3
	         At the Arsenal.
while Colt and I sat in the carriage, before Car-
lyle had joined us, and while Morgan had gone into
a store on Meeting Street, we observed the Seceding
Conventionx pass along the side-walk, promenading
two and two, towards the hotel, where they always
dined at 4 P. M.        Colt compared them, ironically,
to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, say-
ing each one was an historical charac-
ter, in his own conceit.            They did parade with a
little affectation.          It was a dull, raw, afternoon,
promising rain, as we bowled through the outskirts
to the arsenal, where, at the gate, we found a Ger-
man sentinel on guard.     We had to wait a little
before obtaining admittance.  Morgan fussing over it,
taking the sentinel aside with a pretence of secresy
about the countersign (which we all knew to be
�Pickens� � the name of the governor) and even ta-
king the man�s musket away to show him how to
hold it.          Passing in, at length, after some mem-
bers of a mounted corps had ridden by and salu-
ted the two Southerners, we walked briskly
across an open space, with trees, and hedges and
flowers, all of which must have looked lovely
enough of a sunny morning but were hardly so
on a drizzly evening.      Reaching the building, we
went through an archway into an inner square,
	x See Page 189.