eneral
Grant he told me a story so illustrative of the simplicity and modesty
which were a keynote in his character that I must note it. The day
before the evacuation of Petersburg by the Con federates, Grant was
urged to order an attack upon the Confederate positions. He refused to
do so. The next day the Confederates were seen hastily abandoning them.
Grant watched them quietly for a while, and then putting down his glass,
said to one of the officers who had urged the assault, "You were right,
and I was wrong. I ought to have attacked them."

It is provoking to know that the notes taken by this British officer at
that time, being sent through the Post Office by him some years ago to
Edinburgh for publication, were lost in the transmission, and have never
been recovered. Curiously enough, however, he thinks he has now and then
discerned indications in articles upon the American War, published in a
newspaper which he named, going to show that his manuscripts are in
existence somewhere.

ABBEYLEIX, _Monday, Feb. 13._--To-day, in company with Lord de Vesci
and a lady, I went over to Kilkenny. We left and arrived in a snowstorm,
but the trip was most interesting. Kilkenny, chiefly known in America, I
fear, as the city of the cats, is a very picturesque place, thanks to
its turrets and towers. It has two cathedrals, a Bound Tower (one of
these in Dublin was demolished in the last century!), a Town Hall with a
belfry, and looming square and high above the town, the Norman keep of
its castle. The snow enlivened rather than diminished the scenic effect
of the place. Bits of old architecture here and there give character to
the otherwise commonplace streets. Notable on the way to the castle is a
bit of mediaeval wall with Gothic windows, and fretted with the
scutcheon in stone of the O'Sheas. The connection of a gentleman of this
family with the secret as well as the public story of the Parnellite
movement may one day make what Horace Greeley used to call "mighty
interestin' reading." A dealer in spirits now occupies what is left of
the old Parliament House of Kilkenny, in which the rival partisans of
Preston and O'Neill outfought the legendary cats, to the final ruin of
the cause of the Irish confederates, and the despair of the loyal
legate of Pope Innocent.

Of Kilkenny Castle, founded by Strongbow, but two or three towers
remain. The great quadrangle was rebuilt in 1825, and much of it again
so late as in 1860. There is