Part 10 (1/2)

And how fared it with the Federal Spy during those hours of anguish for all true Southerners? Betty Van Leho had been in close touch with the Union generals, had for sole, and weeks earlier she had sent north to General Butler for a huge A by nine wide, which in some unknoas successfully carried into Richuard, and safely secreted in the hidden chamber under the Van Lew roof

And now General Lee had surrendered Virginia was again to be a State of the Union; ca breathless tidings to the Spy: ”Your house is to be burned--the Confederate soldiers say so What can you do to prevent it?”

Even as she listened to his excited words, Betty Van Lew's heart was throbbing with joyful excitement, despite the uproar in the city from the constant explosion of shells, the sound of the blowing up of gun-boats in the harbor, and of the powderthe foundations of the city, as red flames leaped across the black sky Even then there was in the heart of the Spy a wild exultation ”Oh, arlorious was your welcome!”

she exclaims in her diary

She heard the news that her ho eyes she went out alone and stood on the white-pillared portico, a fearless little figure, defying theto destroy the old mansion which was so dear to her

”I know you--and you--and you!” she cried out, calling the at one after another ”General Grant will be in this city within an hour; if this house is harmed your house shall be burned by noon!” At the fearless words, one by one they turned, , and slunk away, and the Van Lew house was neither burned nor har near now, , dusty line ofinto Main Street, Betty Van Lew ran up to the secret roo for which she had sent in anticipation of this day, and when the Union soldiers marched past the historic oldproudly over its portico The Confederacy was no more!

Despite her bravery, Betty Van Lew's life was now in danger There was urgent need of special protection for her Feeling against the northern victors was at fever height in poor, desolated, defeated Richmond, and it is small wonder that one born in their city, who yet stood openly and fearlessly against all that the Southerners held sacred, should have been despised, and worse than that Realizing her danger, and knowing the priceless service she had rendered the Union generals in the four long years of the war, Colonel Parke, with a force of men, was sent to protect the Spy To the General's utter amazement they did not find her in the old house She was found in the deserted Capitol, ransacking it for docuht be destroyed and which would be a loss to the Government

As ”Crazy Bet” and as a Union Spy, Betty Van Lew's long and remarkable service of her country was ended The Confederacy was dissolved, and again the flag of the United States of A in the land At the beginning of the hen Betty took on herself the role of Federal Secret Service agent, she was light of heart, alert of body and mind Now, for four years, she had born a heavy burden of fear and of crushi+ng responsibility, for the sake of a cause for which she illing to sacrifice coe woman counts dear, and her heart and brain eary

Teeks after the inauguration of Grant as President of the United States, as a reward for her faithful service, he appointed Betty Van Lew postmistress of Richmond Well she knew that her enemies would declare the appointainst the Confederacy, and that it would but make her more of an alien in Richmond than ever she had been before But she was desperately poor, so she accepted the position and for eight years filled it efficiently When she came in contact with old friends from time to time in a business way, they were politely cold, and in her diary she writes:

”I live, as entirely distinct froue-stricken Rarely, very rarely, is our door-bell ever rung by any but a pauper or those desiring my service” She adds: ”September, 1875, h to be pall-bearers”

When Grant had been succeeded by Hayes as President of the United States, the one-tied to ask for his aid:

”I am hounded down”--she wrote to his private Secretary ”I never, never was so bitterly persecuted; ask the President to protect me from this unwarranted, unmerited, and unprecedented persecution”

Froht for the abolition of slavery and the preservation of the Union, Betty Van Lew's persecution was indeed ”unwarranted and unmerited” But there was another side to the h the child of a Northern hter of John Van Lew, one of Richmond's foremost citizens The loyalty of the Southerners to the Confederacy and to one another, from their viewpoint, was praiseworthy, and there is every reason why they should have shunned one of Richhters, who not only approved the cause of the hated Yankees, but who aided the Union generals in their determination to sweep ”On to Richmond, to the defeat of the Confederacy”

What to one was loyalty, to the other was treason--what to the Spy was a point of honor, to her old friends was her open and lasting disgrace, and never can the two viewpoints be welded into one, despite the sy the United States of America one and ”indivisible, now and forever!”

Betty Van Lew reht years, then she was removed, and there were black years of poverty and loneliness for her, as she had not laid by a dollar for a day of want, but had given lavishly to all in need, especially to the negroes She was not able to sell her valuable but unproductive real estate, and was reduced to actual need ”I tell you really and solemnly,” she confesses to her diary, ”I have suffered for necessary food I have not one cent in the world I have stood the brunt alone of a persecution that I believe no other person in the country has endured I honestly think that the Governiven a clerkshi+p in the Post-Office Departton, but after two years this was taken from her, probably for political reasons, and it was recorade This was done, and although she was cut by the injustice of the act, she clung patiently to her only means of support Teeks later, it is said that a Northern newspaper contained an editorial which spoke sneeringly of ”A Troublesome Relic,” and ended with, ”We draw the line at Miss Van Lew” Even though she had not a penny in the world, she could not bear the sting of that, and she wrote her resignation, and went back to the great, lonely house on Church Hill a heart-broken, pitiable woiven her all for what she believed to be the cause of right and justice

But she could not live in the old mansion alone, and without food or money In despair she wrote a letter to a friend in the North, a relative of Col Paul Revere, whom she had helped when he was a prisoner in the Libby She had to borrow a staro to send the letter, and even worse to her than that was the necessity of revealing her desperate plight But she need not have felt as she did

As soon as the letter reached its destination there was a hurried indignationof those Boston men who knehat she had done for the Union, and iladly they provided an ample annuity for her, which placed her beyond all need for the rereat relief; but even so, it could not ease the burden of her lonely isolation

”No one ith us on the street,” she writes; ”no one will go with us anywhere It groorse and worse as the years roll on”

And so the weary months and years went by, and at last, in the old ress to whoiven freedo her effects there was found on a torn bit of paper this paragraph:

”If I am entitled to the name of 'Spy' because I was in the Secret Service, I accept it willingly, but it will hereafter have to nificance For my loyalty to my country, I have two beautiful names; here I am called 'Traitor,' farther North a 'Spy,' instead of the honored name of Faithful”