He replied to me, after my answering many of his questions:-- "'Be reticent,' said he, 'on this subject for the present.

I will send an officer of high rank to see and converse with you on the matter to-morrow.' "The next day I was visited by an old Marshal of France, whose name has escaped my memory.

Conversing by an interpreter, the Reverend E.N.

Kirk, of Boston, I found it difficult to make the Marshal understand its practicability or its importance.

The dominant idea in the Marshal's mind, which he opposed to the project, was that it involved an increase of the material of the army, for I proposed the addition of two or more light wagons, each containing in a small box the telegraph instruments and a reel of fine insulated wire to be kept in readiness at the headquarters on the field.