duced me to a lady once- " Mrs. C., a friend of my wife's, madam; need I say more?"

I met him at an unusual hour one day going toward the Senate, and said, "You are unusually late, are you not?" "Yes," said he, "my wife would not let me go until I took her to Jessie Anne's (Mrs. Frémont). Jessie Anne is a charming woman, and my wife is a judge of women, madam-a judge of women." He had a habit of accentuating his opinions or remarks by repetition. He was one of the very few great men who did not lose something by close proximity; he cer tainly was a power among men.

Not far from Mr. Benton sat Dixon H. Lewis, of Alabama, one of the brightest men of his day, and intellectually and untiringly ac tive; but he weighed, before he had attained his greatest size, five hundred pounds, and must have weighed more when I first saw him. A chair was made for him, because he could not use those of ordinary size. He always commanded the confidence of his party and State, and the attention of the Senate.

Then there was John Bell, of Tennessee, and honest John Davis, of Massachusettskindly dignified gentlemen; James M. Mason and R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia; splendid old Colonel Butler, of South Carolina, whose

head was as white as cotton, though his eyes were bright, his eyebrows black and strongly marked, and his brave spirit was as young as the youngest of the Senators; David Atchison, a solemn, literal, tender man of a tall ungainly figure. He was the friend of Mr. Davis's boyhood; King, of Alabama, a man as elegant as he was sound and sincere ; General Dodge, under whom Mr. Davis had served in the West; he was straight, active, prompt, and had a certain wariness of manner which suggested an Indian hunter, which he had been for the best part of his life; and General Augustus Dodge his son; Mr. Pearce, of Maryland, a refined scholarly man, to whom the institutions for promoting science in America owed very much, and who to his friends and faith was true in every regard; Mr. Simon Cameron, cheerful and wily; gentle, sensible Mr. Bradbury, of Maine; Colonel Dix, of New York, another one of Mr. Davis's old friends, who looked very reserved and soldierly among the political men about him; Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, a witty, graceful man, eloquent and sympathetic in the extreme-his appearance was somewhat marred by one eye having been injured in a duel--he was universally beloved by the gentlemen of the Senate; with these were many others of renown. One tall

form "when seen became a part of sight "that of Sam Houston. He was considerably over the ordinary height -- six feet four at least. He had a noble figure and handsome face, but he had forgotten Polonius's advice, "Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, but not express'd in fancy." He rejoiced in a catamount skin waistcoat; it was very long-waisted, and his coat was left ostentatiously open to show it. Another waistcoat, which he alternated with the catamount, was of a glowing scarlet cloth. His manner was very swelling and formal. When he met a lady he took a step forward, then bowed very low, and in a deep voice said, "Lady, I salute you."

It was an embarrassing kind of thing, for it was performed with the several motions of a fencing lesson. If she chanced to please him, at the same or the next interview he generally took a small snakeskin pouch from his pocket and pulled out from it a little wooden heart, the size of a twenty-five cent piece, and presented it with, "Lady, let me give you my heart." These hearts he whittled all day long in the Senate, and had a jeweller to put a little ring in them. There was a certain free, stolid manner that suggested his long residence with the Indians. A favorite story of his was that he met Mr.

Davis at a sutler's store in the West, and introduced himself to him. After talking a little while with him, General Houston said, "The future United States Senator salutes the future President." My husband remembered something of the kind, but not clearly enough to state it.

As will be seen, the Senate was made up of more than ordinarily respectable men, and a more imposing deliberative body one could hardly find. It was a severe ordeal for a young man to pass when he engaged one of these dignified old men in a debate, who, to great acquirements, added stores of memories, and who often explained crises in the political world from the stand-point of the responsible agents.

It was the 21st of February, in this year, that ex-President John Quincy Adams sank in his seat on the floor of the House. As he was borne to the Vice-President's room he murmured, "This is the last of earth--I am composed." He died, after lying insensible for two days. Alert, determined, useful, and eloquent to the last hour of his service in the House, he was mourned by all who knew him.

Mr. Davis left Washington without unnecessary delay and travelled post homeward.

Our return was over the same perilous way, called then "The National Route," over which we had climbed so painfully the cold December of 1845; but now the whole mountain sides were rosy with the blossoms of the laurel, and nothing could have been more attractive than the scenery.

One day we heard a rumbling noise in front of us, and in a few minutes caught up with Duncan's battery going down to Mexico. Mr. Davis got out of the stage, and had a few moments' eager conversation with the fair-haired stripling who sat on the caisson, and then came back alert and flushed by the anticipation of his prospective campaign, which seemed even to me to take shape, and become real after I saw the first harbinger of war. During the greater part of the journey Mr. Davis studied a little pocket edition of military tactics, and, when I remonstrated, explained agreeably the mysteries of enfilading, breaking column, hollow squares, and what not, and I felt that there was "blood upon that hand." When we reached home, Colonel Davis set about arranging his plantation affairs so as to be absent a year or more from home. He and James Pemberton had a long and anxious conversation upon the advisability of James accompanying him; and James decided the matter himself, as he be