“He spoke of Silent as a man who did not value life or anything else, saying that he was a superstitious man, who believed that he was merely an instrument in the hands of the Almighty to wipe out slavery. Not only so, but believed that he was guided and directed in all his movements by the mysterious hand of Providence. So he (Thomlinson) could not see the use of relying longer on any satisfactory result to come from the course being pursued by their Northern friends. He said they must act more openly, energetically and promptly, if they were to help the Confederacy. “There were two men present that Henry thought he had seen somewhere before, but could not place them. One was a medium-sized man, with rather dark complexion, dark hair, eyes and mustache. He was introduced as a Mr. Wilkes. The other was a young man, perhaps thirty years of age, slight, with brown hair, blue eyes and no beard, named John Page. These two men seemed nervous and uneasy; they conversed but little. The man Wilkes remarked that there was but one way, which was a part of every insurrection, and he was in favor of that way. Page agreed with him, both seeming to understand the proposition; yet it was not stated in the conversation at that time what Wilkes meant by 'but one way.' “Thomlinson made no answer to Wilkes or Page, but continued by saying: “'I have called the leading men of our organization to meet again at St. Catharines, on the first Tuesday in February, and at that time there must be some scheme devised and agreed upon that will turn the scale, or all will be lost, and we will all be wandering vagabonds over the face of the earth.' “Henry inquired if Mr. Carey was in the city. Thomlin-son said no; that he was in Richmond, but would be at their meeting if he could get through the lines, in doing which they had met with no trouble heretofore. Winter-green said that the people where he had been, who were friendly, were now very despondent and greatly alarmed for the safety of Richmond, as well as the Confederacy; that everything seemed to be against them of late.