“By this time we had finished dinner, or tea, and were returning to the sitting room, when James Whitcomb took his parents out on the veranda and told them all about his trouble, the kindness of our family, Mary Anderson's trip to see the President, his clemency, etc.; his present situation, and how he obtained his position. We thought that this was a mistake, but he felt relieved, and his parents and sister, after they were satisfied of his having done no wrong intentionally, felt that it was the best for them to know it. We had intended it should be kept from them, but it was now no longer a secret in my family, and it was perhaps best that his father and mother should know all. “The next day Mr. and Mrs. Whitcomb thought that they must return home. Mr. Whitcomb said to Henry and Seraine that they must come as soon as they could do so to their house and make it their home, as he and his wife being alone at such a time it was very hard, and made them discontented. They thanked all of us for our watchfulness over their only son, and it seemed that they could not thank the General and his wife sufficiently for what they had done for him. They bade us all good-by and separated from Henry and Seraine with many regrets. “After they had gone Jackson entertained us by a recital of his visit to Europe, and, in addition to what he had written me, he gave us all he had seen and heard. His recital of the burning of the Will-o'-the Wisp was quite graphic, and excited Henry and the General very much. No one except those who were in the secret knew what she had on board, nor the importance to the Confederacy of the men that were lost with her. The language used by Gen. Anderson against such fiendishness as Jackson's statement disclosed I will not attempt to repeat. It was strong and denunciatory, such only as men like himself, versed in letters, could employ.