They
will arrange government offices, divide the army, scatter the navy,
juggle the treasury and prepare for the coming storm. The local
bitterness heightens into quarrels over spoils. Judge Philip
Hardin, well-versed in the Secession plots, feeds the ever-burning
pride of Valois. From Kansas, from court and Congress, from the
far East, the murmur of the "irrepressible conflict" grows nearer.
Maxime Valois is in correspondence with the head of his family.
While at Lagunitas, the Creole pushes on his works of improvement.
He dreams at night strange dreams of more brilliant successes. Of
a new flag and the triumph of the beloved cause. He will be called
as a trusted Southron into the councils of the coast. Will they
cut it off under the Lone Star flag? This appeals to his ambition.
There are omens everywhere. The Free-State Democrats must be
suppressed. The South must and shall rule.
He often dreams if war and tumult will ever roll, in flame and fire,
over the West. The mists of the future veil his eyes. He waits the
signal from the South. All over California, the wealth of the land
peeps through its surface gilding. There are no clouds yet upon
the local future. No burning local questions at issue here, save
the aversion of the two sections, distrustful of each other.
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