How close, and dirty, and terrible it was on that third floor of the dingy tobacco house, where Isaac, as a private, was first confined, and as the summer days glided by and the August sun came pouring into the great, disorderly room, how the young boy panted and pined for a breath of sweet, pure air, such as swept over the far-off Eastern hills, and how full of wistful yearning were the glances he cast toward the grated windows, seeking to catch glimpses of the busy world without, in which he could not mingle. Not very near those windows did he dare approach, for more than one had already paid the penalty of such transgression, and in his dreams, Isaac saw yet the white death agony which stole over the face of the Fire Zouave shot by the inhuman guard while looking from the window. No wonder that the homesick boy grew sadder, wearier each day amid such horrors as these, praying, sometimes, that he might die, even though he must be buried far from the quiet Rockland churchyard, where the cypress and the willow were growing so green and fair, and where a mother could sometimes come and weep over her soldier boy’s grave. It would matter little where he slept, he thought, or what indignities were heaped upon his lifeless form, for his soul could not be touched; that would be safe with Him, whom Isaac, in his captivity, had found to be indeed the Friend which sticketh closer than a brother. The Saviour, honored since early childhood, did not desert the captive, and this it was which made him strong to bear, through the long summer days, during which there came to him no tidings of his home, and his eye was greeted with no sight of a familiar face, for Captain Carleton was yet an inmate of the hospital. Neither did any friendly message come to tell he was remembered by the man whose fortunes he had voluntarily shared, when he might, perhaps, have escaped, for though _Tom_ thought often of the generous lad, and sent to him many a word of comfort through mistake or negligence only one brief message had ever reached its destination, and so forsaken by every human aid, poor Isaac looked to Heaven for help, finding there a peace which kept his heart from breaking.