ly
mustered for assault. Grave doubts were now expressed as to the
seaworthiness of all the new iron-clads, though their advocates could
point to a sister of the unhappy Monitor, which had survived a great
part of the same storm. That they all must be more unsafe in really
rough weather than the crankiest of our old "coffin brigs," seems quite
ascertained now: the fact of their being unable to make headway through
a heavy sea unless towed by a consort, speaks for itself. The immediate
cause of the Monitor's foundering (according to Captain Worden's
account, which my informant had from his own lips) was a leak sprung,
where her protruding stern-armour, coming down flat on the waves with
every plunge of the vessel, became loosened from the main hull; but, for
some time before this was discovered, she seems to have spent more
minutes under than above the water, and nothing alive could have stood
unlashed for a second on her deck. So great was the public
disappointment, that the tribe of false prophets--whose cry of "Go up to
Ramoth Gilead, and prosper," deafens us here, not less, usually in
defeat than in success--did for awhile abate their blatancy; while
Ericsson--most confident of projectors--spake softly, below his breath,
as he suggested faint excuse and encouragement.

The news from the West--hourly improving, and more clearly
confirmed--were hardly welcomed, as they deserved, and scarcely
counter-balanced the naval disaster. It was not long, however, before
Rosecrans the Invincible came in for his full share of credit--perhaps
not more than he merited. Few other Federal commanders can claim that
epithet; and, though some people persisted in considering Murfreesburg a
Pyrrhic victory, it is certain that he held his ground manfully, and
eventually advanced, where defeat, or even a retrograde movement, would
have been simply ruin.

On the fifth day our small company were scattered--each going his own
way, east, north, and south--while the Parisian abode in New York still.

CHAPTER II.

CONGRESSIA.

Of two lines to Philadelphia I selected the longest, wishing to see the
harbor, down which a steamer takes passengers as far as Amboy; but the
Powers of the Air were unpropitious again: it never ceased blowing, from
the moment we went on board a very unpleasant substitute for the regular
passage-boat, till we landed on the railway pier. My first experience of
American travel was not attractive. The crazy old cr