"That's so," exclaimed the latter. "The sight of those Yankees made me forget all about it. You know that big iron-clad of ours that's been building up at Portsmouth, don't you?" "Aw! I don't want to hear any more about her," cried Tom. "She is a rank failure." "Judging by the stories that have been circulated about her she was a failure; but judged by the work she did three days ago she is a glorious success," replied Mark, pausing for a moment to enjoy the surprise which his statement occasioned among his auditors for now that the Yankees had taken themselves off, without turning the house upside down or insulting anybody, the whole family came out on the porch, and a servant brought chairs enough to seat them all. "She captured and burned the _Congress_, sunk the _Cumberland_, and if there had been a few hours more of daylight, she would have served the rest of the Yankee fleet in the same way." "Why, Mark, when did this happen?" inquired Mrs. Allison. "And where?" chimed in Tom. "And how did you hear of it, seeing that the Yankees have rendered our post-office at Nashville useless to us?" said his father. "It happened on the afternoon of the 8th of March, and the scene of the conflict was Hampton Roads, off the mouth of the James," answered Mark. "My father told me of it last night, and he first got the news from Captain Beardsley, who----" "Ah! I was afraid there wasn't a word of truth in it," exclaimed Mr. Allison. "But it is true, every word of it," said Mark earnestly. "Beardsley always has been half crazy over that vessel, for he says he has seen and talked with sailor-men who have been all over her; and he has more than once declared that, when she was ready for sea, she would make a scattering among the Yankee fleet at Fortress Monroe. He told father that he had heard a letter read that was in some way smuggled through from Norfolk yesterday, and that that letter was written by a man who took part in the fight. All the same father would not believe it until he had seen and read the letter himself. He thinks it is true, and so do I." "I certainly hope it is," said Mrs. Allison. "But those Yankees who came here a while ago acted more like victors than like beaten men." Mark Goodwin, who of course got his ideas from his father, declared that they would not act that way much longer; for as soon as the Federal fleet at Fortress Monroe had been disposed of, Commodore Buchanan, the gallant commander of the _Virginia_, would have his choice of two courses of action: he could not carry coal enough to run up and lay the city of New York under contribution, but he could reduce Fortress Monroe and bombard Washington, or he could come South, scatter Goldsborough's fleet, and recapture Pamlico and Albemarle sounds.