the Commandant's head-quarters, and knew, hourly,
all that was passing. From the observatory, opposite the camp, I myself
saw the arrangements for our reception. We outnumbered you two to one,
but our force was badly disciplined. Success in such circumstances was
impossible; and on the third day of the Convention we announced from
head-quarters that an attack at that time was impracticable. It would
have cost the lives of hundreds of the prisoners, and perhaps the
capture or destruction of the whole of us." So the storm blew over,
without the leaden rain, and its usual accompaniment of thunder and
lightning.

A dead calm followed, during which the Illini slunk back to their holes;
the prisoners took to honest ink; the bogus "Butternuts" walked the
streets clad like Christians, and the Commandant went to sleep with only
one eye open. So the world rolled around into November.

The Presidential election was near at hand,--the great contest on which
hung the fate of the Republic. The Commandant was convinced of this, and
wanted to marshal his old constituents for the final struggle between
Freedom and Despotism. He obtained a furlough to go home and mount the
stump for the Union. He was about to set out, his private secretary was
ready, and the carriage waiting at the gateway, when an indefinable
feeling took possession of him, holding him back, and warning him of
coming danger. It would not be shaken off, and reluctantly he postponed
the journey till the morrow. Before the morrow facts were developed
which made his presence in Chicago essential for the safety of the city
and the lives of the citizens. The snake was scotched, not killed. It
was preparing for another and a deadlier spring.

On the second of November, a well-known citizen of St. Louis, openly a
Secessionist, but secretly a loyal man, and acting as a detective for
the Government left the city in pursuit of a criminal. He followed him
to Springfield, traced him from there to Chicago, and on the morning of
November fourth, about the hour the Commandant had the singular
impression I have spoken of, arrived in the latter city. He soon learned
that the bird had again flown.

"While passing along the street," (I now quote from his report to the
Provost Marshal General of Missouri,) "and trying to decide what course
to pursue,--whether to follow this man to New York, or return to St.
Louis,--I met an old acquaintance, a member of the order of 'American
Knights,'