I shall not see that _Dies Irae_! I
shall be in my grave!"
[Footnote 1: His words.]
[Footnote 2: His words.]
[Footnote 3: His words.]
And breathing heavily, the journalist again leaned back in his chair,
as though about to faint.
An hour afterward, I terminated my visit, and went out, oppressed and
gloomy.
This singular man had made a reluctant convert of me to his own dark
views. The cloud which wrapped him, now darkened me--from the black
future I saw the lightnings dart already.
His predictions were destined to have a very remarkable fulfilment.
On the 21st of December, a few days after our interview, Sherman
telegraphed to Lincoln:--
"I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with
one hundred and fifty guns, and plenty of ammunition, and also about
twenty-five thousand bales of cotton."
In January, Wilmington fell.
Toward the end of the same month, John M. Daniel was a second time
seized with pneumonia, and took to his bed, from which he was never
again to rise. He would see no one but his physician and a few chosen
friends. All other persons were persistently denied admittance to his
chamber. Lingering throughout the remainder of the winter, as spring
approached, life seemed gradually leaving him. Day by day his pulse
grew weaker.
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