of humble gentility in Carlingford, were well drawn back, and allowed the light to enter fully-of the glimmer of gilt picture-frames. And in the little garden in front, half-buried among the mignonette, were some remains of plaster-casts, originally placed there for ornament, but long since cast down by rain and neglect. Lucilla made her observations with the promptitude of an accomplished warrior, and before the second bar of the melody indoors was finished,

had knocked very energetically. "Is Miss Lake at home?" she asked, with confidence, of the little maidservant who opened the door to her. And it was thus that Lucilla made her first bold step out of the limits of Grange Lane for the good of society, and secured at once several important personal advantages, and the great charm of those Thursday evenings which made so entire a revolution in the taste and ideas of Carlingford.

WE spent a full week at Augusta, and then L. left us, going straight to Richmond, and V. and I went to Charleston.

We found the city unchanged, except that, since the occupation of the whole of Morris Island by the Yankees, blockade - running had pretty well come to an end, though it recommenced somewhat later.

There had been some intermission in the shelling of the city, and the Yankees had been engaged in turning Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg to their own account, and were now from thence pounding away at Sumter. I made an excursion to this place one night with Major Pringle, the quartermaster, who had to furnish its supplies. It happened that the Yankees were particularly attentive that night, and shelled us considerably. They had got a calcium light on the point of Morris Island nearest the fort, which threw such a brilliant glare all around it that we could not approach in a steamer, but had to take to a row-boat. As we neared the fort and got within the range of the calcium light, where it was as clear as day, they fired at us furiously-being about three-quarters of a mile distant; but we made good haste to reach the fort, and

scrambled into it as fast as we could, without any accident.

Here, in the bomb-proof, we were of course perfectly safe; and indeed casualties now seldom occur except through heedlessness on the part of the men. To-day, however, two men were killed and a few wounded. One poor fellow was brought in with half his head shot off; and going out into the area with Major Elliot, the commandant, a man met us coming in with his jaw broken.

This night they were firing chiefly with mortar shells, which look magnificent as they soar majestically up in air to a great height, and then slowly descend.

N.B.-If you are anywhere near, and look up, they appear as if they were coming straight towards you, and must inevitably hit the very spot where you are standing.

In the fort there is always plenty of time to get out of way, and whenever one is seen coming the sentinels give warning to "look out." The sentinels themselves generally have a place to dodge into; but on dark nights many have to be posted in insecure places to guard against an assault.

The bomb-proofs at Sumter are lofty, well ventilated, and perfectly

secure. The shot from the Parrott guns have brass "fixings," and the men make little fortunes by collecting and selling it for a dollar the pound.

We made an excursion to Summerville, some twenty miles from Charleston, where there is a large hotel and a number of country residences. Standing in the midst of a magnificent pine-forest, Summerville was always a favourite resort of the Charlestonians during the hot season, and at present it is crowded with refugees. It is said to be remarkably healthy.

From hence we visited Middleton Place, on the Ashley river, a good specimen of a gentleman's countryseat in South Carolina. The residences of the gentry in the South cannot, of course, compare with the stately homes of England," as property is here usually divided on the death of the owner; and however wealthy a man may be, he cannot reckon upon his grandchildren being able to inhabit a house which may be suitable for his own establishment and style of living. But they are very pleasant abodes, and at Middleton Place the gardens were beautiful. There were tea-trees and coffee-plants, avenues of immense camellias-japonicas, as they insist on calling them here-besides magnificent live oaks in the meadows 1 by the river-side. The owner was not at home, but we were entertained by his servants (slaves), who did the honours remarkably well, brought us luncheon, and showed us all over the place, of which they were as proud as if it belonged to them. Evidently they were much attached to their home, as well as to their master; and, indeed, they are a warm-hearted and affectionate race, and deserve to be as happy as they are under the present system, which requires but few alterations to be as beneficial to both parties as any that can be imagined.

The possible division of families, and disregard of marital rights, which are repugnant to the feelings

of every Southerner, would have been prevented by law long ago but for the irritation caused by the interference of the Abolitionists of the North, and the conviction that cases of the sort were exceedingly rare-much more rare, they maintain, than cases of brutal murder in England-and were already punished by such universal ignominy, that it has been thought better to rely on moral restraint than to enact laws which the Abolitionists would claim the credit of having forced them to make. The few cases where plantations have been broken up and the negro families sold without regard to marital and human rights, have almost invariably taken place when Northern creditors, some of them members of H. W. Beecher's congregation (I could name instances), have insisted upon their pound of flesh. In South Carolina negroes are as well protected by the laws as white men, and in some cases better. In criminal cases, for instance, a negro is tried before a court of three judges, the jury being composed of five white men, who must themselves be owners of negroes, and he can only be convicted by a unanimous verdict of this jury, with which one of the judges at least must agree. Apropos of the laws of South Carolina, I believe it is not generally known that at the settlement of the colony in 1670 the constitution was framed by John Locke, the famous philosopher, after the pattern of that of Plato's model republic.

