Colonel and Mrs. Temple, lived long and happily in each other's love; administering to the comfort of their bereaved child, and mutually sustaining each other, as they descended the hill of life, until they “slept peacefully together at its foot.” The events of the Rebellion, having been consecrated by being consigned to the glorious _past_, furnished a constant theme to the old lady—and late in life she was heard to say, that you could never meet now-a-days, such loyalty as then prevailed, nor among the rising generation of powdered fops, and flippant damsels, could you find such faithful hearts as Hansford's and Virginia's. And Virginia Temple, the gentle and trusting Virginia, was not entirely unhappy. The first agony of despair subsided into a gentle melancholy. Content in the performance of the quiet duties allotted to her, she could look back with calmness and even with a melancholy pleasure to the bright dream of her earlier days. She learned to kiss the rod which had smitten her, and which blossomed with blessings—and purified by affliction, her gentle nature became ripened for the sweet reunion with her Hansford, to which she looked forward with patient hope. The human heart, like the waters of Bethesda, needs often to be troubled to yield its true qualities of health and sweetness. Thus was it with Virginia, and in a peaceful resignation to her Father's will, she lived and passed away, moving through the world, like the wind of the sweet South, receiving and bestowing blessings. THE END. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tanscriber's Notes: | | Left inconsistent use of punctuation. | | Page 19: Changed Virgnia to Virginia. | | Page 210: Changed wantlng to wanting. | | Page 228: Changed afaid to afraid. | | Page 233: Changed Britian to Britain. | | Page 242: Changed beseiged to besieged. | | Page 246: Left quote as: It is the cry of women, good, my lord | | Page 278: Changed tinings to tidings. | | Page 281: Changed requium to requiem. | | Page 351: Changed pefidious to perfidious | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hansford: A Tale of Bacon's Rebellion, by St. George Tucker