Sallie Russell 129 



formerly existed, and make men more cold-blooded, 

 if possible, than ever before. Fortunately, the law 

 has come in and demanded that Mercy, which should 

 be a pleasure, shall become a duty ; but to be thus 

 forced has seemed only to harden many men's hearts. 

 The cruelty they fear to exercise in public is intensi- 

 fied in private, and the woes of abused animals rise 

 like a constant cloud before the Almighty, through 

 which human prayers for mercy can be but faintly 

 heard. * Blessed are the merciful, for they shall 

 obtain mercy,' implies that those who are not merci- 

 ful shall not have mercy. They certainly are not 

 entitled to it. 



The wound which Ashley Hamilton sustained 

 was a severe one. Thousands of men during the 

 war died from slighter injuries ; but to untainted 

 blood Ashley had added a temperate life, and the re- 

 sult was a reserve of strength and vitality that now 

 bore him through. As soon as he was able to be 

 moved he was taken South and confined in one of 

 those dreadful prisons which have been so often and 

 minutely described. Philosophy and patience were 

 his only comforters. And while he was thus spend- 



