tain portliness of presence,
gravity of manner, and slowness of speech, acquire in their own country
much honor for social or political wisdom. He was quite up to the
average rank of rustic oracles; nevertheless, our converse dragged
heavily; it was "up hill all the way." There was a depressing formality
about the whole arrangement; my interlocutor sat exactly opposite to me,
putting one cut-and-dried question after another; never removing his
eyes from my face, while I answered to the best of my power, save to
glance at the silent audience, as though praying them to note such and
such points carefully. I began to feel as I did in the schools long ago,
when the _viva voce_ examiner was putting me through my facings; and was
really glad when the one-sided dialogue ended. The queries were very
simple for the most part, relating chiefly to the sympathies and
intentions of Great Britain, with regard to the war. On the latter point
I could, of course, give no information beyond vague surmises,
practically worthless; as to the former, I thought myself justified in
saying that the balance of public feeling, in the upper and agricultural
classes especially, leant decidedly southward. But here, as elsewhere, I
found it impossible to make Secessionists understand or allow the
wisdom, justice, or generosity of the non-interference policy hitherto
pursued by our Government. This is not the time or place to discuss an
important question of statecraft, nor am I presumptuous enough to assert
that different and more decisive measures would have had all the good
effect that their advocates insist upon; but however justifiable
England's conduct may have been according to theories of international
law, I fear the practical result will be that she has secured the
permanent enmity of one powerful people, and the discontented distrust
of another. It is ill trusting even proverbs implicitly; that old one,
about the safe middle course, will break down, like the rest, sometimes.
My pertinacious querist stopped, I suppose, when he had got to the end
of his list, and apparently spent the rest of the evening in a slow
process of digestion; for he would break out, now and then, at the most
irrelevant times, with a repetition of one of his former interrogations,
which I had to answer again, briefly as I might. About sundown _le Bon
Gualtier_ returned, sorely travel-worn himself, and with an utterly
exhausted horse. He had ascertained that our companio