“Oh, she has been treated royally by the people there.  I declare Richmond is as Southern a city as Charleston.  I have been agreeably surprised by the absolute unanimity of gentle and simple in the cause.  My wife receives a clothes-basketful of letters every morning from the mothers of the Confederacy proffering time, money, and service wherever she can suggest anything for them to do.  I propose later on establishing an order something like the Golden Fleece, which shall confer a certain social precedence upon the wearers.  I have thousands of letters on the subject, and as the society of the South is, as a matter of fact, a society of gentle-folk—­for the most part lineally descended from the nobility of older countries—­I think it proper and right that lineage should have certain acknowledged advantages in the new commonwealth.  But I propose to go further, and institute an order of something like nobility for women—­who have thus far given us great help and encouragement.  Indeed, there are many in the Congress—­a dozen Senators I could name—­who think that we ought to make our regime entirely different from the North, and that we should adopt a monarchical form—­”

“I’m sure, I think we should,” Mrs. Atterbury exclaimed, delightedly.  “We are really as unlike the Northern people as the French or the Germans.”

“The strongest argument for declaring the Confederacy an empire is the one that weighed with Napoleon I. We should at one stroke secure the alliance of all the monarchies.  They have never looked with favor on the experiment of a powerful republic over here, and it is almost certain they would befriend us for transforming this mighty infant state into an empire.  However, that is for future action.  Our agents abroad have sent us full reports on the matter.”

“I doubt the wisdom of ever hinting such a thing,” General Lee said, gravely.  “We must show that we are able to act independently in selecting our form of government.  I doubt very much whether the masses would listen favorably to an empire established by foreign aid.”

“Possibly, general, possibly.  As I said before, there will be time enough for that when, like Napoleon, we have made our armies the masters of this continent.  Then, with boundaries embracing Mexico, Canada, and the Western States—­for they can never exist independent of us—­we can choose empire, republic, or a Venetian oligarchy.”

As they came in sight of Rosedale, Davis stood up in the carriage to get a better view of the landscape, which showed swift alternations of dense thickets and wood and rolling acres of rich crops.

“What a State Virginia is!” he exclaimed with enthusiasm.  “It has the climate and soil to support half of Europe.  Mother of Presidents in the past, it will be the granary and magazine of the Confederacy in ten years.  My own State, Mississippi, is rich in land, but the climate is hard for the stranger.  It enervates the European at first.  But we are an agricultural people, or rather we give our energies to our staple, cotton; that is to be the chief treasure of the Confederacy.”