"call" to act as peacemaker. Nevertheless she resented Julia Jeffcourt's
insinuations bitterly, and the cousins quarreled--not the first time in
their intercourse--and it was reserved for the latter to break the news
of Corbin's arrival with the body to Mrs. Jeffcourt.

How this was done and what occurred at that interview has not been
recorded. But it was known the next day that, while Mrs. Jeffcourt
accepted the body at Corbin's hands,--and it is presumed the funeral
expenses also,--he was positively forbidden to appear either at the
services at the house or at the church. There had been some wild talk
among the younger and many of the lower members of the community,
notably the "poor" non-slave-holding whites, of tarring and feathering
Joseph Corbin, and riding him on a rail out of the town on the day
of the funeral, as a propitiatory sacrifice to the manes of Thomas
Jeffcourt; but it being pointed out by the undertaker that it might
involve some uncertainty in the settlement of his bill, together with
some reasonable doubt of the thorough resignation of Corbin, whose
previous momentary aberration in that respect they were celebrating, the
project was postponed until AFTER THE FUNERAL. And here an unlooked-for
incident occurred.

There was to be a political meeting at Kirby on that day, when certain
distinguished Southern leaders had gathered from the remoter Southern
States. At the instigation of Captain Dows it was adjourned at the hour
of the funeral to enable members to attend, and it was even rumored,
to the great delight of Pineville, that a distinguished speaker or two
might come over to "improve the occasion" with some slight allusion to
the engrossing topic of "Southern Rights." This combined appeal to
the domestic and political emotions of Pineville was irresistible. The
Second Baptist Church was crowded. After the religious service there