King of the Carnival has sent his royal command that hereafter all the citizens of this great nation shall be united and constitute one family, bound together by the indissoluble ties of friendship and patriotism.

Adjutant Frank H. Jordan went forward and took the staff. It was a trying moment for Colonel Vose-trying because it was unexpected. Every eye in the vast audience was turned towards him and there was an intense quiet. His position was more than ordinarily responsible. The least word wrongly applied might have marred a ceremony that up to this time was in perfect harmony. It was evident that the emotion of the audience had been gradually welling up during the eloquent addresses that had been given. It was the Colonel's opportunity to cap the climax and none felt the responsibility more than himself. Many of his own officers, in keen appreciation of the affair, moved uneasily, but the Colonel rose to the gravity of the situation. From the moment he commenced speaking there was a profound hush, broken now and again towards the close by a sob. When he had ceased the applause took the form of a subdued murmer that gradually gathered in force until the very chandeliers jingled and the standards trembled with the rush. of cheers. It was more than a pity that some one did not put in writing the words of that address. He said in substance that the Seventy-first had little expected such honors thrust upon it. They had come to New Orleans to grasp the hand of friendship, nothing more.

They had undertaken a long and fatiguing journey, to visit the beautiful city. It was not a small undertaking to bring so many men so long a distance and they did not come for the sake of the hospitalities that were to be shown them, but to tell their brothers of the South how much they esteemed them and loved them, how they had never ceased to esteem them, how, even when duty called them to array themselves in the field, they went forward to the task in fear and trembling to shed a brother's blood and with saddened hearts. But thank God! the dead past is forgotten in the joy of the present, and when in the future there was fighting to be done, they would be found shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers of the South-brothers in fact as in theory. He accepted the beautiful emblem from His Majesty for the Seventy-first and it should be sacredly preserved as a memento of the visit and of the honor conferred upon the regiment. would surprise the people in the North to learn of the magnificent reception their representative soldiers were having in the far South and their hearts would go out towards those of their Southern brothers in recognition. They would regard the banner as a proclamation from the King of the Carnival commanding that henceforth peace should reign throughout the great land.

It

CHAPTER XI.

NEW ORLEANS PLEASURES.

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day

Shall fold their tents like the Arabs
And as silently steal away.

Longfellow.

THE Mardi Gras balls were numerous and magnificent. Invitations were sent to all of the officers and men and in many instances they were notified that the uniform was the only requirement for admission. It is safe to say that every man of the Battalion attended at least one ball on Tuesday night. The ball of the King was held in the Carnival Palace, an enormous permanent building. The ball-rooms, there are several, are so arranged that they may be all practically thrown into one. This was necessary, for it is said that there were fully twenty thou

sand ladies and gentlemen present during the evening. The crush was terrible at first, but after an hour or so the merry dancers had learned to jostle each other with becoming propriety and good nature. When the King arrived, accompanied by the Queen, (who, by the way, was the representative of one of the most distinguished families of Louisiana) a passage was cleared and the royal party, followed by a brilliant staff, after passing around the ball rooms, retired to an elegant audience chamber where favored subjects were presented to their Majesties and drank champagne provided from His Majesty's privy purse. There were three or four bands of music at the ball-the principal being that of the Seventy-first-Joyce and his forty merry fellows. There were no masks worn at the King's ball, but the costumes were varied and the scene a wonderfully brilliant one. There joy was unconfined

"No sleep till morn when youth and pleasure meet,

To chase the glowing hours with flying feet."

It was that

There was another ball that night that, amid all the scenes of beauty and revelry, was supreme. of the "Misticke Crewe." For years this has been the annual gathering of the creme de la creme of the South. It compares with our Charity Ball at home in the care with which invitations are given, in the selectness of its sonality. It exceeds it in the beauty of its arrangement and in the congregation of fair women, for it has more than a local reputation and the beauties of many States

per

are added to its rosebud garden of girls.

The French Opera House is something like our Academy, both in size and general appearance. The dancing floor is similarly prepared, while the arrangement of boxes and first balcony is almost exactly like that of the Academy. The public is excluded from the dancing floor at first and the Misticke Krewe, in extraordinary costumes, go through a performance of their own. During this time no gentlemen are permitted to enter the boxes or occupy a seat on the first balcony. Every seat is occupied by a lady. The result is a scene of marvelous beauty. The music of the orchestra is hushed into softness by the fluttering of countless fans and the nodding of plumes on stately heads. The balcony is a bower of flowers clad in the beauty of a thousand stars. At a signal the spell is broken, the great host mingles in the dance and it is many hours before the Lord of Comus gives

"To all, to each a fair good-night,

And pleasant dreams and slumbers light."

On Thursday morning a card was issued to the ladies of New Orleans inviting them to a promenade concert on board the Lee. The ladies had done so much for the Battalion, had shown them so much kind consideration, that the officers and men were quite at their wits end in devising something in recognition. It was first thought that a soiree dansante would be a pleasant thing but that idea was abandoned in favor of a promenade concert because of the limited room on the Lee. The tickets were