d given place to a beautiful night. The moon
had risen above the tree tops, and now threw her level rays upon the
broad face of the massive pile of rocks forming the Fawn's Tower, and
lit up with a silvery splendor, the foliage that clothed the steep cliff
and the almost perpendicular hill in its neighborhood. On the opposite
side of the river, a line of beech and sycamore trees, that grew almost
at the water's edge, threw a dark shadow upon the bank. Through these,
at intervals, the bright moonlight fell upon the earth, and upon the
quiet and deep stream. The woods were vocal with the whispering noises
that give discord to the nights of summer; yet, was there a stillness in
the scene which invited grave thoughts, and recalled to Butler's mind
some painful emotions that belonged to his present condition.

"How complicated and severe are those trials"--such was the current of
his meditations--"which mingle private grief with public misfortune:
that double current of ill which runs, on one side, to the overthrow of
a nation's happiness, and, on the other, to the prostration of the
individual who labors in the cause! What a struggle have I to encounter
between my duty to my country and my regard for those tender relations
that still more engross my affections, nor less earnestly appeal to my
manhood for defence! Upon the common quarrel I have already staked my
life and fortune, and find myself wrapt up in its most perilous
obligations. That cause has enough in it to employ and perplex the
strongest mind, and to invoke the full devotion of a head and heart that
are exempt from all other solicitude: yet am I embarrassed with personal
cares that are woven into the very web of my existence; that have
planted themselves beside the fountain of my affections, and which, if
they be rudely torn from me, would leave behind--but a miserable and
hopeless wreck. My own Mildred! to what sad trials have I brought your
affection; and how nobly hast thou met them!

"Man lives in the contentious crowd; he struggles for the palm that
thousands may award, and far-speeding renown may rend the air with the
loud huzza of praise. His is the strife of the theatre where the world
are spectators; and multitudes shall glorify his success, or lament his
fall, or cheer him in the pangs of death. But woman, gentle, silent,
sequestered--thy triumphs are only for the heart that loves thee--thy
deepest griefs have no comforter but the secret communion of t