rrespondence, going or coming, passes the inspection of the
Provost Marshal and the Superintendent, and letters are forwarded and
delivered--sooner or later--the whole thing resolving itself into a
question of official memory or convenience. I did not doubt from the
first, that no intercession, that could properly be exercised, would be
spared. If repeated applications and strong representations could have
availed, I should have been free long ago. But many autocrats might take
a lesson from the insolent indifference of this Administration, when an
argument or a request is to be set aside; it is exactly in proportion to
the pliancy they display when confronted with demands enforced by a
substantial threat. Lord Lyons' reputation for courtesy and kindness of
heart stands too high to need any testimony of mine; but I cannot
forbear here expressing my sense of his good offices, and I am not the
less grateful, because these words are written on the fifty-sixth day of
imprisonment.

To one member of the Legation, I am indebted for far more than official
benevolence. On the second day after my committal, Percy Anderson
brought up himself to the Old Capitol, a package containing cigars,
books, newspapers, &c., which, he was told, would be transmitted to me
"right away." I trust that the contents satisfied the critical tastes of
the officer on guard; for from his clutches no fragment emerged. I never
even heard of the kind intention, till weeks had passed; and, of many
papers afterwards forwarded by the same hands, only one packet reached
me.

All this time, my reverend neighbor was pressing on in earnest his
preparations for escape. His room-mate was a young Marylander, who had
served some time on the staff of the Confederate army; he was captured
at his own home, whither he had returned for a hurried visit, and was
now detained as a "spy;" this vague and marvelously elastic charge is
always laid, when it is desirable to exclude a prisoner from the
conditions of exchange. The plan of evasion was very simple. After
passing through the floor into the attic, and thence out through the
dormer-window, they had to crawl over about eighty feet of
shingle-roof--not slippery at all, nor particularly steep--along the
ridge, except where they had to descend a little to circumvent the
chimney-stacks; this brought them to another dormer, giving admission to
a house in the same block of building, but not connected with the
prison. The par