office, and
never were returned: in these respects, after my arrival, he fared
sumptuously, by comparison, and abated greatly of his discontent. I
might have been much more unfortunate in my companion. He was not
conversational, certainly, nor very amusing in any way; but he was
cunning in all the small crafts of captivity, and kept our chamber swept
and garnished to the best of his power. The way in which dust
accumulated and renewed itself within those narrow limits, was little
short of miraculous; you might brush till you were weary, and ten
minutes afterwards things would look as though brooms had never been.
Twining ropes out of sea sand, or any other of the tasks with which
wizards have baffled fiends, were not more helpless than that on which
my comrade busied himself each morning. The wood fire could not account
for it; the nuisance increased when it became too warm to light anything
but candles; so it must remain another of the physical puzzles
concerning which we are perpetually wondering, where it all comes from,
and are never likely to be satisfied.

Mr. C---- seemed by no means sanguine as to his own prospects, and took
an early opportunity of advising me not to buoy myself up with hopes of
speedy release. I can say, truly, that from the very first I did not so
delude myself. Some of my Baltimore friends would fain have persuaded me
that, in the utter absence of criminating evidence, I should not be
detained long; I forbore to argue, but my opinion remained always the
same. I had heard how tenacious was the grasp of Federal officials,
unless loosened by more golden oil than I could then command. I had
heard, too, how slowly aid or intercession from the free outer world
could penetrate these mock-bastilles, and how reluctantly the
authorities would grant the supreme favor of a hearing, or trial, to any
whose condemnation was not sure. So I was prepared to resign myself to
anything short of a month's incarceration; but even thus, I
under-estimated the hospitable urgency of my amiable entertainers.

The return-wing of the main building in which we were confined, is
occupied exclusively by the prisoners committed under a Secretary's
warrant. These are much more closely guarded than the other inmates; but
they have the advantage of being divided off into pairs, or threes at
most, in their rooms, and their comforts are certainly better attended
to. The regulations anent food and liquors are liberal enough; you c