She was too frank and outspoken
to be dangerous. Besides, it was a war of brothers. His own sister was
the wife of Abraham Lincoln. These condemned men were the best blood of
the North. It was a pitiful tragedy.
Miss Van Lew, with a market basket on her arm, watched for Socola's
appearance from the office of the Secretary of State. The young clerk
was walking slowly down Main Street and turned into an unused narrow
road at the foot of the hill.
Crazy Bet, swinging the basket and humming a song, passed him without
turning her head.
"It's true," she whispered quickly, "all horribly true. Thirteen of the
finest officers of the Union army have been condemned to death the
moment the crew of the _Savannah_ are executed--among them Colonel
Cochrane of New York and Colonel Paul Revere of Massachusetts. The
dispatch must go to-night."
"To-night," was the short answer.
Within an hour Socola's courier was on his way to Washington with a
message which unlocked the prison doors of the condemned men on both
sides of the line.
Abraham Lincoln stoutly opposed a repetition of the effort to treat
Confederate prisoners as outlaws, no matter where taken by land or sea.
Davis had established the legality of his letters of marque and reprisal
beyond question.
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