were not mounted, but rode in
covered ambulances.

When the witness had concluded, there was a general clamor of dissent; a
dozen voices were heard attempting to speak at once; and when, by courtesy
of the hearers, each had been allotted a chance at the salient features of
his narrative, perhaps no one was better convinced than J. S. himself that
he had seen none of the occurrences which he had attempted to relate.

Oliver (colored), the miller, was, perhaps, a more reliable witness than
any of those who had preceded him, not simply because he had greater
experience of men and things, but his opportunities of informing himself
on the occasion referred to had been likewise superior. He had not only
seen the raiders, but had actually been interviewed by them. He slept in
the mill, and during the night had been aroused from his sleep could not
tell how, nor exactly when, but did not doubt that the agency was
supernatural. Proceeding to the door, he saw what he supposed to be
"sperrits," mounted on what he thought resembled horses, though he
afterwards satisfied himself of the fallacy of the latter conclusion. He
could not take observations with any degree of system, however, as he was
kept busy carrying water from the tank to the "thirsty sperrits," who had
made this call, it thus seems, with a selfish end in view. One of the
party, after having replenished his boilers to the tune of a bucketful,
loosened his belt and called for more, remarking aside to him, and
apparently in extenuation of the act, that it was the first he had quaffed
since being condemned to death by fate and the enemy's bullets at Shiloh.

He confessed to having become somewhat alarmed at this; but when, a moment
later, another individual of the party, mistaking him for the mill owner,
offered sympathies in view of the fact, as he alleged, that the party had
drank the creek in two, at a point a few miles nearer its source, his
courage failed him, and here his narrative suddenly breaks off.

This witness was sharply cross-questioned by the attorneys, who had by
this time volunteered on both sides of the controversy, but could not be
prevailed on to amend or otherwise detract from the material allegations
set forth in his examination. Neither would he add anything thereto--a
healthy sign which the defence did not fail to appropriate and magnify.
One other witness remained to be examined, and while his testimony
possessed that trait which shone so consp