put to death as felons an equal number of Federal officers and men.
I have placed them in close confinement and ordered similar treatment
to that accorded our prisoners from the captured vessel."

Socola received a message summoning him to the house on Church Hill.
A courier had arrived from Washington. The Government must know
immediately if this threat were idle or genuine. If Jefferson Davis
should dare to execute these thirteen officers and men, the
administration could not resist the storm of indignant protest which
would overwhelm it from the North.

Socola read the cipher dispatch by the dim light of the candle in his
attic and turned to Miss Van Lew.

"My information in the State Department is of the most positive kind.
The prisoners have been put in the dungeon set apart for condemned
felons and they but wait the word of the execution of the men from the
_Savannah_, to be led to certain death. It may be talk. We must know.
Apply for permission to visit the condemned men and minister to their
comfort--"

"At once," was the prompt response. "I've made friends with Captain
Todd, the Commandant of Libby Prison; I'll succeed."

Crazy Bet appeared at Libby Prison next morning with a basket of flowers
for the condemned men. Captain Todd humored her mania. Poor old
abolition fanatic, she could do no harm. She was too frank and outspoken
to be dangerous. Besides, it was a war of brothers. His own sister was
the wife of Abraham Lincoln. These condemned men were the best blood of
the North. It was a pitiful tragedy.

Miss Van Lew, with a market basket on her arm, watched for Socola's
appearance from the office of the Secretary of State. The young clerk
was walking slowly down Main Street and turned into an unused narrow
road at the foot of the hill.

Crazy Bet, swinging the basket and humming a song, passed him without
turning her head.

"It's true," she whispered quickly, "all horribly true. Thirteen of the
finest officers of the Union army have been condemned to death the
moment the crew of the _Savannah_ are executed--among them Colonel
Cochrane of New York and Colonel Paul Revere of Massachusetts. The
dispatch must go to-night."

"To-night," was the short answer.

Within an hour Socola's courier was on his way to Washington with a
message which unlocked the prison doors of the condemned men on both
sides of the line.

Abraham Lincoln stoutly opposed a repetition of the effort to treat
Co