Indeed I should have
felt far more impatient of delay had it not been for the continuance of
foul weather, and recurrence of heavy storms, which made armies no less
than individuals, impotent to act or move. On the morning following my
arrival, I took counsel with one who was, perhaps, better able to advise
me as to my future course than any one then resident in Baltimore:
certainly none could have been more heartily willing to help, both in
word and deed. I owe to that man much more than a debt of ordinary
hospitality. To say that his courtesy and cordiality were marked, where
benevolence to a stranger is the rule, would very faintly express the
personal trouble he undertook and the personal risk he incurred in his
efforts to facilitate and further my purposes. Up to this moment I do
not believe that he has grudged one whit of all this, much as he may
have chafed at all having proved unavailing. I am right sorry that
prudence forbids my chronicling here a name which will always stand high
on my muster-roll of friends; but the memory of almost any Englishman
who has visited Baltimore will fill up the blank that I must leave
perforce.
It seemed that there was a choice of two routes into Secessia. The
first--in many respects the easiest, and far the most traveled--lay
through the lower counties of Maryland: the narrow peninsula on which
Leonardstown is situated forming the starting point, whence the
blockade-runner took to cross the Lower Potomac--there, from four to
eight miles wide.
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