Cousin William flushed, leaned forward, and became violently optimistic. “You tell Fauquier—or I’ll write to him and tell him myself—that that is no way to talk! It is no way for his father’s son to talk, or his grandfather’s grandson to talk! I am sure, Richard, that you don’t feel that way!”
“Yes, sir, I do feel that way. We are at the end.”
“At the end!” ejaculated Cousin William. “Absurd! We have held Grant eight months at Petersburg!—Well, say that General Lee eventually determines to withdraw from Petersburg! What will follow? Lee in Virginia and Johnston in Carolina have the inner lines. Lee will march south, Johnston will march north, they will join armies, first crush Sherman, then turn and destroy Grant! Richmond? Well, say that Richmond is given up, temporarily, sir—temporarily! We will take it again when we want it, and if they burn it we will rebuild it! Nothing can keep it from being our capital. The President and the Cabinet and offices can remove for a time. Who knows but what it may be very well to be free and foot-loose of defended cities? Play the guerilla if need be! Make our capital at mountain hamlet after mountain hamlet, go from court-house to court-house—A capital! The Confederacy has a capital in every single Southern heart—” Cousin William dashed his hand across his eyes. “I’m ashamed to hear you speak so, Richard!—But you’re a sick man—you’re a sick man!”
“God knows what should be done!” said Cleave. “I am not an easy giver-up, sir. But we have fought until there is little breath in us with which to fight any more. We have fought to a standstill. And it is the country that is sick, sick to death!”
“Any day England or France—”
“Oh, the old, old dream—”
“Say then it’s a dream!” cried Cousin William angrily. “Say that is a dream and any outer dependence is a dream! The spirit of man is no dream! What have we got for dependence? We have got, sir, the spirit of the men and women of the South! We’ve got the unconquerable and imperishable! We’ve got the spiritual might!”
But Richard shook his head. “A fire burns undoubtedly and a spirit holds, but day by day and night by night for four years death has come and death has come! Half the bright coals have been swept from the hearth. And against what is left, sir, wind and rain and sleet and tempest are beating hard—beating against the armies in the field and against the country in the field. They are beating hard, and they will beat us down. They have beaten us down. It is but the recognition now.”
“Then may I die,” said Cousin William, “before I hear Virginia say, ‘I am conquered!’” His eyes sparkled, his frame trembled. “Do you think they will let it rest there, sir! No! In one year I have seen vindictiveness come into this struggle—yes, I’ll grant you vindictiveness on both sides—but you say that theirs is the winning side! Then I tell you that they will be not less but more vindictive! For ten years to come they will make us drink the water of bitterness and eat the bread of humiliation! Virginia! And that second war will be worse than the first!”
He rose. “I can’t stay here and hear you talk like this! I suppose you know what you’re talking about, but you people in the field get a jaundiced view of things! I’m going to see Noel. Noel and I worked it all out last night.—General Lee to cut loose from the trenches at Petersburg, Johnston to strike north, then, having the inner lines—” And so on.