, and crossed the river into Alabama. His faithful mare,
which he was forced to leave behind, neighed pathetically as her master
rode away in a boat and pulled for the Alabama shore. At Evergreen they
took the train, and it seemed that half the men on the cars recognized
General Toombs. General Joseph Wheeler, who was on board, did not take
his eyes off him. Toombs became nervous under these searching glances,
and managed to hide his face behind a paper which he was reading. At
Tensas Station he took the boat for Mobile. There was a force of Federal
soldiers on board, and this was the closest quarters of his long
journey. There was now no chance of escape, if detected. The soldiers
frequently spoke to General Toombs, but he was not in the slightest way
molested.

At Mobile General Toombs took his saddle-bags and repaired to the home
of his friend Mr. Evans, about four miles from the city. There he was
placed in the care of Howard Evans and his sister, Miss Augusta J.
Evans, the gifted Southern authoress. Anxious to conceal the identity of
their guest, these hospitable young people dismissed their servants, and
Miss Evans herself cooked and served General Toombs' meals with her own
hands. She declared, with true hospitality, that she felt it a privilege
to contribute to the comfort and insure the safety of the brilliant
statesman. She was a Georgian herself, and with her this was a labor of
love.

These were among the most agreeable moments of General Toombs' long
exile. He loved the companionship of intellectual women, and the
conversation during these days was full of brilliant interest. Miss
Evans was a charming talker, as bright as a jewel, and Toombs was a
Chesterfield with ladies. The general would walk to and fro along the
shaded walks and pour forth, in his matchless way, the secret history of
the ruin of Confederate hopes.

General Toombs wrote home, in courtly enthusiasm, of his visit to
Mobile. Mr. Stephens sent Miss Evans a warm letter of thanks for her
attentions to his friend. "I have," said he, "just received a letter
from General Toombs, who has been so united with me in friendship and
destiny all our lives, giving such account of the kind attentions he
received from you and your father while in Mobile, that I cannot forbear
to thank you and him for it in the same strain and terms as if these
attentions had been rendered to myself. What you did for my friend, in
this particular, you did for me."

Whi