st admiration. There is some
hope for men who can behave in such a manner.

But the strangest part of the story is yet to come. Lieutenant Paine,
on arriving in Washington, learned that the officer whose life he had
thus gallantly saved had since been taken prisoner by our forces, and
had just been confined in the Old Capitol prison. The last we heard of
Paine he was on his way to General Martindale's head-quarters to
obtain a pass to visit his imprisoned benefactor. Such are the
vicissitudes of war. We could not help thinking, when we heard this
story, of the profound observation of Mrs. Gamp: "Sich is life, vich
likevays is the hend of hall things hearthly." We leave it to casuists
to determine whether, when these two gallant soldiers meet on the
battle-field, they should fight like enemies or embrace like
Christians. For our part, we do not believe their swords will be any
the less sharp, nor their zeal any the less determined, for this
hap-hazard exchange of soldierly courtesy.

CHAPTER XXIX.

An Incident at Holly Springs, Miss. -- The Raid of Van Dorn
-- Cincinnati Cotton-Dealers in Trouble -- Troubles of a
Reporter.

AN INCIDENT AT HOLLY SPRINGS, MISS.--THE RAID OF VAN DORN.

The amount of public and private property captured and destroyed by
the enemy is estimated at something over six millions of dollars. He
had considerable skirmishing with our troops, whose effective force
Colonel R. C. Murphy, commandant of the post, says was less than three
hundred. The Confederates lost ten or twelve in killed and wounded,
and we six or seven wounded, none fatally. Colonel Murphy says he
received information from Grant too late to make the necessary
arrangements for the defense of the place. Though there were less than
three hundred effective Union soldiers in town, all the civilians,
tradesmen, speculators, and promiscuous hangers-on to the army were
captured, swelling the number who gave their parole to about fifteen
hundred. The raid, as you may imagine, delighted the residents of
Holly Springs, who turned out _en masse_ to welcome their
brief-lingering "deliverers," and were very active in pointing out the
places where Northerners were boarding. Not a few of the precious
citizens fired at our troops from the windows, and acted as
contemptibly and dastardly as possible. The women, who had been rarely
visible before, made their appearance, radiant, and supplied the rebel
Yahoos with all manne