The Union flag must wave over every spot--chapel,
mart, institute, or ball-room--where two or three may meet together; and
beyond the shadow of the enforced ensign there is little safety or
comfort for man, woman, or child--for women least of all.
"During the past week two ladies of this city have been arraigned on the
charge of aiding and abetting deserters from the Federal army. In the
first case, the offense was having given a very trifling alms, after
much solicitation and many refusals, to a man who represented himself
and his family as literally starving. The fugitive made his way to
Canada, and thence wrote two begging letters, threatening, if money were
not sent, to denounce his benefactress. Eventually he did so. This lady
is to be separated from her husband and family, with whom she is now
residing, and sent across the lines in a few days. In the second case I
am justified in mentioning names, as from the peculiar circumstances it
will probably become more public. Mrs. Grace is the widow of a Havana
merchant, and a naturalized subject of Spain, to whose Minister she has
since appealed. She was summoned before the Provost Marshal on the same
charge, but was too ill to attend in person. Her daughter went to the
office, and found that the evidence against her mother was an
intercepted letter from some person (whose name was equally unknown to
Mrs.
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