CHAPTER VII

DANGERS THICKENING


Mr. Baron was scarcely less miserable than his ward, yet from wholly
different causes. His anxieties concerning her were deep indeed, his
very solicitude impelling him toward the plan which he was eager to
consummate. He was distracted by fears and forebodings of every kind
of evil; he was striving to fortify his mind against the dire
misgiving that the Confederacy was in a very bad way, and that a
general breaking up might take place. Indeed his mental condition
was not far removed from that of a man who dreads lest the hitherto
immutable laws of nature are about to end in an inconceivable state
of chaos. What would happen if the old order of things passed away
and the abominable abolitionists obtained fall control? He felt as
if the door of Dante's Inferno might be thrown wide at any moment.
There was no elasticity in his nature, enabling him to cope with
threatening possibilities; no such firmness and fortitude of soul as
he might be required to exercise within the next few hours. To start
with, he was wretched and distracted by the breaking up of the
methodical monotony of his life and household affairs. Since general
wreck and ruin might soon ensue, he had the impulses of those who
try to secure and save what is most valuable and to do at once what
seems vitally important. Amid all this confusion and excitement of
mind his dominant trait of persistence asserted itself. He would
continue trying to the last to carry out the cherished schemes and
purposes of his life; he would not stultify himself by changing his
principles, or even the daily routine of his life, as far as he
could help himself. If events over which he had no control hastened