ny of his headquarters could not have been
surpassed by Alexander or Napoleon. His growing staff already included a
Prince of the Royal Blood, the distinguished son of the Emperor of
France, and the Comte de Paris his attendant. His baggage train was
drawn by one hundred magnificent horses perfectly matched, hitched in
teams of four to twenty-five glittering new vans. His Grand Army spread
over mile after mile of territory far back into the hills of Virginia.
The autumnal days were brilliant with fresh uniforms, stars, sabres,
swords, spurs, plate, dinners, wines, cigars, the pomp and pride and
glory of war.

Men stood in little groups and discussed in whispers the significance of
his continued stay in the Capital.

"If the President has any friends, the hour has come when they've got
to stand by him!" The speaker was a man of fifty, a foreigner who had
made Washington his home and liked Lincoln.

"Nonsense, my dear fellow," a tall Westerner replied, "we may have to
get a few rifles and guard the White House from somebody's attempt to
occupy it, but we'll not need any big guns."

"If you'd heard the talk last night," the foreigner replied, with a
shrug of his shoulder, "you'd change your mind----"

The Westerner shook his head:

"No! The General's not that big a fool and the men around him have
better sense. And if they haven't--if they all should go crazy--it
couldn't be done. They couldn't control the army."

"Did you ever hear the army cheer as 'Little Mac' rides along the line?"

"Yes, but it don't mean an Emperor for all that----"

"I'm not so sure!"

And there were men of National reputation who considered the chances of
the man on horseback good at this moment. Such a man had openly attached
himself to the General as his attorney--no less a personage than the
distinguished Attorney General of the late Cabinet, Edwin M. Stanton.
During the closing days of Buchanan's crumbling administration Stanton
had become the dominating force of the Capital. His daring and his skill
had defeated the best laid schemes of the Southern party and broken its
grip on the administration. He had remained in Washington as a lawyer
practicing before the Supreme Court and had become the most aggressive
observer and critic of Lincoln and his Cabinet. His scorn for the
President knew no bounds.

"No one," he wrote to General John A. Dix, "can imagine the deplorable
condition of this city and the hazard of the Government, who d