"You do perfectly right to surrender, sir; but I should not have surrendered on any condition."
"Why so? I do not understand you."
"Because I was fully determined to capture the fort or go to the bottom."
The Rebel general opened his eyes at this remark, but replied, "I thought I had you, Commodore, but you were too much for me."
"But how could you fight against the old flag?"
"Well, it did come hard at first; but if the North had only let us alone there would have been no trouble. But they would not abide by the Constitution."
"You are mistaken, sir. The North has maintained all of her Constitutional obligations. You of the South have perjured yourselves. I talked to him faithfully," said the zealous officer.
The Commodore was now nervously restless, but said: "I never slept better in my life than I did the night before going into the battle, and I never prayed more fervently than I did yesterday morning, that God would bless the undertaking, and he has signally answered my prayer. I don't deserve it, but I trust that I shall be grateful for it. But I couldn't sleep last night for thinking of those poor fellows on board the Essex, who were wounded and scalded. I told the surgeons to do everything possible for them. Poor fellows! I must go and see that they are well cared for."
It was one o'clock in the morning, yet exhausted as he was, he went to see that the sufferers were having every possible attention.
This was on Saturday morning; the next day he went to church as usual. The minister was not there, and after waiting awhile the audience one by one began to drop off, whereupon Commodore Foote entered the pulpit, and conducted the exercises, reading the fourteenth chapter of John's Gospel, and addressed the congregation, urging sinners to repentance, picturing the unspeakable love of Christ, and the rewards which await the righteous, and closing the services by a fervent prayer. It was as unostentatious as all his other acts, undertaken with a dutiful desire to benefit those about him, and to glorify God. That was his aim in life.