“Not another perplexing thought to-night, papa.”

“Well, Marian, I must have some sleep, to be equal to to-morrow.  You must obey orders and sleep also.  I shall not take off my clothes, and shall be ready for any emergency; and do you also sleep in your wrapper.”

He kissed her fondly, but with heavy eyes.

CHAPTER XLVII.

A fair friend and foul foes.

The reader has already discovered that I have not attempted anything approaching a detailed history of the dreadful days of the riot.  I merely hope to give a somewhat correct impression of the hopes, fears, and passions which swayed men’s minds and controlled or directed their action.  Many of the scenes are too horrible to be described, and much else relating to the deeds and policy of recognized leaders belongs to the sober page of history.  The city was in awful peril, and its destruction would have crippled the general government beyond all calculation.  Unchecked lawlessness in New York would soon have spread to other centres.  That cool, impartial historian, the Comte de Paris, recognized the danger in his words:  “Turbulent leaders were present in the large cities of the East, which contained all the elements for a terrible insurrection.  This insurrection was expected to break out in New York, despite Lee’s defeat:  one may judge what it might have been had Lee achieved a victory.”

With the best intentions the administration had committed many grave errors,—­none more so, perhaps, than that of ordering the draft to be inaugurated at a time when the city was stripped of its militia.

Now, however, it only remained for the police and a few hundreds of the military to cope with the result of that error,—­a reckless mob of unnumbered thousands, governed by the instinct to plunder and destroy.

When the sun dawned in unclouded splendor on the morning of the 14th of July, a superficial observer, passing through the greater part of the city, would not have dreamed that it could become a battle-ground, a scene of unnumbered and untold outrages, during the day.  It was hard for multitudes of citizens, acquainted with what had already taken place, to believe in the continuance of such lawlessness.  In large districts there was an effort to carry on business as usual.  In the early hours vehicles of every kind rattled over the stony pavement, and when at last Merwyn awoke, the sounds that came through his open windows were so natural that the events of the preceding day seemed but a distorted dream.  The stern realities of the past and the future soon confronted him, however, and he rang and ordered breakfast at once.

Hastily disguising himself as he had done before, he again summoned his faithful servant.  This man’s vigilance had enabled him to admit his master instantly the night before.  Beyond the assurance that all was well and safe Merwyn had not then listened to a word, yielding to the imperative craving for sleep and rest.  These, with youth and the vigor of a strong, unvitiated constitution, had restored him wonderfully, and he was eager to enter on the perils and duties of the new day.  His valet and man-of-all-work told him that he had been at pains to give the impression that the family was away and the house partially dismantled.