to the
list of the slain. Frightened house,
broke their fastenings, and were flying
in every direction ; and the horses, which
w.i9 partly torn away, was on fire. The
nearest residents, alarmed by the explo
sion, hastened to the spot, and found the
o’d building wrapped in flames. All was
mystery and disorder. One man only
could explain. The catastrophe was at
tributed to accident, and Unionism could
only lament over the loss of twelve meD,
and relatives mourn for the departed.
So this blow of the avenger was followed
by no reaction; and the greater event
diverted attention from the previous
tragedy.
\V ith a high degree of impatience
Henry waited in the covert to hear the
result of his experiment at the rustic
temple of learning. On the second day
after, old George found his way to the
hiding place, and delivered a letter from
Sallie which informed her brother of the
effect of the explosion. It filled Henry’s
bosom with savage joy ; his pulses boat
in triumph. Surely the Gods were pro
pitious,
Henry did not expect to find another
opportunity to further his object before
rejoining his regiment. He must soon
return ; and he now gave more attention
to his relatives and friends. Night gen
erally found him one of the circle at the
house of good Mr. Hopkins. In a few
days he was informed that several mem
bers of his regiment were among their
friends in that vicinity, having obtained
furloughs. He managed to see them all,
some at their own houses and others at
Mr. Hopkins’. It was gratifying to hear
from his command, and learn the general
army news.
[to be continued ]
EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE
OF THE BANNER OF THE SOUTH.
SPAIN, FRANCE AND PRUSSIA.
Spain has once more become the centre
of political interest in Europe. The
manifesto of Isabella on one hand, and
the sure though silent manoeuvres of the
CarlLts, on the other, have driven to des
peration the ambitious adventurers who
struggle to maintain a position achieved
by an accident of the sword; a position
from which every law of justice, every
principle of economy, every tongue of
the nation have combined to denounce
them. The aspect which Spanish politics
have latterly assumed foreshadowed a
crisis, which the action of Isabella ma
terially tended to accelerate. Adverse
influences conspired to embarrass the
position of Prim, and have now succeed
ed iri throwing his plans into hopeless
confusion. As the crisis began to culmi
nate the necessity of definite and imme
diate action forced itself upon his con
victions. For the last two years he had
been moving under the eye of France,
whose sympathy he dared not solieit—
whose influence he dared not oppose.
Fettered by this salutary control over bis
infidel administration, he shrunk from
aiding the candidature of the Bourbon
Duke, whose best recommendation to the
throne consisted in that pliant and weak
minded character that ever formed the
distinguishing characteristic of his race.
The time had now arrived when his half
way position could be not longer sus
tained. The great masses of the people
were surging wrathfully beneath him and
every moment threatened to epgulf him.
Before him were but two alternatives—to
throw up the game, so long, so villain
oasly, so desperately played, and sink
into the graceless position of the super
annuated hero, who has outlived his
popularity; or to boldly pursue his per.
nicious policy", throw off the restraint
and hazard the displeasure of France,
and prepare himself as best be might for
the consequences. He has cliosen the
latter. Everyone is aware of the jealous
rivalry existing between France and
Prussia, which more than once has
threatened to make Europe red with the
blood of the Nations, and decide forever
the supremacy of the powers. Accord
ingly, Prim, in incurring the displeasure
of the one, determined to secure the
friendship and support of the other.
