e friends were permitted to have access to his chamber. In
the evening General Lee called again, and his name was announced
to Bishop Meade. As soon as he heard it, he said faintly, for
his breathing had become much oppressed, and he spoke with great
difficulty: "I must see him, if only for a few moments."

General Lee was accordingly introduced, and approached the dying man,
with evidences of great emotion in his countenance. Taking the thin
hand in his own, he said:

"How do you feel, bishop?"

"Almost gone," replied Bishop Meade, in a voice so weak that it was
almost inaudible; "but I wanted to see you once more."

He paused for an instant, breathing heavily, and looking at Lee with
deep feeling.

"God bless you! God bless you, Robert!" he faltered out, "and fit you
for your high and responsible duties. I can't call you 'general'--I
must call you 'Robert;' I have heard you your catechism too often."

General Lee pressed the feeble hand, and tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Yes, bishop--very often," he said, in reply to the last words uttered
by the bishop.

A brief conversation followed, Bishop Meade making inquiries in
reference to Mrs. Lee, who was his own relative, and other members
of the family. "He also," says the highly-respectable clergyman who
furnishes these particulars, "put some pertinent questions to General
Lee about the state of public affairs and of the army, showing the
most lively interest in the success of our cause."

It now became necessary to terminate an interview which, in the feeble
condition of the aged man, could not be prolonged. Much exhausted, and
laboring under deep emotion, Bishop Meade shook the general by the
hand, and said:

"Heaven bless you! Heaven bless you! and give you wisdom for your
important and arduous duties!"

These were the last words uttered during the interview. General Lee
pressed the dying man's hand, released it, stood for several minutes
by the bedside motionless and in perfect silence, and then went out of
the room.

On the next morning Bishop Meade expired.

[Illustration: Environs of Richmond.]

PART II.

_IN FRONT OF RICHMOND_.

I.

PLAN OF THE FEDERAL CAMPAIGN.

The pathetic interview which we have just described took place in the
month of March, 1862.

By the latter part of that month, General McClellan, in command of an
army of more than one hundred thousand men, landed on the Peninsula
between the James and York Riv