Oliver Optic

Taken by the Enemy Oliver Optic

Book Excerpt: ...ulia, that I am disturbed as I never was before in all my life," replied he, maintaining his calmness only with a struggle."I can see that something momentous has happened in our country," she added, hardly able to contain herself, for she felt that she was in the presence of an unexplained calamity."Something has happened, my dear; something terrible, --something that I did not expect, though many others were sure that it would come," he continued, seating himself at the side of his wife."But you do not tell me what it is," said the lady, with a look which indicated that her worst fears were confirmed. "Is Florry worse? Is she"--"So far as I know, Florry is as well as usual," interposed the husband. "But a state of war exists at the present moment between the North and the South."CHAPTER IITHE BROTHER AT THE SOUTHEven five months before, when the Bellevite had sailed on her cruise, the rumble o.