my dining; and, heaven be praised! there was
no necessity for moderation in wine. In their society I committed my sins,
and together beneath that noble orb unknown to colder skies, the Southern
moon, we atoned for them by acts of devotion performed with song and lute
beneath the shrine window of many a local divinity.

One night we had an adventure. We were out late--so late that it was night
only astronomically. The streets were "deserted and drear," and, of
course, unlighted--the late Confederacy had no gas and no oil.
Nevertheless, we saw that we were followed. A man keeping at a fixed
distance behind turned as we turned, paused as we paused, and pursued as
we moved on. We stopped, went back and remonstrated; asked his intentions
in, I dare say, no gentle words. He gave us no reply, but as we left him
he followed. Again we stopped, and I felt my pistol plucked out of my
pocket. Frank had unceremoniously possessed himself of it and was
advancing on the enemy. I do not remember if I had any wish to interpose a
protest--anyhow there was no time. Frank fired and the man fell. In a
moment all the chamber-windows in the street were thrown open with a head
visible (and audible) in each. We told Frank to go home, which to our
surprise he did; the rest of us, assisted by somebody's private
policeman--who afterward apprised us that we were in arrest--carried the
man to a hotel. It was found that his leg was broken above the knee, and
the next day it was amputated. We paid his surgeon and his hotel bill, and
when he had sufficiently recovered sent him to an address which he gave us
in Mobile; but not a word could anybody get out of him as to who he had
the misfortune to be, or why he had persisted, against the light, in
following a quartet of stray revelers.

On the morning of the shooting, when everything possible had been done for
the comfort of the victim, we three accomplices were released on our own
recognizance by an old gentleman of severe aspect, who had resumed his
function of justice of the peace where he had laid it down during the war.
I did not then know that he had no more legal authority than I had myself,
and I was somewhat disturbed in mind as I reflected on the possibilities
of the situation. The opportunity to get rid of an offensive Federal
official must of course be very tempting, and after all the shooting was a
trifle hasty and not altogether justifiable.

On the day appointed for our preliminary examin