blankets stiff with freezing mud; hands that had felt nothing harder
than billiard-cue or cricket-bat now wielded ax and shovel as men never
wielded them for wages; the epicure of the club mixed a steaming stew
of rank bacon and moldy hard-tack and then--ate it!

And all this they did without a murmur, showing an example of steadfast
resolution and unyielding pluck to the hardier and tougher soldiers by
them; writing on the darkest page of history the clear axiom: _Bon
sang ne peut mentir!_

CHAPTER XVIII.

SOCIETY AT THE CAPITAL.

But while everything was dull and lifeless in the camps of the South, a
far different aspect was presented by its Capital. There was a stir and
bustle new to quiet Richmond. Congress had brought crowds of attaches
and hangers-on; and every department had its scores of dependents.
Officers from all quarters came in crowds to spend a short furlough, or
to attend to some points of interest to their commands before the
bureaux of the War Department. The full hotels showed activity and life
unknown to them. Business houses, attracted by the increased demands of
trade and the new channels opened by Government necessities, sprang up
on all sides; and the stores--though cramped by the blockade--began to
brush off their dust and show their best for the new customers. Every
branch of industry seemed to receive fresh impetus; and houses that had
for years plodded on in moldy obscurity shot, with the rapidity of
Jonah's gourd, up to first-class business.

The streets presented a scene of unwonted activity; and Franklin
street--the promenade _par excellence_, vied with "the avenue" in
the character and variety of the crowds that thronged its pavement. The
majority of the promenaders were officers, their uniforms contrasting
brightly with the more quiet dresses around. While many of them were
strangers, and the peculiarities of every State showed in the faces
that passed in rapid panorama, yet numbers of "Richmond boys" came back
for a short holiday; almost every one bringing his laurels and his
commission.

My friend, Wyatt, had kept his laughing promise, and showed me a
captain's bars. General Breckinridge had found him hiding in the ranks,
and had added A.A.G. to his title.

"Knew it, old man!" was his comment--"Virtue must be rewarded--merit,
like water, will find its level. Captain Wyatt, A.A.G.--demnition neat,
eh? Now, I'll be here a month, and we must do something in the social
li