The marriage of Fernando and Morgianna was celebrated the following autumn at the new church which had been erected over the Ashes of the former one. Both of Morgianna's fathers were present; but to her real father was consigned the honor of giving away the bride.
Terrence and Sukey were present. The Irishman declared the matter might have been consummated long ago if they had only left it to him.
The wedding day was made a public holiday in the village. Never in all its existence was the little hamlet so gay. Bands played, choruses sang, and the old cannon, still left at the tumble-down fort, fired a salute, while American flags waved from every house. The local orator, who still entertained hopes of the legislature, delivered a stirring address.
Job, who heard of the happy event, came all the way from Baltimore to shake the hand of "Massa Stevens" and wish him much joy.
"I iz all right now, massa," he declared. "I iz found my own sure enough massa agin, an' I'm goin' back to work for him all de time. No more goin' to sea fer me; I iz no Britisher."
Fernando and his father-in-law, soon after his marriage, engaged in manufacturing enterprises in New England, with Captain Lane as the silent partner and moneyed man of the enterprise. Home industries having been fostered by the war, American manufactures promised a bright future.
Sukey was for many years a prominent minister of the Gospel in Ohio. Terrence studied law and became a leading member of the Philadelphia bar.
Mariana is now no more. Time and disaster have swept it from the peninsula, and to-day it remains only in the memory of the oldest inhabitants. The Stevens family, though subjected to many disasters, has grown, and become a part of the history of the country. The humble part played by Fernando in sustaining the honor of his country has never been recorded by the general historian; but it lingers in the memory of the grateful posterity of many of the heroic men and women who lived in the trying days of the early history of the Great Republic of the New World.
THE END.