1862 by Robert Conroy Page B

meals in their hotel rooms. It gave them the privacy they needed to discuss sensitive matters.
    Bunch raised a glass of port. “Again to your good fortune in escaping from the North.”
    The toast was only half in jest. Of all the British officers assigned to observe the American army prior to the war, only Knollys had been permitted to leave, and that was because he had been assigned to the embassy and not to a U.S. military command. Those other unlucky officers were considered prisoners and would either be exchanged or paroled at some time in the future. Knollys was long overdue for promotion to major and to be incarcerated at the beginning of this new war would have been a final and deadly blow to his career.
    Knollys counted his lucky stars that someone had forgotten his stint as an observer of McDowell’s army at Bull Run and of General Stone’s at Ball’s Bluff. He considered himself thoroughly knowledgeable regarding the Union army. Now he was pleased that he could use that accumulated knowledge to help the cause of Great Britain.
    “Are you enjoying Richmond?” Bunch asked.
    “Oh, it’s very interesting,” Knollys answered, and they both laughed. Like Washington, Richmond, Virginia, was a small town that had grown uncontrollably large virtually overnight. Richmond was a town without the external elegances of a capitol building and the monuments that one normally associated with a nation’s capital. He had also noticed that there appeared to be more prostitutes in Richmond than in Washington, although not by a large number.
    “I know it’s a depressingly rude city,” said Bunch, “but Richmond’ll get better when the war is won and the Confederate states become dominions of Great Britain again.”
    Knollys smiled and chewed his food. As British consul, Bunch had given a number of pro-South speeches in the Charleston area that had been wildly applauded. As a result, he had convinced himself that the Carolinas and Virginia would welcome a return to the Imperial fold. Knollys thought Bunch was fooling himself and had thoroughly misinterpreted the cheers of the Charleston crowds then and the Richmond throngs now.
    “If only the South would get rid of slavery,” Bunch sighed, “then all problems would disappear.”
    “But slavery isn’t going to disappear, and Ambassador— excuse me, Representative—Lyons has told Mr. Benjamin that there cannot be a formal alliance without it.”
    As a matter of protocol, Lord Lyons had met formally with the Confederacy’s secretary of state, Judah P. Benjamin. He would meet Jefferson Davis and others in less formal situations. This punctilio was required by Lord Lyons lest the South assume too much from the contacts. They were brothers in arms but not allies, and British diplomatic behavior would reflect this until ordered otherwise.
    “However,” said Knollys, “I have it on good authority that Mr. Benjamin has informed Lord Lyons that it is Jefferson Davis’s intent that slavery be abolished within one year of a treaty of independence between the Union and the Confederacy. Davis, through Benjamin, has informed us that he personally abhors slavery, but that his nation must make a decision regarding slavery freely. When that protocol is signed, then you will see more help given to the South. If it is not,” he shrugged, “then we will commence actions against the North directly, and not break the Union blockade of the South. It would be a curious way to fight a war, but we will do it.”
    “And Davis will agree to put in writing that he will abolish slavery within a year of the end of hostilities? Incredible if true,” said Bunch.
    “Absolutely,” said Knollys. Normally, he would not have been as close to Lord Lyons as he was, but the fact that the staff was so truncated necessitated it. Although a loyal servant of the crown, Lyons found slavery repugnant and supported any efforts to do away with it. “Apparently, the protocol will be kept secret for the