ut the dull roar of the
fire. For--whether through negligence or want of time--charged shells
of all sizes had been left in the many ordnance stores when the torch
was applied. These narrow brick chambers--now white hot and with a
furnace-blast through them--swept the heaviest shells like cinders over
the burning district. Rising high in air, with hissing fuses, they
burst at many points, adding new terrors to the infernal scene; and
some of them, borne far beyond the fire's limit, burst over the houses,
tearing and igniting their dry roofs.

Slowly the day, filled with its hideous sights and sounds, wore on; and
slowly the perseverance of man told against the devouring element. The
fire was, at last, kept within its own bounds; then gradually forced
backward, to leave a charred, steaming belt between it and the unharmed
town. Within this, the flames still leaped and writhed and wrangled in
their devilish glee; but Richmond was now comparatively safe, and her
wretched inhabitants might think of food and rest. Little had they
recked of either for many a dread hour past!

The provost-marshal, that unfailing adjunct to every occupation, had
fixed his office at the court-house. There a mixed and singular crowd
waited gloomily, or jostled eagerly, for speech of the autocrat of the
hour. Captured officers stood quietly apart, or peered out earnestly
through the smoke drifts, while their commitments to Libby Prison were
made out; anxious and wan women, of every sphere in life, besieged the
clerk preparing "protection papers;" while a fussy official, of higher
grade, gave assurance to every one that guards should be placed about
their homes. For the deserted women of Richmond dreaded not only the
presence of the victorious enemy, but also that of the drunken and
brutalized "bummers" and deserters who stayed behind their own army.

The guards were really stationed as promptly as was practicable; the
fire-brigade men were sent to quarters; pickets in blue patroled the
outskirts; and, by nightfall, the proud Capital of the Southern
Confederacy was only a Federal barrack!

For two days after their entrance the Union army might have supposed
they had captured a city of the dead. The houses were all tightly
closed, shutters fastened and curtains drawn down; and an occasional
blue-coated sentry in porch, or front yard, was the sole sign of life.
In the streets it was little different. Crowds of soldiers moved
curiously from point