Oh! come back, deluded, mistaken sons of freedom's soil! Come back, ye whose fathers shed their blood to consecrate our land to liberty, for ever! Let your base and calculating political leaders deceive you no more! Be no longer tools for their use and to be only used for their aggrandizement! Come back to the country that loved you and has so long given you its protection! Come, acknowledge your wrong--seek protection under our starry flag, and fight for it. You shall receive its protection, and be once more ranked as the sons of Columbia. As she ceased singing, she turned to Hayward and said: "Do you not admire the song?" "I admire the singer, lady, but you must excuse me if I do not speak with regard to the sentiment, before you." "You admire candor. Why not express your sentiments before me? You _look_ like a gentleman, and I love occasionally to meet a gentleman, even in the rebel ranks." "No doubt our views are different, lady. But I trust we will not be enemies nevertheless." "We may not be personal enemies here. But if you will change that uniform you wear, for that of a Union officer, I will promise that we will be friends." "I could not consistently do so at present, lady!" "Why not?" "When my country is in danger, do I not share it? Thus to take this off, would be to endanger myself and my country's cause." Alibamo gazed at Hayward a moment, but it was met with a look of indifference. "Yes, you are in danger. You belong to the so-called Southern confederacy, and you, with it, are in danger of destruction. Why not come back to the Union--the glorious _old_ confederacy. Why not come back and fight for the cause _your_ fathers died to win. Why not fight under the glorious stars and stripes. See _I_ wear them as an apron, even here in this rebel camp. And I tore up a confederate flag to make this. The glorious stars and stripes--oh! how I love them. Our fathers gave them to us pure and spotless, their stars glittering brightly, and their stripes waving free. If they _must_ be stained, it will be by the blood of our fathers' sons who are fighting to replace them on every spot where they _have_ waved, but by traitorous hands been stricken down. And they will be placed there. They will yet wave over your home and mine!" "Lady, you will pardon me, but I cannot longer listen to you. If I do not act as I _think_ is right, it will be something new for _Harry Hinton_." Alibamo started. She trembled violently, but recovering her self-possession, she said: "Mr. _Harry Hinton_, I could not accuse you of dishonor. Forgive me if I have wounded your feelings by being rude. And to show you my esteem for you--that is so far as I can feel esteem for my country's enemy--you may kiss my cheek at parting!" The gallant captain stepped forward, and taking the lady by the hand, the kiss echoed throughout the tent. But a _very_ close observer would have noticed that Hayward kissed the lady _on, or very near_, the ear!