To have you by my side ere my breath leaves my body, to grasp your hand, and gaze on your loved features ere I die, removes all my unhappiness of the weary months now past, and I leave this world content." "Oh my wife" said Alfred, "Is this the end of our married life?
Is this the reward I reap for serving my country! Oh, had I remained in New Orleans, the eye of the libertine would never have been cast upon you, and you would have been saved from the grasp of the heartless speculator and extortioner .-- What is independence compared with you my wife?
What have I gained by severing the ties of love and leaving a happy home, to struggle for the liberty of my country?
A dead child--a dying wife--a child who will now be motherless; while I will be a wretched heart-broken man.

Better, far better, had I resisted the calls of my country, and remained with you, than to return and find my happiness gone, and my family beggared, and tossing on the rough billows of adversity, unheeded by the wealthy, and unfriended by all." "Speak not so, my husband," she answered, "my sufferings may be the price of independence, and I meet them cheerfully.

Though in my hours of destitution, despair may have caused me to utter words of anguish, never, for a moment, have I regretted that you left me, to struggle for your country.

If in my sufferings; if in the death of my child; if in my death; and if in the destroying of our once happy family circle, the cause for which you are a soldier is advanced, welcome them.

Woman can only show her devotion by suffering, and though I cannot struggle with you on the battle-field, in suffering as I have done, I feel it has been for our holy cause." "Eva, Eva," he exclaimed, "do all these give you back to me?
Do they restore my angel daughter?
Do they bring me happiness?
Oh, my wife, I had hoped that old age would meet us calmly floating down the stream of Time, surrounded by a happy family, and thanking God for the blessings he had bestowed upon me.