ng priestess of rebellion, whom the dead
man had met? There was perhaps less of feeling than scorn in the first
suggestion, but he was nevertheless relieved when the provost marshal
found no other incriminating papers in Wainwright's effects. Nor did
he reveal to the division general the finding of the photograph. It was
sufficient to disclose the work of the traitor without adding what might
be a clue to his wife's participation in it, near or remote. There was
risk enough in the former course,--which his duty made imperative. He
hardly dared to think of the past day's slaughter, which--there was no
doubt now--had been due to the previous work of the spy, and how his
brigade had been selected--by the irony of Fate--to suffer for and yet
retrieve it. If she had had a hand in this wicked plot, ought he to
spare her? Or was his destiny and hers to be thus monstrously linked
together?

Luckily, however, the expiation of the chief offender and the timely
discovery of his papers enabled the division commander to keep the
affair discreetly silent, and to enjoin equal secrecy on the part of
Brant. The latter, however, did not relax his vigilance, and after the
advance the next day he made a minute inspection of the ground he was
to occupy, its approaches and connections with the outlying country,
and the rebel lines; increased the stringency of picket and sentry
regulations, and exercised a rigid surveillance of non-combatants
and civilians within the lines, even to the lowest canteener or camp
follower. Then he turned his attention to the house he was to occupy as
his headquarters.

It was a fine specimen of the old colonial planter's house, with its
broad veranda, its great detached offices and negro quarters, and had,
thus far, escaped the ravages and billeting of the war. It had been
occupied by its owner up to a few days before the engagement, and so
great had been the confidence of the enemy in their success that it had
been used as the Confederate headquarters on the morning of the decisive
battle. Jasmine and rose, unstained by the sulphur of gunpowder,
twined around its ruined columns and half hid the recessed windows;
the careless flower garden was still in its unkempt and unplucked
luxuriance; the courtyard before the stables alone showed marks of the
late military occupancy, and was pulverized by the uneasy horse-hoofs of
the waiting staff. But the mingled impress of barbaric prodigality with
patriarchal simplici