The day following the _Times_ reported Grant to be meeting fearful reverses in Virginia and professed to regard Sherman's easy advance toward Atlanta as but a trap set for the Northern army in the West[1185].

But in reality the gage of battle for Southern advantage in England was fixed upon a European, not an American, field.

Mason understood this perfectly.

He had yielded to Lindsay's insistence and had come to London.

There he listened to Lindsay's account of the interview (now held) with Russell, and June 8 reported it to Slidell: "Of his intercourse with Lord Russell he reports in substance that his Lordship was unusually gracious and seemed well disposed to go into conversation.