He waited with head bowed in silent sympathy for five minutes and looked with increasing amazement at the white face of the man who prayed. This agony of soul before the God of his fathers was a revelation to the Minister of State.
His lips were moving now in audible words.
"Thou alone art my refuge, O Lord! Without Thee I shall fail. Have pity on Thy servant--with Thy wisdom guide!"
The time was swiftly passing. The Minister could not wait.
"I beg your pardon, Mr. President," he began in low tones, "but I have most important communications to make to you--"
The voice of prayer softly died away and slowly the look of earth came back to the tired face. He turned his hollow cheeks to Benjamin with no attempt to mask the agony of his spirit, slowly rose and motioned him to a chair.
"I'm restless. If you don't mind, I'll stand. I have marked three editorial attacks on you and your administration in three of the most powerful newspapers in the South--the Richmond _Examiner_, the Raleigh _Standard_ and the Charleston _Mercury_--read them please--and then I have something to say!"
The President seated himself and read each marked sentence with care.
"The same old thing, Benjamin--only a little more virulent this time--what of it?"
"This! The success of our cause demands the suppression of these reptile sheets and the imprisonment of their editors--"
"Would success be worth having if we must buy it at the cost of the liberties of our people?"
Benjamin stopped short in his tracks. He had been walking back and forth with swift panther-like tread.
"We are at war, Mr. President--fierce, savage, cruel, it's going to be. You have realized this from the first. The world will demand of us just one thing--success in arms. With this we win all. Lose this and we lose all--our liberties and a great deal more. Our coast is pierced now at regular intervals to the mouth of the Mississippi River--at Fortress Monroe in Virginia--the entire inland waters of North Carolina, Port Royal, South Carolina, Florida's line has been broken. Grant's army is swarming into Tennessee. McClellan is drilling three hundred thousand men in Washington to descend on Richmond. It's no time to nurse such reptiles in our bosom--"
