I hurried
downstairs, but the interview was so short, under the
circumstances, so unsatisfactory, that I returned upstairs
in a worse humor than when I went down. In the meantime,
Mr Addison had left in order to
make an attempt to have Mr Broaddus
paroled, that he might proceed to Richmond and represent
our case personally. He returned very shortly, having
obtained priviledge of parole for Mr Broaddus. This was
quite an encouraging circumstance, but I was so exasperated
by my situation with my wife in this strange city with
no one on whom I could rely to take charge of her and
I causelessly incarcerated, that, soon after seeing her
pass on the street, I was fairly maddened. I hallooed
after her in spite of the sentinal and caught hold of
the prison bars as if I could rock the building down.
Hunter noticed my depression and,
good natured soul, came to me with a proposition for a
practical joke on Roberts in hope
of diverting my thoughts. He proposed that he should state
to Mr R (whose horror of lice increased every day and
the better part of whose time seemed devoted to looking
out after those animals) that, during the time devoted
to exercise that afternoon, he had observed Wrenn (who
slept in the bunk below Roberts) in close contact with
the lousy soldiers in the yard, and in fact, on drawing
nearer, he had perceived several crawling on Wrenn's collar.
The first opportunity I called Roberts out in the passage
for a walk and soon gave him over to Hunter who, in the
most serious manner, executed his part of the programme,
and set his victim on fire. The best part of the joke,
however, was lost. We expected Roberts to call Wrenn to
account and demand that he should cleanse himself and
then we would enjoy the antics. He did not do this, but
went to every member of the mess and, relating what he
had learned, begged each one to tell Wrenn. But none told
him, an unaccountable fact to me, until I learned that
Wrenn had considerable reputation as a fighting man. Broaddus
started for Richmond this evening, together with some
two hundred prsioners of war, for purpose of exchange.
Went to bed but not to sleep. Hunter begged me to spend
the night with him, but I was unwilling to cloy his spirits
with my dispondency and I declined. To feel much more
miserable than I did was impossible.
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