On they streamed, the refugees. The regiment gave what help, what lifts upon the way it could. As for Désirée, coming on in her wagon, she took into it so many, that presently she found no room for herself, but walked beside the horse. And so, at last, on a dull, soft day, they came into Columbia.
It was the sixteenth of February. The Capital of South Carolina was by nature a pleasant, bowery town, though now it was so heavy of heart and filled with forebodings. Of the five thousand who formed its sole defence some portion was in the town itself, but the greater part lay outside, on picket, up and down the Congaree.
The ——th Virginia, coming in, was quartered in the town until it was known what was to be done. Orangeburg was not many miles below Columbia, and the head of Sherman’s column had reached Orangeburg. There was a track of fire drawn across the country; Columbia saw doom coming like a prairie-fire.
Edward found a room for Désirée and he came to her here an hour before dusk. They stood together by a window looking down into the street. “They are leaving home,” she said. “I have seen women and children going all afternoon. I have seen such sad things in this pretty street.”
“Sad enough!” he answered. “Désirée, I think that you must go too.”
“No, no!” she said. “No, no! There is nowhere to go.”
“There is Camden and the villages in the northern part of the State. It is possible that Sherman means when he has done his worst here, to turn back toward Charleston. There is no knowing, but it is possible. If he does that, Camden and those other places may escape.”
“And you?”
“There are no orders yet. We may stay or we may march away. O God, what a play is Life!”
“Those women who are parting down there—saying good-bye to all they love—they do not at all know that they are going into safety, and those who are parting from them do not know. It might be better for them to stay in this large town. They are going away in the dark night, and the enemy may have parties out where they are going. I had rather stay here. I think that it is safer.”