Penitentiary; and they came leaping and shouting with their parti-colored clothes, shorn heads, and diabolical countenances, where murder, robbery, and rapine were stamped in fearful characters. They were about four hundred in all, who had overcome their diminished guard, set fire to the building and escaped when there was no one to recapture them. Many a heart which had kept its courage up to this point died away at the sight; but fortunately they were too intent upon securing their new-gained liberty to attempt new crimes, and no immediate evils followed their appearance. At about ten o'clock in the morning the cry, "The Yankees! the Yankees!" startled all with new fears as the crowds fled up the streets with frightened faces.

But what had been apprehended as the greatest evil of all, proved in the end a blessing, as it brought an element into the storm of disorder and misrule which in some degree quelled it. So far from committing deeds of violence, the first act of the Federal force was an organized steady exertion to subdue the fire and restore order; and by night the flames began to succumb to their efforts, and the fire sank down exhausted, but glowing with smouldering rage which only watched an opportunity to break out again with renewed violence.

It pre

The scene of desolation was fearful to witness. sented masses of ruined, blackened walls, with the fire still burning in their midst; suggesting to the imagination no inapt similitude to the heart of the nation, which now existed, a ruin pitiable to behold, with the smouldering fires of disappointment and bitterness glowing in the midst.

The fire had extended for miles, consuming everything which came in its way. The streets were mere piles of rubbish; all marks were lost whereby the pedestrian could conjecture his position, except the calm waters of the James, which rolled itself as quietly and peacefully along as if no such waves as war and violence had ever ruffled the surface of time. The Capitol Square presented a strange, sad picture: the fire had consumed everything consumable around three sides of its lower area, and the old Capitol stood alone, as it were, in the midst of an island against the shores of which the waves of ruin beat.

Upon the green grass of the square sat, lay, or stood hundreds upon hundreds of human beings of all ages, sexes, and ranks of life, in various attitudes of despondency. They were the homeless outcasts of the fire; and above them waved and flapped the United States flag, the token of their defeat and humiliation, and around them the negro soldiers and the negroes of the city exulted and shouted over the triumphs of the day.

The destitution in the city was fearful; all of the lower part of it having been consumed, and with it such provisions as it contained. Numbers had escaped from their burning homes with only their lives, and the fact that the only money the mass of the people possessed was the Confederate currency, reduced all classes alike to absolute want.

THE BLACK PEOPLE BEFORE THE WAR

From The Holcombes: a Story of Virginia Home Life.' Copyright, J. B. Lippincott and used by permission of the publishers.

"THE most important person in the family, not excepting Mr. Holcombe, I think, is the old Mammy. I believe her name is Judy, though she is never called anything but 'Mammy.'

"Imagine a very ugly old woman-yes, she is certainly, though I should not like to say so to Mr. Holcombe, and I really believe the children think she is beautiful-with the blackest face you ever saw, surmounted by a turban of brightcolored cotton. A dress of striped linsey-woolsey, with a check apron, and a white cotton handkerchief pinned across her breast. Mr. H. says she has nursed the past two generations, and played with our grandmothers; and certainly they do reward her for it. She only does what she pleases, which is to rub the silver and darn the stockings, and occasionally to do up a piece of lace or muslin. But if there is a spell of sickness in the family, she is never known to sleep. Of course, he says, she must, but it is sitting by the bedside of the patient. No office is beyond her there. She takes the whole duties upon herself. When Mr. Holcombe's mother died, one of her last requests was that, when Mammy's time came, she should have a neat coffin, and a hearse, and be car

ried to the grave by the children she has been so faithful to. He says she was delighted, as there is nothing they think so much of as a 'pretty burying.' Their habits in this respect, by-the-by, are very funny. My maid, on Sunday last, asked permission to go to the funeral of her father, who had been dead sixteen years! They seem to keep these little last offices until there is a danger of their forgetting their friends, and then call them back to memory by having the funeral. Is it not strange? But what strikes me is the numbers there are about the house. Think of having six women for a family of eight or nine people, and that is besides the washerwoman and the cook! I have my maid, who is to do nothing but my pleasure. Lilia has her nurse, who is always at hand, either sitting by her with work or pushing her chair. Margaret and Mary have their maid; and then there is another who cleans the house generally; and a little girl to run on errands; and, besides, there is a man in the dining-room, with a boy to help him.

"Will I ever get used to these black people? They are a continual source of wonder to me. The grown ones are bad enough, but the children are worse. They look like monkeys. They have all the characteristics of the negro race unmodified. I wonder if it is mentioned as a fact in their natural history that their features do not grow after six years of age; for it seems to me the lips, noses, and eyes of the children of that age have attained their full size, and gradually afterward the body grows up to them. It seems so dreadful for them to be slaves, worth so much money apiece-as if money could buy a human soul. But, after all, the fault does not lie with this generation, but with those who put them here. We have just to accept and submit to the fearful responsibility imposed upon us by our forefathers; there seems no other way out of the difficulty. To free them now, of course, would be impossible: such a number of ignorant, helpless wretches, thrown upon our country in a condition of freedom, would be a curse. to both races. It seems to me that, from the present state of things, the master is a greater sufferer than the servant-here, in Virginia, at any rate. Now, Mr. Holcombe has over fifty men, women, and children. The men do the hardest work in the fields; the women the lighter services, and the cooking,

washing, and sewing for the 'hands;' while the children, until they are about twelve years old, are useless and expensive appendages, having to be supported without bringing any profit into the concern. I have been surprised to see how comfortably they are provided for. Their cabins, though rough, are perfectly weathertight and comfortable: the fireplaces almost the width of the end of the houses, and the wide chimneys admitting floods of light all around. It is a scene for a painter to go into one of these places, and see the multitudes of children seated inside of the fireplaces upon benches put along the sides, and there the little wooly-heads nod and bob until it is a wonder they are not burned up. But oh, Robert, the wood! You see them bringing entire uncut logs for these fireplaces; and a good fire consists of a moderate sized wood-pile."