instantly at the first sight of the
official's face, as he met me in the door-way; no good tidings for
anyone were written there; I knew that some grave disaster had occurred,
before my eye lighted on the table, strewn with papers, letters, and
bank-notes--all dabbled with the dull, red blots that marked the hand of
Cain.

In a very few words--spoken in a low hoarse voice, strangely changed
from its wonted boisterous loudness--the Superintendent told me why I
was wanted there. A British subject had just been shot by a sentinel for
transgressing the window-order mentioned above; as eight hundred dollars
in Confederate notes, besides other valuables, were found on his person,
it was thought well that I should assist at the inventory and attest its
correctness. It seemed that some hasty words of the Superintendent,
reflecting on the remissness of the soldiers on duty, had been the
proximate cause of the slaughter, I do believe that the death-warrant
was unwittingly spoken. The man's bearing and demeanor are rough, even
to coarseness, and his sensibilities probably blunted from having
perpetually to listen to complaints and tales of wrong-doing, which he
must perforce ignore; but I do not think his nature is harsh or cruel;
the bark of Cerberus is much worse than the bite; and he is quite
capable of benevolent actions, done in an uncouth way. The lips of the
corpse, up-stairs were scarcely whiter than those that kept working and
muttering nervously close by my shoulder, as I sat at my ghastly task. I
was right glad when all was ended, and I had escaped from the small,
close room, where the air seemed heavy with the savor of blood. All that
day, there lay upon the prison-house a weight and a gloom, that came not
from the murky, windless sky; the few faces that showed themselves in
the yard looked more dark and sullen than ever; and men, gathering in
knots instead of pacing to and fro, murmured or whispered eagerly. My
unlucky head chanced to be more troublesome than usual; altogether, I
cannot look back upon a more depressing evening.

About noon on the following day, a tawdry coffin of polished elm, beaded
and plated wherever there was room for a scrap of silvered metal, was
laid on chairs in the prison yard; and, soon, all those who had access
to that part of the building gathered round it--listening, uncovered, to
the scanty rites, which the Old Capitol concedes to prisoners released
by that Power, in presence of whose c