“Oh, my dear father,” said Erminie, shrinking painfully, as one who had a wound suddenly probed—“my dear father do not speak of that. Never mind me. Let us talk of yourself. Since you will not let me do anything for you but sit upon your knee, tell me, if it will not tire you to do so, how it came about that you were reported dead, and that a body was found and buried as your body, when in fact you were only taken prisoner? And above all, how did it happen that you were kept in prison so long without being exchanged, or being allowed to communicate with your family?”
“It is a long story, my child, but I will try to tell it briefly. When my regiment was at Manassas, it was desirable to ascertain the position of the enemy, and the character of his defences. My colonel knew that the general officers were very solicitous upon this point. He thought secretly to procure the information, and to surprise them with it. He proposed to me to exchange my uniform for the clergyman’s dress that I had a right to wear, and in that costume, and with a bundle of tracts in my carpet bag, to penetrate the enemy’s lines as an itinerant preacher, distribute my tracts, pick up all the information I could get, and then return to my regiment and give it to him.”
“Oh, my dear father, what a dangerous service to put you on, and at your age, too!”
“My dear, we thought my age and clerical character would be the very circumstances to save me from suspicion and arrest.”
“And so you went?”
“And so I went—myself and my colonel being only in the secret! In my character of an old itinerant preacher, I succeeded in getting within the enemy’s lines, where I distributed my tracts among the soldiers, and preached proslavery from the text, ‘Servants obey your masters,’ and secession from another text, ‘Come out from among them.’ I gained ‘golden opinions,’ and what is more, such important information in regard to the strength, position and plans of the enemy that, could I have succeeded in carrying it back to my colonel, it must have totally changed the issue of that disastrous battle of Bull Run.”
“But you were taken!” sighed Erminie.
“I was taken! I started on my return, but some circumstance, of I know not what nature, excited suspicion. I was followed, arrested, and brought back.”
“Oh, my father! oh, my dear, dear father!” exclaimed Erminie, clasping her hand.
“My child, you see me sitting here in safety; you feel my arms around you; therefore you can bear to hear some hard facts. I will tell them as shortly and plainly as possible. The result of my arrest was that I was tried as a spy and condemned to die.”