novels--"The
Hidden Path." Part of a letter was found, the signature gone and all one
side burned off, as if it had been used in lighting a cigar or a
gas-burner, but still showing the date; "Richmond, Va., C.S.A., May
28th, 1862," and apparently written by a young officer in the
Confederate army to his sister in this city. No other traces were found,
though these were quite enough to increase the chagrin of the
detectives, in the knowledge that they had allowed persons to escape who
certainly must have been in correspondence with the rebel capital; and
with this the crest-fallen L---- and his subordinate prepared to make
their report to a superior not much in the habit of excusing failure or
making allowance for extenuating circumstances.

It is to be believed that the inquisitive and communicative neighbor
enjoyed the best night's rest he had known for a twelvemonth, on the
night following, after this conference with a couple of detectives and
this peep into a house that had really excited his curiosity. It is
doubtful, meanwhile, whether the grocer landlord, informed by his agent,
by the next mail, of the exodus of his tenants without liquidation, saw
the matter in so enjoyable a light.

Of course, with the fugitives given some fifteen hours start and the use
of modern railroad facilities, any thought of pursuit would have been
folly, even had there been any conclusive data upon which to found
proceedings for their apprehension. And with such meagre and
unsatisfactory results closed that portion of the supposed secession
mystery--at least for the time. After events showed that the "red woman"
disappeared from Prince Street on the same night, whether in company
with her former acquaintances or alone. What after-glimpses were caught
of any of the other persons concerned, will be shown at a later period
of this narration.

CHAPTER XVII.

LOOKING FOR JOHN CRAWFORD, OF DURYEA'S ZOUAVES--THE MORNING OF THE FIRST
OF JULY--MCCLELLAN AND HIS GENERALS--THE FIRST BATTLE OF
MALVERN--VICTORY IN RETREAT.

It will be remembered that Richard Crawford, lying helplessly on his
sofa and murmuring over the bodily disability which at once entailed
idleness and suffering, made it one of the grounds of comparisons
injurious to himself, that his brother John was on service in Virginia
with the Advance Guard--better known, perhaps, as "Duryea's
Zouaves"--that gallant corps designated by the rebels as the "red-legged
devils,"