Now, my son, the eccentric French gentleman, of whom I have spoken as capable of administering physic enough to settle the question with the Yankees, soon became an object of great admiration with his noisy people.  And this so pleased him, that he came in time to admire himself, and to firmly believe in his own mind that the world had no greater warrior.  Self-confidence, my son, is one of the most necessary things in war.  I have sometimes thought that this element of an army’s strength was not fully understood.  It was at least not understood by us when the war began.  If it had been, a much less number of our people would have shared Mr. Beauregard’s opinion of himself.  As it was, our timid people so magnified his proportions as to see danger in his very shadow.  But then, my son, we were very innocent of the practical part of war when the great rebellion began; and this innocence led us into the very grave error of giving our adversary more than his proper dimensions.  It was this that led the Northern mind to over-measure Mr. Beauregard.

I have always had a good deal of sympathy for Mr. Beauregard, and never believed him anything but a pleasant, harmless gentleman, who got into bad company by mere accident.  Nor do I believe he ever had any more serious design on the capital of the nation than to look at it longingly from a distance, and perhaps a desire now and then to enjoy the hospitality of some old friend.  That he would have played the ruthless invader, if he had got into the city, no reflecting mind ever believed.  But then there were people ready enough to believe anything in those days—­even to believe that there was truth 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.