Page:The woman in battle .djvu/579

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CHAPTER XLV.

A TOUR THROUGH EUROPE.

Off for Europe. Seasickness. An over-attentive Doctor. Advantages of knowing more Languages than one. A young Spaniard in Love. Arrival in London. Paris and its Sights. Rheims and the Champagne Country. Frankfort on the Main. A beautiful Country, and a thriving People. A Visit to Poland. Return to Paris, and meeting with old Confederates. Friends who knew me, and who did not know me. Finding out what my old Army Associates thought of me. Back to London. A Visit to Hyde Park, and a sight of Queen Victoria. Manchester and its Mills. Homeward Bound. Return to New York, and Separation from my Brother and his Family.


T was not many days before my brother arrived with his wife, two children, and nurse. It was a most joyful reunion, and I tried to be as affectionate as I knew how to my sister-in-law and the pretty little babes, one of whom was a name sake of my own. It was impossible for me, however, to feel towards her as I did towards my brother, and I fancied that she was not as well disposed towards me as she might have been.

Once together, our arrangements were soon, made, and we left New York on board of one of the Cunard steamers. I wondered what my friend Colonel Baker would think of my disappearance, and could not help laughing at the neat trick I had played upon him.

Despite the reasons I had for being glad to find myself speeding towards a foreign shore, it was not without a pang of regret that I watched those of America fading in the distance. This, after all, was my country, where dwelt my friends; here was the scene of the great events in which I had taken a not altogether unimportant part ; and it was like separating from a portion of myself to sail away from such a land, and to feel that, probably, I might never return.

Before we had been long at sea, however, I had something else to think of than sentimental regrets. Both my brother

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