to be found in the stories told by Mr. Detective Baker.

It was natural enough that Mr. Beauregard should amuse his soldiers
by telling them romantic stories of the pleasant days he had spent
in Washington, as well as the great value of what it contained. It
was necessary also that he should ascertain how far the Government
at Washington could be frightened, and what were the best means to
that end. You must know, my son, that a Frenchman regards it as one
of the first principles in war to find out how far you can frighten
your adversary before proceeding to fight him. This will account for
a good deal that Mr. Beauregard said and did while at Manassas, and
which, at the time, was somewhat unintelligible.

As we were not sure, however, as to what the real intentions of Mr.
Beauregard and his master were, it was concluded that we could
better preserve our respect for them, as well as the peace of mind
of our own people, by applying the proper means to keep them at a
respectful distance outside. Indeed the capital contained a great
many things which would be extremely useful to an ambitious
gentleman resolved on setting up a government of his own, and with
the machinery all working according to his own way of thinking. And
as the honest intentions of these ambitious men (I refer to Mr.
Beauregard and his master) were no more to be trusted than their
loyalty, we set our engineers to work building a cordon of forts,
such as the world had never seen before, and supposed to be strong
enough to keep all our enemies out. And these forts were mounted
with such reasoning powers as the largest cannon in the world were
capable of.

Among the things in Washington so very desirable to a gentleman