duty, did not render them less despicable to me; and I even now shudder to think of the depravities of human nature which my career as a secret agent of the Confederate government revealed to me.
Within the Federal Lines.
But it will be enough to speak of these things when the proper time comes; and my special task just now is to relate the prosecution of my adventures after quitting the farm house, where I had succeeded in obtaining the clothing I needed for the accomplishment of the particular enterprise I had on hand.
Luckily for me no one observed my movements, and I made my way to the nearest Federal picket station without interruption. I gave my name as Mrs. Williams, told as much as I thought the officer in charge ought to know about me, and asked to see General Rosecrans. I was accordingly ushered into the general's presence, and gave him a somewhat more detailed account of myself. I represented that I was a widow woman, who was endeavoring to escape from the Confederacy, and who desired to go to her friends in the North; and, judging from appearances, I quite won upon the sympathies of the Federal commander. He asked me a great number of questions, which I answered to his satisfaction, and he then dismissed me, with a pass permitting me to go North. I could not help smiling at the ease with which I deceived General Rosecrans, and said to myself, as I retired from his presence, "My good old fellow, I'll teach you what we Southern women are good for before I am done with you."
Having got my pass, I started off, with a general notion of seeing all I could see, and finding out all I could find out, watching all the time for an opportunity for the execution of a grand coup. Picking up information here and there, some of which was of no little importance, I travelled as far as Martinsburg, and had a considerable notion of proceeding to Washington, to see whether a second visit to that city would not be even more productive of results than my first. Circumstances occurred, however, which detained me in Martinsburg, and my trip to Washington was, therefore, deferred to another opportunity, and when the opportunity arrived the reader may be assured that I made good use of it.
