Edgar Allan Poe was when mounting guard as a cadet at West Point, or
Charles Lamb with a quill behind his ear balancing his ledger in India
House. The Mountain and the Muses lured him back to Emmitsburg, where a
short distance from the college gate, in the quiet retreat of
Thornbrook, he settled to his books and a professor's tasks at the
Mount. Close by were the lovely haunts of La Salette, Hillside, Loretto,
Tanglewood, Andorra, Mt. Carmel, every little cottage and garden,
eloquent, it has been said, of the faith and piety of the builders of
the Mount, who breathed the spirit that thus baptized them ("The Story
of the Mountain. Mount St. Mary's College and Seminary, Emmitsburg,
Maryland." By the Rev. E. McSweeny. Vol. II, p. 102). For its historic
associations, its panorama of hills, wooded slopes and fields, the spot
could scarcely be matched within the wide amphitheater of the hills of
Maryland.

To Emmitsburg, to his "boys", the young professor of English literature
gave his enthusiasm, his idealism, his love of all that was fair in art
and the world of books. His enthusiasm inspired them with a love of
artistic excellence, which, neither in his own work, nor in that of his
pupils would tolerate anything commonplace. Before coming to Thornbrook,
he had written "The Truce of God," first published as a serial in the
_United States Catholic Magazine_, established by John Murphy of
Baltimore, and which under the editorship of Bishop Martin John Spalding
and the Rev. Charles I. White achieved a national reputation. Two other
tales, "Loretto," and the "Governess," had also been published and were
extremely popular. Like "The Truce of God," they were of the purest
moral tone, elegant in diction, the work of a thorough literary
craftsman. In 1850, the American actor, Edwin Forrest, offered a prize
of $1,000.00 for the best drama written by an American. Miles easily
carried off the reward with his play "Mohammed." Rich with all the