Page:The woman in battle .djvu/269

Rh did not intend to take the oath he alluded to, I concluded to waive it, and avoid giving a direct answer. I therefore replied that I was a Northern woman, and that my father was a New Yorker, but that, being in New Orleans at the time of the establishment of the blockade, I had been unable to communicate with my friends at the North and in England, or to get away. This was all plausible enough, and the provost marshal accepted it as a genuine statement of my case, apparently without hesitation, although he did not let me off without some cross-questioning.

"Have you a family?" said he.

"No, sir," I replied, with as sad and mournful an expression as I could put on, "I am a widow; my husband was an Englishman, and on his death he left me in quite comfortable circumstances. I have, however, lost everything by these wretched rebels, who have destroyed my property, and robbed me without mercy." While indulging in this recital of my troubles I wiped my eyes with my pocket handkerchief, tried my best to squeeze out a tear or two, and looked as sorrow-stricken as I possibly could.

The provost marshal, if he did not exactly overflow with sympathy, appeared desirous of doing what he could for me, and asked where I lived.

I replied that, owing to my reduced circumstances I was unable to keep house, as I had been doing up to the breaking out of the war, and that I was occupying a rented room, which, small as it was, I was doubtful about being able to keep unless I heard from my friends soon, or was able to obtain some employment by which I could make a little money. I then told him what my number was, and after some further conversation, chiefly about my poverty, the wrongs I had suffered from the rebels, and the difficulty of making ends meet, I informed him that I had come from England to New Orleans with my late husband, some years before the war, and that I proposed to return there so soon as I received a sufficient remittance. The provost marshal expressed a willingness to aid me in any way that lay in his power, and I bowed myself out of his presence, feeling tolerably confident that I had produced the impression I wished, and that, if I managed matters discreetly, he and I would have no difficulty in getting along with each other.

The next day I met the provost marshal again. He appeared to be quite pleased to see me, and introduced me to