foreign power came to his aid.
His courage was none the less sublime for this reason.

Lee's skeleton army surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, and Davis
hurried to Greensboro where Johnston and Beauregard were encamped with
twenty-eight thousand men. Two hundred school girls marched to the house
in Danville and cheered him as he left.

Mrs. Sutherlin in the last hour of his stay asked for a moment of his
time.

He ushered her into his room with grave courtesy.

"Dear Madam," he began smilingly, "you have risked your home and the
safety of your husband to honor me and the South. I thank you for myself
and the people. Is there anything I can do to show how much I appreciate
it?"

"You have greatly honored us by accepting our hospitality," was the
quick cheerful answer. "We shall always be rich in its memory. I have
but one favor to ask of you--"

"Name it--"

She drew a bag from a basket and handed it to him.

"Accept this little gift we have saved. It will help you on your
journey. It's only a thousand dollars in gold--I wish it were more."

The President's eyes grew dim and he shook his head.

"No--no--dear, dear Mrs. Sutherlin. Your needs will be greater than
mine. Besides, I have asked all for the cause--nothing for
myself--nothing!"

He left Danville with heart warmed by the smiles and cheers of two
hundred beautiful girls and the offer of every dollar a patriotic woman
possessed.

He had need of its memory to cheer him at Greensboro. Here he felt for
the first time the results of the malignant campaign which Holden's
Raleigh _Standard_ had waged against him and his administration. So
great was the panic and so bitter the feeling which Holden's sheet had
roused that it was impossible for the President and his Cabinet to find
accommodations in any hotel or house. He was compelled to camp in a
freight car.

It remained for a brave Southern woman to resent this insult to the
Chieftain. When Mrs. C. A. L'Hommedieu learned that the President was in
town, housed in a freight car and shunned by the citizens, she sent him
a note and begged him to make her house his home and to honor her by
commanding anything in it and all that she possessed.

The leader was at this moment preparing to leave for Charlotte and had
to decline her generous and brave offer. But he was deeply moved. He
stopped his work to write her a beautiful letter of thanks.

His interview with Johnston and Beauregard was strained and forma