What ho wanted was a King, whose
presence in Spain, and relations outside
of it, would secure the work of the
late Revolution. More than that he want
ed a king, who by his youth or extreme
age would furnish pliant material upon
which he could operate with advantage
to himself and to those pernicious prin
ciples of which he is the worthy expo
nent. Accordingly he secretly negotia
tes with Prussia and offers the Crown to
Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, of the
reigning house of Prussia. The over
tures were kept zealously secret until
all was concluded, when Prim announced
the candidature and the Court of Berlin
announced his acceptance of it. The
Cortez are to assemble on the 20th of
July and confirm by vote the candida
ture of the Prince, who is to proceed to
Spain and be proclaimed King upon the
Ist of November. The people, and
priests, and press are loud and eloquent
in their protest against this new degra
dation for Spain, while the indignation
of France is not easilv conceived. Even
England, through her organ, the Times ,
has said that the position taken by
France in regard of the candidature of
the Prussian Prince is simply decisive,
and that there can be little benefit to
Spain in the choice of a Prince whose
advent would be the signal for rebellion
and war. The Duke de Grammont in the
French Senate of the 6th inst. : “We
hare not transgressed the limits of the
strictest ueutrality. In reference to pre
tenders to the Spanish throne, we shall
persist in this line of conduct, but we
do not believe that respect for the rights
of a neighboring people obliges us to
suffer foreign nations, by placing a Prince
upon the throne as Charles the Fifth, to
disturb the European equilibrium to our
disadvantage, and thus to imperil the in
terests and honor of France. We en
tertain a firm hope that this will not hap
pen, and to prevent it we count Upon the
wisdom of the German Nation.” In the
meantime great military preparations are
progressing in France with unprecedent
ed rapidity. Stringent orders hove been
given to allow no further leave of ab
sence on any pretext. Officers are hur
rying back to their regiments, and the
frontier fortresses are undergoing a rapid
inspection.
By the latest telegrams we learu that
France has informed the King of Prussia
that “he must either forbid the candida
ture of Prince Leopold or that there
must be war.” Telegrams from Paris
state that the Spanish question is the all
absorbing topic, aud that public feeling
is very bitter against Prussia, while the
press and people universally applaud
the resolution and action of the Govern
ment. The French Government has al
ready communicated with the great
powers who have expressed their sym
pathy with the views of France, and will
act both at Madrid and Berlin with a
view to prevent complications. It is said
that Russia will support France. It is
now a question of vital importance be
tween France and Prussia, and must re
sult iu the humiliation of the one or the
other. Prussia must either risk the con
sequences of a war with France, and the
displeasure of the powers, or retract from
her negotiations in humiliating submis
sion to the veto of her rival and forego
the precious opportunity of raising Prussia
to the level of the Empire of Charles
V., and making her the greatest and
most powerful of the nations of Europe
—the opportunity, geographically speak
ng, of holding France within her grasp
the opportunity that, centuries may
come and pass away and she may never
behold again.
For France it is a simple question of
life or death. She must either prevent
it by war or diplomacy, or else brook the
humiliation of the present and await
gradual but certain destruction in the
future. Fortunately for Europe and for
herself she is well prepared for the strug
gle, and once the question is decided the
action of France towards the mischievous
originator of the whole disturbance the
future alone can decide, but it requires
no profound politician to guess the feel
ings with which Napoleon and his Gov
ernment must regard his traitorous de
ceit. Prussia will have to thank Prim
for implicating her in her present embar
rassing and humiliating position. By
France he cannot be regarded as aught
but a deep and dangerous enemy. By
the rest of the powers, even his friendly
sympathizers, England and Italy, he will
be considered as a mischievous disturber
of the public peace and security. Thus
has Prim and his Government (and we
ask the pardon of every other govern
ment for calling it so) been driven into
difficulties and into a frantic effort to
sustain themselves by the influence of
alien powers in that position which the
voice of their countrymen denied them.
The failure of this coup-de-main will lay
the basis of a powerful reaction—a pow
erful reaction already almost perfected in
Spain—a reaction now more rapidly than
ever extending outside of it—a reaction
in favor of the right of the traditional
rulers of Catholic Spain—a reaction
finally which will be the death-knell of
the Revolution in that country —perhaps
of the Revolution in all Europe—a reac
tion in the spirit of the age.
CHINA.
Adv ices from China state that an
outbreak took place in Pekin on June
21st in which the mob murdered all the
French Priests and Sisters of Mercy and
French Consul and Secretary of Legation.
The Cathedral built by the stipulations
of the last treaty, was burnt to the ground.
Many are inclined to consider that this
deplorable intelligence is uot authentic,
but there is good reason to fear that it is
only too true. The day has surely come
for France to avenge the martyred Apos
tles of that perverse land.
THE COUNCIL.
The Council is proceeding with its
usual unanimity. The discussion on the
Infallibility is proceeding and its oppo
nents are every day more few. The
health of His Holiness is reported to be
excellent.
ENGLAND.
