men.

The General, in a kind, but apparently decided manner, met my urgent
request by referring to the proofs of their guilt, and the necessity of
the severest punishment as an example to others.

I was well aware of the futility of attempting to reason with the astute
lawyer, who had all the law on his side, and twenty years' experience at
the bar in cases where he had met every argument that ingenuity could
devise; so, avoiding his reasoning, I appealed directly to his feelings.
In this I was most earnestly and efficiently aided by one of his
household, whose heart and influence were always on the side of tenderness
and mercy.

The earnestness with which I urged the cause of the wretched prisoners
excited in me an interest I was not before conscious of feeling, and I
suddenly found myself almost unable to speak from the choking emotions
which swelled up into my throat.

Beneath the General's argument for abstract justice, I thought, however, I
discovered a warm sympathy for my distress, and I gathered encouragement.

In a few minutes an officer who had been in the room during our interview,
and from whom the General desired to conceal his benevolent intention
toward the men, took his leave. The General turned to me immediately, and,
in a voice scarcely audible, said,--"Do not feel so badly, Captain; it
shall be all right."

Not daring to trust my voice, I bowed my thanks and left the room, happy
in the possession of so agreeable a secret.

The next morning, as I rode out to the spot assigned for the terrible
tragedy, and gazed upon the silent, curious crowd that followed, and upon
the four men sitting there upon those rough pine coffins, straining their
eager eyes for one long last look at the glorious sun whose rising they
were never again to see, I doubted if their happiness, when an hour hence
they would be returning to the city with joyous anticipations of assured
life, would be any more sincere than his,--"the American Haynau's,"--who,
in his room at the St. Charles Hotel, rejoiced that he had been able to
indulge the inclinations of his heart without detriment to the service.

In justice to others, I ought to add that a strong effort for the pardon
of these prisoners was made by a number of the prominent residents of New
Orleans.

It was in June of last year, I think, that a German bookseller named
Keller was sent by General Butler to Ship Island for two years for
exhibiting in his shop-window a human