front of the prison entrance, ordered her to halt with which she of course complied. The corporal of the guard went to her, and after some conversation in which the lady evidently manifested some reluctance to accompany him to the prison, one of the little girls was permitted to go on while the lady and the other one, the larger of the two, was compelled to accompany the guard to the prison.

After being detained either in the room occu pied by the guards, or in the inner room occupied by the officer of the day, for more than an hour, the young lady and her young companion were let loose; admonished, no doubt, of the wickedness of casting even a glance of curiosity at the Old Capitol Prison. Reader, do you realize that such occurrences as this took place in broad daylight, not only in the city of Washington, in the United States of America, but under the shadow of the Capitol, and in an edifice in whose halls the principles of free government were nobly vindicated and boldly enunciated by the immortal statesinen of the last generation? There, in the very precincts now used by the despots of our day for the imprisonment of American freemen, the men whom the world delights to honor and call its own taught us our rights and instructed us in the duty we should perform to preserve our liberties. Alas! how have these old walls been desecrated! Desecrated, did I say?-no, not desecrated; for what fitter place was there to imprison martyrs of liberty than the sacred premises whence the doctrines of liberty were preached to the American people, and to all the world? But these precincts were desecrated by other scenes-by a brutal and beastly set who dragged inoffensive women from the streets and subjected them to insult and outrage.

ESPIONAGE IN THE PRISON.

The Administration, not content with having deprived its victims of their rights, and with holding them writhing in its tyrannic grasp, established a system of espionage over them in the Old Capitol prison. This was done by means of detectives, who ostensibly appeared among the other prisoners as Prisoners of State. One of these detectives, it was understood, indeed one of the officers of the prison gave such information, that there was one of these detectives in every room of the Prison, and that no word could escape his hearing and no act his observation. The writer of this was in the habit of talking freely and as plainly and boldly of the course of the Administration in the prison as out of it, and therefore became a special object of this espionage. Time and again when conversing with some friends or acquaintances in the prison yard during the half hour's recreation allowed at meal time, a listener might be noticed within hearing distance catching every word that was spoken, and when he thought that he was not observed, turning his eye upon the speakers to catch the expression of their countenance and the motion of their gestures.

These detectives would once in a while be spotted and then the word would be passed round among the prisoners to look out for the scoundrel. The detective being thus observed, finding it useless for him to remain any longer, would either leave voluntarily or be sent away to make room for another more expert or shrewd than himself. It kept the prisoners in almost constant watchfulness to detect these contemptible hirelings of the Administration; but with all the vigilance that the prisoners could exert, they would of course be frequently foiled.

Lieutenant Miller, who appeared to be the principal officer of the Old Capitol next to Superintendent Wood, used to boast that there was nothing said or done in any room of the prison, that he was not aware of. This to some extent at least, was not so, for in spite of all the espionage and surveillance of the detectives, the prisoners would have communication with each other, and once in a while with their friends. It is needless here to say how: that will do to tell when Lincoln's reign of terror will have been succeeded by the mild, gentle and simple sway of a Constitutional Government, and when it will not harm any one in or out of prison to reveal by what means letters and communications were conveyed from prisoners in the Old Capitol, to their friends and families. It will form an interesting sequel to what is now published concerning Lincoln's Bastiles.

There is one incident which it might not be amiss to publish, as it shows in what estimation the detective system of the Government was regarded by Superintendent Wood of the Old Capitol. One of the Washington City Police having been committed to the prison by order of General Wadsworth for some offense or other connected with a runaway negro, the prisoner was placed in Room No. 10, where there were four other prisoners, all Prisoners of State at the time, among them Mahony and Sheward, of Iowa, and John Apple, Esq., of Philadelphia. The Prisoners of State looked with considerable suspicion on the policeman; but he told so fair a story and entered so much into their feelings and made himself so agreeable, that their suspicions became lulled into security, and they conversed as freely as ever on the state of the country, the tyranny of the Administration, the prospective result of the war, &c.

Not many days after the introduction among us

of this policeman, the Superintendent entered the room in such a moody gait and countenance, that every one was at once struck with his appearance, and their conjectures were at once excited as to what might be the matter, for very evidently there was something wrong when the Superintendent did not look pleased. After a few moments pacing of the room, the Superintendent, with an open letter in his hand, approached the policeman, and in a stern, demanding tone, inquired of him whether he had written the letter to which his attention was called. Policeman glanced at the letter, but before having time to answer, the Superintendent denounced him in such terms of opprobrium and contumely as it would be almost impossible to excel. "You infernal scoundrel," said he, "I put you in this room among gentlemen, presuming you to be a gentleman, but you have acted in such a manner as proves that you were never in the habit of associating with gentlemen before;" and taking a rough, strong hold of the policeman with the grip and strength of a giant, the Superintendent shook him almost out of his clothes, denouncing him in the most opprobrious terms as he did so, and finishing up by saying, "You contemptible fellow, I'll put you among congenial spirits, among horse-thieves, who are the proper sort of company for such as you;" and thus saying, jerked Mr. Policeman off to another apartment devoted to what Mr. Wood called "congenial spirits," i. e., horse-thieves.

It appeared that the policeman had written to "Gen. Wadsworth, Military Governor of Washington, in which he told that functionary that his room mates were all secessionists, and in which he made some disparaging remarks of his fellow prisoners.— This, from a person who did not appear to have been a regular detective in the pay of the Government, but who became a voluntary informer and

spy, to effect some sinister purpose, seemed to be so mean, contemptible and reprehensible in the estimation of the Superintendent, one of nature's noblemen, that he, as has been said, summarily ejected: him from the presence of the prisoners whom he sought to injure.

THE GUARD HOUSE IN THE OLD CAPITOL.

Ir is unnecessary to describe a guard house, sufficient to say that it is a place of punishment for drunken and refractory soldiers. It was used in the Old Capitol for other purposes. Captain Clark, a confederate prisoner of war, was put in the Old Capitol guard house by Lieutenant Miller, in command of the guard at the time. This was in September. Of course, it was a violation of the rules of war, but what of that? What cares the Lincoln Administration for rules of war when it cares nothing for the Federal Constitution.

But it was not prisoners of war alone who were subjected to the indignity of being placed in the guard house. Several Prisoners of State, and other Federal Prisoners were subjected to this punish. ment on the most frivolous grounds.

A Mr. Hopkins, of Washington City, who was arrested and sent to the Old Capitol for selling liquors contrary to the orders of Military Governor Wadsworth and Provost Marshal Doster, was sent to the guard house under the following circumstances :---Mr. Hopkins asked and obtained permission to send for some brandy for his own use. The permission was granted with the condition that he would place the liquor in charge of the hospital steward, which condition he complied with. On the following morning after receiving his liquor, he went according to