The Liverpool Corporation has voted
£4,000 to build a Catholic Reformatory
at Ainsdale. The Catholic Educational
Fund is now" more than £OO,OOO. With
it the Catholics propose to establish for
their children schools purely Catholic.
It is supposed that once these schools are
founded the State will give 50 per cent,
towards their sustentation. These are
but slight evidences of the gigantic pro
gress the old Faith is making in England.
Veritas.
NEW ORLEANS (LA) CORRESPONDENCE
OF THE BANNER OF THE SOUTH.
New Orleans, July 24,1870.
Editor Banner of the South:
The 19th of July was the feast of the
glorious Saint Vincent. Founder of the
order of Priests now called Lazarists, he
instilled into their hearts his own love
for the poor, and zeal for the salva
tion of souls. Gathering up the sick, the
poor, the orphan and the outcast, he in
trusted them all to the hands of his de
voted missionaries ; but seeing in all this
work the need of woman’s ministry, he
invented—if I may thus use the expres
sion-—the noblest, purest, holiest order
that has ever blessed this suffering world
of ours; the Sisters of Charity! Con
ceived in his mind aud fashioned by his
hands, this best order of womanhood rose
from out the turbid waters of the world,
and with a spiritual beauty far exceeding
the fabled lovliness of Venus, brought
with it every grace that could elevate,
purify, or cheer the heart of man. The
perfect embodiment of the classical
graces or charities, they possess all the
attributes of the Virgin Sisters; but in
stead of a beautiful ideal, they live and
move among us, cheerful, devoted, real.
Nurse to the sick,j friend to the poor,
mother to the orphan, help to all in need
of help, the Sister of Charity takes the
place of all those visible angels whom
God once permitted to walk among men ;
and woe to him who can look upon them
and not acknowledge that they are mes
sengers of him who went about doiug
good.
I here are at present nearly twenty
thousand of these daaghters of St. Vin
cent exercising, in almost every part of
the world, their mission of charity and
love, while about three thousand holy
Priests inherit their founder’s zeal and
carry on the work which he begun.
If the Saints are permitted to feel
proud of any labor performed by them
in the Lord’s vineyard, surely Saint Vin
cent might well be allowed this privi
lege, when on the day which the Church
has made his festival, his many thousand
children offer to him their filial homage
and present the coutless good works
wrought out through his means. Who
can count ihese increasing tokens oi a
good man’s life ? Who can number the
souls sanctified, the lives redeemed, the
misery assuaged by the followers of
Saint Vincent de Paul.
The present Superior of these holy
orders, the venerable Father Etienne,
will ou the 4th of August celebrate his
jubilee—or the fiftieth anniversary of his
ordinatian as priest of the congregation.
There will be a happy gathering on that
day in France, and Hundreds of Saint
Vincent’s children will meet around their
spiritual father to wish him joy of his
long labors and to pray for a crown of
glory when those labors cease.
I have nothing further to report con
cerning the lost child of Mr. Digby.
Every day some some faint gleam of
hope is espied from far, but a near ap
proach only dispels some illusion and
make’s the poor lather’s heart sick with
suspense and fear. The police, however,
are unremitting in their search and the
sympathizing public can only wait until
a kind Providence deigns to reveal the
fate of the little lost darling,
I said in my last that fruit was dear
in our markets and I can continue to say
the same thing. Ice-cream, too, is al
ways dear here; and yet methinks milk,
eggs, and ice ought to be cheap at this
season of the year. But neither the
compound nor its iDgredtents are ever
cheap in this city of high prices. Some
adventurous spirit has constructed a
beautiful golden saloon # on wheels, hung
with gold and crimson curtains and car
rying large freezers of differently flavor
ed creams, with which he perambulates
through our streets nightly. Inscribed
upon his gorgeous vehicle is the name,
Tortori—known of old as that of the most
celebrated ice-cream maker in France.
Heralded by such a name, be is sure to
attract custom ; it will depend upon his
charges whether he retains it or not. I
understand that the ice cream however,
doe3 10" reflect d.scredit upon tl e name,
that it is of excellent quality and most
artistically flavored, and that about two
square inches of the frozen luxury is
given in exchange for fifteen cents.
