Their verdict must be carefully weighed, for it would be surely
executed. In stern silence each sat to hear, to deliberate, to judge.
The sharp logic and fiery vehemence of Hayne called up no angry flash,
roused no personal vindictiveness; and the deep tones of Webster found
as ready an entrance to southern as to northern hearts, while in those
powerful, words which seemed the fit weapons of a nation's champion, his
mighty mind swept away all that opposed it, save that principle which
lay imbedded in the very deepest stratum of the life of his opponents,
and which could not be torn away from them till feeling and life were
extinct.
It was in the capital, and in the presence of these great men, that
Augusta liked best to find herself. We are afraid she did not always
listen when men of more ordinary power occupied the floor,--the gallery
was an excellent dreaming place at such times.
* * * * *
=_Catharine Anne Warfield,[70] 1817-._=
From "The Romance of Beauseincourt."
=_308._= VIEW OF THE SKY BY NIGHT.
I had derived great and constant pleasure from the undisturbed
possession of this place of promenade during my whole sojourn.... Often,
when my mind had been distracted with anxious cares, I had literally
waited down its excitement and anguish in my fierce and rapid movements
to and fro, over its smooth painted floor, the daily care of Sylphy, who
might be heard in the hot season busily employed in refreshing it with
mop and broom and water during the first hours of the morning, the
pleasant, dewy freshness of which operation might be felt gratefully in
the atmosphere of our heated chamber.
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