traveled along, passing some very grand and romantic scenery,
that in any other frame of mind would have been enthusiastically
enjoyed; but now my thoughts were otherwise engaged.

It was not the thought of death I so much dreaded, as the manner of
death. Death amid the smoke, and excitement, and glory of battle, was
not half so terrible as in the awful calmness and chill horror of the
scaffold! And sadder yet, to think of my friends, who would count the
weary months that had gone by, and wish and long for my return, till
hope became torturing suspense, and suspense deepened into despair.
These thoughts were almost too much for stoicism; yet there was no
alternative but to patiently endure.

The sun went down, and night came on--deep, calm, and clear. One by
one the stars twinkled into light. I gazed upon their beauty with new
feelings, as I wondered whether the short, revolving course of a few
more suns might not bring me a dweller above the stars! And as I
thought of the blessed rest for the weary beyond the shores of time,
my thoughts took a new direction. I was not then a professor of
Christianity, but had often and believingly thought of the great
interests of the future, and had resolved to make them my particular
study; but had never hitherto addressed myself in earnest to the task,
and latterly, the confusion and bustle of a camp-life had almost
driven the subject out of my mind. But now, whether it came from the
clustering stars above, or from the quiet and stillness so congenial
to exhausted nature, after the weariness and excitement of the last
few days, or from a still deeper source, I know not. I only know that
the memory of that night, when I was thus being carried chained to an
unknown fate, is one of the sweetest of my life. My babbling guards
had subsided into silence, and, as we wended along through the
gathering darkness, high and noble thoughts of the destiny of man
filled my breast, and death seemed only the shining gate to eternal
and blissful life. I was nerved for any fate.

We arrived at Chattanooga while a feeble glow of the soft spring
twilight still lingered on the earth. We immediately drove to the
headquarters of General Leadbetter, then commanding that place, and
while our guards ascended to inform him of our arrival, I was left in
the carriage. As soon as we entered the town, the word was given:

"We've got a live Yankee; one that took the train the other day."

I was not the first o