The Chinamen are at last among us,
and Louisiana and Massachusetts have
joined hands on the Chinese question.
Here they are working on sugar and corn;
tl ere they are making slippers and shoes,
so that supplying our mouths and our
heels they will surely reach the ends at
which they aim.
The Republican suggests that in fifty
years from now the good people of Mas
sachusetts will be getting up an aboli
tion-Chinese party and overriding the
South again.
In this City the celestials are engaged
at an extensive saw-mill on the river
coast; and those who have seen them at
work, say that each man watches his
leader, and does accordingly. If the
leader lifts one plank, they do the same •
if he undertakes two, the rest follow his
example and so on. Avery different
system this, from that of our
hands. They , always try to do
little work as possible, and, instead of
watching to discover what is expected of
them, rather avoid any hints of the kind
and work on according to their own no
tions.
All of our schools are now in vacation
and most of the religious orders avail
themselves of this period of rest, to en
ter upon a retreat, or a time of medita
tion, self-examination and prayer. What
a difference there is between the spirit of
the world, and .spirit of the cloister.
Contrast the lives of the seekers after
dissipation and pleasure, the watering
place belles, with quiet, hidden, holy
lives of the Sisters of Charity, Sisters of
Mercy or Sisters of the Good Shepherds.
Were it not for the prayers of these last,
would God so long bear with the follies
of the first ? Were it not for the fra
grance of these stainless lives, would He
so long suffer the fumes of sin and pride
to rise before Him ? Why is this world
—even this one part of it—worse, ac
cording to our theologians,-than ever
were Sodom or Gomorrah, permitted to
exist unscathed by His anger ?
Ah! The prayers of the cloister—the
sacrificed lives of His chosen ones—the
unrecorded deaths of the followers of His
saints—these give the answer to a ques
tion which may well make us tremble!
ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT AT THE
URSULINE INSTITUTE—VALLE
CRUCIS-SC-
This time-honored Institute held its
Annual Commencement on the 29th ult.,
with its accustomed eclat.
The Rewards of Merit and Crowns of
Honor were bestowed by Rt. Rev. Bishop
Lynch, assisted by Rev. Dr. Meriwether,
and Hon. Mr. Keitt, of South Carolina.
The music was all of a good school,
and selected with taste and judgment.
The skill manifested in the execution on
three pianos in concert, and five guitars,
show the students to have di.-tanced con
siderably the jions asinoram. Tiic harp
and vocal music did credit alike to stu
dents and teaehers. The exhibit of va
rious styles, aud of a quantity of needle
work, pleased very much, and gave evi
dence of the culture of domestic tastes
and duties. In the culinary department,
several young ladies were competitors
for best made yeast bread; best prepared
and cooked fowl and meats, best made
jellies, desserts, &c. Upon the whole,
no department seems forgotten in the cur
riculum of studies for a Ladies Acade
my.
At the elose of the exercises a little
girl about twelve years of age and the
smallest in the Hall, came forward with
a pretty bouquet and made in the name
of all the students, a Salutatory or
Valedictory, to which the Rt. Rov.
Bishop responded in his usual eloquent
and happy style. In allusion to his re
cent return from Europe, the Bishop told
them, lie had not in all his travels, seen
an educational institution offering su
perior advantages to this, in which they
were being so happily trained for future
usefulness ; expressed himself highly
pleased with their success, and concluded
with a benediction.
One feature struck us particularly at
the commencement—it was the absence
of premiums in the form of books —and
I spoke of it to the Beligieuses, regretting
that they did not disseminate Catholic
Books by giving them as premiums. I
was happy to find they fully concur in
the duty of thus scattering the seed
broadcast through the laud, and are only
waiting to recuperate from the war de
vastation, to begin again the distribution
of premium books. Iu my couversati >n
with the ladies, I also, learned that they
never use pagan authors in teaching
Latin, but substitute for reading and
parsing the prayers of the Church and
selections from Sacred Scriptures —the
Psalms for instance—and from the writ
ings of.the Fathers. This may look Pur
itanical to some people, but J like it.
Therefore I recommend the Institute
as one of superior merit, and well calcu
lated to to fit woman for her true sphere
of duty and usefulness.