hatred that a wounded man expected as little
quarter as if he were engaged in a combat
with wild Indians. This being the temper
which existed on the part both of North and
South, the subject of the following incident,
which M. Sand met near the field of battle, may
be forgiven for feeling disturbed in his mind on
account of his possible fate. "Three horsemen
made their appearance," says he, "conducting
a prisoner on horseback tied to his saddle. He
was a stout gentleman, with red hair and whiskers,
looking very warm, bareheaded, wearing
a white coat, and with his trousers up to his
knees from the trot of his horse. He looked
very foolish between his two guardians, with
their long yellow moustaches; who, with
revolvers in their hands, compelled him to
obedience. I was told that he was a Northern
spy. Poor fellow, I can quite understand his
not being very gay in the contemplation of the
cord that bound his wrists, which, in the
course of an hour, perhaps, might be transferred
to his neck, to hang him to the branch of a
tree."

Arriving late one night at Manassas, the
French party were received and entertained by
General Johnston, the conqueror at Bull Run.
He appeared to be a man about fifty; thin; of
gentlemanly manners; not able to speak French;
and either very reserved or very distrustful.
Here, too, the party found General Beauregard—
French in origin, language, and manners; not
more than forty years old; short, but commanding,
both physically and morally; of great
energy, ready speech, and rough determined
voice. These generals of the South, like those
of the North, were dressed in blue tunics, without
epaulets. "Although," says M. Sand, "our
supper was wanting in wine and napkins, it was
not the less good. As for ice, an object of the
highest importance in a hot country, General
Johnston excused himself for not having any,
saying, 'Since the war we have no more had ice
from the North, than the North have had cotton
from the South.' " After supper, Prince Napoleon
conversed until midnight with Generals Beauregard
and Johnston, and the principal Secession
officers. M. Sand gathered from these conversations
that the Southerners have vowed a mortal
hatred to the Yankees, and that they cleverly
avoided the slavery question.

At Centreville, while M. Sand was lounging
about from group to group, he heard several
characteristic conversations among some of the
young Confederate soldiers. Here are two or
three specimens:

"We do not want to have anything to do
with the Yankees; neither will we suffer a
single Yankee foot on our territory; and they
having once violated it, it is all over between
us."

Then another:

"Have we not the right of separation, since
we possess the right of union? They very well
know that, without us, their commerce is ruined,
for we are the cultivators. But we will be no
longer cheated. We will continue the war two
years—four, if it be necessary. We have
sacrificed our property, and are ready to sacrifice
our lives, but we will have nothing more to do
with the Yankees. England and France want
our productions, and we are willing to let them
have them, but without the intervention of the
North as the commercial middleman."

A third:

"Who in the United States thinks of freeing
the slaves? Nobody. It is only in Europe that
they trouble themselves about that; and there
they fancy that we pass the whole of our time
in thrashing our negroes. It is the Yankees who
spread these false reports, in order to ruin us,
and because they are jealous of our wealth.
Look at Carolina, Georgia, and New Orleans,
and you may see there what care we take of
our slaves. If by chance one of them should
fall sick, no means are spared towards his recovery.
They are well lodged and fed; they work
no more than is right, and they want for
nothing. They are much more fortunate than the
settlers and labourers out West. Yes! And
with us they are far happier than black
men are in the North; where, it is true, they
have liberty—but it is the liberty to die of
hunger!"

A private infantry soldier, whom M. Sand
met, a moment after parting from these ardent
Confederates, said: "I am a Frenchman. I
came to America to pursue my calling as a
gardener, but the war left nothing for me to cultivate
but laurels. Well, although the country
was turned topsy-turvy, still I must eat, so I
enlisted myself for two years."

"And your pay?"

"And my pay, of course. The infantry are
tolerably well paid. In the cavalry, more than
three-quarters of the men receive nothing. They
are nearly all men in a good position."

"Have you any negro soldiers?"

"Oh, indeed! negroes! Who would serve
with negroes?"

"You despise the negroes, then?"

"Would you have me like them? The negro
is not paid; he simply works, and is content to
be a slave. He will tell you proudly: 'Me
good slave; me work better than white man!'
and thus small settlers, like me, for instance,
are driven either to die of hunger or to hire
ourselves to be killed for a cause which does
not concern us. No; we don't like them any
more than they do in the North—those
negroes!"

It seemed to me, says M. Sand, that this
volunteer gardener settled the question very
well. The deplorable degradation of the slave
contented with his lot, and the misery of the
free man or mean-white reduced to starvation
by this monstrous concurrence.

Concerning social things, M. Sand has this to
say of the manner in which Sunday is observed
in America:—"The Puritan Sabbath is
distinguished here (New York) by all its horrible
excess and laziness. Everything is shut up;
and, from the first thing in the morning, you
see men half stupified or dead drunk, lying in