There was a pert little Yankee in the room who had been watching us for some time. He, like everybody else around us, understood by this time our dilemma. “I’ll tell you how to get sent on, if you will listen,” he said. “I will,” I said clearly and firmly, and looking straight into the eyes of Lieutenant Vance, who was then passing close by me. The little Yankee was staggered by the unnecessary amount of resolution expressed in my reply. I kept my eyes focused on the spot where Mr. Vance had been for some seconds after he had passed. Then I turned to my little Yankee. I had snubbed him severely heretofore, but I was humbled by extremity, and willing enough now to listen if he could tell us how to get away from this place. “Tell us how we can get sent on,” I asked. “Just step out there in the street and holler for Jeff Davis, and you’ll get sent on quick enough!” We withered him with a stare, and then turned our backs on him, and at the same moment two ladies entered the room whom we recognized. They were Mrs. Drummond and Miss Oglesby, whose acquaintance we had made in Baltimore, and they, too, were going south. They explained that they had been in this wretched place since yesterday, and that they were not allowed to return to Baltimore and were unable to go home. They had been out trying to find a conveyance of some sort, but had been able to secure only the promise of an ox-cart, and hearing that we were here had come in to consult with us. During all this time the orderly, whom I had detained, was waiting impatiently. We decided to go with him and make another appeal to General Kelly. Accordingly the whole party filed into General Kelly’s office again. “What _are_ we to do, general?” I cried out in desperation. “We can’t go back, we can’t go on, and we can’t stay here!” The kindly general did honor to the stars he wore--he was a gentleman, every inch of him. It happened later that he was captured and held in Libby Prison in Richmond, and I was in Richmond and didn’t know it. I have held a grudge against fate ever since. If I had only known, he would have been reminded by every courtesy that a Southern woman could render of how gratefully his kindness was remembered. “I hardly hoped for a different answer from General Fish, ladies. The regulations on this point are very stringent. And I can not return you to Baltimore unless you take the oath of allegiance.” “What?” we asked eagerly. “If you take the oath of allegiance, I can send you back.” We decided to do this.