Beauregard was planting his men behind the Bull Run River in a position
of great strength and that the formation of the ground was such with
Bull Run on his front that his dislodgment would be a tremendous task.

The advance of the Federal army was delayed--delayed until the last gun
and scrap of machinery from Harper's Ferry had been safely housed in
Richmond and Fayetteville and Johnston had withdrawn his army to
Winchester in closer touch with Beauregard.

And still the Union army did not move. Beauregard sent a trusted scout
into Washington to Mrs. Greenhow with a scrap of paper on which was
written in cipher the two words:

"Trust Bearer--"

He arrived at the moment she had received the long sought information of
the date of the army's march. She glanced at the stolid masked face of
the messenger and hesitated a moment.

"You are a Southerner?"

Donellan smiled.

"I've spent most of my life in Washington, Madam," he said frankly. "I
was a clerk in the Department of the Interior. I cast my fortunes with
the South."

It was enough. Her keen intuitions had scented danger in the man's
manner, his walk and personality. He was not a typical Southerner. The
officials of the Secret Service Bureau had already given her evidence of
their suspicions. She could not be too careful.

She seized her pen and hastily wrote in cipher:

"Order issued for McDowell to move on Manassas to-night."

She handed the tiny scrap of paper to Donellan.

"My agents will take you in a buggy with relays of horses down the
Potomac to a ferry near Dumfries. You will be ferried across."

The man touched his hat.

"I'll know the way from there, Madam."

The scout delivered his message into Beauregard's hands that night
before eight o'clock.

At noon the next day Colonel Jordan had placed in her hands his answer:

"Yours received at eight o'clock. Let them come. We are ready. We rely
upon you for precise information. Be particular as to description and
destination of forces and quantity of artillery."

She had not been idle. She was able to write a message of almost equal
importance to the one she had dispatched the day before. With quick
nervous hand she wrote on another tiny scrap of paper:

"The Federal commander has ordered the Manassas railroad to be cut to
prevent the junction of Johnston with Beauregard."

The moment the first authentic information reached President Davis of
the purpose to attack Beauregard he immediatel