The officer having thus described his vessel, wished me good-night, and started on his perilous enterprise.  I met him again next evening quietly smoking his pipe.  I eagerly asked him what he had done, when he told me with the greatest sang-froid that he had gone on board his vessel with a crew of seven men; that everything for a time had gone like clockwork; they were all snug below with hatches closed, the vessel was sunk to the required depth, and was steadily steaming down the harbour, apparently perfectly water-tight, when suddenly the sea broke through the foremost hatch and she went to the bottom immediately.  He said he did not know how he escaped.  He imagined that after the vessel had filled he had managed to escape through the aperture by which the water got in; all the rest of the poor fellows were drowned.  Not that my friend seemed to think anything of that, for human life was very little thought of in those times.  This vessel was afterwards got up, when the bodies of her crew were still in her hold.  I imagined that the vessel contained sufficient air to enable her to remain under water two or three hours, or maybe some method was practised by which air could be introduced by the funnel; at all events, had she been successful on that night, she would undoubtedly have caused a good deal of damage and loss to the blockading squadron, who were constantly harassed by all sorts of infernal machines, torpedoes, fire-vessels, &c., which were sent out against them by ingenious Southerners, whose fertile imaginations were constantly conceiving some new invention.

On the next occasion that same enterprising officer was employed on a similar enterprise, his efforts were crowned with complete success.

He started one dark night, in a submerged vessel of the same kind as that above described, and exploded the torpedo against the bows of one of the blockading squadron, doing so much damage that the vessel had to be run on shore to prevent her sinking.

I must, before finishing my account of what I saw and did in Charleston, mention a circumstance that showed how little the laws of meum and tuum are respected during war times.  The morning before I left, I had a fancy for having my coat brushed and my shoes polished.  So having deposited these articles on a chair at the door of my room, I went to bed again to have another snooze, hoping to find them cleaned when I awoke.  After an hour or so I got up to dress, and rang the bell several times without getting any answer.  So I opened the door and looked out into the passage.  To my surprise I saw an individual sitting on the chair on which I had put my clothes, trying on one of my boots.  He had succeeded in getting it half on when it had stuck, and at the time I discovered him he seemed to be in a fix, inasmuch as he could neither get the boot off nor on.  He was struggling violently with my poor boot, as if it were his personal enemy, and