Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER VIII IT WAS ON A LOVELY WfiDNESday evening that our firm and valued friend Lieutenant Preston, my Cousin Alice, and myself were standing on the balcony, watching the last rays of the setting sun as it sank behind the western hills. Our conversation turned upon the divided and unhappy state of our country. We recalled the peaceful scenes and joyous days of the past, which were so painfully contrasted by the present, and we were forced to agree that we had nothing to expect from the future but a continuance, if not an augmentation, of our calamities. In such gloomy forebodings, and in the interchange of apprehensions and regrets, we passed some time, and the twilight was fast deepening into gloom, when we heard the sound of horses' hoofs; and, straining our eyes through the darkness, we discerned a large body of cavalry approaching the house. I immediately conceived the idea that it was a scouting-party on their way to the mountains with the design of surprising Major Harry Gilmore's cavalry, and feared that their enterprise would prove successful unless the Confederate officer should have timely notice of his danger . I ran at once to my room and wrote a hasty note, in which I communicated my suspicions to Major Gilmore, and warned him to be on his guard. This note I transmitted in the manner I have described in a previous B E L L E BOYD I N C A M P A N D P R I S O N ll/ chapter, by my "underground railway." After this feat I retired to bed, and slept quietly, undisturbed by any dream or vision of my approaching captivity. Next morning I rose early, and soon after breakfast I went to thecottage door, where I daily spent much of my time, watching the movements of the persons who, for various purposes, frequented headquarters . I had not been long at my post when I observed severalYankee soldiers go into the coach-house. They immediately proceeded to drag out the carriage, and pull it up at the door of head-quarters, where they put to the horses. There was nothing very extraordinary in all this; but in theseanxious days the minds of all were in a perpetual state of tension, and a slight incident was sufficient to cause alarm. This may account for the strange feeling that came over me—an irrepressible desire to ascertain who was to be the occupant of thecarriage , which was on the point of starting for a destination of which I was ignorant. I walked out upon the balcony; and, looking up and down the street, I sawthat it was thronged with cavalry, the men dismounted, lounging about, and conversing with each other, in groups of twos and threes, evidently waiting for the expected order to mount. While I stood looking at this scene, not without interest and curiosity , one of the servants came to me and said— "Miss Belle, de Provo' wishes to see you in de drawing-room, and dere's two oder men widhim." I immediately went down-stairs, and, upon entering the room, I found the Major, whose face wore an expression of excitement andnervousness . There were, as the servant had said, two other men in the room with him: one,a tall, fine-looking man, was introduced to me by the name and title of Major Sherman, of the 12thIllinois cavalry; the other was low in stature, coarse in appearance, with a mean, vile expression of countenance, and a grizzly beard, which, it was evident, had not made the acquaintance of water or a comb for weeks at least. His small, restless eyes glanced here and there, with an expression of incessant watchfulness and suspicion. All his features were repulsive in the 118 B E L L E BOYD IN C A M P AND P R I S O N extreme, denoting a mixture of cowardice, ferocity, and cunning. In a word, his mien was unmistakably that of a finishedvillain, who was capable of perpetrating any act, however atrocious, when stimulated by the promise of a reward in money. This man wasa good type of his order: he wasone of Secretary Stanton 's minions—a detective belonging to, and employed and paid by, that honorable branch of Mr. Lincoln's Government, the secret Service Department. I had not been in the room more than a few...