E-text prepared by Dave Maddock, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
A ROMANCE OF THE REPUBLIC
BY
L. MARIA CHILD
1867
TO
THE FATHER AND MOTHER OF
COL. R.G. SHAW,
THE EARLY AND EVER-FAITHFUL FRIENDS OF FREEDOM AND EQUAL RIGHTS,
THIS VOLUME
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY
INSCRIBED
BY
THE AUTHOR.
PART FIRST.
CHAPTER I.
"What are you going to do with yourself this evening, Alfred?" said Mr.Royal to his companion, as they issued from his counting-house in NewOrleans. "Perhaps I ought to apologize for not calling you Mr. King,considering the shortness of our acquaintance; but your father and Iwere like brothers in our youth, and you resemble him so much, I canhardly realize that you are not he himself, and I still a young man.It used to be a joke with us that we must be cousins, since he was aKing and I was of the Royal family. So excuse me if I say to you, asI used to say to him. What are you going to do with yourself, CousinAlfred?"
"I thank you for the friendly familiarity," rejoined the young man."It is pleasant to know that I remind you so strongly of my goodfather. My most earnest wish is to resemble him in character as muchas I am said to resemble him in person. I have formed no plans for theevening. I was just about to ask you what there was best worth seeingor hearing in the Crescent City."
"If I should tell you I thought there was nothing better worth seeingthan my daughters, you would perhaps excuse a father's partiality,"rejoined Mr. Royal.
"Your daughters!" exclaimed his companion, in a tone of surprise. "Inever heard that you were married."
A shadow of embarrassment passed over the merchant's face, as hereplied, "Their mother was a Spanish lady,—a stranger here,—and sheformed no acquaintance. She was a woman of a great heart and of rarebeauty. Nothing can ever make up her loss to me; but all the joy thatremains in life is centred in the daughters she has left me. I shouldlike to introduce them to you; and that is a compliment I never beforepaid to any young man. My home is in the outskirts of the city; andwhen we have dined at the hotel, according to my daily habit, I willsend off a few letters, and then, if you like to go there with me, Iwill call a carriage."
"Thank you," replied the young man; "unless it is your own custom toride, I should prefer to walk. I like the exercise, and it will give abetter opportunity to observe the city, which is so different from ourNorthern towns that it has for me the attractions of a foreign land."
In compliance with this wish, Mr. Royal took him through the principalstreets, pointing out the public buildings, and now and then stoppingto smile at some placard or sign which presented an odd jumble ofFrench and English. When they came to the suburbs of the city, theaspect of things became charmingly rural. Houses were scattered hereand there among trees and gardens. Mr. Royal pointed out one of them,nestled in flowers and half encircled by an orange-grove, and said,"That is my home. When I first came here, the place where it standswas a field of sugar-canes; but the city is fast stretching itselfinto the suburbs."
They approached