During our sojourn at Charleston we stayed at the house of Mr Ch. who is celebrated for his little dinners, and who almost daily invited some friends to meet us; and we had " a good time of it," as they say in this country.

Charleston is celebrated for its madeira, which is always kept in the garrets at the top of the house to ripen, and never in the cellar. It is hardly considered drinkable until it has been twenty years in bottle, but then it is delicious.

At Mr Ch.'s we often met Mr Timrod, a gentleman whose name has not yet spread as widely as it undoubtedly will do; but he writes beautiful poetry, which no one who has read it can fail to admire. I believe a collection of his poems is soon to be published in England.

We had some capital music at this time, as well as when we were here before, at a Mr Walker's, whose musical friends used to assemble at his house every Wednesday.

We left Charleston for Wilmington in the afternoon of November the 12th, and got seats in the "ladies' car." At two o'clock next morning there was a sudden smash, and we found ourselves bumping along on the sleepers. Our car had evidently got off the rails. Fortunately the engine with the baggage-car broke loose from us, and we stopped; but when we alighted we found we had been in a critical position. The two passenger-cars were piled up against each other in a most extraordinary way, and if we had gone on a few yards farther we must inevitably have toppled over the embankment. No one was damaged; and the only two ladies in the car behaved admirably. "I am so glad no one is burt," was all that one of them said: "Yes, I'm so glad," said the other. And they quietly got out with the rest, and we waited for assistance. Presently the locomotive and baggage-cars came back, and the passengers and traps were picked up and squeezed in amongst the luggage and firewood.

Whilst the transit was taking place, V. facetiously asked the conductor what they intended to charge for the extra performance. "Oh, nothing at all, sir: we make no charge; we break people's bones and bury them for nothing, sir, on this road." And so I believe they do, now and then.

V. had been upset several times before, but it was my first adventure of the kind, and I rather congratulated myself upon the occurrence,

as travelling in America would be incomplete without a railroad accident.

We were not far from Wilmington when our mishap occurred, and arrived there early in the morning. We were shown into a very dirty room, with one bed for us both: the hotel was crowded; but happily we were not obliged to remain there, as we found our blockaderunning friends, from whom we had parted at Augusta, established at Wilmington in a fine large house, to which they invited us, and made us cordially welcome.

In the morning we paid our respects to General Whiting, who is in command here, and called upon several other gentlemen to whom we had letters of introduction.

There were

Wilmington is at present the most important port of entry in the South, and the custom-house receipts, both here and at Charleston, last year, far exceeded anything they had ever been during a similar period before the war. about a dozen blockade-running steamers lying at the wharves, loading cotton, and unloading all manner of stores brought from Bermuda and Nassau. Besides cotton, the chief exports are tobacco and rosin. One great treat we had here was to find English newspapers in abundance, and of dates little more than a month old.

We

A day or two after our arrival we went down to Fort Fisher, at the mouth of Cape Fear river, the Commandant, Colonel Lamb, taking us down in his boat. Going down we met three steamers coming up the river, having successfully run the blockade, the Hansa, the Lucy, and the Bendigo. exchanged cheers as they passed us; but the great sight is when they come up to the wharves. They all dress up with flags as if for a victory; and as the ships which belong to the same company do the same, the spectacle is very gay. The cheering, too, is vociferous, and all those who have

any interest in the vessel must, no doubt, feel extremely comfortable, as every successful trip brings an enormous profit. The moon is the blockade-runner's greatest enemy; but these vessels to-day had come in, notwithstanding the moon, which did not set till three o'clock in the morning. Fort Fisher consists of a long line of forts and batteries of all sorts and sizes. The most peculiar one is an artificial hill mounted with two guns, in order to give a plunging fire upon any vessel that may attempt to pass. A fleet trying to get into the river would have to run the gauntlet of these batteries for more than a mile, and would most assuredly suffer very severely in the attempt. There are two inlets to Cape Fear river. Fort Fisher is the chief defence of the northern, and Fort Caswell of the southern one. Although very formidable, the fortifications were still being strengthened, and large numbers of negroes were at work.

In the far distance we could see two Federal men-of-war keeping up a nominal blockade. They always remain at a respectful distance, for if they come within three or four miles, Colonel Lamb is apt to make targets of them, and his gun practice is very accurate.* They seldom catch a blockade-runner going in or out, but if on the high seas they can capture a ship laden with a suspicious cargo, they condemn her as a prize without more ado, and as the vessels all sail under the supposed protection of the British flag, the owners never have any redress.

