ason flashed upon me, and I said to
Turner;--

"I say, how many barr'ls hes ye in thar'?"

"Enough to blow this shanty to ----," he answered, curtly.

"I reckon! Put 'em thar' when thet feller Dahlgreen wus a-gwine ter
rescue 'em,--the Yankees?"

"I reckon."

He said no more, but that was enough to reveal the black, seething hell
the Rebellion has brewed. Can there be any peace with miscreants who
thus deliberately plan the murder, at one swoop, of hundreds of unarmed
and innocent men?

In this room, seated on the ground, or leaning idly against the walls,
were about a dozen poor fellows who the Judge told me were hostages,
held for a similar number under sentence of death by our Government.
Their dejected, homesick look, and weary, listless manner disclosed some
of the horrors of imprisonment.

"Let us go," I said to the Colonel; "I have had enough of this."

"No,--you must see the up-stairs," said Turner. "It a'n't so gloomy up
there."

It was not so gloomy, for some little sunlight did come in through the
dingy windows; but the few prisoners in the upper rooms wore the same
sad, disconsolate look as those in the lower story.

"It is not hard fare, or close quarters, that kills men," said Judge
Ould to me; "it is homesickness; and the strongest and the bravest
succumb to it first."

In the sill of an attic-window I found a Minie-ball. Prying it out with
my knife, and holding it up to Turner, I said,--

"So ye keeps this room fur a shootin'-gallery, does ye?"

"Yes," he replied, laughing. "The boys practise once in a while on the
Yankees. You see, the rules forbid their coming within three feet of the
windows. Sometimes they do, and then the boys take a pop at them."

"And sometimes hit 'em? Hit many on 'em?"

"Yes, a heap."

We passed a long hour in the Libby, and then visited Castle Thunder and
the hospitals for our wounded. I should be glad to describe what I saw
in those "institutions," but the limits of my paper forbid it.

It was five o'clock when we bade the Judge a friendly good-bye, and took
our seats in the ambulance. As we did so, he said to us,--

"I have not taken your parole, Gentlemen. I shall trust to your honor
not to disclose anything you have seen or heard that might operate
against us in a military way."

"You may rely upon us, Judge; and, some day, give us a chance to return
the courtesy and kindness you have shown to us. We shall not forget it."

We arrived near the Union