It was not he that was in danger of hanging, but myself, a soldier in citizen's apparel within the enemy's lines.

The colonel turned to me.

With what I took for a sneer he said: "I suppose you are a good Union man ?" This offered me a chance.
"That depends upon what you call a good Union man," I answered.

"I used to be a very good Union man--a Douglas Democrat--and I am not conscious of having changed my political opinions." That softened him and we had an old-fashioned, friendly talk about the situation, in which I kept the Douglas Democratic end of it well to the fore.

He, too, had been a Douglas Democrat.