The committee then procured one of the churches in which to hold the concert, and fixed upon the evening of the next day as the time. Meanwhile the Provost-Judge directed the Provost-Marshal to double the number of guards throughout the city for that night, from eight to twelve o'clock, and to have all who were not on post at the church while the concert was being held--each with loaded musket and fixed bayonet. The news of the proposed concert spread rapidly through the city, and when the evening and hour arrived, every seat in the church was filled, while hundreds were gathered outside. The windows of the church were thrown wide open, that the citizens and soldiers outside might the better hear the words and music. The Provost-judge and Provost-Marshal took seats near the outer door, and it was observed that while they seemed to give one ear to the music, the other was given outside, to catch the first note of alarm, should any occur. General Montgomery expressed a very strong desire to attend the concert, but, out of courtesy to General McClellan, his commanding officer, thought he had better not, and therefore stayed away. The concert proceeded without an iota of disturbance, and gave great pleasure to the many hundreds present. Whittier's poem, and several others of like character, were so encored that the singers were obliged to repeat them. When the concert had ended, the Provost-judge and Provost-Marshal, with the guard which had been stationed about the church, accompanied the Hutchinsons to their lodgings, and left them in care of trusted friends. They were not disturbed through the night, and left next morning for Washington, well pleased with their stop-over at Alexandria. This was not only a triumph over disloyalty, but another instance strongly illustrating the restraining power which the provost-court held in that community. The day preceding the concert, and the day of the evening on which it was held, there were loud threats not only among avowed secessionists, but among anti-administration men, that the concert should not be given. Their own personal and political prejudices had been so aroused, backed and stimulated by General McClellan's order, that a single spark would have ignited their whole magazine of passion; and but for the wholesome dread which they had of Judge Freese's "Bayonet Court," as they were then in the habit of calling it, that spark would undoubtedly have been applied. The love of money, old political prejudices, and inordinate ambition, were the three vile roots from which most of disloyalty sprang during the late war, both in the North and in the South; and the illustrations given in this chapter are but two of hundreds which might be given, if the proposed limits of this volume would allow. [Illustration: 0225] CHAPTER XIV. DISLOYALTY AS AFFECTING THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. ERROR AND PREJUDICE PROMPTING THE ACTORS.