ad caused the
injury himself, and that they rather preferred that it should kill
him! Their wishes were gratified. For months he lingered on in the
greatest pain, until, finally, the leg mortified, and terminated his
life. He was quite a young man--only eighteen--and had just been
married when he was arrested. Thus died, in darkness and dungeon, one
other East Tennessee martyr!

CHAPTER XIV.

Despair and Hope--Bitten Finger--Removed to Barracks--Greater Comfort--Jack
Wells--Cruel Punishment of Tennesseeans--Story of a Spy--Help Him to
Escape--Virtue of a Coat--A Practical Joke--Unionism--Sweet
Potatoes--Enlisting in Rebel Army--Description of a Day--Happy News--Start
for Richmond--Not Tied--Night Journey--Varied Incidents--Lynchburg--Rebel
Audacity Punished--Suffering from the Cold--Arrival in Richmond.

All night long I lay in the hammock that one of the regulars had swung
by the window, and listened to the boasting below.

"Sadly I thought of the morrow."

I had little doubt now, that the full weight of their vengeance would
fall on every one who had been recaptured. And then, too, was the news
we had received, and which had induced us to make our desperate effort
to escape! We could scarcely hope that the death which had so long
stared us in the face would now be longer delayed. And _such_ a death!
No vision of glory to dazzle the sight, and hide the grim monster from
view, or wreathe him in flowers. No eye of friends beholding the last
struggle, and sure, if you acted well your part, to tell it to those
whose love and praise were more than life. Nothing but ignominy and an
impenetrable darkness, beyond which no loving eye might ever pierce!
But even as the cold horror of the scaffold and the vision of the
heartless, jeering crowd, rose once more freshly before me, I looked
out in the clear night, and up to the shining stars, and felt that I
had one Friend--that He who dwelt above the stars, and to whom I had
plighted my faith, would not forsake me, even if I had to pass through
the very "valley of the shadow of death." With the thought came a
still and heavenly peace once more--a peace that visits only those who
feel, in the midst of sorrow and fear, that there is a blissful rest
beyond the night bounding life's fleeting day!

The next morning, the jailor put me in the room I had formerly
occupied, with the remainder of my companions. He told us that a man
had put his hand over his mouth, an