Oh, Rhett, if there’s no danger, why are they digging these new breastworks?
Is the army so short of men they’ve got to use darkies?”
Rhett clucked to the mare.
“The army is damned short of men.
Why else would the Home Guard be called out?
And as for the entrenchments, well, fortifications are supposed to be of some value in case of a siege.
The General is preparing to make his final stand here.”
“A siege!
Oh, turn the horse around.
I’m going home, back home to Tara, right away.”
“What ails you?”
“A siege!
Name of God, a siege!
I’ve heard about sieges!
Pa was in one or maybe it was his Pa, and Pa told me—”
“What siege?”
“The siege at Drogheda when Cromwell had the Irish, and they didn’t have anything to eat and Pa said they starved and died in the streets and finally they ate all the cats and rats and even things like cockroaches.
And he said they ate each other too, before they surrendered, though I never did know whether to believe that or not.
And when Cromwell took the town all the women were— A siege!
Mother of God!”
“You are the most barbarously ignorant young person I ever saw.
Drogheda was in sixteen hundred and something and Mr. O’Hara couldn’t possibly have been alive then.
Besides, Sherman isn’t Cromwell.”
“No, but he’s worse!
They say—”
“And as for the exotic viands the Irish ate at the siege-personally I’d as soon eat a nice juicy rat as some of the victuals they’ve been serving me recently at the hotel.
I think I shall have to go back to Richmond.
They have good food there, if you have the money to pay for it.”
His eyes mocked the fear in her face.
Annoyed that she had shown her trepidation, she cried:
“I don’t see why you’ve stayed here this long!
All you think about is being comfortable and eating and—and things like that.”
“I know no more pleasant way to pass the time than in eating and er—things like that,” he said.
“And as for why I stay here—well, I’ve read a good deal about sieges, beleaguered cities and the like, but I’ve never seen one.
So I think I’ll stay here and watch.
I won’t get hurt because I’m a noncombatant and besides I want the experience.
Never pass up new experiences, Scarlett.
They enrich the mind.”
“My mind’s rich enough.”
“Perhaps you know best about that, but I should say-But that would be ungallant.
And perhaps, I’m staying here to rescue you when the siege does come.
I’ve never rescued a maiden in distress.
That would be a new experience, too.”
She knew he was teasing her but she sensed a seriousness behind his words.
She tossed her head.
“I won’t need you to rescue me.
I can take care of myself, thank you.”
“Don’t say that, Scarlett!
Think of it, if you like, but never, never say it to a man.
That’s the trouble with Yankee girls.