at the thought of seeing any one else injured or in suffering.
One hour of the battle-field, with its sights and sounds of horror,
would have killed him without any aid from sword or bullet. He could
have been robbed in a dark street by a boy of ten years, who presented a
knife or a pistol; and in any time of danger to himself or others (as
may have been indicated by the adventure of the carriage before
recorded) he could be of no more use than a baby in arms. Such men are
not very common, but they do exist; and under any ordinary
circumstances, as they cannot help the infirmities with which they are
born, they should be pitied and not ridiculed. It is only when they
attempt to disguise themselves in the characters of bolder and better
men, that they deserve lashing without mercy.

Colonel Bancker had never had the least intention of going to the war,
nor had he ever connected himself, except in the most vague description
of talk, with any organization. He had never come nearer to a commission
than to think about one--that is, think that he did not want one. He saw
hundreds of others wearing uniforms and the insignia of rank without any
intention of fighting, and thought that he could do as they did, sport
borrowed plumes without too much enquiry being made into the source
whence they were derived, and throw them off when he pleased, under any
excuse which he might choose to invent--sickness, business engagements,
or _dissatisfaction with the mode in which the war was being conducted_.

With the before-named dislike to being pained, Colonel Bancker had so
far avoided all the painful sights of the war. He had not visited the
wounded at the Park Barracks or in any of the hospitals--he had managed
to see none of the maimed living and none of the glorious dead--he had
even escaped the hungry wives of the soldiers, clamoring for their
husbands' pay and the means to buy bread, along the crosswalks of the
Park and at the entrances of the City Hall. So far he had escaped easily
from what he most dreaded.

But within the last day or two a terrible disquiet had sprung up. The
army was to be reinforced and a stringent conscription was talked of.
Among the unpleasant rumors in circulation, was one that the
Provost-Marshals were to be directed to arrest every man in officer's
uniform found in the streets, and if he could exhibit no commission,
force him to immediate service in the ranks! Here was a dilemma--a
dilemma none the les