helped to fill up others. The news
from Virginia and Maryland had given but a fresh impetus to these
preparations; and, before my return to Montgomery, these regiments had
passed through, on their way to the new battle ground on the Potomac
frontier.

On the night of our arrival in the Gulf City, that escape valve for all
excitement, a dense crowd, collected in front of the Battle House and
Colonel John Forsyth addressed them from the balcony. He had just
returned from Washington with the southern commissioners and gave, he
said, a true narrative of the manner and results of their mission. At
this lapse of time it is needless to detail even the substance of his
speech; but it made a marked impression on the crowd, as the surging
sea of upturned faces plainly told. John Forsyth, already acknowledged
one of the ablest of southern leaders, was a veritable Harry Hotspur.
His views brooked no delay or temporizing; and, as he spoke, in vein of
fiery elegance, shouts and yells of defiant approval rose in full swell
of a thousand voices. Once he named a noted Alabamian, whom he
seemingly believed to have played a double part in these negotiations;
and the excited auditory greeted his name with hisses and execrations.
That they did their fellow-citizen injustice the most trying councils
of the war proved; for he soon after came South and wrought, with all
the grand power in him, during the whole enduring struggle.

Staple was tired of politics, and hated a crowd; so he soon lounged
off to the club, an institution gotten up with a delightful regard to
the most comfortable arrangement and the most accomplished _chef_ in
the South. There one met the most cordial hospitality, the neatest
entertainment and the very best wines in the Gulf section. The cook was
an artist, as our first supper declared; and play could be found, too,
as needed; for young Mobile was not slow, and money, in those days, was
plenty.

Altogether, the tone of Mobile society was more cosmopolitan than that
of any city of the South, save, perhaps, New Orleans. It may be that
its commercial connections, reaching largely abroad, produced the
effect; or that propinquity to and constant intercourse with its sister
city induced freer mode of thought and action. Located at the head of
her beautiful bay, with a wide sweep of blue water before her, the
cleanly-built, unpaved streets gave Mobile a fresh, cool aspect. The
houses were fine and their appointments in good