CHAPTER the Third.
The Inauguration of Lincoln--I Quit Washington and Return to Tennessee--A Run-a-bout with Forest--Through the Federal Lines and a Dangerous Adventure--Good Luck at Memphis I It may have been Louis the Fifteenth, or it may have been Madame de Pompadour, who said, "After me the deluge;" but whichever it was, very much that thought was in Mr.Buchanan's mind in 1861 as the time for his exit from the White House approached.

At the North there had been a political ground-swell; at the South, secession, half accomplished by the Gulf States, yawned in the Border States.

Curiously enough, very few believed that war was imminent.
As a reporter for the States I met Mr.Lincoln immediately on his arrival in Washington.

He came in unexpectedly ahead of the hour announced, to escape, as was given out, a well-laid plan to assassinate him as he passed through Baltimore.

I did not believe at the time, and I do not believe now, that there was any real ground for this apprehension.
All through that winter there had been a deal of wild talk.