ed here
and there in the crowd, sparkling with jewels, and dressed in the rich
robes naturally suited to the occasion, only increased by their presence
the rude incongruities of the gathering. Men were surprised at the
manifestations on every hand of a vulgarity and coarseness which they
had been accustomed to think the natural products and exclusive
characteristics of a state of society farther north. To the eyes of the
fastidious, a new class had suddenly arisen in their midst. Perhaps the
lesson was not a new one. Many nations before, when in the midst of
revolutions, have been called mournfully to learn that there are grades
in every society, that rebellions are not always tractable, and that the
class which guides their opening rarely controls their close. But if the
scene of the evening had any prophecies of this kind--and I do not say
that it had--it wailed them, like Cassandra, to ears divinely closed.

From this time the ferment of public opinion disappeared. A tangible
government existed, against which to speak was treason, and the friends
of the Union--and in spite of all changes, the number of these was yet
considerable--now for the first time ceased from the expression of those
objections by which they had hitherto indicated the direction of their
sympathies. All classes of men were longing for something permanent, and
eagerly grasped at these appearances of a settled government, as
promising to supply that which they so much desired. The establishment
of a calm and united state of public feeling seemed, therefore, the
almost instant effect of the inauguration of Mr. Davis. As might be
expected, the events which have been related had not taken place in the
South without affecting the condition of the Northern stranger who
chanced to be within the gate. To him every change had been for the
worse. During the fluctuations of public opinion in the early part of
the season, his position, though unpleasant, had still some relieving
circumstances; the condition of the country was not yet utterly
hopeless, and the vanity of being stable in the midst of universal
change, ministered a mild though secret pleasure, which, in the painful
anxieties of the period, was not without its consolatory value. But when
the tide of public opinion had turned strongly in one direction, and
that in favor of secession, all those pleasures, so mild and spiritual,
were at once destroyed. Nor was this a condition without change. Every
we