On arrival in Savannah Mrs. Davis and her children were compelled to walk through the blazing heat the long distance from the wharf4 uptown, the whole party trudging5 immigrant fashion through the streets. Her sister carried the baby. Mrs. Davis and the two little boys and Maggie followed with parcels, and Robert, her faithful black man, brought up the rear with the baggage.
The people of Savannah, on learning of their arrival, treated their prisoners with the utmost kindness. Every home in the city was thrown open to them. Her children had been robbed of all their clothing except what they wore. The neighbors hurried in with clothes.
The newspaper of Savannah of the new régime, The Republican, published and republished with gleeful comments the most sensational6 accounts of the brutal7 scene of the shackling8 of Davis. Maggie composed a prayer and taught her little brothers to repeat it in concert for their grace at the table morning, noon and night:
"Dear Lord, give our father something he can eat, and keep him strong, and bring him back to us with eyes that can see and in his good senses, to his little children, for Jesus' sake."
Nearly every day the child who composed the prayer was so moved by its recital9 she would run from the table and dry her tears in the next room before she could eat.
Hourly scenes of violence increased between the whites and the inflamed10 blacks. A negro sentinel leveled his gun at little Jeff and threatened to shoot him for calling him "Uncle." With prayers and tears the mother sent her children away to the home of a friend in Montreal.
A year passed before President Johnson in answer to the wife's desperate pleading permitted her to visit her husband in prison. She arrived from Montreal on the cold raw morning of May 10, 1866, at four o'clock before day. There was no hotel at the fort at that time and the mother was compelled to sit in the desolate11 little waiting room with her baby without a fire until ten o'clock.
General Miles called. His references to her husband were made in a manner which brutally12 expressed his hatred13 and contempt. She had been informed that his health was in so dangerous a condition that physicians had despaired of his life.
Miles hastened to say:
"'Davis' is in good health—"
"I can see him at once?" she begged.
"Yes. You understand the terms of your parole that you are to take no deadly weapons into the prison?"
Suppressing a smile at the unique use of the language which a man of the rank of Miles could make she replied quickly:
"I understand. Please arrange that I can see him at once."
Without answering the jailer turned and left the room. In a few minutes an officer appeared who conducted her to the room in Carroll Hall to which Dr. Cooper had forced Miles to remove the prisoner. Dr. Cooper proved as troublesome to the General as Dr. Craven. In fact a little more so. He had a way of swearing when angered which made the General nervous. American physicians don't make good politicians when the life of a patient is involved.
They were challenged by three lines of sentries14, each requiring a password, ascended15 a stairway, turned to the right and entered a guard room where three young officers were sitting. Through the bars of the inner room the wife gazed at her husband with streaming eyes.
His body had shrunk to a skeleton, his eyes set and glassy, his cheek bones pressing against the shining skin. He rose and tottered16 across the room, his breath coming in short gasps17, his voice scarcely audible.
Mrs. Davis was locked in with him. She sent the baby back to her quarters by Frederick, another faithful negro servant who had followed their fortunes through good report and evil.
His room had a horse bucket for water, a basin and pitcher18 on an old chair whose back had been sawed off, a little iron bedstead with hard mattress19, one pillow, a wooden table, and a wooden chair with one leg shorter than the others which might be used as an improvised20 rocker. His bed was so thick with bugs21 the room was filled with their odor. He was so innocent of such things he couldn't imagine what distressed22 him so at night—insisting that he had contracted some sort of skin disease.
His dinner was brought slopped from one dish to another and covered by a gray hospital towel sogged with the liquids. The man of fastidious taste glanced at the platter and saw that the good doctor's wife had added oysters23 to his menu that day and ate one. His vitality24 was so low even this gave him intense pain.
He was not bitter, but expressed his quiet contempt for the systematic25 petty insults which his jailer was now heaping on him daily. His physician had demanded that he take exercise in the open air. Miles always walked with him and never permitted an occasion of this kind to pass without directing at his helpless prisoner personal insults so offensive that Davis always cut his walks short to be rid of his tormentor26. On one occasion the general was so brutal in his conversation after he had locked his prisoner in his room that he suddenly sprang at the bars, grasped them with his trembling, skeleton hands and cried:
"But for these you should answer to me—here and now!"
A favorite pastime of his jailer was to admit crowds of vulgar sightseers and permit them to gaze at his prisoner.
A woman inquired of Frederick, who was on his way to his room:
"Where's Jeff?"
The negro bowed gravely and drew his stalwart figure erect27:
"I am sorry, madame, not to be able to tell you. I do not know any such person."
"Yes, you do—aren't you his servant?"
"No, madame, you are mistaken. I have the honor to serve ex-President Davis."
Only a great soul can command the love and respect of servants as did this quiet grave statesman of the old régime.
Never during the long hours of these weeks and months of torture did he lose his dignity or his lofty bearing quail28 before his tormentor. He was too refined and dignified29 to be abusive, and too proud in General Miles' delicate phraseology to "beg."
The loving wife began now her desperate fight to nurse him back into life again.
The new Commandant of the fort, General Burton, who replaced Miles, proved himself a gentleman and a soldier of the old school. He immediately gave to the prisoner every courtesy possible and to his wife sympathy and help.
The Bishop30 of Montreal sent him a case of green chartreuse from his own stores. This powerful digestive stimulant31 helped his feeble appetite to take the nourishment32 needed to sustain life and slowly build his strength.
He could sleep only when read to, and many a day dawned on the worn figure of his wife still droning her voice into his sensitive ears, with one hand on his pulse praying God it might still beat. At times it stopped, and then she roused the sleeper33, gave him the stimulant and made him eat something which she always kept ready. Dr. Cooper had warned that the walls of his heart were so weak even a sound sleep might prove his death if too long continued.
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1
dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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trudging
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式） | |
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6
sensational
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| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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8
shackling
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| 给（某人）带上手铐或脚镣( shackle的现在分词 ) | |
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recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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inflamed
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| adj.发炎的，红肿的v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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12
brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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14
sentries
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| 哨兵，步兵( sentry的名词复数 ) | |
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15
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tottered
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| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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17
gasps
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| v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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pitcher
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| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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oysters
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| 牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 ) | |
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vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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tormentor
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| n. 使苦痛之人, 使苦恼之物, 侧幕 =tormenter | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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quail
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| n.鹌鹑；vi.畏惧，颤抖 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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31
stimulant
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| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
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32
nourishment
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| n.食物，营养品；营养情况 | |
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sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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