ot so aggressive, and when the official trio reached a neighboring
building, and immured themselves within its walls, they doubtless looked
back upon the reminiscence with feelings of relief. But from after
developments, it may be inferred that they had no sooner felt themselves
exempt from the perils which had lately beset them, than they entered upon
a conference to devise ways and means of escape from their temporary
fortress (for such the building in which they had taken refuge proved to
be). This would not have been difficult of accomplishment, in any event,
and the tactics resolved upon by the besieged rendered it comparatively
easy of attainment.

In less than ten minutes the throngs, who had assembled with no more
serious object in view than to gratify an idle curiosity, and express
their unfriendliness to their taskmasters by the methods usually adopted,
had been taken up by the absorbent elements of the crowd flowing newsward,
and were no more. If the Governor's party had expected resistance of this
character, they were to be deceived, for by the time the lamps were
lighted, almost a calm pervaded that quarter; and when, a few moments
later, the first of the party (who proved to be Governor Brownlow) left
the building by a postern-gate in the rear, he was seen by none but the
spies who had been set to watch. Hurrying along an alleyway, the honorable
refugee had crossed two squares ere he emerged upon the broad street which
led across an unfrequented portion of the city, to the vicinity of the
mansion which he occupied. Halting here to reconnoitre and indulge a
moment of quiet reflection, after the exciting events through which he had
passed, he was suddenly encountered by a form of the peril from which he
was seeking to escape that had more than once been suggested to his fancy,
but which now presented itself in such palpable outline, and with an
attitude so positively menacing, that his courage forsook him for the
moment, and he recovered from the manner of a suppliant just in time to
save himself from a very humiliating scene. The _thing_ in question was an
ugly and even frightful embodiment of the genus Ku-Klux, which, having
been successful in its contemplated surprise, was very naturally disposed
to dictate terms to its victim. As no violence was intended, it had time,
however, for but a few tragic sentences, adopted from a repertory prepared
for the occasion, before the frightened official had recovered hi