disinterested kindness.

I am now about to leave the Southern States, after travelling quite
alone throughout their entire length and breadth, including Texas and
the trans-Mississippi country, for nearly three months and a half,
during which time I have been thrown amongst all classes of the
population--the highest, the lowest, and the most lawless. Although many
were very sore about the conduct of England, I never received an uncivil
word from anybody, but, on the contrary, I have been treated by all with
more than kindness.[64] I have never met a man who was not anxious for a
termination of the war; and I have never met a man, woman, or child who
contemplated its termination as possible without an entire separation
from the _now_ detested Yankee. I have never been asked for alms or a
gratuity by any man or woman, black or white. Every one knew who I was,
and all spoke to me with the greatest confidence. I have rarely heard
any person complain of the almost total ruin which has befallen so many.
All are prepared to undergo still greater sacrifices,--they contemplate
and prepare to receive great reverses which it is impossible to avert.
They look to a successful termination of the war as certain, although
few are sanguine enough to fix a speedy date for it, and nearly all
bargain for its lasting at least all Lincoln's presidency. Although I
have always been with the Confederates in the time of their misfortunes,
yet I never heard any person use a desponding word as to the result of
the struggle. When I was in Texas and Louisiana, Banks seemed to be
carrying everything before him, Grant was doing the same in Mississippi,
and I certainly did not bring luck to my friends at Gettysburg. I have
lived in bivouacs with all the Southern armies, which are as distinct
from one another as the British is from the Austrian, and I have never
once seen an instance of insubordination.

When I got back to Hagerstown, I endeavoured to make arrangements for a
horse and buggy to drive through the lines. With immense difficulty I
secured the services of a Mr ----, to take me to Hancock, and as much
farther as I chose to go, for a dollar a mile (greenbacks). I engaged
also to pay him the value of his horse and buggy, in case they should be
confiscated by either side. He was evidently extremely alarmed, and I
was obliged to keep him up to the mark by assurances that his horse
would inevitably be seized by the Confederates, unless protected b