ue
smoke of the Havanas floated lazily out on the soft summer night, many
a jovial laugh followed it and a not infrequent prediction of scenes to
come almost prophetic. And of the lips that made these most are now
silent forever--stilled in the reddest glow of battle, with the war-cry
hot upon them.

So far the news that came in from all quarters continued cheering. A
vague sense of doubt and suspense would creep in when one stopped to
think, but nothing terrible, or shocking, had yet happened anywhere.
Though the nation was going down to battle, its banners were flaunting
gaily and its bands were playing anything but dirges.

CHAPTER III.

CONGRESS AND CABINET.

The proposition that, shown who writes the ballads of a country, one
may tell who makes its laws, is far from reversible in many instances;
and assuredly the lawmakers of the Confederacy looked little like
poets.

When the councils of a country are assembled for work, it is but natural
to look for a body of grave and reverend--if not most potent--seigniors.
And especially, when a new government is forming from selected
fragments of the old, might one expect a pure and simple structure,
free from those faults and weaknesses which sowed the seeds of
disintegration in the elder fabric.

It was too much the fashion to believe that the Confederacy--having
sprung full-grown from foam of the angry sea of politics--was
full-armed as well. A revolution, unprecedented in the world's history,
had already been achieved. A strongly cemented and firmly seated
government had been disrupted; and a new one, built from the dissevered
fragments, had been erected almost under the shadow of its Capitol. And
no drop of blood had been spilled! Six millions of people had uprisen
and, by a simple declaration of will, had in a few short weeks undone
the work of near a century. Without arms in their hands; without a keel
in their waters; without a dollar in their treasury, they arrayed
themselves against the mother government with the serious purpose of
not only asserting, but maintaining, their independence of it.

So far, all had been accomplished without violence. But, whatever the
simpler masses might expect, the initiated politician could scarce have
believed that the older government would meekly submit to "Let the
erring sisters go in peace." Hence, one might justly have looked to see
the executive council of the new nation--to whom had been intrusted its
safety