r cents as the forest with last year's leaves.

"The faith of the Confederate States is pledged to provide and establish
sufficient revenues for the regular payment of the interest, and for the
redemption of the principal," read the bonds; but there was a sudden
eclipse of faith, and not merely an eclipse, but a collapse, a
shrivelling up, like a parched scroll, of the entire Confederacy, which,
like its bonds, notes, and certificates of indebtedness, was old rags!

In the Sabbath evening twilight, the trains, with the fugitive
Government, its stolen bullion, and its Doctors of Divinity on board,
moved out from the city.

At the same hour, the Governor of Virginia, William Smith, and the
Assembly, were embarked in a canal-boat, on the James River and Kanawha
Canal, moving for Lynchburg. On all the roads were men, women, and
children, in carriages of every description, with multitudes on
horseback and on foot, fleeing from the Rebel capital. Men who could not
get away were secretly at work, during those night-hours, burying plate
and money in gardens; ladies secreted their jewels, barred and bolted
their doors, and passed a sleepless night, fearful of the morrow, which
would bring the hated, despised, Vandal horde of Yankee ruffians: for
such were the epithets which they had persistently applied to the
soldiers of the Union throughout the war.

But before the entrance of the Union army they had an experience from
their friends. Following the example of the Government, which had robbed
the banks, the soldiers pillaged the city, breaking open stores, and
helping themselves to whatever suited their convenience and taste, of
clothing, fancy goods, eatables, and drinkables.

But the Government itself was not quite through with its operations in
Richmond. The Secretary of War, John C. Breckinridge, with General
Ewell, remained till daylight on Monday morning to clear up things,--not
to burn public archives in order to destroy evidence of Confederate
villany, but to commit more crime, so deep, damning, that the stanchest
friends of the Confederacy recoil with horror from the act.

To prevent the United States from obtaining possession of a few thousand
hogsheads of tobacco, a thousand houses were destroyed by fire, the
heart of the city was eaten out,--all of the business portions, all the
banks and insurance-offices, half of the newspapers, mills, depots,
bridges, foundries, workshops, dwellings, churches, thirty squares