He reported that Mercier had ordered up a war-ship to take him away if Washington should fall.

Lyons cannily decided such a step for himself inadvisable, since it would irritate Seward and in case the unexpected happened he could no doubt get passage on Mercier's ship.

When news came of the Southern defeat at Gettysburg and of Grant's capture of Vicksburg, Lyons thought the complete collapse of the Confederacy an imminent possibility.

Leslie Stephen is a witness to the close relations of Seward and Lyons at this time.

He visited Washington about a month after Gettysburg and met Seward, being received with much cordiality as a _verbal_ champion in England of the North.