where I could find General Fremont.  Renick said, “What do you want with General Fremont?” I said I had come to see him on business; and he added, “You don’t suppose that he will see such as you?” and went on to retail all the scandal of the day:  that Fremont was a great potentate, surrounded by sentries and guards; that he had a more showy court than any real king; that he kept senators, governors, and the first citizens, dancing attendance for days and weeks before granting an audience, etc.; that if I expected to see him on business, I would have to make my application in writing, and submit to a close scrutiny by his chief of staff and by his civil surroundings.  Of course I laughed at all this, and renewed my simple inquiry as to where was his office, and was informed that he resided and had his office at Major Brant’s new house on Chouteau Avenue.  It was then late in the afternoon, and I concluded to wait till the next morning; but that night I received a dispatch from General Anderson in Louisville to hurry back, as events were pressing, and he needed me.

Accordingly, I rose early next morning before daybreak, got breakfast with the early railroad-passengers, and about sunrise was at the gate of General Fremont’s headquarters.  A sentinel with drawn sabre paraded up and down in front of the house.  I had on my undress uniform indicating my rank, and inquired of the sentinel, “Is General Fremont up?” He answered, “I don’t know.”  Seeing that he was a soldier by his bearing, I spoke in a sharp, emphatic voice, “Then find out.”  He called for the corporal of the guard, and soon a fine-looking German sergeant came, to whom I addressed the same inquiry.  He in turn did not know, and I bade him find out, as I had immediate and important business with the general.  The sergeant entered the house by the front-basement door, and after ten or fifteen minutes the main front-door above was slowly opened from the inside, and who should appear but my old San Francisco acquaintance Isaiah C. Woods, whom I had not seen or heard of since his flight to Australia, at the time of the failure of Adams & Co. in 1851!  He ushered me in hastily, closed the door, and conducted me into the office on the right of the hall.  We were glad to meet, after so long and eventful an interval, and mutually inquired after our respective families and special acquaintances.  I found that he was a commissioned officer, a major on duty with Fremont, and Major Eaton, now of the paymaster’s Department, was in the same office with him.  I explained to them that I had come from General Anderson, and wanted to confer with General Fremont in person.  Woods left me, but soon returned, said the general would see me in a very few minutes, and within ten minutes I was shown across the hall into the large parlor, where General Fremont received me very politely.  We had met before, as early as 1847, in California, and I had also seen him several times when he was senator.  I then in a rapid