prisoner for saying she supposed she would _have_ to!
_That's_ liberty! that is free will! It is entirely optional; you have
only to take it quietly or go to jail. That is freedom enough,
certainly! There was not even that choice left to me. I told the
officer who took down my name that I was unwilling to take the oath,
and asked if there was no escaping it. "None whatever" was his reply.
"You have it to do, and there is no getting out of it." His rude tone
frightened me into half-crying; but for all that, as he said, I had it
to do. If perjury it is, which will God punish: me, who was unwilling
to commit the crime, or the man who forced me to it?

Friday, June 26th.

O praise the Lord, O my soul! Here is good news enough to make me happy
for a month! Brother is so good about that! Every time he hears good
news on our side, he tells it just as though it was on his side,
instead of on ours; while all bad news for us he carefully avoids
mentioning, unless we question him. So to-day he brought in a budget
for us.

Lee has crossed the Potomac on his way to Washington with one hundred
and sixty thousand men. Gibbes and George are with him. Magruder is
marching on Fort Jackson, to attack it in the rear. One or two of our
English ironclads are reported at the mouth of the river, and Farragut
has gone down to capture them. O Jimmy! Jimmy! suppose he should be on
one of them? We don't know the name of his ship, and it makes us so
anxious for him, during these months that we have heard nothing of his
whereabouts.

It is so delightful to see these frightened Yankees! One has only to
walk downtown to be satisfied of the alarm that reigns. Yesterday came
the tidings of the capture of Brashere City by our troops, and that a
brigade was fifteen miles above here, coming down to the city. Men
congregated at corners whispering cautiously. These were evidently
Confederates who had taken the oath. Solitary Yankees straggled along
with the most lugubrious faces, troubling no one. We walked down to
Blineau's with Mrs. Price, and over our ice-cream she introduced her
husband, who is a true blue Union man, though she, like ourselves, is a
rank Rebel. Mr. Price, on the eve of making an immense fortune, was
perfectly disconsolate at the news. Every one was to be ruined;
starvation would follow if the Confederates entered; there was never a
more dismal, unhappy creature. Enchanted at the new