to
say, we saw the "frowning fortifications," we "flanked" the "invincible
army," and, at ten o'clock that night, planted our flag (against a
lamp-post) in the very heart of the hostile city. As we alighted at the
doorway of the Spotswood Hotel, the Judge said to the Colonel,--

"Button your outside-coat up closely. Your uniform must not be seen
here."

The Colonel did as he was bidden; and, without stopping to register our
names at the office, we followed the Judge and the Captain up to No. 60.
It was a large, square room in the fourth story, with an unswept, ragged
carpet, and bare, white walls, smeared with soot and tobacco-juice.
Several chairs, a marble-top table, and a pine wash-stand and
clothes-press straggled about the floor, and in the corners were three
beds, garnished with tattered pillow-cases, and covered with white
counterpanes, grown gray with longing for soapsuds and a wash-tub. The
plainer and humbler of these beds was designed for the burly Mr. Javins;
the others had been made ready for the extraordinary envoys (not envoys
extraordinary) who, in defiance of all precedent and the "law of
nations," had just then "taken Richmond."

A single gas-jet was burning over the mantel-piece, and above it I saw a
"writing on the wall" which implied that Jane Jackson had run up a
washing-score of fifty dollars!

I was congratulating myself on not having to pay that woman's
laundry-bills, when the Judge said,--

"You want supper. What shall we order?"

"A slice of hot corn-bread would make _me_ the happiest man in
Richmond."

The Captain thereupon left the room, and shortly returning, remarked,--

"The landlord swears you're from Georgia. He says none but a Georgian
would call for corn-bread at this time of night."

On that hint we acted, and when our sooty attendant came in with the
supper-things, we discussed Georgia mines, Georgia banks, and Georgia
mosquitoes, in a way that showed we had been bitten by all of them. In
half an hour it was noised all about the hotel that the two gentlemen
the Confederacy was taking such excellent care of were from Georgia.

The meal ended, and a quiet smoke over, our entertainers rose to go. As
the Judge bade us good-night, he said to us,--

"In the morning you had better address a note to Mr. Benjamin, asking
the interview with the President. I will call at ten o'clock, and take
it to him."

"Very well. But will Mr. Davis see us on Sunday?"

"Oh, that will make n