XII.
THE GRAVE OF STUART.
On the next morning a piece of good fortune befell me. In spite of
continued visits to the war-office, and an amount of importunity which
must have been exceedingly annoying to the gentlemen of the red tape, I
found myself, at the end of August, apparently no nearer to an
"assignment to duty" than at first.
It really seemed that the Confederate States had no need of my
services; that the privilege of performing military duty in behalf of
the Government was one jealously guarded, and not to be lightly
bestowed upon any one. I was in despair, and was revolving the project
of resigning my empty commission, and enlisting in the cavalry as a
private soldier, when the _deus ex machina_ to extricate me from all my
troubles, appeared in the person of Colonel P-----, of army head-
quarters.
This accomplished soldier and gentleman met me as I was coming out of
the war-office, on the morning after the visit to Mr. X-----, looking I
suppose, like some descendant of the Knight of the Sorrowful
Countenance, and stopped to inquire the cause of my dejection. I
informed him of the whole affair, and he laughed heartily. "You have
set about your affairs, my dear colonel, in a manner entirely wrong,"
he said. "You should have gone to some general, discovered that your
grandmother and his own were third cousins; expressed your admiration
of his valor; denounced the brother-general with whom he was
quarreling; written puffs to the papers about him; and then, one
morning said, 'By the by, general, you are entitled to another staff
officer.
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