110 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
bridge we are now crossing was contested all day in the action 
of the other day”; We held those hills where that body of artil- 
lery is now moving.” So those five hours hurried away, and we 
did not wake up to the present until we reached Brandeth Sta- 
tion. Here stood lines of ambulances to receive the army’s guests, 
and soon we were placed in an ambulance and jolted over cor- 
duroy roads to the general’s tent. After an hour’s jolting we 
reached our first destination. The general’s tent was one of a 
large encampment on a hill which commands a view of our forti- 
fications all about the country and those of the rebels across the 
river, only four or five miles away. 
The general received us very courteously, and with him and 
three of the officers of his staff we lunched in the tent. This tent 
is charming. At one end blazes in a huge fireplace—open, of 
course—a bright wood fire; in the centre stands a table, over 
which hangs a chandelier holding three candles; on one side is 
the bed; and all about are army chairs. 
Our lunch, where the officers presided as hosts and waiters, 
consisted of ham sandwiches, pickles, jelly, ale, and tea. The 
three officers were our escorts to our quarters, which we found to 
be in the old Virginia manor Milton, owned and still inhabited 
by a well-known family. 
They did not smile upon us at first, but we made a great effort 
to propitiate the two sad-looking Virginia ladies who received us. 
They both were in mourning for the son of one of them, who was 
killed during the Peninsula campaign—a rebel. Poor, poor fel- 
low! We felt so much for these proud women, obliged to receive 
Northern strangers, and unable to conceal their fallen fortunes, 
that we did our best to heal their wounded self-love. After tea 
we dressed for the ball. I wore the blue tissue, the white lace 
waist, and a blue ribbon only in my hair. . . . Our three escorts 
arrived long before we were ready, but at last we were put again 
into our ambulance. Just fancy the strangeness of going to a ball 
in an ambulance, and the ball-room itself, indeed, was as odd a 
mingling of contrasts. It was an immense boarded room, with a 
pointed roof from which hung many flags and banners, most rag- 
ged and full of bullet-holes, some in ribbons; guns were stacked 
against the building, and these were draped with evergreens; on 
either side of the platform used by the band rested cannons 
pointed towards us; these were almost concealed by banners 
