"Yes, and the nigger too. It's Miss Salome Poillon, and she lives at S—— plantation, across the river," was the answer.
"Then she is a resident here, and there is no danger of their being spies?" put in the cautious one.
"Lord, no! Why, she's the biggest Rebel 'round. So's all the family, an' she's got a Rebel lover," replied my champion emphatically, adding the last fact as if it were a clincher.
That settled it, and the two officers then came over to the carriage and told me I was at liberty to go on, and regretted that they had been obliged to stop me at all. I thanked them, and asked if I would have much difficulty in getting through.
"I am afraid so," replied the one who had first met me.
"This is your most direct route, is it not?" asked the older officer, on whom the rest of the conversation devolved.
"It is much the nearest way," I replied.
"It leads directly on, near where a considerable body of our troops are, yet I think it will be safer for you to keep it than to try side roads, where you would be constantly stopped. I will give you a note to the general in command, and a pass, which will aid you until you reach him. He will likely give you an escort for some distance," he added, writing as he spoke.
When he handed me the papers, I asked him about the positions of the Yankees, and in answering he told me also something new about how Luce's army was located, which was one of the clues that I wanted to learn.