of his only son in Concord-killed in an instant—to be inaugurated at the Capitol and enter as a mourner this stately mansion.

"Yes! how true it is! Uneasy lies the head which wears

"Yes, gentlemen," said Edward, the chief doorkeeper: "it is all still in the house now."

We entered the Green Room.

Willie lay in his coffin. The lid was off. He was clothed in his soldier's dress.

Willie had been embalmed by Dr. Charles D. Brown, who uses only the process of Professor Sucquet, of Paris, a process by which nearly all illustrious Frenchmen who have died within our times have been embalmed.

To those who are not fully informed of the process of Sucquet, it may be added that no arsenic or other poisonous chemicals are used, but an infusion is made of a fluid without mutilation or removal of any portion of the body. In a few hours the body begins to grow hard and marble-like; and this change continues till petrifaction is complete,-when the body becomes a statue, and changes no more for ages. It was by this beautiful and only process known to men of science worthy of the name, that the body of William Wallace Lincoln was perfectly prepared for its final resting-place in the home of his happy childhood.

**** One look more at the calm face, which still wore its wonted expression of hope and cheerfulness, and we left him to his

repose.

****

The coming storm was clouding the heavens with a deeper mourning, and its wild howlings wrapped "the Home of the Presidents" in sadness and gloom. "God heal the broken hearts left there!"

XXI.

The Life of an Army Paymaster for a Day.

ITS adventures and experiences make up some of the striking episodes of military life. I thought I could not do better by my reader than to give here, just as I got it, the following passages from an actual day of paymaster-life, furnished me by Major J. LEDYARD HODGE, one of the most accomplished paymasters of the army.

The entire authenticity of the record is certain, and the raciness of the recital will speak for itself.

66

Early in the autumn of 1861, I was directed to pay a regiment of volunteers near Washington. The payment, for some reasons best known to those through whom my order came, was to be made immediately; and the sum of seventyfive thousand dollars was handed to me at the same time as the order.

"It was then in the days when 'greenbacks' were unknown, and the money I received was good, solid gold and silver, fresh from the Mint.

"Being at that time a paymaster of about three weeks, standing, and as unaccustomed to the possession of seventyfive thousand dollars as a midshipman to the society of admirals, I felt no small responsibility for the safe custody of the treasure, and considerable anxiety as to the proper disbursement of the money, to be correct in my payments to the soldiers and watchful for the security of my bondsmen.

"The rolls were given me about two o'clock in the afternoon; and, aided by my equally inexperienced clerk, I worked at them faithfully all that evening and late into the night.

"My first determination was to remain on guard over the money till morning, with a loaded revolver in my hand, and the doors of the house all locked up to the third story, in which I roomed. However, I compromised with my conscience by throwing myself down for a nap alongside the chest, the doors locked, the light burning, and the revolver within reach.

"Many a time since then have I slept soundly with twice and three times the amount I then had, in a wooden chest, with a whole division around me, recruited from the miscellaneous characters that roam the streets of our big cities, and I alone in a canvas tent, with only a single sentry outside, whose bayonet might be the very instrument to pry open my box or silence my resistance.

"But that night, in a secure house, in the midst of a guarded city, my rest was any thing but sound. If I slept, it was to dream of robbers carrying off the chest; if I remained awake, I fancied every sound of the night was the attempted breaking open of a window or door.

"Morning at last was gladly welcomed, with a most determined resolution that before another night I would convert as much as possible of my precious metals into soldiers' receipts, which, however valuable they might be to me, would hardly tempt any one else to appropriate them.

"The pay-rolls were shockingly imperfect; for the regiment was a new one, and the officers, if possible, less acquainted with their duties in making the rolls than I in paying on them. I would have liked to remain in town a day, to examine and compare the rolls more carefully, and obtain from more experienced officers information and advice on the hundred questions concerning pay, always necessary to be determined when a regiment is paid off, and more especially when that regiment is receiving its first payment after entering service.

"It is then that all the hard questions have to be met and

determined,—that the date of commencement of pay for every man of the whole thousand has to be settled, and a calculation of odd days made for every payment,-that the fond illusions caused by representations of the recruiting officers have to be dispelled, and the privates made to understand that they are not all to receive the pay and allowances of a 'major-general commanding a separate army in the field,' double rations included, that officers discover that they do not draw pay from the date they agreed to take commissions as colonels and majors, but only from the time the United States agreed to receive them as such,—that it is clearly demonstrated to the assembled company that it is not entitled to three captains and six lieutenants,-and a thousand other points, equally difficult to explain satisfactorily to those whose pecuniary expectations are blasted by such explanation.

"Deliver me from ever again making the first payment to a volunteer regiment just raised, and not at all disciplined! I would rather, at any time, take four which had been paid two or three times, and to whom there was only the regular even two months' pay coming,-where every man knows exactly what he is entitled to, and steps up in his turn and rakes off the table his twenty-six dollars with the satisfaction of one who feels he has fairly earned it..

"All these innumerable questions were proposed and decided during my three weeks' acquaintance with the laws and usages of the Pay Department; and let me here tell any unfortunate innocent brethren who think it such a nice thing to be a paymaster, that the common or unwritten law of England, composed of customs that have existed from time immemorial, and which said customs can only be settled by some three thousand volumes of decisions and reports, is plain and simple to the unwritten or common law of the Pay Department of the United States Army.

"Fortunately for me, perhaps, I was at that time in comparative ignorance of what was to happen to me. I knew I

had my rolls very incompletely made up, but the regiment must be paid at once: it might move any hour, and the orders were imperative. So I trusted to having all my amendments and corrections made when I reached the ground.

"I had already discovered one great principle, which I recommend as of much importance to all paymasters; and that was, that you can always obtain from the company and mustering officers of a regiment any imaginable certificate of muster, or other instrument in writing, whereby their payment will be facilitated or the amount to be paid increased.

"I once had a set of rolls to pay where the mustering officer certified that he and all his men were duly enlisted and sworn into the military service of the United States to assist in suppressing the rebellion on the 1st day of February, 1861,-two months before Fort Sumter was attacked. I called his attention to this little discrepancy; but he insisted that they were ready and willing to enter service then, and he didn't see why they should not be paid from that time. I can't say 'I saw it' in that light. I have often thought I would require some officer, before paying him, to certify that he had entered the service on the 4th of July, 1776, and been continuously on duty ever since, and was entitled to longevity rations accordingly. I have not the slightest doubt he would have unhesitatingly given the required certificate.

"But to return to my trip. Trusting to luck, and unbounded certifying and affidavits, to cover up all defects, both of the rolls and the payments thereon, I started on a bright Wednesday morning for the camp of the regiment. A fourhorse ambulance, furnished by the quartermaster, contained Cæsar and his fortunes,' which consisted of the specie-chest and contents, an overcoat, a revolver, and a haversack with cooked rations for two days, and whiskey for five.'

"The escort was composed of my clerk and the driver,-not as powerful a guard as the two gunboats and regiment of