Captain Pinckney smiled and exchanged glances with Mrs.Brant, but the stranger quietly returned to the central table beside Colonel Starbottle.

"I am not only an unexpected delegate to this august assembly, gentlemen," he began gravely, "but I am the bearer of perhaps equally unexpected news.
By my position in the Southern district I am in possession of dispatches received only this morning by pony express.

Fort Sumter has been besieged.

The United States flag, carrying relief to the beleaguered garrison, has been fired upon by the State of South Carolina." A burst of almost hysteric applause and enthusiasm broke from the assembly, and made the dim, vault-like passages and corridors of the casa ring.

Cheer after cheer went up to the veiled gallery and the misty sky beyond.