Sometimes a vessel gets "beached," as in a dark night it is very difficult exactly to hit the point for which they are steering. This accident happened to the Ceres, a noble double screw steamer, that was making her first voyage. The

Yankees coming up in the morning, the ship had to be set on fire; her mail and a small portion of passengers' luggage was saved, but the cargo was lost. Some of the passengers had had a narrow escape, the ebbing tide having carried their boat far out to sea, but eventually all got safe to land.

Mr C., a brother of the head of the firm with whose agents at Wilmington we were staying, after getting to the shore, walked off the wharf again into the sea in the twilight, but being exceedingly tall, the water only reached his neck, and he quietly returned to the dry land.

While we were at Wilmington the news arrived of the disastrous battle of Missionary Ridge. The Yankees had been very heavily reinforced after the battle of Chicamauga, and Bragg had detached Longstreet to lay siege to Knoxville in Eastern Tennessee. The Confederate lines extended to an enormous length; the men were more or less ill and dispirited, having suffered severely from the effects of the inclement weather, and unaccustomed cold climate. Upon the whole, it was a matter of congratulation that affairs turned out no worse than they did.

Bragg gave up the command of the army, and his successor, Joe Johnstone, took up a position only a few miles to the rear of the one evacuated, and maintained it during the whole winter. The Yankees turned their victory of Missionary Ridge to no better account than the Confederates had done that of Chicamauga.

The following is a letter I received from an officer who was engaged on the right wing of Bragg's army :—

to you some of the past events since your departure from this army.

"Shortly after you left, Longstreet, as you may know, received a separate command, and was sent to Eastern Tennessee. There, luck did not altogether favour him before Knoxville, and he has had to beat a retreat into Virginia. Now in regard to our own division: For a long time after you left, the only movements we made were to continually shift our position along the old line of breastworks. However, at last, on the 24th (I think it was), General Cleburne was ordered to assume command of an expedition going to East Tennessee, consisting of Buckner's and his own divisions. "On the 24th most of Buckner's command managed to get away on the cars from Chicamauga. That evening we received orders to march back at once to Missionary Ridge. The cause for thus suddenly ordering us back to the Ridge was, that the enemy had attacked our pickets and driven them in, and that a general engagement was expected next day.

"Next day, the 25th, we received orders to act as the reserve of the army, and were at once sent over to the extreme right of Missionary Ridge, to defeat a movement of the enemy in that direction. The enemy had been crossing the river on a pontoon, with the aid of two steamers. That day we had no fighting to speak of, only a little skirmishing, which showed the enemy that we were inclined to dispute their advance. On the left, however, the case was different. The whole day long, and a great part of the night, a battle had been raging on Lookout Mountain, which ended in the enemy driving Major-General Stevenson, together with his division, from their position, with a loss on their side, as they admit, of 5000 killed and wounded. The next day the ball opened pretty briskly on the right. Three times did they charge our position, and three times were they repulsed. General Stevenson was

ordered to report to General Cleburne, who made use of one of the regiments of Cumming's brigade. The third charge was the most determined of the lot. They managed to reach the crest of the hill, and there they fought us for about two hours, at a distance varying from twenty to thirty paces ;-so close were they that our officers threw stones. Our men fought behind some breast works, which had been hastily constructed during the night. General Cleburne ended this prolonged fight by ordering a charge to be made on the enemy, both in front and in flank: by this gallant movement, we captured about 400 or 500 prisoners, and seven stands of colours. General Sherman's corps was the one we fought on the right. It must have numbered about 28,000 muskets. Sherman had promised his men a furlough if they took the Ridge, which, thank God, they never did. During the second charge my horse was shot in the neck, and I was ordered to change my horse, which I was unable to do, so I had to foot it for the rest of the fight. When we took the prisoners, some 400 of them were put in my charge, 333 I turned over to the Provost-Marshal, the rest to the surgery, and returned to my post. By this time General Cleburne had heard of the sad catastrophe on the left and centre of our line, and that he was expected to cover our retreat. He ordered me at once to send the prisoners to Chicamauga, which I did, footing it all the way. I shall never forget the sight which I witnessed next morning, when I joined General Cleburne again. He was in Chicamauga with the division in the best spirits possible, and in excellent order, whilst the most of the army resembled more the miserable crowds you would behold gathering around some gallows. Greedy for loot, they were to be seen eagerly ransacking all the burning stores. At last we managed to bundle these useless fellows out, and the retreat commenced in a more regular man