I have been, and am to-day, proud
beyond words, of my birthright! I am a Virginian! a Virginian of
Virginians! I have for forty years had no thought but the honor of
Virginia. I have fought for her, and her only, in the senate and
cabinet of the old government at Washington. I have dedicated all my
powers to her--shrunk from nothing in my path--given my days and nights
for years, and was willing to pour out my blood for Virginia; and now
she is about to be trampled upon, her great statues hurled down, her
escutcheon blotted, her altars overturned! And I, who have had no
thought but her honor and glory, am to be driven, at the end of a long
career, to a foreign land! I am to crouch yonder in Canada, with my
bursting brow in my two hands--and every newspaper is to tell me 'the
negro and the bayonet rule Virginia!' Can you wonder, then, that I am
gloomy--that despair lies under all this jesting? _You_ are happy. You
go yonder, where a bullet may end you. Would to God that I had entered
the army, old as I am, and that at least I could hope for a death of
honor, in arms for Virginia!"
VII.
SECRET SERVICE.
The statesman leaned back in his great chair, and was silent. At the
same moment a tap was heard at the door; it opened noiselessly, and
Nighthawk glided into the apartment.
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