officers,--for all felt a spirit of mischief
after the last night's adventure,--when, just as we had fairly swung out
into the stream and were under way, there came, like the sudden burst of
a tropical tornado, a regular little hail-storm of bullets into the open
end of the boat, driving every gunner in an instant from his post, and
surprising even those who were looking to be surprised. The shock was
but for a second; and though the bullets had pattered precisely like
the sound of hail upon the iron cannon, yet nobody was hurt. With very
respectable promptness, order was restored, our own shells were flying
into the woods from which the attack proceeded, and we were steaming up
to the wharf again, according to promise.

Who shall describe the theatrical attitudes assumed by the old ladies
as they reappeared at the front-door,--being luckily out of direct
range,--and set the handkerchiefs in wilder motion than ever? They
brandished them, they twirled them after the manner of the domestic
mop, they clasped their hands, handkerchiefs included. Meanwhile their
friends in the wood popped away steadily at us, with small effect; and
occasionally an invisible field-piece thundered feebly from another
quarter, with equally invisible results. Reaching the wharf, one
company, under Lieutenant (now Captain) Danil-son, was promptly deployed
in search of our assailants, who soon grew silent. Not so the old
ladies, when I announced to them my purpose, and added, with extreme
regret, that, as the wind was high, I should burn only that half of
the town which lay to leeward of their house, which did not, after
all, amount to much. Between gratitude for this degree of mercy, and
imploring appeals for greater, the treacherous old ladies manoeuvred
with clasped hands and demonstrative handkerchiefs around me, impairing
the effect of their eloquence by constantly addressing me as "Mr.
Captain"; for I have observed, that, while the sternest officer is
greatly propitiated by attributing to him a rank a little higher than
his own, yet no one is ever mollified by an error in the opposite
direction. I tried, however, to disregard such low considerations,
and to strike the correct mean between the sublime patriot and the
unsanctified incendiary, while I could find no refuge from weak
contrition save in greater and greater depths of courtesy; and so
melodramatic became our interview that some of the soldiers still
maintain that "dem dar ole Seces