Erminie, with tears of pity, told Alberta that she would accompany her to the President, to sue for this pardon.
Accordingly, the next morning Erminie ordered a carriage and took Alberta to the White House.
But it happened that the President was even more than ordinarily engaged, and they failed to obtain an interview.
This disappointment excited Alberta’s anxieties to the utmost pitch, and in her desperation, she vowed, that if she could not obtain the pardon of her husband she would do that which should place her by his side on the scaffold.
These wild words greatly alarmed Erminie, who with much difficulty persuaded Alberta to come home with her.
There a surprise met them in the shape of a paragraph in the morning’s papers announcing the escape of the famous Free Sword from Fort W.
The joy of Alberta was now as excessive as her previous grief had been. She even apologized for her mad threats.
Erminie persuaded her to take some refreshment and to go and lie down.
And in truth the minister’s daughter was suffering great anxiety on account of the guerrilla’s wife.